Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mannerisms
Two brothers, one 4 and one nearly 2 with two completely different personalities, in fact they look completely different as well. Our eldest is the gentlest soul, he does not fight, is sensitive and loves to understand what makes the world tick, how things work, a thinker. Our youngest is fearless and not concerned with consequences, a doer. He bounces out of bed in the morning, usually the first one up. He has an immense amount of energy. He has a permanent smile on his face and will probably grow up to be one of those people who jumps the queue and gets away with it, way too much charm. Both of them are unique combinations of our traits, fascinating. They are truly little people, mini-me's with so much to discover, the whole is still a mystery to them (it's still to me).My opinion? We carry the best and the worst of both our parents (or who ever our primary caregivers were). It's up to us when we grow up one day to choose what we keep and what we discard when it comes to our introjected values and habits. I was privileged to be coached over a two year period and later completed a coaching certification as part of my life quest. This has helped me to become much more aware of my own feelings and my impact on those around me. I intend to pass these super essential life skills (not yet taught at our local schools) on to our boys so that they have the best possible start to life.
To the parents, what has your experience been like with your children ito helping them to develop the much needed soft skills required to cope with the emotional-stuff that life throws at us?
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Joy is...
watching cartoons with my boywith him explaining in detail
who the baddies are,
what their super powers are and
what the names of the various characters are :D
His favourite at the moment is Ben 10 Alien Force. Great for dads and boys alike. I give it an 8/10 for its great story line and subtle infusion of adult humour.
Joy is...
reading a story to
my nearly 4 year old boy
and, at its end, him asking:
"Read it again pleeeaase daddy?"
Dodging a Nr 2 Nappy Change :D
What follows is my account of one of those unspoken (and probably unwritten) experiences that parents of babies have when it comes to changing nr 2 nappies, enjoy the comedy.We've somehow managed to potty-train our eldest boy a little while ago. Our youngest is still using nappies (about 20mths at the time of writing) which means that we probably have another year of nappy changing to go. Both my wife and I are quick to change a nr 1 nappy, no wet wipes required. However, a nr 2 is where the fun and games begin. The list of excuses we've both used are endless when it comes to NOT wanting to change a number 2. From having a headache, to a backpain, to claims of nausea, to running out of the room before the other is aware of the impending change.
We had a nr 2 experience last night. So, there we were watching TV together as a family when I became aware of a nr 2 odour in our midst. Within 2 minutes the odour had invaded the entire room. So, I asked the question which led both of us to instinctively haul excuses at each other as mentioned above. At some point I ran out of our bedroom and locked the door from the outside. My wife, suffocating, ran through the other door into the bathroom, leaving our youngest boy in the nr 2 cloud. About 15 seconds later I caved, and fetched our boy to take him to the changing station. The nr 2 changing process was regularly interrupted by sprints out of the room to take a few deep breaths and then back again into the war zone. I can't imagine changing someone elses child, with my boys I do it out of love for them and for no other reason.
Needless to say we found ourselves in a catch 22, i.e. either we opened the bedroom window and then introduce a mosquito problem or we could leave the window closed and deal with the odour in another way. We eventually lit an incense stick and within 5 minutes we were watching TV again :D
Monday, October 12, 2009
Picking up Stompies
We had two friends (a couple, let's call them Neo and Trinity) over the weekend for a mince curry over the fire. The curry tasted superb and no, I was not the cook. I made the fire (imagine me beating my fists against my chest and screaming out like Tarzan). Our friends brought along 2 of their 5 God children. The kids had tons of fun, from playing on the jungle gym, racing their bikes around the house, watching cartoons, playing with a variety of toys, playing in the sand pit and they even attempted to set up and play (unsuccessful though) the Nintendo Wii all by themselves. At some point in their visit, Neo mentioned to me that the older kids (ours and theirs) were attempting to play the Wii game all by themselves. He also pointed out that they were unsuccessful. I was busy pushing our youngest on the swing (a different left-field story on its own) at the time. BTW: My eldest plays both Mario Kart as well as Sim Racing quite well. I, however, usually start the console and ensure that the remotes are working before play time comences. On scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is really bad and 10 is excellent, I score Mario Kart an 8/10 and Sim Racing a 5/10.It never occurred to me to help the older children set up the game so that they could play. I only realized this earlier this evening, 2 days later. At the time, I remembered my eldest son saying that the game remotes were not working and that the batteries were probably flat. I'm not sure what triggered me to recall this specific experience of their visit. I was filled with a ton of guilt when the realization hit me, i.e. I wasn't paying attention when my boy needed my help. This may be something small to you and me as adults but to my son it was a disappointment probably followed by a little embarrasment (I know him like this, an introvert who has to muster up the courage to join a group of children who are strangers to him, i.e. he takes a little while longer to warm up to new people (big and small). While I may not be in position to protect him from every disappointment/injury in life I usually and instinctively protect him when I happen to be PRESENT.
