The Audiorium

Renton Farmers Market, on the Piazza Tuesdays

Serving up some giant Shave Ice Cones at the Renton Farmers Market.

August 9, 2011 on the Piazza, downtown Renton, WA 98057

Every Tuesday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm, June through September at the Piazza in downtown Renton. This year the market is celebrating it’s 10th year anniversary and as we approach mid August, this is a great time to enjoy everything grown local.

Yelp Review: Renton Farmers Market

Activerain blog: Renton Farmers Market

The Desoto, Forward thinking but not fast enough.

Looking over the hood of a vintage Buick… Loving that hood ornament! They don’t make them like that any more. The car in the background is a 1952 Desoto.

Great visor and grill. My Dad had a 1952 Plymouth. Not a luxury car like this Desoto, but they were similar in body style and the seats, well, they were like couches! 

DeSoto 

The DeSoto has an interesting history and it reverberates much of the scenarios we see now with brands that couldn’t or didn’t posture and change fast enough in “recession” times… The DeSoto was a Chrysler brand. Chrysler had too many “mid market models” like Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler. The DeSoto was forward looking and in 1956 it was the pace car for the Indianapolis 500.

Yet due to corporate policies and politics, Chrysler’s brand management in the 1950’s put all of it’s mid level brands in competition with each other. The DeSoto brand lasted to 1961. Not unlike what we’ve seen over the past couple of years in the car industry. I’m thinking we witnessed a rerun. History does repeat itself. 

July 16, 2011 at the Lakeshore Retirement Home on Rainier Ave S at the north end of Renton Field.

Summer Tech Summit, Seattle

What a fun Friday afternoon! My dear friend Linda Aaron, Training and Development Manager for Coldwell Banker Bain and Coldwell Banker Seal invited me to their Summer Tech Summit in Seattle today. What a blast!

Funny, but I don’t have to think but a minute to realize how much my life has changed via the world online. As I looked around the room, today was a great example of the power of social media. Many of the attendee’s I know online, and several are now my “in person” friends.

Jeremy Blanton did a great presentation about social media tools. He shared several real life stories about what he did, how he did it, and what happened next. I identify with that style very well. It’s more about being an explorer and sharing the experience. Jeremy was one of the first people to reach out to me on Activerain back in 2008. It was so much fun to meet an old online friend in person.

Always at events like this there are agents that have a list of valid concerns. “How much time does this take?” Well, truthfully, quite a lot… yet like anything we do, as it becomes habit, it takes less time as we go. I think of it like this… We have our life habits. They take up 100% of our time. When we learn something new we have to put in over 100% until we learn the value of the new one, and it replaces some of the old ones.

Personally, I feel so much joy when I get to witness the epiphanies. When a person who is new to medium ‘gets it’ that online is “dynamic”. Blogging is the asynchronous conversation. The power of it happens when we understand that people search for stuff all the time. If we have already talked about it, posted it, engaged other people online about it, we become the content offered up by the search engines.

The power is in the conversation. When people search online for what they want and we have already initiated the conversation they are looking for, that’s powerful!

Rhonda Porter, Linda Aaron, Jeremy Blanton at the tweetup.

Two people sitting across the table from me really get this too. Jim Reppond, eXp Realty, and Rob Porter, The Talon Group. (Having some iPad fun…)

So good to see so many friends today that I would probably never have come to know if it weren’t for our world online. Thankyou all for a wonderful day.

Jeremy Blanton    Rich Jacobson    Jim Reppond    Rhonda Porter    Linda Aaron    Debra Trappen

Dale Chumbley    Stephanie Baldwin    Nick Church    Natalie Danielson    

Many thanks to Coldwell Banker Bain | Seal, Linda Aaron, and Debra Trappen for a great event!

Originally posted on Activerain.com, July 9. 2011.

Shrubbery Cats and other Creatures

I was at Tacoma General the other day to see my sister in law Kathy. Yet another cancer operation. My brother Terry looked tired. He was hungry and wanted to get something from his car. He needed a brake so we went for a walk. On the same campus is Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.

