Last week, Jamie Sandford began the day with what I’ll call a “metatweet.” I responded. It took off. Here’s how our conversation evolved throughout the course of the day:

@jsandford: <something about coffee>

@davidbthomas: <something about Mondays>

@jsandford: <inspirational way-too-much vim and vigor tackling-the-week tweet>

@davidbthomas: <excessive use of motivational hashtags>

@jsandford: <ending of day tweet>

@davidbthomas: <expressing an interest in a particular foodstuff and/or alcoholic beverage>

@jsandford: <general agreement and/or countering with alternative item which is more complex or uses rarer ingredients>

@davidbthomas: <enthusiastic agreement, onomatopoeia representing consumption of said foodstuff>

@jsandford: <comment related to upcoming TV show, hashtagged>

@davidbthomas: <parenting anecdote>

@jsandford: <emphatic sport event comment!>

@davidbthomas: <support for the opposing team expressed as ridicule of your character>

@jsandford: <denigration of your team based on menial historical statistic relating to prior triumph in the series>

@davidbthomas: <rejection of the importance of your quoted statistic, followed by equally trivial statistic from earlier contest>

@jsandford: <commentary on the difficult nature of putting small descendants to bed and/or humorous pre-slumber saying>

I’m getting in shape and I’d love your support, and I’d love to support you as well. If that sounds interesting, read on to find out how.

As any of you who have seen more than just my tightly-cropped avatar already know, I need to get serious about my health and fitness. I’ve been overweight more or less since leaving high school. I’ve had ups and downs and tried different ways of eating and exercising with differing levels of success. Now, at 45, with a three-year-old son, it’s never been more important for me to make some lasting changes. And I’m convinced social media can help me.

There are websites where you can track your fitness goals and interact with lots of strangers, but I don’t want to do that. I want to get support from my existing community, and I want to give my own support for those of you who are fighting the same fight. I’ve just read The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss and I’m going to follow his “slow carb” program. But he lays out much more than just dietary advice. Tim has developed a series of “body hacks” that are based on science and research. His focus on managing glucose and burning fat while maintaining even blood sugar is especially good for me.

He also has a lot of smart, practical advice on how to stay with it. One suggestion, for instance, is to share a photo of every meal you eat with your networks, on the principle that you’re less likely to eat a bag of M&Ms if you have to disclose that you’re about to do it. That’s one thing I’d like to share, but I doubt my existing Facebook friends, Twitter followers or blog readers want to see that three times a day.

Here’s what I’m thinking: I’d like to start a Google+ circle called “Healthy.” I will use that circle to share my own goals and progress, post pictures of my meals, and force me into public accountability. If you’d like to participate (and you’re reading this via Google+) then let me know in the comments and I’ll add you to that circle and you can share your progress, post pictures of your meals, tell us about your walk or run, or whatever else you need to stay on track. As the circle grows, you can watch the comments and add members of my circle to your own. (Or maybe I’ll create a list of members and share it with new people who join: keep that in mind if you ask to join my circle.) If and when Google+ allows us to make circles publicly opt-in, I’ll do that.

If you came upon this post directly on my blog or via Twitter or Facebook and you’re not on Google+, I’ll be happy to send you an invitation. My email address is Dave at the domain name of this blog. (Be sure to send me a Gmail address: it only works with Gmail.) ::UPDATE:: If you’re reading this post via Networked Blogs, it’s not that URL. My domain is dbthomas.com. So put Dave in front of that.

I’m not looking for this to become huge. I’d love it if five to 20 people who I know, either from the real world or from social media, want to participate. I’ll post daily updates of my weight loss and body fat reduction, my exercise, and pictures of my meals. (I’ll try to make the pictures fun when possible.) I’ll also share my thoughts on the 4-Hour Body program and how it’s working for me, and any good, healthy recipes I come up with. If you do the same, we can build a community of people sharing valuable information and offering one another support.

If that sounds like fun to you, let me know. Now I’m off to grate some cinnamon and think of clever things to do with lentils.

image by cookbookman17

I’ve seen quite a few discussions lately about the Spotify online music service. A few people said they didn’t get it; they wanted to own their music, not rent it. I saw a similar comment about the Amazon Kindle e-reader. That person was concerned that Amazon could take the content back at any time; he wanted to own it.

Why?

I’m not talking about people who like the experience of holding an actual book. I get that. Or audiophiles who get all squishy at the smell of a freshly-unwrapped vinyl LP. I mean, why do you care about actually owning the content?

For one thing, you don’t in fact “own” the content; the artist or author does. You’re just buying the delivery medium.

