Carl Setzer

A friend of mine let me know she's still pretty active on Flickr, so I zipped over there to see what's been happening. Now, I've posted to my page fairly recently, but I haven't been so good about reading other folks' stuff. As I started surfing through my followers, I was amazed at how many of them had gone missing. Some not having posted in years. As I was going through, I started unfollowing those who hadn't posted for more than 3 years. Yes, three years! Seems like a good time to clean house, I guess. It does make me question the viability of Flickr. Yahoo!'s issues over the past few years have, long ago, made me wonder if they would keep the platform going. And Yahoo!'s fate's not getting any clearer. But, it's still here, and there are still photographers posting merrily along. So, as long as it's not gone total ghost-town, I plan to keep on posting there. I do post nearly daily to Instagram , mostly with haiku. Then I post some ...

Sandra Bacchi is a Pittsburgh based photographer and cinematographer. I discovered her current project, "Watermelons Are Not Strawberries" via Edge of Humanity Magazine . ‘Watermelons Are Not Strawberries’ is a work-in-progress, as I continually seek to better understand myself and increase my awareness of how I react to challenges related to my experiences as a mother. The photos reveal to me how uncertain and obscure my life became with motherhood. At the same time, there is an undeniable clarity in how my daughters lead the way for me to follow a brighter path as I journey through my everyday life. This is my favorite image from this collection. I adore how the girl's dress blends so well with the tree's summer-lit leaves. Also check out We Are All In This Together , another of her collections.

I've heard this song countless times. Today, Youtube popped this up in the recommended list and I happily listened. Seeing other versions in the sidebar from 1979, 1981, and 1992 made me wonder about how different each one sounded. I enjoyed witnessing the evolution of Robert Smith's personal style as well. Below is the 1979 version, which has a more traditional punk vibe (it says something that I can say "traditional" and "punk" without any sense of irony). This one is from 1981. Not a huge transition, but I notice a less punk style and something that becomes much more recognized as The Cure.   By 1992, we have a clearly distinctive style that is The Cure, and not confusable with anyone else.   Thanks for giving a few minutes of your journey through the vast wasteland that is the internet. Let me know what you think in the comments, and give me a share, if you're so led.

A few thoughts: Regardless of how one feels about President Trump, Democrats or Republicans, flailing about invectives isn't going to get us anywhere. I know of no one who's change their stance on any issue because some troll called them "idiot" or "snowflake" or "nazi". It's quite interesting to me the role that the internet has played in degenerating the stuff talked about in point 1. On "Making America Great AGAIN": that's one that I've thought quite a bit about recently. Simply, the MAGA folks seem to look backwards to when "America WAS Great". Progressives look forward to Making America Great FINALLY. Seeing potential, the strengths of diverse communities, economies and cultures. But the distinction between the two mind-sets hit me hard recently. Somehow, we need to find a way to embrace dignity in our public discourse. However, I'm totally at a loss about implementing that. There's more to talk...

Lately, I've been thinking about how heavily I use social media. As it's part of my function for the C&K Team, I easily can spend hours each day wrapper up in it. Lately, I've noticed I'm slipping on things I value, the most obvious one writing. The quality of my writing has slipped, as my focus has been on getting content out, not on writing the best stuff I can, on magnifying my quality. Om Malik posted this recently: Non-Social . He's backing away from high-level engagement upon all the social media platforms. Going so far as deleting the apps from his devices, so I assume that means he's only using Twitter/Facebook writ-large from laptops/desktops. I don't know if I'm ready to go that far (yes, he's only going dark for a week, but still...) but I feel that backing off from social stuff will give me more time to focus. I've had several folks requesting me finish some of the books I've had on the back-burner. With NaNoWriMo  (Nation...

My foci have moved lately. If you're a fan of my poetry, this page is focused on that . I'm quite pleased with the results. Less than a year ago, I had no followers. Now, over 1,400. 'Tis very validating. My more general writing has been over here at NotJustSeattle . Over 2,200 subscribers since launch. Again, quite pleasing. So, come over to these sites and say "hi".

