Wednesday, September 08, 2010
I've moved.
If by some miracle you actually enjoy hearing me ramble on, you can now find me at gregnstuff.wordpress.com.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Can't pay attention
So in my crusade to help folks improve their attempts at posting their self produced videos online, I figured I'd tackle another subject that annoys me. Of course it's in regards to audio. Do you see the pattern yet?!
This one is in regards to using music with lyrics. First off, if you are using commercially available music that you did not create yourself or obtain written permission to use, you are technically breaking the law. If you get caught, more than likely you'll be asked to take the video down or the online service you use will remove it. For some of you this may not be a big deal. For a company, well I would hope you had a legal department that would kibosh it before it ever made it online. But in case you don't like to listen to your legal, this would mean all that effort to create a video to showcase the new product that no one really needs would be removed from rotation. What a waste.
And for those of you about to yell out 'fair use', don't bother. Unless you're doing a video that compares the musical differences between polka and punk, it's not fair use. Even then it's a pretty grey area.
Anyway, I digress, the whole point of this is that lately I've been seeing some videos using music that have lyrics. What's so annoying about that you ask?! Well the vocals of these songs are right over interviews or voice-overs. If you really want to keep people's attention to what you have to say, don't bombard them with multiple vocal tracks.
Like I've referenced in a previous post, audio is very subconscious. What will happen is you'll have folks who may recognize that catchy tune you've chosen and will more than likely begin to listen to those lyrics. You've now just lost your viewer and the whole point of the video is...well, pointless.
How audio is used in videos, for some folks is an after thought. When in reality, the quality and care in your audio is what will make a shitty video great.
This one is in regards to using music with lyrics. First off, if you are using commercially available music that you did not create yourself or obtain written permission to use, you are technically breaking the law. If you get caught, more than likely you'll be asked to take the video down or the online service you use will remove it. For some of you this may not be a big deal. For a company, well I would hope you had a legal department that would kibosh it before it ever made it online. But in case you don't like to listen to your legal, this would mean all that effort to create a video to showcase the new product that no one really needs would be removed from rotation. What a waste.
And for those of you about to yell out 'fair use', don't bother. Unless you're doing a video that compares the musical differences between polka and punk, it's not fair use. Even then it's a pretty grey area.
Anyway, I digress, the whole point of this is that lately I've been seeing some videos using music that have lyrics. What's so annoying about that you ask?! Well the vocals of these songs are right over interviews or voice-overs. If you really want to keep people's attention to what you have to say, don't bombard them with multiple vocal tracks.
Like I've referenced in a previous post, audio is very subconscious. What will happen is you'll have folks who may recognize that catchy tune you've chosen and will more than likely begin to listen to those lyrics. You've now just lost your viewer and the whole point of the video is...well, pointless.
How audio is used in videos, for some folks is an after thought. When in reality, the quality and care in your audio is what will make a shitty video great.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
I beg of you...
I haven't posted in a really long time, as you can see. It's more the laziness in me than anything else. I think about blogging and even write it in my head but when the opportunity arises to actually put anything done, meh.
So today I figured maybe I should put something down. You see, if you follow me on twitter at @CoolGuyGreg, you may have seen me bitching about poor audio in online video and streams. So I figured maybe I'll explain to folks how to get good audio and who knows, just maybe someone will listen and I can once again hear what may be some good content.
The technology, both online and off, has finally gotten to a point where anyone can record and post videos to a website or social network. I think this is grand. Although it makes my job as a multi-media producer a bit harder to sell professional video at times. I am pleased that folks have finally come around to the benefits of what a video can offer to their brand or cause or whatever.
But lets keep in mind folks that you are still speaking to an audience with short attention spans. An audience that at times will multitask while watching your video of you interviewing the next online star. If the audio is poor, it's very likely that you'll loose your audience before they ever hear how to start that next big pyramid scheme.
You see, audio is very subconscious. An untrained ear will not be able to tell the difference between good audio and poor audio, unless it's really bad or a side-by-side comparison. But with poor audio, at a subconscious level, your viewer's attention begin to drift and they begin to think of other things even to a point of changing the channel. How many videos have you watched online where you maybe had to back up and watch something over again? Or you don't quite recall what you just watched was about? Very likely the audio was poor. You can usually get away with bad video, but not bad audio.
