Endless Monkeys

Hi.

I thought I’d break out the ole Photoshop and zip out a couple of graphics to support the protests in Iran. Feel free to use or ignore. If you feel compelled to use, please do not link to my graphics directly. I don’t need to risk my bandwidth.

It’s no state secret that I’m not terribly political by nature. I’m entirely too pragmatic. I think the notion of “gay rights” is stupid, I think “civil rights” is an embarassment, and I pretty much feel that any law that gives someone rights (hi there 19th amendment) is empirically retarded. Humans have a universal right to be human and participate in human porcesses. It’s pretty goddam easy. What completely confounds me is the fact that I have been focused on events in Iran over the past few days. Now, for those who may not know quite what’s happening, here’s a handy rundown of events.

I really can’t define why it is that these events are so engaging to me. I believe it’s because I’m afforded the opportunity to both watch and be a part of what’s happening. How am I a part? It’s easy, easy-ish at least.

First off, I changed my Twitter account’s timezone setting to Tehran’s timezone and then continued on as normal. Well, normal for me at least. I don’t Tweet much, but at least it can help throw off the searches for those in the area who are leading protests. Similarly, I also try to use the hashtag #iranelection on all of my tweets, even if it’s not related to what’s happening over there. Granted, it helps junk up the search filter, but I figure that it might help at least a little bit.

Secondly, I’ve been alternating wearing black and green to support the protestors and (presumably) mourn the possible loss of democratic process over in Iran. While my shirts are running out, I am using my FABULOUS friendship bracelet making skills to make something I can wear at all times.

Third, I am keeping myself as up to date as possible on the goings on. This is another part of what amuses me about this. I’m not going to places like CNN, Fox News, or any other major traditional media outlet. I’m actually keeping up to day through FARK.com. Now, most of my readers are probably rather familiar with FARK. For those who aren’t, it’s bascially a site where people make up goofy-ass headlines to news stories and then other folks discuss said headlines. It’s not rocket science, it’s just good and stupid humor. But this is different. This is a band of people who ordinarily can’t see eye-to-eye on most any topic, a group of people who would rather ask for boob pics (but not questionable porn, we’re not /b/ for fuck’s sake), and somehow we’re all keeping as much information about the situation in Iran flowing as is humanly possible. In fact, as I write this entry, the thread keeps getting changed and recreated to handle a large post count. At the moment, the thread is in it’s 27th iteration. Pretty damn good by any measure.

This revolution happening in Iran is also amazing in that it’s unable to be silenced. Despite the Iranian government doing everything in their power to cut off communications (shutting off cell service, shutting down ISP service, letting only state-run TV broadcast news, bugging phones, the list is endless), information is still coming out in huge waves. YouTube videos, torrents, web reports, Twitter retweets, it goes on and on. An opressive regime is actually able to watch as their hold on a country withers and dies on the vine. I can’t even begin to comprehend what that must be like to watch as what you try to create utterly fails, much less imagine watching it happen in real time.

Of course, I readily admit to being woefully ignorant of the political history of the area. Unfortunately, my knowledge is mostly limited to the fact that theocracies tend to be the rule there and each government has its own view of what Allah would want in the area and they go about trying to make it work. For the most part, it seems like it’s been very much on lockdown. The country is meant to stay under a very strict standard. So that, too, makes me curious about the government that students are trying to install. Can the Iranians actually boot up Democracy 2.0 (yes, I know the US isn’t a democracy, just fucking go with me on this for a second, k? thanks), or will the various religious leaders of the area quell the uprising and keep their hold? Only time will tell really. Of course, I do have an opinion.

Your time is up. Those of you who feel that Allah’s will is somehow contained in a strict interpretation of Sharia law are finding yourselves at a crossroads. You are now at a point where you can adapt, or die. If you truly think that Allah’s will is unchanged over the millenia, you are dead wrong. Allah wants his people to be free and happy. Not miserable and clubbed to death with rote behavior. Allah wants his people to feel love. He does not want people to fear for their own liberties. You all are the past. It is now time to make way for the future.

Allah akbar indeed…

Ok.

So one of my bigger projects that’s going on right now is my whole PDX Advice Guy over at OurPDX. I’m really having a total blast with it (and writing does help me to shake off bad moods like the one I referenced earlier) andI’m actually getting good feedback from it. So now I’m wondering, just what all can I do with this?

I think a possible idea is that I can work REALLY hard and eventually turn myself into something of a local celebrity. Granted, I’m not seeking to quit my day job and suddenly get paid a ton of money to dispense advice to the good folks of Portland…

Wait a minute. I really am wanting to do that. What am I talking about here? I need to get to work, don’t I?

So if you haven’t already, feel free to give me a follow on Twitter (@pdxadviceguy) and feel free to click on over to OurPDX to check out my latest and to also get the lowdown on some great stuff going on in Portland!

So far today has been an absolute extension of a bad week, which was itself the product of a bad weekend.

