Communication

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My experience in Hawaii this time, as compared to last, is night and day in how I came away from it. This time, I went there with an open mind, ready to jump into the social culture, wanting to make connections and meet new friends. I was overwhelmed, to say the least. The people I met were awesome, very conscious of the impact that social networking has on the World. Many of them, like Ryan (@Hawaii on Twitter and just about everywhere else!), immerse themselves in social media on a daily basis.

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It’s time to stand up and stretch. Get out of those chairs. Come on – you can do it. Stand up, and reach your arms above your head as high as they will go. Now bend over, and attempt to touch the ground (don’t worry, I can’t quite do that, either). Hold your arms out to your sides and stretch them wide. Heck, why not even twist a little to each side, much like a tree swaying in the breeze.

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Reading this blog post on Geeks earlier stopped me dead in my tracks. I saw myself in what the author wrote, as I’m sure many of you will. He talks of how we have so many gadgets and gizmos to make our lives easier… and then wonders if it’s in fact making things more difficult:

Read more on Could all of Life’s Conveniences be Killing Us?…

Earlier tonight, I saw people in our chat room talking about time travel. They were laughing about the places they’d like to go back to, things they might want to change in their life. Some of them wanted to meet a famous person who has long since passed on, and others wanted to simply have a “do-over” for a wrong they had committed.

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I can’t believe we’re already into July. Where the heck did June go? How did I miss it? I haven’t gone out to tan yet, nor have I played any beach volleyball. Wait a minute… I must have had some odd out-of-body experience for a moment there. Let’s call it a momentary lapse of sanity, ok? I don’t tan. I’m as ghost-white as it gets. The only “sun” I get are the rays that come from my monitors. We all know I’m not one to play sports, either. I’m not sure who took over my keyboard and wrote that garbage!

Read more on Summer is Half Over Already?!…

What a powerful and loaded question that could be, eh? I came across a blog post on Geeks earlier, where the writer discussed this subject. He talked of the ways that social networking has changed his life. I can’t help but to sit here, and think of all the ways being so “out there” in the social media world has changed me. Have you ever stopped to think about this? How has being on Facebook changed you? What about Twitter and maybe LinkedIn? Heck… what about Geeks? What about you is different, now that you have incorporated all of these fantastic ways of meeting others into your daily routine? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so leave me a follow-up comment with your story!

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After today, it feels as though Gnomedex is my life! I’m not complaining, though. We’ve been quite busy getting things ready for all of you to descend upon Seattle in just a few short weeks. We announced some ticket price drops today, in the hopes those of you hit hard by the economy may be able to join us. We’ve opened up ticket types, as well. I also wrote an in-depth blog post, answering some questions from a potential attendee. I certainly hope the answers I gave will help any of you who are still on the fence as to whether or not Gnomedex is a “must attend” conference for you.

Read more on Is There More to Life than Gnomedex?…

In my travels around my community today, I came across another thought-provoking post: Can You Describe Yourself Using Only One Word?”. ONE word – are you kidding me? That’s honestly harder to do than one would think. There are many words that can be used to describe each and every one of us. Kat, for instance, has an “about me” page on her blog, listing fifty words that describe her. They are all perfect – so how could she sort through and choose the one word that describes her and all she is? I know I couldn’t do it for myself, either. It’s nearly impossible to come up with that one word that sums up who you are, what you stand for, and what you believe in.

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This is Patrick John OMahony’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:

Read more on Has Social Media Changed Human Beings?…

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Any book that Ponzi has ever given me on the subject of relationships makes me shudder. I’m a dude. Dudes don’t read those books! However, when she handed me this one, I couldn’t help but reading it after I saw the title: “How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It“.

The review of this book on Amazon says it all:

Read more on Can Marriage be Saved without Talking about It?…

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Richard sent me the following email, which I feel is an excellent discussion point:

You do not come off as a shy person, as I am, but how do you manage to stay so calm and relaxed when you are presenting your live feed to the community? When I give presentations to my classmates, I have the bad habit of speaking too fast and not enunciating my words clearly. You, however, seem very relaxed, you pace yourself, you are easy to understand, and you speak very eloquently while using mature vocabulary. It also appears that you are able to speak very professionally off the top of your head, assuming that you do not write out what you say beforehand. I just really admire the ways you go about presenting information. I was just wondering if you had any tips at all about pacing yourself, focusing on what you are saying, and just staying relaxed. I think this would be a good thing to bring up with the community, unless you already have, because first impressions are very important.

Read more on Do you have Tips for Presentation Style?…

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If I tell you that you can screen your calls, find out why they’re calling, record calls on the fly and play them back later online, and even send phone numbers to several lines at once… would you be interested? Of course you would! What if I also tell you this service is completely FREE?

Read more on Free Communication Tools…

Remember, I’ve been almost completely incommunicado for the past couple of weeks (inadvertently and intentionally). I mixed metaphors in a recent entry, but I hope to redeem myself in this one. Minutes after whipping up my communications communication report, Vik Dendi blasted me a URL with a screen capture of the potential iPhone device. It’s the first semi-legit presentation I’d seen of Apple’s alleged entry into the telecommunications arena. “Many functions. No buttons.” Sounds interesting, but I gotta say that I’ve always disliked (to an extreme degree) any phone that lacked tactile feedback. When I want to mash “5″, I don’t want “4″ or “44″ or “45″ or any other digit series! Then again, I argue that an input device is diseased if it doesn’t have at least two buttons and a scroll wheel.

Read more on Talk about Talking…

Vonage doesn’t live up to the hype – end of story. Hussey’s getting huffy about it, too. Tris is dropping Vonage and having to incur a $150 disconnection fee in the process! It’s as easy to get out of the contract as it is to get motherf*cking snakes off a motherf*cking plane:

Read more on Vonage Sucks…