It was a gray afternoon with a little rain but the sun was peaking through the clouds. There’s a wonderful little garden courtyard area and everything was in bloom. This is where I met the shrubbery cats and other creatures…

Going to the hospital is rarely ever fun. The only exception I can think of at the moment is coming to see a newborn and mom when you know everything is okay. As we walked through the garden area I noticed my mood shift and I had to acknowledge the power that brought a smile to my face. 

We count our blessings. Life is such a succession of fleeting moments and we really never know what the next one will bring. I find it ironic I’m trying to remember something from the past, especially when life seemed to be standing still for just a minute.

Thank you my funny little shrubs. You were a good distraction. You helped me to stop for a moment and contemplate the miracle.

The Blackberry Chronicles
ARFCO Media ©2011

My Heroes of Joplin

I’m really not quite sure how to even begin this little story. It certainly isn’t a plea for sympathy nor is it the seizing of an opportunity for a hot blog topic. If it were, I’m a little late. As some of my friends here on Activerain know my oldest daughter lives in Joplin, Missouri with my three grand kids.

Tawnya is a single mom working two jobs to make ends meet like many of us in this recession. She works for the Joplin Globe Newspaper (need I say more) which has severely scaled back this last year. She got a second job at Walmart. Normally she would have been working last Sunday but by chance (as you might call it) she had the day off and was home with the boys, Jakob and Tannyr. Tyffanie was across town at the mall when all hell broke loose and the Tornado hit. Walmart was a total loss.

We weren’t able to reach them for a few days with all the chaos that ensued and because most communications were down. Thank God for social media. The first little bits of info about them started coming over Facebook.

S. Florida Ave in their neighborhood after the storm.

People were making signs out of anything they could find and putting them at intersections. With all the familiar landmarks gone, you had no idea what street you were on. It all looked the same.

Fortunately the entire house wasn’t blown away like so many around them.

Bless my grandson Jake. They ran for the bathroom to ride out the storm. He told me a horrendous story about trying to get the door shut but everything was moving and stuff was flying all over the place. After several attempts he wrestled it closed when a large section of the roof came off and debris was crashing into the hallway.

On the left, the roof is gone. Tawnya said in an email how thankful she was that the neighbor’s car stayed in the garage and didn’t land on their house.

Although the home is a total loss they did get some of their belongings out and into storage. Jake took a car load of clothes to the emergency shelter for the less fortunate and has been volunteering all week searching homes for survivors and helping out where ever he can.

Jake out front trying to comprehend what just happened.

I am so profoundly grateful my family is okay, safe, and staying with friends. What a powerless feeling to be so far away. I’ve survived some pretty amazing things in my life, but I can’t begin to fathom what this must of been like.

Via email - May 27th… “I am counting my blessings everyday that me and the kids are alive. It was by the grace of God! His hand was over us for sure and I believe because he has bigger and better things for all of us to do.”

Love you all,
Tawnya

Amen daughter of mine. Amen… 

Imagination #703324

I’ve had this Imagination Rock for several years. It was given to me as a gift. It just dawned on me last evening that it had a bar code stuck on the back of it… I was a little surprised to see that it said:

WARNING Keep away from children.

I wonder what that means? You could take that a number of ways…

I’m sure the intention is to avoid any liability issues that could happen, but really… the message it conveys speaks volumes. 

Read the fine print

Ignite lighter away from face and clothing. Contains flammable gas under pressure. Never expose to heat over 49 degrees celcius or to prolonged sunlight. Never puncture or put in fire. Be sure flame is out after each use. Do not keep lit for more than 30 seconds.

You are kidding me right?

It’s a ROCK! (with an imprint). It has been on my deck for 8 years in all seasons including long hot summer days. Need I now worry that rocks blow up? Let alone I’ve been warned to keep it away from children… What, the message of Imagination?

I can’t help but think, “the inmates are running the asylum.”