Now, let's talk about how you can improve this. It first starts with camera selection. As sad as it may be, not all camcorders have an external audio input. For example, The Flip family of camcorders helped usher in this DIY video revolution but for some reason left off the external audio input, and even more mysteriously continues to leave it off. An on-camera mic may be fine if you're a foot or two away from the camera and in a somewhat quite surrounding, but when you try and conduct an interview with an on-camera mic from 6 feet away, well...IT SUCKS. So, if you haven't yet purchased a camera make sure you find one with this feature.
"But Greg, I've already bought a camera without an external audio input", no worries, I'll cover this later. Just let me finish with the folks who like to do things right the first time around. :)
So, now that you have a camera with an external audio input lets look at you audio choices. The biggest excuse I hear from folks is that you can't get a microphone without spending hundreds of dollars. Horseshit? Spend a few minutes doing some research on this great but little known website called Google and you'd be amazed at what you'd find.
For you penny pinchers out there, try the Sima SDW-150 wireless microphone. Is it any good? I have no idea, but it was the cheapest one I found at about $58. Frankly I wouldn't spend less than $100 myself, but that's me.
My recommendation and still affordable would be the Audio Technica Pro 88W and the Azden WLX Pro. Are these "great" mics? Not by any stretch, but I've used them both and they work great for the kind of online videos you'll be doing. The great thing about them both is that they come with camera shoe mounts/adapters to put on the camera. Also, if you invest in a 1/8" to 1/4" cable, you can plug the transmitter into a sound system.
For those of you who are big spenders or pseudo audiophiles, my personal choice and mic that I use, the Lectrosonics 100 Series. This is a great microphone but comes with a hefty price and is not necessarily made for smaller consumer cameras. If you're wanting one of these, lets chat.
So now, for those of you who already have the cameras without an external audio input, fear not. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Get yourself a portable digital audio recorder like the Zoom H2 Ultra. This is a great little recorder and actually does a great job recording audio. You can hold it in your hand or plug in a lavaliere and slip the puppy in your pocket. These devices record to some flavor of flash media and can easily be imported into almost any editing program. When editing the audio to the video, use the crappy audio from the camera to help you match them up.
I hope this stuff is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully someday I can watch a DIY online video interview and be able to watch the whole thing all because I can intelligibly hear it.
So today I figured maybe I should put something down. You see, if you follow me on twitter at @CoolGuyGreg, you may have seen me bitching about poor audio in online video and streams. So I figured maybe I'll explain to folks how to get good audio and who knows, just maybe someone will listen and I can once again hear what may be some good content.
The technology, both online and off, has finally gotten to a point where anyone can record and post videos to a website or social network. I think this is grand. Although it makes my job as a multi-media producer a bit harder to sell professional video at times. I am pleased that folks have finally come around to the benefits of what a video can offer to their brand or cause or whatever.
But lets keep in mind folks that you are still speaking to an audience with short attention spans. An audience that at times will multitask while watching your video of you interviewing the next online star. If the audio is poor, it's very likely that you'll loose your audience before they ever hear how to start that next big pyramid scheme.
You see, audio is very subconscious. An untrained ear will not be able to tell the difference between good audio and poor audio, unless it's really bad or a side-by-side comparison. But with poor audio, at a subconscious level, your viewer's attention begin to drift and they begin to think of other things even to a point of changing the channel. How many videos have you watched online where you maybe had to back up and watch something over again? Or you don't quite recall what you just watched was about? Very likely the audio was poor. You can usually get away with bad video, but not bad audio.
Now, let's talk about how you can improve this. It first starts with camera selection. As sad as it may be, not all camcorders have an external audio input. For example, The Flip family of camcorders helped usher in this DIY video revolution but for some reason left off the external audio input, and even more mysteriously continues to leave it off. An on-camera mic may be fine if you're a foot or two away from the camera and in a somewhat quite surrounding, but when you try and conduct an interview with an on-camera mic from 6 feet away, well...IT SUCKS. So, if you haven't yet purchased a camera make sure you find one with this feature.
