Social Media 1.01 according to JHTaylor
May 10th, 2009 by Julia TaylorA very quick discovery walk through of social media for everyone who looks at this phenomenon with amazement and blurry vision!
MySpace.com This is the space of teens, music and hormones. There are great sites with garage band music and playlists, photography and lots of little hourly and minutely connections. Sometime in the future, someone will figure out how to nuke myspace accounts upon request similar to yet to be developed less painful approaches to tattoo removal. It’s worthwhile joining just to know what your kids are up to.
Facebook.com The original college student only site is now owned by the Boomers. The largest group of new facebookers are 45 and over. Facebook created the verb of friending. Think about going to your local Cheers bar or coffee shop. You see people you know and catch up and they introduce you to their friends. You find people you knew in high school. Its is a virtual alumni party and calendar for birthdays, events and causes. It is a contained universe in some ways since you must agree to who is your friend. More arts groups, causes, non-profits, bars and other commercial sites are showing up and the lists of friends can be of great value in forwarding information and asking for support for events and efforts.
Twitter.com Tweeting is actually micro-blogging in 140 characters or less. It is the haiku of blogs. Twitter is going into a bar or coffee shop out of town full of friendly strangers. You find people you know, people you would like to know and others that pass by in a river of tweets. Twitter’s real power is the ability to connect people on issues, ideas and causes real-time. People use hashmarks to denote a trend, issue or idea like #GMCMKE or #Brewers and using a search function you can quickly find those who are also interested. Direct Messages or DMs keep messages private. Locally, twitter delivered people, calls and information on key issues like transit, water and public art. Authenticity counts so there needs to be personality behind the tweeter. Blasting out urls or headlines doesn’t work well. Anyone can follow you and so everything you tweet out there is visible to friend and foe.
Twitter is truly a river of conversation and I like to narrow the channel using apps like Tweetdeck where I can use columns to follow groups of key people, issues and topics. It sorts it all out. You can use apps that can connect all your sites–so one message on Facebook or twitter shows up on the other and tracks messages from both.
You can also stay up through phone apps. The iPhone particularly makes it easy to track all of the social media venues.
Friends ask me why people would be interested in daily events in someone’s life on twitter and I think it helps to open the door on who we are and our personality. People also want to know what is going on and what we think about issues and ideas so I think tweeting can say more about who we are and why we think and do what we do.
I may be tweeting about an issue like transit or water or the UN Global Cities Compact and the next tweet will be my daily grumble about getting on the treadmill. People tweet back and Retweet –the ultimate help and compliment. This sends my message onto their followers. The multiplier effect of RT (retweeting) is the power and strength of Twitter–it is how the word is spread.
I’ve met an amazing group of people on twitter. Getting together is called a “tweet-up” and I’ve had a chance to tweetup over coffee with folks I’ve met on twitter. New friends and new energy for a better Milwaukee–what could be better.
Ghost Ranch HDR Photos from Santa Fe
April 7th, 2009 by Julia TaylorLast October a group of friends visited Georgia O’Keefe’s inspiration ground at Ghost Ranch several miles from her home. The beauty of the cliffs and the sky were amazing. I finally got around to working with the images and I love the landscape all over again.
Leprechauns and Lizards in Palm Springs
March 19th, 2009 by Julia TaylorSt. Paddy’s Day in Palm Springs seems to mainly occur in Mexican restaurants. Somehow it fits the culture here.
Irish Eyes and Chips and Salsa
I talked a good friend of ours, Susan Freid, into the investment of an iTouch and spent some time loading up apps–lots of fun. She is looking for a good name for her iTouch so if you have any ideas–pass them on. Something interesting like Xavier.
Susan after buying the iTouch!
We visited twice with Jude and Nora Werra and Chris and Storm Eiser. Nice to catch up and enjoy the sun. Lunch was at Cheeky’s again. Tara should provide a Milwaukee discount!
A few Cheeky people!
