Turner's Perspective

Apple is incorporating "Multi-Touch" into the upcoming iPhone, but Microsoft has just taken it to a new level with Microsoft Surface.

If you've know me at all, you know I hate Microsoft.

Those are strong words, I know. But I do. Can't help myself. I've tried to stop. It's almost irrational at this point in my life. So this post would be hard to write if this weren't so amazing.

This is the first truly amazing thing I've seen out of Redmond in a long, long time. Popular Mechanics has a great behind-the-scenes first look in video form. I've watched it several times and am still shaking my head. I had to delay my drive this morning to write about it.

"Gattis took out a digital camera and placed it on the Surface. Instantly, digital pictures spilled out onto the tabletop. As Gattis touched and dragged each picture, it followed his fingers around the screen. Using two fingers, he pulled the corners of a photo and stretched it to a new size. Then, Gattis put a cellphone on the surface and dragged several photos to it — just like that, the pictures uploaded to the phone. It was like a magic trick." - from Popular Mechanics.

I put up a video from Perceptive Pixel's Jeff Han at JustDugUp.com a while back, but the Surface computer takes this to a new level by recognizing objects placed on the surface. Right now this is only being built for commercial use, but I can see this in a large real estate office without any stretch of the imagination. Price? $5,000 - $10,000. As Jeff Han says, eventually this will trickle down to affordable home use. The iPhone will be the first common example of this in smaller format, but the form factor on this new device is what really makes it special.

If you don't do anything else geeky today, go watch these demos.

Google launched a new map feature today for San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, Denver and New York. It's called Street View.

And it rocks pretty darn hard. It's a souped up version of the now defunct A9 project that was called Blockview. It's up and live as of this afternoon. The announcement was made today at the Where 2.0.

In those four cities, the 3D views are available along major streets and points of interest. Google worked on portion of this with Immersive Media to produce the views. Some of this, however was done with Google Earth's own technologies. San Francisco and South Bay, for example are at very high resolutions and done completely by the Google folks.

Why It's Called Street View

For now, the Google experience only allows you to move along at street level, thus the name. But the full experience of looking up and around can be found at the Immersive Media site.

The image to the right links to this google Street View map along South Las Vegas Boulevard. It's right in front of my favorite hotel, The Bellagio. This is a truly interactive 3D experience. You can change your angle of view and move along the street while maintaining that angle. If you head north in my map example, you can actually turn into the Bellagio driveway and go right up to the valet entrance.

The word in the tech industry is that they've got a whole bunch of other cities already mapped, so look for some updates quick on the heals of this announcement. Talk about Localism!

The consumer experience in these cities has been greatly enriched today. Go check it out for yourself. You can bet this interactive geotagging is only going to become more common.

Oh... and there's already a goofy youtube video from Google.

I felt a bit like EF Hutton this morning.

When I found ARDELL DellaLoggia's post titled Jeff Turner Speaks - Project Blogger, I was caught a bit off guard, but after reading my comment again, not surprised. As I read my comment again, I could easily understand how they could feel the way they felt. It's so easy for our written words to be heard by the reader in a way that's different from how we're hearing them in our head. How a reader reads a sentence has as much, if not more to do with their state of mind as it does with the writers state of mind.

This is why it's so important to take care with our writing. In the case of my comment to Kevin, I was actually trying to accomplish exactly the opposite of what I ultimately accomplished. I wanted to put my reaction to Kevin's post behind us and move forward. I wasn't trying to offend, but congratulate. I was trying to pay a compliment. That didn't come across. I'm quite certain that if I could have delivered these exact same words in person, it would have been received in the spirit it was intended.

But, that's not their fault. It's my fault. (I say in the video below that it's "partly" my fault, but that's not accurate.) I'ts 100% my responsibility, as a communicator, to take care with my words and clearly communicate my state of mind. I should NEVER leave that up for interpretation. It is my responsibility to make certain the reader understands my intent. It's important for us all to be reminded of this!

In the end, something very positive has come from this. Ardell and Kevin's offer to donate to A Child's Right via Mothers Fighting For Others if they win is more than generous. So I wanted to take a different approach with this post. Sometimes only a video message will do. Jackie uses video very well on her blog. I'm not sure how others feel about video on blogs and I certainly feel video can be over used easily, but I think there are good reasons and times to use videos. One good time to use a video is when you want the real you to come through loud and clear.

