And if or if you can’t join the chat, BUY THIS BOOK.

Like most marketing/pr folks out there my bookshelf is loaded with reads from other social media bibles from thought leaders like Brian Solis, Charlene Li, Clay Shirkey, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, etc. The tools might be quickly antiquated from one publishing date to the next (oh geez, that’s so 2009! *sarcasm*), but the deeper message in these books and in the new release Humanize resonates home (deeply). It’s a call for humanizing business and if you’re as eager to tear through this as I was, then you know exactly the exciting triumphs and sometimes excruciating pain it takes to modernize the “this is the way we’ve always done it” attitude of your organization. Many of us already “get” the tools, but what we need is awakened leadership.

“Creating human organizations requires more than social media. It requires new leadership.”

Did I mention it comes with online worksheets too?!

The authors understand the power and limitations of non-profits and associations in a way few other books out there do.  Through my own strange luck, I happened to meet Maddie and Jamie in the association community two or three years ago (too long here to explain, but let’s just thank my sister KiKi L’Italien and friend Elizabeth Engel for introductions, eggs, and lots of Sunday cocktails amidst flash mob dance practices) and I can only say Maddie and Jamie know their stuff.

Maddie has been a true resource and friend when I started my new position leading digital marketing strategy for a trade association over a year ago. I remember this every time I get tapped to help a friend newly tasked with taking on social media. Believe me, we’re all learning all the time and this book will take you there.

“Follow the white rabbit.”

Join the chat this Friday, Dec 2 at 3pm ET via #ASAEtech. Have a question you’d like to ask Maddie and Jamie? Post it in the comment section below. 

The Accidental Creative
by: Todd Henry

Reading this one currently. I am shocked at how accurately Henry defines the challenges for a creative within an organization and the mental exhaustion that can result. This book’s goal is to help you supercharge your creative process while preventing burnout.

Humanize
by: Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant

Digital leaders in the association/non-prof community, this is sure to be a must-read for community managers and digital media managers out there. A video interview with the authors is provided from TMA Resources on Jamie Notter’s blog.

The End of Business As Usual
by: Brian Solis

Digital leader defined, is there anything Brian Solis touches that isn’t brilliant? I’m staring at my copy of Engage! on my book shelf that is underlined, highlighted, and post-it noted up and can hardly wait to tear into this. I likewise love Chris Brogan’s video review of the book here.

What are you reading this season?

The daunting moment I must endure is nearing: the day I take the LSAT. In order to prevent myself from hating my daily routine of studying for this exam, I humanized the exam. That’s right, humanized, a process in which I have personified the exam to the extent that I now perceive it as a human being. Humanizing the LSAT makes it more bearable, enabling the ability to establish a relationship with it and make my emotional attachment to it less creepy than if I left it as an inanimate booklet produced by an entity with a really nice website.

The one and only step necessary to humanize the LSAT is to give it a name.  There is no real criterion in name making, but I wanted to make sure the name had some personality and flair. First I went with its common pronunciation: El Sat. Unfortunately, that name is already taking by the SAT, and the LSAT is far more intimidating and interesting than that exam for me to consider it an option. But what does work, and what I ended up naming it, is LiSA T. This name retains all the initial letters, is still recognizable with the test, and is cute. Also, the “i” in her name is a variable in algebra which represents the square root of the number -1, which in reality doesn’t exist. So I didn’t change the name at all from what it really is, I just made it more familiar.

She,—that’s right, I went with the obvious gender correlated with the name Lisa—has now taken human form, in a sense. She thinks logically, can set up games, and enjoys various scholastic articles. She even has a picky taste, only allowing #2 pencils and highlighters to be drawn on her; no ink tattoos for this lady. She’s also obsessed with giving precisely five options to every question she asks. The sad thing is, she depends on me to cater to her every demand. She won’t tell me what she wants to do, I have to comprehend her thinking process which is all over the place. But when I do make a decision, she doesn’t nod or frown. She just keeps going, asking more questions out of the blue. Nothing relates, she’ll talk about ancient archeology and make me repeat points in her argument, and then she’ll jump to some ridiculous claim about vacuums which she expects me to correct. But then, after her spree of questions, she’ll score me. Yup, she’s scoring our relationship based on me. Nothing is ever her fault, it’s always my wrong choices she takes count of and subtracts it from her presumed idea of perfect. After she makes this score, she’ll compare it to scores of her other friends and then ranks me in comparison.

