Distractions: President Obama said in a commencement speech yesterday, “You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” He then went on to list iPods, iPads, and X-boxes as outlets for some of those arguments that aren’t all that high on the “truth meter.” I’m curious, what’s your thoughts on the President’s words? I have mine I think I’m going to share in a post very soon, but I wouldn’t mind discussing it in the comments today.
Quotable: “Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.” ~ Indira Gandhi – Some of the most miserable people I have ever met in life are people who are unable to forgive. They hold on to grudges. They cannot forget wrongs. They live a bitter life. What’s the point? There’s no rational one, that’s for sure. Just something to think about.
Death by Stuff:Hugh MacLeod has an excellent post on his blog, Gapingvoid. He looks how we choose to live our lives and how it sometimes forces us to decide to work at a dead end job that we hate. “So please decide to love what you do, the sooner the better. “Death By Stuff” is really no way to live.”
Question: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.
Earning Social Currency: Fast Company gives it’s 5 Steps for Consumer Brands to Earn Social Currency, and many brands would do well to consider each of them. I had been considering showing you a local company’s recent not-so-thought-out dive into the social media ocean, but before I could post about it they yanked the campaign which was centered around some tasteless webisodes. Long story short, backlash got the whole thing pulled within a day or two.
Side B
This week’s musical portion features a fan video of The Fratelli’s song Chelsea Dagger. It’s fun to watch them jumping around. Everyone have a great rest of the day and an even better week!
Thank you: I know I don’t say it enough. I’m going to bet you feel the same way. Who do you need to thank? Why not let them know today? It might just make their day to know they’re appreciated. Oh, and don’t fake it. They’ll know you don’t mean it if you’re faking. Be genuine and really mean, thank you.
Quotable: “I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.” ~ Sir Ken Robinson
Flooding in Nashville: As you may already be aware, there is flooding right now in Nashville and other areas of Tennessee. One of the things I like about Flickr is you can often get some of the best photos of events from all over the world from people on the ground almost instantly. Here are some shots of downtown Nashville and the riverfront that is flooded.
Side B
This week’s musical portion is brought to you by The Shins. I don’t think I need to say much more. Enjoy and have a great rest of the day.
Quotable: “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” ~ Andrew Carnegie – He couldn’t be more right.
Change:Michael Hyatt is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers on the subject of leadership. In Two Postures Toward Change, he illustrates one of the best ways to deal with change. Lean into it.
Tornado Weather: Here in Missouri we’re coming up on the tornado season (if indeed there is a season for tornadoes). I haven’t watched the weather, but today looks and feels like it could produce one or some. Maybe I should watch the weather? Hmmm….
It’s Monday: Relax. It’s just another day. You’ve done this before.
Side B
I have something a little different for the musical portion of Mix Tape Monday. A friend of mine emailed me this video the other day. It’s a little girl singing along to CAKE’s song The Distance. I found it humorous and thought I would share. It almost makes me want a kid. Almost. Enjoy the rest of your Monday.
Quotable: One of the better quotes I heard all week actually came earlier today. “Social media did not invent criticism.” ~ Amber Naslund (@AmberCadabra) on the subject of, what if people say bad things about your brand in social media. She’s exactly right. Whether social media is around, used, or not, people will always be out there criticizing your brand. Why not take control of the message as best you can through social media?
Apple News: Or more specifically, iPhone news. Supposedly an iPhone 4G was discovered in a bar and then leaked onto the Internet over the weekend. I’m not sure if this is a brilliantly crafted leak from Steve Jobs or if this really was a huge mistake. Either way, it looks like there’s a new iPhone version on the horizon.
I mowed this evening and like many who have to endure this chore throughout the long spring and summer months, I had my iPod along for the ride. I listened to a band I had not listened to much in a while – Rooney. Here is their song, Blueside from about 5 years ago now. For many reasons this band always makes me think of spring and fresh starts in general. Enjoy and hope you had a great Monday!
