Knock, Knock – Anybody Home?
April 30, 2009
Yes, I’m still alive…
I just, apparently, am in over my head right now!
I’m in Chicago for SOBCon. I just left Cleveland where I was for the Stouffer’s Blogger Round Table event #LetsFixDinner. I will be in Arkansas on Monday next week for Mind of Moms. I should be home some day Wednesday.
Between now and then it is my intention to *try* and get up to date (partially) as I have some amazing stuff just sitting here in my head (and half-written on my hard drive) that I really want to share with you all.
But I’m brain dead and going to sleep to get up in 4 hrs to finish some overdue work before I have to leave this hotel in the a.m. and go check into another one.
Can someone please send me a couple of clones to get these posts up? No? Okay, how about just some people better at posting about why they haven’t been posting lately?
Yeah, I know, ever the optimist!
Bit of administrative stuff before I close laptop and crash?
Congrats to Alba Geuvara whos tip “@GeekMommy My Green Tip is for everyone to convert to using kitchen towels instead of paper towels#11MOMSGREEN #GMContest was randomly chosen from all valid entries for the Earth Day contest for a Brita Water Pitcher.
Thank everyone. More soon. Promise. And also promise it won’t be another “why I haven’t posted” post. I don’t have time for any more of these! 
G’night!
Earth Day Twitter Give Away
April 22, 2009
For ONE DAY only, I’ve got a giveaway for all of those twitter addicts checking in.
In honor of Earth Day and thanks to the good folks at Walmart and Brita, I’m giving away a Brita Water Filter to one fast twittering reader.
Contest Details
- Submit your best Green tip for Earth Day on Twitter.com using the hashtags #11MOMSGREEN and #GMContest.
After tweeting please leave the link to your exact tweet in the comment section of this post or it might not be counted.
- (to obtain your url: open your twitter profile, on the giveaway tweet click the time stamp right below “about x mins/hrs ago”, copy the url at the top of the page, paste in the comment section of this post)
- Only one entry per person!
- The giveaway is only good for one day, TODAY April 22, 2009 a.k.a. Earth Day only valid entries received prior to 11:59pm MT will be counted in the drawing.
- Winner will be chosen by random integer generator from random.org
- Winner will receive 1 Brita Water Pitcher
Example: “@GeekMommy My Green Tip is ______________#11MOMSGREEN #GMContest”
Please note: All tips submitted into the contest may be used on Walmart.com.
Back In the Saddle Again…
April 22, 2009
I didn’t mean to fall off the face of the blogosphere!
Somehow, 2 weeks slid by when I wasn’t looking. I swear, it went by in a heartbeat! I had this Hannah Montana post all written in my head and set to go (yeah, no – you’re not getting out of that. There will still be a HM post – those of you without Miley-Cyrus-wannabes in your households can just skim on by. Those of you with your own little diva will appreciate it.) All I know is that one minute it was “Easter weekend” (which for those of you without kids in our school meant 4 days off, not 2) and there was skiing, egg-hunting, over-doses of chocolate, and lots of family time. That was followed quickly by Buttercup’s first ’sick at school’ event. GeekDaddy’s tire blowing out in the rain on the way to get her. The weekend (plus) of Family Flu.
All culminating in yesterday – the Tuesday-which-should-never-have-dawned. Buttercup’s third day of 102° fevers and trip to the pediatrician with GeekDaddy was only outdone by my waking up to find out that my upper right molar had shattered and I had apparently swallowed 1/4 of it without noticing. 1.5 hours at the dentist freaking out (more on that later) resulted in my being referred to a specialist for a “particularly tricky” root canal. And coming home to no back fence – because our neighbors apparently decided to tear it down yesterday to replace it – with absolutely no word to us. Hopefully they’ll replace it today – otherwise the dog has 2 yards to look for stinky things to roll in.
Did I mention I’ve written and published this post twice now? Yeah, the aether ate the other one. Wednesday isn’t boding to much better than the rest of the week so far.
But I’m determined!!
There will be blogging, my friends – oh yes there will! I apologize in advance if it looks like I’m the only one in your feed reader. But it’s good stuff, I promise. And come on, you know you missed me!
You did miss me, right? 
So You Want to Know Why I Twitter?
April 7, 2009
The other day, I wrote a quick email to someone I’d met at a conference who was still trying to “get” the appeal of Twitter. I realized that from the outside, it’s just a confusing mass of people posting what could seem like endless noise & then telling their friends “it’s so amazing! You would love it if you understood it!”