Once upon a time (at @ 10 - 12 years old), I was a master at the “sling”. You know, a leather patch 2 inches by 4 or 5 inches, with 2 leather thongs attached. You’d grab a rock that was about the size of an egg (usually just a little smaller) and whirl that thing above your head in a counter clockwise motion then let go of one string to catapult that baby at about 50 to 60 miles an hour to a target around a 100 yards away or so. We use to position ourselves on a hillside in the woods above a pond and hurl those stones with all our might, and 9 times out of 10 I could hit the icon emblem painted on the side of any railroad boxcar dead center coming down those railroad tracks.

I’m not saying it was safe, legal, or right. We were kids and that’s just the way we rolled back then. Unsupervised rural entertainment. I’m more amazed everyday I made it this far!

Easter Dinner

I was hanging out with my Brother Terry and sister inlaw Kathy for Easter. My brother bought a turkey breast and a ham. We had a great day hanging out in the kitchen. The smells were divine.

A wonderful feast, good company, and I’m loving the left overs!

Syn March Bigan Thritty Dayes and Two

We’ve all felt like a fool at one time or another, some of us maybe more than others. Yet we proud fools of western culture have a rich history dating all the way back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1392.

“Syn March Bigan Thritty Dayes and Two” the story begins in the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” with the protagonist rooster Chauntecleer soon to be tricked by the fox. The set up is beautifully crafted through misunderstanding April 1st to be the 32nd of March. But who is duped, the reader or the characters in the story?

This is our culture’s first documented hoax for April 1st. This “just for fun for it’s own sake” All Fools Day evolved across Europe over the centuries. Much of it attributed to the change in our calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian in 1582 when New Years was conveniently moved from the week March 25 - April 1, to the day, January 1st.

The Julian calendar assumed the year was 365.25 days. That’s dang close but actually it’s 11 minutes less than that. It may seem trivial but every 4 centuries we’re 3 days off and since we started way way back with the Julius Caesar calendar in 45 BC, by the time we flip to Pope Gregory the XIII’s calendar in 1582 to sync Easter it’s happening on March 11th (which is totally unacceptable, yet my birthday).

The point being that time was reset not only forwards but backwards by the authorities and for those who held true to the old calendar and refused to change, we called them fools! Kind of reminds me of Y2K and other totally modern things we do.

If you remember your European history you know some fools had official position. A Court Jester’s job was to bring objectivity to the royal conversation by telling jokes, demonstrating the fool, bringing humor and levity, and thus a better perspective.

I say we need to bring them back in a most official capacity! Not under the guise of an institutional government sanctioned expert, institution, program or department. Just sayin’

Images & April Fools Jokes

Photo credit to free-extras.com - April Fools Jokes…

Anyway, I find the history of fools a worthy study, especially in these modern times. I found this great site with The Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of all Times.

There’s some absolute classics if you have a few minutes to look. I remember many of them from over the years.

In 1962 Kjell Stensson announced on Swiss TV that you could convert your black and white television to color with a nylon stocking.

In 1996 Taco Time announced it bought the Liberty Bell and it’s now the Taco Liberty Bell.

I had several laughs discovering how many pranks have been played by NPR. In 1992 they did a piece announcing Richard Nixon was running for president again.

In 1998 Burger King introduced the left handed Whopper. The condiments were the same but rotated 180 degrees to better accommodate their left handed patrons.

We’re all gullible at one time or another. So celebrate it!

All Fools Day, a Holiday just for us!

Don’t be cruel, have fun, and keep a watchful eye…

Syn March Bigan Thritty Dayes and Two!

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. — Mark Twain

We are not going to Mars today

I love talking about Social Media and lately I’ve had some great conversations that started with the question: “What is social media?”

With that said it went suddenly quiet and I looked across the room of concerned faces staring back as if to ask, “Is that a trick question?” No, I laugh. Not at all.

Then the responses began to chime out… Facebook Twitter Blogs FourSquare Linkedin Activerain Biznik Youtube…

But these are the tools and the platforms. They are not social media and even though these new technologies placed us smack dab in the middle of the biggest paradigm shift in communication history. Social Media is what we do with them.