"But Greg, I've already bought a camera without an external audio input", no worries, I'll cover this later. Just let me finish with the folks who like to do things right the first time around. :)
So, now that you have a camera with an external audio input lets look at you audio choices. The biggest excuse I hear from folks is that you can't get a microphone without spending hundreds of dollars. Horseshit? Spend a few minutes doing some research on this great but little known website called Google and you'd be amazed at what you'd find.
For you penny pinchers out there, try the Sima SDW-150 wireless microphone. Is it any good? I have no idea, but it was the cheapest one I found at about $58. Frankly I wouldn't spend less than $100 myself, but that's me.
My recommendation and still affordable would be the Audio Technica Pro 88W and the Azden WLX Pro. Are these "great" mics? Not by any stretch, but I've used them both and they work great for the kind of online videos you'll be doing. The great thing about them both is that they come with camera shoe mounts/adapters to put on the camera. Also, if you invest in a 1/8" to 1/4" cable, you can plug the transmitter into a sound system.
For those of you who are big spenders or pseudo audiophiles, my personal choice and mic that I use, the Lectrosonics 100 Series. This is a great microphone but comes with a hefty price and is not necessarily made for smaller consumer cameras. If you're wanting one of these, lets chat.
So now, for those of you who already have the cameras without an external audio input, fear not. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Get yourself a portable digital audio recorder like the Zoom H2 Ultra. This is a great little recorder and actually does a great job recording audio. You can hold it in your hand or plug in a lavaliere and slip the puppy in your pocket. These devices record to some flavor of flash media and can easily be imported into almost any editing program. When editing the audio to the video, use the crappy audio from the camera to help you match them up.
I hope this stuff is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully someday I can watch a DIY online video interview and be able to watch the whole thing all because I can intelligibly hear it.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Open for Interpretation
I am fairly random when it comes to my twittering. I really don't have an agenda to push. I'm not trying to be someone I'm not. I really just tweet what I want when I want. Besides isn't that what Twitter originally intended?
Anyway, before I get ranting on about that, if you look at my Twitter tread you'll see a randomness of mostly useless crap. So a friend of mine, @dkolke decided he would write up an interpretation of how he envisioned my day based on my tweets. It's quite fun actually and I must say at first I was a bit frightened at his level of accuracy of my daily routine. Where have you hidden the cameras Danny?
Anyway, take a look and tell me what you think and what the hell, take a crack at it yourself. Better yet, do a stage show of it. :)
The literary work of @dkolke
Life between the Tweets
A literary exercise in decifering the lives of tweeters
Todays feature fictional tale stars @coolguygreg whose timeline reads as follows:
about 8:45 am from TwitterFon
RT @davidspies: American Idol should hold open casting/auditions for Paula's replacement. Anyone off the street would be more fascinating.
about 9am ago from TwitterFon
The dude sitting next to me stinks of hot dog water. It's making me gag.
about 10am from API
chatting at http://tinychat.com/nickfinck #tinychat
about 12:15 PM from TwitterFon in reply to StevenMatsumoto
@StevenMatsumoto I feel you on that one. I've been having major cravings lately myself. Holding out so far but don't know for how long.
about 1:10 PM from TweetDeck
I am sick of Social Media elitist and snobs. SM is not HS, it's not a clique. Stop with the pretentious BS.
about 1:12 PM from TweetDeck
Why the hell am I even following these people.
about 1:20 PM from TweetDeck
Sorry everyone, I just annoyed when people think they can take a class on SM and only dialog about it among themselves. Missing the point.
about 1:30 PM from TweetDeck
I know I'm no expert on SM, but I have been SM'ing since 1988. And yes, SM has been around that long. Rant done!
Let the "real" story unfold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:51 AM. "Something is different," @coolguygreg thought to himself as he slid the alarm button on his iPhone. That's how that works for you blackberry people out there. "Yes, something is definitely different."
