Vegas style. Groupon offered a 20 class package to Boot Camp Las Vegas for $25, so I thought, “Why the heck not? One location is at the park just down the street.” My hope is that this is a jump start into a regular fitness routine and the beginning of losing 30 lbs (that I put on due to a malfunctioning thyroid). I start next Monday, and expect to be super sore for the first week since I’m trying to make 4 classes a week. I am determined to kick the rest of the asthma out of my system, lose the weight, and get my toned stomach back!

Unfortunately, 1500 people bought the Groupon. The offer doesn’t expire until November, but it’s causing some people to feel duped since all the classes are filled until July. I understand that there needs to be a minimum, but what about capping the offer as well. Sell what you can easily accommodate in 2-3 months so that you don’t piss off your potential clients. I also don’t see how any money is being made on this offer since it was so deeply discounted (ex. Normal price: 3 classes / week for $150). This would be a great business study to see what the outcome is — and if its sustainable.

Today I finally figured out what FedEx was trying to deliver to me on Saturday.  The framed Gaping Void Ignore Everybody print! Wahoooooo! So, being the geek that I am, I decided to do a mini-unboxing for y’all.

Out of the box

The framed print was packed very securely in a heavy duty cardboard box with about five layers of bubble wrap. It took me about 10 minutes to wrangle it out since I had no one to hold the box or corral the cats.

Half Unwrapped

After fighting with the bubble wrap and shooing away a couple of curious felines,  finally got half the print freed from its grasps with a pair of scissors.

Finally Unwrapped

Overall, it took a good fifteen minutes to get this out of the box, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  No broken glass, no nicks, no chips… Yay!

Better unpacked picture

If it wasn’t 10:45 p.m. I’d be nailing a picture hanger to my wall.  That will have to wait for tomorrow evening!

Anyone want to have a bubblewrap popping party?

Face it.  I’m a busy person.  Work, grad classes, volunteering, Beer and Blog Elder Drunk, blogging, kitteh mom, and whatever else I decide to take on.  Hugh MacLeod coined a term on his blog, GapingVoid, this week:  The Overextended Class.  It’s when you’ve got your hand in every pot in the kitchen because you’re the sous chef and have to serve it up when the time is just right.  Granted, I don’t have 10 individual potentially full-time/profitable endeavours like Hugh, but I’m on a path of evolution.  There’s a reason why I jumped at the opportunity to relocate to Las Vegas, change roles, and help open a new (and HUGE) show. This is why I spent all day studying for the GRE in 2005 during the horrendous Florida hurricane season — and three months of mornings after they blew through. There’s a reason why I’m back in school and spending buku bucks for a master’s degree.  There’s a reason why I pour over blogs about knowledge management, metadata, CMSs, DAM, and digital data initiatives.  There’s a reason why I give up my Saturday afternoons to volunteer at the library.  There’s a reason why I maintain and incessantly tweak this blog beyond just a place to post thoughts and observations.

Trying to Evolve by Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid)

Yeah, there’s a lot of days I go without sleep.  I put my time into school so I can get where I want to be, and that often means going without all the fun activities Las Vegas has to offer.  And there are days when I feel it’s futile and I’m failing at every bit of it.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  The failing means that I need to learn more. That I need to rethink my strategy. That another door has opened and option has presented itself. I’m evolving into some hybrid of information professional and social media maven, but I’m not sure in which capacity. And I’m not sure if I’ll ever stop evolving (always in beta!). I love every bit of this crazy existence.  As Mercury Rev sings in their song Snowflake in a Hot World :

Snowflake in a hot world
Don’t let them get to you
Don’t let them tell you
You’re all the same
*   *   *   *   *
Melting into something… bigger than you
Melting into someone… someone new

Yeah… someone new and something bigger. What and where is a mystery at this point, but I’ll know it when I find it.  But that doesn’t mean that my other passions of music, writing and painting are going to be left by the wayside once I’m out of school.  In fact, chances are the overextended state will persist for the rest of my life with the incessant need to create.

Weekly World News cover from http://www.girlofwords.com/

Social media.  It’s one of those things you like or hate.  For me, I really like it.  Using tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Meetup have allowed me to meet a slew of people in a relatively short time. As many of you know, I moved out here just over a year ago.  The first 6 months I split between Las Vegas and Montreal, so I never really got to know that many people outside my group of friends at work or through existing Vegas connections.