In this case, that's exactly what I want. (Note: I probably should have shaved my head, gone to bed earlier and thrown on something other than a t-shirt... but hey, this is the real me.)

I must get asked this questions 5 times each week - "What the heck is an RSS Feed?"

If you've been on AR for very long, you know that lots of folks here have done a good job of trying to explain it in simple terms. Often, even the non-geek attempts go over some folks heads. I was about to take a whack at making it even easier to understand for a post on the RES blog. But, as is sometimes the case, I ran across a post out in the blogosphere that I think does a better job of boiling it down into plain English than I ever could have done. I wish I had written it! Luckily, I don't have to now.

Stephanie Quilao nailed it. It's on her Back In Skinny Jeans blog and it's entitled "How To Explain RSS The Oprah Way."

Here's an excerpt:

"The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?"

Dave Morehead understands the true meaning of Memorial Day. A few days ago, after reading about our Memorial Day idea, Dave shared with me a couple of short, but powerful emails and a Show he created as a tribute to a fallen friend.

Jeff, Thank you for sharing your idea. Thought you might like to see what I did last night using your idea. Thanks for allowing me to finally be able to come to terms with that whole nightmare of what so many of us, both as Vets and as a nation, went through. Dave. [A Tribute To My Best Friend]

I see a lot of Shows. So it takes a lot to make me tear up. Dave’s show made me well up with tears. So, I asked Dave for permission to share his Show and his story with everyone on Memorial Day.

Continued Here

I don't get out much.

Martin Rodriguez knows this. He's my next door neighbor. So when he called to invite me to go to a Dodger game with him, it wasn't so much an invitation as it was an order. "Hey, I know you're not a big Dodge Fan, but you're going to a game next Wednesday. Clear it with Rocky." A neighbor knows your wife's name. A good neighbor also knows when your wife wears the pants in the family . :)

He's not usually that aggressive, so to be frank, he kind of freaked me out a bit. I was truly afraid to say no. I'm glad I didn't.

Martin scored four tickets to the Dodger's Dugout Club.

For those not familiar, this is the absolute best place you can be in Dodger Stadium. The Club is right behind home plate and the tickets come with everything, including Dodger Dogs. Those in LA are going to kill me for saying this, but I've never understood what the big deal was about Dodger Dogs, so I opted for the Wolfgang Puck and Levy Restaurants buffet.

Nothing says baseball more than Roast Pork rubbed with Italian seasonings.

Martin also invited John Evarts of Classic Property Management of Santa Clarita and Arif Halaby of Total Financial Solutions. Both guys were a pleasure to be around and all three of them knew more about the Dodgers than I'm EVER going to know, so  they were my own private game color commentators.

The Dodgers won and the game was great, but the game was really secondary.

Tommy Lasorda was hanging out when we arrived, so we got our photo taken with him. Larry King was within spitting distance. And Alyssa Milano was in the row behind us. Guess which one got more of my attention? 

Now, I could have walked up to either of them and asked to take a photo with them as well, but trying to get a photo on the sly was WAY more fun. I felt like one of those photographers for the Planet Earth series, hiding in the jungle for weeks waiting for just the right moment. Alyssa was tough to photograph. She's a major Dodger fan, so she spent much of the game with her ear pressed against a radio listening to the play by play. But I don't give up easily. The Show below will give you a glimpse of the winning shot. :)

Martin, John and Arif were content to let me play my little photo safari game. They teased me all night about my efforts, but I know they were secretly rooting for me to get the shot as much as they were rooting for the Dodgers to win the game - as evidenced by John's emails today asking for the photo. As if I'm going to share it with him.

All kidding aside, I haven't had that much fun with a group of guys in a long time. See for yourself.

Martin, thank you again for a great evening.

If you've ever read Sarah Cooper's blog here on ActiveRain,
you know she's a big fan of RealEstateShows.com

I can't count the number of times someone has commented on one of her posts, "Sarah, those guys at RealEstateShows.com should be paying you." Given her level of enthusiasm and the creative ways she used the product, those comments weren't surprising to me. But they did plant a seed. :)

Well, now we are paying her. We love her voice. We love her spirit. We felt strongly that her values and our values were aligned and that having her add value consistently would be good for everyone involved. So, starting today, Sarah Cooper is an official professional blogger. She'll be writing about how to best use RealEstateShows.com to market yourself. Her first post on the RealEstateShows.com blog came out today: First Things First - Helping A New Agent.

