[My Plugoo] [grr] how do i no if my my dog is dying
12:38 PM
[grr] she is only 4 months old
12:39 PM
[grr] hello plz i need an answer

ceonyc12:39 PM
Take her to the vet.

myplugoo12:40 PM
[grr] i done have enough money

ceonyc12:41 PM
Most vets will at least look at a sick animal for free if you really don't have enough
12:41 PM
it's worth a try... I can't see them turning away a sick animal b/c you can't pay

myplugoo12:41 PM
[grr] she breathes weird she doesnt want to move a bit and will a few days ago she took a little totsie roll out of my hand

ceonyc12:42 PM
chocolate is very harmful to dogs...you should take her to the vet

myplugoo12:42 PM
[grr] i should

ceonyc12:42 PM
Yes... worry about the money later

myplugoo12:42 PM
[grr] ok thx

ceonyc12:42 PM
no prob

myplugoo12:42 PM
[grr] will bye

Donor’s Choose is a fantastic way to get educational projects funded.  I had a great time with it last year and raised $1875.58, to be exact. 

This year, I want to double it:  $3751.16  Check out my giving page.

Here’s what I need from you: $3000

If I make it to $3000, I will kick in the $751.16, because I think this is an awesome way to get people involved.  Also, I’d like to beat the pants off the O’Reilly folks.  That’s right Tim.  I’m calling you out!  (The way I figure it, I probably wasn’t going to get invited back to another Foo anyway, so might as well go down in flames, right?)

Here’s an additional challenge…  if you get me to $4000, I will kick in another $1000, b/c $5000 is a psychologically satisfying number.   Anyone else want to throw in some matches at different levels?  Comment away.

So let’s get started!  I handpicked the projects this year… and they represent about $10,000 in needed funds.  Getting halfway there would be amazing!

When I lived on the Upper East Side about five years ago, I used to frequent DTUT, a cool coffee shop that was supposedly the model for Central Perk on Friends.  It was a favorite spot for laptop users because they gave away their wifi. 

It started with some signs that said you had to buy one item per hour.  Then, they started shutting the wifi off if they thought that people hadn't bought anything.  Eventually, they shut it off altogether, driving some of their most frequent customers out.

And yes, we were actually customers.  Not only did we get hungry and thirsty, ever so often ordering something--but we often came back with friends when we weren't working.  You see, more and more, DTUT became the go to spot.  I went there so often when I was just working on my laptop only drinking a cheap green tea, that when my friends wanted to place to go, that was my default recommendation.  So, while it might have been true that my laptop sessions weren't well monetized, the staff there wasn't realizing that I was coming back for food and drink at other times without my laptop.  When they chased me out for being a "laptop moocher", they were also chasing me out as a better paying customer other times.

So when I read today's piece in the WSJ about the end of free WIFI and power at coffee shops, I feel like it's a serious strategy failure on behalf of retail shops.  If you have something that is pulling regular customers into your shop, and you can't monetize them better, kicking them out is not the answer--especially when this is the uber connected social network influencer crowd that often affects your overall recommendation more than you'd like.

Reporter complaining about all the work he did for a story that Gawker reblogged:

"Gawker's version of my story, headlined " 'Generational Consultant' Holds America's Fakest Job," begins by telling its readers to "Meet Anne Loehr" -- with a link to my story but no direct mention of The Post. It then condenses her biography: "Loehr is 44. She spent the entire decade of the 90s running hotel and safari operations in Kenya." That's information I got after an hour-plus phone call with Loehr and typing out 3,000 words of notes."

Funny, because I got that same information in like 10 seconds, off Anne's website:

"I spent five years as owner and operator of an East African eco-adventure safari company. Despite 9/11, SARS and other international crises, Eco-resorts was a successful tour operator. Part of this adventure included writing Kenya’s national eco-rating policies and an eco-rating manual for Kenya’s hoteliers."

The fingers around this subway pole have chipped purple nail polish--seemingly quite a few days old.  I wonder if you could plot that out consistantly.  Like, 35% coverage means six days.   It matches her yellow eye shadow--that is, if she were a Lakers fan.  I doubt it.  She's reading a comic book--graphic novel rather.  Mice with sunglasses are in the one flopped over panel that I can see.  The man next to her is trying to man a call as we cross the Manhattan bridge.  It doesn't seem to be working.  He is reading an article in the paper about some kid hit with a stray bullet that just got out of the hospital.  I wish someone would adopt all these stray bullets--or at least spay or neuter them to help control the bullet population.  Airwalks.  That's what she's wearing.  Bronx mother admits to fatally bashing tot.  Poor tot.  Never had a chance.  Canal St.  Asians get off, hipsters get on.  Sudden turn...  I nearly fell over but I grabbed he pole just in time.  It was good aim because there were five hands on the pole already.  Comic girl is sleeping standing up.  For some reason I think everyone knows I'm writing about this subway car.  I'll stop now.  The jig is up.

I dated someone once who tried getting to know me better by going back and reading every single one of my blog posts from day one--back in February 2004.  Whenever she would confuse the events of the present time with something that she read about years ago, I'd say, "No, that was Paralell Charlie."  To her, the near-daily account of my thoughts was backstory--years of context to compliment her realtime experience of me.  Facebook photos work the same way--visual evidence of the rest of the life of this stranger you just shared dinner with.  What's more is that it's all content not curated to impress--at least less so than date banter.  It's the animal in its natural digital habitat--to the extent that their digital self represents their true nature. 

It's certainly better than nothing.  In fact, it's so much better than nothing that sometimes I wonder how anyone ever gets to know anyone who is basically off the grid.   It feels so forced and unnatural.   You have to ask someone about their day and what was on their mind--manually!--instead of just commenting on it directly.  To make plans to hangout, you have to call them.  How obnoxiously disruptive! 

Ever think about introducing yourself on the subway?  Ask them to unplug from their iPod to talk to a stranger in mid-sardine can transport with no ability to Ignore or Block?   Yeah, right.  How would they know who I was if they couldn't Google me?  BTW, exactly what day was it that it became creepier *not* to have a web presence?

The web is so much more casual.  It's timeless and asynchronous.  A real life first date can feel like a race against the clock.   Will you score enough points before to time runs out to stay alive or will you fail to reach the next round?  Maybe you didn't find that shared interest as you were blindly feeling around in the dark of uninformed, non-prestalked meatspace conversation. 

The idea of being judged based on dinner, drinks, or a single pithy pickup line feels almost unfair.  I have a whole body of work--over five years of blogging, two plus years of Tweeting and thousands of Flickr photos.  I'm a person, dammit... look at all these ones and zeros--I have proof!  See, published character depth! 

"How did you meet?"

Nowadays, it goes something like this, "Well, I found her after searching a keyword that I'm interested on Twitter.  I clicked around to her Facebook, saw that she was attractive, seemed to have a nice *normal* group of friends, no upside down keg photos.  I started following her blog and her Twitter.  Then, I waited until I had something genuinely useful and relevent to say--something I wanted to say not something I felt I had to say in the pressure of the moment.  That began a short, but interesting, online conversation and then we decided to take it into the real world.  We had real conversation, over a delicious meal, based on things we already knew about each other.  "

How did we ever meet anyone before the internet?