@coolguygreg stumbles out of bed and wanders over to the window which was left open in an attempt to cool his bedroom to a sleep-able temperature.
"It's cold outside and the sun is gone thank God," he muttered. "Never thought I'd say that living here in the Northwest."
@coolguygreg went about his normal morning routine. Shave, shower, jeans, shortsleeve shirt, "in case the damn sun comes out again this afternoon and it's too stinking hot", he thinks to himself. He checks the time on his iPhone, the latest geek watch afterall; and notices he has to hustle if he is going to make the bus this morning. He grabs his bag, wallet, keys, and iPhone and a snackbar; slams the door and fires up the car heading off to the park and ride.
Eight minutes later he arrives at the park and ride as the bus was "Darn it" the bus was leaving the parking lot without him. "Do I drive to work today and put up with the traffic, or do I catch the next bus?" He pulls into a slot, gathers his things and walks down the parking lot to the covered area.
Ten minutes later the bus arrives and @coolguygreg steps on. Hoping that they leave soon, he finds a good seat and starts checking in on the rest of the world.
"What's all this crap?" he thinks to himself as he starts reading his twitter feed. "Blah blah blah, teeth whitener, hypnosis weight loss, I remember the good old days when Social Media was cool." Finally he finds a glimmer of some respectible content that he decides to retweet to his mass of followers in the twitterverse.
"Should I send this or not?" he thinks. "What will my followers think?" he hesitates. "What the heck, they are going to find out sooner or later that I love Paula."
At about 8:45 am from TwitterFon he sends the tweet to start the day.
'RT @davidspies: American Idol should hold open casting/auditions for Paula's replacement. Anyone off the street would be more fascinating.'
"Okay, now I'm on the radar" he says to himself and his minions start tracking his every tweet. Wondering what will come next out of the phone of @coolguygreg.
The bus fills up without him noticing. Some guy sits next to him that looks okay at first.
The bus closes up and they start out of the parking lot. @coolguygreg suddenly has this sick feeling as he looks down he notices the guys shoes are falling apart. And that's not a briefcase he's carrying, it's a beat up canvas bag with grease stains, food stains, blood and who knows what else on it.
@coolguygreg tries to hold it together but he is fighting back at his gag reflex. He decides that this is worth the rest of the world knowing. "Why the heck not? They now know about Paula."
about 9am ago from TwitterFon
The dude sitting next to me stinks of hot dog water. It's making me gag.
Just then, @coolguygreg notices that the guys pants are wet and it's not hot dog water, if you know what I mean. @coolguygreg jumps up and tries to find another seat fast. He finds a spot at the back of the bus wedged up against the back window, two teenagers making out next to him. He takes some secret pictures with his phone to post later when he gets time.
Distracted with dog man and horny kids, he doesn't notice the time pass and soon he arrives at the bus stop three blocks from his office. @coolguygreg likes the bus. "It gives me time to think and get work done," he tells himself. Obviously, we know this to be a lie but let's not tell him.
@coolguygreg get's to his desk in time for some social media chat with User experience professional, owner of Blue Flavor, former editor in chief of Digital Web Magazine... NickFinck
Logging into the chat, one of those OMG tweets happen automatically on behalf of him. Kind of like the toilet tweets that when you open the stall it sends out a "Gone pooping" tweet on your behalf.
Oops, there it went.
about 10am from API
chatting at http://tinychat.com/nickfinck #tinychat
"Crap," he mutters, "now people know I'm not working. Well, I'll just say that it's part of my job and no morons around here follow me anyways."
@coolguygreg chat's away with the SM world enjoying the illusion of productivity.
37 1/2 minutes goes by and @coolguygreg starts getting a nasty headache.
"Shoot, caffeine headache," he moans to himself. "I rushed out of the house again before grabbing coffee. This is going to hurt."
He stumbles through his desk drawer to find the bottle of IBU and pounds 6 tablets. "There goes my liver," he thinks as he heads down the hallway to the kitchen to get some water to offset the drug dose he just took.
Coffee in hand he returns to his desk in time for a surprise visit from a coworker who has nothing to say meaningful. You know the type. Their lips start moving and keep moving and just won't stop. This guys name is Steve. He is holding a twinky which catches @coolguygreg's attention.