I listen to all my music through iTunes, XM Radio or the web (just trying out Spotify). I have around 500 albums and I haven’t had a functioning turntable in at least a decade. My CDs are in the drawers of my son’s dresser. (We’ll have to move those as soon as he discovers them or I predict they will turn into a thousand shiny projectiles.)

I don’t want to own content. I don’t even really want to store content. I just want it available when I want to access it.

I love using Kindle on my iPad. It syncs to my iPhone which means I always have the book I’m reading with me. There are some books I’ve re-read several times (Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, for one), but looking at my Kindle library now, I’ll tell you there aren’t more than one or two titles on there that I have any desire to “archive.”

For TV and movies, even fewer. Remember that Qwest commercial from about ten years ago? A haggard looking man checks in to a dusty motel and asks the bored teenage clerk if they have any in-room entertainment. She says something like, “We have every movie ever made, available at any time, day or night.”

Yeah, that’s what I want.

When I found out that Spotify let you stream whole albums for free, I thought, “Yep, that’s it. I’m done.” My favorite albums of all time are London Calling by The Clash, I Just Can’t Stop It by The Beat and Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (yes, I went to college in the ’80s). I listen to them maybe twice a year, if I’m honest. Why do I need to buy them and hold them, if I can go online and listen to them whenever I want?

Yes, there’s lots of obscure music out there you won’t find online, and things do go out of print and disappear, but if you’re worried about that, I already covered you in my squishy LP-opener category.

I don’t want a closet full of storage devices. I don’t even want a hard drive full of files. It feels like clutter to me, and something that will endlessly have to be maintained, backed up and worried over. If I ever did make a full to-do list, there would be several items related to just the external hard drive with my MP3s on it (back up, eliminate duplicates, organize). I don’t need that.

Tommy Lee Jones, viewing a new piece of alien music technology in one of the Men In Black movies says, “I guess I’ll have to buy the White Album again.”

No you don’t! You just need to pay somebody who has the White Album online. And if a service like Spotify can supply both the archiving of old music and the discovery of new, that’s all I’ll ever need.

(Of course this all falls apart if the White Album isn’t available to stream. I should probably check that.)

If you like owning your music and books, I’d love to hear why.

image by me

I’ve been tired of the arguments over “social media experts” for a long time. There’s also the recurring meme about people with unusual titles (ninja, guru) and that one bores me as well. If all you have to write about is semantics, dig a little deeper.

But here’s a nomenclature discussion that makes sense to me. The PR firm GolinHarris has tossed out their old title scheme and adopted a new one:

Strategists, who analyze a client’s business;

Creators, who develop new ideas and engage in brand storytelling;

Connectors, who reach target audiences through media and other channels;

Catalysts, who manage client relationships.

(Thanks, and a tip of the blog hat to Publicity Club of New England, where I found out about it.)

I’ve always been a big fan of clarity and saying what you mean. Those titles seem to me to say pretty clearly what those people do (with the possible exception of Catalyst—that one seems a little less descriptive and more like marketing speak).

With the speed at which things are changing in the communications and marketing world, and the different ways we are pursuing those activities, it makes sense to rethink the way we talk about what we do. Two of my three most recent titles didn’t exist five years ago.

The big question, of course, is will this provide clarity and value to clients, or will it confuse people? Regardless, it’s a bold step and one that seems to me to involve more than just semantics.

What do you think of those titles? And do you think we need new ones, or should we let the old ones evolve?

image by suchitra

Every now and then I’ll get into a conversation about introverts and extroverts. People sometimes think I’m kidding when I say I’m an introvert. Sometimes it’s because they’ve seen me speaking before a roomful of people, or acting goofy to get a laugh.

When I first took the Myers Briggs test, I was right on the borderline between introvert and extrovert. The last time I took it online I had moved a bit to the E side, but not by much.

I’m thinking about this because I’ve spoken at two conferences in the last week, and that always gets me thinking about human interactions and my reactions to them. Also, my friend Emily just posted a link to a post by Jerry Brito called Top Ten Myths About Introverts. Not everything in that post applies to me, but a lot of it does.

I hate small talk, for instance. I would much rather someone walked up to me at a cocktail party and said, “Tell me what your first decree would be if you became emperor,” rather than, “So, did you see the game?” And it’s true, as Brito points out, that if you get me talking about something I’m interested in, I won’t shut up for days.

Years ago I heard a description of the difference that made sense to me. Extroverts recharge their batteries by being around other people; introverts do it by being alone. That is definitely true for me. I love going to conferences, client meetings, parties and other intensely social events. But when I hit a wall, I need to get the hell out and be by myself for a while.

