Oh hey!

I just read an article on BusinessWeek about eating a healthy diet to live a longer life.

Those with the best diets reduced their risk of death by up to 25 percent over a 10-year follow-up, said study author Ashima Kant, a professor of nutrition at Queens College of the City University of New York.

And this goes double for your RSS feed.

I ‘m probably not alone in wishing I could read every interesting blog post out there.  There are several great chefs [bloggers] doing a great job serving up just the kind of stuff I love to eat [posts] at their restaurants [blogs]. When I have the time to dig into everything it’s truly an indulging experience. But time… ay, there’s the rub.

I am getting better at organizing my Google Reader feeds into folders and – - please bear with the extended metaphor here – - I have noticed that I have developed a habit of visiting a few of the same restaurants with more frequency than others. So it appears that I’m at a point where I have figured out exactly what parts of my body I want to bulk up and what types of food I should be eating.

If you struggle with getting through your entire RSS feed every day consider cutting down on some of the things you are consuming simply because there might be an overlap there somewhere and you don’t want to miss it. Subscribe to blogs that are as well-rounded as you are and to others that focus on the one or two topics you are most interested and immersed in. The well-rounded blogs will most likely include some of the ingredients from other blogs you don’t feed off from on a regular basis but would still like to at least every once in a while. The blogs you subscribe to that are more focused and narrow are your source of protein and they will do the best job of bulking you up.

The more you know yourself, the better you can tailor your diet plan. And the better you do that, the longer you will live – - the more time you’ll have to write your own blog, to start commenting on other blogs and adding value to the conversation.

On a last note, I highly recommend Twitter as a great sampler appetizer. Although Twitter has not replaced my RSS feed it does make for a great menu. At restaurants, I usually order whatever item has a picture on the menu (I’m a visual person) and, likewise, good link-baiting on Twitter does wonders in getting me to try new dishes – some that will get me to subscribe and come back for more and others that will at least get a recommendation [retweet] out of me.

So, what do you like to eat?

PS: I just set up my own domain and I’m still working out kinks. Next up will be my blogroll. Feel free to try out some of the food there! (It’s really biased right now… FYI)

Photo by evilpeacock

Here is a little somethin’ somethin’ about the greatest woman in my life. I figured a blog post in her honor would get me closer to letting the whole world (or the 10 people that read this blog) know how much I love her.

Happy mother’s day mom.

Man, how cool is social media?

Feel free to judge.

Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog [Day 1 -31DBBB]

A mutant offspring of the 20th and 21st century I have a multitasking sort of background in public relations, marketing, social media, writing, design and advertising. I have an undying passion for reading news, blogs and books and I force feed myself more mainstream media, brands and entertainment than anyone likes to admit most of the time.

This blog is about communication and the way it is evolving our society. Not unlike my mind, this blog is scattered, but it gets its focus back by extrapolating from current events, other posts, news articles, etc. to determine how – one way or another – they all integrate to essentially point out the same thing. Of course, that’s not always the case and that’s when things get interesting.

A friend once told me that writing is one of the most narcissistic professions, hobbies… things to do in the world and I agreed wholeheartedly. I still do. And today at work I mentioned to my co-worker that everyone and their moms have a blog now, maybe even two or three.

So, seeing as how I’m a part of the legions that blog, tweet and do everything in between…

I hereby pledge that I will do so to the best of my ability, that I will try to not be self indulgent and that I will write only to add to the dialogue, whatever it may be. *

Mission statements. They are pretty important and it makes sense to have one.

Oh! I also pledge to be only human. But anyone and everyone is welcome to keep me in check. My comments are unmoderated.

In his book “Here Comes Everybody” Clay Shirky says that we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that just because something is published online and is “out there” it was written for us and we can pass judgement if we feel it hasn’t been tailored properly or written well. He says we should think of some blogs, twitter feeds, etc. as the new journals – meant to be read only by friends of the author or the author alone.

But if someone happens to find me it’s probably because they searched Google for something specific or because a link led them here. If that’s the case, then I better be relevant and by God I better write well. What kind of narcissistic wench would I be if I didn’t think or care, at least to some extent, about what happens after I hit that “PUBLISH” button?

They say content is king but I think it should actually be the peasant that serves the audience, which is in fact its king.

I finally found a name for the blog that is something other than my name. I know, my name is still on there… I can explain.

My name was a good place to start off with for the blog in order to bring my Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook… you-name-it accounts back to the same place and have it all make some sense. But never, for a moment, did I think that it would be  the sole thing to let those who might read the blog  know what it was about. Assuming, of course, that anything I might have to say would ever interest anyone.

My problem in giving the blog a proper name was that I wasn’t sure what exactly I was writing about. Guilty. I’m a hit-the-ground-running sort of person (on a somewhat relevant note I also eat pizza the other way around and start with the crust) and failed to follow the step-by-step procedures for blogging that make it clear that you shouldn’t start writing before finding a purpose based on the audience you are reaching out to. I knew this much – I enjoy writing, I read a lot of what others write, I watch / listen to news and I’m really (shall I say ricidulously?) interested, curious and in touch with the ongoings of social media, the Web and the changing technological landscape that is reinventing the communications industry and our society.

I realize that this describes a lot of people out there so I knew it was important to find my own voice and reason for b[log]eing within such a broad scope.

It hit me the other day when I was watching TV with my friends. To make a long story short, I annoyed them (and I say that in a loving way) when I mentioned something about Twitter, that I had read on Mashable that sort of related to what we were watching.

“One track mind”? Nah. That wouldn’t have been a good name because I try to be well-rounded. It just happens that I’m the token geek in the group and the only one that knows Twitter isn’t a mixed drink.

I did realize that I like to take things in and any time I see/watch/hear/you-get-it something – anything – I find a way to tie it all back to communications, the Web, social media, technology, public relations, my life… those things I am most passionate and make an effort to learn more about.

I thought about “Taking it in” but decided against it two seconds later when I noticed how many inappropriate connotations it could lead to. Some people clicking on my blog from the results of a Google search may have been quite disappointed.

flickr user: etohaholic

I let the subject go for a moment and picked up The New York Times crossword puzzle. As usual I worked my way through it. I filled in the words I knew and guessed the words I didn’t know the clues for by using the letters of seemingly unrelated words to help me out. Eureka.

I once wrote that my favorite words were collaboration, sharing and drank. Well, throw integration in there.

I find it fascinating when I see how much integration happens at all levels and all aspects of life and how much it helps us make sense of our society’s “big picture.” I”m talking “Beatiful Mind” sort of stuff here… minus the conspiracy part.

This post hereby makes it official, “Down and Across” is the blog’s new name and it’s just the right amount of ambiguous so that I may still write about all the things that interest me from (hopefully) an original point of view (my point of view, which explains why I kept my name on there) and that will make it worth wrtiting and taking the time to groom and improve on it more and more.

The best part? Crosswords. Newspapers. I love that I found a name that references something I am hugely fond of and have great respect for.