Two take aways:
1. It's 'usually' never to late to apologise. It was, however, a little challenging to find the vocabulary to adequately explain why I was apologizing to him, a 3.5 year old boy.
2. Also, no need to overcompensate with sweets and toys, a mistake is just that, a mistake. The bribery thing can do a nasty thing to a child's habits later in life so use this card sparingly.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Short-term Twitter functionality horizon, possibilities
The CEO of Twitter recently disclosed some exciting new features on the Twitter functionality horizon (CBS News article). This includes plans for an embedded reputation management system, LBT (Location-based tweeting/tweets) and the introduction of user groups aimed at improving follower/followee management. He also said that they (as in Twitter) understand that things don't always unfold as you think they will on the Web. The message? They are not trying to be too clever about what Twitter should be. A related message was echoed by a Cloud Computing speaker at a recent Gartner IT symposium I attended in Cape Town in August 2009. The speaker said that in the Cloud Computing space application developers will not always know how application consumers will use their applications. This could be viewed as an invitation to us to actively experiment with the technology to see what we can co-create. You and me, the community. It's truly exciting times we live in!So what could LBT bring to our Twitter experience? Consider the following as one possible scenario. The idea: location-based real-time customer experience management. Imagine a big retail chain that monitors Twitter for LBT about its brand (could be made visible via a dashboard in the retailer's call centre). Imagine a customer service representative solving a client's problem before the client leaves the store out of frustration without making a purchase? Remember, it's easier to keep an existing client happy through great customer service than to find new clients to replace that ones you've lost. Think about the business opportunities that this could spawn?
And what additional value will an embedded self-organizing reputation/credibility management system add to our Twitter experience? One possibility is that it could help me to build a cleaner and thus healthier Twitter community, one that automatically weeds out the spammers. The principle is that I may know a twitter subscriber in person in the offline world. I then rate this person on Twitter based on my personal relationship with them. When this person chooses (for what ever reason) to follow you on Twitter you can immediately get a sense of that person's reputation as a direct result of me having previously rated the person (as well as others ratings of the same person) concerned.
Offcourse their could be many other benefits. Your thoughts?
Thanks to @ronjsauer who brought the original CBS News article to my attention.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Extracting real business value from Twitter
Twitter is a global database of near-realtime 'life experience' data (sales pitches included, spam as well). Companies have been quick at finding innovative ways of extracting real business value from the ever growing Twitter database which is reported to have more than 50 million active users (data contributors in one way or another). @brandmonday is a great example of such an initiative on Twitter by @capetown, a social media consumer activism project in South Africa. Check out their website: www.capetown.peeps.co.za. The IDEA? Take two hashtags (#brandplus, #brandminus), include the company name being rated on customer service and provide concise real-time client experience feedback wherever you go via your mobile phone. The whole message in less than 140 characters means becoming creative and cleverer with the feedback. Imagine the possibilities for how this data could be mined? Example, @brandmonday could engage with the companies that have been rated via their realtime rating service to help them better manage their brand reputation online and offline, i.e. to assist them with achieving and maintaining the status of a #brandplus company. The addition of geotagging technology such as flickr could create a location-based realtime global dashboard of customer service (pictures and text). Just imagine.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Being a dad, what it feels like ...
I am the proud parent of two young boys, one nearly 2 and the other nearly 4 years old. They have a brought kind of joy to my life that is beyond words. When I'm away from them I miss them all the time, not now and then, all THE time. To those of you who do not have any children, consider the following analogy to get a better sense of just how profound this experience is for me: Imagine life without the air that we breathe. I know, it sounds crazy and it's almost impossible to imagine such a thing, right? The idea of losing either of my boys is infinitely more inconceivable than the idea of no air. Just the thought stream generated from the previous sentence makes it difficult to breathe right now. Chances are that if you are fellow parent then you could be feeling the pang as well.On a MUCH lighter note, my boys are mommy's boys. I am at a loss for words when it comes to attempting to describe the intense emotion associated with the rejection I experience as a result of the intense loyalty our boys feel to their mother, the centre of their universe, I just don't compete in this arena. I know, its not a competition. That's not the point. My wife experienced a 5 minute dose of this rejection with our youngest son about a month ago. She has no idea what it feels like to live with this rejection every day.You see, I know what it's like to be a mommy's boy, after all, I'm a mommy's boy and, for most of my life, my father was the villain, the obstacle, the one who hurt my mom's feelings. Karmah is truly a beach and I say this with a smirk on my face.
