1) Recognizing that immediacy and directness is number 1. With the rise of the internet and web 1.0, immediacy became the number one effect. People no longer had to wait for the newspaper to arrive before hearing about a breaking story or wait for the 5pm news. News sites could post information within minutes. With web 2.0, not only did the necessity for immediacy in news and ideas continue to grow as bloggers began adding to the conversation but the ability for directness grew as well. Today’s web culture allows for an immediate response to criticism, ideas, and information and people are beginning to expect it. For example, during the 2008, Barack Obama was hit with numerous smears and fallacies about his ethnic background, whether he was American, and his policies. Because of the web 2.0 culture, he was Immediately and Directly able to refute those fallacies by posting the facts about his positions on his website and blogs. He didn’t need to use commercials to clarify his position, as were most popular in the 2000 and 2004 elections, which always turn out looking shady. No, he simply uploaded the facts and viola. People want answers and they want answers now. Case closed.

2) Recognizing that democracy and “The People” now reside on the World Wide Web. When the GOP initially refused to participate in a YouTube debate, Americans were offended. Why? Because that’s where The People were. They were on the internet. By refusing a YouTube debate, the GOP was in fact shunning 79.3 million potential voters. As explained in Garrett Graff’s “The First Campaign,” when the DNC hosted its first YouTube debate, it was like watching democracy in action. YouTubers videoed in with questions directly addressing the candidates. Cancer victims asked about health care, families who had lost loved ones in Iraq asked about the end of the war, gay and lesbian couples asked when they would be able to marry. The candidates could not muddle the answers because the questions were so direct. Their responses likewise needed to be direct and immediate (point #1). As our internet culture progresses, this will continue to be an important factor for our candidates.

3) Using the tools that people are using. By 2012, new social media tools and technology will be here. As Moore’s law states. Every two years, technology becomes twice as fast and 1/2 as cheap. During the 2008 election, the most successful campaigners were proficient in using today’s most popular social media sites including YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, and Blogs. Four years prior, most of these sites were just getting started or simply ideas on the table. But during the election, campaigners who did not use or appreciate these social mediums recognized all to soon what a fatal error in judgement they were making. It goes back to point number two, these social media tools are where the PEOPLE are. So, in 2012, regardless of what new technology arises between now and then, smart candidates will research and put to use the new social media tools that American’s are using.

Well, this past week, I think I may have figured it out. This past week so many messages have been THROWN IN MY FACE. They are the answers to my question.

The Answer: I’m Lazy

Some people have that can’t stop, won’t stop, work, work, work drive. It’s innate in them. Sitting around, makes them frustrated. And although people from the outside looking in see me and think I do, I don’t.

I admire people like Diddy and especially rappers, all of them, because they hustle so hard. ALL the TIME. I’d rather sit and home and watch a movie. But most people who are wildly successful have that internal drive that won’t let them sleep at 2am when they have to wake up at 6am. Let me give you all the examples that have HIT me in my face in the past 7 days.

1) I follow Diddy’s tweets, and even though he’s sick as a dog this week, he is still inspiring himself to Dream big. He has started this whole LOCKED IN movement. What? That’s crazy. Even with a self-proclaimed fever of 103. (I lose productivity when I don’t feel “right” in the morning).

2) I read a Weezy article yesterday. He was explaining what it took to me a member of his group Young Money. I wish I could relocate the interview but he said something to the affect of “I never stop, I’m always running and I keep going. When I meet somebody that has that drive that can keep up with me I keep them around me because they have Young Money potential.’

3) Drizzy Drake did 3 mixtapes in an effort to PROVE and SOLIDIFY his audience. He says, he could have gotten a record deal after his first tape but it wasn’t time yet. So, instead, he grinded it out and did mixtapes for free. He said he had so many strikes against him, his teenage TV show, being from Toronto, Singing and Rapping, etc. but instead of letting his music dream go, he kept pushing and now, he says, it just adds to his story and makes him great!

4) Rev Run shared this with me this morning: “KID ROCK IS RELENTLESS. Author..-John Maxwell… While looking at Kid perform night after night for hours and hours and rehearse during the day.. I said to myself whoa this dude is amazingly talented! THEN as I saw the work ethic, I came to the conclusion That having talent is just the beginning.. God gives us talent and its up to us to cherish and develop it, so we can serve others and make God proud.. This dude would do whatever it took to rock the house and give the world a good time… Props to Kid! In conclusion I say… Practice Practice Practice! I read a quote that’s fitting for this word of wisdom.. If I miss a day of practice, I know it.. If I miss two days of practice my manager knows it. If I miss three days of practice my audience knows it… Develop your craft everyone! Practice”

5) I finished reading one of my sisters books about a female African American Marketing Director at an all white pharmaceutical company. She worked long hours day after day, checking and rechecking her work. She was stressed but her determination literally paid off.

