It finally happened. My best technology related friend died. My internet surfing buddy died yesterday. My fledgling internet marketing partner croaked and left me without even saying goodbye to all of the good times we have had these last 3 years since we met. It was love at first sight back in November of 2007. When we touched for the first time, I knew he/she would change my life in such a way that I would never look back. Yep, my Apple MacBookPro hard drive died on me yesterday, leaving me helpless, sad and angry all at the same time.

My MacBookPro is the best piece of equipment I have ever used. I’m one of those Apple people who sing the praises and I absolutely hate most everything that is Windows related. I just like things to work, and for 3 years, my MacBook has worked flawlessly even though I have run it through the mill with everything I do on it.

The good and the bad of Apple
The first thing I did was to call my local Apple Store. I could not even get an appointment to take it in to visit a technician for 2 days! C’mon Mr. Jobs, this is totally unacceptable and sucks a big one. I could not even drop it off, I was told. I have a dead laptop and I could not be seen for 2 days. This is customer service at it’s worst.

Never Deal With People Who Sport New Age Names
I mention that I have spent a ton at the store and recently bought an iMac. It does me no good. I was not a VIP in their eyes. I felt like I might be in a little trouble when the girl I was speaking of told me her name was “Ocean”. I thought that if I told her my name was Rainbow, that we might connect on a different level but she asked me for my account info and she could easily see that I have the most common name ever given to a male born in the 50’s & 60’s. Just a regular ol’ Steve.

The Bad News
I tell Ocean that I have my receipts and that I bought a 3 year warranty for $349. I can hear her typing something and she confirms that I did buy a warranty, but gives me the bad news that I didn’t register the warranty online. She offers no additional help or advice. I’m getting pissed but I can’t raise my voice to someone named Ocean, it’s not in my nature. If it had been a dude named Solar, that would be a different story.

I called a friend of mine in South Carolina who takes his computers to an authorized Apple Service company and always speaks highly of them. He makes a call and tells me they would be happy to look at it today! Woo Hoo! I hop in my car and drive 100 miles and drop off my laptop.

The Good News
The technician at this company tells me to call Apple and try to register my warranty with someone. I felt like it was hopeless because I obviously did not follow the rules. I’ve never followed rules my entire life and it usually costs me way more than $349. I reluctantly call the number and a sweet little girl answers me with a heavy, but cute accent. I can barely understand her and I repeatedly ask her to repeat herself. This aggravates me to no end usually but she sounded so sweet, I felt she had to be a hottie on the other end and I just put up with it. That’s right, us guys put up with crap from attractive women or those we feel might be attractive on the other end of a phone line. Don’t blame us, God made us that way.

The End Of The Story
A guy comes on the phone with a normal run of the mill name of Jeff, and tells me that since I had never registered the warranty, he will give me a full refund or he will register it. Miss Ocean at the store, never mentioned this. I opted for the refund since the warranty runs out in November. Bottom line is that my repairs will cost me $60 out of pocket and I upgraded to a 500 gig hard drive. My faith in Apple was restored in a simple phone call. I did have to drive a couple hundred miles but I didn’t mind because I got to visit a friend I don’t see that often.

Morals of the story

• If someone with a new age name answers the phone when you are calling for service, hang up and keep calling back until someone with a conventional name answers.
• If she has a cute accent but you can’t understand her, just ask her to keep repeating herself while you imagine she’s a real hottie on the line. Eventually, she will give up and let someone else handle the call.
• Since I’m not an A-List Blogger, I can’t really tell you what puffy, pie in the sky lessons that are to be learned here. However, I do expect you to re-tweet this post 279 times.
• Mr. Jobs, please fix your stores.

I was nice, persistent and I never gave up even when I thought it was hopeless. I’ve called the Apple Store 3 times this morning to cancel my appointment and the line has been busy 3 times. I ate 2 fast food meals yesterday on the road. I had a Wendy’s Spicy Chicken sandwich for supper and I paid for it with a night of indigestion. That’s ok though, me and my MacBook got a thing going on.

2010 Bloggerlens.com

Tomorrow marks yet another milestone in my life. I believe that we only have so many that are truly milestones and this is a biggy for me. My 22 year old son gets married. Kind of makes you feel old, happy, reflective and sad all at the same time. My little buddy is taking a wife…unreal sort of.

