Time has been flying

And I haven’t been too great at keeping up here. For that, I am truly sorry. I have come to the conclusion that I do not think I will try to make too much of this blog. I don’t think I want to join the ranks of the great bloggers, because mostly I want to write just for fun.

I’ve began watching some of the bloggers I enjoy in other arenas and well, I just don’t think I have the time to invest as they are. I have to work full time, or the bills don’t get paid, and that means no internet connection with which to do a blog. Then, there is all of these awesome new social sites that are coming out. I haven’t even done the proper thing by going back to see the changes made at FindLikeMinds. That just isn’t fair to those guys. I haven’t even been back to jaanix for a bit, either. It just makes me feel - like I’m not doing what I’m supposed to, but I already have a job to do what I’m supposed to, and this is supposed to be just for fun! Does that make any sense?

OK, so anyway I will try to remember to stop by here more often and at least keep people informed on what I’ve been up to!

So I started writing this post last month, and I still don’t have it published. I really got to figure out a way to make time for this and everything else I have going on! But, first, I think I need to finish working on my Mother’s Day project that I do every year. Otherwise, I will have a few mothers unhappy with me in a few days!

If you are ever looking for me, know that you can almost always find me on Twitter to see what I’m up to, or if you are needing to contact me, really the easiest way is through my StumbleUpon account. I get emails that don’t end up in Spam and I have it set up so anyone can send me a message!

Monday’s Musings

First and foremost, WTF did they do to my WordPress? GAH! Guess those of us at wp.com got the 2.5 upgrade, too. It does look much more web 2.0 -ified, but…. Now I just gotta learn things all over again. I don’t know about that…. Main question so far is where the heck is my stats?

Seems that Dan Zarrella is up to something interesting…. He’s wanting people to stop by and take a survey. I’ve followed Dan for awhile on Twitter now and I have to say, my first impression of him was not exactly favorable, but he’s taking my hobby of social networking and really putting some science and hard facts with it. It is interesting to see why people do what they do. If you haven’t yet, check out his post from last week.

A new site I have joined and not had much of a chance to check out yet, is Shouldi. I don’t know if you need the invites, but I got ‘em if ya need ‘em! I’ve only answered one ‘Shouldi‘ so far and it was someone asking for relationship advice. Of course, these types of sites always have people asking silly questions, such as What is Google - my guess is if you don’t know what Google is, I doubt you would be on this site! If ya sign up, be sure to find me and friend me!

For some reason, I have been claiming all of my feeds on the social sites today at Technorati. I don’t really know why, just seemed like the geek thing to do!

I would like to mention a couple of blog posts this morning that I found interesting. First, Steven at Daily Blog Tips posted a great article for Part Time Bloggers. Then, Seth Godin gave some basic tips on telling us how to Write Like a Blogger.

Last, but of course, not least. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWKS!! I told a friend in Kentucky earlier that Jayhawks eat Tigers for breakfast. Of course it’s usually Missouri Tigers, but I’m sure we can handle Memphis Tigers as well!

Wanna FindLikeMinds?

I’m always looking for someone who is just as unusual as I am, so I was excited when I was asked to join a social site called FindLikeMinds started by a couple of guys, so I did. I played for a bit with it, even taking time between visits for any updates to the site to be made. I was excited to see the Zeitgeist page, but when you click a link, it tells you to click the Zeitgeist page first. So, it got me nowhere, I was thinking it would give me an option to add the same item to my list…. But, who knows what it was supposed to accomplish. I don’t see this being a terribly successful site because, at least how it is right now, you have to enter everything yourself. All of your influences, things you like, skills you have…. OH MY I have way too much and can’t think of half the stuff when I’m asked to make a list. Give me a list to choose from, with common items, yet with the opportunity to add more individualized answers, and yes, I would probably be the top user.

I want to apologize to Rob at FindLikeMinds for taking so long in writing this critique, but if he witnessed my discussion on jaanix, he would surely understand that I wanted to be sure about a few things before I was accused of completely missing the point of the site. So, Rob, if I did miss the point, please be kind in your comments, and I will be more than willing to help you work out some kinks to make it a more user friendly site!

This site is still in beta, so just leave a request if you want an invite to check it out for yourself! 

A Prayer for the Hawks :)

Our Father, who art in Lawrence,
Hallowed be thy Game.
Thy tourney come,
Thy championship will be done,

In San Antonio as it is in Allen Field House.
Give us this day our deserved victories.
And forgive us our turnovers,
As we forgive Roy who double-crossed against us.

And lead us not into defeat,
But deliver us from East Coast bias,
For Kansas is the basketball kingdom,
And the tradition,
And the glory,
Forever and ever.

