Mike Flacy

I’ve had a Wi-Fi iPad for nearly two months now, certainly long enough to gauge how its been integrated into my life.  It’s become my go-to email device at home and at work; primarily for quick responses, quick mass deletion or targeting the important messages for viewing later.  It’s also the first device in my hand when I wake up in the morning, a position formally held by the iPhone.  I can digest all my email, Facebook updates and daily news much quicker than shuffling over to my laptop and booting it up in the morning.  Pulse News for the iPad has streamlined my RSS consumption as well, specifically due to a slick UI and excellent speed.   (I even gave it a coveted spot on my 6-slot taskbar)

Part of my job is to manage a handful of company brand pages, some more successful than others due to the demographic of the readership.  As I work with Facebook brand pages all day, it has become very obvious to me that the majority of brand / fan pages are clueless when it comes to attracting more fans effectively and efficiently.  Here are 5 reasons why those pages aren’t as successful as they could be.

Growing up, there were very few cartoons in the newspaper that I made sure to catch on a regular basis.  The only one that seems worth the time was The Far Side (created by Gary Larson).   Its twisted sense of humor was appealing and seemed miles above the other scribblings in the paper.  Fast forward 15 years and there are tons of web-comics populating the web; many of which inspired directly from the same type of humor from the Far Side.  Here are my top 4 picks:

Wow, I’m incredibly lax at the updates these days.

The house I moved into last month is absolutely ridiculous.  I have a room on the first floor with my own private bathroom.  The door from the bathroom leads outside and the in-ground swimming pool is but a single leap from the door.  The bedroom has hardwood floors and was previously painted a beige color.  I’m gave it some color over the Thanksgiving holiday.  It’s now a light sea green.  I also rearranged the furniture to open up the room.  I really want to create a place to chill out rather than a office / bedroom.   I’ve been perusing www.apartmenttherapy.com over the past week for ideas.

More later, bed for now.

I discovered TweetDeck yesterday.  The design is ridiculously productive, yet the web keyword feature can easily suck away hours of your life.  I watched the iPhone feed and started firing off helpful replies incessantly.  The outcome is another handful of Twitter followers.  It’s a fantastic tool to find Twitter users with similar interests.  It’s not bad for local connections, but Twinkle is still the king in that respect.

I also came across two moderately funny web items today. The first is Where is Bob? It’s supposedly the tale of a absentee IT manager.  It’s likely a viral marketing campaign of some sort as the writing is a bit too good and the stories are just slightly outlandish.  It’s still worth looking at for a laugh.

The second is a Hulu video of a short comedy called The Line. It’s about a group of crazy fanboys that sit in a line 11 days before some sci-fi movie opens.  There are a couple guys from SNL in the mix.  Jason Sudeikis is particularly funny as the movie theater operator.

I’ve been listening to Chopin all day for some reason.  Dead Polish piano players seem to increase my productivity on the writing front.

I took Chris Brogan’s advice today and beefed up my LinkedIn page a bit.  I added a bit of a summary and linked out to the RSS feed on this blog.  I also wrote a recommendation for a fellow writer.  I’ve really started to notice an increase in networking lately and I’m attributing it to LinkedIn, especially after adding so many contacts.

I’m happy with the blog design for now.  I keep tweaking it every day just a little bit, so expect to see small changes.  I’m also looking to add something new to the sidebar, but I’m trying to figure out what I should toss in there.  I’m really digging the minimalistic look right now, but I’m still missing something.

I also completed a quick video preview of Friend Book for the iPhone this afternoon.  It’s not out on the App Store on iTunes yet and it’s certainly worth checking out when it hits the digital streets.  Click the picture to the left or the Youtube link at the top of the page to watch the 3 minute preview.

I’ve may have fallen into a Mobius Strip of writing endlessly until it’s time to sleep again.  I’m content to repeat that cycle over and over while my bank account gleefully greets the array of dead presidents being added every day.  The lucrative lifestyle makes me want to move again, perhaps up north for a few months.

I’ve been receiving an inordinate amount of Facebook friend requests lately; many from complete strangers.  No matter how many times I passively hit Ignore, they keep firing pleas at me.  Facebook desperately needs to add more options for my possible response.  Speaking of Facebook, the new look absolutely stinks.  It’s slow to load and I have to browse those stupid tabs to read someone’s page.

I’ve been playing around with the Flip Mino for a week now.  The video and sound quality is really excellent for the size of the camera.  It’s about the height of my iPhone, but skinnier in width.  I wish I had the camera when my sister and I filmed our Rock Band session a couple weeks ago.  Unfortunately Mikey and Gerbil broke up after our three day World Tour in Rome, London and Paris.