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Bloggy Question 23 — Would You Live Blog the Wedding?

October 1, 2006 by Liz

Now What Do You Say?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .

A friend since childhood, your lifelong friend, is getting married in your hometown to another close friend of yours. She reads your blog and comments often. They both do, but neither one has a blog of their own. They still live in the town where you all grew up. You’ve not been back there for years.

You’re going home for the wedding and looking forward to seeing the friends you’ve not seen forever. It should be quite a party.

You step off the plane, and the bride and groom greet you with great fanfare. During the early conversation, while waiting for your bags, she drops the bomb. “I see you’ve got your laptop. We were thinking . . . it would be so cool if you live blogged the wedding. Would you do that as a wedding gift for us? Please, please, please.” You look over at the groom and he shrugs.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bloggy Question 22 — A Real Issue: Blogger Justice?

September 24, 2006 by Liz

What if It Were You or Me?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, This question comes from a piece that Chris Garrett wrote in August. The piece began with this paragraph . . .

What would you do if someone wronged you in a blatant way? You would probably have words and if that didn’t produce an apology would more than likely as a next step blog about it, right? And probably invite your blogger friends to also blog about it? Of course a lot of them will anyway, particularly if what the dude did was dumb, damaging or both. And of course their readers might well pick up the story. Then what if the guy, instead of getting the point threatens you with lawyers and all kinds of legal threats? — Revenge of the Bloggers

It wasn’t hypothetical. Real bloggers did and said real things that completely ruined a person’s name. Did he deserve it? He was wrong, so wrong. Does that make them right?

Who gets to decide? It’s an important issue.

Click the title below to read the story. I’ll wait until you come back.

My bloggy question is what do you think about all of this?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs

September 18, 2006 by Liz

Blogging Is Lonely Without Someone to Talk to . . .

It started in 1993, long before there were blogs. It was named “The Endless September.” That was when AOL unleashed masses of untrained users onto the Internet. Until then, it has only been a yearly advance of college freshmen.

Before that time, such clue-lacking lusers were a small trickle every September when the college freshman hit the computers to which they got free access when they paid their college tuition. At that time, it was manageable with suggestions to lurk a while and observe how others behaved before jumping in with cluelessness, with polite, behind-the scenes education when nettiquette was breached, and with an occasional BOFH wielding a large mallet when the polite education didn’t stick.
The Endless September

I bring this up for a reason. . . . hinky un-blogger-like things have been happening around here. I see the pattern now and it seems that the Endless September is back on.

Ew, how embarrassing to wake up one day and realize that comments and trackbacks are like diamonds . . . they last.

Burned bridges and drive-by comments aren’t pretty.

Relationships, on the other hand, are what blogging’s about.

[Read more…]

Bloggy Question 21 — Are You California Dreaming?

September 17, 2006 by Liz

Monday, Monday, Can’t Trust That Day

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, I offer this Blogging Hypothetical Question.

A friend explains a situation with a potential client who works in a field that suits the friend’s skills, style, and experience to a T. The more you hear, the more you think that the client needs your friend’s help to grow his business. You know the guy’s on the level. You’ve met some of his clients. They speak highly of his work.

The client-to-be is an entrepreneur with important clients, and he’s stuck where entrepreneurs with important clients often get stuck. Your friend is an expert at helping people stretch and expand their dreams. She can show him where to go next, how to get there, and how to delegate. . . .

The problem is that he has some form of “bad date” syndrome. He says he’ll call Monday to set up a meeting — Monday, Monday — pick one the call keeps getting rescheduled. She says he calls with other questions, but doesn’t return phone calls or emails from her. Of course, he treats his clients differently.

Last week a meeting (time and place too this time) was made to set goals. Your friend wants to let the client know that now the work must begin. She knows that relationships that start shaky can turn out to be the best ones . . . but she’s starting to talk about her own disappointment not the potential client’s needs.

What advice do you have for her?

Is this client worth saving or all this time has she been “California Dreaming?”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Link Leak Virus Overtakes Parallel Universe!

September 13, 2006 by Liz

Everyone Knew the Time Warps Weren’t the Only Thing

If we could have as many lives to be as many versions of ourselves as we could be, what might we become? The outer limits of Successful-Blog had that conversation and weird musical sounds were heard coming from every category in the sidebar. No one actually said that an extraterrestrial would be a choice, but . . . some thoughts in that direction seemed to come up.