Retiring Ronald McDonald: I guess I’m just old fashioned enough to believe personal responsibility has a role in our lives and should be taught to children by their parents, because this story had my rolling my eyes. The group Corporate Accountability Inernational announced last week that they want McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald. As they put it, Ronald McDonald is, ”…the product of a well-orchestrated and shrewd marketing strategy by America’s king of fast food” and “McDonald’s food is responsible for such social ills as heart disease, diabetes, animal welfare abuses, labor exploitation, unceasing environmental destruction and the breakdown of our food system.” That’s a mouthful. A silly mouthful.
Opening Day: Officially MLB’s season started last night with the Yankees – Red Sox game. As far as I am concerned, however, baseball season starts today with the St. Louis Cardinals game. Play ball!
Quotable: “Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.” ~ W. C. Fields
Photographer Types: Whether you’re just learning how to shoot digital photographs, or you’re a little more of an expert, a great blog to read is Digital Photography School. This past week DPS gave 5 Tips for Consistently Good Photos Indoors. It is very informative, especially if you’re a beginner.
Fresh Content Project:Copywrite, Ink has released the first quarter results of their Fresh Content Project. By some wild mistake Leave It To Weaver (more specifically the Cult of Mediocrity series) was ranked at number 13 for the first quarter. I’m going to ask you to go over and check out the post, not because this blog was ranked, but because there is some truly great content in the list overall. It’s an honor to be named among such great, creative thinkers/bloggers out there.
Side B
This Monday I give you Panic At The Disco. This is one of those rare videos that makes the music a little better in my opinion. The song is That Green Gentleman. Enjoy the rest of your Monday, people.
Marketing Emotions:Rich Becker has an interesting piece called, Craving Emotions: Do People Need Negative And Positive Interactions? He raises some good points. Understanding this, may be critical in understanding your audience. Especially when it comes to how people are emotionally during different different stages of the economy.
Quotable: “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi
Real Estate 2.0:Tim Jahn, of whom I’ve said before has the best blog you’re not reading (hint, hint), has a great post on house hunting in 2010. Searching for a house today is much easier than it may have been just 10-15 years ago.
Random Fact: I had never seen the movie Rudy before yesterday. I really liked it. I’m not sure what took me so long to watch it.
Side B
This week’s musical portion features the song, Imitosis by Andrew Bird. My wife and I had the chance to see him live in New York City last summer and he put on a great show. This song has been stuck in my head much of the weekend, so I’m going to jam into yours now. Everyone have a great week!
Quotable: “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.” ~ John Adams
Ending the Everlasting Meeting: There is an endless supply of ideas out there about meetings and how best to well, end the seemingly eternal meeting. I came across the 22 minute meeting idea recently and thought I’d share it with you. What I like most about this approach is it focuses on keeping your focus during a meeting.
Retro Looking Gadgets: Part of me hates that I’m about to link you to a Mashable post, but I can’t resist sharing. They’ve listed the 10 Modern Gadgets with Retro Styling (PICS). Personally, I really like the Phonophone for the iPod.
Shift the Drift: Ever find yourself having a difficult time changing the current in your stream? Michael Hyatt has a great post on this very idea called, Shift the Drift. I like how he outlines his steps for overcoming the drift and ultimately shifting it entirely.
Side B
For our musical portion of Mix Tape Monday we have a band with a long name, but a great sound in my opinion. Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin is a band I consider a local band. They hail from Springfield, Mo. (just an hour from where I live), but they have gained a great deal of notoriety worldwide. This video was supposedly filmed in Springfield and is one of their early songs, Pangea. I hope you enjoy it.
Quotable: “Sometimes, you’re too big. Sometimes, you’re too small.” ~ The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’sAlice in Wonderland.
