Teaching Baby Boomers to use SoMe

I have been working for about 2 weeks to create a class on how to teach Baby Boomers how to use Facebook and possible any other Social Media (SoMe) site they would be interested in using.  So I created my lesson plan and showed it to my pastor because the only place I can think to get a good audience and space with little proven experience and faith is church.  They have helped me get my feet on the ground in the past why not again?

So I start to plan and realize I could have done this months ago and now I should really wait unti

l after Christmas to start.  Mostly because everyone is worried about Holiday Bazar and making preparations.  I might offer my

personal services earlier to teach people how to use Ebay for Christmas or send out family newsletters and such but otherwise I don’t want to interrupt the season.

After thinking all of this through and creating a basic lesson plan my mom found a great article in the Eastern Oregonian called Baby boomers invade the web about a man named John Fisher who is working off a grant in the Pendleton Public Library for their Information Literacy Project.  I wish I could find something like that here in the Metro area.  It sounds really fun.

So I am just going to keep this clipping for now to show proof of my theory to teach my parents and grandparents how to use this technology.  Because admit it, we will all reach a time when something new comes along that we will need to be taught.  I want to be that teacher.  I want to know what the new thing is and teach people how to use it for their own connections.

In the article it talks about how being on the internet helps seniors beat depression.  The study from Phoenix Center found that “seniors who spend time online can reduce the blues by about 20 percent.”  I think that is because they don’t feel forgotten, they feel like they understand the world that has grown up around them.  We all need that connection to the modern and to feel like we matter in the world.  For many of us it is the chance to be heard, even for a second, on social media outlets.

If anyone knows a way that I can get my classes started in the Library or at a college please let me know.  This is something I know I can do and would love to help out anyone I can to make it possible.

Comcast Sucks, So let’s change it

I am tired of dealing with Comcast and their horrible Internet billing and ridiculous prices for cable packages that include channels I never watch.

Phone

I thought I had changed my package to a basic cable package recently. I got my bill and it was still over $100! I was then told I get over 100 channels. I only want 2-71 which is what I know as basic cable with local channels and TBS, TNT and SYFY (formally Scifi). I got so angry I didn’t want to take it out on the snappy operator (though I didn’t like the way she dealt with me). I decided to write an email.

Billing Email

I started with the billing issues. Considering my local energy company has a better Internet billing process than a national cable company is crazy. I would expect a local company to be behind and not a national one.

Here is the email I sent to Comcast about Billing:

“I am upset with many things in Comcast.  Your bill pay area on your website is slow and inaccurate!  I have paid my bill and it doesn’t refresh to say that I have paid my bill.  So I think that the payment didn’t go through so I pay it again.  I ended up paying my bill 7 times last month because the website said that my bill wasn’t paid.  I almost bounced my rent check because of you website’s mistake.  I have other bills I pay online for local companies and their page refreshes immediately that I have paid my bill.  I would expect a nation company to do at least as well, if not better, than a local company on technology advances.”

So as you can see above I told them as much and while venting that part I came upon an idea for Cable. One that only makes since in this new century where companies want to make life easier for customers not make them fit into a mold.

Cable TV for the 21st century?

I told them I am tired of trying to fit in their “packages” I want them to fit into my life. Isn’t that why I pay them? To make my life easier and more connected? Maybe I should just get rid of my TV and just use hulu or Fancast to watch the shows I love? Maybe TV is become a bad habit like picking your nose at new technology.

I think that our cable should be a U-Pick system.  There should be a way for a customer preview all the channels a cable provider has for a week or a month.  Then at that end of that time they fill out a form on the TV menu or online that has check box that say Yes or No, beside each channel.  So you only get the channels you want.  And pay for the number of channels you have or maybe more for specialty channels like HBO.  This would mean that TV would fit into my life, my mold and not the other way around.  It is like a new form of TiVo maybe?

Below is the email I sent to Comcast about Cable Packages:

“I am also upset because I only want a basic plan for my TV but that doesn’t include what I have always know as local/average channels.  Like TNT, TBS and SYFY.  These are in a higher plan that includes Sports channels I don’t want or need.  I never use channels above 71 aka, AMC.  I would like a plan that only includes 2-71.  Or a U-Pick program.  You can have a fill plan for a month and then choose your 50-100 channels.  It should be easy!  You already deny channels for packages this would just be a simple changes.  Hell, you can have it only the home owner’s box that they have a yes/no menu that chooses their channels once a month.  I am tired of fitting in your plans.  It is a new century!  You should fit in to my plans!  Look at social media and see that your customers know what they want and I can now go online and just get rid of my TV altogether, which means you loose money.  Plus I can find cheaper Internet elsewhere.If you want to talk to me about how to make these plans work feel free to contact me.  I know this is something cable will need to figure if it wants to survive.”