Sarah won't be quitting her day job. She will still be working as a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Advantage in Hurricane, West Virginia. But she is now an official member of our team, even if only part-time. Thanks to everyone who made those comments. You put the thought in our heads and we're glad you did. We could not be happier!

And I think you'll agree... we're lucky to have her.  

I see a lot of the photos that roll through our system. The vast, vast majority are shot at eye level.

It's certainly understandable. It's natural. But it's also unfortunate. There's a lot of ways to shoot any room and if you're shooting your own photos, exploring more of those ways is wise. Even a slight change in perspective can make a huge difference in how a room feels. And, because it will be a bit out of the ordinary, it could create some visual drama that will set the photo apart. 

The photo above on was shot using the Kodak v705’s ultra wide angle lens. You'll notice a couple of things about this photo if you look closely. First, the ceiling. There's nothing special about this ceiling, so you really don't need it in the photo. Second, the back of the couch. The back of the couch just gets in the way. When taking this photo, you want to minimize both of those. But at eye level, you really can't.

The photo below was shot from the exact same spot, only standing on a chair.

You'll notice that the ceiling is now nowhere to bee seen. The focus on the couch is also lessened, since we're seeing more of the sitting area and a lot more of the floor space. You want people to focus on the good stuff. You don’t want their minds to wander off thinking about anything other than what you want them to be thinking about. You may be looking at these two photos and saying, "yeah, I can see a difference, but it's not that big." No, it's not. But every little bit helps and sometimes the little things can make a big difference. 

So, next time you're shooting a room, give this a try. Just grab a nearby chair and change your perspective. It only takes a few seconds. Some shots might justify climbing up on a ladder to make it even more dramatic. See if it makes a difference for you. 

Note: I want to thank Martin Rodriguez for allowing me to use his family room for this post!

I've had this video saved as a draft post since May 2.

It was sent to me by Joe Fenton, saying I might want to put it up on my JustDugUp.com site, the one I use when I don't have time for a real post. My response - this deserved a post. I never got to it and, in my opinion, it's old news. 

The video hit me at an emotional level. I don't have the time to verify all the facts presented, but I've found no blogger refuting them. It's beside the point. I've wanted to post about it since May 2.

Why today? I mean, if it's old news, why now? Bill Leider sent me an email this morning that clearly illustrated just how fast things are moving - Google Creates Uber Search Site. His only comment... "The gap widens." And shift happens again.

You should read the article. Here's the understatement of the century... you need to watch Google.

I decided to test the new features myself using the search term "Shift Happens." As advertised, the video, in new Google form showed up as a viewable object right in the google search results. I didn't have to leave the page to watch the video. Try it for yourself.

Shift Happens. It's happening every day. It's happening at lightning speed.

But it wouldn't have happened without my writing here on ActiveRain.

That's a fact. While the official announcement and invitation copy can be found on the RealEstateShows.com Blog, Jeff Turner To Speak At Real Estate Connect, the real story is here. 

There is no question in my mind... If I had not written Make It Personal: No, There's No Template To Follow, you would not be reading this announcement right now. That post was my awakening to the power of blogging. That post helped me understand that I had something more to offer. It was my realization that this medium had staying power. Were it not for my exposure here on ActiveRain, Brad Inman and Joel Burslem might never have paid any attention to me or RealEstateShows.com.

As a result, this ActiveRain member is honored to accept the invitation to speak at Real Estate Connect. I will be part of their Internet Marketing Bootcamp. This is a featured ½ day program for brokers and agents. The session is:

• Session: Video and Your Business: Your Personal Video Profile, Your Houses & Your Company
• Date: August 1, 2007
• Time: 9:30am – 10:15am

I'm excited about being a part of this Real Estate Connect. But I'm just as excited about being able to meet as many of the friends I've made here on ActiveRain as possible.

So, if you're going, please stop by this session and say hi. I'll look forward to it! That's also a fact.

"When Julie Ferenzi of Plainfield read an online journal about a baby boy who was given six to eights weeks to live and needed a bone marrow donor, she went into action." Catherine Ann Velasco, The Herald News

Several weeks ago, you may remember a post by Julie Ferenzi entitled, This Has Nothing To Do With Real Estate But Everything To Do With Humanity. She wrote about a little boy named Trevor Kott who urgently needed a bone marrow transplant. She wrote from her heart. "I don't know why I feel it is my duty to help this family find this very special person who will save their little boy... but I do know one thing. Trevor hasn't given up and neither am I." 

