My blog n'at

I’ll be busy the next 3 days in social media geek out mode covering the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh. While some still think you can say “oh just go do something social” is an acceptable way to handle major events, I’ve been secretly planning my coverage for awhile in the darkness of my basement office.

Social media deserves respect from the old school marketing folks and should be accepted as a critical part to any campaign. It’s much more than snapping a couple photos and blasting out a few sales pitches. This is about creating an experience for the customers and this is what I enjoy most.

Like my joy of brewing beer, I love creating for people. Feedback is critical for me to make a better product and experience not just for myself but everyone else. Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to make whatever I do an enjoyable experience for others and with social media I have the ultimate chance to do so.

I’ve gone over my headaches of trying to go mobile when covering events as the social media guy for an organization so this morning I’m trying to make my backpack load as light as possible. The current work area on my coffee table is a mess of 2 laptops, multiple cameras/videocameras, ipad, adapters, battery chargers and scattered papers with events notes. This is where the IT guy in me has no problem with it because I have tech surrounding me and while it may be a mess, it’s an organized one.

The fun part of this will be making content live as fast as possible. I’ve been fine tuning the workflow so that before the end of any event we will have content already posted, titled and tagged. Overkill? Some may say so and you need to pick & choose when you do it so you don’t burn out a limited staff, but you would be amazed at how fast people are already looking for content. I saw this with the RMU vs UK upset and that’s when I finally had my business case to move forward with my vision.

The next 3 days will be interesting as I’m honestly at the mercy of finding wifi that won’t die when I batch upload hi-res photos and some HD video but that’s part of the fun when working with technology and limited budget. I have a vision for the ideal digital communications plan (team members/process/and more) which I think businesses should implement into their workflow.

Want to know what it is? Let’s meet up for a craft beer and i’ll tell ya

My wife worked an 11 hour shift yesterday so I was home with the boys from 10a until shortly after 9p. Between the fighting, kicking, screaming, crying and temper tantrums, I thought it was a fairly relaxing day. That is until they decided to tag up and push the last of my buttons. You know what I’m talking about — the  ”Hallelujah! Holy crap! Where’s the Tylenol?” button.

Bath time had just finished so my genius plan was to plop their butts down on the love seat and watch Shrek 2 with popcorn in hand. *SIGH* Finally daddy was going to have time to unload the dishwasher and clean the rest of the kitchen before mommy came home. That WAS my plan. Yeah, didn’t happen.

I walked back into the living room to find Teaspoon and his younger brother doing some crazy ass little kid dance on the love seat (probably inspired by that jagoff, Caillou) which obviously required dumping popcorn everywhere and smashing it into the cushions. As you can see from the additional blankets covering the seat in the photo above, this isn’t the first time. It’s the last step before pulling out the plastic your grandma uses to “keep the couch new” but you always stick to in the summer.

I fought back every urge to flip out and calmly told them to get upstairs and go to bed. As I watched the little one push Teaspoon into the steps I thought manual labor would do the trick. I called boy boys back, pulled out the vacuum and told them they have to clean it up. Daddy wins!

No, daddy is a dumb ass.

My kids have inherited my wife’s cleaning gene so they LOVE the vacuum! Next thing I see is Teaspoon trying to suck his brother up with the hose and the little one obliging by sticking his mouth in the hose.

I remove the hose from O-man’s mouth and showed them how to clean properly and without injury.

Eventually the job was done and the boys hiked it back up to bed where they passed out within minutes of hitting the sheets.

Looking back today all I have to say is thank God it wasn’t chocolate covered popcorn

I’ve had this CD in my possession since 1999 when I was a new kid in the Burgh working at a tech company. Over the years the owner of the CD and I joked about me giving it back and quite honestly I just forgot.

Many, MANY moves, getting married, kids and 14 years later I decided it was time to return the disk — Lords of Acid “Voodoo-U

Back in the late 90′s/early 2000′s the place I worked at had a glorious mp3 server along side a Quake server (ah the days when Napster was still legal). I loaded it up with all of the grunge music I could rip and the old guys (to me 30 was old) were cramming it with 70s rock and Jimmy Buffett.

Looking back I had no idea that my internship would not only shape my professional career but mold me into the person I am today. “Baptism by fire” was a common phrase thrown at me as IT guys were constantly testing to see if I could hack it in the corporate world. Not only could I take the pressure I also learned more than any university could ever teach me. The 3 month internship turned into an 11 year run before we finally shut down.

I shipped the CD back to my buddy Mike on Valentine’s Day after a discussion with his wife were she stressed “Whatever you’re sending, remember we have kids.” Whaaaaaaat? Meeeeeeeee? Oh I’m an innocent catholic boy.