Christine Rodriguez and her friend Jose Grijalva came to visit yesterday. We drove around old Palm Springs and found Elvis’s Honeymoon house and several Richard Neutra homes. What I didn’t know I could make up and probably be as correct as the tour buses that run down the street all the time. Then we went to the Aqua Caliente Reservation and hiked a bit through the Palm Canyons with a stream running through desert. We listened to Jose’s CDs of poetry and music and it was an idyllic day. When I get home I’ll do a blip of Jose’s song about Milwaukee–the water, the Calatrava and the people. “Lago, Dama, Gaviota y Fiesta”.
Christine and Jose
This morning, there was a lizard under the frig–probably the equivalent of a mouse in the kitchen in Milwaukee. He is now resting a bit confused on the patio outside. He was a bit of a nipper too!
Something is blooming and the air is really fragrant. We have a little cloud cover so it is great to write by the pool though it is getting quite warm already.
I’ve been playing with more iPhone Photo apps and while camerabag is still my favorite for effects–love that Lolo lens–try out Molopix and Redden. Molo does a tiling effect of camera shots and you can shoot rapid fire or slow.
Here’s Mr. Lizard from a few angles. Also Reddin takes makes everything except the color red monochromatic in an iPhone pic for a very fun effect.
4 shots of our kitchen lizard
I’ve been following the Bucks here through Twitter and @Bucksdotcom http://cli.gs/UPjDGY . I saw Charlie V get 4000 followers in a day following his little mid-game tweet but then his coach was ticked off at him. I thought it was a great fan connector myself. But Scott Skiles knows what he is doing and if Twittering during a game is distracting, then we will wait for post game tweets.
Tomorrow we pack up and head to LA for dinner with friends and family. We’ll stop by Christine’s place on the way and then fly out Saturday midday. It’s been a great, great easy going vacation.
See you back in MKE soon–hopefully, with spring in the air.
Saturday Morning Walk and the La Quinta Art Fair
March 14th, 2009 by Julia TaylorHere’s a few pics from this morning’s walk with their own comments.
After a quick walk, we met our friend, Susan, and headed to La Quinta for the 8th largest juried art festival in the country. It is huge and very high quality.
The wrapped wire figurines were just gorgeous. The artist wraps the wire around wax figures and then melts the wax.
These contemperary type of totems were colorfully amazing and had the advantage of great height.
But a real living sculpture were these magical creatures spinning and dancing around us and occasionally leaning in close to say hello!
And what is an Art Festival without some Koi under the bridge.
Thinking about Irma Walker
December 13th, 2008 by Julia TaylorA number of years ago at the YWCA, a young man on the maintenance staff was killed. He was in the wrong place on the streets and was shot. He left behind a very young widow with a several month old son. He was so proud of his family and started both a college fund and working with Select Milwaukee to buy his first home. It was a day we all remember as we dealt with such a sudden and violent death and loss.
My friend, Irma
Irma Walker, the COO, raised 15 foster children over her and Walker’s lifetime together as well as 6 of her own children. this young man was one of these foster kids and the only one Irma lost. It was one of the saddest and hardest times for Irma and for our agency.
Irma oversaw two huge projects for the YWCA–over 200 units of housing and a new 50,000 square foot building–the Enterprise Center on MLK Drive. Irma went on to found My Home, Your Home– an agency that keeps siblings together in foster care and Lissey’s Place–a home for kids who age out of foster care and end up on the streets. She took care of so many people and raised marvelous, talented people. Charlie is an incredible successful artist, Connie is the Executive Director of My Home, Your Home, and Lee and Irma helped a ballet for inner city kids. Tonio is a handsome young man. And Irma still had a foster child in college living with her and Walker.
Irma passed away on Thanksgiving day this year after several rounds of cancer. Her service was last Sunday at COGIC on 40th and Capital. The service was marvelous and so like Irma–full of stories, singing and laughter. I talked about Irma’s incredible gifts to the YWCA and as a teacher and friend and mentioned the sad story of the young maintenance worker in my remarks. The real story for me of Irma came at the end of the service. A woman with a young boy of 8 or so came up to me and introduced her and her son again. It was his widow and son. Irma had taken them into her family and as she said–there was no better family to help raise a child.
So Irma, I know you are watching out for all of us–especially those young sweet children when no one else steps in to love, protect and raise so well. I miss you already but know you are in a better place with no pain and much to do. I think about you every morning and how to honor you through my deeds.
Love you,
Julia