6) Then this morning I come to work and my co-worker shares with me his slide show presentation and went on to explain that this is his first presentation with the big wigs and has been working 50-60 hours a week and 4 hours plus on the weekends. When I asked why, he said simply, “well I’m highly ambitious.”

7) My sister just went off to do a photography shoot for her friend Toya who owns an online boutique last weekend. It’s small and simple, but she’s doing it! And in 10 years she may have 5 stores. I’m not mad. By the way, the pics turned out great!

Russell Simmons said in his book the difference between the average person and the most successful people are that the successful people follow through on their ideas. That’s it, simple DRIVE and FOLLOW THROUGH! That really hit me. I have so many dreams and ideas but I have not made any MOVES with any consistency.

Don’t you think someone is trying to tell me something?

I can’t stop

.The end.

Anyway, I spent more than I needed to on clothes for spring and now I feel guilty. To combat my guilt I have decided that before I buy another garment I am going to go shopping in my closet first. It’s actually really enjoyable. You get to really see what you have in there and try on clothes that you haven’t worn in a while. It helps you reinvent ways to wear certain outfits that come out look fresh and new. By shopping in your own closet, you can figure out which pieces you already own work perfect with the season’s “must haves” (lol). That way, when you do go shopping you know what you need and can avoid buying something frivilously.

I would go shopping in my closet tonight but alas, I am tired and I wouldn’t be able to do any serious damage.

I love shopping.

Yes, it seems a little crazy that we as civilians are able to get access to the front lines via the blogosphere. It seems like that information would be “classified.”  Alas, it is not and anyone can read about the Jingo trucks and how the troops used dogs to find the enormous amount of explosives hidden within. Still, I’m glad we have insight into the front lines as long as it doesn’t comprise their tactics, our safety, or their missions. For someone who didn’t really research this area before, it was like opening a can of worms that can’t wait to be released.

As I explained above, the area I was most interested in was how each segment of the armed forces viewed their units and their position in the war. My interest was peaked when Michael Yon stated the hierarchy of service men in relation to the bomb detection dogs. He said, ” it is humorous for everyone to see that the dogs get treated even better than Air Force personnel, who are treated 2x better than soldiers, who are treated 5x better than Marines.  That means bomb dogs are treated at least 10x better than Marines.” Questions began to pop up in my head. “What makes soldiers better than Marines in MY’s opinion?” Why is each group treated differently even while they work side-by-side in foreign countries. I began searching the internet to find my answer. There is an unofficial hierarchy but it seems each group judges it differently. I will not begin to espouse any type of position on this blog because I will be the first to admit I know very little about all of them but there was one group that intrigued me the most, the Marines. Even though MY suggested the Marines got treated the worst; the pride that Marines have for the Corp is far beyond anything I have ever seen. This system reminds me 100 percent of the pride inherent in National Pan-hellenic fraternal organizations. Each have a separate history and rituals that make them prideful of their organization but all NPHC organizations work together towards a common good. I have begun reading a discussion board about the difference between Marines and Soldiers. I have interrupted my reading to share my thoughts with you on what I found but now that I have written this blog, I have some more reading to do!!!!

At first it was beginning to die down and then this guy is seen riding a jet ski in miami lacking any signs of remorse. Then, when we finally think we are going to have a break, the rumors of them getting back together/married and Rihanna having a baby sparked more disucssions. Now, over in the blogosphere sites post pictures of Riri ‘looking depressed’ or ‘smoking in barbados’. COME ON. To top it off Chris pleaded not guilty on all charges.  I’m so over the specifics of this case but I have been wanting to address one thing with all of this. Here it goes!

While I do not know the specifics of the case NOR DO I CONDONE a man hitting a woman. I DO NOT CONDONE a women hitting a man either. I don’t. I look at them exactly the same and the double standard here makes me SICK! My friend shared with me a story of a man who had a physically abusive wife. Every time she attacked him he would call the police so they could take her to jail but they would just laugh at him and say “you can’t control your wife?”  He called upwards of six times/incidents and they finally arrested her mostly because they were annoyed at the constant calls.  SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED THE FIRST TIME. If this situation was reversed he would have been held overnight after the first call.

I say all that to say, it has been generally known that Rihanna has hit Chris Brown too; although I hear (hearsay) that his bruises were on his body and not on his face. Regardless, what makes me mad is that Chris Brown is standing trail while Rihanna is in Barbados. Rihanna should be standing trial too. Both of them are emotional/physical abusers and both should pay. I’m tired of all this onesided Rihanna sympathy. I’m sympathetic and disgusted at both of them. SMH. They need help!

*I was going to post up a picture but they don’t deserve the pub.

The End

Hello World!

An extremely busy day looms ahead of me. I’m heading out of town  (I won’t tell you where). But before I jump on that plane to a new destination I’m going to share with you my thoughts.

