the singularity of being and nothingness
Archive for August, 2010
The Brutal Four Year-Old, Part Deux
Aug 29th
If you’ve ever played basketball, football, or extreme frisbee with me, you’ll know that exercise produces certain epidermic transformations in me…namely, beet-red skin. I’ve always had this malady, whether in shape or not.
Tonight, I finished up Kenpo X as part of my P90X routine. I’m only the second week into it, but I felt really, really good about this workout. I finished all the reps and made conscious efforts to push myself when I felt myself letting up. I was feeling pretty confident, and as I toweled off my face my daughter walked into the living room. Noticing my painfully red face, she looked at me and said in a joking, mocking tone:
“Daddy, why is your face all red?
“Well, honey, I just got done with a really strenuous workout,” I replied.
Holding back a laugh, she blurted out, “No, you’re just doing it all wrong!”
Share this: Brutal Fashion Advice From a Four Year-old
Aug 29th
While I was shaving this morning, my daughter noticed the faux weathering on the “New York” lettering on my shirt. As most four year-olds are prone to do, she launched into a litany of questions about this seemingly strange sight. I did my best to explain the process that the lettering went through to wind up looking as it does, for which I was rewarded with several blank and bored stares. After patiently waiting for my explanation to conclude, my daughter followed-up with an eminently reasonable question:
“Daddy, why did they do that?”
“I guess they did it so that it would look cool, honey,” I replied.
She pondered this for a moment, and finally settled on her final evaluation:
“Daddy, it doesn’t look cool at all…”
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Effective Social Media: Listen to Your Customers
Aug 27th
It seems obvious: if you want to be effective in your social media efforts, you should listen to your customers. Whether they’re tweeting about your services, or starting conversations on your Facebook fan page, customers do these things because they find value in the activity…and they want their voices and opinions to be heard.
Yet despite this no-brainer, it’s surprising how many companies and businesses pursue social media simply for the sake of saying that they do it, rather than truly committing to the complex and resource-intensive task of starting–and finishing–relationships that happen at the speed of the web.
The Importance of ListeningDon’t get me wrong. It is important to have a well developed (and executed!) strategy for your social media efforts. Everything from frequency, to platforms, to messaging should be CAREFULLY considered and implemented even more intentionally. Yet for all of this, remember that social media for a business is ultimately about giving. Sure, you want to increase visibility, drive sales, and develop better awareness of your brand (and if you’re doing things right, these will naturally follow). However, the bottom line of social media is ultimately about what your customers, fans, and followers get from you. Yes, it sucks More >
The Foursquare/Facebook Places Debate: It’s ‘And’, Not ‘Vs.’
Aug 25th
Since the release of Places for Facebook (you know, the super-cool new feature of Facebook where you can tell all your friends exactly where you are with maps and such?), there has been a flurry of discussion about what the emergence of Facebook within the realm of geolocation means for other, more established services like Foursquare. Some have predicted that Facebook, with its 500-million+ user base, will quickly rise to prominence out of sheer mass, crushing other services in its massive wake. Others–myself included–have argued that other location-based services can survive by focusing their efforts, refining their services, and looking for strategic ways to deliver amazing content and services in a more agile manner than the behemoth Facebook.
In the midst of the conversation and debate, however, the predominant view has been to see the discussion as one of Facebook vs. Foursquare (or Gowalla, or Britekite, or whoever else). While there are certainly valid points in this line of thinking, let me offer some ideas on Facebook and Foursquare living in harmony, or at least occupying relevant spaces in individual users’ smart back pockets.
How Do We Get to the “And”The key to finding the “and” is to keep in mind More >
An Anniversary Ode to My Wife
Aug 23rd
This August 23rd marks the 8-year anniversary of my marriage to my beautiful wife, Brooke. Eight years seems like a long time, but honestly it has flown by, and through the good and the bad, I’m grateful for and humbled by the blessing of the time that we’ve had together.
I could continue on in a sappy vein, but I thought I’d share a “Top Ten” (or so) of the very best reasons to be married to Brooke.
- She’s hot 🙂
- She wrangles will phone bills, car payments, and all the other fiscal responsibilities that would be left undone if I were left to myself
- She’s a great mother to our wonderful daughter
- She consistently takes care of the laundry 😉
- She is hilarious, and is patient with my feeble (read failed) attempts at the same
- She doesn’t let me mope, and calls me on it when I try to pretend that I’m not bothered about something!