Amen.

Don’t just read your feeds… Share them!

Toluu is a new social site where you share your feeds. I know, I had the same thought…. How the heck do you pronounce that? Well, Caleb was nice enough to answer this question: 2 (the number two) - Lou (as in ‘Skip to my Lou’) You can upload your OPML file, enter links manually, or add a bookmark that will automatically subscribe you to the feed on Toluu and your favorite (so long as it is in the top 10) feed reader.

I think that the one thing I like most about this site is that it tells you who you match up against. Of course, I have 2 that are at 100%, but that is only because they only have their own blogs loaded in their profiles. But, I have to admit that I was very impressed at 97% match that is listed for me. In order to protect myself from using names of people I do not know, I will not say who is my 97%, but that I had not previously befriended this person on any other site. I have seen this avatar and screen name on just about every site I spend any time on at all! So, I have decided to start secretly stalking this person some, to see if he or she might be someone I would really be friends with. Who knows, I may have found my social twin so to say!

The other really cool thing about this site is that you can see the blogs that others are reading. This is a great resource for someone new into learning about technology, social networking, or any other topic that your matches may read regularly! This may also be the way to find the next great blogger of our time!

The great guys at Toluu have given me a 7 invites, so if you haven’t secured your invite yet, you better be one of the first seven to ask me! ;)  Oh yes, and if you are already involved in Toluu, be sure to add me!

Checking back in on Jaanix

Well, it has been awhile since I blogged about jaanix, and I am also ashamed to say that I have not frequented the site quite so much, either. So, although my original intentions were to talk about another site or two I had checked out recently, I thought I should at least check back in with Joe at jaanix and see how he has been doing.

I have to tell you, I am quite impressed! The site seems to have grown massively beyond the young teen boy crowd! There is now a lot more geeky interest for people like me, who are fascinated by the social web!

I find it very interesting that the typical pages found on a website (about, FAQ, blog, and privacy) are not set up as you would find them in a different website, but each ’subject’ is entered as a topic within the jaanix system. It is really rather clever, once you grow used to the site.

They have also minimized the tuner and have posted a teaser showing that you will soon be able to look at the web tuned by different individuals on the site.   This could be interesting! 

What Exactly is this Blog For?

OK - There is so much I want to talk about, so many interesting things that I’m finding that I am simply not getting to everything, and I know that there are sites that I am forgetting all about by not being able to check out every site out there. Part of my purpose for this blog is for it to follow my usage in the different social networking sites, and to be able to be my opinion of how it works.

I know, there are a lot of sites out there that review these kind of sites, but I am not going to try to providing their level of insight. In fact, I can’t even promise the same regularity of posts as the bigger sites. I am just wanting to give the opinion of someone who is fascinated and addicted to the many sites that seem to be popping up non-stop. They are all centrally driven. Driven by people. People like me, my family, my friends, my coworkers and you.

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

I’m not any type of an IT person. I know a bit of HTML and I’m trying to find the time to really get to play with PHP so I can get this blog moved. I work 40 hours a week for someone else so I can eat, sleep in a warm bed, and drive a decent vehicle. Such is the American way of life, right? I tried to do my own thing once. It was difficult. It was too unpredictable. Technologically speaking, it was several lifetimes ago, too!

Now, I just like to play around with computers. Sometimes I play the cheesy games, to clear my mind, and more recently I have become intrigued with all of these social communities popping up around the net. In reading blogs, I have come across a few that have truly struck a chord with me. I am realizing that some of these people (LOL, no, not all - at least not yet!) are also no different than me. I was recently asked why I started following someone in several different applications. I guess this person did not realize that he already gave the impression that he was of the caliber to have ‘groupies’. OK, that sounds super cheesy, I know, and I am sorry…. but that is truly the easiest way to explain it. Why do all of these people follow Robert Scoble, Steve Jobs, John Chow, Seth Godin, and Jason Calacanis (I’m hoping I win the MacBook Air!)? They are all groupies of one kind or another…. Geeky groupies, but fans just the same.

I hope you enjoy my blog, even if I am unable to post every day.  I do promise to do my best at making a post once a week at the very minimum.  I can always use this quiet time before the house wakes up on Saturdays! 

Check out and Vote for the Next Web Awards

The Next Web Awards are the European awards for future accomplishments! The categories are Entertainment, Company, Social, Web Celeb, Weblog, Rookie of the Year, and On Stage Startup.

I am excited to have found this site, not to vote for the nominees, but because I have heard of so few of the nominees, yet these are things that are making an impact in Europe.   So much more to look into!!