The Link Leak Virus was to be part of the whole operation, whether we were Mother Teresa, Mark Cuban, Lucille Ball, or Donald Trump.The Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes. But we were in a summertime frame of mind.

Welcome to all of the new folks who came. It was great fun having you!

Cool links were shared.

Ode to a Superhero Video
Living Tribunal
Paiboon Busayarak
Nightwish – Nemo
Sexy Song Warning: Not for the weak hearts!
Jack
listen to Weird Al and donÃ¢â¬â¢t download this song
Malcolm Reynolds
Led Zepplin songs by an Elvis impersonater with a Reggae beat
Compare the map for the last election
with our new map for this election cycle.
David Seigel, the guy with the black belt in chocolate

What Actually Happened?

And this week Rick Cockrum of Shards of Consciousness found a creative way to tell the story of last night’s event.

AdLib is happy just as he is
Fresh bread close at hand, hair down to his chair
His blog back in biz, and music filling his air.

Joe is a lawman,
A wookie for real
Protecting us all with McGyverÃ¢â¬â¢s great skill.

Scorpia, too, is content
As she already is
Everyday fantasy is already her biz.

Liz directs song and the dance,
Electronics begone.
Children, flowers and writing Is where she belongs.

Renee comes in singing,
Dancing dog in her arms.
Man and canine alike, she soothes with her charm.

ChristineÃ¢â¬â¢s in Missouri
Her ballads filling college breeze.
She stopped and said hi before the clock made her flee.

Chris Cree is traveling,
A hero in the stars,
Humming Led Zeppelin, escaping storms in his car.

Seanrox cooked at the barbie,
A feast he laid out
While being James Bond with a bottle of stout.

Douglas dropped in among us,
Just to say hi
Then time warped him away, away to fly.

Ben plays great hockey,
And cartoons on the side,
With Basil his donkey, round the world he does fly.

Starbucker wings in
Home from the West,
Song and dance in his soul, with his wife he does rest.

Cat steps in for a moment,
Still fuzzy with sleep,
Tea in the morning, as to bed we softly creep.

TonyÃ¢â¬â¢s in a time warp, two hours behind,
Somewhere he is starving
Drawing comics so fine.

Phil zips by so fast
Pac-man behind him
In a kung-fu world Donkey Kong races past.

Wendy said it was fun
From time zones away.
In the alternate world she stops by to play.

And Ellen pops in
With a comment from home
She read the discussion as a way to be grown.

So another mic closes
It was quite a feat.
We think of you often until the next week.
— Rick Cockrum of Shards of Consciousness

Thanks, Rick, for that great summary! Thanks Everyone, for coming!
–ME “Liz” Strauss

5 +1 Whole Brain Steps to Believable Strategic Goals OR Find Your Bliss Without Wasting Time

September 13, 2006 by Liz

But the Sky Is WAY Up There!

When I introduced this series with the overview The 5 Step Strategy that Saved a Company Can Also Get You to Your Dream, Chris and Hendry Lee pointed out in the comments a mistake that is easy to fall into — setting an unbelievable goal.

After all, we’ve decided. We want to get going, make things happen, put our strategy in place. So let’s choose a goal that’s mighty, powerful, and going to get us there now. Friends and family, thinking the problem is self-estem, often advise and encourage us to do just that.

Soon enough we end up with a goal like this one.

“Find Your Bliss and the Money Will Follow.” That’s a dream — too nebulous to be a strategic goal. I can imagine bliss, sort of, but I can’t define it. I can’t put my arms around it or draw a map to show me or anyone how to get there.

The irony is that when we face an impossible goal, we become overwhelmed, lose that self-same self-esteem, and talk ourselves out of our quest, knowing we’d fail. After all, I can’t ahieve or become what I can’t define or see — I’m not foolish enough to try that.

End of quest, end of strategy to improve,.we’re left without the goal, somehow feeling less for even thinking about trying. We might even be thinking that strategy is something that other folks do . . .

Pfft! balderdash, piffle, and keruffle. All four apply to that response. Add to that . . .

Unbelievable!

We’re not what’s wrong in this picture. The goal is. [Read more…]