1. Get users.
2. Promote service.
3. Get more users.
5. Say hi to even more users
6. Build (or inspire) new ways for users to…use. and use. and use.
7. Be unavailable…all. the. freakin. time.
8. Live happily ever after.
Waaaaaait a second….that can’t be right….
I use my little pink iPod far more now that we’re back in the city. Mainly for long walks and subway travels. But there have been a couple instances where those tiny earbuds are not quite embarrassing…but still, they bring a certain awkwardness to an otherwise commonplace situation. I’m sure there are more circumstances I’ll stumble upon where the same weirdness crops up…but for now, these are my top two.
Elevators: big, big no-no. especially when there are people in there…even more so when said people are having a conversation. Somehow, having something to occupy yourself with makes you the big giant elephant in the room…they can’t help but look at you like, “Is your volume really loud enough that you can’t hear us? Or are you secretly listening to every word we say? We can’t tell - and it’s making us uncomfortable.” Not fun. Not fun at all.
Taxis: Okay, I kind of figured this one was going to feel wrong. But I had to give it a try anyway. Yep - this one is also not okay and forbidden. Usually I’m not a big cab driver conversationalist…but somehow putting up that barrier and transmitting all sorts of “DON’T TALK TO ME” signals feels rude and unnecessary. Fine, I’ll be a good person, listen to him talk on his radio and stare out the window. There’s still no conversation happening…but there’s at least the option for one.
Awkwardness knows where to find me - I’ll continue to investigate.
Regardless of the day, time, meal at hand…the person in charge of taking your order and bringing your food is your best buddy. There’s no exceptions here - being rude to wait staff only gets you a wad of spit in your food…if you don’t believe me, take this example to heart.
On Sunday we met some folks for brunch at a pretty popular Toronto brunch establishment. They don’t take reservations, you’ll have to wait in line…and people do. Slush, snow, rain, wind - doesn’t matter. We’re lined up around the block with phantom tastes of bacon and eggs keeping us warm.
With five people in our party, we weren’t surprised when it took a bit of time for a table to open up. Not a problem - we’re good. Bright and cheery blonde guy (we’ll name him Carl for now) makes his way over with a pile of menus and starts to guide us over to our table…but wait…people are sitting there…uh-oh - this is gonna get awkward.
Carl tries to reason with the Dad and his group of young’uns. We kept our distance, but could get the gist of the conversation enough to deduce that Dad decided the table by the window was better than the table he had previously been seated at. When a lady heading up the table next door of even more kiddies scurried over to support the o-so-not-budging and increasingly indigent Dad, the rest of the situation became clear - Mom and Pop decided carting six kids to a predictably jam packed establishment on the busiest day of the week would be a stellar idea…then got their panties in a bunch when there was a partition between them. THE HORROR.
Our hero, Carl, continued to try to reason with the Dad, but to no avail. He’s not moving and Carl finally sets his jaw and mutters “Well, enjoy your breakfast.” before walking back to us to apologize and let us know it was going to be another couple of minutes while they cleaned up another table for us…the exact table our self important party of four had sullied before trapsing over to what was supposed to be our table.
No big deal…we’re easy going folk and this was so clearly not Carl’s fault.
Soon we’re seated and Carl comes back to take our drink order. We joked about sending Daddy-O a “special” cup of coffee…which got us more than a smirk.
“Don’t worry - it’s being taken care of.”
Outstanding. What else can we uncover…
Our drinks arrive, delivered by…let’s say her name is Cathy…and Adam makes a joke about another wait staff prank, right out of Waiting (great movie - you’ve got to see it). Cathy’s smile and input?
“Yeah…too bad not everyone’s seen that movie.”
So there you go. Why would you mess with these people???
The moral of this story: if you can’t be nice to your server because it’s the freakin’ right thing to do…be nice to your server because it’s good for your health.
One of the many “perks” we’ve encountered while living in this still being finished building is that elevator wait times can be long and there’s no shortage of conversation/graffiti in the unfinished elevators. Tuesday was less amusing when it took twenty minutes to get an elevator. Thursday was even less fun for Adam when he had to take the pup down an ungodly number of stairs to do his business…and back up again. Ew.
Well, this morning was my favorite so far. Let’s call it…”The Tale of The Contractor Who Thinks I Have The Hots For Him”.
While dressed in my Friday morning finest (i.e. boots, fuzzy hat and woolly mittens), I was traveling back up to the apartment when a couple of contractors joined me and another gentleman in the elevator. Contractor A (CA) leans down and starts making a fuss all over Harley…which involved my favorite part of dog ownership.
CA: What’s your name, little guy? You’re a cute little man…
<I hold off to see if he really wants to know his name…>
CA: What’s your name?
