brewery33

Here come the coattail riders (yes me)

My secretary came in this morning with some surprising news. Being an avid watcher of Channel 10 and understanding my plight for Stockton, she always has some news nugget pertaining to our City. This morning touched home a little more than the usual useless piece of knowledge. She said verbatim,

“Some guy was on talking really positive about Stockton because of some Forbes list
and he had like an internet show, or talk show, or something. I thought you would
like it because he is on the internet.”

I knew it could only be one guy, so I asked a few questions to see if I was correct.

“Was there a wily mexican guy that was full of positive energy?”

“Yes”

“Was there a short haired guy that looks like he belongs to the cult of Apple?”

:-| *(puzzled look from secretary)*

“Did the news refer to their show as an internet radio show?”

“Yes, yes they did”

“Eureka it must be Podcast Stockton” (I might not have said this)

The last questions were just small inside jokes for an audience of nerds, but I confirmed that the netcast, (we will talk about this later), in question was none other than Podcast Stockton.

Congratulations to Matt and Rod, for being positive and making it great. These guys are proof that positivity will prevail and success is not monetary, but lies within. Why else would two guys that haven’t made a dime for their efforts continue to produce a product that is better each time. If they were a wine they would be a Bordeaux. More importantly if they were a beer, they would be a Gueuze from Cantillon, a beer that completely and consciously transcends any idea that you might have of beer. You see a Gueze takes three years to even be classified as a Gueze, from that point forward the taste only becomes that which legends are written about.

Bottom line, if you don’t listen, you probably should.

Click here to see Podcast Stockton on Channel 10

Click here to see Podcast Stockton on Channel 3

(ps I hate myself for putting “Click here”, but since only my grandparents read this, I have to spell it out for them)

If we are keeping score, I think News 10 did a far better job with the story than the cold Channel 3 in studio plug. The footie of the “outback studio” added a warmth to the story that the frigid studio of Channel 3 couldn’t muster. Also it just seems that Channel 10 cared more because they sent a reporter. Channel 3 invited them to the studio, while nice, its just not personal. Personal works in human interest. Just my opinion, yes I still have it. Enter trolls.

Stay fresh.

I don’t want to suck like SEO companies

I was treating life like a slimy SEO company. I knew the proper strings to pull, or people to agitate to create a response. My content suffered, but I got a healthy amount of traffic. The traffic was seeing a one dimensional character that I had created in an effort to say “LOOK AT ME!!!”. Hence my inner self was experiencing an unseen breakdown. Getting down to brass tacks, number one needs to be in order.

I want to find the focus and channel my energy toward completing a goal that will satisfy my mind. My tactics of late would be just the opposite of what I have realized. I am just as gross as the telemarketer promising front page Google ranking.

It goes like this, the telemarketer will litter your content with links to credible sources and also provide links to your page from “credible” sources. What this does is game the Google engine to garner page views. If you care anything about your content you won’t fall victim to this unethical practice, or you will pay the piper in a high bounce rate.

What you should do is find a focus that your content will encompass. Once the focus is agreed upon, start creating content in the medium that you desire (Twitter, blogging, vlogging, email). Not only will you be staying true to yourself, but you will find that the content is more rich because you actually care about what it is you are creating. Focus allows you a path to follow and a goal to attain. Without either of these you are just treading water.

This has happened to me in the “real” world. I lost my focus and imagination. Living without the chatter I am making strides on finding my lost characteristics. I am creating a plan and readying myself to return the space. Upon my return, I will use the tools available with more precision. That is the idea anyway.

The muddy water isn’t so much clarifying yet, but I think that it is safe to say that the answer lies in acts. You have to love what you do. If you don’t love what you do, you are only acting as a cog in the great machine of depression.

I leave you with a video and a quote.

“If you watch the pennies, the dollars take care of themselves.” Ferment on that until next post.

Stay fresh.

An awkward moment

Residents of undeveloped nations would scoff at my personal journey. The fact that I am at such an odds with myself, that the focus of my life at this point is to regain a focus, is a metaphor of excess for the gluttony that has entangled the world’s perception of our “culture”. I ridicule myself for having such a paltry outlook. People are dying from disease, famine and violence and I am sitting here pretty in my upper middle class tax bracket with a loving wife, cute daughter, expensive PC’s (that’s right multiple computers), newish car, and job (yes I even have a job) that allows me flexibility in my personal endeavors (blogging, civic involvement, philanthropy). What the fuck do I have to complain about? I feel like such a pussy and a dick at the same time for even exercising my mental ineptitude as a real problem.