When he opened the package he was greeted with an autographed full size photo you see above. Who wouldn’t want to see that beautiful face on the most romantic day of the year?

A few hours from now a new Derda tradition will start.

One will be a sports career.

One will be a coaching legacy.

You’re reading that correctly, I’m about to become the coach of Teaspooon’s  soccer team.

When I was first approached with the idea I dismissed it almost immediately. I have horrible memories of playing soccer at the Eastside Y.M.C.A. and in grade school from coaches screaming at a bunch of 5yr old kids playing in the his imaginary World Cup to getting the tar kicked out of me by bigger kids.  I wasn’t very fond of the 80′s.

I received an email from the league organizer asking for more coaches. There was a record high 160 kids signed up to play but not enough parents to help out. That’s when I heard my dad’s voice chime in and say “DO IT!”.

Dad was a coach for many of my teams growing up. Part of it was to help the league out but the other was so we could spend time together. He was constantly busy trying to provide for the family while working 2 jobs day and night.

Recently I’ve found myself turning into him — all work and limited family time because you have to provide. The difference now is that I’m forcing myself to make the time before my job kills me. It’s a difficult balance to achieve for someone who “volunteers” for every event but I have to before I miss out on my kids being kids and next thing I know Teaspoon is asking for the car keys.

Good luck today little buddy. It’s the start of hopefully a long life playing sports and learning teamwork but just remember, have fun.

One more thing, I’ll try not to be this guy…

The following is a guest blog post inspired from recent events and a post I made the other day about being on my child’s floor at 3:31am. The parent asked to stay anonymous. 

I was a great parent until I had kids. I used to think this was funny, but now as a parent I know it’s true.

In the last few weeks I have been staying off social media because I don’t want to say something that I should not, so instead of duct taping my mouth I just chose to turn it off. However, truing it off has not calmed my anger.

So here it goes, if you’re offended then yes my comments are most likely about you. On that same note I am blessed with many friends I actually spend quality time with so if you feel the need to un-friend me in social media heaven go ahead.

1. Having children is a blessing in many ways; it’s also the hardest job you will ever do. If it is not hard some days then you are probably doing it wrong.
2. Giving birth does not make you a parent. Actually parenting the child makes you a parent.  Note I said CHILD, not a pet. Caring for a pet does not give you the golden parent award. Yes, you may be a good parent and have a pet but believe it or not some people are good parents and choose not to have pets or even dislike them.
3. I make choices for my family based on my budget. Sometimes this includes going to big box store or chain restaurants. If you don’t like those places then you do not have to go to them. Unless you’re paying shut up.
4. Being a stay at home parent is a choice. Stop picking on my choice, I am not laughing at you sitting in traffic every morning.
5. This one is for the non parents. Things change, stuff happens. Yes, I want my kids to eat healthy and go to bed on time every night. But some nights they will eat waffles for dinner, or lick ranch dressing off a carrot stick.  Kids stay up late or fall asleep in their clothes. It is not my idea of perfect either but it happens…don’t judge.
6. Friendly advice is always welcome, snarky remarks unnecessary. Take the advice you would tell a child “If you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all!”.
7. Unless the parents bring them up, kids on social medial are like political kids… hands off.

Yesterday was one of the rare days that no one in my house was working. Vacations have been almost non-existent for a few years so when the chance comes around for us to spend the day together, we not only cherish it but take full advantage.

My youngest son is currently obsessed with dinosaurs. Imagine a 2yr old running around roaring without pants on; that would be him. (*He’s potty training so a pantless O-man is not an uncommon sight*).

I decided a few days ago that it was time both boys could enjoy a trip to see the T-Rex like I did so many times as a kid. There was a slight difference when I went to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History website, the price. A family of 4 plus parking would cost roughly $55. When your kids last maybe an hour before wanting to go somewhere else, this is a significant investment. I asked online if anyone knew of coupons or deals to which I was told to suck it up and pay for a membership ($150). As I mentioned above, we don’t get a chance to spend a day together so I wasn’t going to spend 3x for something we’d only use once.  I should say something I *think* we’ll only use once. People without kids are cute when it comes to rationalizing finances.

Luck would throw us a bone as we ended up with extra passes through my brother. Uncle Bob scores points with the kids yet again

The last time I was at the museum was in 2000 for a holiday party at my former company. There was more drinking than checking out the exhibits so I had some time to make up for.  The first stop was the dino section and as if to walk into a toy wonderland, the boys both went “WHOOOOOOA!”. T-Rex was the obvious hit. Teaspoon had an odd fascination with the skeletons of fish while his brother just loved everything.

I’m starting to get sold on the museum thing at this point and then it happened. Interactive kids zone where they can pound away on rocks to find dinosaurs. The joy we saw on the kids faces as they played was priceless.