- She has a very positive outlook on the future for our lives, and motivates me (or drags me, when needed!) to get the best out of it
- She’s extremely empathetic, and is able to comfort me and lift my spirits when I’m sad, sick, hurt, and everything in between
- She’s a constant inspiration for More >
Initial Impressions of Facebook’s Places?
Aug 22nd
Ok, so I know Places has only been available for about 4 days or so. But still, I’m curious what others think of it? I certainly have opinions, but I’ll share them later… 🙂
So…
- What is your favorite thing about Places?
- What do you not like about Places?
- Do you use it to check-in everywhere you go, or only certain places?
- Have you tagged others in your check-ins, and if so, what’s the greatest number of check-ins at one location so far?
- Has Places been responsible for an impromptu meetup with a friend?
- How much do you think you’ll use Places in relation to your general Facebook activity?
If you want to weigh in on these questions (or any that I didn’t ask), leave a comment!!!
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The Imaging of God and the Creating Word
Aug 21st
The Creating Word
In describing the mechanism of God’s creative energy, the writers of the biblical creation narratives may have employed any number of devices to communicate the unfathomable act of creation ex nihilo. Unlike other narratives that imagine creation taken from the body of a deity, or even one in which the universe springs forth from pure, divine thought, the whole of creation in the biblical drama issues forth from the spoken word of the Creator. This is profound, for speech is ultimately not an act of isolated engagement, but as Heidegger notes, is equally speaking and listening, a hearing and uncovering, an equal state of showing and beholding.
In this way, the speaking-Creator in the act of primal, universal becoming signifies something of the way in which the Creator is related to the creation. Because the spoken word underpins the entire drama and energy of the universe’s becoming, that which is brought into being–the spoken-into–is made to participate in the one who speaks. Through its emerging existence, the creation forms a conversation with the Creator, concomitantly the outcome of the word and the reason for it.
Moreover, the logic of this creating/becoming conversation unveils a suggestion of the meaningfulness of the creation to More >
What Foursquare has to Fear from Facebook’s Places
Aug 20th
UPDATE: As of today (August 20, 2010), Places in Facebook is available natively for iPhone (update your FB app, if you haven’t already), as well as on any mobile device that has a browser that supports HTML5 and geolocation. If you have a non-iPhone mobile browser that fits the bill, visit touch.facebook.com to get started with Places.
On Wednesday (August 18th, 2010), Facebook rolled out its much anticipated “Places” for mobile. Like other location-based services, Places allows users to “check in” to locations and venues that are already in the system, or even add their own. Additionally, Facebook users can tag their friends at the same location and add a brief description of the outing, providing something of a mini-history of the individual’s or group’s night out on the town.
With Facebook wading into the fray of location-based services, what do already-established contenders like Foursquare have to fear?
If we examine the idea on the basis of the kinds of services that Facebook Places and Foursquare offer, I don’t think Foursquare has much to fear. Places is very stripped down in its current iteration–there are no badges, no points, no mayorships for the checkin-er to win and display proudly. You can’t add tips to Places, and More >
Foodspotting Evolved
Aug 19th
The other morning, I woke up early from an uncomfortable hotel bed and decided to catalog the previous night’s food exploits in one of my favorite apps–Foodspotting. (If you don’t know, Foodspotting is a cool social-networking type of app for logging and sharing cool foods from cool places with friends, strangers, and really anyone who loves to eat.)
Because my location was a bit remote (Watertown, SD), the restaurant at which I ate was not in the database. No matter, I thought, I’ll simply add it.
Now if you know me, you’ll know that things like adding address and phone number information is something of a religious practice for me. I’ve spent dozens of minutes in FourSquare and Foodspotting making sure that my locations are properly tagged, categorized, and addressed. So when adding Dempsey’s (the joint in Watertown) to Foodspotting, I had to open Safari. The problem? The Foodspotting app was still “old school,” meaning it had not yet been optimized for iOS4, so I spent several frustrating minutes switching to Safari, copying this bit of address or menu item, and then reloading Foodspotting to enter and save the information. Ugh.
Once finished with this ordeal, I launched a new email, intent on expressing my desire More >
Heading Home
Aug 18th
Over the last several days, my family and I have been in Watertown, South Dakota visiting my grandparents. We’ve had a wonderful time, and are hitting the road today to make the trek back to Cincinnati.
Watertown is a pretty interesting place. Although it’s population is only 20,000 or so, there is a TON of stuff to do in the area. From the beautiful Terry Redlin art gallery, to several surrounding lakes, to a large and vibrant downtown, it’s like a mini-metropolis in the middle of mostly nowhere.
My family and I had a great time, and will definitely remember this trip for many years to come!
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