I've been a fan of Wil Wheaton's Radio Free Burrito for years. It's hard to conceive he's been putting those things out for a decade. Anyway, today's episode: Radio Free Burrito 43: my next mistake , hits on a few things that I've been thinking about lately. He talks a bit about Taylor Swift and how crappily she's been treated by the media, and by a certain cadre of the internet. I, too, have been discovering more in her music than I expected. And what made me take a deeper look was the grace and humor she's shown while facing down the trollish brutes. Gotta love and admire anyone like that. When talking about Pax and the hater-vibe he was feeling, he struck a nerve that's been raw. In geek circles lately, there's this whole "gatekeeper" thing going on. I hate this mentality. Perhaps it’s because I’m an old school geek from back when geekiness lined you up for bullying (at best). When you found ANYONE who shared those interests an...

Something that struck me this morning: the internet grows bigger, driving us to go closer. We have tools that let us broadcast to unimaginable numbers. Yet it's the personal that works. Even with thousands of Twitter followers (or more), the relationship is based on a one-to-one feeling of connection. Even large brands are trying to push into that space. It makes sense: none of us want to be just a number. Our marketing and PR tools need to be built focussed on creating that sense of connection.

Just read Tony Hawk's Media Empire Grows With Help From Complex over at Adage . They talk quite a bit about the brands that celebrities are building. This leaves me wondering when saturation happens, when we have so many celebrity brands that we can't see find anyone. We already have so much content, so much internet-based activity. Will we ever get to the point of "not being able to see the forest through the trees"? My first thought is "no, we won't". We have tools for sifting through the massive forest of data. I guess the real challenge is how to differentiate yourself, fully connecting to an audience. The world of general is where the blizzard is. Specialization is where one can still be differentiated and engage deeply.

Magic. I've seen this idea many times, item X will "save us", " make us rich ", "make critics vanish", what have you. Looking to some tool as a savior, the proverbial " magic bullet"; all our problems will vanish. Nearly daily I see emails promising "Pinterist will make you rich", along with myriad, similar titles. Magic sells, but never returns on that investment. Social media won't make you rich, make critics vanish, nor any issue disappear. No blog post, tweet nor Google+ share will, either. It's way these efforts are called campaigns. Regular posts, with thoughtful content, over several channels, and with engagement, interacting; that's how an audience is built. Gaining fans, then nurturing those relationships, that's the gift of social media.

I've been spending more time on Google+ lately ( here's the link to my Google+ page ). Twitter has been my biggest site of late, with Facebook being a solid second. However, I'm beginning to see some solid value in the Google+ platform. The main thing I like: larger posting sizes than Twitter . Twitter was designed around SMS limiting factors. The character limits don't, as a general rule, bother me. However, there are times I like the larger posts and Google+ seems to fit the bill better. Also, especially when compared to Facebook, filtering content and controlling what you see, and who sees your posts, Google+ is clearly better. The interface is cleaner and more straightforward. It also helps that Google has stated on multiple occasions that it is prioritizing Google+ posts and content. One does need to consider SEO value as well. Lastly, and most important to me, Google+ is still pretty new. The feeds I see are still quite free of trollish behavior. It's ...

I was annoyed when I saw this hit my Twitter feed. , The article references  Food Democracy Now 's response to an article written by the New York Time's Amy Harmon. That an organization that I support  pulled this crap really got to me. We're used to this stuff from the Right, whether Rush Limbaugh railing against a 7th grade Chelsea Clinton not being sexy enough, or the blather about Nancy Pelosi unprettyness, ad nasuem. Yet, Pamela reminds us that both sides of the aisle are happy to partake. Then I remember seeing some of the pornographic representations of Sarah Palin during the "Drill Baby Drill" kerfuffle. Sadly, politics seems to bring out the ugliest in us all. It disappoints me when the Left, in all our drive for equal access, the obliteration of privilege and the like undercut our own message with sexist drivel. For those of us who value reason and debate over petty slings, we need to respond accordingly. Food Democracy Now, I'm deeply d...

