The Dream In Action (Win A $25 Amazon Gift Card!)
May 28th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
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! 
Now here are some of my “dreams in action.” « Read the rest of this entry »
Milwaukee – The Most Socially Connected City In The World
May 25th, 2009 § 6 Comments
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!
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.
My Dream And My Dreams
May 25th, 2009 § 1 Comment
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. « Read the rest of this entry »
Arcade Gaming Is Officially Dead To Me
May 24th, 2009 § 6 Comments
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… « Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Blogging
May 22nd, 2009 § 4 Comments
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.