Whether you agree with my judgment of myself, or care to add to the findings, I could really give a flying you know what. My goal is focus and innovation. Without imagination, innovation is impossible. In order to find my wayward imagination, I must focus. Focus requires concentration. Hallways as noisy as my social media outlets diffuse focus.

Riding with my Dad the other day, on our way to get ashes I vocalized my issue with him. We had an awkward father/son moment where we weren’t sure how to deal with the emotions, and then after some added forced conversation I happened upon a possible obstacle that could be the first clue in locating my imagination.

Since the death of my mother I have found that the dynamic of my family has changed. Before you face palm and close the tab that you are viewing my stupid writing on, the statement deserves merit. You see with the death of my mother, I basically have become an orphan. My dad being a man from an all boy family and me being the oldest boy of yet another all boy family, emotional fortitude is not really our strongest characteristic. With that said, I always had two parents, but recently had one exit this dimension and move on to whatever lies on the other side. The other, my dad for those of you keeping score, is reeling from the sudden shock of a 35+ year mate vanishing. In his plight of a now upside down life, the role of a father has been displaced with the rest of his displaced existence.

As I sat and pondered the direction that this revelation had the potential to take me I listened to the message of the ashes, which was suffer silently. Great, so now that I have made the decision to go to social media rehab, which we will call my blog, I get an M. Night Shyamalan plot twist thrown at me. Here I think that I am having a complete epiphany, only to find that once again the location of my imagination has eluded me.

Suffer in silence for the world doesn’t hold the answer to your toils. Kind of makes my blog useless.

I’ve lost something

In the past few weeks I have noticed something happening. The subtle nuance of this wretched annoyance has been gaining momentum and advancing upon our community with the grace of an ogre pillaging a rural Swedish community. The white elephant in the room has taken its place on the stage and announced that he is present. Everyone at the party has been empowered to acknowledge the subject that we all spoke of indiscreetly.

University of the Pacific is an institution that is quite honestly one of the most immaculate grounds in the City of Stockton. A short stroll through the meticulously pruned rose garden to admire the art of maintaining these visually delicate yet astonishingly resilient plants allows escape. A saunter into the small forum of columns that is easily recognizable as you have seen the image in a coveted family portrait that takes proud residence in the living room of a beloved friend or family member. These and many more monuments of visual expression are valuable to the atmosphere of experimental and free thought, as well as the surrounding community.

Stockton Beautiful is an organization of concerned individuals that have a mission to beautify their community. The board and membership of the philanthropic group from the young and energetic to the wise and accomplished infuse each other with the notion of beauty. Beauty goes further than its superficial stereotype. Beauty creates a culture. Pride comes from beauty. Stockton Beautiful is no stranger to efforts of invigorating a community of individuals to accomplish unthinkable feats of excellence. We can see the fruits of their work in the collaborative spectacle made possible through driven community philanthropic exertion, in the Rose Garden that resides in Victory Park on the north side of the Haggin Museum.

Greg Bahr is a citizen of Stockton. If you have spent any time on the Miracle Mile enjoying a sunny walk on Sunday, or patronizing one of the loving merchants, you have probably come across Greg. He is responsible for community events in the district such as the wildly successful Miracle Mile Night through his interaction with a group of focused individuals that serve on the little known, highly experimental, yet overwhelmingly effective Neighborhood Renaissance Committee. This group is of the mind that if neighborhood events are present the fabric of the community will be strengthened. Communities with strong fabric tend to employ a lighter outlook on the grim offerings that life brings. My opinion of Greg is rather skewed, due to my respect for his efforts, but I am fairly confident that if you stop and listen to his pleas for a cohesive effort in the infinite quest for betterment, we will most definitely agree.

These three groups evidence the presence of positive movement in our City. People are working to create the nirvana of community. As we spoke of earlier, a white elephant that has come from the shadows of civic conversation in Stockton. His presence has been embraced. It is all too easy to make fun, stay cynical and ignore our emotions. The perception of mediocrity and ignorance is lavished upon us by our national media publications. Our local media has become snarky and arrogant to the population of new media consumers. I have found myself embroiled in passion fueled discourse that is not contributing to the solution but rather of symptom of the white elephant. This is the most troubling to me.