From there we went to the bugs. 2 little boys in a bugs section. We weren’t going anywhere now and I can see their eyes starting to get heavy.  We were about an hour in at this point and after making a trip to the third floor I could tell nap time was starting to hit.

Teaspoon said his tummy was growling so it was time for daddy’s treat, Lu Lu’s Noodles. Rice for the kids, seafood noodle and rice dishes for us since it was Good Friday with the ultimate sacrifice was smelling the Pho at the table next to us.

I wanted to make one final stop to a place I’ve driven by many times but never stopped, the Forbes Field wall. The wife and I lived in Oakland when we first moved to Pittsburgh but not once did we make the short trip to see a remaining piece of baseball history. The boys knew that baseball was once played there but they won’t realize for a while the significance of the wall. Maybe it’s spring fever but I felt humbled to be able to touch this piece of the Pirates legacy.

We made an unexpected detour on our way back to the car and popped into the Carnegie library. I haven’t been in here since I was a child but plan on spending a few afternoons in the genealogy floor researching family history. This was also the first time my wife was ever in the main library and you’d think she won an all expenses paid vacation.

It’s amazing how differently I see Oakland now as a parent than when I was a student at Pitt. While walking through Oakland my wife commented “Did you ever think you’d be spending the day at the museum and library with your kids, walking around Oakland while your wife drinks a Starbucks? Its like your hipster nightmare.”

There is a lot more Pittsburgh has to offer I can appreciate and realizing that we need more family time is the start of it. Now the tricky part, how to make it.

I’m laying on the floor of my youngest child’s room right now. Not because I have an affinity for fire truck red carpet, but due to the fact no one in this house wants me to sleep tonight.

Teaspoon is sound asleep, my wife is zonked out in the middle of my bed and my 2yr old keeps sneaking over in an attempt to boot me from the only place I still think I rule.

Some random thoughts written on my phone while laying in the floor of my toddler’s room.

1) WordPress app on the DROID won’t let me do bullets? Really?
2) Part of being up is probably work related stress and spreading myself too thin in general. Not Philly Cream Cheese spread but like…
*making a bagel *
3) Bagel at 3:47am seems like a wise choice
4) I’m dying to tell everyone about the social media geekout I experienced covering RMU’s upset of Kentucky last week.
5) *plane flies over* who on earth is flying into Pittsburgh at 4am?
6) If my dad was still alive he’d have a blog and not only would it BE IN ALL CAPS but he’d tell the Entitlement Generation to quit whining and man up. The banner image would be him headbutting college kids.
7) He’d be that old guy on Facebook posting memes about politics and Uncle Sam headbutting terrorists
8) What’s with all this headbutting?
9) Facebook has turned into the forwarded mail of the 90′s. Look at your feed after reading that now.
10) Bagel at 3:47 was a bad idea
11) My social media feeds are filled with beer people, parents and apparently all of the “cause heads” from the movie PCU.
12) Twitter gives a soapbox for whiney people no one IRL would ever listen to and I’m out of tomatoes to throw.
13) I need a camera mounted to my car. No one ever believes the stupidity I see driving Parkway West.
14) The most opinionated people with parenting advice on social media are those without kids.
15) I really love the South Hills and miss the North Hills. Yinzers really need to get out and explore their city.
16) Bridges don’t bite and tunnels don’t have monsters.
17) I reading a book by Steve Blass – A Pirate For Life right now while waiting for more home brewing print to arrive. 2 thing I never thought I’d do. Read a book for pleasure and find a hobby offline.
18) I’m about to become a soccer dad.

It’s now 4:42am and I think there’s an open spot in my bed. Something being a dad has taught me, I function remarkably on very little sleep.

G’night! Errr morning! Whatever.

Hopefully your Lent has been treating you well and you’re ready to put an end to this time of refection in a couple of weeks.

I have 3 fish reviews I’m waiting to finish up but today was a complete impulse buy so I could get out of the office for a few minutes. I searched my archives to look for a place I haven’t visited in awhile and that’s when an entry from 2008 popped up — I knew it was fate, it’s a Wendy’s day!  Yuuuuuuup, it’s been 5 years since I had their fish so it seemed the perfect time to give it another shot.

First thing I noticed, I didn’t receive one of those swank bags they’re hyping on the commercial with the fish name on it so “I bet I know what you got!”. My bag tells me I’m about to eat someone.

From the website:
“Our premium sandwich is made using only 100% North Pacific COD, hand-cut from a whole fillet so it’s tender and deliciously flakey. It’s then lightly coated in a crispy, panko breading and topped with a tangy, tartar sauce. Pair it with sea salt fries and a drink of your choice for a meal that’s definitely the catch of the day.”

