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Giving Back with the Best of Arnold

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Since Wednesday was a good day for social media, it’s only right that I give back to the community. Like I mentioned, there’s no serious $$$ to be made here so prize selections are limited. What is a great epic-to-cost value is none other than the Best of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vol 2. For the first 5 fans who leave a comment naming their favorite track from this epic collection, I’ll gift the entire Amazon MP3 album to you!

Not only will you get 20 Schwarzenegger classics that absolutely belong in your collection, but you could qualify for a free 20-GB Amazon Cloud Drive upgrade for one year. I haven’t verified you get the upgrade with a gifted album, but wouldn’t you want to find out?

Name your favorite Arnold tune and win!

Wednesday Was a Good Day

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Yesterday was a good day. Day after day, blogging away, I wonder what’s it all for? It ain’t for the income. Really, it’s just for me and my passions, addictions, and pulp, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that getting a perk or two isn’t appreciated. And that was Wednesday.

First, I was notified of The Weather Channel’s new show From the Edge with Peter Lik debuting today. After an email exchange, I’m hoping to get a copy of Peter’s photo book, Spirit of America.

Later in the day, I got a Twitter Direct Message about an upcoming social media tweetup for the Navy. While I might not be able to fit this event in my schedule, it feels great to be invited and to be able to extend this invitation to others.

To help the music program at my daughter’s school, we’re selling chili, Portuguese bean soup (not soap), or cookies from Zippys. A quick mention on Twitter and a cool retweet from @zippys and some sales were made. I’m still selling tickets ($7 each) if anyone wants instant ono food! 🙂

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/zippys/status/53292000463699968″]

And to wind down the day, I see that my IRL cousin, @oahu_re_etc, got to see the filming of Hawaii Five-0 in downtown and mentioned the sale of Daniel Dae Kim’s former home.

So what’s the morale of the story? Engaging in social media ain’t about making money, but it’s for the fun, the passion, and the occasional perk. 😉

Pictures from the USS Abraham Lincoln

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Last weekend, right after Hawaii’s tsunami scare, I had the luck of touring the Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln was on its way back to San Diego then Washington for servicing. While docked in Hawaii, the Lincoln hosted many tours, and I latched onto one for Kamehameha students. I had always wanted to see the vastness of a carrier and its flight deck after watching Top Gun.

What can I say but the carrier is big!

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But really, not that big for all that’s packed inside and on the deck. It’s amazing how much stuff is squeezed into every available space to include aircraft and helicopters.

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All over the ship, there are images of its namesake, Abe Lincoln. Even the coffee stand is called Jittery Abes.

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Our Naval tour guides were great, taking the diverse visitors to various parts of the ship.

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They talked about life on-board a ship, the basics of a ship’s operations, the training they do, and the various specialties of the crew. We even got to talk to pilots about the different aircraft and being catapulted for takeoff.

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All in all, this was another great tour by the Navy to educate civilians about the Navy, its mission, and the dedication of its sailors. Thanks to Kamehameha Schools, Navy Region Hawaii, Pacific Fleet, and Pacific Command for this opportunity.

Here are a lot more pictures from the tour.

On a side note, since the ship was on stand down, most of the crew were on liberty status, and I must say that Abe Lincoln must be a fan of Air Jordans. This long-time kicks collector couldn’t believe how many Air Jordans and Jordan Brand sneakers I saw around. And not just Jordans you find in shoe stores, but uncommon colorways as well like these orange AJ 13.

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Using Storify to Tell the Unconferenz 2011 Story

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While attending the recent Unconferenz 2011, I saw many tweets and pics related to the #UNZ11 event. I was thinking these words from the participants themselves would make a great synopsis of the event. Luckily Storify allows you to build such a story. Check out the results after some Storify commentary.

Storify is still in beta and there are some rough edges. Your “state” isn’t saved so when you save a draft or switch from Twitter to Facebook inputs for example, you have to start at the “beginning.” I don’t mean the beginning of your story but the beginning of your research. The #UNZ11 hashtag has several pages of results but each time I left the Twitter input screen, I would have to redo my #UNZ11 search and scroll down pages of results to find my place. And dragging items from the left column to the right column can be tricky at times. You really have to place your locations in each column properly for drag and drop to work ideally (try it and you’ll see what I mean). For the Flickr input, I thought I could add in a Flickr photo set, and it seemed to work the first time. Trying it a second time didn’t work so instead, I used the link input to add additional Flickr sets to the story.

Still though, if you’re thinking of building a story from social media inputs, give Storify a try.

And now, on to the Unconferenz 2011 Storify.
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Unconferenz Is About Passion

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Plain and simple, what can I say but the Unconferenz gatherings are about passion. It’s passion that brought together individuals with different backgrounds and interests to discuss their different backgrounds and interests at Unconferenz 2011. This past weekend at Windward Community College, you could have joined other passionate people to talk about topics like:

  • productivity tips
  • design
  • innovation
  • travel
  • Hackerspace (coming soon)
  • food
  • personal informatics
  • outsourcing your cooking and cleaning
  • virtual assistants
  • gadgets

My Takeaways

Innovation in any business is needed but is very difficult to grasp and hence foster. Need to check out Innovation Hawaii.

Mac OS X Spaces and virtual desktops. Several vouched for virtual desktops (Spaces in Mac OS X) to boost productivity. The main key is to assign apps to specific spaces to segment your work and mind set.

PogoPlug. Yeah, I got one but there’s so much this tiny server can do. Thanks to @ryankanno for the show and tell of his hacked PogoPlug.

The Android Nook. You can mod the Barnes and Noble Nook Color into a low cost Android-based tablet.

Yubico and YubiKey. Ryan Kanno provided a strong case when describing the YubiKey security key and Yubico password management system. For around $40, this security system is worth the hassles of dealing with bogus online charges and purchases. My YubiKey is on order.

Parrot AR Drone. Possibly the coolest toy ever. This “helicopter” is remote controlled by the accelerometer in the iPad and iPhone.

And just a few pics of the passion at Unconferenz 2011.

Thanks again to Burt Lum for a great event!

The Benes of Social Media Klout

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Being influential in social media circles has its benefits. The Wall St. Journal takes a look at social media and influence.

I must admit that I’ve had many fortunate experiences and opportunities afforded by social media, the most recent being a Nike Courtside early adopter. Mike Sumida has his story about the benes he’s received from social media.

And of course, gotta give a shout out to Klout!

Kobe Bryant Has Klout

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Lookee here, lookee here. Social media influence measurer, Klout.com, has a new partner in the Black Mamba himself. Yep, Kobe Bryant, Nike, and Klout have joined up for a social media promotion. What is it? Not sure yet, but details are to come as Nike Courtside is slowly unveiled.

When the World talks, he strikes.

And to keep things on the up and up. I’m obligated to say:

I was given a free product or sample because I’m a Klout influencer. I was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

Impressed by Weebly

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I admit that I’m impressed by weebly.com. I’d never heard of this service before, but Time named it as one of the best websites back in 2007(!). With Weebly, you can easily create a web page or entire blog using drag and drop tools. The service is free and looks like an alternative to Tumblr and Posterous for those wanting to customize their sites.

Weebly is what Apple’s iWeb authoring tool should have been as part of MobileMe.

Now to think of a use for Pulp on Weebly…

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