I don’t watch Sports?  Why should you have to watch Discovery?

I want U-Pick TV because I don’t want Sport Channels but I always want Science and History channels.  And there are many people who are the complete opposite of me.  Yet we have to have the same package…why?  We are loosing money on channels we never watch.  The advertiser are loosing money because Comcast will say that X amount of people are watching the channels because of these stupid packages.  Being an advertiser I don’t want false info.  And being a customer I don’t want needless channels that eat my money!
Like My idea?

If anyone, any cable, entrepreneur, etc…likes this idea help me bring it to fruition.  I want to have cable that works for me and everyone else.  I want what I pay for to be worth my time.  I know what I want and I don’t need a company to tell me what I should want.  What do you think?

Yeah! Thanks Kent for telling me about Ping!

Small Town gets lots of Attention

This is an aerial view of Heppner, Oregon

I grew up in a little town called Heppner, Oregon. Now when I say little I don’t mean a suburb of Salem or Eugene, Oregon I mean the population is less than 1,400 people. My graduating class was 33 people.  I didn’t know we had a Wikipedia site until I looked up the populations today.

Looking For Meaning in TED

TED has once again helped me on my journey.  I started by looking for something to write about but I had found that there was nothing I could think of.

Art
So I started with looking at and artist named Tom Shannon who created free form art.  It was things that stood on their own and would float on magnetic fields.
Sounds awesome right?  It was but it wasn’t what I was looking for.  I still would love to play with the pieces and do the magician thing of putting my hand between the pieces.  So I moved on to the LHC.

LHC
The LHC is the largest experiment in the world.  It is the ginormus machine in Geneva created to figure out what existed just after the Big Bang.  It throws electron/neutrons at each other to see what happens.  It got started finally last year and was even given a Google image.
Geek greatness eh?  Well it is but still not what I imagined writing a whole blog about.  I wanted something more, well, substantial than electrons.  (they aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy)

Digression
So I move to John Hodgman, a comedian I recognized and have always been curious about.  Plus his title was about digression, which is something I always love.  I find that in huge digression you find your ultimate meaning.
I digress.
John Hodgman spoke of aliens and his encounters with them in life.  To the point that he thought he wonderful wife was replaced with an alien by the end.  He used his geekiness as a defense that things like the illogical idea that a girl wanted to talk to him, to prove that the aliens were contacting him.  Saying basically that a girl wouldn’t talk to him so obviously she was an alien.
I’ll admit this was cute and I loved the way he ended his speech by talking about how he always looks for his wife when she isn’t in the room.  However cute it was though, I couldn’t get excited about it.

Will it ever end?
I found that I was looking for someone to talk about creativity.  I finally found a person that was but when I did.  I notice when I finally found what I was looking for I was more interested in what I wanted.

Lexicography-philia
I ended up falling in love with a talk about the dictionary.  One of the youngest editors of one of the “Big Five” dictionaries Erin McKean talked about her job and how people misunderstand her and her passion.  She was a cute geek that was proud of her geekdom.  Erin talked about the static abilities of a paper dictionary.  One of her best metaphors for her work were a traffic cop vs. a fisherman.
Erin says that people think she is a traffic cop of words entering the dictionary.  Telling the world what words are ‘worthy’ and what words are bad and should not be included.  She would rather be a fisherman of words.  “Throwing my net in to the sea of the English language,” Erin explains.  She would like to take words from the English language rather than determine which are worthy.  Erin knows so many words that she made the entire presentation to say some of them in context.
The part of McKean’s presentation that stuck with me is that she not only wants an interactive dictionary but she wants people to use words.  She wants people to create words and not be afraid of how to use them because when you use a word in a new context it gains a new meaning.  Erin made me feel better about my own writing because I don’t need to worry about the words I use as much if I can give it a source/definition.