So what’s to love? Well, I think I broke it down pretty well – so rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought I’d post it here. Granted, there’s a little tweaking so it’s more ‘blog friendly.’ But here you go.
The Basics of Twitter’s Appeal
The thing about Twitter is that it’s so powerful as a tool, it’s almost daunting. Because you *can* do so much with it, it’s often hard to know where to start. I liken it a bit to a Swiss Army Knife – the uses are endless – unless you don’t really have a goal in mind, then it’s just a series of complex little do-hickeys that pull out and push back in.
For me, I primarily use Twitter on a number of levels:
1) Networking
2) Information
3) Sharing
4) Socializing
1) Networking — I’ve met so many people via Twitter that I would never have had ‘access to’ under normal working situations. From “A-list” internet folks to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to “celebrities” – people that I couldn’t just walk off the street and say “Oh hi! I want to meet you!” and have that become a reality. Additionally, I’ve found that I have formed bonds with many of these people despite geographic distance.
2) Information – you know that little news ticker at the bottom of CNN? In a way, Twitter is like that for me – only customized. I don’t get repetitive news about something I don’t find important – but rather I get breaking news, industry relevant news (like upcoming conferences!), information that is coming out of a specific conference, information about people and their current experiences. The wealth of information in one place is amazing – but it’s tailored to my interests, because if I don’t think someone provides value? I simply don’t follow them.
3) Sharing - if I’m someplace and someone says something I think should be shared with my network? a few keystrokes and a send and it’s shared. Rather than thinking “oh! I have to remember that so I can tell everyone later” and running up against “how did she say that? I forget” – I’ve already shared it and I can reference it myself later. Anything that I think would be useful, entertaining, or informative? It gets twittered.
4) Socializing – sometimes, it’s more conversational – not necessarily earth-shattering information, or work relevant even. Just touching base with my friends and being social. A lot of people take issue with this use, saying it shouldn’t be used “as a chat room” – my reaction is simply “then don’t use it that way.”
The thing about Twitter is that everyone uses it to the ends that best suit them. A lot of folks will tell you how they think you “should” use it (or shouldn’t) but in the end – it’s always a customized experience.
There’s no right or wrong way to use Twitter – there’s just ‘more effective ways’ to use it to get out of it what you want. This is by no means a comprehensive list of how folks use Twitter to meet their needs – it’s just a simple ‘why I, GeekMommy, find it appealing and worth so much of my time.’
What Do You Do For a Living Again?
April 6, 2009
A conversation between GeekDaddy and I last night prompted this post. But I’ll spare you the actual details of the conversation and just sum it up. You’ll get why in a moment.
We were talking about how unless you are speaking to someone who works in Information Technology, you always end up “dumbing down” your job description when someone asks you what you do for a living.
Yes, I know, there are other fields and jobs that also require “dumbing down” for the average person not in that field, but at least there’s usually some level of basic comprehension. For instance, if I said “I’m a medical doctor” or “I’m a lawyer” – the average person would nod and say “oh!! Okay!” and have at least a general idea of what that means. Yes, they might not know the difference between a Litigator and someone who works with Intellectual Property rights – or the difference between a GP and an Oncologist… but there’s no look of utter bafflement.
I attribute this to the fact that those professions have been around for a few centuries – whereas 99% of the jobs in technology field didn’t exist before the past one.
Granted, there are a few jobs in tech that people nod and ‘get’ – programmer, tech support – but they really have no idea what you do unless you care to get deeper into it. Ask any phone support guy how many times he has to deal with a customer who thinks he can “just go right in and change that” or any programmer how many times she’s had to explain to a relative that “no, she doesn’t know what’s wrong with that software, she’s never used it before.” It’s right up there with asking your podiatrist dentistry questions.
So when GeekDaddy recently accepted a Director position at his company – we both laughed at how much easier it would be for our extended families to answer what he does when asked now. Just around the same time that it got much, much harder to describe what I do for a living.
You see, before Buttercup was born, it was easy for friends & family to say that I was a “College Professor” as they didn’t have to really explain what I taught – just say “something to do with computers” and whomever was asking didn’t inquire further.
Today though? My “job description” is pretty much threefold. I’m a Blogger, I’m a Speaker, and I’m a Social Media Strategist.
Now, the odds are pretty good that if you’ve been coming here for any length of time you have a general idea about the first two, and a better understanding of the third one than most people.
But the odds are also pretty good that if your own job title has the phrase “Social Media” in it? You try to figure out ways around that when you’re talking to the average person as well.
