You just don’t boo the starting line-up

This is the greatest moment in “America’s game” and one that you haven’t been even involved in since 2002.  The last time you won one was about the year I was born, and I’m considered a fossil by most.  The fact that you lost more games than you won throughout the entire month of August and it took a total melt-down by San Diego for you to get into the playoffs…

The first thing the fans do is Boo the entire starting lineup of Texas, with the exception of Benji Molina – the only one on Texas who has ever “done anything wrong”  to our team (and not intentionally – HE PLAYED HIS HEART OUT FOR US).

WTF?

Have you not heard Josh Hamilton’s story and cried?  I did when he had to pawn his wife’s wedding ring for coke, and then later came back clean and sober.   There are 24 other stories on that team, probably better than the average schlep in the stands that has the audacity to boo them.

We are lucky to be alive, let alone in a world series.  They are also blessed to be our competitors.  For (whatever you consider to be your comfortable equivalent of God)’s sake.  Thank you lucky stars you can afford tickets and give your opponent some respect.  Just like Philly, he may be “better than you” but we could still win.   I think it might take all the Karma we can produce to effect that.  Wishing you opponent ill is NOT GOOD KARMA!!!

Those ignorant little so and so’s with their 3 martini lunches at ‘MoMo’s” could cost us a very humbling gut shot.  I don’t think we can count on 6 more 18 run games.   I will certainly understand it if Texas wins.  I humbly apologize for our disrespect.

 

Perceived value

OK, the obvious doggy illusion is the first thing that comes to mind. I live in a neighborhood that is a social marketers dream. Most of the people across the street are retired and live in a “gated community.” It rocks for not having lots of different gardeners, lawn mowing, leaf blowing and general raking going on when I am working on my publications or re-designing websites. It is easier to work remotely without all the distractions.

The downside is that surrounded by all these townhomes, I have the only lawn in the middle of the block. It’s nice to have the only lawn, I get to enjoy it and not have to deal with everybody else’s lawn like activities, but it also leaves me vulnerable.

There are certain parallels in business. Once I find that one niche that I really enjoy and feel really good about, I don’t want to call attention to myself with exactly EVERYBODY! There is a certain amount of reservation that some might treat my market niche much like the neighbors’ dogs treat my lawn. “Oh, there’s a nice green patch we haven’t thought of – lets go do our business on it!”

 

While my guitar gently weeps

I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it need sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps

I don’t know why nobody told you
how to unfold you love
I don’t know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps

I don’t know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
no one alerted you

I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps

 

Blessed are the cracked – for they let in the light

BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED, FOR THEY LET IN THE LIGHT!

TWENTY-NINE LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE  1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn’t. 2. I don’t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it. 3. Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them.  4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke. 5. Don’t take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.   6. You’re just jealous because the voices only talk to me 7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. 8. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.  9. I’m not a complete idiot — Some parts are just missing.   10. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.    11. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.  12. God must love stupid people; He made so many.  13. The gene pool could use a little chlorine. 14. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps. 15. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?    16. Being ‘over the hill’ is much better than being under it!  17. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up. 18. Procrastinate Now!    19. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?  20. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.  21. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.  22. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!  23. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken. 24. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.   25. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.   26. Ham and eggs… A day’s work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig. (how true) 27. The trouble with life is there’s no background music.   28. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson. 29. I smile because I don’t know what the hell is going on.  Appreciate every single thing you have,   especially your friends!   Life is too short and friends are too few!

 

“It will make a difference to this one.”

With the speaking of the Dalai Lama today at Stanford, I was reminded of an old story.  It is a parable of sorts:

Walking on the beach during an “El Niño” year we noticed thousands of starfish had been washed ashore during a storm.  There was a small child running back and forth among them.  She was grabbing them one at a time and running back and throwing them into the ocean.  A person passing by stopped her,  starfish in hand and said:  “What are you doing?  There are so many starfish dying on the beach that your throwing a few back in the water won’t really make a difference.”

The little girl smiled, held up her starfish and simply stated: “It will make a difference to this one.”

 

Social Media Workshop

Posted by: “Ethan”

Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

How I used Twitter the afternoon after the workshop.

Just an approach. You all will do different things. My interests and the way each of you use social media is different than everybody else.

On one of my list of ÒfollowedÓ I came across this: http://bit.ly/9D5BeB I want the charts for it so I went looking for the presenter. I found this in about 1 minute: http://goo.gl/4tuA It took 8 minutes or so to watch. He talks about exactly what the workshop was about: Òwhat is social, and why does it really matter in a hard economic sense.Ó

In the meantime I have started following a big communications/telecom conference and have volunteered to work on it and am now registered as an attendee. It costs me three full days of labor at the event to attend each day of the conference. Cheap?

Because of that a company named supertalent with the Twitter handle
@gosupertalent started following my Twitter stream. (I also got a follow from the Green conference in SF, but they dropped off.)

I also made a tweet for the two links above: @shooteyeout on Twitter.

Now the company that is following me sees that I have ÒhopefullyÓ interesting and serious tweets about economics and team building and privacy etc. I can follow them and go look them up at the conference when I am there.

I do not know where that goes. But, it connects me to others, other companies, advertises my brand. It helps me understand what people who think deeply about the Web, and social networks, and economics, and the modern definition of ÒworkÓ and ÒIndustrial,Ó are thinking about so that I am more knowledgable and more current.