What the hell LiSA T.? What kind of friend are you? Indeed, after naming her I assumed she was my friend.  What else could she possibly be to me? I spend all my time with her, I even started to think like her. Is she possibly my frenemy? It sure feels like it. She pressures me into these experiments which I never know is an experiment until way later, after I’ve completed the experiment and question what I have done for a lengthy period of time.  Don’t worry, these experiments never involve injecting heroin, but I think she might be doing so herself.  I didn’t think this until I noticed these weird diamond designs across her forhead emphasizing sections of her body. There isn’t a single reason I can think of to explain their existence, which is weird because she emphasizes reasoning as her only way of life. Also, she changes personalities all the time. Sometimes she’ll be really laid back and won’t rush me through a question, then afterwards she’ll  tell me I have 20 more questions of hers to solve with only five minutes left to answer them and if I don’t finish in time I can’t go back and answer them later. Again, what the hell LiSA T.? We were having a decent time together and then you rush me through, knowing I’ll cry because you didn’t even give me the chance to guess.

She continues to hurt me, but I confess, I’m not an angel when I’m with her. Now and then during our time together, I zone out. Then I lie to her and say I didn’t, pretending to be confident when I answer her questions. I also yell at her in her face with swear words. I don’t think she understands me when I curse her off, she’s never cursed me out herself which I think is because she doesn’t know any. She’s never expressed anger with me, even though I’ve shown her plenty. She speaks in a monotone voice while I express my anguish with her rambling by looking back at her with confusion and frustration all over my face. I’ve even spilled coffee on her. It was an accident, I swear! It’s not like she cares, whenever I try to erase the pencil marks on her arm, it never completely goes away. It’s because of her thin skin is this creepy pale gray—another reason I  think she abuses drugs.

This relationship I have with LiSA T. is not doomed; on the contrary, it’s blossoming. The more I get to know her, the more confident I become in my own process of thinking. And she’s not as judgmental as I initially thought; she gives me room to write out my own argument and doesn’t exercise her scoring process on it, she just lets it be. She’s also always there for me.  I abandon her all the time, like right now as I write this post.  But she waits for me, and we start from where we left off; never pestering me for a reason to why I left and never suggesting I stop my life to hang out with her. And when we do hang out, I’m actually excited about the random facts she spits out. She’s also humble, admitting at times that her arguments aren’t as strong as they could be.

I’ve grown accustomed to her quirks, they’re kind of adorable actually. From her odd way of communicating through questions and choices, timing herself based on 35 minute intervals, and not to mention her urgent plea to STOP whenever she is done discussing the subject she was talking to me about. LiSA T. has made the day when our relationship will be scored by strangers less frightening for me. I know I’ll occasionally reminisce of our time together after our friendship’s inevitable end which I hope is the afternoon on that very same day.

***You can hang out with the younger version of Lisa T. whenever you want by downloading an old test on the following link http://www.lsac.org/jd/LSAT/lsat-prep-materials.asp  

For surefire enemies
Look at whom you address.  
Listen till they’re human.
Consider them—digest, digest.     

Learn to spar-sing and wrestle-dance.  
Go bury your good deeds
And mock your own success.
Gather the pieces for a bridge.  

Don’t quit!  Betrayers can’t resist.
Those who would despise you
or dismiss will set their face
against you like a fist.  

          But making friends is a cinch!  
Find someone who shares your fits,
Together, take aim…steady…
Bang!  Fast you will remain.

Of course, that friend is honey
That turns bitter in the belly.  
A true friend will always be
Your potential hard won enemy.

There is a huge ambiguous lake around the meaning of the word “religion,” but this is not so to everyone. For clarity, the link to dictionary.com’s list of definitions for the word is posted below. There are many Americans (and others) who are very, very religious. That is to say they devoutly, routinely follow a set of rules and/or beliefs. They go through the motions, kneeling, folding hands, bowing heads, fingering beads, and repeating common phrases or prayers. These things have meaning but they are not necessarily Jesus-ism.