"What's with the twinky?" he asks Steve.
"I don't know," Steve answers. "I found it in the kitchen cabinet and these things never expire so I thought I'd eat it later."
"Hey I got to run," @coolguygreg replies. "I'll talk with you later".
@coolguygreg runs down the hallway and starts rummaging through the cabinets.
"No twinkies, darn it," he says. He shuts the kitchen door and searches more thoroughly.
After 45 minutes of looking for twinkies, he surrenders and returns to his desk. Just in time for lunchtime.
He grabs his coat and his iPhone and hit's the elevator. On the way down he checks in with the twitterverse and discovers that some of his followers are totally engaged in twinky squawk.
He feels obligated to fess up on his own twinky cravings.
@coolguygreg tweets
about 12:15 PM from TwitterFon in reply to StevenMatsumoto
@StevenMatsumoto I feel you on that one. I've been having major cravings lately myself. Holding out so far but don't know for how long.
As he hits the fresh air leaving the building, he decides that he is NOT going to get a twinky. "I'm going to eat healthy," he mutters. And off he goes to get a sandwich at Subway.
@coolguygreg orders one of those healthy sandwiches that taste like cardboard, chips and a diet coke. He sits down and has a quiet lunch while all the time checking in on the twitterverse.
"Should I RT this?"
"How about this?"
He keeps asking himself and concludes, "there is nothing worth putting my name on it."
And then it begins. Twitter snobs talking Smack about twinkies. "This is just not right," he thinks. He crumples up his sandwich, chips and stuff's them in the softdrink cup container and puts them in the trash on the way out.
Walking back to the office he holds off on tweeting because "I got to think about this and how to respond." You have to be careful not to show your hand when ranting on twitter.
He get's back to his desk, fires up his laptop and logs onto twitter via TweetDeck.
There it is, everywhere now. Twinky is the trending topic and his honor is at stake.
"It's time to stand up for what you believe in dude," he says to himself.
So about 1PM from TweetDeck he fires off the first shot
'I am sick of Social Media elitist and snobs. SM is not HS, it's not a clique. Stop with the pretentious BS.'
He chose to attack their character instead of defending the twinky. It's a good strategy used quite successfully in political and business forums.
He continues bashing the twinky haters from his TweetDeck tweet deck,
'Why the hell am I even following these people?'
@coolguygreg added so much fuel to the fire, there was nothing more to say. His followers were now all on board and it was an counter assault against the twinky haters. @coolguygreg just needed to sit back and watch the story unfold.
30 minutes goes buy and he is still watching things happen. This is amazing.
He starts getting DM's about his attack. "Why are you lashing out?" some ask.
@coolguygreg feels obligated to respond.
He tweets 'Sorry everyone, I just annoyed when people think they can take a class on SM and only dialog about it among themselves. Missing the point.'
"Oops, forgot a word in that tweet", he thought to himself. "I should continue explaining"
He follows up with another tweet, 'I know I'm no expert on SM, but I have been SM'ing since 1988. And yes, SM has been around that long. Rant done!'
And when @coolguygreg says "Rant done" he means "Rant done!". He closes his laptop and runs down the hallway to actually get to work.
"I got to earn my paycheck," he says to himself afterall.
-------------------------------------------
@coolguygreg left his iPhone at his desk so we lost transmission.
Will he be okay?
Will he stop at the convenience store on the way home and get a twinky?
Stay tuned for the next tweet and hopefully we will soon know.
by Danny Kolke
Anyway, before I get ranting on about that, if you look at my Twitter tread you'll see a randomness of mostly useless crap. So a friend of mine, @dkolke decided he would write up an interpretation of how he envisioned my day based on my tweets. It's quite fun actually and I must say at first I was a bit frightened at his level of accuracy of my daily routine. Where have you hidden the cameras Danny?