The Internet Police: Earlier last week the White House revealed some of the details of the “Einstein” cyber shield Homeland Security has been working on. The purpose of the program is to protect the U.S. from future cyber attacks. The Wall Street Journal posted on their tech blog some of the details of the plan. One sentence in particular concerns me. “The program is designed to look for indicators of cyber attacks by digging into all Internet communications, including the contents of emails, according to the declassified summary.” The contents of emails? How is this any different from the government going through the contents of our snail mail? Wouldn’t we be in an uproar if the government designed a plan to open all our mail and read it? I could say more, but what is your take?
Billboard Tweets: It’s not a big deal, but it did humor me this morning. Lamar Advertising of Oklahoma City has a practice of putting Tweets up on billboards. This morning I wasn’t really thinking about that when I Tweeted the lyrics of Manic Monday by The Bangles. Lamar Advertising ended up plastering it on a billboard in Oklahoma City for all who pass by to see. Here’s a photo of the billboard with my Tweet on it.
I first saw this video a couple of months ago. I was instantly drawn in. The song is called I Adore You. It is by Melpo Mene. I don’t think it needs much of a description. Watch it and let it suck you in. I hope you’ve had a great Monday.
No Need to Study: Know someone who is staying up all hours of the night studying? Is that someone you? Send this post from Zen Habits called, How I Was Able to Ace Exams Without Studying, to them and see if it helps. If that someone is you, read it.
Quotable: “When times are tough, vision is the first casualty. Before conditions can improve, it is the first thing we must recover.” ~ Michael Hyatt
My ‘Teachable Moment’ Last Week: Simply uttering the words, ‘increased accountability,’ in an office lacking accountability is similar to shouting the word, ‘bomb,’ in an airplane. Chaos ensues and a knee ends up in your back. To quote Tom Peters, “Accountability is gospel!” I guess that pretty sums up why some have such extreme reactions to it.
Free Ebook: I’m not a huge ebook reader. I’m a fan of real books I can hold and smell (oh yeah, and read). So when I downloaded Seth Godin’s ebook, What Matters Now, I didn’t dive right in. I’ve had it for nearly three months and this weekend I cracked it open. Is that even possible with an ebook? Anyway, I started reading it and discovered I should have read it a long time ago. It is full of great insight from the likes of Tom Peters, Jessica Hagy (of Indexed), Dave Ramsey, Dan Pink, and many more.
Poll: Let’s settle this once and for all. Chicago style or New York style pizza? Maybe some of you already answered me on Facebook and Twitter, but if not, let’s tally your vote. It counts. It matters. It’s pizza.
Side B
Alright, band geeks. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this week’s musical portion of Mix Tape Monday from OK Go. They’re performing their new song, This Too Shall Pass. Many thanks to David Nichols, who pointed me in the direction of this video. Hope everyone has had a good Monday.
The Photo: It’s a snowball fight in Times Square. What else?
MoreNegative Buzz for Buzz: As if Google Buzz hadn’t garnered enough negative chatter. Marsha Collier discovered and then shared with the rest of us in her post that disabling Google Buzz will disable your Google profile. For many who use their Google profile page as an About Me page and way to easily connect with others, this is a huge problem. As one of my friends said to me in my only conversation on Google Buzz, “This is not the Google I have come to know and be paranoid about.”
Quotable: “Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource – the minds of our children.” ~ Walt Disney
New Be-Attitudes for Social Media in a New Millennium: In what was probably my favorite post I read last week, Trey Pennington introduces us to a new set of Be-Attitudes for social media. It is direct, simple, and brilliant. If you’re using social media in any way, print these off and keep them nearby.
Most Innovative Companies: Fast Company has listed The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2010. Facebook gets the number one billing. If you’re interested, check out who makes up the rest of the 50 most innovative companies in the world.
Side B
For this week’s musical portion of Mix Tape Monday, I want to highlight another Take Away Show. This time we have the beautiful harmony of Fleet Foxes to get this Monday started right. If you don’t take the time to watch the whole clip, at least take a moment to enjoy the a capella singing in the beginning. Everyone have a great start to the week! If the video does not show up, you can view it here.