I've been exploring WordPress over the last few months (see my blog NotJustSeattle.com ). I really, really like the platform and have found so many benefits over Blogger. Plus, watching the demise of Google Reader a few months back makes me wonder about the long-term status of this. With Google+ garnering the lion's share of Google attention and public focus, I wonder how long they'll continue to support the platform. Blogger seems like a neglected stepchild. With all this, I commenced planning out my migration. It's not appearing as clean as I'd hoped, but the research is pretty early on. It seems my URL might be the biggest challenge. Plus, I need to decide if I will just move this to a site hosted by WordPress.com, or pony up for something hosted by BlueHost or GoDaddy (or....). So, taking a thoughtful and well planned approach on this. It'll be interesting to see where it leads. Any ideas, hints or tips? Just leave me a comment. I'd be quite happy ...

I knew that Word had some solid image editing tools, but no idea they were of this caliber.

I keep hitting Twitter's 2k follower limit. Perhaps I need to garner a massive number of followers and achieve uber-Twitter status. At this point, though, I need to sort through my lists and drop a few. Some choices will be easy. No tweets in an extended period of time? Gone! A topic I lost my interest in? Likewise. Just a few of my criteria. So, I hope nobody takes being unfollowed personally. I find myself trapped by my technology's limits, just like most folks.

My random web thought of the day: remembering the webring . For it's time, a very powerful tool for finding related content. I spent many an hour perusing sites under a variety of topics: fantasy literature, science, science fiction, politics....the possibilities were extensive. Seems they still exist, but connecting to them a lot less critical. Seems few people drift through webrings now. Rather, they move through Google search results. I wonder, though, if webrings provide any SEO benefit? That would be my expectation, at least. So, the point? Tastes change, behaviors follow, culture modulates and we both find ourselves reacting, as well as leading.

Just discovered this music sharing site, ThisIsMyJam.com . I love discovering new music, and part a key part of that is seeing what my friends are listening to. This seems like a great synergy of those two elements. I'll have more to say soon. However, if you're currently using the site, or want to go sign up yourself, connect with me. I'd love to see what Your Jams are. http://www.thisismyjam.com/questionsall

I just read a Tweet about " Twitter being the future of journalism ". Well, it's really the "now" of journalism. Right now. Perhaps it's a great time for one of my favorite Wil Wheaton quips, "I love living in the future". Crowdsourcing is one of the greatest pieces of the Internet age. Whether we're talking about open source software, raising funds, or news, the power of the collective amazes me. The downside stems from volume, and the ability of malevolent players to perform mischief. Yet those voices tend towards discovery with amazing speed. Hard to gauge how all this will evolve. But the journalistic game changed, radically and permanently. I label this whole phenomena "digitized democracy". Voices become equalized. So, just a few random thoughts which I intend to flesh out further. I hope you have wonderful Fridays.

Hey gang, A good friend of mine, Daniel Flahiff, has qualified for the  World Triathlon Grand Final Auckland this October. As you can imagine, raising the ~$4,000 for travel is out of reach. However, through the power of the internet, all of us have the opportunity to lend a hand. Via his Go Fund Me site, we all have the chance to share in funding this dream. Besides have the vested interest in seeing a chum do something great and once-in-a-lifetime, I'm also pleased that the internet offers up ways to crowdsource solutions like this. Perhaps, pre-internet, a bunch of us would hold a car-wash, maybe engage a local tv or radio station, and have a small scale crowdsource through a local bank. So, yay to www.gofundme.com for offering up such tools, the internet ( Twitter , Facebook , et al) to broadcast this sort of thing out, and, of course, the generosity of strangers...which is, ultimately, what makes these sorts of things work. Here's a video about the event: ...

Not your typical flash-mob in style or structure, but glorious nonetheless.