A Look Back at the Week That Was
I finally have a cell phone again.
After a waterfall claimed my last one, I went ten days without having a phone.
Honestly this wasn't bad for me since I wasn't traveling and I could access everything I needed to from my computer and iPad.
The only thing I missed is always having a way to make photographs always with me and being able to share experiences in real time. Instagram was certainly what I missed the most!
I did learn though that society has come to depend on their phones and forget there are other ways to reach people.
Besides my family, I only had one friend who after not getting a response to their text reached out to me in a different way to get the answer to their question. Most other people kept checking in with more texts are later asked "hey why didn't you respond to me?"
We have had email and phones for longer than SMS, so don't be scared to use them.
It also became apparent to me how little some people care about original content. They create, share and consume only that which feeds the algorithm. The how to articles. The lists and what I learned variety.
Write a poetic commentary on the state of gun and race violence in America and no one notices. Share a link about a local mini tech scandal and everyone jumps.
Online human nature sure is a fascinating thing.
Bentley reached out and I'm excited that I'll be teaching again this fall!
This time for the Information Design & Corporate Communication department. The course is "Managerial Communications" and I was excited to learn that each Professor teaches it very differently, so I'm excited to put my own spin on it. I've started looking at possible text books, case studies and other components that I want to make part of the class.
The other interesting thing about this course is that it is a traditional, twice a week, during the day course. That adds to the excitement for me since it will be a first.
I'm also finishing up the scripts for three new content marketing courses I'm doing for lynda.com. Can't wait to go back out to the studios and film those!
My new knife
It came in handy the other day to open up a sample box of USB flash drives the folks at USB Memory Direct sent me as a gift. I like how they are laser etched with my logo into a piece of pine. Feels very on brand for me and my New Hampshire roots.
This weekend my parents leave with Emily for their yearly summer camping trip. It was planned without Dylan this year as we hoped he'd have a job this summer, but that is a whole other story.
My favorite part of the week (besides the quality time my kids get with my parents) is that they leave their chocolate lab Abe with us. It will be fun watching him and Nadia hang out.
Speaking of Nadia, we did our first Periscope yesterday. I'd been meaning to test out this app and yesterday I had a reason to do so. You can watch it here.
For those of you not in the know, this app allows anyone to livestream from their phone. You'll hear me talking to people because I can see their comments coming up on my screen as I'm streaming. Still kind of baffled why these are not recorded in the archive. I'm sure it is a feature that will be added in the future.
Finally, the highlight of the week was having my buddy Jason ping me that he was going to be in town and us making plans to go to dinner. Turns out I wasn't the only one he reached out to and I got to share a quality few hours with several people I care a bunch about. Biggest surprise was walking in and seeing Marcus there. Great family guy that I don't cross paths with nearly enough.
All in all, a great week. I wonder if next week will be even better.
