Friday, October 31, 2008

@#SMMW - Subs & Pubs & Big Picture Beer

TGIF because I'll tune in once again to the 12-week Social Media & Marketing Webinar, hosted by DOMUS CONSULTING GROUP, moderated by founders KEVIN BOER and PAT KITANO and supported by Active Rain's BRAD ANDERSOHN. Each week we jump on the web and surf a new wave of instruction and information that is value-packed with a pair of training wheels as we are all processing the surge of web-based applications to use in our marketing. This particular webinar is focused on the marketing side that is applied through Social Media. Tuning in to this forum has given me a place for learning to understand the framework and powerful potential of Twitter---which has totally surprised me...I never would have considered it to be the UNBELIEVEABLE power tool that it is for your marketing efforts! We're also learning to understand RSS (Real Simple Syndication) which Kevin Boer and Pat Kitano refer to as "the glue that holds much of the social media together." AHA! I love these images. They really help me understand the big picture! THE BIG PICTURE that is hopping with excellent brews of easier-to-digest information. I guarantee you'll be buzzed with excitement over all the potential, real, down-to-earth possibilities for your everyday business efforts. Last week we learned to distinguish between PUBlishers and SUBscribers , explained as the two components of RSS (ding! ding!). The Domus guys spelled this out, illustrating how THE PUBLISHER is a website that produces content and a SUBSCRIBER is the reader of that content. Tools like FEED READERS (google reader, netvines & tons of others) provide a framework for ordering and organizing all of your subscriptions. This basically allows the media to arrive in your inbox, saving you a lot of time and effort and navigating around. It's all very cool, calm and collected---and did I mention FUN?!

For info on upcoming webinars, check out DOMUS CONSULTING GROUP.

© Copyright 2008 - This posting and the contents written here, except where noted, are the property of Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

ON THIS DAY, 790,000 YEARS AGO...

This morning's news included the newsworthy fact that 'On this day 790,000 years ago, man discovered FIRE.' My eyes wandered to the fireplace in the room that I took for granted all summer... FIRE, burned into my memory, emerged as a campfire of images...from birthday candles and roasting marshmallows to the smell of fear & wildfires that charged through mountain regions of places I'd lived---Southern California, South Africa and Colorado... ancient memories, somehow preserved, of black kettles over flames that fed thousands for centuries, sounds of welders and blacksmiths...the images spiraled to the dawn of Creation, flames of fire, forever striking the surface (chronos) of our existence and the depth (kairos) of our being...the firing of Light that sparks Soulfulness...that carries kindling from heart to heart,

like birds gathering twigs for a nest... a place to rest

our work... and let ourselves, oursouls

BE... hatching our way to heaven, broadening our wingspan...f-Light transforms our path...

In crossing, kindred spirits ignite the woodburning elements of an absolute LOVE

that transpires in our hearts and transforms lives...

May the gift of FIRE ignite the heart of your work, today, and may the Light illumine the way for all who cross your path, journeying HOME...

© Copyright 2008 - This posting and the contents written here, except where noted, are the property of Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved

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Friday, October 10, 2008

SHERIFF SHOOTS 4700 FORECLOSURES BACK TO BANK

Finally! A HAPPY HEADLINE is found in this morning's news, coming out of my hometown of heroes--- CHICAGO! A great town with 2 great baseball teams (although only one of them ever actually wins), a wonderful stock of humanity, excellent leadership (I'm recollecting the decades of Mayor Daley Sr and currently, his son), culturally diverse and architecturally rich, and NOW, today, a sheiff, TOM DART from Albany, IL has taken a historical stand, I believe, as he is refusing to foreclose on 4700 properties, bringing to the forefront the underlying problem of too many rent-paying tenants and their non-mortgage paying landlords. He was quoted as saying "We won't be doing the banks' work for them anymore...we won't surprise tenants with an eviction order intended for their landlord." Well, the banks may have something to do after all, these days, since they don't seem to be in the lending business at the moment. And while they're at it, maybe they can start doing some fundraising to reimburse city governments that have had to respond to discontented neighbors to clean up their neighborhoods, overgrown and aesthetically disturbed by empty homes. Seems like it's our tax dollars going out to protect the bank's accumulating assets while they sit on their, well, whatevers. Read more on this story here. And to TOM DART of Chicago: THANK YOU for the BULLSEYE ! ! !

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© Copyright 2008 - This posting and the contents written here, except where noted, are the property of Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved; Images from ImageChef.com