DeRamos’ Clipboard

I don't know where Posterous will embed the attached image, so please use this link for reference, just in case.  Anyhow, I saw this list of "Ways to Be Cool" apparently written by a kid at Cajun Boy's blog, but it's probably been around the Web a few times.  Since I don't have anything heavy on my mind (for a general Web audience, that is), I'll compare myself to this kid's ideal of cool:

1. Motorcycles - No, sadly.
2. Wear cologne - Not anymore.
3. Move to Williamsburg - Why?  Only the truly cool would know, I suppose.
4. Learn to speak European - YES, I know a handful of European languages, enough to say "I don't understand," "I don't know," "Would you want a beer or a glass of wine?" and "In the hotel."  One on the list so far.
5. Grow facial hair - It's a bit patchy, but it photographs sort of well.  Make that two.
6. Helmets - No.
7. Mohawk - No.
8. Designer shoes - No.
9. Subscribe to Vice - No.
10. Psychrock...? - I can do that.  Psychadelic rock, perhaps?  I guess that's three.
11. Leather jackets - I have a hand-me-down from the '80s.  It's now four.
12. Ambercroombie [sic] & Flitch [sic] - Quite possibly two of my favorite prostitutes.  Otherwise, no.
13. Learn to play guitar - I've done that.  Five.
14. Irony - Sure.  Six.
15. Become a band photographer - I'm in the band, not the bloody photog.
16. Wear all black - I've done that.  Somewhat simplifies doing the laundry.  Seven.
17. "Hollywood" - I may run a film production company, but I don't buy the hype.
18. Online friendships - I have a few.  Eight.
19. 360's - I have no idea what this kid is trying to say.
20. Make your own movie - Élan Vital and assorted other productions.  Nine.
21. EXXXTREME (everything) - No.  I am ashamed.
22. Eat more meat - I've been eating less recently.
23. Hang out w/ Steve - EPIC FAIL on my behalf.

I'm not cool at all, only scoring 9 out of 23.  Even more uncool is that I used a calculator to estimate the percentage, which is about 39%.

I don't have cable, so I took a peek at the results before America's Best Dance Crew aired on the West Coast, using the ever-trusty Wikipedia.  I'm glad my first reality TV voting experience made some kind of difference.  Or at least I'm glad I have that perception of myself.  I can't wait to see what's next for Quest Crew.

I think I finally figured out Twitter.  Fellow blogger and tweeter @williamdipini nudged me in the right direction, in that I blog here* and tweet there.  (By the way, William has been MIA as of late on the InterWebs.  Wherever you are, Will, I hope you're doing great!  Cheers!)

Facebook is about interacting with people you know.  Twitter is about interacting with all sorts of people:  Those you know (and are friends on Facebook, too), those you kinda know, and especially those you don't.  In other words, you get to follow newmakers and famous people, you get to interact with their tweets (@THE_REAL_SHAQ, for instance), and sometimes (depending on their Twitter zeal and number of followers) they'll reply.

I sometimes watch Nightline because it's a good midday newshour (for the Wolfman and Dracula).  I follow @Nightline and get some interesting tweets and re-tweets from Nightline staff.  On one such occasion, I interacted with "the show" (or at least an employee who tweets for the show):

Nightline RT khinman stopped by the Makers Mark distillery on my way back from the Amazon wrhse in KY bringing back a bottle for my friends @nightline

Ah, she wrote Amazon warehouse...  Of course, I had to make some kind of comment.

DeRamos @khinman @Nightline retweeted as "Amazon wrhse" but "warehouse" didn't come to mind when I read that. ;-)

To celebrate my interaction with those who bring us the news and/or corporate propaganda, I drank a boilermaker.  I didn't have Kentucky bourbon, so I used Gentleman Jack (Tennessee sour mash whiskey) instead.  And a Heineken.  It was awesome.

With Twitter, we (if you'll join me, if you haven't already) can interact with newmakers and politicians...almost directly.  And "celebrities" too, if that's your thing (who am I to judge?).  Several companies are on Twitter, mostly for their consumers - to hype up new products or for some "customer service."  However, if you're a shareholder, you can use the connection to show 'em who's ultimately boss.  Business 101 regarding corporations:  Shareholders elect the Board of Directors who oversee Executives which trickles down to various strata of Management, down to the lowly Tweeter.  So you get to bully around the low person on the corporate ladder.  Boo-yah!

You and I can interact with tweeting employees, journalists, Shaq, and possibly your local/statewide/national/global politician.  It's a sad fact that in this technological era, everyone's business is everyone's business.  It's a happy fact, too, that everyone's business IS everyone's business.  It behooves us all to make the most of it, or to turn off our Internet connections and live inside a cave.  Both will work fine.

*This particular post has gone the redundant Posterous > Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook route.  Luckily, Twitterfeed is off.

Apparently, I email this post to my Posterous, which forwards a tweet-sized entry to my Twitter, as well as a full text blog on my Blogger, and what I guess will be either a link or note on my Facebook.  My Twitter tweet instantly reposts as a status change on my Facebook.  Within a few hours, Twitterfeed picks up the RSS feed of my Blogger blog and posts a tweet-sized entry to my Twitter.  Twitter instantly reposts the Twitterfeed tweet as a status change on my Facebook.  I think that's it.

Let's review:
1. Sent mail folder (which no one sees this except for me)
2. Posterous
3. Twitter via Posterous
4. Blogger via Posterous
5. Facebook via Posterous
6. Facebook via Twitter via Posterous (3)
7. Twitter via Twitterfeed via Blogger RSS via Posterous (4)
8. Facebook via Twitter via Twitterfeed via Blogger (7).

I think that's it.  There are probably other paths involving Blogger's RSS and Feedburner, but let's not get into that.  I can draw a flow chart, if you like (but then again, maybe not).  In any case, let's see if my understanding of the Posterous flow comes to fruition.  I am hitting "send"...right...about...now.

http://twitter.com/DeRamos

Let's see if I can figure out how to forward all my posts everywhere.  Ah, synergy, productivity, and redundancy.