Smoke Rings, Coffee Stains

Seriously, baseball is nice, I love most sports, but do we really need so many games and this extremely long season? No. (Regardless, Go Sox!) So, BooYah! Getting ready for football with my first fantasy league run by Mashable’s Adam Ostrow. My charity is JaneDoe Inc. Follow me on Twitter to hear me talk smack to the social media football peeps. Meanwhile, start thinking about Hockey with a capital H, because that is My Sport, people, and it is next.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

come give me your video reply on Seesmic

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I am a relatively fresh face in social media, and I have big ideas. I’ve been writing about social media behind the scenes for years at blogs like Profy and others, but only recently did I decide to pair up with Triston McIntyre and turn the advice I’ve been giving for so long into a business, Uptown Uncorked.

All this time, the social media community has been nothing but supportive and generous to me, welcoming me into the community here in Boston and giving me ample opportunity to spread my wings and fly. It is my hope that by joining the interim board at Social Media Club, I’d be able to spend some of my free time giving back.

I see social media as an integral part of our society, and I see the various players on the social media field as a giant team that can lift each other, and our community outside of the social media arena, into the stratosphere. There is so much we can do to bridge the gap between each other, and between social media and our communities - I’m excited for the chance to be part of it.

I’m on a list of stellar social media types, and I’d be honored if any one of us nabbed the nomination. Even so, what I think I bring to the table that some of the social media giants may not is a fresh face, an untapped, uncorrupted point of view. Because I haven’t been as immersed in the lovely cloud of social media alone for the last while, but have also seen the other side of the horizon, I think it will lend a unique point of view to the ideas and projects we generate at the Social Media Club.

I’m looking forward to working more with the amazing people. If you’d like a fresh voice joining the chorus, please go here and vote for me. Poll is open until July 17th, 2008.

Thanks!

As a side note, I was privileged to be a panelist on Aaron Brazell’s show, The Aaron Brazell Show, the other night. I had a blast talking technology and politics with Aaron (who you may know best as Technosailor), Leslie Bradshaw, and Andrew Feinberg We were also joined by S. Dawn Jones, Steve Hodson and Art Lindsey III. If you’d like to read about it and hear the episode, visit this link.

NOTE: I don’t usually cross post to Smoke Rings and Uptown Uncorked, but in the interest of getting the word out about the vote, this post is being posted in its entirety on both Smoke Rings and Coffee Stains (my personal blog) and Uptown Uncorked.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

You all may have been wondering what has been keeping me too busy to talk to my friends and relatives and too busy to really go out and play much. The answer: my new company!

That’s right, I started a new company with my friend Triston called Uptown Uncorked. We’re doing social media training to help bring people and businesses online using the internet and social media in the best way possible to grow their business or their brand. You can read more about it over on the web site.

Social media and conversation on the web as a tool and a pleasure is a topic I get truly excited about. If you’ve met me in person, I’ve probably tried to get you to Twitter, or FaceBook, or Plurk or carry on a conversation with the world in some other way. I love how the internet brings us all together, and the new business gives me a way to share that enthusiasm with everyone else.

If you go to the site and click on the Leslie tab in the NavBar you can choose your preferred social network to friend me up. Go ahead! I love new interwebby friends!

Meanwhile, I presented the company yesterday at Boston Media Makers, and I’ll be talking about it again tomorrow in Waltham at Tech Tuesday. I hope to be presenting at PodCamp Boston (a short presentation on how to break into the conversation online, how to bust the clique and be a part of the stream). I’ve got a few other speaking engagements on deck, and I can’t wait - this whole thing has been so much fun.

It will probably still be a while before I have time to focus on blogging for fun again, as I’m still writing for hire during all of this. Bear with me - initial company launches always take up a lot of time, but it is time well spent. And for those who ask, yes, we travel, and we also do one on one sessions in DC and Boston. See you on the flip side!

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

There is now a push for a National Speed Limit to “help save gas”. Here’s an idea, folks. Spend that time and money on finding alternative fuel. Subsidizing the oil companies further to lower prices is something we should have stopped in the 70s. sure prices would have (and should have) been high ever since, but imagine how much better our public transportation systems and other infrastructure would be if we didn’t keep voting in favor of Big Oil’s wallet. Along those lines, gas saving by law making is a method that is too little, too late. If Mercedes Benz can admit that and phase out gas powered cars in 7 years, then the rest of us need to catch up and think out of the box. Full Article

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Someone told me this should be my theme song last night, and a bunch of other people agreed. I don’t know about that, but I really like the song, so here’s a treat for you all:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

There is some debate in the comments about the SmartForTwo (or SmartFourTwo) claim of being electric. Whether it is electric everywhere or not NOW it will be in 7 years The announcement as a whole should really shake up the auto world. Article

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I know I’ve been sporadic at best for the last few weeks. I’ve been busy with work, and that is a good thing. I’ve also been developing a new business with a friend, and it is almost ready to be unveiled. Stay tuned for that. I’ve also been attending a lot of events, seminars and presentations for work, which are amazingly informative and helpful, but which take up time, so I find myself writing into the wee hours to compensate.

Normally I don’t complain about being awake in the wee hours, since I am a night owl from way back. Even so, lately it feels like work consumes my life. I love my job, but I think I need to work on my work/play balance a bit. Of course, part of the issue is the rising cost of gas and the resulting rise in the cost of food, utilities and other necessities. I’m really pleased gas is finally where it should have been for Americans since 1972 - we’ve been coddled enough, and at great cost. It still requires an adjustment, however. I like to call my adjustment ̶