Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

Modern Medicine Is Just Hot

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Today’s note will be fairly short. I just wanted to give a shout out to those in the medical profession. Tonight I watched an episode of Hopkins, a semi reality show about Doctors at John Hopkins Hospital. It’s mind boggling what these Doctors are able to do. I have a Daughter who has been on the receiving end of their medical marvels.

No matter how much I bitch and moan about about the cost of medical care, I am glad that people are willing to get their hands dirty to save lives.

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Picture courtesy of Gustty

Book Review: It's Your Ship

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itsyourshipbook.jpgMy personal trainer recommended a book the other day called It’s Your Ship, by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. As a former United States Marine, I try and read leadership books written by those who served in the military. I connect with them. I understand their leadership styles and I always learn something.

Leadership comes in many forms. Good leaders make adjustment to their surroundings and the people they are working with. But the principles remain the same. Captain Abrashoff is the kind of leader hard to find in the corporate world.

The style most identifiable, and the one he uses as an example over and over, is giving those that work for him the responsibility, authority and resources to make things happen. He knows you build people up and give them what they need to succeed, and your own success will follow.

There’s plenty of example situations, and he does a good job of dissecting both wins and losses. I happen to consume this book by audio CD, and I must admit by the 5th CD I was a little bored. The references to Navy process and protocol was a little much, and it felt like he was losing focus on leadership, and instead droned on about the Navy and his crew.

I whole heartedly recommend this book. Aside from the military flavor, he does play both sides of the isle, indicating how a business can use the same leadership principle he did in the Navy.

Learning The Value Of A Hot Story

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Today was Breaking Dawn day. One of the hottest days in the book business. A day that compares to a Harry Potter day. Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, released book four today. Just to give you an idea the number of people who wanted to stand in line to get a copy, my wrist band said number 800, and that was just at one book store.

Needless to say, I was not going to stand in line while I watched 799 other people complete their purchase. So I did some reconnaissance. I found that several smaller stores were carrying the book, and so early this morning I trekked to a Wal-Mart and purchased 4 copies, and there was no line, and no one to fight.

The reason it was so important for me to get this book, was a daughters insane attachment to the story characters. The male character, Edward, is apparently hot. Every woman whose read the book wants their man to be Edward. It’s hard to live up to.

The reason I’m telling you this story, is that word of mouth has basically driven the success of this book series. In the tween age group its a hot story. Vampire love stories are all the rage. Every author should be so lucky as Stephenie Meyer. Don’t get me wrong, she is a very good writer, and tells great stories. But the readers have created the frenzy. Its been truly amazing to see it happen.

One Hot August Day

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hot_peppers.jpgIt’s August 1st. We are in the dog days of summer. The time where you’re just about fed up with hot weather, and ready for the fall cool down to happen. Not to mention you’re ready for the kids to go back to school. Pools are your best friend, and you get up early just to go for a run

NaBloPoMo theme for August is HOT. So, I’ll be writing post about things that are hot. And they won’t necessarily be about the weather.

Play along if you would like, visit the web site here.

Photo by PieterMusterd

Facebook Alters Beacon System

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FacebookChanging the way Facebook handles the Beacon system was inevitable based in user concern. While they are trying to calm the waters with this change, they still need to take a few more steps. At the very least they need to provide a page of companies using the Beacon system and let Facebook users choose who they want to share data with. This is what Facebook has chosen to do:

Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

What I find amazing is as of this writing nothing is on the Official Facebook blog. All I’ve found are reports from bloggers who follow technology and Facebook. Why is that? Why hasn’t Facebook just come out and publicly said they have made changes to Beacon? What I know is they have made an effort to improve the service and give their users more control over how and what is used.

I still think Facebook rocks. I think the entire social network platform has many positive advantages. I also think its great the community can come together and police itself. These are the types of issues that should be taken serious by community builders.

Do you think Facebook went far enough? Is the Beacon system too personal?