PodCamp USCG registration open! Free! Open to the public. 11/17/2009

The Coast Guard is hosting a Podcamp in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, 17 November. The event, while hosted by the Coast Guard, is open to anyone interested in learning more (or helping others learn more) about social media, web 2.0, using the Interent to develop stakeholder relationships, and the like.

You can register using this here:

What has President Obama accomplished thus far?

SNL has the answer:

From the WaPo about the battle at Wanat

From Greg Jaffe, about the battle at Wanat: Almost a Lost Cause - One of the deadliest attacks of the Afghan war is a symbol of the U.S. military's missteps.... The moms just want to know about their son. They want to know what kind of a man he was. The dads want to know how their son died. They want someone to explain to them what happened.

Worth a read, indeed.

Timmy and Alice: Lessons from Facebook (ala 1956)

United Breaks Guitars

United Breaks Guitars
From Tidewater Muse

This has to suck... for United Airlines. (Although I guess if you take the adage "The only thing worse than being talked about... is not being talked about." David Carroll's $3500 Taylor guitar was trashed by United Airlines. They told him to get lost and wouldn't pay for the repairs. He wrote a great song that is going viral on YouTube. So, now, Google "United Airlines" and his video is number five in results.

As I write this, the video has 4,563,006 views... okay, so maybe half a dozen of them are me. This is my new favorite song. And I'm not a real county fan. The song has struck a nerve with me... and four million other people... Why? Well, aside from the fact it has a little catch to it, it's a great customer service teaching tool. It's what we've all wanted to do but haven't had the talent.

I don't think people in most corporations understand that the rules have changed and if they mistreat customers the penalty is larger today than in years past. (Okay, I'm not sure many of us understand the new rules completely; I certainly don't.) Today, a misstep can be recorded and broadcast. The old story was that if a customer had a good experience, they might tell three people; if they had a bad experience, they would tell ten. Today, I might tell a couple of people about good experiences... but pull a bonehead move, and I'll blog about it. And, if I had talent like Dave Carroll, that story would go viral.

And, indeed, Mr. Carroll's story has gone viral. And this, my friends is worth the four minutes and thirty-six seconds:



And, I have to think that Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell's star has taken off. If I'm any indicator of how their fan base is expanding... well, let's just say that I'm a fan, and I never would have heard of Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell if I hadn't stumbled on an aside mention of the video. (And it was purely random. I'd actually have to hunt to find the page.) I'm not a country fan, but I've been listening to Maxwell's sons' songs on YouTube off and on all evening. Had I an iPod, I'd buy their tunes. As it is, I'll likely purchase their albums. Well, okay, not in vinyl but in CD, but the concept is the same... I tried to stream them on Pandora, but Pandora doesn't know them (but knows Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band?)

Anyway, I'd love to see them play at the nTelos Pavilion here in the fair City of Portsmouth.

Meanwhile, I'll not ever be able to think of United Airlines without thinking about United Breaks Guitars. And that can't bode well.

I know that the next time I fly United, I'm going to make a crack to some UAL employee about guitars.

It's difficult to preach family values...

... when your own behavior runs counter to what you preach.

If what the Alaska Report is reporting is true, looks like we now know the real reason that Governor Palin resigned from office: a little too much bedroom action (without the other) going on by both the Governor and the Mister Palin...

Photo lifted from The National Enquirer. Is she trying to tell us the size of something?

I will be off net for the next month. Back OOA 8/1/2009. No tweets, posts, or email. Nothing. Dropping off completely. Have a gr8 month.

Signing off in 140 characters: I will be off-net for the next month. Back OOA 8/1/2009. No tweets, posts, or email. Nothing. Dropping off completely. Have a gr8 month.

I'm waiting for my bluebird costume to arrive any day now

I've become enamoured with Twitter

There's something about compressing a thought into a teeny, tiny space. Twitter offers 140 and is to blogging like haiku is to poetry. I had been over at Twitter as @pastinson for a good long while when I was introduced to HootSuite, an online tool that allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts at a time. It is the bomb, and I've gone and created a number of me: @OrgConsultant, @Scurry, and @AnotherCGBlog. I have now created the Tidwater Musings me, @TidewaterMuse to focus on issues here in the Tidewater region of Virginia.

I've been spending more time on the micro-blogging than the standard blogging of late. I would imagine that will continue, so if you want to follow along, do. For a Twitter persona that captures all of me, see @RoboPeter.

This looks like a must-see movie: Food, Inc.

"You'll never look at dinner the same way."

All frequencies broadcast-this could be bad if you're following too close: Request feedback job app http://ow.ly/fiWO IRT http://ow.ly/fiVT

All frequencies broadcast-this could be bad if you're following too close: Request feedback job app http://ow.ly/fiWO IRT http://ow.ly/fiVT

This ought to give you pause...

Got Rabies?
Originally uploaded by Ignotz.

... at least for a moment or two.

And to think it could be so easy to transmit: Mutant Rabies.

Health scare of the week: Mutant rabies is spreading... A highly infectious strain of mutant rabies is spreading among animals across the state of Arizona

What makes this scarey is the mutation: transmission isn't through biting; transmission is through social interaction. It's gone airborne.

h/t to Commander Salamander.

More to this story than the headline

Chesapeake, Virginia Police
Originally uploaded by niteowl7710.

I'm disappointed that we'll probably not hear about all the good stuff that is the backstory to this case: Called-up reservist who lost job sues Chesapeake. There's the possibility of dirty laundry on both sides of this one; the suit might be a disguise for Pandora's Box.

A former police lieutenant sued the city of Chesapeake on Friday, alleging he was denied the right to re-employment after returning from service in the Coast Guard.

Don't dig too deep, 'cause it'll get smelly, quick.

A frog (and a) prince to save the rain forests

Ah, college... William & Mary students set world record

Seems students at William and Mary have set a new world record...



Denise Watson Batts of The Virginian-Pilot tells us William & Mary crew breaks record dancing to 'Thriller'.

Thrilling news from the College of William & Mary: The school learned today that an often-off-beat but courageous collection of students, faculty and staff broke the Guinness World Record for the most people performing the Michael Jackson “Thriller” dance simultaneously in one location.

The feat took place on April 19 in the Sunken Garden when 242 “zombies” – dressed mainly, at least from the looks of a You Tube video, in college standard sweats and shorts – gathered to shuffle, stomp and slide as the classic song rolled across the lawn.

What fun...