What is #the5 and what does it mean?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 30, 2009 in Blogging, New media | 21 comments

It’s no secret that I read a great deal. The first hour or so of every workday (the quiet time before other Blue Sky Factory employees arrive) is spent reading, researching, learning, whether it’s social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, or just what’s new and notable.

Using the hashtag #the5, I’ll let you know about 5 things that caught my eye in the morning news. It might be marketing, search, social media, amusing silly fun, or heck, even big World of Warcraft news (you can bet Cataclysm will make #the5 on launch day). Whatever’s interesting and of note in the morning reading, it’ll get tagged #the5.

Obviously, this would be a great deal more interesting if you participated, too. Yes, there’s Google Reader shared items. Yes, there’s all different ways of sharing stuff. #the5 is just a more casual way of doing it, and it’s focused on the start of the workday, interesting things that catch your mind and eye before the day gets busy. It might be a photo, a tweet, a video, whatever.

I look forward to seeing what catches your eye as you start your day.

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The Top 10 Posts You Liked This Year

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 28, 2009 in Blogging, Me | 7 comments

The Top 10 Posts You Liked This Year

I am always shocked and honored to see so many people enjoying what I’ve had to share over the years. This year was no different, and I want to thank you by taking a look at what YOU thought were the most important posts on my blog this year.

The data, of course, is derived from Google Analytics. If you want to make your own Top 10 list, go read this post on Marketing Over Coffee. Sure, other posts from other years were more popular, but here’s what’s been the top of your list this year:

10. Top 10 Follow Friday Tips for Twitter, April 3

9. I was on a boat called PAB09, June 22

8. Will social media burn conferences to the ground?, July 2

7. Advanced Social Media Course is live!, November 4

6. What’s all the stuff in the early morning tweet about?, February 5

5. 5 tips for dominating local search, July 27

4. In your last hour, what would you write?, September 11

3. Arguing against your limitations, August 11

2. How to back up your WordPress blog in 60 seconds, May 16

1. Turning your Kindle into the best newsstand ever, May 4

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Rebooting

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 27, 2009 in Awakening | 7 comments

A lot of people talk about rebooting for the New Year.

So, question for you: what happens when you reboot?

Here’s a look inside what happens in your computer the moment you hit the power switch and boot it up. This is, for the geeks, the power-on self-test, or POST. (derived from Wikipedia)

• verify the integrity of the BIOS code itself
• find, size, and verify system main memory
• discover, initialize, and catalog all system buses and devices
• pass control to other specialized BIOSes (if and when required)
• provide a user interface for system’s configuration
• identify, organize, and select which devices are available for booting
• construct whatever system environment that is required by the target OS

In well designed computers, the average end user never sees this. It happens in the blink of an eye, behind the scenes while a corporate logo of some kind displays. Only when something is seriously wrong do we ever see a non-typical outcome of a POST, usually followed by loud noises, swearing, and other gestures towards the computer.

This is a perfect analogy to how we treat ourselves every day, only as human beings with more sophisticated error handling, even when something’s wrong we keep soldiering on. Only very rarely and when something is seriously wrong do we stop to think about our own boot-up sequences, when we just can’t get going any more.

As you head into the New Year, think about making your own POST sequence for yourself, for your life, to run those daily diagnostics and catch trouble far earlier than we usually do. What would a human POST look like?

• Verify your basic health. The moment you wake up, take a deep, cleansing breath and physically just be aware of your own body. Do things hurt? Are there discomforts or nagging aches that are new? Do you know their causes – and if not, do you have access to someone to help you diagnose them?
• Load up your own main memory. A lot of folks enjoy purchasing incredibly elaborate organizational systems for the New Year, only to abandon them 23 minutes into the year when they realize the massive setup costs in terms of time. Start simple, even with sticky notes, but start a main memory load each day of basic stuff you want to get done that day.
• Catalog and assess your resources and devices. Not just physical devices like phones and laptops (though certainly making sure those are in working order is a good idea), but also your own assets and capabilities. What capacities and capabilities do you have available to you each day?
• Construct your system environment. Make a habit out of preparing the things that will help you the most for each day. It may be a great cup of coffee, a five minute meditation, a favorite pre-work CD of tunes for the car – construct whatever helps you establish the most positive environment you need for each day.
• Boot! You can even make a silly chime noise if you want. I won’t tell.

Try to construct your own POST so that when you need to boot or reboot into the New Year, you have something drawn up and ready to go.

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Winter Tomato Soup

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 20, 2009 in Foodblogging | 7 comments

I like tomato soup, but so many of the commercial canned soups fall woefully short. Here’s a recipe I use to make it from scratch. You’ll need a stick blender for best results.

Ingredients

• 3 large cans of tomatoes, crushed or diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil or 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Optional: 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

You’ll also need a large non-reactive pot.

Directions

1. Toss the garlic and onion into the pot with the oil (or butter). Cook until the garlic and onions start to caramelize.
2. Take about 8 tablespoons of tomatoes and liquid and put into the pot. Add the sugar. Stir with a spatula to deglaze the bottom of the pot.
3. Let the tomatoes cook until they start to caramelize. Turn down the heat to low and dump everything else into the pot all at once. Be careful of splashing.
4. With your stick blender, blend until everything is pulverized.
5. Cook slowly over low heat until the soup starts to bubble – probably about 15-20 minutes. You’ll want a lid or this will get very messy, very quickly. Don’t crank the heat – while it might get to simmering faster, the herbs will have no time to season the soup. Take it slow.
6. Blend one more time while bubbling. Be careful.

Serve hot. This will store well in the refrigerator for a few days but freezes very poorly. Enjoy however you consume tomato soup best.

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Doing More With Less

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 18, 2009 in Awakening, Buddhism, Conferences, Podcasting | 3 comments

Here’s a special holiday gift for you, complete with complex instructions.

This is a recording of the session I did at the Web 2.0 conference earlier this year. It’s about 30 minutes long.

Download the MP3 here.

You will need to do the exercises in this session with a training partner. It can be a friend, colleague, coworker, whatever – but do them with a partner or the value you’ll get out of the recording will be greatly diminished. Follow along with the directions in the session as if you were actually there.

Please leave comments and feedback here after you’ve listened to the session and let me know how it affected you.

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