Very simply said, Jesus was anything BUT religious. In fact, he put down, “cursed,” argued with, and ignored the religious leaders of his time. Those of us who wish to be His followers are compelled to FOLLOW in his footsteps. For centuries since He walked the earth, men have attempted to organize, pasteurize, and homogenize the words and actions of Jesus. In short, we have tried to “humanize” him.

If he is who he claimed to be – the Son of God – it is an unattainable feat to squeeze all of God into human comprehension.

If he is NOT who he claimed to be – the Son of God – he is by far the singly most evil, conniving, deceptive human being ever born. The only other possible option is severe mental illness.

In this case, it’s one or the other. It cannot be some ambiguous third “polite” option. He claimed to be the very Son of God. He’s either nuts, a great liar, or … Logic dictates!

Walking on Water by Ric Berry

religion:

Here are 7 steps identified by Doreen Marchionni.

Use the tools of the Internet to commit journalism.

Reporters need to be on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Taking simple steps such as crowdsourcing story ideas or encouraging feedback increases a reporter’s credibility with a digital audience, Marchionni found in her research.

And, having a Twitter account that mixes appropriate personal messages along with work-related tweets can let the audience see the “person behind the news,” which also builds trust.

“This is a very uncomfortable idea for mainstream journalists,” she said. But it is a critical element in reader engagement online.

Provide online bio pages with photos.

Many news websites have inadequate “contact us” pages, and Marchionni suggests that staff directories should be improved to include both photos and short biographical sketches.

Providing photos, as columnists often do, allows readers to measure their “perceived similarity” to a journalist. This analysis includes both intellectual viewpoints on a topic as well as demographic factors. Audiences subconsciously use this information to judge the news they receive.

Marchionni said that in her studies, this factor was the most influential in determining the trust and credibility readers attributed to a news source.

Readers, she said, “perceive news in which they can sense the person behind the news as highly credible and highly expert.”

Produce reporter-focused short videos.

Similarly, journalists need to present themselves in videos on their websites. Even more than a still photo, video communicates to an audience that a reporter is a real person, not a “data spewing automaton,” Marchionni said.

In her studies she refers to this as having a “social presence” and it is another key to building trust with readers.

Marchionni reports past studies have shown TV news surpasses print in credibility ratings due to TV journalists appearing more human by virtue of their media.

“If news people want to sustain and build credibility with audiences, especially in the multi-platform world of news websites,” she said,  “they need to put themselves out there in videos.”

Look to columnists and the Sports Department for cues.

Columnists, often take a conversational tone, use fact-based analysis and portray a strong public persona. This approach provides  a roadmap for other reporters to look to, Marchionni said.

She is not suggesting opinion-based reporting, but rather bringing more voice and perspective to typical news writing. According to her findings, a news column is very similar to the narrative style that engages online readers.

Marchionni also suggests looking to sports departments as role models of reader engagement. They are “are often at the vanguard for innovation in newsrooms and they never get credit for it,” she said.

Due to the rabid fan bases involved, Marchionni says sports reporters have been thrown into contact with readers more than other news reporters are. As a result, they have been ahead of the curve in learning to “navigate relationships with audiences.”

Marchionni highlights the efforts of reporters such as ESPN’s Mike Sando, who she worked with at The (Tacoma) News Tribune. Sando covers the National Football League’s NFC West division and blogs prolifically on the topic, including using short video segments to answer reader questions.

Bring audiences into the process.

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other online networks can be used to reach out to readers for story ideas and sourcing. But, Marchionni also points to the example set by Minnesota Public Radio with its Public Insight Journalism (PIJ) initiative.

The PIJ website allows listeners to fill out a biography that highlights their individual areas of expertise. Members of the group are then available as sources to be contacted by the network’s reporters. The site reports more than 99,000 people have registered to be part of the project.

Don’t forget to close the loop.

When a newsroom does engage with readers, and invites early participation in the newsgathering process, Marchionni says it is important to publicly note that interaction.