<Le sigh…okay fine, give him what he wants>
Me: Harley…
The conversation-with-the-dog-while-owner-plays-spokesperson. Classic.
So, he starts telling me all about how his girlfriend wants a dog…but then he’s going to have to walk it…and what a pain that would be…then goes in for another round of puppy fussing.
CA: Are you going to come home with me? Yes you are…you going to come home with me? Relax on the couch? Have a couple of beers?
Me: Heh - that’s funny, he actually does like beers.
CA: <smirking at me knowingly> You mean…his owner likes a beer <insert creepy leering>.
<Ew. Lord. You have a girlfriend. Ew.>
Me: Um. No…actually I DID mean that HE likes the taste of beer.
Contractor B (CB): That’s true. Some dogs do like the taste of beer.
Thankfully, their stop was up next and off they went.
I can’t wait to see what adventures my next elevator ride will bring.
(Disclaimer: I don’t give Harley beer. This was a discovery made at a party once by a joker who thought it’d be funny to get a photo of Harley sniffing the end of his empty beer bottle. Harley thought he said “lick the empty ravenously” was the request. That’s the end of that story.)
The nice thing about tools that run rampant across this interwebbly thing called the “Internets” is that you connect with a whole lot of people with whom you otherwise wouldn’t have the means or a reason to cross paths. Some people use these tools to make friends. Other people keep up on what’s happening in the world, and appreciate the human-ness of it all (minus the fact that ‘it all’ is happening on a screen).
And then there are folks that press on to become thought leaders and industry spokespeople…they strengthen, but at the same time seem to cheapen the ‘newness’ of tech innovation. By grounding it and helping to turn the web 2.0 hype into a thriving industry, bad habits and icky old school traditional gatekeeping/elitism seep out.
Okay, now with that - a little story.
In a week and a half, Adam, myself and several other members of the MusicIP team are headed to Vegas for a little show called CES. When Adam received an invite to a blogger party, he thought “heck, why don’t I see if I can get an invite for my coworker/wife who also blogs?”. What a great guy.
Well, that’s where the trouble began. He replied with a yes, plus one. The same person who did the inviting put someone else on copy and responded with this:
<Other guy>, are these guys on our guest list?
I figured this was just her passive way of saying “<Other guy>, could you please put these guys on our guest list?”. Well, Other guy replied to all, asking if the MIP blog was “ours”. I found this sort of odd - especially considering the invite had been left on Adam’s blog.
So, I responded, clarified that we contribute to the company blog but that both maintain (with far more regularity) our own blogs - and linked to them.
Still no big deal…right?
Wrong. Le response…from yet another new person on this thread (strangely, the original invitee is no longer on copy). We appear to have alerted their version of a code red.
Hi All:
I checked out all the blogs referenced, and feel that as CES exhibitors, Musicip falls firmly in the “should be sponsoring” camp IMHO. Brochure is attached. As a sponsor Musicip would be entitled to several passes for the management/marketing team.
FYI that invitees in the “blogger” category tend to be those for whom technically-related blogging is the main (or major) part of their job description and are ones who have been posting with great regularity (generally averaging at least 3 times a week for many months) The goal of all of us hosting the event is to focus primarily on those who define themselves as “bloggers” first and foremost. These are primarily non-vendors and regularly review a variety of consumer electronics products. We want to make sure that the people underwriting the event get a chance to expose their brand and/or products to relevant influencers via their participation. We’d love to have MusicIP be a part of that and gain those benefits.
This is about the time my jaw hit the table. So now, invitations have been revoked because we’re not blogworthy and we’re getting a lecture on what they consider to be a blogger…but heck, we could still maybe receive a drink ticket if the company wants to cough up some money and sponsor the thing. IMHO, that’s freakin’ hilarious.
My response (le Invitee added back to the thread).
I apologize if there’s confusion here about our intentions. <le Invitee> had commented on Adam’s blog yesterday asking if he wanted an invite and I suppose we wrongly assumed that it would be no problem for both of us to attend.
I’m confused by your email below, given it was not us who approached you but rather the reverse. I hope you have a great event.
Adam was fairly swiftly added to the registration list, digital apologies were made, etc.
I, on the other hand, remain not blogger enough, but have drowned my sorrows in new Moo cards and Designhergals stationary.
Since I haven’t the faintest idea how all this went down on their side, I can only venture to guess that a lack of communication on their side (which seems crazy, given the have FOUR people on their team page) and out of control arrogant assumptions that some young whippersnapper kids MUST trying to sneak into their blogger party…clouded their sound judgment. But as a group who “helps organizations and individuals understand and leverage social media”, you’d think they would be a tad savvier than this. But instead, they want to perpetuate the same standards and elitism of traditional media…yuck.
I may not blog about consumer electronics products, but I do blog about stupid crap like this.
And my cats.