Inspiration

I was always told not to verbalize or create words in my journalism classes.  The only problem with this is technology and business.  There are new words and acronyms created everyday when there are new products and committees.  As I have grown the idea of “only use real words” doesn’t make since because my friends and I are always creating new words and phrases.  I know I have a phrase of the month or word of the week all the time.  It could simply be the way I way ‘awesome’ or a new way to say big.  This is how the Urban Dictionary was created.  Each generation creates new words and grammar rules.  That is why AP comes out with a new style guide every year.  So why are I afraid of grammar and spelling?

I say we take hold of our writing and write unabashedly about whatever we feel.  I don’t care if it is something I don’t like because the Internet and World is big enough that someone will write about it eventually.

The Mission By Puscifer

This song has been haunting me lately.  I use the word ‘haunt’ because the melody calls for it.  The female vocal sounds like that you would hear in a Gothic church at midnight.

Watch for yourself:

“What do you know?”

Though I am getting ahead of myself.  It begins with a phrase that screams “I am a song to listen to when you are pissed off” or at least that is what I hear when I hear the phrase, “What do you know?” in a voice that is less than inviting.

However, after listening to it for a while you notice the voice isn’t strong.  There is a shake in it as if the singer is frightened or about to cry.  So, I can’t tell whether the phrase is said in anger or fear or both.

Death March

The song has a strong beat but very little drum.  The guitar is more noticeable than the drum.  This is surprising to me because usually I am more attracted to drums than guitar solos.  But this beat reminds you of a march.  Not just a Sousa or G.I. march but a death march.  It makes me think of the 1984 commercial motif with people marching in leg chains, their heads hanging in deep anguish and impending doom.  It is powerful but sluggish.  Just like that voice of powerful fear.

Lyrics of War or Confusion

After getting past the points that got me to turn up the radio I decided to follow the story of the song.  However, I couldn’t understand it.  I looked up the lyrics and they still confuse me a little.  It begins to sound like the prisoners of some sort of camp or society of a V for Vendetta state have decided to revolt.  This isn’t apparent till I listened to the song all the way through.

Just beginning with the idea of people are “hip to the lies” brings and idea of distrust that has been going on for a while under the surface.  It is extended by the idea that we are “hip to the bull” as well.

It gets a little more violent because they talk about buying a “gat for a north end guinea.”  Which sounds like they bought a gun from someone on the north end.  (If you know what a guinea is please tell me)

Then the lyrics of “ante up your ass because you ain’t go a penny” goes back to the deposed V for Vendetta leader.  It sounds like he has been taken off the throne of sorts and has nothing left to offer the people for his corruption.

The final strike in the song comes in the repetition of the lines:

Our turn to decide, who lives and who dies
Right in front of your eyes, it’s time to get up

They are saying to the people of the revolt.  It is now time to get choose our destiny.  Look, see what has happened and move forward.  It is a rally to get behind.

Bush/Iraq

I can see why people have compared this song to the Bush/Iraq conflict.  We want this to be Obama singing.  We want Bush on trial.  However, that doesn’t look like it is going to happen any time soon.  But that is a different story for a different day.

Conclusion

Over all the song is beautifully haunting.  It is good for a bad day and especially those pissed off with the government.  Think “The Wall” by Pink Floyd and you will understand where I am coming from.

The Emperor and his dogs

For those of you how missed it, I am on a “Colorful People” kick.  I love people that are memorable and become the characters of our lives.  One of my favorites was introduced to me by Christopher Moore in his book Bloodsucking Fiends.  In the book your meet and eccentric homeless man know as “the Emperor of San Fransisco” and his loyal guards, dogs known as “Lazarus and Bummer.”  I loved these characters and their sub-plots.

So you can bet that I was excited to learned that these characters where based on real people.  I learned this when I saw Christopher Moore when he visited the Beaverton Powell’s Books to promote his new book titled Fool.  He told stories about Emperor Norton I who was on the hunt for a Vampire in his city.  We all expect a bit of oddness from people on the street so this didn’t really mean anything in the book until much later.

Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

However, the Emperor was not treated the way many of us treat homeless people, i.e. ignoring them or giving them some cash or a can of Pepsi.  He actually appeared to be respected.  People would bow and exalt the Emperor every time they saw him.  It may have been because he wasn’t always this way.

Emperor Norton started out life in South Africa where his family moved from England for his father’s work it is believed.  Then Norton himself moved to San Fansisco where he became a wealthy real estate and had quite a fortune.