Truly, he is the son every Father dreams of and I’ve never understood why I was so blessed. He was never any trouble in his youth (like I was). We did everything together. I coached him through years of baseball and soccer. I showed him how to fish when he was little and he took it from there and became more skilled and knowledgeable than I ever was. He feared nothing, not even 50 mile trips in the ocean we took on our boat King Mackerel fishing. When he fished by himself, I always got a phone call and a cell phone pic of every catch. One evening he fought a large fish from the beach for more than an hour on light tackle. He kept me updated by cell phone. Turns out to be a 6′ shark and a huge crowd gathered and watched the fight. Guess who got the call and pics from the cell phone.

He just graduated last month from East Carolina University. His plan now is to attend Seminary this fall at Wake Forest. For the past 4 years, he has helped to build a small church from the ground up. To watch him turn into the man he has become is truly inspiring.

Tomorrow he takes a wife and I cross over yet another milestone. I hope he takes his time but I’m really looking forward to him giving me a new fishing buddy in the future.

If you play any active part in Social Media where you live, you are bound to discover what I have discovered in my area. First thing is you will begin to discover is who may be your local Social Media Experts or Social Media Rockstars. Those are the names that always seem to be appearing in your twitter stream and re-tweeting and being re-tweeted. You see their names on Facebook and Foursquare etc., etc.

If you start peeling back a few layers you may also discover that a lot of the local Gurus’s are basically self-established through their own hype. In my area, there are always the usual suspects and the world seems to revolve around a few names. Once you start to peel back the layers, you may find a different story. I will tell you right now that it may leave you scratching your head.

Do a name search on these folks and find their blogs, their Facebook accounts and you may start to see a different picture.

Oh sure, they will proudly exclaim that they are at a lunch meeting with so and so working on a project. They will also tweet and Facebook messages that they will be at Friday night’s local tweet up. You get the idea. You start to think these select individuals are connected to the entire universe and you may begin to think that you are a nobody and have a long uphill battle to make a dent in the local Social Media scene. It’s too easy to be real and honest and to become a real Social Media Player in your city.

Don’t believe this for one second on 99% of these folks. I really like to search these people. I find their blogs, their Facebook, I follow the links they put out on Twitter. What you will most likely find is fluff. I rarely find true players in the game. It’s up to you to seperate these individuals with the true players in your community. Find the players and follow those people. When you discover the real players, follow them and watch what they do and don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Do what they do.

I have discovered that some of my local peeps who have high profiles haven’t updated their blogs in months. These are the same people who tweet SEO links and marketing links. It’s totally laughable. They do not practice what they preach. You will find many who do not have a strong Facebook presence and are almost always not social on their sites. I have also discovered that many work Regular Joe jobs 8 to 5. But they make it sound like they are handling huge client marketing promotions.

It’s easy to be real

If you want to make an impact in your local area in Social Media. Be honest and back up what you say. Be patient, it takes a while. A guy like me will soon discover if you are for real or if you are full of $hit. I’ll research the hell out of until I find out. Don’t think for a minute that if you decide to participate that you will not have people watching you and checking up on you.

Don’t act like you have big clients in one field only to be discovered that you have a full time job in an unrelated field. That basically makes you a liar if you carry on that way. I know damn well you are not heading up an advertising campaign at night while you are working retail in a dress shop by day.

This past week I went on a search for a new Smartphone and I’m ready to announce the winner. I was currently using a Blackberry Curve which I’ve had for well over a year. My cell service is with Verizon. I have been with them for ages and it just made sense to me to find something to my liking with Verizon. My buddy Josh over at Unconventional Marketing, recently went to a Droid. We were on a video call recently talking about it and he had downloaded the uStream LiveStream App and gave me a demo. Well, being a techno geek, this gave me an electronic version of what you would usually get with a Viagra pill. Bad-ass is all I can say.

What did I do? Yea, that’s right, I went to Verizon and picked me up a Droid by Motorola. Super cool phone. Does everything and was very fast. I bought the one with the slider keyboard. Started learning to use it and immediately discovered a problem. My fingers are too fat for the keyboard. I could not type without hitting the keys beside the one I was aiming for. I got totally frustrated and the next morning, it went back to Verizon. I was really bummed out about it because the phone has so many awesome features.

I went a few more days and after reviewing a bunch of info on the internet, I decide to give the Blackberry Storm 2 a try. Once again, I was digging this phone. The screen was large and awesome and there are a zillion apps for it. The screen actually depresses and clicks giving you a little feedback. Once again, Fat Finger Syndrome struck and I quickly lost my electronic erection for the Storm. I made yet another trip back to the Verizon Store where the clerks were now recognizing me and avoiding me. I turned it back in and they re-activated my little crappy Blackberry Curve. Note about the Blackberry Curve, you must be Edward Scissorhands and your eyes must function as high power telescopes to operate this square fish sandwich type phone. If you are over 12 years old and have fingertips that are larger than pencil lead, don’t buy one.

