In San Francisco? At the largest tech conference in the world?
Come watch me talk about
Rapid Telco Services Innovation in a Web 2.0 World, Palace Hotel, Ralston Room at 5:00 pm.
I’ll be the guy up at the front yapping away.
Come say hi and introduce yourself
Central question: Is it possible to be an atheist and feel blessed? I’ll let you know at the end of this blog.
Had an awesome time Friday evening with TheThunderbolt. We went and saw Indigenous at Knuckleheads and were joined by a few of the greatest people I know. The band was HAWESOME (© Hip Suburban White Guy). It was the third time I’ve seen them and Mr. Nanji was ON. They completely ignored stuff off their old CDs for the most part and largely focused on new stuff and jams. It was so good, I didn’t miss the old stuff at all.
We said our goodbyes to the friends and made our way out of this obscure part of Kansas City. Knuckleheads is a bit of a challenge to find. I end up driving through an industrial parking area (private property) just to get to the street where it resides. Just look for the train depot with neon lights amidst the crack and meth houses that surround it. So getting out is a bit of a chore. Especially during a night during a week where it rained every single day it seemed but especially hard Friday night.
We got to the demarcation line between knowing for sure where the hell I was and where I don’t — The train tracks — with a train blocking traffic and not moving. The impatience in me sought to continue to find a worthy exit. I thought about heading south on Chestnut Trafficway but that takes me south and I wanted to head north. I wondered if heading east would take me to Cheauteau Trafficway so that was my plan. The standing water got to be quite deep in places but I wasn’t deterred. “We’ve got to make it home” I thought and because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, I continued to head east.
Some water is just too deep for a car im afraid. And we found out just how much is too deep. Poor Leia stalled out and became a sitting duck for the rising water to come. I started to panic. Why?
#6 is really what did it. Precious cargo. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was out there by myself, but there is a mother of two children with me and getting her home safe and sound was all I cared about.
I reach for the number to AAA and begin to dial the number. Right about that time, a friggin tow truck with NO car hitched drives past me. Suddenly I felt like Gilligan seeing a plane fly overhead. I open the door (not smart) to go after them but they had already started to turn around. An hour later we were in the front of a flatbed heading north with Leia towed safely behind.
TheThunderbolt was a rock. Making good suggestions, offering encouragement, cracking jokes, and wiping my brow, she never let on that she was worried at all.
In spite of the fact that my poor car may be totaled(insurance baby), it’s not lost on this atheist that the universe saved us that night. How do I rationalize that things ended up so well? It’s simple really.
We are all connected.
It’s not different than any other situation really. I mean, what have you really accomplished on your own? What can you point to in your life where you don’t have to rely on others for help? The universe saved us that night like it does everyday, like when someone brings you coffee when you really needed it, or someone smiled and things might not be as bad as it seems.
This was just a message in a bottle that came back sooner than I expected. And I feel really humble and really thankful that it did.
We are all connected. This may not be much of a revelation to most of you but a handful of you might not be convinced.
Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc) are merely an expression of what comes natural to us: Connecting to people in real time. Recently there have been a couple of interesting articles on the phenomenon.
Courtesy of @jonnomh Internet Evolution recaps an event in which the main summation was that Social Media is a feature of the Internet but not the Internet itself. The argument seems obvious at first glance but I have a few subtle disagreements:
The beauty of the Internet isn’t our ability to share porn with one another or that it allows us to read the paper without a subscription. The beauty is in the ability to harness the collective mind to solve problems. My mother used to tell me that life is too short to make all the mistakes yourself, go learn from the mistakes others have made. We learn from each other . . . good things . . . bad things . . . and if we’re smart we apply those learnings to our life. It may be just a function, but, in my way of thinking, social media is the primary benefit of the Internet.
@zenaweist turned me onto an article rattling a few cages on the Interweb. It seems someone has made some sense out of the “incessant ramblings” of the crowd and determined that there really is a benefit to reading and posting the daily or minutely mundane. This “Ambient Awareness” is described thusly:
It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.
Whenever I meet someone for the first time to date someone, I always meet them at a bar. And more specifically I always tell them to meet me AT the bar. This is good for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s less adversarial. If I’m standing next to you, we’re just a couple of people talking instead of two people looking across the table at each other wondering what’s going to be said or done next.
2. I can better gauge your reactions and if you’re interested. If I ask you a question or touch your arm and then turn away and turn back to find that you are leaning into me or on the edge of your seat, I have a good idea you’re interested. This coupled with the idea of how good the conversation might be is a good indicator that we are hitting it off.
Taken together they tell a story as to whether or not this person is deserving of a first date. (I’ll save how long you should wait to call for another post) Taken in the context of social media, It turns out that reading and posting about the ordinary day in/day out makes us feel closer . . . more intimate.
Could it be that the more we are engaged in what others are doing, the more we become engaged in our own? I know first hand that doesn’t always translate positively. Losing myself in another was a common practice for me until about 3 years ago. It’s common, through social media, to become influenced by those we keep track of but barely know. If Tantek hadn’t twittered about the workout he’s doing on hundredpushups.com I wouldn’t have learned about it.
But it turns out there are some other real world benefits to social media. There are monthly blogger meet-ups and “tweet”-ups that allow you to connect, share a beer, and talk about whatever’s on your mind. Kind of like a cyclical penguin migration during the winter months to keep warm.
Of course, I don’t have to convince a penguin we are all connected.
“I read about these stories all the time but figured they would never happen to me . . .”
As the sun has charred the world and come back to us about 366 times since my last birthday, perhaps its time for reflection. . .
Nah.
So what has happened to me in this wild and crazy 42nd year of my life?
I’ll only say this. If you’re life has got too comfortable . . . you know . . . where you can predict not only what will happen day after day but also how you’ll feel about it too . . . get out there and challenge yourself. Get engaged in the world around you. Become a big brother/big sister like Logtar did, play in 3 bands like Average Jane is doing, research another spirituality like Bea is doing, research and build a brand new business like Simon is doing, become an expert at something like Zena, go get married like Nick and Alix, or just simply open your heart to someone and learn something new.
It won’t hurt. There is a lot of living proof.
“Oh my heck!” -- Heathchick, Secretary of the Treasury