Your thoughts?
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ghosts from Girlfriends Past
Just watched Ghosts From Girlfriends Past on DVD on my PS3. The movies stars Michael Douglas, Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, all superb actors in their own right. Even though the movie was predictable (happily ever after stuff) it still scores a solid 8/10 for its excellent humor and good as well as deep acting. Not for the younger viewers though, way too much tits, ass and cuddling for my 4 year old son, way too much explaining :-)My two take-aways as follows:
- Loving another means making yourself vulnerable. Remember those wise words ... "It's better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all."
- Karmah is a B*I*T*C*H so be careful whose heart(s) you mess with. The table does turn and each dog gets its day.
Get Rich Quick Scheme = Low Self Esteem = Desperation
There are many people who are actively promoting get rich quick schemes via the likes of Twitter and Facebook . They all give the reader the impression that it's a sure win, that with very little effort you will be making millions within a few weeks to a year. The thing about a recession is that its populace are usually experiencing despair of one form or another, i.e. they are easy targets for get rich quick schemers/scammers. You know who you are. In short, they make up most of the spam on the Internet. If you're into get rich quick schemes then do us all a favour and STOP!The high prevalance of SPAM and, in particular, the high prevalance of get rich quick "opportunities" begs the following question: What makes someone promote such a scheme? What brings a person to this place of wanting to feed off others? Of selling empty promises? Of insulting the rest of us? So much so that spam has spawned a massive anti-spam industry.
The answer? DESPARATION, in my opinion. And Ethics is one of the first things to go when it comes to desparate people. Now is the time for putting our shoulders to the wheel, a time for reflection and reinvention, a time for contribution, NOT a time for conning your fellow human being.
Is there an alternative to all of this? Something more ethical and more sustainable? Is it really possible to make a legitimate income working fulltime via the Internet? Many will tell you YES! but have they really made the money they claim to have made? Ask yourself this ... If I legitametly made bucket loads of money on auto-pilot and I've consequently reached a place of financial freedom then WHY would I charge you $97 for my secret? WHY?
Your thoughts?
Saturday, October 3, 2009
7 EffectiveTwitter Practices
1. Growing your follower-base If you'd like to grow your follower base in an organic fashion then it may be useful to ask yourself the following questions: Who is my target market? What kind of keywords will find them? What could they be interested in? For example, my blog's about my experience as a dad. I target dads'. Some dads enjoy cars, gadgets and various other hobbies. So I conduct twitter searches for people who use these keywords. Then I also look at who they follow. Get it? I've also had limited success with www.tweepsearch.com. There are many other effective tools available, e.g. www.twello.com.
2. Quality over quantity
If you're selling something (tangible or intangible) then every twitter follower is a potential client. Every person on Twitter is also a potential supplier. So don't rush building your follower-base. Be quick about it but don't rush. It's going to take effort to build an appropriate follower-base. So, when someone follows you then have a squiz at their Twitter page and website/blog. I know, you don't have the time. Bottom line, if you're serious about this then make the time.
3. Who you follow
There are many people who'll tell you to follow everybody who follow's you. Don't be pressured into following every person that follows you. Check out your new follower's tweets and, if you have the time, their website/blog. If you find their tweets offensive or not to your liking for any other reason then you can choose whether or not to follow from this point. At least you did the research and are making an informed decision. Guard against projecting an air of arrogance about you, e.g. you have 20,000 followers but you only follow 23 people. What could this be saying about you to potential followers? Remember, the power of Twitter comes from your community, i.e. it's not just a soap box.
4. Tweet Nature
To me, Twitter's not about above-the-line advertising. Some do, however, use it this way. Instead, it's about your followers getting to know the person behind the product. So tweet about the interesting things that happen in your life. Share. This is about you joining the rest of us as an additional self-organizing (think tagging) "memory cell" coming online. Share your unique perspective of the world, each of us have one. Wouldn't it be amazing if we lived in a world where we share the best of ourselves with each other most of the time. Just imagine the innovation that could come of it?