Once I finally got of the road for a bit, I used Meetup to find groups of interest in the area.  I ended up meeting John Hawkins and the Black Diamond Digital crew on a First Fridays meetup.  That led to Twitter connections, which led to attending WordCamp Las Vegas, and the creation of Beer and Blog Las Vegas.  Social media allowed me to find these people, and get to know them a bit before meeting them face to face.  I’m a fairly shy person by nature, and wouldn’t normally introduce myself to complete strangers.  I’ve met some really nice people — Manya, Lori, John, Chris, Bill, and so many others — that I feel like I have a group of friends compiled in 6 months compared to the 10 years it took in Orlando without social media.  Living in Vegas also afforded me the opportunity to attend some really cool events like the CES parties (Thanks, Robert Scoble and Dustin Wax), Twestival (okay, the one I attended was in Montreal — another social media story — but I would’ve attended the Vegas one had I been here!), and the Monster Vegas Tweetup (Thanks, Scott).

There’s a further hunger harboured within me… the one that wants to see libraries and knowledge repositories (both private and public) become more social. Social media is another medium — a tool — to facilitate teaching and learning. There are people who may answer a work-related problem outside the immediate  department.  The company wiki benefits from those who created the page as well as those who maintain the item’s page. A tutor may be available to help a local student with their math studies.  Co-workers in different offices thousands of miles apart could use each other’s knowledge to solve problems at their immediate location.  Mao Tse-Tung is quoted as saying, “Learn from the masses, and then teach them.”  Social media is designed to be an exchange mechanism, much like the telephone, only it’s main purpose is the party line.

In the same vein, though, users also need to make sure that they’re not sheep.  Blindly following the crowd can lead to disappointment and causing yourself to look unintelligent in front of your peers.  This is the librarian coming out in me, but information literacy is key.  Today, every person online needs to be able to discern quality information from the junk.  Look at it this way: the Wall Street Journal compared to the Weekly World News.  Laugh if you will, but many people think that the Weekly World News is legitimate news and not sensational half-truth fiction.  It’s easy to get caught up in groupthink when surrounded with like-minded people, which is the exact reason why we need to teach critical thinking to children at an early age.  Sure, everyone gets duped at some point, but the severity and frequency is reduced with the knowledge of what comprises real information.  We’re still figuring out the rules and norms of Social Media and the exponentially expanding web of (mis)information.

I’m amazed by the amount of real estate professionals turned social media gurus that I have encountered on Twitter.  I understand that both areas contain a ROI and involve communicating, but what I don’t understand is why many do not use social media tools to promote the properties for sale.  Many people talk about branding and quick money, but it takes a well-thought plan and tons of work to see even the smallest return.  I, as an individual, will not see $10,000 this year simply from blogging. I am ignorant in how social media experts are paid, but my guess is that they get paid for a contract and not on commissions. I know that real estate is at rock bottom right now and many agents are looking for other sources of income. Some of the real estate social media experts are great in both areas, but many fall short in both fields.  If most of these real estate/social media people put half of the effort into meeting potential clients face to face as they did trying to promote their image social media sites, my guess is that they would make a lot more money.  Trust can start virtually but needs to be solidified in reality. For that hour put into writing the blog, go out and take pictures of a new property. Write a new description for the add. Research new methods of advertising. Create a flyer to place into a tube under the for sale sign. Social media is a tool to facilitate your message. Social media is not the message.

/soapbox

In other news, I fixed Photoshop so that I could finish the graphics (as you can see!).  Also, Google is making its foray into the Semantic Web. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t expect to see it until next year. Very interesting stuff!

Yesterday on Twitter I responded to Forian: There is a fine line between involvement and adding to the collective noise. Looking back at my tweets from the past two weeks, I realized that I’m the kettle calling the pot black. The content that I placed out there simply adds to the noise and doesn’t have anything too productive or change-making to it. And petty complaining increases the noise level further.  Being involved is not commenting on every single blog post you read or making your opinion on all matters known to anyone who will listen. Being involved is contributing a fresh idea, a new perspective, or explaining a dissenting view in a constructive (rather than condemning) manner. Comments of “Yeah! I agree,” add nothing to a conversation. I make no guarantees for comments on my own blog, but I will always restrain myself from adding drivel to another’s blog. Agreement is great, but state the reason why. Disagreement is better since learning will happen (so long as the ears and mind remain open).