I love to travel. I’m planning two trips, back to back and although they’re costing me a pretty penny I believe experiences are far more valuable. My second trip is to the Bahamas for my best friends graduation gift.

With all this talk about travel it was timely that my grad school professor asked us to visit Global Voices Online. Global Voices is a collection of blogs from contributors all around the world. I choose to investigate the Jamaican blogosphere. It was interesting visiting a different world online but still very much the same. The bloggers were talking about many of the same issues that we discuss on America’s blog sites. Topics included, the US financial crisis and the Chris Brown/Rihanna drama. Many of the articles focused on the Caribbean in general, not just the island of Jamaica and therefore explains the relevance to American issues. Many Caribbean islands are American countries or subsidiaries very close ties. If I had chosen to investigate Japan, for example, I may have found something completely different.

What I do like about Global Voices is that its blog roll contains snippets of articles from blogs of other Jamiaican contributors. While Global Voices in more “newsy” these linked blogs  give me a more fulfilling taste of Jamaican culture. These bloggers infuse their dialect in the written language which really makes me feel like I’m reading a Jamaican blog instead of an American blog.  One of the Jamaican blogs I really enjoyed was Marlon James: Among Other Things.  He is a Jamaican writer who now resides in the U.S.  Although his writing is not infused with a surreptitious amount of dialect, his discussions (what should you do if you discover your favorite author was racist) are insightful and thought provoking.

All in all, a great discovery. You should check it out.

This project for my social media class required me to update or make an addition to a page on wikipedia. Not only was I required to edit the page but I also had to learn and use wiki culture correctly. I think that is what frightened me the most – the wiki culture. To me, it felt like the first time I ordered coffee at Starbucks (stay with me.  This will make sense). Before my first visit, I was always a little afraid to order because ordering Starbucks Coffee was like using a different language. I didn’t want to be that girl in line who didn’t know anything while people behind me became annoyed at my ignorance as they waited for their much needed morning cup. I mean, what was a venti skim mocha extra foam frap with whip? I JUST DIDN’T KNOW. lol.  So, I avoided it until my friend helped me order the perfect drink and now i’m hooked. I was afraid of getting chewed out and doing it incorrectly. This was the same feeling I had with the wiki project.

My classmate informed us of her experience editing a page of wikipedia and the “editing Nazi’s” that chewed her out for her thoughts and additions. They were rude and even erased her edits.  They blasted what they believed to be her “stupidity” all around the Internet. While hearing this in class my brain started screaming again “OH GOODNESS… here we go.” That made me more nervous and brought back flashbacks of my Starbucks visions. The Wiki editors were going to eat me alive!

AFTER UPDATE:

It wasn’t that bad. I’M FINISHED!!! However, I don’t think I want to do it again. LOL. I picked a simple page and a subject that I knew a lot about on purpose. I think it was just right for my first try. I even went as far as to insert a table, formatting and all. I’m really proud of that! Anyway, that was my experience with wikipedia. Thanks for the memories.

You know. Little by little, i’m am starting to use facebook less and less.  My classmate “A” recently wrote a blog about Facebook’s new facelift. “A” is upset because facebook make new formatting changes…. AGAIN!!. The old me would have been annoyed. The last time facebook made formatting changes the online community of users were in uproar. Personally, I didn’t invest enough of my emotions in it to get truly upset but just agitated at the fact that I had to figure out how to use it again.

Now that the formatting changes have occured again. The front page looks like a twitter feed among other small changes which honestly, I really don’t know about. I mean, I know they’re there, but I don’t have the energy to be bothered by them in the least this time around. This just gives me another reason to disregard facebook more and more.

What I can sympathize with “A” about is that they should have informed people. A simple “heads up” would have sufficed. Is it really that difficult? For those people who really CARE, that would have eased a lot of turmoil. On another note though, maybe Facebook was trying to avoid the drama from the last change by simply trying to ease the changes in overnight. Can you imagine the negative feedback that would have stirred if Facebook but an alert on the main page that said “New Facebook formatting changes will take place tommorow at 12am.” It would not have been have been pretty.

Alas, I digress. Facebook is just not what it used to be. I NEED to be more on LinkedIn anyway, making as many connections as possible. The only thing I think I will continue to use “the book” for to view new pictures that are uploaded, to add to people to ask to be my “friend,” or to respond to a wall message; all of which can be done from my crackberry which alerts me when one of these comes through.

Sorry Zuckerberg, I’m close to turning in my membership card. However, I wish you the best of luck with your other numerous users and your millions? of dollars debt in servers.