I suspect a lot of the people we see on the podium at conferences feel the same way. I know I’ve had similar conversations with people I’ve met on the speaker circuit.

How about you? How do you recharge your batteries? Alone or in groups?

image by Malulux

If you know me, you know that my friend Colin Bower’s sons Noor and Ramsay were kidnapped more than a year ago and taken to Egypt by their mother, despite Colin having custody of the boys. There’s been a major new development in this heartbreaking case.

Rep. Barney Frank has introduced a resolution calling for Egypt to release Noor and Ramsay. This could finally be what brings Noor and Ramsay home. Please use this link to find your Congressional representative. Send an email and ask him or her to support the resolution. I’ll include some sample wording to make it as easy as possible:

Dear Rep. ____________

Please support Rep. Frank and Rep. Smith’s Resolution 193 to return Noor and Ramsay Bower and ensure Egypt and other countries join the Hague Convention. This is critical to protect the rights of American children in our district, nationally and abroad. Please co-sponsor this Resolution immediately.

An exchange between me and The Mrs. in the car, talking about The Boy:

She: “Maybe next year he should go as a member of Devo for Halloween.”

Me: “Well, that would probably guarantee him free haircuts for life from the woman who cuts my hair.”

She: “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

Me: “Do you know what I’m talking about?”

She: “No.”

Me: “Then why did you say ‘yeah’?”

She: “Sometimes it’s just easier that way.”

Colin and Ramsay

I’m taking a risk here, but it’s necessary. I realize I am crossing a line. I try to keep my social media presence friendly, informative and funny when I can. In the last few weeks, you’ve seen a lot of posts from me that have been more serious and not at all funny. If you’ve been following me here, on Facebook and on Twitter, you know I’m talking about the effort to Help Bring Noor and Ramsay Home.

I need you to do more.

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

If you know the story, skip this paragraph. My friend (and now my boss) Colin Bower had sole custody of his two sons Noor and Ramsay. His ex-wife kidnapped them and took them to Egypt more than a year ago. He has not seen them since. The only thing that can help at this point seems to be public pressure on the US and Egyptian governments. And in this day and age, the best way to do that is on the Internet.

We have been told that the State Department is watching the Facebook page and gauging public interest by the number of “likes.” The more people who click the “like” button, the better chance Colin has of seeing his sons again.

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

Have you gone to the page and clicked “like”? Have you shared it with your friends, told people about it, even clicked “Share” to post it to your Facebook wall? Many of you have. I notice and I genuinely appreciate it.

I see posts from my friends today promoting their blogs, their bands, sharing music videos and encouraging their friends to support restaurants and food trucks and other causes. That’s fine; I do that stuff too. But can you please spend five minutes to help Colin see his sons again?

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

If you’ve seen my appeals and those of many others and you haven’t done it yet, respond here and let me know why, or email me privately at dave at dbthomas dot com and tell me why. If there’s something holding you back — technological reasons, you’re not on Facebook, you’re not sure you want to commit before you know all the facts, whatever — let me know.

Maybe you are concerned about the facts. Understandable, considering all you know is what you’ve read online. But know this: I’m not. I know Colin, I’ve seen how he’s conducted himself through much of this ordeal. I’ve read what his old and close friends have said about him. I’ve met Noor and Ramsay’s grandfather.

If that isn’t enough, then think of it this way: more attention on the issue will at least help resolve it, which is best for the boys.

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

I can look and see that 80 of my 541 Facebook friends have liked the page. Have you?

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

PLEASE do it now. If you’re tired of hearing me talk about this, imagine what Colin is going through, spending more than a year wondering if his sons are alive, what they are being told about him and wondering if he’ll ever see them again.

If that doesn’t move you to click “like,” then go ahead and unfriend me now, because I’m not going to stop talking about this until Colin is with his boys.

Click on this page. Click “like”: http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay

Go to the bottom of the left column. Click “share.” Post it to your own Facebook page. Ask your friends to like the page.

Thank you very much.

I find I’m not using contractions as much anymore. I just wrote “he had been ready” when I’m sure I would ordinarily have written “he’d been.” (Of course, now that my mind is on it I’m using contractions in this post, so this is not a good test case.)

I blame the iPhone. It is much faster and easier when typing a text message or an email to write out the full words rather than go into the special characters menu for an apostrophe. (Just read that over and saw I’d written “it is” instead of “it’s.”) Also, the iPhone autocorrect feature has some quirks that sometimes mistake one contraction for another.

Now that I’m conscious of it I’m re-reading some things I’ve written recently. The lack of contractions seems to make my writing seem more formal, more stilted and, in a way, dumber.

Has mobile keyboarding changed the way you write?

photo by someToast