Having a Baby...and Other Ramblings...

If you can’t tell by the post headline, I am going to be a father VERY soon. How soon you ask? Well we've begun counting down the forthcoming birth of my daughter in weeks as opposed to months, so that should be a sign for you. In any event, we're looking at less than 8 weeks now and we've begun taking these extraordinarily scary baby classes.

I'm convinced that the intent of these classes is to prepare you for every possible thing that could go wrong during your delivery. I've been referring to it as “Scarred Straight,” like those shows from the 80’s that folks used to keep kids from drugs and doing crimes… “this is your brain on drugs…and THIS is your brain after having children…” These classes should really be shown to couples that are thinking about having a baby, as opposed to those who have already taken the plunge.

All I could say to my wife after our 8 hour Lamaze class this past weekend is “I’m sorry for doing this to you.”

Needless to say, all of this is in fun. We’re more excited than ever!

Be sure to check back for more baby rumblings in the near future.Meanwhile, its been quite a while since I last posted thought-provoking links/thoughts for your enjoyment and amusement.

• Looks like HeySpread is an excellent opportunity to help your videos go viral!
• Good article from NY Times journalist Thomas Friedman, who theorizes that when we are all content publishers, we are all public figures...and that helps to foster transparency. I totally get that and subscribe to the belief that transparency is truly demonstrated when the cameras are "on" and we are not aware. Its all about authenticity. I don't think that this is a foreign or new concept by any means. In fact, I think the idea that people and companies can be held even more accountable for their practices is a good thing. My issue is this -> why does it take the proliferation of new media applications to force people and companies to be more concerned with being transparent and/or authentic? Shouldn't you be doing that already? Don't you know what the impact of NOT being transparent can do to your brand / identity / employee-base?
• This speaks to the difficulty of measuring the ROI of social media and social media-related activities. This happens to be VERY timely for my colleagues and I right now, and Shel Holtz provides some strong arguments against attempting to measure blogs, wikis, chat rooms, etc., by traditional measurement means.
• A sobering reminder of how everything internal can get out. Here is a person's posting of an internal Capitol BlueCross memo on the “Sicko” website, allegedly written by Capitol BC’s VP of Corp Comm.
• Web 2.0 applications are not only utilized by the 20-something generation. Look at me for instance :0) Though, I can pretty clearly see my 20's in the rearview I will add.
• Good listing of 21st century communication trends...
• And as always we close with a fun one…Do women actually talk more than men? My wife and I have this argument all of the time...I am still disputing the results of this survey!

Comments

[Kere Thomas]

For the record, it is true, men do talk more than women.