Tweet Clouding the Past Year: Post Birthday Thoughts

There’s nothing like a Birthday to cause a little self-reflection.  What better way to reflect on my past year that with a techy tool.  Thanks to my friend Julia, I discovered this nifty little toy Tweet Cloud.  It’s a textual analysis of your twitter stream – pulling in the words and phrases that you’ve used the most over a set period of time.  I went with looking at the past year and what I found is located in the cloud to the right.  Take a look at it.  It’s a beautiful thing that captures what the past year has really been – positive energy, laughter, friends and people.  This has been an amazing year – one of the best of my life – and it’s nice to see that, through Twitter, I was able to convey so much of that positivity.

I’m sure over the next week – especially once I get settled in my apartment here in New York – I’ll take more time to reflect on where I am in my life.  I figure, I’ve pretty much have taken the self-reflective route after every birthday for the last 15 years (I was a very introspective teenager), so I doubt that will truly change.   What will change is that all the plotting that I have done with my life is starting to take shape.  As a writer, I always daydreamed about being able to craft the narrative of my life.  The one thing that I’m learning is that I truly can.  Sure, I can’t control anything but, with the right mindset, it’s unbelievable the things that you can control.  The past year has been a testament to that – with almost everything going according to the blueprint I crafted a little over a year ago – a year filled with so many positive things, but the biggest one in the cloud is the most important: Love.

A Real Community: Prayers for Anissa

Over the last few months, mainstream media has questioned “Mommy Bloggers” and the ethics around it. There have been FTC regulations, blog posts questioning the authenticity and trust of these bloggers, and arguments in every which way that often paint a horrible picture of all “Mommy Bloggers.”

What they never see is what happened today. My friend Anissa Mayhew had a stroke last night. Watching from work, I fought back tears every time a read a blog post about all the people in the blogosphere that Anissa touched in some way. I never had the pleasure to work WITH her, but I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her laugh, say something off color and hilarious, and just bring joy to the people around her. As I read these funny stories and heard all the tweets coming through the stream, I couldn’t help but be amazed at what was happening. It’s a beautiful thing – to realize that through social media, we’re not alone.

Ultimately, it’s the community. The community is amazing. We saw it with Maddie. I saw people support me after BlogHer. We’re seeing it now with Anissa. In small and large ways, so many of us have been touched by the power of Social Media and community. It’s an amazingly beautiful thing and I can’t help but be humbled by its power.

Anissa – you have the entire internet pulling for you. We love you and we’re here for you.

Ignite Boulder: How to Master Debate

Here’s the video of me from the last Ignite Boulder – where I gave a presentation on How to Master Debate:

Couch Surfing Kudos #1: Chris Morris

Right before he left to go to his band’s practice, he said “Just think – I was there when college first started, and now I’m here when you first start your New York job.” It’s crazy to think that we’ve known each other for over a decade and that, despite months and sometimes years without really talking to each other – I’m sitting on his couch, writing this blog post, and getting ready to see his new band, “The Kind” live in concert.

So, as I get settled here in New York, I just wanted to give a shout out to the first couch I’m crashing on: Chris Morris, you rock!

My Final Love Note to Boulder

I’m sitting in Terminal C, Gate 48 of the Denver International Airport. There’s a hint of emotion as I type this – my swan song of a blog post as a Colorado resident. I woke up this morning to find my mercurial friend Meghann sleeping on one couch and the omnipresent QuasiJames on the other. As I woke them up to get ready for the morning of goodbyes, I felt that the imagery of those two being the first and last people I saw in Boulder somewhat fitting.

A lot has happened in the last two and a half years in Colorado. I’ve grown and matured. I’ve found a career I truly love (and I’m pretty good at it too). I made some amazing friends. A lot of these things may have happened in any other city in the country – I was in a ripening stage of maturity and locale was not the sole factor to success – yet, that can’t take away from the fact that it did happen here in Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder is an exceptional town full of exceptional people. From the fitness buffs to the tech scene, I have never felt people that continuously stimulated me to improve like I did in this front range city. The friendships that I’ve procured through the years are ones that will stick with me – even when the inevitable gravity of time pulls those relationships apart. The mentors I acquired, the peers that inspired – so much credit in my life is owed to Boulder that I can’t even begin to encapsulate the time here with words. I even will refrain from naming names because I don’t want to leave anyone out – because there was so many people whose friendships never blossomed completely yet still effected my development. So take this as a universal thank you to everyone who I engaged with in this mountain town. I’m taking a piece of you to New York. My success is, ultimately, your success. I will always remember that.

When I first arrived in Boulder, I emailed my mailing list and expressed myself as “speechless” – so it’s only fitting that I feel the same emotional tug as I leave this town. In that email, I talked about how before I ventured out west the palette of colors I used to describe my world was a Crayola 8 pack – and the green grasses of Kentucky, rolling hills of Kansas, and the imposing figure of the Rockies turned that 8 pack into a 64 and then 120 pack of crayons. I take that palette of colors back to New York with me – hoping that my experiences here will color new shades in the often gray shadows of those concrete canyons. I return east transformed by the west – at peace with many personal demons, at ease with the timbre of my life. I have never been more excited for the career opportunities before me and have very little fear to what lies ahead. I know, in the end, that it will work out – powered by my talent and the people out there that read this blog, that call me with words of encouragement, that wish kind thoughts my way. I will color my world and live outside the lines with the reckless abandon of an imaginative child – thinking about only that which is possible; not the things that are not.