Anyway, take a look and tell me what you think and what the hell, take a crack at it yourself. Better yet, do a stage show of it. :)
The literary work of @dkolke
Life between the Tweets
A literary exercise in decifering the lives of tweeters
Todays feature fictional tale stars @coolguygreg whose timeline reads as follows:
about 8:45 am from TwitterFon
RT @davidspies: American Idol should hold open casting/auditions for Paula's replacement. Anyone off the street would be more fascinating.
about 9am ago from TwitterFon
The dude sitting next to me stinks of hot dog water. It's making me gag.
about 10am from API
chatting at http://tinychat.com/nickfinck #tinychat
about 12:15 PM from TwitterFon in reply to StevenMatsumoto
@StevenMatsumoto I feel you on that one. I've been having major cravings lately myself. Holding out so far but don't know for how long.
about 1:10 PM from TweetDeck
I am sick of Social Media elitist and snobs. SM is not HS, it's not a clique. Stop with the pretentious BS.
about 1:12 PM from TweetDeck
Why the hell am I even following these people.
about 1:20 PM from TweetDeck
Sorry everyone, I just annoyed when people think they can take a class on SM and only dialog about it among themselves. Missing the point.
about 1:30 PM from TweetDeck
I know I'm no expert on SM, but I have been SM'ing since 1988. And yes, SM has been around that long. Rant done!
Let the "real" story unfold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:51 AM. "Something is different," @coolguygreg thought to himself as he slid the alarm button on his iPhone. That's how that works for you blackberry people out there. "Yes, something is definitely different."
@coolguygreg stumbles out of bed and wanders over to the window which was left open in an attempt to cool his bedroom to a sleep-able temperature.
"It's cold outside and the sun is gone thank God," he muttered. "Never thought I'd say that living here in the Northwest."
@coolguygreg went about his normal morning routine. Shave, shower, jeans, shortsleeve shirt, "in case the damn sun comes out again this afternoon and it's too stinking hot", he thinks to himself. He checks the time on his iPhone, the latest geek watch afterall; and notices he has to hustle if he is going to make the bus this morning. He grabs his bag, wallet, keys, and iPhone and a snackbar; slams the door and fires up the car heading off to the park and ride.
Eight minutes later he arrives at the park and ride as the bus was "Darn it" the bus was leaving the parking lot without him. "Do I drive to work today and put up with the traffic, or do I catch the next bus?" He pulls into a slot, gathers his things and walks down the parking lot to the covered area.
Ten minutes later the bus arrives and @coolguygreg steps on. Hoping that they leave soon, he finds a good seat and starts checking in on the rest of the world.
"What's all this crap?" he thinks to himself as he starts reading his twitter feed. "Blah blah blah, teeth whitener, hypnosis weight loss, I remember the good old days when Social Media was cool." Finally he finds a glimmer of some respectible content that he decides to retweet to his mass of followers in the twitterverse.
"Should I send this or not?" he thinks. "What will my followers think?" he hesitates. "What the heck, they are going to find out sooner or later that I love Paula."
At about 8:45 am from TwitterFon he sends the tweet to start the day.
'RT @davidspies: American Idol should hold open casting/auditions for Paula's replacement. Anyone off the street would be more fascinating.'
"Okay, now I'm on the radar" he says to himself and his minions start tracking his every tweet. Wondering what will come next out of the phone of @coolguygreg.
The bus fills up without him noticing. Some guy sits next to him that looks okay at first.
The bus closes up and they start out of the parking lot. @coolguygreg suddenly has this sick feeling as he looks down he notices the guys shoes are falling apart. And that's not a briefcase he's carrying, it's a beat up canvas bag with grease stains, food stains, blood and who knows what else on it.
@coolguygreg tries to hold it together but he is fighting back at his gag reflex. He decides that this is worth the rest of the world knowing. "Why the heck not? They now know about Paula."
about 9am ago from TwitterFon
The dude sitting next to me stinks of hot dog water. It's making me gag.
Just then, @coolguygreg notices that the guys pants are wet and it's not hot dog water, if you know what I mean. @coolguygreg jumps up and tries to find another seat fast. He finds a spot at the back of the bus wedged up against the back window, two teenagers making out next to him. He takes some secret pictures with his phone to post later when he gets time.
