I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of dragons. Not sure why, but I have. Perhaps because they are mythological creatures that can seem so real. I suppose I can blame this on the dinosaurs. Either way it’s time for another brutally opinionated review!
The Good
The daily journey of an Ice Dragon is a very young blog having just posted their first post on 25 July 07. That makes it a whole three days old. They are already seeking a review which indicates they are hoping to generate some traffic to their site and more importantly improve it. The layout is clean and simple to navigate. At this point they have posted fairly consistently, but at only 3 days old that doesn’t count for much.
The Bad
I’m finding it difficult to give much of an assesment about a blog that is only three days old, but I will try to be both honest, opinionated, and cognizant of the fact that it hasn’t been in development very long.
The Concern: I don’t get it - I just don’t get the concept of this blog. I have no idea what it is about. There seems to be a “we” component involved, but I’m not quite clear if it’s actually multiple people writing this blog or if it’s one person roleplaying. Either way that doesn’t work for me. If it is roleplay I suggest checking out some Muds/Mushes/Moos for that purpose. If it’s an attempt to be cute (and original) then simply stop. It’s not cute nor is it original.
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
Capt. Edward A. Murphy was an engineer working on the US Airforce progect known as MX981. They are known as deceleration tests because the Airforce wanted to know how much force a person could withstand when brought to a sudden stop. There’s a new law in there parts
The story goes like this. One day Captain Murphy was troubleshooting a piece of equipment. After some unknown amount of time he figured out that a piece of equipment had been wired wrong by one of the (junior?) technicians on the project. Murphy’s reaction has gone down in history -
If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.
Ok maybe not so new after all
This so-called law wasn’t actually new at the time Murphy said it, but a project manager overheard it and dubbed it “Murphy’s Law” The origin actually dates back to the old stage shows of the wild west. It was mainly associated with stage magic shows.
There is an old saying among conjurers that it is impossible for a performer to know a trick thoroughly well until everything that can possibly go wrong with it has gone wrong - in front of an audience.
Cite One law many parts?
Though in the modern world we know Murphy’s Law simply as -
Whatever can go wrong will go wrong
There are actually multiple parts to it though only the first is believed to be the original.
Whatever can go wrong will go wrong
Nothing is as Easy as it Looks
Everything takes longer than you think
No two identical parts are alike
If there is a possibility of several thing going wrong, the one that causes the most damage will be the one
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw
It always cost more than first estimated
If you try to please everybody, someone will be disappointed
It’s easier to get involved in something than to get out of it
And more
“If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.
Last bit of history. The above is known as Sod’s Law and is often considered to be the forefather of our modern Murphy’s law. Yes there is actually a point to this
Murphy’s Law (or Sod’s law) is as real as the nose on my face. I found this out first hand yesterday transferring this blog to it’s own domain. If it could get messed up I messed it up. Bad. In fact it is nothing short of a miracle that I even managed to save the content! For anyone who intends to move a blog (or anything else dealing with databases) plan to set aside a few hours unless you know what you are doing.
For years parents the world over have been trying to convince the younger generation that using marijuana was a bad idea. This despite the fact that many parents had used it before suddenly going straight-edge later in life. The straight-edge effect as I like to call it typically seems to take hold right about the time that the parent has their first child. It is truly an amazing phenomenon.
Let’s take a quick look at a couple of ways that society has tried to convince the youth of the dangers of marijuana.
Parents who use(d) drugs have children who use drugs
This is your brain on drugs
On top of the world
They’ve relied on everything from humor, to flat out terror and everything in between. Now days we see the My anti-drugs drug commericals. Like this one.
Can I check myself in for observation before it’s to late?
Is it already to late?
Is everyone subject to psychosis, or just non-government related people?In the following days a string of Cabinet ministers, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Chancellor Alistair Darling and Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, admitted having taken cannabis when they were younger.
I have so many more questions but no answers. It truly astounds me that the world will put so much time, effort, and resources in to stopping the use of pot, but when it comes to alcohol the governments of the world are nowhere to be found.
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
In my article Marketing to get the sale I discussed proactive versus reactive leads. Hopefully I made it clear how important proactive marketing is for generating sales. Part of proactive marketing that I did not cover other than in passing mention is the follow up. In this article I will be showing you one of the most powerful and potentially FREE methods available for following up with your clients. Instant messaging. First we’ll take a look at what makes this method of follow up so powerful.
Interactive
It is a “back and forth” method of communication between all parties involved.
Cost-effective
Depending on if used via the internet or a wireless phone carrier (and your plan with the carrier) this may or may not be included with the cost of your current service plan.
Interactive participlation
Because the communication is nearly instantaneous between all parties involved it is allows for a real-time exchange of information. You don’t need to wait hours (sometimes days) for someone to answer your emails. There are only two faster forms of communications in the modern world. Face to face and over the phone.
Available 24/7
If you can get online (or you have a signal on your wireless phone/device) you can communicate with your prospects and they can communicate with you anytime of day, anywhere in the world. This means you need to be prepared and on your “A” game at all times when it comes to communicating and following up with your clients.
MOST modern wireless phone carriers support it
You’ll have to contact you own carrier regarding if this method of communication is available and the costs associated with it. Most of the time costs are minimal if they exist at all. For your convience I’ve listed a few of the United States carriers with links to their policies. It is your responsibility to contact your carrier directly and get the information first hand. I’ve tested many different instant messaging clients over the past few years. Some were better than others, but all have lacked in functionality to one extent or another. One of the biggest problems I had was the fact that my friends, family, and clients were all using different instant messangers and often times multiple screen names on multiple protocols depending on the purpose of that client. The same was true of myself and depending on how the IM was coded I wouldn’t be able to use more than one screen name at a time.
Introducing Trillian
Trillian known as, The Swiss Army Knife of Instant Messaging was released on July 1 2000 by Cerulean Studios has proven itself to be one of the most robust, stable, and reliable instant messaging clients I have ever come across. The one feature that makes it more enticing than the rest is that it can be used across multiple protocols. Do some of your contacts use MSN, some use Yahoo, some use ICQ, some use AIM…? If so Trillian can handle that. Do you, like me have multiple screen names for multiple messengers? Trillian can handle that too.
The really nice thing is that I only need one Trillian client open to do all of that! As of this writing I have 5 IM handles active (3 Yahoo, and 2 MSN) and “chatting” with 8 different people. I could easily log into more and start chatting with more “friends” if I wanted to. I’m not going to get into the details of how to use Trillian, but everyone who has an internet connection should consider using it as your instant messaging client of choice for both customer follow up, and general communications.
Download Trillian
To download your FREE version of Trillian click on the banner below. It should be noted that Trillian also has paid version known as Trillian Pro, but for most people the free version is more than adequate. Finally I’m sad to say that at this point Trillian is not available to mobile phone users, BUT there is something called IM Everywhere which will apparently allow you to use it on your phone. I’ve never tested it so I don’t know the first thing about IM Everywhere, but if you decide you like Trillian it might be worth a look.
Trillian Support
Once you have Trillian you’ll want to know how to use it. As I said before it is beyond the intent of this article to teach you how to use the client, but here are a few resources that will get you started.
And finally that list of the larger national US phone carriers with links to their Instant Messaging policies and rates. As I mentioned earlier you need to be responsible and contact them directly to discuss it with them. I strongly urge a phone call and not an email to their support. It is imperative that you are completely clear on all charges as this can potentially save you thousands of dollars.
The Rob Zombie remake of John Carpenters classic Halloween looks promising. But of course I used to say that about each new release of all 50 some odd Friday the 13th films, so what do I know?