This is where things get weird.  There was a rice shortage because China banned the export of rice due to famine in their country.  This made the price of rice go through the roof.  So, dear Norton made a deal to buy a hefty sum of rice from Peru.  He made a down payment on a large contract.  The next day boats full of rice came in making his contract worthless.

Norton tried to get out of the contract by saying he was mislead on the rices’ quality.  He won this fight in lower courts but not when it went to the Supreme Court.  Soon after the banks foreclosed on all of this properties and he ‘exiled’ himself from the city for a while.  No one knows where he went but when he came back he declared himself the “Emperor of these U. S.”.

One of his actual proclamations from Wikipedia

He actually printed formal proclamations.  They are kept to this day.  In these proclamations he dissolved the Congress because he believed it to be corrupt.  After they government didn’t dissolve he made another proclamation urging the military to dissolve the government.  Nothing ever came of this but here is a picture of one of them.

Bummer and Lazarus

Here is a picture showing the Emperor and the pups together

He was believed to be close to Lazarus and Bummer, two dogs that were famous in their own right.  However, Emperor Norton viewed them merely as subjects. These dogs were famous for being good, ‘ratters’.  Which meant that they were good at catching a large amount of rats, so they were spared from the dog catcher.

Bummer was the original ratter, who took over at the Frederick Martin saloon after the previous pup was poisoned.  Bummer proved himself to be good so he was kept and not killed.

Lazarus was supposedly saved by Bummer from a fight.  Lazarus had been beaten up bad at that point.  Not many believed he would make it through.  However, Bummer brought him scraps and Lazarus was soon back on his feet.  After that the boys never parted.

There were columns written about the pair because the saloon was a major hangout for newspaper men.  These newspapers made them well loved by the entire city.  To the point that one day a new dog catcher picked up Lazarus and he was tracked down by an angry mob.  After that Lazarus and Bummer were declared by city leaders to be ‘exempt from they city ordinance against strays’ as said in their Wikipedia page.

After Death

After death all of these characters were appreciated in some way.  Emperor Norton apparently pushed for a bridge between San Fransisco and Oakland which came to fruition in the Golden Gate Bridge.  So, there was a resolution made to have the bridge named after him in 2004.  However, this never came to be.

Bummer and Lazarus got there recognition in a plaque at the Transamerica building in 1992.

These are stories I love to see and hope to find more of.  If you know any colorful people you want to know more about, please tell me.

Frog’s Fight

This is Frog as we know him from his MySpace page.

For those of you who went to school in Eugene, Oregon will know of a colorful character out side the UO Bookstore known as Frog.

We all know him as the man with the wheel barrel selling “the world’s funniest joke books.”  He will ask you if you have seen his latest or just feel free to talk to him about it.  Frog is even has his own Myspace account, though I think it was made for him.

What you may not know about Frog is that he had to fight with the State of Oregon to sell his joke books there.  Thanks to Saigonbob’s Blog, I learned about his fight that started in 1990 when the City of Eugene decided to ticket Frog for selling with out a license.  Apparently they believe that he needed a license like food vendors and flowers salesmen but there is no category for joke books. Luckily, an attorney by the name of Rebbecca Davis represented Frog’s case in terms of the First Amendment rights he had.  They won the case from the beginning but the State appealed all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court.  It is funny that they would spend something over 50,000 dollars on this rather than something like our schools or green energy.  By the way, the State still lost, and Frog continues to sell his books to those who are willing to buy them.

I was surpised to learn this because Eugene seems to be such and open town.  But I guess in every open town there are people who are tired of hearing about “the world’s greatest joke books.”  I am sad to report while researching this post I found articles from the Oregon Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon’s newspaper, that spoke about “how to deal with Frog.”  It makes no sense to complain about a person that make your area unique.

I live in Portland, Oregon now and there is an entire campaign called Keep Portland Weird.  We celebrate the crazy ideas that we have and do.  Frog is part of that craziness of the state.  We need to keep characters like him alive and kicking.  It is these people that we remember from our time in these cities.  I remember Frog, Zombie/Santa Walks, and any other thing that makes my town unique.

These are the stories I tell people.  These are the things that stay forever, not the classes, food, flowers but the people that make them. That is why I say:

Keep on going Frog!  I can’t wait to see the newest book.

