Blunt Tactics (that just might work)

There is a great injustice being perpetrated right now, as we speak…all over the country. Thousands of people are lighting up, toking, puffing…whatever you want to call it, all over the US. While being an alcoholic is a requirement for some vocations-an author in the British Isles for example-if you were to tell anyone except for your connection and your closest friends that you smoke the reefer, you might end up a pariah. A tad duplicitous, a bit unfair, but years of propaganda & misinformation are hard to counteract. So why isn’t it legal? Thats an all-day History Channel Marathon question, so I am going to skip it and move on to my modest solution. (more…)

Hi, I am just putting this out there in the hope that it won’t fall on deaf ears. I live in an area where almost no one does what I do. There are good people here, but no one to be a sounding board. I have a crisis, with this blog and my other sites and I need a good solution that involves simultaneous convergence and divergence of my on-line identities. Let me elaborate.

I am a Graphic Designer, a Photographer, Illustrator and all-around noticer of all things graphic. Therefore, if it applies to design, marketing or writing… I am interested. I also am a bit of a humorist, but that translation to written words is harder than it seems.

I have several web sites, including: ma-visual.com the oldest and home to 2 versions of my portfolio: ma-visual.com and ma-visual.com/v5/. I also have mikeandersonrocks.com with is where this is originally posted, under /rockblog/ and now I am migrating to theportfolio.ofmichaelanderson.com with is supposed to be my professional portfolio. I have several sub-domains set up on that site, as was the intent with the “clever” Domain name.

My Problem is this oh great internets: How do I simultaneously Converge my online identity, make myself more searchable and diverge the personal vs. the professional if even possible? I need to be a professional designer, and a personal figure with a bit of humor. I do have much to share, but how do I do it?

I will be taking all suggesions, and I will be awarding prizes based on whom can be the most clever and ingenious whilst still making me feel like it was my idea.

ThxNadvnc,
Mike

Seriously. I understand the need to make it “more” but damn, even without a job, I don’t have time to do everything that it wants me to do. I practically need to hire someone to… holy crap! I am posting on monster right now, my resume as a personal online profile manager. Ah yeah… thats what I am talking about.

I would like to take a moment, just one, and remove my “everybody play nice” hat and just lather up a Hot Steaming Mug of hate ( and hubris) over the current feelings about Apple.

I own an iPod, this is a matter for full disclosure, and I am a Graphic Designer. You haven’t heard of me. I design on a PC, windows based, with components from several manufacturers that I built…myself. I like Macs ok, I taught on them for several years and can find my way around them quite nicely. I don’t own a Mac, and I am not planning on switching, even though I really enjoy the John Hodgeman/Justin Whats-his-face ads very much.

I wanted to remind all of you Mac users, and lovers (it really is unnatural) that Apple Computer, Inc. was founded on the idea of a completely closed and proprietary system of hardware and software. Most other companies at the time were using open standards that were licensed from one company to another in order to further the total package, increase compatibility, and foster a real market-driven explosion of cheap and good hardware and usable software. It moved much faster than the Mac hardware because very few corp. were designing, building and selling hardware and it was all coming through Apple.

This is the fundamental reason that Macs have always been expensive, and had such a small market share. It is important to note the recent change to the Intel platform for Macintosh computers, because it reminds us that for years Apple reported the RISC processor ( powering its computers) was faster than its Wintel counterparts. This was not and is not true. To this day, even with Open Source software and now hardware becoming not just viable, but superior in some cases to closed systems, Apple still hold the mystique of the Different, the artist, designer, Rock Star.

What are you really buying? A closed system, with components that you have to buy from Apple, which is more expensive than the same thing that you would buy from Dell or HP or Newegg.com. Is it the software? Is the operating system that much better? Who cares, they took an Open Source operating system, made it pretty and now they sell it to you. I am not that big a fan of Windows really, but it is the Big Tent so-to-speak, with so many hardware and software options, so much modularity…it needs a bit more work to understand. But it is quite a bit more powerful, and more transparent to those who use it.

OK, rant over. I just needed to respond to all of those empty-headed dims who think that buying an Apple, an iPod, a Beetle and dark rectangular framed glasses makes them “different.” Be different, be creative on a PC.

What The Rules of Fight Club have to teach us about the Web 2.0.

#1 - The first rule of Web 2.0 is, you do not talk about Web 2.0.

#2 - The second rule of Web 2.0 is, you DO NOT TALK about Web 2.0.

#3 - If everyone says stop, goes limp, taps out, Web 2.0 is over.

#4 - Two people to a podcast.

#5 - One post at a time.

#6 - No frames, no tables.

#7 - Web 2.0 will go on as long as it has to.

#8 - If this is your first blog at Web 2.0, you have to post.