Ordinarily I’m relatively upbeat and pretty positive. Actually, I’m annoyingloy positive. I’m that guy who managed to always see the good in a terrible situation. Yup, I’m the guy you want to just slap the crap out of.

Which is why being “down” bothers me. I don’t like it. Sure, I like the calm that it brings as I’m usually rather exuberant, but I don’t like not feeling like “me.” And the problem is, I haven’t felt like me in quite some time. This weekend just so happens to have reinforced that I am not the person I once was. It’s very frustrating.

If I were a better person (and I am using that phrasing for a specific reason, it’s not hyperbole.. I’m a very bad person right now) then I would have more in my life. I would have a happy marriage (and not one in which I and my wife have to fake some measure of happiness). I would potentially have something that resembles a girlfriend (long complex story, but you know who you are). I would be excited about the PDXBDSM.org project (I loathe even typing out the URL). I would be writing a furious amount for OurPDX (although I have to admit that my output has been fairly steady, so that’s a plus). But, instead, I do nothing.

I’ve done some research in ways to be happy. Lots of great tips that I typically tend to go “yeah right” when I read them. I should probably try at least *some* of them out, but I really don’t know if I will.

What I *know* that I’ll do is turn this to you all. What are some of your “c’mon get happy” ideas? What makes you feel better when you’re down in the funk? While going to random websites is a decent idea, I feel it’s a much better idea to actually engage you all, my loyal readers. So let’s hear your suggestions!

And to my Russian spammers… I’m sure those pills don’t work, but thanks for trying!

Seriously.

My Akismet stats are telling me that, since January 12, they’ve caught 664 spam items.

664? Holy crap! All of it appears to be from domains out in Russia (stupid lax ISP policies!) and tend to be just a mishmash of words and random links to various products. So, clearly, these are attempts to spam with all sorts of retarded referral links and such. That rather conveniently leads me to the point of this post.

What *is* an appropriate way to get your message out there? Near as I can tell, there are only a few ways to put your message out to a large number of folks, but not be too intrusive:

Twitter: still the “new kid” in the social media game and probably my favorite way to communicate to people en mass. Twitter is also interesting in that it can help create instant celebrities (and just as instantly destroy them). It’s massively fascinating, but I fear that it’s about to jump the shark in that my Twitter account (@endlessmonkeys) seems to get primarily spammers and other marketers these days. A shame really. Maybe this can change in time.

Facebook: interestingly enough, Facebook is having a bit of a resurgence now as more and more older adults (of which I’m steadily becoming) discover this tool that was once reserved for college-kids. What makes it more interesting is that FB seems to be taking the absolute best of most social media sites and slowly modifying itself to be more like an aggregation of them. However, it appears that -to a degree- FB is missing the opportunity to just BE an aggregation engine. That said, this may be the direction that FB goes in the future since it’d help ensure that the core code of FB is kept lean and simple.

Ning: a fairly recent entry into this sphere. Ning seems like it gives people the ability to create their own Facebook-style media hub. However, I think this tool will fall of VERY quickly as people don’t want to create, they just want to use. However, it’s worth mentioning.

Vimeo/YouTube: of course, with video being so easy to create and host, it’s a wonder that more video isn’t created (case in point: 12seconds.tv). While a staggering amount IS created, it’s use as a way to communicate seems limited. I do believe that services like 12 Seconds are a somewhat logical evolution of services like Twitter and do forsee more people switching to video services as mobile technologies advance and evolve (iPhone, G1, Blackberry, etc).

So what the hell does all of this have to do with Spam? Frankly, I believe that spam has a limited shelf-life now. While blogs will probably always have a massive share of the spam pie, I believe that advancing technologies in social media will kill off the more “advanced” types of spam, which is odd considering that spam typically tends to advance technologies and force those technologies to adap. It’ll be interesting to see how the future develops when spam is limited to textual interfaces.

So it appears that I’m not blogging enough.

Well, I mean, that’s pretty obvious. I rarely blog here and -aside from this week as I’m taking a slight break- both Deviant Advice and OurPDX tend to get three updates a week. Originally I thought “how cool, it’s a good frequency for me,” but it appears I was rather wrong in that.

In reading the book “Get A Freelance Life” (Media Bistro, Amazon), it’s advised that a blogger blog 2 to 6 times DAILY. Yikes. Granted, I always figured I could be writing more (after all, I am wanting to make a career out of it), but somehow seeing that pretty much said “yes.. you are slacking.”

Now, the problem is.. what the hell do I write? And especially when two of my sites are advice-centric (Deviant Advice) and one is a collaborative site (OurPDX) where I don’t want to just be all ME ME ME. I think that’s why this KATU thing will be pretty cool. It’ll give me one more outlet and also one more source for clips (ooo.. look at me using jargon!). I believe that my decision to register gregadkins.info was a pretty good one since I can load all of my “best” stuff there and have potential clients directed there instead of having to run all over the place to find me.

And I also need to learn some sort of “portion control” for my writing. Speaking of, this article alone is well over 200 words. Gonna cut it short for now. Talk to y’all later!

/horrible closing