The Iron in Irony

This is going to be an interesting weekend...

The woman that I've spent the most time with in my life--relationship time, that is--just happens to be getting married this weekend. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm totally happy for her and our relationship(s) are many years ago. I think that she's with the right person (I knew him before she met him) and I think that they will be fantastic together. Well, that's an easy call too since they've been living together for several years already!

Irony #1: I'm in Chicago this weekend staying with friends from our college days. I helped them get into a cab yesterday to jump on a plane to her wedding. That was kinda strange.

Irony #2: I've been writing a semi-non-fictional book about a man trying to find true love. As you can surmise, most of the stories are from my own life. The irony lies in that I happen to be on the exact chapter of my life that deals with the episode of our life together.

Irony #3: And every station I turn to is playing her favorite performer, Billy Joel, or the band that we listened to constantly, Dave Matthews Band.

Irony #4: I don't know how much she is going to drink on Sunday, but I'll be doing my fair share! :)

Therefore, the iron in irony is not one that is in the fire; poking is not what it's about. The iron in the irony is the fortifier that I will get this weekend--the shot in the arm--by getting past this part of my book!

Good luck Dean & Stacy! I wish you the best!

OHHH, and thank you Jeff & Laney for giving me the run of the condo to write in peace while you are away. I can't leave yet, still 2.5 bottles of wine to consume! Heehee!

Chicago "Bean"

Welcome to what my Chicago friends call "The Bean." Maybe if I get close enough, this thing will give me a shave.
From the underside of the Bean looking upward.
Kinda like a fisheye lens, eh?
Candid shot with my friend Shelley-Shelley.
I definitely have to go back to The Bean someday with a high res camera instead of the iPhone... some really creative stuff that can be done there. Loved it! Thanks, Shel!

The Choice for Change

If you want to read a moving Editorial, then this is the one that you should put on your radar today. The Editors of "The New Yorker" have written an amazing piece on how our country must believe in the word "change" and make as large a change as we possibly can to make progress at home and abroad.

The article is called "The Choice" and I urge you to read it by clicking here NOW.

I'll warn you in advance that this is simultaneously a pro-Obama and anti-McCain article. In any Presidential election, we rarely get the ideal candidate, but in this one we've got one candidate that gives us a chance to avoid the pending collision of the economy, war, health care, entitlements, education and environment. A "maverick" is the last thing that I want in this age... please give me someone with the intelligence and charisma to make a difference... to be the change agent that we need.

The election of Obama—a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America—would, at a stroke, reverse our country’s image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.

Read the full article... for your country if not for yourself.

Thanks to @fredwilson for pointing out this amazing article in a Tweet this morning.

OWWWyang & Social Media Questions

I'm not a fan of Jeremiah Owyang because his writing style is quite pompous... and since I don't know him then his writing style gets translated to his character (If you're a cool dude, sorry man). However, I pay attention to his blog RSS feed (I couldn't stand following him on Twitter anymore) because there are some interesting nuggets that pop up once in awhile... like today.

Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn

"Must" answer is exactly what I'm talking about when I say "pompous." No one has to answer anything and I'm not convinced that these 4 questions are the right 4, but that is a post for another day.

1. Is social media usage going to increase or decrease?
   Increase. If for no other reason than that technology gives brands better tools each day to monitor what is being said by consumers about them online which, in turn, gives them a low-cost opportunity to carry a 1-to-1 conversation.
2. Will brands and marketers increase spending and will the economic downturn force efficiencies or vetting of unproven business models?
   I combined his second and fourth questions because advances in technology can actually help to keep cost down by providing ways for us to optimize our time spent tracking and responding to social media opportunities.
3. Will social media improve comm within a business?
   This is a question that doesn't seem to fit the "must answer" part of his blog entry, but sure... forming groups that bring together certain stakeholders in a business can help, but nothing thus far has approached the effectiveness of what you can accomplish in one hour of face-to-face meetings.

I don't think I have too many social media / influence marketing folks reading my blog, but if you have an opinion, I'd love to hear from you.

Where's Bob? Two-festing & Road-trippin'

Bobby Blogger took a few days off, have you missed me? I'm going to give you a quick photo montage to get you caught up with what's going on in my world.

After having been immobile for most of the year, I've broken out and taken to the road! WOOT!

First photo is a shot from the Lee's Summit, MO Oktoberfest where my niece did the cutest little dance number ever... sassy-walk girl! She's just the cutest lil' thing and loves to dance pretty much non-stop all day and night. SMOOCH!

The next photo is from the KC Beer Festival (hence the play on words with Two-festing) where a good time was had. Unfortunately we hit up three bars AFTER the BeerFest and that pretty much ruined my entire Sunday. I definitely made a new friend in Brenda at the first bar we visited, then completely copped-out on a real dinner and macked on some chili-cheese fries (which will be the death of me), totally don't remember a debate about preferences in regard to sexual frequency (which I'm sure was more interesting than the VP Debate last week) and then hit up another bar on the way home. I think the tally was about a case of beer, three DarkRum+OJs and two Negronis. Oops.

Photo #3 was snapped cruising east on I-80 through Iowa. It's tough to tell, but this SUV flew past me swerving all over the road. The SUV was covered with Obama stickers and the trailer had a bunch of banners duct-taped to it. I later saw the trailer make an emergency roadside stop... hopefully this isn't an indicator of the campaign trail yet to come for the Senator.

The fourth photo is from last Saturday night. The Cubs got swept, but some lady in the bar was having a Bachelorette or Birthday party (after a day of bocce ball and drinking I can no longer remember which) and she made us all feel better with the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever had in my life. Thanks, Cupcake Lady. BTW, MIZZOU kicked some Cornhusker arse that night which made this MO boy feel better than the IL crew.

Reader VOTE...
Where should I stop on the way home from Chicago?

• The Bridges of Madison County (& home of John Wayne).
• Herman, MO Oktoberfest.
• A B&B somewhere on the Mississippi River.
• An MU game at Faurot Field.
• Tour an ethanol plant.
  

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What kind of assistance are we talkin' 'bout?

I can't figure out where the heck I saw this photo now--alcohol was involved--but I sure found it entertaining.

First of all, the WoW/Diablo Blizzard font really disturbs me. I'm pretty sure that I wasn't at an Internet gaming cafe.

Secondly, what kind of assistance are we talkin' 'bout here?

Third, what makes "Downstairs" a proper noun? Damn, there must have been something down there that I totally missed out on. Given the font I'm sure it was a medieval torture chamber a la "The Princess Bride."

Finally, who stole the periods?

Thank You,
Too