“You must tell audiences that you did it,” she said, and that you will continue to gather information via those digital networks.

In her studies, Marchionni said she put an editor’s note at the top of stories that were crowdsourced, explaining how that process worked. And she recommends including the appropriate attribution – “contacted though Twitter” – within the text of the story as well.

She found that readers respond very positively to that audience involvement and transparency of process.

Balance formal and informal tones carefully.

Readers are accepting of a more informal, friendly tone in online writing, but it is a fine line to walk.

Marchionni found that humor, even snark, can be well regarded by digital audiences when applied appropriately. That helps enhance a sense that a “real person” is behind the news.

However, being too informal or conversational in a more serious story leads readers to question the authority and expertise of the journalist.

“You still want to maintain some level of authority and formality,” she said. Audiences can be very sensitive to that.

She points to the Seattle Times weather blog, led by Jack Bloom, as an example of how to strike that balance. A recent brief with the forecast was lead with:

“The forecast is plain: We’ll get rain and then rain.”

But, a story predicting potentially damaging winds followed standard AP style more closely:

“The Puget Sound area could be battered by gusts of up to 50 mph, and sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph, in a storm expected to hit the area Thursday afternoon, creating the potential for widespread power outages.”

Marchionni believes that as reporters take on publishing responsibilities, via Twitter or on the Web, it is crucial they appreciate this balance and learn to correctly target their style of writing appropriately.

She said the best reporters will pick it up it quickly, but, “they are going to have to learn how to be extraordinarily nuanced self-editors.”

What do you think of the 7 steps? Would they work in your newsroom?

We like, and are attracted to faces.   Both genders concentrated on ads containing women.  And, just like dealing with people in person, people looked first to the eyes in the posters.

The humanized approach is always a stronger message than other messages. But humanizing a message goes deeper than just a human face.  Your message should talk to people in a ‘humanized’ voice.  One simple way to help you to accomplish this is to put the word “you” in the copy.  It forces you to be more personal.  It makes your messaging sound like a one-on-one meeting rather than typical ad speak or preaching.  It’s up to you to make the personal contact in your marketing.

Since last September I have been in the process of coming out and living more openly. For the most part this has been a positive experience. Supportive and wonderful people have blessed me more than I expected and have surrounded me through this process. I do not know where I would be without these friends. While there are still people in my life that I have not told, the call to change the direction of this blog has become so pressing that it must happen now. There will always be more people to tell, and what it means to live openly is a conversation I would like to explore later. What I find the unhealthiest about my coming out process is how long it has taken me to feel comfortable talking about my sexuality.

I have been wrestling with homosexuality since my pre-teen years. There were many influences that made me hesitate to live openly because I did not feel like it would be well received. These influences ranged from bullying on the bus to off-hand comments from mentors. While there were many things that held me back from being more open in the earlier years, I would like to focus on the voice in my head that told me that I could not be a homosexual and a Christian simultaneous. The church culture I grew up in led me to believe that these two things were mutually exclusive and could not occupy the same space. I had to accept myself and deny my salvation, or accept my salvation and deny myself. Neither option was desirable, or felt right to me.

From my personal experience, and conversations I have had with others, the experience of wanting to be something other than gay is a common trend. Many people I know, myself included, reached a point where they wanted to be anything but gay. It was the cup we wanted to be taken from us, the suffering that we wanted replaced, the aspect of our life that we wanted to trade in. I found myself praying night after night “God, anything but this” until I fell asleep. I hesitated talking about homosexuality with others because I felt I would be ostracized and judged instead of given guidance. I was also leery of any advice given because I felt that no one was able to give me an objective view on the matter. People would either want me to be straight or gay and this would be reflected in their responses.

It took God a while to get through to me, but eventually he proved to me that nothing I could do would make him love me less, and nothing would make him love me more. The influences in my life that were telling me that Christianity and Homosexually could not mix were slowly silenced. I have since found that this is a struggle for other gay Christians, and I find comfort in the fact that I am not alone. Eventually, I was able to bring up this concern to a friend of mine named Nathan Albert and the words he said to me had a large impact. He said, “I will simply say I do not think Gay Christian is an oxymoron. I do, however, think that greedy Christian, judgmental Christian, apathetic Christian, unloving Christian, and hateful Christian are oxymoronic.” These words have come in handy more times than I can count.