When Trevor passed away, Julie still didn't give up. She organized a bone marrow drive in Plainfield, Illinois and she talked about it, not just on ActiveRain, but on CafeMom and Mother's Fighting For Others and her own Living In Plainfield blog.

The result?

A successful bone marrow drive generates 30 new registered donors. Julie got 50. Her post, I Had An Amazing Mother's Day Weekend, is a post that will not fail to bring a smile to your face.

Blogging has allowed Julie to share her voice in ways she was unable to imagine before the Project Blogger competition began. She intuitively understands that the goal should be to connect with real people in a real way and on a personal level. You can't fake this stuff. You can't force it into being. And she doesn't. This is who she is and it comes through loud and clear.

The headline in The Herald News said it all for me, Plainfield Mom Sets Up Bone Marrow Drive. Julie is a Plainfield, Illinois Mom who takes action and gets the job done. If she's to be as successful in her real estate career as she was with this bone marrow drive, that simple fact will have to come through in everything she does and everything she writes. And it will.

She would have done the drive without blogging. Don't get me wrong here. But her writing and connecting is the reason why the photo in you see here is even possible. That's Julie and Tracy Herring, a friend she met through their writings online at CafeMom. Julie likes to call it MySpace for Moms. I prefer to call it ActiveRain for Moms. Either way, the point is the same. Whether you're blogging for business or blogging for personal reasons, what we're all looking for is a way to connect with real, live human beings. It's about You Engaging Others, YEO.

I was so happy for Julie this weekend. She was able to truly engage others in a way that made a difference. You can't ask for more than that.  

I hike every weekend with my kids. We've got lots of great places to hike around Southern California. 

It's a good workout. It gets me alone with my kids for hours at a time. And it allows me to take some photos, which I love to do. I usually focus on the big picture - panoramas, the mountains and trails. Yesterday, I decided I'd test my favorite little point and shoot out on the details.

The photos below were taken during a hike at Placerita Canyon Natural Area using the automatic preset for flowers that is built into the Kodak V705. I used the full zoom in each of the photos. As you can see, I was able to capture some very small Red Spiders and an active Bee. These are linked to their larger images on Localism.com.

Could I have gotten better photos with my Canon EOS Digital SLR? Probably. But it doesn't fit in the pocket of my hiking pants. :)

Want to introduce yourself to your readers?

Want to highlight an upcoming event?

Bubble Guru may be just the right way to draw attention. It's beta 3, so it's still a little buggy. But if it's working you saw a little video pop up in a bubble on this page. It will only pop up the first time you visit this page for any session. So, if you didn't see it, you were probably on this blog once already today. Close your browser and come back. You should see it.

I created mine in less than 2 minutes, from sign up to position in my settings here on AR. Then I recorded a different video and it updated automatically. So, changing your message doesn't require that your edit any existing code.

Step 1: Record Your Video

Step 2: Set Your Playback Options

Step 3: Add their tag to your description. 

Now... would I leave it up all the time? Probably not. I'd want to use it to highlight something important. I'm going to leave it up for a while and change the messages, just to illustrate how it works, but after this trial period, I'll only use it when I have something important I want to say. Or when I want to flirt with TLW. Whichever comes first.

:)

Wordpress Update: when this code is inserted into the html code of a single post on a self hosted Wordpress blog, it works. The bubble only pops up the first time that post is viewed, whether that is on the main page of your blog, or when you are directed to it. It will not pop up a second time when you click on the post to comment. This is a good thing. I have yet to get it to work by inserting into any index, post, header, footer or other template. For now, I can only verify that it works with insertion into a post. My guess is that someone will build a specific plugin for this one.

TypePad Update: I have not been able to make it work at all in TypePad. I tested inside a Notes TypeList and inside a blog post and neither initiated the Bubble.  I will continue testing.

Wordpress.com Update: This will not work with a Wordpress.com blog. 