I left the Verizon store feeling bummed out because I didn’t see any phone that appealed to me. I was trying to stay with my original cellular carrier. After some comfort food, burger, fries and a small coke I told myself to just screw it and headed for the AT&T Store. I walked in like a man on a mission. Told the clerk I was there to buy an iPhone. This sales dude was sharp and I made his job easy. He ported my number over to AT&T and in about 30 minutes I walked out with an iPhone. I sat in my car and started playing with the phone and in less than 5 minutes I had completely fallen in love. I am an Apple Mac guy already and this device is truly amazing.

The winner is the Apple iPhone by such a staggering margin that I cannot even describe. I’ve been busy learning the phone and downloading apps. I feel like a kid with a new toy. Let me help all of you out who are considering a new Smartphone. Save yourself a lot of trouble experimenting. There is no comparison in my opinion. Apple invented the Smartphone and everyone else is playing catch up. If you have fat fingers like I do, you will be very pleased with the onscreen keyboard. I think even Josh wants one but does not have AT&T service in Fargo, ND. If you are searching, search no more.

2010 BloggerLens.com

I saw this on Fox News this morning and found it interesting. Since I never watch TV without my laptop warming my legs, I gave it a try because I am fair and balanced.

Fox reported that the Big G may be censoring some search results that have to do with Christianity and Islam. Google claims it’s a software error and will correct it soon.

In the Google search bar, type in “Christianity is” and here is the result from the autofill that Google gives you.

Now, type in “Islam is” and look at my results. That’s correct, there are no results.

I report you decide. What say you?

2010 bloggerlens.com

Holy Cow, I’ve been posting a lot of little short worthless posts lately. I’m buzzed a little on Blue Moon right now so I thought it was time for another meaningless post from a Problogger. That’s right, I’m declaring myself a Problogger. Everybody else is lately. In a way, I actually am, but not here on BloggerLens. If you don’t like my self description, let’s set up a time and place for a fight. I have a goatee and I look like a bad-ass. Sporting a goatee tells the world you are a bad-ass and not to mess with me. See my picture in the upper left of this site? Would any of you mess with Ally Hane? Ok, case closed.

Today, I went to my Google reader which I don’t go to that often. I mostly subscribe to all of the other geniuses by email. My Google Reader was packed with crap and I probably unsubscribed to 50 or so blogs. I want my stuff delivered to me in my in-box where I can sip my coffee and man scratch myself each and every morning.

I started thinking to myself that in 2009 I earned a Masters Degree in some of the things that mattered on the internet. I learned to separate the garbage from the good stuff. I could not believe the crap I subscribed to. It was amazing the number of the blogs I had subscribed to had not posted in months. They were basically abandoned. I removed all of those blogs completely off my radar. I’m getting my focus on.

I don’t get too distracted online anymore. I’m pretty focused. I run my own sites and they take the majority of my time. I’m attempting to make a full time income online. I am first and foremost a hyperlocal blogger. I launched a network of hyperlocal websites in 2009. I have just partnered with a major regional newspaper for a year long “news sharing” experiment that is funded by a national journalism thinktank. I’m very proud of this. There are some dark days when you work online and this was the highlight of my year and validation of what I do that many consider important.

Will I blog about this experience? Maybe. I have worked my ass off for over a year and I have learned many things through trial and error. Will I freely give away what I have learned? The answer to that is hell no for the most part. Now I’m being asked to speak to some local organizations and my local profile is rising. That’s pretty cool but I don’t believe in giving away all of your proprietary information just to gain a following.

If you have developed a technique for shaving hog’s asses that is revolutionary, I think you are an idiot for giving it away for free just so your readers will tell you how great you are in the comment section. Focus the knowledge you have worked to obtain and monetize it. Rosie was the best picture I could find of a hogs ass.

I’m still trying to make a passive income online. The very thought of that is very intriguing. I dabble in the “make money online” niche but it is not the full focus of my efforts online. I love Griz Grizzly and what he teaches. I wish I had more time to devote to it. If your focus is to make money online, why don’t you just do it and stop making excuses. Read less and do more.

2009 was the year that I developed some genuine online friendships. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t visit the sites of my online friends. Click the Friends tab on the top of this page to see who I read and respect online.