Jaanix - A Closer Look

I’d like to start by thanking Joe Petviashvili for taking the time to explain his new website a bit deeper with me. To save Joe from having to repeat himself, I’ve decided to post what I have learned about his new website, jaanix, and share with you all what makes this new way of sharing the web superior to so many other sites out there.

Joe explained to me that he is trying to solve a problem that is not currently solved by other social bookmarking or social news sites. His goal is to combine methods currently being used to gather the news we see into one site. He believes that with a mathematical algorithm his site jaanix can be tuned into your needs. The algorithm looks at the levels of various topics you select and compares this with others who have similar tastes, sites they have added, ways they have voted. You may be thinking that this could be the same as checking out what your friends have done on Digg, but it is much deeper than what Digg or other sites currently offer.

Other social sites allow you to like a topic or not. Jaanix allows you to like a topic a little, quite a bit, or anything in between, your choices of topics are only limited by what you choose to submit to jaanix! The first stop when arriving at jaanix is on the right… you will find a variety of topics with sliders, or tuners (this is how you tune the web to your taste!). First thing I did was turned ‘off’ the topics that I have no interest in and turned the topics I like way up! Then, as you go through and vote on submissions and submit items you find yourself, the topics will adjust to fit your tastes, as will the websites shown.

One thing that I certainly want to stress about jaanix is that it is not a cliquish voting site, as I had originally thought. The voting is purely for your own personal benefit. By voting for sites that you genuinely like, or voting down for sites you do not like, you are teaching the site to know what you want to see more of in the future.

 

Jason Calacanis - Just the Opinion of a Simple Kansas Girl

I read a couple of the responses to Jason Calacanis’ post on saving money and running a startup. I have to admit, I threw up a little in my mouth when I read this post by Jason yesterday. It truly made me think of the one person who drives me the craziest in this world…. MY BOSS!

I love working for a small up and coming company. It is the greatest thing in the world to be part of a company that struggled to make payroll a few years ago and made more than 8 times the profit in 2007 than it did in combined profit for 2002 - 2006!

However, in Mr. Calacanis defense, in looking over his post again this morning after reading all of the responses from blogs I admire like CenterNetworks, TechCrunch, Tech Confidential, Venture Chronicles, 37 Signals, and Sean Percival, there is method to this madness.

I work for a company where the owner/president works at least 12 hours every day. I’ve given up on telling him that he needs to find other things to do. He expects his staff to work as hard and be equally dedicated. We all work hard, but until there is more profit sharing involved, I can guarantee you that the dedication level varies. In order to compete with the big boys in our industry, even the president takes home much less than he would working for anyone else.

Yes, it does seem that Jason Calacanis does give quite a few more perks that my boss, but also consider that Mahalo has backers and is in LA.

Paying $50 per person for email? Ummmm no, but we do have company email addresses. We each have our own phone on a small phone network (but yes, our company is less than 10 employees). Everyone has everyone else’s cell phone numbers, too. If you are needed and you are not in the office, we gotta be able to talk to you.

by AMagill

There is one significant thing that I am glad my boss does, or I would not have a job there! The outsourcing of Human Resources and Accounting??? GAH! My official title for the company is ‘Business Manager’. In four years, I have cut costs, reduced outstanding receivables, gotten the business aspect down to an art, created and implemented an employee handbook, researched and learned as much about our industry as I could find. I am there when the boss wants to know something (sometimes not even remotely close to our industry) and I am expected to find the answer. Of course, I get extra points if I can give the answer in 120 seconds or less. I gather the info that is needed by the company and put it in a logical location for other employees to find. Other things that I do but are really not issues once you have a system developed include the electronic and paper filing and maintenance of the website… I’m also the one who answers the phone, but as Jason mentioned in his post, most communication is via email in the business world now.

With all that I do, and because I have perfected my job functions so well, I have found the time to create this blog, do a lot of surfing, work on creating a social site presence, and chat away on my cell phone.

I have seen a few people leave… people who were not cut out to work for a small company. Many times I have thought of changing jobs myself. Yes, I do have a fairly easy work life, but more than three times a year in the last couple of years, I have had to correct the accountant. I have worked to cut costs by getting vendors to cut their profit down significantly (I’m almost worried that one may even be paying for our business now!). I am good enough to know several things off the top of my head, plus have such a filing system that I am able to pull up the answer 90% of the time within that 120 second limit.

Though his list of ways to save money sound frightening and the ‘fire people who are not workaholics’ opinion is not popular, it is how business is run in this country and not just in Los Angeles or New York. Jason Calacanis pretty much hit the nail on the head with how our company is run in Kansas.