5.14.07 UPDATE: I HAVE TAKEN THIS OFF, SINCE IT APPEARS TO BE CAUSING PROBLEMS WITH SOME ON INTERNET EXPLORER 7. IT WORKS FINE WITH FIREFOX. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED THIS IS JUST ONE OF MANY REASONS TO STOP USING IE7. I HAVE SENT SUPPORT MESSAGES TO THE GURU'S AT BUBBLE GURU AND I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHAT COMES FROM IT. YOU'LL KNOW IF THEY'VE MADE A CHANGE BECAUSE MY FACE WILL POP UP AGAIN! 

I don't know what took me so long to find this... all it took was one quick little Google search on "make a widget."

I've wanted to put a feed from a couple of my other blogs down the right side of this blog for a long time now. Unfortunately that desire never translated to action until today. Don't think I'm not kicking myself.

If you look to the right, you'll see two new RSS feeds filling in the side of my blog here on ActiveRain. These were made at Grazr.com. Grazr.com has a bunch of other features, but to use this one you don't even need to register. The process is so painfully simple I almost hesitate to write too much about it. I fear I'll over complicate it.

Here are the steps:

1. Enter a feed.
2. Customize the widget. The ones to the right use the default theme, in slider view, 215 width and 360 pixel depth.  Arial, 8pt type.
3. Get the code. Choose Generic Blogging Tool > Sidebar. The copy the code from the first field, the "Embedded Grazr Widget" field.
4. Past the code here on AR. Select "My Settings" and then paste the code anywhere in your Blog Description field you wish it to appear.
5. Hit update. Go back to your blog and see it in place.

This won't work inside a post, only in the sidebar using the blog settings. 

This will, of course, work with any RSS feed. 

If you're from Grafton, West Virginia,
you learn the history of Mother's Day at an early age. 

Why? Because the first Official Mother's Day church service was held in the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Grafton on May 10, 1908. I was born in Grafton, WV. I still have a farm there that we visit each summer. As a young boy, I took great pride in this piece of Mother's Day history. Even now, as an adult, it is a source of pride. The fact that my wife now writes a blog called Muthahood.com only strengthens that pride. But it's only part of the story.

Mother's Day Is An Important Part Of
The History Of The Women's Rights Movement.

I grew up thinking that Grafton native, Anna Jarvis, created the idea for Mother's day. This is not the case.

The concept of Mother's Day was first put forth by Julia Ward Howe. She is best known for writing Battle Hymn of the Republic, but she was also extremely active in the women's rights movement. Nine years after writing that song, she wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation that called on Mother of the world to unite for peace. I did not know this fact until this week. Again, I am moved. Mothers Fighting For Others is my wife's activist blog and Julia Ward Howe's mission over 130 years ago could just as easily be her mission today.

The Role Of Anna Jarvis 

37 years after the original proclamation, Anna Jarvis, a women's rights activist herself, began a campaign to make Mother's Day an official national holiday. In 1914, that campaign worked. President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day as a national Holiday. On  May 10, 1908, churches in Grafton and Philadelphia held Mother's Day celebrations. The service at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton honored the memory of Anna Jarvis' own mother, Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis. 

I Am More Proud Now Than Ever

I am proud because I have a front row seat watching Mother's like Rocky, Julie, Tracy and Robin take up Julia and Anna's torch and carry forward the notion that Mother's can make a difference... that Mothers are uniquely suited to make a difference on a global scale. And so, I think it's important that we all read the original Mother's Day Proclamation written by Julia Ward Howe. Perhaps, like me, you will now see Mother's Day in a whole new light. 

The Original Mother's Day Proclamation:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

 

Outside of ActiveRain, It's No Holds Barred.

Inside ActiveRain, there are "guidelines" that keep things civil. This is true the vast, vast majority of the time. Everyone has a common objective and the community supports it's members. Personal attacks are heavily frowned upon. But they have been known to happen.

What Do You Do When Someone Goes On The Attack?

Last week we legally finalized the adoption of our two little girls. It was a joyous day for our family and my wife.  Later that day, after watching a show on Orphans in Africa, Rocky quickly put out a post entitled, Two Less Orphans In The World. I'm not sure she's ever used the word orphan to refer to our girls before, but she did it this time because of the context... legally, in California, our girls were termed orphans. And she did it because of the news story she had just watched before writing the post.

She was happy. She wanted to share her joy. She expressed her hopes for their future, as any parent might. It seemed like an innocent, feel good post to me. 

Until the first comment came.

"You represent everything I abhor in adoption."

