June 11, 2009

Social Milwaukee: Making The World A Better Place One Monday At A Time

Last night I Tweeted this:

I’m ready to start changing the world again. :D Where do you think I should start? :) (link to tweet)

Some of the responses I got on Facebook included helping the youth and keeping it local (two things I agree with 100%). Here’s my local youth helping making the world a better place plan. :)

Social Monday’s

Every Monday from 5-9PM a group of people are going to get together to play board games, drink beers and learn social media/networking basics (if they so choose). This event is going to happen at Ruby G’s located on 21st and Wells.

I’m going to use this time to raise money for DonorsChoose.og (a non-profit that helps teachers fund projects they create). All the projects will be for schools located in Milwaukee. People can just donate cash in a bucket OR I’ll figure out some kind of drink deal so a portion of each beer goes to DonorsChoose (drinking to make the world a better place! :D ).

Then from 8AM-5PM every Monday I’m going to either:
A. Donate time to non-profits who want to leverage Social Media/Networking

or

B. Donate a percentage of money from the consulting I do that day.

Then, every Monday night or Tuesday morning I’ll donate what was collected to a project on DonorsChoose.

This will all be run under the consultancy I’ve started up called Social Milwaukee.

Connect Communicate Collaborate

Connect Communicate Collaborate

How does that sound?

June 7, 2009

City Humping Episode #1: Columbus, OH

I just came up with a new sport. I call it “city humping.” Here are the rules:

  1. There are no rules
  2. Find the best/highest angle for humping
  3. Hump (photo or film please)
  4. Drink a beer.
  5. Tag it “cityhumping”
  6. PROFIT!!!
  7. I just had the idea this morning, so my angle isn’t so hot but here it is…

    I believe the power of the internets will have humped every city in the world by 2012.

May 28, 2009

The Dream In Action (Win A $25 Amazon Gift Card!)

Ryan Graves recently changed the name and focus of his blog to The Dream In Action (dot com ;) ). I also noticed that he’s giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to “The person who submits the best story about putting life dreams into action in everyday life.” I’m actually posting this to encourage you to tell your story in the form of a comment on this blog post and try to win that $25! :D

Now here are some of my “dreams in action.” Keep reading →

May 25, 2009

Milwaukee – The Most Socially Connected City In The World

Update: Introduce 3 friends to Twitter and have them follow the City of Milwaukee, yourself and any other accounts you think they might find interesting! Don’t just twist three people’s arm into creating a Twitter account. Explain to them how and why you think it’s useful. Tell them what an @ reply is. Show them how to update and use Twitter from their mobile device. Teach them your best tips and tricks!

This idea came from an update last night from offwhitemke:

This week in Milwaukee: Get 3 friends on Twitter and start following @CityOfMilwaukee (Please RT)

Think of 3 people to introduce to Twitter (a friend, a family member, colleague, etc.) and get to work! ;)

Original Post:

Earlier today I posted about a dream a had last night. This entry is one of my “I have a dream!” type dreams. What motivated me to share this was a TEDTalk that was recently posted featuring Seth Godin. Check it out when you have some time.

Seth finished his presentation saying “What I want you to do, and it only takes 24 hours, is to create a movement. Something that matters. Start! Do it! We need it!” Well… Here we go! :D

The Vision

I strongly believe the City of Milwaukee has all the ingredients to do something AWESOME. Something that’s never been done in the history of mankind. I believe this city can be a leader, in the world, when it comes to how the city and it’s constituents communicate using the various social networking websites.

We can organize a group of individuals to manage the City of Milwaukee Twitter account to spread news and answer questions using CoTweet.com and the City of Milwaukee Facebook page to do the same thing. Seeing the City of Milwaukee using a video site like YouTube to share updates from City Hall, messages from the mayor, etc. would be outstanding to see as well.

With the city’s use of these services as an example, we could then move on to educate other organizations as to how they can use the same tools to increase the fluidity, transparency and efficiency of communication. Schools, neighborhood organizations, churches, not-for-profits, community centers, volunteer organizations, etc.

Start! Do it! We Need it!

Here’s a start. :) I created a group on Facebook titled City of Milwaukee – Government 2.0.

Join it if you would like to see City Government be as transparent, collaborative and communicative as possible using all of these new tools.

