Jim Durbin

http://tinyurl.com/ykyf8e6 Testing out the #homebase app

Every once in a while, I do something with MySpace out of nostalgia.  I use Superpost from the iPhone, write about them. What I’d really like to do is make money off a project for them, just to say you still could.

So if you Tumbl, or Tumblr, let me know and I’ll follow you. 

I saw this on Twitter earlier, and will go through it in a longer post, because I’ve been beset by a series of weird actions lately, and it’s the fault of Foursquare.  

Many of you probably wonder why I keep telling you where I am during the day.  I’ve been testing out Foursquare and Gowalla and others and have noticed it actually makes me a brand advocate for the places I spend time.  The necessity of checking in makes me both more positive and more critical of the places I visit.  I check tips, I leave comments, and I make sure that small business gets my check-ins to help their rankings. 

And here’s the kicker. What I’m doing today, you’ll be doing tomorrow.  When I first started doing social media, many people scoffed, curious as to how I had the time or dismissive that they would ever get involved.  Today, they exhibit the behaviors I used to on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.  Early adopters, who used to think they were cool or different, are actually just signals as to how a platform affects the behavior of its users.  It’s been played out over and over, so I’m pretty confident it’s coming your way.  I’ll write more at http://socialmediaheadhunter.com later. 

Last night, we went down to our neighborhood pool to splash around a little before bed.  While my little one was playing with the fountains, I sat on the edge of the infant wading pool and read a mini-book by Richard Branson.  Two feet away from me a little boy with a life vest was in front of me.  He tripped and fell to his knees, then rolled as the bouyancy of the life vest turned him over.

His head went under immediately.  Frozen in my  mind is a picture of this little boy on his back, arms and legs thrashing, unable to roll over, with his head just out of reach of air.  The look on his face was pure terror.  I jumped forward and grabbed him, lifting him out of the water and checking to make sure he could breathe.  He’d been under for maybe five seconds, and luckily had not yet drawn water into his lungs, but it was only luck (and God’s providence - we had intended to go to another pool that evening, changing plans at the last second)  that I was sitting next to him and looking right at him. 

The scary thing?  He was in less than six inches of water.  His mother was in the larger pool, holding her youngest child, while two other children played around her.  She had assumed he was safe, and figured the vest would help him if he fell in the bigger pool. What’s worse, is that the child looked no different than any other child in a shallow pool playing around. He was below the lip of the shallow area, which means most people in the area couldn’t see him.  If I hadn’t been sitting right in front of him, and seen the look on this face, I would not have known.  My wife was 15 feet away, and she didn’t notice it until I started moving.

The boy was silent as I took him to his mother.  I didn’t want to scare him further, and was checking to make sure he hadn’t taken water into his lungs, so there wasn’t really any discussion about it.  She said thank you a couple of times, but I was too worried with his silence, and checking on him, to actually respond with more than a “sure.” 

She got out of the water with her littlest one, and he say by her, making sure he was touching her the rest of the time we were there.

Drowning is the number two cause of death for US children under the age of 12 (car accidents being the first).  If you’re at the pool this summer, please keep an eye on your children, and those around you. 

I like ATT.  I like their branding, their service, their work, and I know people who work there.  But when it comes to DSL service for my business, I’m not an ATT customer.  

I wanted to be, but they were incapable of setting up service. This is not a technical problem.  There are people in my office building with ATT service.  This is a problem of ATT not being able to actually sign me up.   I’ve spent hours on the phone and waiting for these guys.  Their Twitter channel was nice to me, but no one was ever able to just give me service. 

Now, I’m waiting on Verizon to show up at the office tomorrow.  I’m going to be a Verizon customer.  {sigh}  Thank goodness I’m still giving $300 a month to ATT Wireless.