Distracted with dog man and horny kids, he doesn't notice the time pass and soon he arrives at the bus stop three blocks from his office. @coolguygreg likes the bus. "It gives me time to think and get work done," he tells himself. Obviously, we know this to be a lie but let's not tell him.
@coolguygreg get's to his desk in time for some social media chat with User experience professional, owner of Blue Flavor, former editor in chief of Digital Web Magazine... NickFinck
Logging into the chat, one of those OMG tweets happen automatically on behalf of him. Kind of like the toilet tweets that when you open the stall it sends out a "Gone pooping" tweet on your behalf.
Oops, there it went.
about 10am from API
chatting at http://tinychat.com/nickfinck #tinychat
"Crap," he mutters, "now people know I'm not working. Well, I'll just say that it's part of my job and no morons around here follow me anyways."
@coolguygreg chat's away with the SM world enjoying the illusion of productivity.
37 1/2 minutes goes by and @coolguygreg starts getting a nasty headache.
"Shoot, caffeine headache," he moans to himself. "I rushed out of the house again before grabbing coffee. This is going to hurt."
He stumbles through his desk drawer to find the bottle of IBU and pounds 6 tablets. "There goes my liver," he thinks as he heads down the hallway to the kitchen to get some water to offset the drug dose he just took.
Coffee in hand he returns to his desk in time for a surprise visit from a coworker who has nothing to say meaningful. You know the type. Their lips start moving and keep moving and just won't stop. This guys name is Steve. He is holding a twinky which catches @coolguygreg's attention.
"What's with the twinky?" he asks Steve.
"I don't know," Steve answers. "I found it in the kitchen cabinet and these things never expire so I thought I'd eat it later."
"Hey I got to run," @coolguygreg replies. "I'll talk with you later".
@coolguygreg runs down the hallway and starts rummaging through the cabinets.
"No twinkies, darn it," he says. He shuts the kitchen door and searches more thoroughly.
After 45 minutes of looking for twinkies, he surrenders and returns to his desk. Just in time for lunchtime.
He grabs his coat and his iPhone and hit's the elevator. On the way down he checks in with the twitterverse and discovers that some of his followers are totally engaged in twinky squawk.
He feels obligated to fess up on his own twinky cravings.
@coolguygreg tweets
about 12:15 PM from TwitterFon in reply to StevenMatsumoto
@StevenMatsumoto I feel you on that one. I've been having major cravings lately myself. Holding out so far but don't know for how long.
As he hits the fresh air leaving the building, he decides that he is NOT going to get a twinky. "I'm going to eat healthy," he mutters. And off he goes to get a sandwich at Subway.
@coolguygreg orders one of those healthy sandwiches that taste like cardboard, chips and a diet coke. He sits down and has a quiet lunch while all the time checking in on the twitterverse.
"Should I RT this?"
"How about this?"
He keeps asking himself and concludes, "there is nothing worth putting my name on it."
And then it begins. Twitter snobs talking Smack about twinkies. "This is just not right," he thinks. He crumples up his sandwich, chips and stuff's them in the softdrink cup container and puts them in the trash on the way out.
Walking back to the office he holds off on tweeting because "I got to think about this and how to respond." You have to be careful not to show your hand when ranting on twitter.
He get's back to his desk, fires up his laptop and logs onto twitter via TweetDeck.
There it is, everywhere now. Twinky is the trending topic and his honor is at stake.
"It's time to stand up for what you believe in dude," he says to himself.
So about 1PM from TweetDeck he fires off the first shot
'I am sick of Social Media elitist and snobs. SM is not HS, it's not a clique. Stop with the pretentious BS.'
He chose to attack their character instead of defending the twinky. It's a good strategy used quite successfully in political and business forums.
He continues bashing the twinky haters from his TweetDeck tweet deck,
'Why the hell am I even following these people?'
@coolguygreg added so much fuel to the fire, there was nothing more to say. His followers were now all on board and it was an counter assault against the twinky haters. @coolguygreg just needed to sit back and watch the story unfold.
30 minutes goes buy and he is still watching things happen. This is amazing.
