I have worked with Jim in many capacities, both as an advisor and advised. What really rocked me was our conversation this week on Word press and plug ins. Jim helped me crystallize a salient Internet solution to a problem that has been nagging at me for months now.

After modifying a script and noodling with the plug-in for a couple of hours I hit the jackpot. I am not talking about saving hours of work here. We are looking at weeks and weeks of work boiled down to a few hours. The espresso of page building. Tight, compact, elegant and a totally migration ready solution.

So it is with this post that I laud Jim and heap as much good karma towards him as possible. As I mentioned you can find him on twitter @fairminder and his site WebPageAdvisor.com is worthwhile checking out as is Jims advice. Jim has always understood the old axiom that we rise or fall together and has made teamwork with others job number one.

I could continue on with more glowing accounts of Jim Spencer, but will instead simply say that I really do think the world of him and respect him greatly.

Truth be told I like shoveling snow, I consider it my outdoor workout, or Nautilus for free if the snow’s really wet and heavy. My commune with mother nature, the deep inhale of crisp, clean winter air, being one with the snow.

Admittedly, when my neighbor Brad purchased his snow blower a couple of years ago, I was intrigued.  Brad would fire up his beast, spewing unspent hydrocarbons into my pristine N.E. air, buzzing and blaring like a Harley soft tail on a tear.

Twenty minutes later he would be inside again all warm and toasty and I would first be getting to the walkway having just finished the driveway.  Occasionally Brad would swing through and do the walk for me in an act of pity plowing or just good neighborly relations. Always appreciated and sometimes a serious time saver.

Here’s the thing though, in my twenties I had a Norelco electric shaver for a while (triple head) and never found satisfaction in the feeling of cleanliness or closeness the electric shave had versus the razor, warm shaving cream and great care not to cut myself would render.  Since then I have graduated to a triple blade and use a glycerin beard softener.

Why am I talking shaving and snow blower’s in the same breath? This year I have used Brads snow blower several times and my driveway/walkway has always had remnant snow. A film if you will. The same kinda feeling/look electric shavers left on my face.

Not totally cleaned up but adequate. The snow blower just does not do as good a job as the manual efforts hand shoveling produce.  Good old fashioned hand to asphalt combat provides a much closer and cleaner finished product.

So, today when I went out to clean up after mother natures 8 inches of purity, I went with the shovel, weapon of choice. I huffed and I puffed and the kids kept getting snow on the driveway but after all was said and done, I have a marvelously clean and tightly paved path for autos and pedestrians alike to pass without impunity.  Sometimes there are no substitutes or shortcuts.  I still love winter and shoveling and I guess I  will always stick with a razor for shaving too.

I said, ‘Dust.’

And then the fight started
=================

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She
said, ‘I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.’

I bought her a scale.

And then the fight started

=================
When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace
expensive… so, I took her to a gas station…

And then the fight started….
======================

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social
Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s license to
verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.
I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come
back later.

The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’. So I opened my shirt revealing
my curly silver hair.

She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and
she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social
Security office.

She said, ‘you should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten
disability, too.’

And then the fight started…

========================

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept
staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a
nearby table.

My wife asked, ‘Do you know her?’

‘Yes,’ I sighed, ‘She’s my old girlfriend. I understand she
took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she
hasn’t been sober since.’

‘My God!’ says my wife, ‘who would think a person could go on
celebrating that long?’

And then the fight started…

=========================

I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and
slowly the other driver got out of his car… You know how sometimes you just get
soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?

Yeah, well I couldn’t believe it… he was a DWARF!!!

He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, ‘I AM NOT
HAPPY!’

So, I looked down at him and said, ‘Well, then which one are you?’

And then the fight started…

Not a lot of people can say they have a recording studio in the house and I am one of the fortunate few that gets to make music purely for myself. (and now you can hear it at PawnMusic.com). Well, I really have to hand it to the new WordPress release, cool and simply intuitive. I installed the lastest release and it has really great video and audio streaming abilities, from taking the files and compressing them to listing them in the blog. Super, really.

Fast Forward, in two hours I had put up three albums worth of music, labeled and ready to listen to. More to come as I get the old files out and start to upload them to my site PawnMusic.com. If you like something you hear please feel free to flip me a few pesos for upkeep of the site and a new synthesizer

• Buzz is genuine; Hype is fabricated
• Buzz is co-created with the market; Hype is autocratic, leaked by the brand owner; the market is an audience, not a participant
• Buzz travels through grassroots, peer-to-peer communications; Hype uses mass media and staged events.
• Buzz carries an authentic social message – it’s news; Hype carries a biased product message – it’s publicity.
• Buzz is seductive and spreads exponentially; Hype is loud and aggressive
• Buzz is trustworthy; Hype can easily be distrusted
• Buzz is a long-term learning model; Hype creates short-term awareness.

Brand Hijack is an outstanding read that is both entertaining and educational, and for that reason alone, it’s near the top of my list of essential business books. After reading this book, it’s likely that you’ll be inspired to create some new buzz for your company, something that is ultimately less expensive and more enduring than advertising.

I was talking to my friend and they mentioned a service, it was just a comment about how amazing they were, but I took note. (call it business intelligence) This is the good old fashion word of mouth buzz and the marketers dream way starting point.

Marketing rule #1 Be Genuine. Hype doesn’t work with today’s consumers. They’re more savvy and more discriminating than ever, looking for products and services that are true.

Our gig is to create a whirlwind of speculation about the product and service getting it elevated from fan banter, to expert analysis to genuine hype.