Mostly, I find that when someone asks me what I do for a living any more, I usually just try to laugh it off and say “I play on the Internet for a living, and when I’m lucky, I get paid to write about it or to speak about how I do it for others.” This has actually, unfortunately, backfired more often than not and required a much lengthier explanation than if I said “I’m a Social Media Strategist, Blogger and Speaker.”
It turns out that there is no easy way to explain what I do, unless you work in the same field or have had to listen to the long version.* And usually, when I do go so far as to give someone the “long version” it’s met with “but why would anyone pay you to do that?”
It’s usually at that point that I try the old patented “well enough about me… Let’s talk about you. What do you do these days?”
But lately I’ve been thinking about just telling folks that I’m a wizard when asked. I think it’s a bit less mysterious. And maybe they’ll think twice about sitting around for the “long version.”
*trust me when I tell you that my “long version” is the edited version evenso… I could go on for days about Social Media – but it’s only really interesting to someone who works in the field or wants to. And they already get it.
Thank Heavens it’s Only Once a Year (opinion)
April 2, 2009
You might have wondered why I didn’t post yesterday. I mean, here I was getting all “caught up” and posting like a mad woman the day before then?
Radio silence.
Yeah, I know. I probably just forgot or got too busy again, right?
Nope. I deliberately didn’t post because of the date. Not because I was afraid that anything I said might be read through the filter of “hey, it’s April 1st – was this a joke?” But because I really, truly, honestly don’t like 99.9% of the stuff I’ve ever seen or heard when it comes to April Fools Day.
I’ve never quite liked it. But this year I spent a lot of time thinking about why. For a long time I thought it was because I just wasn’t clever enough to come up with a really good April Fools Day prank. Then I realized that almost no one comes up with really good pranks. Usually what they come up with is really mean, nasty pranks that play on the gullibility of others, or mock others, and then use the phrase “April Fools!” to excuse it away as if it were funny.
The butt of these “jokes” usually tries to laugh along with the perpetrator saying “oooh! Good one! Ya got me!” as if to deflect any criticism that s/he is somehow lacking in a sense of humor… but the truth is that no one likes to be played for a fool.
The best reaction I’ve ever seen to well done April Fools pranks or jokes was “Wow. That was amazing. I totally didn’t even catch that…” and sort of an awestruck silence. But usually that’s when the joke doesn’t really make anyone look that foolish because everyone missed it… or because there really wasn’t a victim.
This whole thing was brought home to me again when I picked up my daughter from school. It seems that kindergartners truly get the sense of this tradition better than most. They do mean spirited things to each other – then say “April Fools!” where they’d normally say “Just Kidding!“
And no, before you go there, my darling daughter wasn’t immune from either side – she ran afoul of her own gullibility and was also more than willing to exploit her classmates’ gullibity as well. But she did at least ask me why I hated April Fools Day so much. And she thought about it long and hard when I said “because I think it’s just kind of a way of being mean to each other while making it seem like it should be a lot of fun.”
I do love to look at sites like Google and Thinkgeek.com to see what they’re going to put up. But part of the reason for that is that I’m trying to spot the joke. Then I can laugh because I knew going in that there was a joke. Most April Fools jokes aren’t quite so widely anticipated. And I can’t help but believe there are a few folks who fall prey to the online pranks and “funny lies” who find themselves feeling embarrassed or stupid for not catching it in advance. Hence the fool part. No one likes to feel like a fool, do they?
So why does the “holiday” persist? It’s ritualized bullying in a sense – but where the victim can’t complain or s/he will be thought a poor sport or mocked worse for having ‘no sense of humor.’ And worse? It’s the bullying of the smarter, not the stronger. A successful AFD prank indicates that the person who crafted it was more clever than his target – or it would’ve not needed the “April Fools!” reveal. But what it also indicates is someone who is willing to abuse the trust that the other person has placed in him for the sake of “being witty.”
So I’ve opted out. You might hear me opine sometimes “it would be funny if…” but I gave up pranking long ago. Because even when it’s between 2 good friends? It starts being about one-upping the other guy pretty quickly and saying “but it’s all in good fun!” if anyone complains.
So no more April Fools Day participation from me. Even in blog form. I think it will be my one day off every year from here on out – no matter what other days I do or don’t post. Or maybe I’ll just link this post every year right beforehand… who knows. It’s another 364 days before I have to worry about it again.
That’s me though – what about you?
Do you think I’m over-reacting? Did you pull the “World’s Best April Fools Day Joke” and want to tell me how wrong I am and why it was funny? Or were you on the end of one and wished you could say all of this without looking like a stick in the mud? What do you think about yesterday’s institutionalized “just kidding!” day?
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