Growing up the majority of my mentors were in the church and because of this I argue that the church’s taboo stance on the topic of homosexuality has created a destructive environment for young Christian people attempting to figure out their sexuality. The church is missing out on an opportunity to have a positive impact on many people when they refuse to have an open discussion about complicated topics such as homosexuality. Additionally, I argue that there is a large need for open, non-condemning relationships between members of the LGBTQ community and members of the church. I see a healthy solution in building bridges instead of burning them. In my experience, people on both sides of this issue judge the other on stereotypes without taking the time to getting to know each other. LGBTQ members have a tendency to view all Christians with keywords such as “conservative” and “bible-thumping.” The same is true of Christians towards the LGBTQ community; we are seen using words like “promiscuous” and “unnatural.”

I believe if both sides take the time to get to know the other we would be able to further bring the Kingdom of God to earth. Great strides can be taken when each side is humanized to the other and I feel that I have been called to try and make this blog one of those places. I am not sure what that looks like and I am trusting in the power of God to guide me.

* * * * *

I would recommend checking out Nathan’s blog at http://www.naytinalbert.blogspot.com/ He is a person who says and does good things.

I was going to wait till tomorrow to blog but the excitement is still in the air. Thanks to Paula Stern for putting this great Conference together. The facilities, food/coffee & organization was top-notch at Kfar Maccabia and despite MegaComm being a predominantly Technical Writing audience, the Conference focus had a leaning towards Marketing, PR, Media and the likes making it interesting and user friendly.

I have taken the liberty to summarize Keynote speaker Jeff Pulver and Alan Weinkrantz talks early on in the day.

Jeff Pulver at #MegaComm

The highlight of the event was the Keynote speaker, Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver), known for his work in Popularizing Voice on the Internet. Jeff is an inspiring speaker even for one who has heard him talk many times about the changes in personalization over the internet, and how it happened.

The channel for communication with the masses may have changed however they still require you to open yourself up to voluntary communication in order to be successful. Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to be successful.

Jeff inspires one especially when relating how the technology which came about was usually considered ‘dangerous’. Take email for instance, once companies had policies to limit who had email, but it took around 5 years to catch on, pretty much like Social Media today.

Whatever it is that breeds productivity, using Social Media as a Listening/Hearing and Connecting tool inspires one to something more meaningful. “Create friendships, find something to talk about, engage”. He says.

When Twitter followers came to and started sharing their stories,  serendipity, humanity and peoples voices started to matter!!

The birth of the backchannel, finding open frequencies to humanity…matter.

Jeff relates that during 911, despite emergency services available, the radio channels where on difference frequencies and couldn’t engage in communication. Since then these frequencies of communication have been homogenized.

During the Haiti crisis, Tweeting for cries of help were Repeated (RT) and it was “like magic amplifying what everyone was saying”. The US Airforce got involved as a result of Jeff retweeting Ann Curry (@anncurry) and replied to Jeff: “We’re on it”.

Over 75 industries are affected by the backchannel. Even the Dali Lami said his outlook towards humanity has improved as a result of seeing the outflow of assistance and human connection on Twitter.

Twitter is a backchannel to listen to what is being said and making opportunities for the job market. The world has gone flat since Facebook & Twitter. Disintermediation is real, meaning that disruption is positive. It’s not about We the people, but rather about Me the people. You have a voice that matters and you’ll discover you can change the world via amplification.

Jeff describes the times he has Tweeted requests for help and people in the street around the corner helped him to unload his boxes. Invites online via Twitter & people Tweeting in other peoples behalf enabled more connecting via these backchannels.

The message is clear: The Human Experience Matters.

Axxx Wxxxxxxx at #MegaComm

Strategic Public Relations > The Focus on Branded Content

Axxx Wxxxxxxx has been focusing on content around brands and sponsorships for some time now.

He says news traditionally comes from media but the barriers to reaching the media was traditionally via the PR firms. A lot can be demystified by doing it yourself. With his own video camcorder he creates his own content telling stories leveraging his position as PR Agent at companies.