May 25, 2009

My Dream And My Dreams

A couple days ago I asked Twitter what I should blog about. One response I got was from @mluedke:

@miltownkid possible topics: life, dreams, happiness & pursuit thereof. (link to tweet)

I made up my mind yesterday that my next blog post would be about my dreams (aspirations in life ;) ). I have a feeling that going to sleep with that though in mind also induced me to have a dream, a really trippy lucid dream… I don’t regularly remember my dreams anymore (mostly because I don’t try), so it was odd having such VIVID memory of it this morning.

Last Night’s Dream

This was a very long and drawn out dream that I had, but I’m going to do a quick summary of the events and theme. Keep reading →

May 24, 2009

Arcade Gaming Is Officially Dead To Me

Before I get started about arcade gaming, I want to respond to a comment from my longest and most regular reader. Mom:

You’ve said you were going to blog every day before. How about committing to at least once a week? Then you could miss a day every now and then and not break your commitment.

I know better than to try to actually blog EVERY SINGLE DAY. What I really meant in that last post, is that I’m going to be more regular. :)

It’s Time To Let Go Of Arcade Gaming…

I was trying really hard to hold on to the AWESOME that was arcade gaming. It’s time to just let it go. I had fun last night, but… Keep reading →

May 22, 2009

Daily Blogging

I’m going to make an effort to blog everyday. I think it’s good exercise for my mind and a good habit to get into. I have all kinds of stuff to talk about and get out of my head and this is probably the best way.

Today was nice because I made some serious headway into getting my apartment set back up so I can live and work in it again (getting internet hooked up being a big part of this). For the last… more than a month, I’ve been living at my girlfriends house at night and hanging out in coffee shops during the day. This hasn’t been very good for productivity. I just uploaded a video on YouTube showing off the new setup a little bit:

Tomorrow’s Trip In The Fiesta

If you haven’t heard I won a contest to test drive a 2011 Ford Fiesta for 6 months. Here’s my “Agent Profile” on Ford’s website. One of the things I need to do is go on a “secret mission” once a month and make a video about it. My mission for this month is to drive 100 miles straight on Historic Route 66. The plan is to make an early trip to Gameworks to eat pizza and play video games. Then venture into downtown Chicago to find the official start of Historic Route 66. After that we’ll see how far we feel like going (either Springfield, IL or St. Louis, MO) and spend the night there.

One of my daily posts will have to be about the sexiness that is the Ford Fiesta.

Blogging 101

It’s funny. I’ve been blogging for a long time and I’m far from being a novice, but I think I’m going to do a little reading on blogging basics. I’ve never gotten very good at sorting things with categories, I haven’t been using many pictures lately, I don’t use any tools that I’m sure would make doing this blogging thing a lot easier. Hmmm… I should take a picture of myself and add it below for good measure.

May 21, 2009

The Hunt For Work Begins!

Ah yes… Work. A part of me feels like I’m “failing” by looking for work. I’d much rather figure out whatever it is I need to figure out to make one of my various “start-ups” produce an income for me. Being a self sustaining entrepreneur will come with work+time, but right now it’s time for me to take care of the basics.

My Kind Of Work

I started cruising some job boards a couple weeks ago and noticed that companies are looking for “Social Media Strategists/Experts.” They’re essentially looking for people that can make some sense out of all of the different Social Networking Sites and come up with plans for how to utilize them for themselves or for clients. Since I need money to pay bills, buy games and pay rent and these companies need the knowledge I possess, I thought there might be a good trade there somewhere. :)

[Here's the social media resume I put together.]

My Projects/Start-Ups

I haven’t done a very good job of staying focused on one project long enough to make it something that can fully sustain me BUT Keep reading →

May 10, 2009

Death And Pwning Life

I’m not exactly sure what I want to add to my long as 2 part video with the same name, but I’ll see what happens… Keep reading →

April 29, 2009

Twitter Challenge: Worst Music Video On The Internets

Yesterday I posted this to my Twitter account:

INTERNETS! I challenge you to find a music video worse than Carl Lewis’ “Break It Up” http://bit.ly/wl0qz lol

The INTERNETS did some good work! Anything else to add? Perhaps I’ll add a poll later. :)

The Challenge Video

Carl Lewis – “Break It Up”

The Challengers

Keep reading →