I can thank Steve U and Carla for the first social media workshop a couple of weeks ago to get me to try all this and start to figure out what it means.

Thanks Guys!!

 

If you wash the dog poo off of your tennis shoes in the kitchen sink…

Remember to move them outside before your wife gets home.  No harm, no foul… right?  I mean I rinsed everything down with soap and water after.  Funny how many things there are in life that we freak out about because of the mental “image?”  The three second rule, if you drop a cookie on the floor.  I’m sure nobody out there has ever dropped a brat through the BBQ grate and washed it off and put it back…. No harm, no foul. 

How many companies have launched their first email campaign with a ripped off “spam list” for the “just this once” press release.  We promise to use an opt-in list from now on, well at least to honor those who chose to opt out after the first blast.  Business ethics are largely a personal choice;  Its left up to ones individual Karma.  The only thing I caution is this:  every time we use “grey” marketing, whether its keyword stuffing, or clicking a bunch of times on our competitor’s ad, it gets a bit easier.  The more you do it the easier it gets.  The easier it gets, the more you do it.   Eventually it will catch up with you.

 

Submission – We like to do things the “BigCO that starts with O” way

A group on LinkedIn posted the following question. I had to answer for a couple of “contractor” friends of mine. Some day there will be real jobs again, and the pendulum might just knock out some of the companies that took advantage of the recession.

In one word, what would you like to show/teach to a new employee on his first day of work with you? Submission – We like to do things the “BigCO that starts with O” way. First we give you impossible tasks and no resources. Then, oh by the way you have to figure out how to get your laptop from purchasing. There are forms to fill out, and you probably won’t qualify because your manager has entered the wrong job classification on your contract. That brings us to the contract itself. You will be paid for 40 hours, but nobody will notice if you happen to have worked those hours by noon Thursday, and you put in another 20 over the weekend. It’s still a buyer’s market out there, and we want to store up as much bad Karma as we can just in case things really turn around and we actually have to hire people and give them benefits again!

 

How to Leverage Social Networking to Get Your Next Job

                            By Debra Donston-Miller     

You’ve heard again and again how important networking is when you are looking to take the next step in your career. But does that include social networking? Can you “like,” “tweet” and “2nd degree connect” your way to a fabulous new position?

Career and online experts recommend leveraging social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and (especially) LinkedIn as part of a job search. But, they say, social networking should be used as a complement to, and not a replacement for, more traditional job-search methods. And, they caution, it should be used carefully.

Carisa Miklusak, principal of Ingenium Consulting Group and co-founder of SoMedios, an emerging media solutions organization, suggested job seekers use social media every step of the way.

Starting out, she said, social media is a useful way to research the culture of companies that interest you. While a corporate Web site can certainly provide extensive information about an organization, its social-media presence can often offer more insight into a company’s culture and the way it interacts with employees, partners and customers.

“On Facebook, for example, a job seeker may be able to read about the organization on the Info tab, see pictures of a recent team outing to get a feel for the culture and follow recent conversations between customers and the brand or employees and the brand – all critical factors in making a decision,” Miklusak said. Social networking lets you dig deeper to see the things the company didn’t intend for you to see. “Candidates should use these tools to pre-interview companies and determine if they are a true fit.”

After helping you decide what companies you want to be a part of, employ your insights to craft a very focused and relevant resume and cover letter.

Once you get an interview, Miklusak said, use social-media sources to learn about the decision makers you will be meeting. “By conducting a brief LinkedIn and/or Google search, it is likely that a candidate will be able to gather great detail about the background of their interviewer,” Miklusak said. “This is becoming a very common practice and prepares the candidates to customize their talk track and interview presentation to what they’ve learned about their interviewer. This also empowers candidates to come prepared with better questions.”

At the offer stage, Miklusak said, use social media to reach out to current or past employees. “This is a common practice in the social-media space, and a very quick dialog can provide productive company insights,” such as standard salary ranges, work assignments and conditions, she said.

The flip side of social media

But remember: The transparency social media provides works both ways. While it can help a potential employee gain an edge during the job search, it also lets employers vet potential employees. Many employers use the same sources to uncover information about candidates not included in a resume or shared during an interview.

And the advice goes deeper than the typical “hide the drunk photos,” said Chris Laggini, vice president of human resources for DLT Solutions, a value-added reseller of IT products and services.

Certainly, job seekers must be certain they are “digitally dirt-free” on all social-media channels. But employers are looking for more than employees who can hide the negative. They’re looking for employees who can positively represent their personal brand online.

Social media is important to organizations’ marketing, audience development and customer-support strategies. It’s important, therefore, to make sure that potential employers see not only the care you take with your social media presence but also your social media savvy.

“Serious recruiters definitely do their research,” Laggini said. “Look at your social-media profiles with a critical eye. Do they show you in your best light? Potential employers use every resource they can to get to know you, including social media.”

 

Finding your dream job just got easier

In this free, 60-minute training webinar, you will learn the strategies and best practices to leverage LinkedIn at every stage of your job search.

Lindsey Pollak, bestselling career advice author and LinkedIn spokesperson, will show you how to:

• Build an online profile that attracts the attention of recruiters and hiring managers
• Expand your professional network to drive more opportunities your way
• Use LinkedIn to find job leads and get your resume to the top of the applicant list
• Access the benefits of Job Seeker Premium, a brand new LinkedIn feature
• Find expert answers to your questions about LinkedIn

http://learn.linkedin.com/jobseeker/