Writer’s Block

I started this blog with so many ideas.  I told myself to write everyday otherwise I wouldn’t continue like may other endeavors I have started and then got bored of.

So, while today maybe fruitless I thought I would do a free write.  I love free writes because they are just stream of thought.  I am not ever suppose to check spelling or grammar but I can’t help checking my spell as I go (at least a little).

I know I need to move on from my obsession with TED conferences, so that was not one of my options today.  Otherwise I would have watched them for hours until I found something.

Then I had my computer fixed at the Genius Bar of my local Apple Store.  I have always been afraid of getting my computer fixed because I am slightly addicted to it.  It is like a baby blanket, I need it everyday before I go to bed.  That is if I can’t take it with me where ever I go.  But, they told me that I could just purchase what I needed from them and have it installed in about five minutes.  It was a great experience.  I made a reservation online and my name was on the board when I got there.  Everyone was in a good mood (unlike most customer service support desks) and we were just waiting for our final diagnoses.  I would have loved to write about the wonders of amazing Genius Bar but I didn’t feel inspired really.

Then I have been looking for a job for months now.  I have been doing tons of networking, maybe there is a subject there?  I agree that networking is the best way to meet people and find work.  However, I just haven’t found anything yet.  I love meeting with people and this is just part of the job of finding a job that I like.  It gives me an exsuscuse to learn about people without seeming like I am flirting with eveything that moves.  I am just a curious person.  I am learning about the industry from every little encounter I have.  I have found some great contacts who really care about me and help me meet the right people.  I would rather say that I have made a great deal of new friends. But I don’t know if that is ok to say in a business situation.

I could have written about apartment searching as well but I don’t think people care as much about that.  I could have written about a lot of things.  But the muse just couldn’t find my address today.  Maybe tomorrow or next week?  I hope she doesn’t get too lost.  If you have read this far you deserve a metal.

Mythbusters & TED obessions

Adam Savage's many Maltese Falcon forms

I have already established with my last blog post that I was a bit of a TED conferences geek but this is a new level of geeky-ness. One of my other obsessions is the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters.  This is a show that is my top pick of water cooler talk once I find others who like the show.  I have sent in many different suggestions to Adam and Jamie, however, none have come to fruition sadly. So you will understand my excitement when I looked at my Facebook newsfeed to see that one of my friends had posted a TED conferences video with Adam Savage as the speaker.
I was ridiculously excited.  It is like having one of your favorite restaurants with the best sushi in town suddenly start serving your favorite dessert (mmm, chocolate mousse).  I had two of my personal obsessions crash into each other without me knowing it.  I knew I had to watch this video no matter what it was about.  I didn’t even read the title when I started because I knew this had to be good from these to worlds I know that are made of awesome.

So, what did I end up watching? you might ask.  I ended up watching Adam Savage talk about his obsessions.  I was enthralled.  Despite all of my techie issues I loved all of it.  I am actually listening to it again while writing this post about it.  (yes, I know I am obsessed)

His obsessions were a lot of fun and a little more interesting than I expected.  What got me about his speech was his last line.  He was speaking about his obsession with creating a model of the Maltese Falcon, and how he was trying to finish the project perfectly so his obsession would be satisfied.  What he said was, “Achieving the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with now as it?”

He said over and over again, “I had to finish what I started.”  I realized that my obsession is projects.  I love having a new project, like a new blog or new social media, to research or discover.  I love the working out of the problems and seeing it come to fruition.  When the project is over I am happy for what I have done but I am looking for something new.

I obsess over meeting deadlines, perfect branding, customer satisfaction and many other things but they are all part of the initial project.  They make it fun.  I know that sounds crazy but no matter the stress, it is still fun.  There will always be stress, even on vacation we have stress.  Adam Savage is stressing out about a bit about getting his Falcon perfect.  But it is all worth it in the end when you have this perfect campaign/event/customer experience or for Adam Savage repicla of the Maltese Falcon.  In the end it was worth all of the blood, sweat and tears you put in.

Adam has reminded me again why he is my favorite Mythbuster.  I agree with his sentiment that the journey of our obsessions/projects are the best part.  Our stories from them are irreplaceable and unforgettable.  It makes what comes of our effort of value to not only us but to the rest of the world.

I go back to my personal motto which I know is very well-known:

“It isn’t about the destination but about the journey.”