This is all because of Boulder. This is all because of you. Thank all of you for reading my blog. I hope you stay along for the ride.

What’s Next for Me: Empire State of Mind

Last week, I announced on Twitter that I was leaving Crocs to pursue other opportunities.  Today, I’m proud to announce what my actual plans are.  I am leaving Boulder and the great state of Colorado to return back East to work for R/GA in New York City.  This was a move that happened quickly, but when the opportunity came to join a firm with the reputation and status of R/GA – I couldn’t pass it up.

My time at Crocs was an eventful one.  The last two and a half years of my life were perhaps the happiest I have ever had.  I enjoyed the sun and fresh air of Colorado.  I met some amazing friends.  And I was able to create something I am very proud of for a company that I will always hold dear to my heart.  I finally was able to work in Social Media and use my passion for this form of communication to build a true community around a very well known brand.  It was something that I received great kudos for – whether through official channels or pats on the back at conferences – and for that, I am forever indebted.  The opportunity I have at R/GA would probably not be here if it wasn’t for Crocs.

Photo by @greeblemonkey

Crocs, however, is bigger than I am and I leave behind a social media program that will be in very capable hands.  It’s bittersweet to have to walk away from something I built – knowing that I will no longer have a say in how things are handled – but I feel that the passionate consumer base that I helped organize will be there for whomever takes the reigns.  I’m excited to watch things from the sidelines, to simply be a member of the Crocs community, and to watch the brand, my colleagues and my friends grow.

The personal and professional pressures that I felt really made this decision an easy one.  I simply felt the tug of the city – watching the Yankees win the World Series, listening to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys belt out ballads to the boroughs – I couldn’t help but want to return back to the only place that felt right for me.  Professionally, I loved my time at Crocs but wanted new challenges – I wanted to apply my skill sets in new ways and R/GA provides a greater stage for me to shine.  Agency life will be vastly different.  It will test me in so many different ways.  Yet, in this crucible, I feel I will become a better professional.  I’m excited and I’m glad all of you will be around for the ride.

In the end, like with all social media, I couldn’t have done it without the crowd.  With out all of you out there who read my tweets, my blog posts, who followed my every move on the social web – thank you so much.  It was all of you that made the 12 hour days easy.  It was all the smiles we made together that made this job fun.  You were there for me through everything.  It was your enthusiasm to listen to me that made me who I am.  There is an African proverb that says that the path to greatness is paved by giving thanks to the great that came before you.  You, all those readers and people that follow me, are the greatness that has come before me.  Whether you’re a friend I made in Boulder, contacts I made through the industry, or random pixels of an avatar of someone I never met – I am truly thankful.  Leave a comment below so I know who is out there and who made this past two and a half years the greatest of my short lifetime.

For @Mona: How to Block Facebook Applications

The other day, I was on Twitter and had a quickee conversation with my friend Mona about blocking Facebook applications. Turns out, she didn’t know how. With the feed feature being flooded constantly with applications like Farmville, Yoville, and Mafia Wars – you can’t help but want to get rid of them if you’re not playing them. It ruins the Facebook experience and can drive people who don’t check Facebook often insane.  I thought, if someone like Mona doesn’t know how to block them, most people must not know how.  So, I decided to show Mona and anyone else that wants to know.

The process is actually really simple – just three steps.

Step 1) Next time you get an application request in the upper right corner of Facebook, click on the link.

Step 2) Click on “Block This Application” which is located right below the request.

Step 3) Happy Dance – your Facebook Feed will be free of all annoying applications! Seriously – this has been a godsend to me once I learned how to do this and Mona’s tweet made me realize that, perhaps, not everyone knows how to do this. Since doing this, I don’t get annoying applications that I do not want to be a part of. (I am on Farmville – hence the Farmville notifications).  I have blocked virtually ALL applications.  You can unblock them very easily – just do a search for the application and unblock it.  I would imagine that most people will not be unblocking applications when they block them.

So, Mona – hope this helps!  MWAH – I love ya!

Google Doodles up some Sesame Street

I am absolutely loving the Google home pages featuring Sesame Street.  Here’s a link to the official Google Blog about these new Google Doodles.
I posted about Sesame Street yesterday in my A Sides/Posterous section of this blog.  I remember watching too much Sesame Street growing up, but fell in love with it during college and studied the history of it.  It is truly a remarkable show.  The show has changed and adapted as the needs of our children have shifted throughout generations.  Watching some of the older episodes, now on DVD, you can see how the show in its first manifestation wouldn’t be on the air today.

It’s unbelievable how many generations of kids have grown up watching this show.  I can’t wait to see more of these Google Doodle’s