Love… it’s all you need (Review)

During Blogworld in Vegas, I had the opportunity to attend a comped performance of “The Beatles’ LOVE” by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage. As part of the deal, I was to write a review of the show for my blog, which I am happy to do, because the show was amazing, the performances and music spectacular, and the theater itself stunning.

Love at the Mirage

I’m not a huge fan of the Beatles, but I left wanting to listen to more of their music. Some songs I recognized and have heard before, most I hadn’t, but they were all matched with tremendous visual performances on a constantly morphing stage. I wasn’t really following the characters of the performance too well… I assume they represent roles in songs, etc. There is a character list on the Love web site which may help, but none-the-less, the show was great, and well worth the money if you love music, love theater, and of course if you even remotely love the Beatles!

The cool Love sign

Walrus Eggman

Groupies

Presenting at #CTC HOB LA

I’m presenting today at the Cool Twitter Conference in LA today on integrating social media and Twitter specifically into your web site, with focus on WordPress as a CMS.

Igniting the Cycle of Interactivity on your own Web Site

Oh, the joys of having a web site. Like the cobbler’s children have no shoes… I am terrible at maintaining my own damn web sites. LOL! A key reason is I’m working on tons of other people’s web sites, coding or customizing, setting up and configuring, upgrading or installing. I enjoy being the guy people can turn to for all things Web related, and owning Web Wizards for the past 12 years has allowed me to work with amazing clients and sites.

However my own sites suffer from neglect sometimes, sad but true. I need to spend more time on them, but seem to have trouble motivating myself to focus on them. There are a few ways to change that, re-prioritizing things is the most direct way, but easier said than done usually. I’m also looking into outsourcing, partnering, and leveraging with others so that the ideas I’d like to make reality are moving forward at an increased rate compared to doing everything myself.  More news on that soon. But through changing the process of updating a site, and making the initial steps shorter, quicker, and easier, it makes it easier to get started yourself.

One method that seems to help get the content in your head to become content published on your site is to create many short draft posts, with just the outline of what your post is about. The main thoughts or ideas written down in short list format. Once a few drafts are written and saved, you can go back to each one and more easily write the content, replacing each outlined idea with the expanded content. Refine the body, then rewrite the title based on the clear message in your newly created post.

Once the post is completed, publish it to your site. If you have the time to do a few posts, schedule the others to be published on a schedule, spread out over a few days.  New content to your site regularly will generate traffic if you link your Twitter and Facebook sites to your site, and with traffic comes comments, and the cycle of interactivity begins, which can in turn create ideas and motivation for more posts!

I’m sometimes my own worst enemy at implementing the advice I give to clients that host their sites with me. I enjoy helping people with their sites, and it’s not work to me when doing so, but implementing it myself seems less fulfilling… mostly because I haven’t started my own cycle of interactivity yet.

Consider this ignition.

Working out

I hit the gym this morning. I’d love to add, like I do every day. Sadly, that’d be a lie. I haven’t worked out in far too long. It’s so long it’s embarrasing, and I don’t embarrass easily.

The good news is I made it, and it’s a really nice rooftop gym. I took pictures, it was so nice. Laying in bed, I got the idea that now that I found my workout clothes, I can go, and then blog about it. Blogging was my inspiration for finally working out! Nice. I worked out so I could blog about it. I needed something to blog about, so I worked out. There’s a joyful, zen-like yin-yang thing happening there I think. Or I’m just light-headed and need to rest now. Either way, it happened, and now I am feeling energized to continue, sign up for a few little training sessions maybe.

This also encourages me to eat healthy. Nothing like watching the calorie counter on the elliptical machine to realize I need to watch my calorie intake! I’m thinking of grilling fish on my BBQ; I love seafood. Add some green beans. Have a nice relaxing lunch.

Thanks for reading, you’ve inspired me today! Maybe I can return the favor sometime.

If only I could get my cats to work out. They sleep way too much.

“Homeless Fantasy” comment/post

I read Angie’s post “Homeless Fantasy“, and loved it… as I am captivated by much that she does (especially karakoe).  I left a comment, and then figured it would make a good blog post of my own:

I’ve always had preconceived notions that homeless people are where they are at because of a few simple reasons, like they met with really hard time, got into drugs, are mentally ill, or even all of the above.

I have a friend that was actually homeless for a while, great guy, but got back on his feet. He had a drug problem, got help. Refuses to give money to homeless, instead educates them on the shelters, counseling, drug rehab options, etc.

I have another friend, she’s SDPD. She works near Downtown, dealing with homeless all the time. Meth. It’s an evil drug, and she also refuses (when out socially) to give them money for that reason. Won’t even buy them food. Honestly, I think she hopes they starve and die, no joke. (She’s also Republican. LOL).

Another friend, she only cares about the homeless people with dogs… she wants to save the dog. She is concerned that the dog is not fed, wants to call animal control, etc… Not the people.

All in all, it is what it is… I just live my life and appreciate every day that they are a very small, sometimes entertaining, sometimes scary part of it, that I hope to never truly have to understand completely.