The tools and platforms are what we use to create Social Media. It gets even more interesting when we add ‘marketing’ to that phrase and our purpose. For many, adopting social media marketing is taking a giant leap of faith into the unknown. As scary and potentially overwhelming as it can be in the beginning, “We are not going to Mars today.” Social Media is not somewhere else, or something else, or the future. It is the right here and now.

Our questions and concerns about social media are important and how we frame them depends a lot on our age, how connected we feel (or don’t feel) to technology, and our own convictions about relationship and issues of privacy. Stay concerned, keep asking the questions.

“What is social media?”

To me there’s an aspect of it that’s kind of like going to a big reception with a huge buffet. There may be one in the crowd attempting every dish at the table, but for most of us, we’ll gravitate to the familiar even though on occasion we’ve been known to break habit when hearing,

“OMG you have to try this. It’s to die for!”

With shared experience and common interests we’re much more likely to engage in conversation. If not we’ll move on, especially when our comfort zone is challenged. People naturally congregate to smaller groups. If the reception has 100 people we may do a few things all together like,

“Come on, let’s all sing Happy Birthday to John now!”

But for the most part we’ll tend to cycle through the conversations via the sub groups. Like being at a party with (live) music, everyone doesn’t dance to every song. Social Media is exactly the same way. Our conversation online is public and it’s most always with the many to the many. People jump in and out of the conversation at any time and you never really know where that may take you.

The long tail search idea is evolving into a behavior model. As searchers, it’s not just what we’re looking for but what we reveal about ourselves along the way. Now days the criteria for engagement might be the fact I identify with you based on experiences and opinions you’ve shared in your blogs. For me that could be, you like dogs (not all, but especially Spaniels), once lived in Seattle, play the piano, have kids, been divorced, and you once drove a real VW Bug back in the day.

That’s me and it’s just the way I roll.

Having something to say is of course important. You won’t get very far online just watching. Saying it from the heart touches people and that is a gift not only to your audience (no matter how many readers you have), but to yourself. What that something is that’s worth sharing is always the $50k question.

Who are you trying to reach? Who are you talking to? Why are you talking to them? You’re only as good as the value of your (last) conversation. Life online is public and not unlike show business in many respects. It has all the trials and tribulations a public career entails.

Like thinking about the future, life is still the same amazing puzzle it has always been.

afterall…

“We’re not going to Mars today.” We’re just talking about Social Media.

Lessons learned from Johnathan Livingston Seagull

I was grilling some marinated steaks for my son Jeff and I this past Friday night. We splurged! After a busy week it was fun to be home. I had a little more energy than some Friday’s. Instead of dead tired I was inspired to make a “real” dinner with all the fixings, tune out work, and watch a movie.

While I was making sure my math was correct for timing everything I put on some music and ran through my movie library. Mashed potatoes, a fresh green salad, fresh green beans, oh oh… it’s been 8 minutes better check the grill.

I ran out to the deck to make sure I didn’t over cook the first side of that steak when I saw this huge young gull sitting on top of our building ‘A’ chimney across the parking lot. It’s a totally crappy picture at dusk with my notorious Blackberry, but the point is what it’s about… At first I thought, “why is he here all by himself?” Maybe he’s lonely?

Remember Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, way way back in the 70’s… I know, I’m probably dating myself, but the messages stay with me…

Johnathan is bored with the meaninglessness of everyday basic life concerns. Seized by the passion of flight he has a vision and the expense of that vision is being cast out. Then he transcends to a society based around flight and goes through several lessons to learn that to be free one has to be true to one’s self first. By sharing this personal freedom he realizes that without compassion, forgiveness, and understanding he has no world.

Love, respect, freedom all need to be separated from the myth of obey. The evidence is everywhere today when we witness the happenings especially in the middle east this past month.

Aspire to greatness by doing what’s true to you and share it. That’s what makes a difference.