5. Tweet Attitude
Twitter is a great platform to develop your wit (and sense of humor). Wit is what will get your followers to visit your blog/website. This is about using a bit of humor, keeping it light and being inspirational. Remember, you can only trick a follower once.
6. Your (lack of) Writing Experience
Twitter is not about having to complete a writing course before you can get started. Start today, start with sharing articles you regard as being useful. This is about you expressing yourself in your own unique way, one step at a time. This is what makes the web so exciting, i.e. it's diversity. You don't have to get it right first time, just get going. The rest will naturally follow.
7. Keeping yourself out of the mud
Let your spouse/partner know what you up to. 3-4 hours can easliy pass you by when tinkering on Twitter. It may help if you put a limit to your daily twitter activity. If you figure it out then PLEASE let me know!
Your thoughts?
Friday, October 2, 2009
Finding Your Blogging Spark
There are many philosophies on blogging. There are also many excuses to procrastinate, to not start. Get going, don't procrastinate, you don't need to get it right first time around. Remember, to err is human, it's our way of learning. Someone once said ... "we all want the nice life, the nice car, the perfect family, the holiday home, the great job, real friends, etc. If you REALLY want it, then ACT. Do one thing different each day."
Within a blogging context this means blogging about anything that you find interesting, WHAT EVER it may be. Just start. I've found that the more I blog the easier it becomes for me to express the wisdom I gain from my daily life experience.
Your thoughts on what inspire's you to blog?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Twitter's Promise, the opportunity within the opportunity
The late 90's ushered in the dawn of the public Internet as we know it today. Back then, at least 14 years ago now, almost all information was free, from games, to music, to movies, to research, to porn and the list goes on. Soon people began to ask, "how do I make money from this thing called the Internet?" and the rest is history.I recently attended a Gartner conference where one of the speakers made (what I thought) quite a controversial statement, i.e. with Cloud Computing the application developers (e.g. Twitter) will not always foresee how application consumers (you and me) will use their applications. Take Twitter, for example, it orginally started out with people tweeting about their every movement. Soon people began to ask and are still asking, "how do I make money from this thing called Twitter?" Now Twitter is being used for above and below the line advertising and the owners of Twitter are seriously considering the advertisement route (like Facebook) now that they have more than 50 million active users, a captive audience, a distribution channel.
Twitter is more than that, i.e. it's also about the person/company behind the product. It's about sharing your passion with the rest of us, that thing that makes you unique, almost like a constantly evolving self-organizing (tagging) memory (think "IP") cell in the greater organism we call the Internet. Its about freely giving away your IP, just like in the good old days of the Internet, pirated or not. This can be a difficult thing to comprehend, i.e. giving away your IP. Back then, when I was an IT consultant, I was told by a very successful colleague of mine that his secret was that he focused on working himself out of a job. This created new opportunities for him all the time. Strange, I know. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and others are providing us with a global platform for personal and collective reinvention.
Twitter's value emanates from the community, the collective, through conversation, but this community is MUCH bigger, it's global. This means that ground-zero information travels in seconds around the world. This is why the big "tradional" news companies are jumping on the social media band wagon, i.e. this is where they get their first hints of a breaking story, the latest news, on the ground, raw and real. Whether it be political views, weather news, real-estate expert opinion, what's happening on the ground in Sumatra, China, Samoa, USA, North Korea, India, SaaS expert opinion, sports results, etc. This is also why the "traditional" celebrity TV presenters such as Oprah, Ellen Degeneres and Martha Stewart use Twitter. They are using us for INSPIRATION. One of them recently asked their followers the following question: "If you were interviewing Serena Williams, what would you want to know about her?" Get it? We are all doing it to each other. We are all muses. Ask yourself this, "given the global doldrums that we find ourselves in, what is the price of INSPIRATION?" Can you put a price to it? This is Twitter's evolved promise, it's bigger than money.
Not sure about you, but since joining Twitter, I've very quickly become well-versed in a few fields such as SaaS, Cloud Computing and Social Media. What kind of conversations have you been following? have you been engaged in on Twitter? Is it possible that your area of focus on Twitter is making you part of a certain kind of a community? Imagine always being closely surrounded by thousands of colleagues sharing and brainstorming (24x7). So, when you want some inspiration you simply dip your toe into Twitter for a couple of hours, then step back (feeling overwhelmed), then reflect and then ... the LIGHTBULB MOMENTS!!!
Off-course, Twitter is many other things as well.
Your thoughts?
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