Cliches: Any Value Left in There?

November 18, 2009 – 12:27 pm
Date du cliché : septembe 2001.
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Clichés become cliché because they are used a lot.

They are used so frequently, most of the time, because they are true and helpful.

They never stop being true. They just stop being helpful because the brain tunes out repetition over time. If you take time to think about the real meaning behind the words, then they can be helpful once again.

I have had a lot of fun lately out of using phrases that were cliché many years ago because many in the millennium have never heard them and they think I am so profound for coming up with such great wisdom.

Anyone else resurrected any clichés lately?

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Writing | Comments (0)

7 Things I am Thankful For Group Writing Project 2009

November 14, 2009 – 4:37 pm
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! I don’t know about you but I am gearing up for Christmas. I am already listening to Christmas songs – never stopped actually!

But before we get full into the Christmas season, we have a very special holiday. Thanksgiving will be celebrated on November 26th this year.

To celebrate this very special day, I am once again sponsoring a Thanksgiving themed group writing project.

For those who do not already know, a group writing project is an event where everyone writes a blog post about the given topic and then the sponsor (me) links to all of the posts on a given day and we all read what the other people have written. It is a great way to meet new people and get to know your friends better.

You can write your post any time between now and Wednesday the 25th. You can post your contribution on your blog, send it to me in email, or even post on facebook, etc. Then make sure I know it is there and I will link to it on Thanksgiving.

The theme is 7 things you are thankful for!

I look forward to reading your posts.

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Group Writing | Comments (0)

Twitter Retweet Changes – Reply to Post Needed

November 13, 2009 – 11:31 am
Twitter
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Twitter recently changed how the re-tweet feature works. Technically they added the feature to the core of Twitter where it had been an ad hoc feature of many of the clients. But, I will let you read all about it on Biz and Evan’s blogs.

I want to discuss a problem this creates, propose a two-step solution, and solicit your help getting the word out.

Problem:

  • When you re-tweet someone you often add a comment to the tweet. The new way of re-tweeting does not allow this. I understand why they did this and agree with their logic, but we still need a solution.

Solution Step 1:

  • Add a comment on the re-tweet as a separate tweet.

Example:

  • @giddytab says, “A friend’s 3YO just sneezed a piece of apple up into her nose cavity.”
  • I re-tweet and then add a second tweet that says, “@giddytab, Ouch that sounds painful.”

Pros of this solution:

  • Original author gets to see who re-tweeted and can easily find replies to their tweet.
  • Original author can tell which tweet you are replying to even if you are replying hours later.
  • Your readers will be able to see what you are commenting on even if they do not follow the person you are replying to.

Missing feature: Reply to Post

  • Currently you can reply to another twitter user by typing @ and their username, but when you do it it sometimes hard to tell which tweet you are replying to.
  • Step 1 would help in some cases but we can solve all cases and make the proposed solution work better by adding Steps 2 and 3.

Solution Step 2:

  • Start using @ and the status in addition to @username (both for now, but hopefully only one later)
    • Example: @giddytab @54321234 Ouch that sounds painful.

Solution Step 3: This step needs to be done by Twitter and the clients.

  • I suggest that Twitter make it so that users will see @status-number as a reply to them without the @username being required so that we can keep those tweets short.
    • They could still show the username online and on client. It would just help keep the tweets short.
    • Yes, I realize this kind of exists already but it does not work well and an explicit reply to post would really help.
  • I also suggest that Twitter group those replies to specific tweets together with the original tweets on twitter.com and in the API

I need your help with a few things:

  • First, will you tweet this idea? You can just link to this post or you can actually discuss the idea on twitter and your own blog.
  • Then if you have additional (or alternative) ideas, would you comment here so we can discuss?
  • Then will you help me request that the reply to post feature be added? You can send tweets to @biz and @ev

Thanks!

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in For Geeks | Comments (0)

World Orphans Day – November 9

November 7, 2009 – 10:48 am

This is a shout out to my readers in Nashville. Paul asked me to help him get the word out about this event on Monday. Here is a quote from Paul’s site.

The Stars Foundation will be sponsoring “Students for World Orphans” in the Nashville TN area this Monday, November 9.  Gathering will begin at 4 pm at the YMCA in Franklin (map is here.)  The marching will start around 4:30, and end in the parking lot at the People’s Church.  We would like at least 250 students to march with us, but do not let not being a student in the way.  If you have a heart for orphans and adoption, please come.

T-shirts will be available for a $15 donation.  The dot art to the left is the image that will be on the shirts.  I saw the original artwork a couple of days ago, and the image you are looking at now on your screen does not do it justice.  It is an amazing piece of work.

At the end of the march, there will be a candle light vigil and candles will be passed out when we reach the People’s Church.

As believers, the doctrine of adoption is central to the Gospel.  From Ephesians 1:

1  Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

4  even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

5 He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,

6  to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.

God makes us sons and daughters when we were outcast and orphans, and at great cost.  We are far more loved than we should dare to hope or imagine, let us in turn share the only Love that will not let us go, Jesus.  Let us go to the least and the lost, and by God’s Spirit, work to bring the orphans and outcast home.