So how is it done?

• Basic PR is still the same -> Message, Interesting News, Consistent Outreach…

• Using various types of coverage you can do both traditional pitching and New Media pitching, re pitching the stories via blogs or via YouTube and engaging with your audience

• Using common think strategy, reading certain publications and becoming a trusted source of information

• Following media sources or journalists on LinkedIn

• Being quoted in other places

• Using branded content and creating a body of work

Axxx’s Rules

• Have a great message

• Easy to download press room

• Focus on a few things

• Manage expectations

• Engage your management

• Show your humanity

Also, mash up external content.

Ramp up your noise level.

Be discovered. Be found.

Have faith in your product.

Stop Selling and start story-telling…

Souq;Market

Calm Beach

sight from Marina Mall

Us users are the Social Media

In his 1998 book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, Alan Cooper outlined his methodology, called Goal-Directed® design, based on the concept that software should help users move towards their ultimate goal, rather than ensnaring them in computer minutiae.

Cooper’s design methodology “humanized technology” with use of personas as practical interaction design tools to create high-tech products that address user’s needs.

Today, the concepts of interaction design strategy, usability, and the use of personas have been broadly adopted across the software industry and in technology product design education.

One of the offshoots of this methodology is a field called User eXperience Design (UXD) which have been, for years since Cooper’s book, a topic in conversations, discussions, and workshops across continents and assimilated in any and almost all the successful high technology products and platforms of service that run in a Web browser.

The Social Media needs a goal-directed design–not the visual and human-computer interaction aspects of it alone but a “contextual functionality” to the design of its use. In doing so, we can begin to see more of the use of Social Media as a Web platform for society with us as participants not lurkers and creators of content not mere users of it.

Most, if not all, of recent developments in Social Media are open. When it was launched in 2006, one of Twitter’s functionalities is an improvement in use of SMS (short message service/text messaging) that before were only used with mobile phones. Users who signed up eventually found different uses for short-messaging on a large scale with tweets. And Twitter as it is used now as a topic-based, community-grown media has found greater purpose.

The Social Media is not much about technology, it is about us.

A post about why there are stragglers from Social Media from my friend RVBello is an advocacy and a call to mainstream the “other half” into starting to use Social Media as a digital tool for the better. And Open Forum with a post from Yvonne DiVita aptly puts that Social Networks recreate the offline notions of neighborhood online.

While many mavens have adopted ways to manage and cope with the dizzying array of online social platforms, average users–non-users more so–may find themselves at the beginning of the curve in need of a 12-step social identity program. This may lead to increased demand from typical participants to have a more integrated and simplified social tool and an opportunity for platforms and companies alike to meet this demand.

Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group recently twitted betting that a growing requirement in Social Media is the ability to better manage online communities’ conversations. And vendors are fast sprouting to offer the integration, simplicity, and efficiency to manage distributed conversations in every part of our world.

The Web, with Websites as its manifest, will exponentially grow to serve as “digital hubs” or “online anchors” that integrate our social activity from many platforms. While further  integration may come soon fast, it can also be as quick for our mass of stragglers from Social Media.

Brian Solis encapsulates the task at hand in order to bring into the fold our digital “other half” in one of his latest posts An Audience with an Audience of Audiences:

“Our job now is to speak to and through the people in our audiences simultaneously. The goal of course is to spread information across social graphs and interest graphs. The cultural impact of new media is profound as it weaves a new fabric for how we connect and communicate with one another.

“As a digital society, we are ushering in an era where everyday people form a global network of self-empowered social intermediaries that accelerate and proliferate the reach and effect of information and experiences.

“We are no longer just part of the information consumption production process; we are evolving the system for learning and sharing through real-time signal repeaters that boost the reach of digitally transmitted messages – from your status update to the world in seconds.”

independence day of indonesia ceremony at Hilton hotel Abu Dhabi

Los Angeles Street Art (http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/16173/slide_16173_224880_large.jpg?1295393449733)

The idea of ‘humanizing’ came from a previous discussion at Fowler Museum at UCLA, titled, ‘Zócalo at the Fowler: How Does Street Art Humanize Cities?‘…

To hear that people are talking about the relationship of art/objects/activities of spaces to the way the space makes people feel (I guess belonging, welcomed, or feel that the space is special etc), got me thinking how this relates to our every day city experiences. What role street art plays in the way we feel about our local neighborhoods/downtown or public spaces…and how it could contribute to making spaces that are more unique/comfortable/fun/safe.