Price: $6.28 (Medium Combo)

Drink: Coke

Fries: Water logged taste and served luke warm at best.

Appearance: I was there after the lunch rush and only 3 cars in line. I think someone sat on it but it perked up when I let it breath a little bit.  I was disappointed with my first impression and I know its fast food but man this was way off from any ad. Not sure where they got the lettuce but this wasn’t nearly close to that green leafy tease in the commercials.

Taste: This is where it counts right? The fillet was thin but that little bugger had more flavor than I expected. They were able to serve me fish that didn’t have the manufactured taste of McDonald’s and the tartar sauce had my ideal amount of tangy goodness. Lettuce was white, hard and a huge let down.

Final thoughts: Would I buy the sandwich again? Eh, not sold on it but if they changed out the lettuce I’d consider it. Would I buy the meal combo again? Heck no. Quit wasting my time with a full cup of ice and little pop plus do something about the fries.

If you have a suggestion for me to check out hit me up on Twitter or Google+.

Click on the images below or check them out in my Google + gallery

Dear Google,

I have been an advocate, some may say fan boy, of yours for quite some time. Good reasons also, you make quality products that have made my life amazing. I’d take you out to dinner and a movie plus open the door for you if I could but what you just announced is a swift kick in the groin. You’re killing off Google Reader.

Do you like kicking puppies?

Do you like taking my favorite toy and smashing it with a hammer?

Did you just punch my momma in the face?

Didn’t you promise NOT to be evil?

This decision is all of that plus taking my red stapler.

I use Google Reader all day long. I keep up with over 100 blogs and some podcast feeds with the tool. I get instant news in some cases from media outlets I don’t have the time for on Twitter or Facebook. BAM it’s there waiting for me. I “star” my favorite entries so I can go back and read it later.

I have NEVER been pissed about a product being nuked (paid or free) until now. OK not even pissed, REALLY FREAKING ANGRY. I pray to God you have another solution in G+ because this will impact my daily work that I have very little time to find a replacement. I’ve spent years and years of making the perfect feed and now it will all go poof.

Google, we all make bad choices in relationships. I hope you reconsider this one.

Love,
me

Today the catholic church welcomed the latest installment of the number one man in the faith, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, or as he’ll be known Pope Francis I.

If you’re a snarky catholic such as myself the first thing that popped in your mind was this.

I really do wish the head of my faith the best, we’re in a huge mess with the state of the church and need some help.

Hopefully you stayed off twitter while this was announced today because the trolls of stupid were working overtime to spread nonsense. I was more amazed at how many became instant experts in my faith with what has taken me a lifetime.

The internet is an amazing place.

I don’t agree with everything that my church does but I don’t think that anyone is ever 100% on board with any religion.

I know some want to hate because that’s what they do. Preach equality and love everyone unless it involves something you don’t agree with (like Catholics).

Respect all views because, just like during the election, once the dust settles those you hated on are still here.

Peace – Love – Spoon

It’s no secret the high frustration levels I’ve had with Facebook and Google+ recently. As someone using the services for business I find myself rushing around to adapt new changes that come without warning sometimes. I’m all for upgrades but when it comes to artwork for the site, such as Facebook Event banners or Google + obscenely large cover upgrade, my head spins trying to keep everything current and not look like a Geocities hack job.

Aside from those issues, something else has stepped up as the biggest pain in the doopa. Going mobile when you need to post to a business page.

Yesterday I worked a sporting event where I should be able to go mobile with as little equipment as possible. It is 2013 right? I have an iPad for work and while I think anything i-whatever is more hype than functional, I honestly believe the iPad has amazing potential — unless you need to bulk upload photos. That’s right, if you have a collection of photos on your iPad you can not upload them as a group to Facebook or Google + using their apps. There are other apps you can download that will do it for you but that’s not the point. Facebook and G+ are major players in the social networking world and a simple task such as batch upload is impossible.

Facebook’s mobile app and Pages Manager app will allow one pic at a time and won’t let you create albums. If you visit their mobile site requires FLASH for bulk uploads and well that’s not going to happen on an iPad.

What I need to do is simple. Take hi-res photos from a camera or SD card, move to and then upload from the iPad. I was asked yesterday why I don’t just use a laptop and there are a few reasons.

1. I hate lugging a laptop around
2. iPad is compact enough I don’t need an extra large bag so I can travel light
3. Battery life on an iPad is much better than a laptop.

As a standard user I’ve found most of the features across multiple social networks to suffice but it’s like once you get swooned to make a business page you realize the lemon you’re riding. They’re all free services and that is something we all must remember but when you become a standard you should have some basic functionality.

Kids are already bailing on Facebook, when will the rest of us leave?