The Fearless Blogger

As an under-employed, aspiring blogger, it’s occurred to me more than once that I’d gladly help spread the word about local eateries in exchange for an occasional free meal.

It’s also occurred to me that businesses might do well to attract people to their establishments by connecting with active tweeters, bloggers, social-media addicts, etc. to help fill their tables on slow nights - and get some publicity in the process.

Seems that the good folks at TasteCasting agree:

TasteCasting combines socially networked people and the social media platforms and applications they use to help establishments build awareness, announce grand openings, introduce new menu items, distribute special offers and encourage people to visit the establishment.

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A female supporter of the leading reformist Iranian presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, flashes a victory sign with her green painted hand, in a street electoral campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2009. Mousavi is leading reformist challenger to the hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Iranian presidential race on June 12, and green is Mousavi's campaign color, a symbol of Islam and progress in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Note: Until I figure out the best way to share links of interest, I’ll be posting them under the “notable posts” category.  Don’t worry - I’ll use it sparingly!

Thought this CNN blog post is an interesting example of the positive/useful role social media sites such as Twitter can play during world events:

Senior officials say the State Department is working with Twitter and other social networking sites to ensure Iranians are able to continue to communicate to each other and the outside world. By necessity, the US is staying hands off of the election drama playing out in Iran, and officials say they are not providing messages to Iranians or “quarterbacking” the disputed election process.

But they do want to make sure the technology is able to play its sorely-needed role in the crisis, which is why the State Department is advising social networking sites to make sure their networks stay up and running for Iranians to use them and helping them stay ahead of anyone who would try to shut them down.

For example, senior officials say the State Department asked Twitter to refrain for going down for periodic scheduled maintenance at this critical time to ensure the site continues to operate.

Read full post:
Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - State Department to Twitter: Keep Iranian tweets coming « - Blogs from CNN.com.

Warning:
This contents of this blog post are incredibly self-indulgent and there’s a good chance they may even be boring.  Read at your own risk!

Been doing a bit of thinking about this blog lately.  I’ve been busy helping others with their blogs, and a bit like the cobbler whose kids have no shoes (or whatever that saying is!) I’ve been neglecting my own.  And I miss it.

I have some changes in mind, so thought I’d take a moment (or twenty) to share them.  In a sense, this post is me sticking with an approach of transparency, in another sense it’s a bit of a brain dump. More honestly, I’m hoping that putting this into a blog post will be a bit of an affirmation, to make sure I get on the ball and back to being a blogger.

To those of you who’ve been regular readers, commenters, subscribers and friends (both online and “IRL”), thank you for joining me and staying along for the ride thus far.  Hopefully these changes keep you coming back for more.  Ultimately, I’m just trying to find ways to make sure I’m keeping this blog true to me - which is the only way I feel I can live up to the “fearless” domain name I’m inhabiting. read more

The Presidential Hooky Excuse Note (AP Photo)

Most kids would be happy to have their parents write a note excusing them from school.  Especially if the reason they missed school was to attend a Town Hall meeting with President Barack Obama.

As reported by the CBS news, 10- year-old Kennedy Corpus has something even better:

While taking questions, Mr. Obama called on Kennedy’s father, John Corpus, who quickly introduced his kid.

“I am fortunate enough to be here with my 10-year-old daughter who is missing her last day of school for this. I hope she doesn’t get in trouble,” he told the President.

Feeling concern for a fellow dad, Mr. Obama offered to intervene to get the man’s daughter off the hook for playing hooky.

“Do you need me to write a note?” asked the President.

“I’ll take you up on that actually, Mr. President,” said the dad.

“All right,” said Mr Obama, “I’ll start writing it now. What’s her name?” he asked.

“John Corpus,” replied the father.

“No. Her,” said the president as the rest of the audience roared with laughter and a bit of glee at the thought of what Mr. Obama was doing.

The dad still didn’t get it and started asking his health care question.

“I’m serious,” said the president. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

The man told him.

“Kennedy,” repeated Mr. Obama. “That’s a cool name.”

And with that, he ripped off a piece of paper and wrote her an excuse.

“To Kennedy’s teacher. Please excuse Kennedy’s absence. She’s with me.” And he signed it: Barack Obama.

(read the full story here)

Fun Fact: Pigs are smarter than the average 3 year-old

When I was listening the the local San Diego news one Friday night, and they happened to mention that a couple of kids had contracted a-strain-of-flu-typically-found-in-pigs-even-though-neither-had-been-exposed-to-any-pigs, my ears perked up. When the reporter dismissed the report as an isolated case - nothing to be concerned over , “bullshit” was the word that popped into my head. (Somehow two children randomly contracting a species-jumping disease sounded like something we’d be hearing more about.)

Admittedly “Different”
See, I find epidemics strangely compelling.  I loved the movie Outbreak and “Return to Hot Zone” had me simultaneously grossed out and enthralled. If it weren’t for my emetophobia and an aversion to blood, I’d want to be an epidemiologist for the CDC. read more