Then the second...

"Adoption is meant to be all about the child - not all about what you want."

Then the third...

"Why not put $30,000 into improving their community and country instead of using it to pay they adoption agency? These children already have a family."

How would you react? What would you say?

Rocky came to me, hurt and angry. She was completely thrown off guard by the comments. Her instinct, was to attack back. She came to me because she knew that wouldn't be my approach.

She had several options:

• attack back
• delete the comments
• ignore the comments
• try to understand their point of view

Call me crazy. But I like the last option and that's why I'm writing this post.

It turned out her post had been commented on inside an adoptee forum that didn't like her use of the word "orphan." They only recognize the primary American Heritage definition of the term - someone who has lost both parents to death. We didn't know this at the time. And I can't do this justice here without you reading the comment strings, which include comments from Julie Ferenzi. But my advice to Rocky was this... "accept up front that they may have a perspective we can learn from and use this opportunity to find out what it is. Try to engage them in a discussion that will benefit everyone." She agreed.

If You Can Turn It Around, Everyone Wins. 

My goal with the advice was to respond in a way that was consistent with our values, that modeled how we would want to be treated and to try to draw in more readers for her blog in the process. 

If you read the entire string of comments you'll see that the "try to engage" strategy did not work on that single post. And after the commenter said to me, "you’re not a physically attractive person, I can tell by the way you write," Rocky decided to take the discussion off Mothers Fighting For Others and over to Muthahood.com. I even tried some humor.

What we found out by continuing to engage, without insulting back, is that others were watching, and writing on their own blogs, even if they weren't commenting. And the subsequent post by both Rocky and I drew a few comments from those who did not initially join the battle. Their comments led us to  great stuff. Posts like, Just Exactly WHY Nice People Swallow and The Perfect Storm. These were women who understood what the original commenter was feeling in her words and they articulated them in a way that made sense. 

The Aftermath Turned Into Something Very Good

Firs it turned into a better understanding of both sides of the adoption discussion. Rocky continued to try to engage by writing a follow up post, It's About Poverty. What was the result of a desire to understand where these comments were coming from? Of a desire to understand the other side? It was posts like this by other very insightful writers, Why Do You Think This is, Adoption And Poverty, and Open Mike: Orphanage or Adoption? 

And it also multiplied traffic to Mothers Fighting For Others. Visits were five time higher than normal during the discussions and the residual effect is that Mothers who may never have found the site, found it.  

Dark Clouds Can Have A Very Bright Silver Lining

If you blog for very long, you're going to get your share of ugly or harsh personal comments. If you're writing from your heart, it's inevitable. To get the greatest benefit from those comments, you have to have a sincere desire to see the other side, to try to understand the motivation for the comments, and a willingness to go the distance.

People are watching you, even if they're not commenting. They want to see how you handle yourself in these situations. Only one genre of responses creates the kind of positive impact you hope for in these situations. This time it worked out better than I could have ever hoped for.

But just as important as any of this... Rocky and I both know now how much pain a seemingly innocent word like "orphan" can cause and we've discovered a whole new world of information and resources.  Would it have happened without "You represent everything I abhor in adoption." I doubt it.

What would you have done? 

It's Settled. An Adult (figuratively speaking) Evening Event It is.

The vote was small, but definitive. 19 for evening adult. 8 for afternoon family. Now onto the important stuff. Following the lead of TLW for the Orlando event, it's time to get a head count so we can plan this thing properly.

We're going to find a coastal location somewhere between Huntington Beach and Santa Monica. I Wish I could be more specific at this point, but I can't. No LA location is going to please everyone. This place is just too vast. So...

June 9th, 2007. Evening Event. Somewhere between Santa Monica and Huntington Beach.

WE NEED RSVP's AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

Pretty please, don't clutter the comments with all of the reasons why you can't make it. We'll miss you, but right now we just need to get a good idea who is coming. So we can arrange the right size venue.

OK RSVP Away!

My wife and I were directed to this last night and thought is was just too much fun.

It's a 3D virtual me... doing what I'd really love to be doing every day... blogging on a beach. I got to choose all of my features and put myself in the location of my choice, doing the activity of my choice.

It's not going to change the world, but it does allow you to have a little fun and link from your profile to your blog. It's just one more way to build up a network. I have a feeling this one will be getting a lot of play.  