If you are not involved in video in some form, you are missing out. I’m totally focused on video. I’ll be doing more here on Bloggerlens but 2010 is year of the video. For $150 or less you can become a cool video blogger. I will watch your $hit before I will watch Lost on ABC. If I like what you do, I’ll make you a cool intro to your videos.

I hope you will get off your ass, read less and do more in 2010. Focus people, Focus!

What has happened to some of the people living in our country? How could anyone kill a small child and dump her in the trash? This weeks abduction and murder of Somer Thompson in Florida have both angered and saddened me in such a way that words cannot describe. I know we see these things in the news all the time and we’ve almost grown numb to them because we are never involved. We see the news reports and yawn and click over to see what’s going on on Entertainment Tonight. This event has just struck me to the core.

If you are at least 40 years old, you can remember a time when these occurrences were rare. I miss the the Mayberry Days. I’m a brand new Grandfather and that may be one of the reasons this struck me so hard. The news reports that 70 registered sexual offenders live near the school where Somer Thompson walked home from. As of this writing there are no arrests and no suspects. I’m not inferring that one of the registered sexual offenders is the culprit but it is highly likely that is the case.

If it turns out to be that an Offender is her murderer, there is blood on the hands of the Judge and court system who released this person. This brings my thoughts to the recent controversy surrounding Monster Energy Drink and the Vermont Beer Brewery. Apparently, the Vermont Brewer is going to be victorious in his fight to brew beer named Vermonster. I don’t know the final results but no doubt the firestorm and bad publicity on the internet probably helped the Vermont Brewer. Our own Allyn Hane may have been instrumental with his 2-part video explaining the situation and his outrage. Many of us jumped in and provided content and links in favor of the brewery.

Directing our anger and SEO towards corrupt, liberal Judges.

Maybe we should also direct our talents and anger towards judges who let the filth who commit sexual crimes out of jail. A sexual predator who commits a crime upon a child has no rights in our society and should have no more freedom to roam the streets. I have no problem putting this filth down like dogs. I volunteer to throw the switch myself.

Imagine the power we have with powerful anchored links singling out these corrupt, liberal judges who let these predators back out on the street. What if we identified these judges and unleashed Allyn Hane with a series of videos singling out these criminals and the judges who set them free? What if we, as a group, provided the SEO, notoriety and links to bring awareness to these dregs of society? Making Money Online is not the only way to use your talents as is evident with the Monster Drink fiasco.

This is an epic post. Grab a cup of coffee first.

If you want something bad enough you will do whatever it takes to get there. Time is not a factor if you want it that bad. No videos today. It’s that time of year for me. Every September for the last 9 years my mind wanders back into my past and what happened to me. This is just me today, thinking out loud.

I thought I would get just a little bit personal today in the hopes that there may be a small message of motivation. Your motivation may or may not come to you depending upon how you interpret my story. This is one of those classics, and the moral to the story is…

Whatever you are doing and however you found me I do believe you are probably in a situation where this can apply. I am always referring back to this part of my life whenever things seem a little tough to me and I wonder if I can handle my present situation or if I feel I will never be successful at whatever my current endeavor is. I’ll try not to make it long. It has to do with golf of all things. Many of you probably just clicked away but for those who stay, I hope you can read between the lines and apply it to your life.

In 1989 I was very heavy into men’s softball. We played league and travelled to tournaments. I was a shortstop and still trying to live the old glory days. Almost every player on my teams played golf except me. I thought it was silly. I really thought it was silly when we travelled and played tournaments near the beach. All the guys would go play golf between games and I would lay out on the beach with all their wives while they were gone.

My wife was there too but that’s why you wear really dark shades and train your peripheral vision while not turning your head. I was pretty good at that all the while my buddies were on the links. In 1989 I tore cartilage while turning a double play. The noise was so loud other players heard it. I went down and my season was through. I had surgery and had a whole summer to recover.

The doctor ordered me to get some exercise and to walk a lot. I thought I would try this stupid game of golf and went to a driving range to hit some balls using whatever clubs the Pro Shop had I could borrow. I hit a couple buckets and low and behold I sort of liked it. I sprayed balls all over the range but I actually hit a few straight.

On my way home I stopped at K-Mart and bought a set of Dunlop starter clubs. I became a regular at the range and took the plunge of actually playing a round. I played by myself and took score the best way I knew and shot probably 150+. I was hooked. I had found my “White Man Crack”.