I parked my car at the metro parking garage and began walking down to the subway station. By some coincidence, I happened to look at the back of my stockings. EEEK! To my surprise I had four or five runs creeping up the back of my leg. I ran back to the car and contemplated stripping out of my tights even though it was barely 40 degrees outside and I had on peep-toe pumps without any nail polish (a definite no no). After baring down I walked back to the metro station attempting to ignore the stares of other commuters who were obviously thinking “Is she crazy, it is not that warm outside.” Finally, the doors open and I opt to sit at the seat behind a glass barrier to hide my bare legs.

30 minutes later I finally make it to my stop and immediately began searching for a CVS downtown. I have to find some tights ASAP! I call my office because by this time I am more than 5 minutes late and ask for directions to the closest CVS. Brenda gives me some very sketchy directions to a CVS supposedly around the corner and I start off in search of it. After two or three blocks of searching without any success I decide it’s time to ask someone.

“Those are some pretty legs.”

Shoot!!! It’s the homeless man sitting outside the coffee shop drawing attention to me. I say thank you politely and attempt to move on but CAN YOU BELIEVE this man starts yelling after me shouting more “compliments.”

Ignoring him I finally spot a woman to ask directions.

“The CVS that was up this street is no longer open,” she says. “The closest CVS is on 8th and E.” I am on 5th and G. The CVS is three blocks up and two blocks over. SIGH. I turn back around and trek up the street. Once again ignoring the stares while my toes begin to freeze (remember, I am wearing peep-toe pumps).

“Those are some pretty legs.” It’s him again. “I would love, I mean do anything to sleep with those legs…….…..”

Finally, I make it to the CVS and find the perfect pair of jet-black, smooth tights. They feel great. After I purchase them I ask if there is a restroom for customers. Of course there isn’t. I head back up the street and spot a Starbucks. As I pass I remember all Starbucks have a restroom. I head straight towards it. LOCKED. Restrooms are for Starbucks customers only. So, I purchase a white chocolate mocha and grab the key. I change into my tights before leaving and throw all the extra materials I am carrying such as the CVS bag, receipt, newspaper, etc. into the trash.

Finally, I head back to my job, three blocks up and two blocks over. By this time35 minutes have passed. “Not too bad,” I say to myself while sipping my white mocha. Dang, the barrister forgot the whipped cream. Oh well. Once I reach the front of my building I search for my ID badge. Hmmm, it’s not in my pocket and definitely not in my hand. “Gosh, please don’t do this to me.” It’s not in my purse either. Just GREAT! Maybe I threw it away with the newspaper. So I head back to Starbucks….. three blocks up and two blocks over.

On the way back I take a glimpse in the dark window of the building next to me and see my reflection. Dangnabit! Are you kidding me, my hair has frizzed on the right side of my head and the right side ONLY (It is rainy and humid outside, while still being cold). I washed my hair last night and woke up extra early to flat iron it…. For nothing!!!

I make it back to the Starbucks, grab the key and dig (I mean literally, into the trash can). Nada but I do find the receipt to CVS. It has the business number on it. I grab my cell out my bag and dial…. automated. I press all the wrong options and it takes me three tries to finally reach someone. It’s there!!! Finally, a break! I head up the block back to CVS and grab my ID.

I exit CVS and begin my trek, 3 blocks down and two blocks over. It is now 9:00am. Searching for my tights took one hour. I make it my cube and plop into my seat.

“It’s Jay,” I say to my boss. “You would not believe my morning. I will come down there to tell you all about it but I just called to let you know I’m in.”

*Sigh*

So I activated a twitter account one night in class. One of my classmates uses twitter religiously. So, I logged on and started following her. She was one of only three friends I had. Weeks went by and I just didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the purpose of Twitter. I guess it was because most of my friends weren’t using it. But then I started following Diddy. Yes, the music mogul P.Diddy who is always a character and great for a laugh. He uses twitter to give his friends/fans an inside look into his life. He updates his feed constantly and it’s as if we really know what he is like and what he is going through daily.

One of my classmates posted an article about Diddy and his twitter feed on Delicious. The article, entitled “News: Diddy Kicks off P.Twitty” was hilarious. I was extremely excited because, as I explained before, I am now a bonafied follower of P.Diddy on Twitter. I felt proud that I was “in the know” and up-to-date on what’s “hot” in social media. I mean, if Diddy is using it, it must be. The article explains that Diddy is now posting video twitters. Let me explain. Twitter allows users to post short status messages that feed directly to their friends. These status messages can be updated instantaneously from your phone or the web. So, P.Twittys are short video blasts that are uploaded every 30 minutes. His first video twitter was about 2 minutes long. What an ingenious idea. Diddy’s video twitters are analogous to what vblogs did to blogging. Video twitters and a site devoted directly to hosting short video blasts may be the next big thing. Especially since everyone now has a camera phone.

So now that I am a somewhat experienced– read novice–twitterer (i’m sorry; is that the correct verbiage?) I am completely “down” for video twitters. I rarely post updates on my twitter page but i’m working on it. So, come find me over in the Twitter world.