Where in the world are you? That’s my street up there – care to have a drink with me?

Blogs can become so impersonal… yes, you’ve read it correctly. Impersonal. Most create a persona, and even the ones who try to remain honest are always, and automatically, censoring little bits and pieces of information about themselves, their real and full beliefs and what is really going on with their lives.

Why do we do this? And more disturbing – why does it give us pleasure reassurance about our own real life, if it has little to do with it?

Nowadays we can blog from any place and we do it with any frame of mind (go ahead and call it twitting, face-booking, or whatever fits your time with trivialities). Some of us strive on an inexplicable necessity to keep blogging even when that frame of mind doesn’t support it. It’s no news to anyone that we are becoming identities on-the-web, but few stop to think about why that is. “Evolution!” you might say.

Really? Can we evolve outside our real lives and beyond our real identities? Are we evolving, or just stalling a semi-adolescent thought-processor (you might call it brain, but I believe the old fellow is just too far gone, or else it would wake some sense in you) sustained by repeating the same unproductive tasks day in and day out?

Then of course, that much dedication to a persona makes our virtual identities seem far more interesting than our real ones. Many see it as real as any other flying bug, flapping our little bodies over the keys and curling our little hearts waiting for comments. But it’s the ritual that it’s active: the waiting, the pampering and the hope for it all to sound real enough to gather more followers. “World recognition!!” we dream; we aren’t real until we get it… we aren’t someone, any-one, it ! And in a way we’ll never be… because we aren’t living and breathing social beings. We aren’t real in society, on planet Earth, inside our own mind.

We haven’t been it for so long now that the word that defines what we are is: bored ! That’s what we are. Alive? It’s been so long that we forgot all about it and figure that having vital organs in all the right places must be enough to do the trick. Take a walk outside? Just keep on typing, no brains required. I wonder if it will come a time when we will stop reproducing – to much work, no web recognition… wait? Is that why people flash their baby’s photos all over social networking sites? Argh…

There is still a group of humans detached from all this, pumping new blood and doing the rounds: people that don’t have nor don’t care to have, a virtual identity. The Others. I don’t believe they are little in numbers, as most of my friends and family are them. And let me add that the good old-fashioned living, walking over real grass, chatting over a real drink and hugging with real arms, doesn’t seem to need the pixelated praises to live on happily. In fact, The Others seem much calmer than Us, less prone to gravitate around a computer after working hours or stress over internet stats and virtual accounts for no intelligent reason.

So why do we do it? Why do we reflex our minds to a keyboard, caress a mouse and talk to pixelated screens for hours at a time, trusting in whatever it comments back more than we trust our own judgment?

Big Boss Man is a British jazz/funk band.  Some Brits can cook, and some Brits can play good funk music.  It does happen.

Enjoy.

Song: Sea Groove
Artist: Big Boss Man
Album: Humanize
Label: Blow Up
Buy from: Amazon | iTunes

       I was sent home today because we really were seeing fewer children , but this does not mean the business will be closing in a few days. Far from it.  When there is a little time to breathe, then revamp, get rested, because things are on the way up, not down. That is what I am thinking. A dear friend said, “Nothing but increase for you, Ruby.” I have hung onto these words, and when things look slim like today, I hold my head high and close my mouth.

       I begin to rest, have fun with my son on the Wii, and eat coconut angel food cake. I haven’t had naps lately.There hasn’t been time to relax and enjoy a beautiful day, because it has been interrupted by phone calls, or work. So I will hold my head high, close my mouth, and be busy at home, doing the extraordinary things that I really want to get done.

        I hope Ruby Do  will become a quick picker upper for those who need that in their life. Some people drink tea, or coffee. Some just need to read something amusing, funny or down to earth. I hope I can provide some of that in this blog. Ruby Do.