I'm definitely going to encourage Julie Ferenzi to do one and use it as she sees fit at Living In Plainfield! Humor works, folks. Just ask Teresa Boardman! Or TLW!

Will there be some value in the network?

I have no idea. But it was fun! 

All right, let's start getting this thing planned!

I was thrilled that Lydia asked me to lead this event and am looking forward to making sure it's something everyone wants to attend. So, I want to get all of you in the Los Angeles area to participate in the discussion. We don't have a great deal of time to get this thing planned and in everyone's calendars. So, let's deal with first things first.

What kind of event would you like it to be?

• A Family Gathering: An afternoon family gathering at a park or the beach. BBQ
  
• Adult Gathering: An evening gathering for adults only at a destination. Hors D Oeuvres, Drinks
• Some other suggestion...
  

Please, only those who plan on attending the Los Angeles Gathering on June 9, 2007 should vote. I will take down this poll tomorrow and we'll begin making plans.

I spent a good part of the day today just reading posts as they came up on the dashboard. For about an hour, I read every post. I don't mean every featured post, but any post, by anyone that came up when I refreshed my browser. I stumbled on some great reading today, a lot of it by people who were brand new to ActiveRain - "newbies." Most of them were really great posts. I left comments and emailed a couple of them to offer some unsolicited advice. I hope it was received in the way I intended. Their posts all looked just like the top part of this post. It looks like a field of gray. One big long string of sentences with no paragraphs, no links, and no way for a reader to skim through to see if they want to take the time to read the entire post. Internet readers are skimmers. That's a fact. It's been a fact for years. "People rarely read Web pages word by word at the outset. Instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences." Reading on the Web (Alertbox) I know that's how I read blogs. I skim the basic points first, then quickly process whether or not the post has enough value to warrant the time to read it all. We have to do this, don't we? There's just too much to read. Julie Ferenzi did the very same thing with the first post she wrote here on ActiveRain and it was the perfect first lesson. She's never made the mistake again and her posts on Living In Plainfield are better for it. if you really want someone to read your posts, give them some air and highlight key points. You don't need to understand any html, just use the tools in the toolbar above. Graphics help as well, but I've seen some very well done posts that use no graphics, but a well placed highlight graphic gives a post some color. When done right, it illustrates the main point and helps to lead the reader to actually read. Air out your posts. Bold the points you want to highlight. Use graphics when warranted. Your posts will get read more often if you do.

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------- Here's The Same Content As Above, Only Formatted Differently  -------

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I spent a portion of the day reading posts as they came up on the dashboard.

For about an hour, I read every post. I don't mean every featured post, but any post, by anyone that came up when I refreshed my browser.  I stumbled on some great reading today, a lot of it by people who were brand new to ActiveRain - "newbies." Most of them were really great posts. I left comments and emailed a couple of them to offer some unsolicited advice. I hope it was received in the way I intended.

Their posts all looked just like the top part of this post. It looks like a field of gray. One big long string of sentences with no paragraphs, no links, and no way for a reader to skim through to see if they want to take the time to read the entire post.

Internet readers are skimmers. That's a fact. It's been a fact for years.

"People rarely read Web pages word by word at the outset. Instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences." Reading on the Web (Alertbox)

I know that's how I read blogs. I skim the basic points first, then quickly process whether or not the post has enough value to warrant the time to read it all. We have to do this, don't we? There's just too much to read.

Julie Ferenzi did the very same thing with the first post she wrote here on ActiveRain and it was the perfect first lesson. She's never made the mistake again and her posts on Living In Plainfield are better for it.

If you really want someone to read your posts, give them some air and highlight key points. You don't need to understand any html, just use the tools in the toolbar above. Graphics help as well, but I've seen some very well done posts that use no graphics, but a well placed highlight graphic gives a post some color. When done right, it illustrates the main point and helps to lead the reader to actually read.

• Air out your posts.
• Bold the points you want to highlight.
• Use graphics when warranted.

Your posts will get read more often if you do.  

UPDATE: I wanted to move the following information up into the post itself. It is buried in the comments, but is valuable enough to be here.

This is a very in depth heat map study of eye movement. 

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html 

Here is an excerpt that details the implications of the F pattern they discovered.

• Users won't read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Yes, some people will read more, but most won't.
• The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There's some hope that users will actually read this material, though they'll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.
• Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-behavior. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words.