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Guest Posts | Comments (1)

Repentance First Theology

October 16, 2009 – 9:07 am

Any theology (literally study of God), that does not lead directly and immediately to repentance has missed the point and goes on to cover many good and important topics that will be missed or misunderstood by anyone that has not already found full and complete repentance.

God’s ways are far beyond the human mind’s ability to comprehend. The only way for us to understand God’s Word and God’s will is through a relationship with him. That relationship is blocked by sin.

God’s will for everyone is repentance. God’s message to everyman is REPENT. He has nothing more to say to us until we allow Him to remove our sin.

I realize that this post will offend many and make little sense to most. To them I must apologize and say that I will write to them later, but first I must address those few, myself included, for whom this message is intended.

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Devotional | Comments (1)

Can Mistakes Actually be Good for Business?

October 15, 2009 – 4:09 pm
Bird hits window
Image by Anguskirk via Flickr

If you are close to having a monopoly in your market, mistakes might actually be good for business!

Twitter announced this week that they are going to start blocking reoccurring tweets. That really does not affect me at all, but I have seen quite a bit of backlash against the policy on… (where else?) Twitter.

Many who have discussed the issue mentioned that it will probably alienate Twitter’s business users without slowing down spam at all. That is probably true. Spammers already have very effective tools to get around this. For example, using multiple link shorteners and multiple landing pages combined with a little random text.

But is a big old fat mistake really all that bad?

Human nature notices and talks more about mistakes – see they tricked me into talking about them again. If you want attention, a bone-headed decision is a great way to get it. But more importantly in this case, Twitter’s mistake (unless they recant) is going to open the door for competition from StatusNet/Identi.ca and others.

Competition, if nothing else, spurs on creativity. If StatusNet or Wave really catch on Twitter will have to respond with some real innovation. Necessity is the mother of invention. If you want to become more creative, first create some need. That is good for Twitter and good for the users. Competition is also good for Twitter because they are less likely to be treated as a monopoly by the government.

I am a big fan of twitter and have been using it a very long time, but I am also excited to see an open source competitor growing up, and many other alternatives also coming along.

In the long run I think Twitter’s decision will work out for the best for everyone. What do you think?

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Personal Growth and Leadership | Comments (1)

What I Did Not Know

October 13, 2009 – 7:54 pm
13 Yíhé Yuán aka The Summer Palace
Image by Blazej Mrozinski via Flickr

Here is something to think about:

What I did not know

When I was young

Was that I did not know

And never would

How much I do not know

I have heard that you are never truly wise until you realize how little you really know, but can you ever really know how much you do not know?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Personal Growth and Leadership | Comments (3)

The Power of Prepositions: Take Me Out

September 24, 2009 – 10:08 am
A full English-language Scrabble tile set. See...
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Prepositions are some of the shortest words in the English language, but they are also some of the most powerful. Swap out a few letters and you can change the whole meaning of the sentence.

For example, a popular song that has been going through my head lately, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” can be changed dramatically by swapping “to”, “at” and “of”. Consider these variations:

Take me out to the ballgame

Take me out at the ballgame

Take me out of the ballgame

You could also use “from” or “in” but they would have similar meaning to the three above. Are there are any other prepositions that would totally change the meaning?

Your turn. Can you think of other sentences that can be radically changed by changing a preposition?

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Linguistics | Comments (0)

Blue? Lighten Up!

September 23, 2009 – 9:40 am
9-22 shot of the night
Image by duane.schoon via Flickr

When you are feeling down try looking up. If you are as far down as you think you are, everything worth seeing is in that direction. If not, you may just see a big blue sky. If the blue sky does not cheer you up, maybe lightning will strike and an idea blaze across your benighted mind giving it a bluish hue.

Maybe that is why the best ideas just come to you out of the blue?

Whatever you do, don’t let yourself get down in the mouth. Talk about ruffled feathers!

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Fun | Comments (0)

The Most Famous Person You Never Heard Of

September 22, 2009 – 10:03 am
Stopping for Lunch at the Emerald Lake in the ...
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Who is the most famous person you have never heard of?

You don’t know? Neither do I. Kinda hard to tell until you find out about a new famous person and then they don’t qualify. :)

Until today I had never heard of Burt Bacharach, but I understand that he was quite famous. He wrote a lot of very famous songs that I am pretty sure I have heard, but I am not sure. I don’t do titles. I did recognize “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”. He was most famous in the 50’s through 70’s, when I was not listening to the radio much. That might be why I had not heard of him, but I have heard of many others from his generation.

How is it that someone could be soo famous and still be so obscure? It probably has to do with the fact that there are millions of famous people and some are bound to get lost in the crowd.

I wonder who the top 100 most famous people in all of history are, and what percentage of the world population has heard of each. I also wonder how much that list changes from year to year.

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By Luke Gedeon | Posted in Personal Growth and Leadership | Comments (5)