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Where the bloody hell am I?

Flat out like a lizard drinking, that’s where. It’s been busier than a Kings Cross pedestrian crossing here at BetterComms Towers as one project after another expands and multiplies itself.

Sleep? As my good friend Dan York recently reminded me, sleep is for wimps! [grin]

But whilst I have been busy with my head down, bum up, nose to the grindstone, pulling up my socks, squaring my shoulders and trying to relax, it seems that the world just keeps on happening despite me not being there to join in.

To wit:

• My good friend (and possible co-presenter at a national PR black-tie bash later this year - did the Alliance talk to you, too, Trevor? Are you speaking solo or in partnership with me? I couldn’t quite figure out what they wanted…) Trevor Cook has been busy pointing out a few of life’s more ludicrous and annoying events, such as the anarchy-preaching idiots that are demanding real-world political relevancy in a created, virtual one. The internet truly does attract the good, the bad and the barking mad. Trevor has also been furiously posting, trying to increase the gap in subscriber numbers between us while my subscriber numbers drop due to my lack of posting activity [grin]. You not got enough work to do, mate? [huge grin]

• Trevor questions my use of the term ‘excellent’ about a little spiral bound book, Jane Shannon’s 73 Ways to Improve Your Employee Communication Program. It’s true, Trevor, that my first post using one of her suggestions is neither radical nor ground-breaking, just ordinary common sense, but I never cease to be amazed by how little of the ‘common sense sauce’ is on the dinner table of Australian management. It never hurts to be reminded of even the littlest, silliest, most obvious details. Well, for me it helps, anyway. My brain is so chock full of stuff at the moment that, like Homer Simpson, if I try to cram something into my brains something else gets pushed out.

• Telstra has gone on the front foot about this nation’s appalling broadband connectivity (especially in rural areas where the benefits of broadband could so clearly be brought) by starting up a bit of anarchic activity itself. The BACk (which stands for ‘Broadband Australia Campaign’) Telstra campaign has its own support group and there is a blog and a regular podcast you can subscribe to in order to keep up to date with what is happening around this wide brown land of ours on this issue. I’m about to stick the logo on my sidebar. You can find out how to contact your local MP and register a broadband black spot. I remember it wasn’t too long ago that there was a spot in Sydney’s CBD that was black due to the age of the local exchange; I wonder if it still is.

• Speaking of sidebar logos, I have been invited by the kind folks at ArkGroup to present a two-day Masterclass on Social Media in Sydney in May (17-18). I will be hand-hold participants as they create their own individual blogs, record and publish a podcast, and delve into the mysterious depths of Web2.0 (which, let’s face it, as a term can mean just about anything we want it to mean). If you are in Sydney on those dates, why don’t we have a geek dinner? and let me know if you are up for it…

• Max Hansen has written a long reply to Dee Rambeau’s thought-provoking “farewell to blogging” post over on the Marcom blog. Such a long reply, in fact, that Max has turned it into an ebook (pdf). Max has posted about the ebook, explaining what and why and who’s linked in it. And yes, Max mentions me (flatteringly) and I still insist I’m not mad, just dangerous [smile]. Good friend and podcasting chum Allan Jenkins has a very astute and telling post on why Dee might be quitting — and the thought must be in many of our own minds too, some days (listen to my latest report for FIR, due out Tuesday lunchtime Australian time, in FIR #220).
• Ian Delaney, that fine journalist in London, posted eons ago and requested I do likewise (yes, another ‘meme’ post doing the rounds - “Name five reasons why you do (or do not) respond to memes”). In his post Ian claims that: “Lee Hopkins writes a great PR and marketing blog and is very funny, so should be good value. No expectations, then, Lee.” Which is why I have taken so long to continue the meme — the pressure, Ian! [grin]. Okay, then, here goes:
  
  1. They are a waste of time and a distraction from the real, serious business of doing business. Which is why I do them — I was the boy in class most easily distracted by anything;
  
  2. There is a sense of camaraderie that comes with being ‘named’ as the next in line. There is also I kind of ‘I must have made it into their world if they have just referenced me” sort of snob value. I am a quasi-snob, I confess;
  
  3. They can be fun to do and at the same time informative — very often I don’t quite know what I truly think about an issue until I come to put words together for a post; having to make sense for an audience via writing forces me to make sense of the issue first for myself;
  
  4. To cite Ian himself, “He did it so very nicely that I would feel incredibly rude not to at least respond. Curse that lower-middle class, protestant English background!” Too true! I am also a product of such a background.
  
  5. It’s always fun to ‘ping’ those higher up the ‘pecking order’ of the blogosphere and see if they respond — it either means they read you (which is very exciting — I nearly did myself an injury when long-time hero of mine Kathy Sierra once cited me in a post) or else they ego search and reckon you are worthy enough of joining in the fun.
  
  Thanks for asking me, Ian; I am truly flattered. And thus I pass the compliment forward and ‘ping’ Steve Crescenzo, Amit Agarwal, Matthew Stibbe and Wagner James Au — all of whom are considerably further up the pecking order than I and all of whom I doubt will respond.
• I’ve been busy not only on client sites (launch dates on two of them to come shortly), but also my own www.LeeHopkins.com site. Please feel free to wander over to my new-look main website and find the typos and broken links (I’m sure there’s plenty! This little project had to be completed in the wee small hours of many mornings).

Well, that’s it for the next few days — much PhD stuff to do and still finishing off the final bits of those two websites I teased about just above. Just time to mention my deep envy of Matthew’s latest purchase — [sigh] my noisy notebook really does need to go to a new home, the sort of home that cares for pre-loved pcs.

Take care, take some communication risks, and take that suit to the cleaners. </>

Technorati : allan jenkins, amit agarwal, arkgroup, back telstra, broadband australia campaign, dan york, dee rambeau, ian delaney, jane shannon, kathy sierra, marcom blog, matthew stibbe, max hansen, social media, steve crescenzo, telstra, trevor cook, wagner james au

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One Response to “Cool cats still play while I am away”

1. The Alpha Mind :: Technorati Sucks! (or more politely) Technorati, where are you? Says:
   March 12th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

   [...] know where Lee Hopkins is, but where is [...]

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