He starts getting DM's about his attack. "Why are you lashing out?" some ask.
@coolguygreg feels obligated to respond.
He tweets 'Sorry everyone, I just annoyed when people think they can take a class on SM and only dialog about it among themselves. Missing the point.'
"Oops, forgot a word in that tweet", he thought to himself. "I should continue explaining"
He follows up with another tweet, 'I know I'm no expert on SM, but I have been SM'ing since 1988. And yes, SM has been around that long. Rant done!'
And when @coolguygreg says "Rant done" he means "Rant done!". He closes his laptop and runs down the hallway to actually get to work.
"I got to earn my paycheck," he says to himself afterall.
-------------------------------------------
@coolguygreg left his iPhone at his desk so we lost transmission.
Will he be okay?
Will he stop at the convenience store on the way home and get a twinky?
Stay tuned for the next tweet and hopefully we will soon know.
by Danny Kolke
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
My New Favorite
So I found this new site that I have been bouncing around for a couple months now and I have come to really like it. The site combines my frothy love for a good beer with the need to spend as little on said beer as necessary. As we all know the only way to accomplish this is to hit up a place during happy hour.
So my new favorite site is gotime.com. They provide a database of every happy hour in Seattle and when I say "every" happy hour, I mean these folks have scoped out every joint in Seattle for happy hours. If you had a kegger in your back yard and called it a happy hour, they would know about it.
Here's why I like the site so much. No matter the time of day, there is a happy hour going on and gotime will tell you where it is, even at 7AM. I kid not.
Anyway, at the fear of sounding like a fan boy, just go and check it out yourself. They also have an iPhone app (which I wish I could login from so I can access my favorites, hint, hint) and they also have other stuff like music and events and such. I'm a beer guy so I only really use it for that. Check it out you too may find a use for it.
So my new favorite site is gotime.com. They provide a database of every happy hour in Seattle and when I say "every" happy hour, I mean these folks have scoped out every joint in Seattle for happy hours. If you had a kegger in your back yard and called it a happy hour, they would know about it.
Here's why I like the site so much. No matter the time of day, there is a happy hour going on and gotime will tell you where it is, even at 7AM. I kid not.
Anyway, at the fear of sounding like a fan boy, just go and check it out yourself. They also have an iPhone app (which I wish I could login from so I can access my favorites, hint, hint) and they also have other stuff like music and events and such. I'm a beer guy so I only really use it for that. Check it out you too may find a use for it.
No follow for you!
So I have been reading a lot of articles by so called Twitter "experts" who tell people that the "polite" thing to do is to follow back everyone following you. Uhm...no!
No offense to those following me but the beauty about Twitter is that "I" get to choose who I follow. I am following those that I have an interest. There's no science to it really. If I find someone that I think could be cool, I'll follow them and sometimes I unfollow if I lose interest.
There are a lot of folks that follow me that I, for the life of me I can't figure out why. For some reason I have a large following from Florida, perhaps my name is written on a bathroom stall down there. Regardless why you follow me, don't expect to get followed back, I'm not a follow backer and there is nothing that says I have to be. I'm not trying to be a jerk, it's just I have a hard enough time keeping up with those I do follow. I would simply be overwhelmed if I followed everyone.
For those of you following me, thanks, I'm glad I can entertain you with my witless ramblings. If you're following me only to gain another follower then move along, there's nothing to see here.
No offense to those following me but the beauty about Twitter is that "I" get to choose who I follow. I am following those that I have an interest. There's no science to it really. If I find someone that I think could be cool, I'll follow them and sometimes I unfollow if I lose interest.
There are a lot of folks that follow me that I, for the life of me I can't figure out why. For some reason I have a large following from Florida, perhaps my name is written on a bathroom stall down there. Regardless why you follow me, don't expect to get followed back, I'm not a follow backer and there is nothing that says I have to be. I'm not trying to be a jerk, it's just I have a hard enough time keeping up with those I do follow. I would simply be overwhelmed if I followed everyone.
For those of you following me, thanks, I'm glad I can entertain you with my witless ramblings. If you're following me only to gain another follower then move along, there's nothing to see here.
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