Jumping ahead 3 or 4 years… I joined a club, had a regular playing partner and would offer to sell my soul to the devil if only I could shoot 89 every once in a while in a legitimate fashion. Satan allowed me at times and now he owns 3 of my children I had to give up. I sure miss them.

I was smart enough to realize that playing by myself and with a playing partner who was no better than I was was getting me no where. I needed to play with better players. I needed a mentor. I naturally assumed that playing with better players, I would get better in theory. Problem was, who wanted to play with a hack like me?

I decided to get radical and go for broke. I identified the best player at our club. As a matter of fact, he was one of the best in North Carolina and one of the top amateurs in the nation. Club Champion, the whole package. He did not know I existed. I saw him on the range one day and like a little schoolgirl I approached him and introduced myself. This man was a Golfing God in my area and I was actually nervous.

He was our local Arnold Palmer. I asked him if he would teach me. I asked him if I could just watch and ask questions. I asked him if I could walk 20 yards behind him and watch him play a round. I asked if I could make a mortgage payment on his house and if I could find a way, if I could have his baby.

The answer was yes to all my questions. He eventually let me off the hook for having his baby. He became one of my closest friends. I engaged him in every bet and never backed down. I opened my wallet after every round and paid up. I always figured paying the bets were just paying for my lessons. He taught me everything he knew. I never veered from his teaching. If he said to do it one way, I would spend hours on the range trying to perfect it.

He taught me strategy. When to go for it and when to lay up. I hung on every word. Imagine all of the club members wondering how this nobody became a regular Saturday morning partner with one of the top players in the nation and could hardly break 90. I had a lot of people scratching their heads. I lived and breathed golf until September of 2000.

Let’s jump ahead again a few years. I became so focused that I would go to the range and practice one shot, one club for hours. If I had a 100 yard shot, I wanted to know if it was 100 yards or 103 yards. I would stand in front of trees and bend shots for hours on end. I knew what I wanted and I would not stop for anyone until I reached my goal. My goal was literally to rip the throat out of every player I came up against. I was your friend until we teed it up.

For 18 holes I wanted to embarrass you, take your money and leave you lifeless and discouraged. I never let up…ever. Yes, the student eventually beat the teacher every time but there was no joy in my victories with this man. I loved him like a Father and he was one proud Papa and told everyone he taught me everything I knew.

In September of 2000 I was on the 2nd hole at my club. In the middle of a 7 iron shot in my backswing, something happened to me in that very moment. The only thing I can say is that it was supernatural and unbelievable for anyone I’ve ever told. I walked up to the green and told my playing partner of 11 years that it’s over. When I’m through here today, my sticks are going to be put away most likely forever.

He thought I was joking. Ask him now, 9 years later if I was joking. I put it all away at the absolute height of my playing career with a bright future ahead. Every September I think about it, and it’s been on my mind again lately because it’s that time of year again. I walked away from the game with a +2 handicap. That’s 2 better than a scratch golfer. I was getting better and I feared no one but many feared playing me. I played in the most exclusive foursome of our county 3 times a week. We played PGA rules and there were no mulligans or do-overs. We loved each other for sure but it was 18 holes of as fierce of competition that you could ever want at amateur level. When the four of us showed up for tournaments, especially Captains Choice type events, everyone knew they were playing for second place. It was a fun time.

I walked away as I reached a peak, never knowing how good I was going to get or what I may have accomplished by today. Why did I do it? I’ll just say this. I had 2 children at home that missed their Dad. I had a 12 year old son that loved to fish and hang with his Pop.

Ok, the moral of my story to me. Maybe not to you. I have never once regretted my decision. It was the best and most important decision I’ve ever made in my life. I’m sure each and every one of you have made similar decisions if you are at least 40 years old. If you are not at least 40, don’t worry, your decision time will be coming. I could care less of what could have been. I care about what happened.

I proved to myself that if you want something bad enough and are willing to work for it, that over time, regardless of your current talent, you can achieve your goals. You just can’t quit and walk away too early before the magic happens. Let the magic happen, then make a decision.

Find a mentor in whatever you do. I truly appreciate my online mentors. It’s not hard to figure out who they are if you have been on this site long. Do not re-invent the wheel just yet. Follow their instructions exactly. Rinse and repeat. Someone will come along just like you, looking for help. Pay it forward. There is more joy in paying it forward than the actual act of whatever you practice. I promise you that. Does this sound like some of the folks you know in this little circle we travel in?

Now, I want you all to go out out and have a great day and think about what it is that you want so bad.

2009 BloggerLens.com