It is through my faith that I have weathered the stormy waters of loss. I am no person to preach and ladle my ideological rhetoric upon you. My only mention of this is to make apparent of my plans to regain my imagination and focus my efforts. In my loss of imagination I plan to embark upon a spiritual journey in search of the treasure that has befallen me.

The white elephant’s message is a dangerous path. His call to acceptance is my cue to reboot my operating system. With the Lenten season upon us and the coming of Ash Wednesday, I will be disconnecting from the matrix of chatter, and focus on real efforts. I will leave the acoustically challenged halls of Twitter to find the voice that I have lost. I plan to engage the philanthropy that is meaningful to me and shed the cynicism that has polluted my mind. I plan to detoxify my spirit in an effort to return with the child like wonder that I desire.

Words are not meaningful if not built upon action. My grand plans of success through philanthropy are on trial and it is my turn to stand in front of the judge and plea our case for freedom. I will not be participating in any form of social media other than blogging. I will not be Twitter alerting my blog. My reason for this is that the core of my answer lies in personal discovery. Vanity and narcissism are the foes in which I am at battle with. It is the constant quest for the laugh, that I have lost the ability to entertain myself.

Easter will be the day in which I emerge back to the scene with a hopefully fresh look and box of hustle. I will look to the people that are fixtures in my life for support and share the journey through this little piece of real estate on the internet I call brewery33 aka my stupid writing.

I leave you with a quote that hopefully bounces around your cranium and ferments for a while. I actually don’t know who said it, but it is in no way my work. I hope that works for citing purposes.

“In this media-drenched, data-rich, channel-surfing, computer-gaming age, we have lost the art of doing nothing, of shutting out the background noise and distractions, of slowing down and simply being alone with our thoughts.”

Stockton will win.

Stockton is lucky to have this guy!

Guest blogger day at @brewery33 Labs. I met Greg while working on a local political campaign. We instantly became friends based solely on the fact that we were the only people that were not in contention for an AARP discount working on the campaign. As we conversed more, his passion for philanthropy through positive event organizing became apparent. This guy is one of the integral reasons that the Miracle Mile is having community events. His latest endeavor of the Neighborhood Renaissance Committee’s “Save our Post Office” event, was a wild success. I have video to prove it, and will post sometime in the next few days.

Without further ass kissing I give you Greg Bahr “unofficial Mayor of the Miracle Mile” (a title that I officially coined) Thanks for coming to play.

Hello David Siders & Record Staff,

It was good to see you at last weeks City Council. I’m sure your still adjusting to the new resident in your home. As always, I also read your blog from the meeting. I thought it striking that there was no mention about the unique and trailblazing partnership between the City and UOP and many others in the median project at Pacific Ave & the Calaveras River. The fact that UOP donated $86,000 to pay to create a shovel ready project isn’t something commonly seen here. This is good news that the Record should be covering. It is a source of never ending frustration that important things like this are often neglected, passed over, or dismissed. The Record plays an important part in our community. Stockton suffers a bad self-image, and this springs up from many issues, such as; crime, education, and unemployment. However, the Record also shoulders some of the responsibility for our low self-esteem. If the Record were to embark on a “what is great about Stockton” campaign, and create a noticeable, focused, and consistently positive effort at promoting this community, it would go a long way to garner good will equity with the community. A lasting effort to promote the positives of our community would help to spur economic development. And, this part is for the business end of a newspaper, growth in economic development would increase potential advertisers.

I’m trying to do my part to improve the quality of life here. What is the Record doing?

Please be more mindful of important opportunities to report news-worthy events such as the public/private partnership between the University of the Pacific, Stockton Beautiful, the Miracle Mile Improvement Dist., & the City of Stockton.

Greg Bahr
Co-Chair
University Neighborhood Renaissance Committee

St. Baldrick’s Day Massacre

Today was potentially a big day for philanthropy in Stockton. During my daily lurk of the Siders blog I came across the young Lincoln high school student that stood before City Council offering the opportunity to help children that have cancer merely by shaving your head. The poor student got the political treatment and walked away with a meager offer from vice mayor Kathy Miller to hold the clippers, rather than get scalped for charity.

This event gave me the idea to ask my current favorite City Council member (due to her presence in the playground we nerds know as Twitter) @susanEggman if she was game to shave her head. My initial tweet to her was in complete jest and I actually was waiting for some of the faithful to say that I was acting like a bully again and to stop being so rude. Side note, I have found that sarcasm and jokes tend to not translate so well in the written word.

Much to my surprise @susanEggman accepted the challenge but added a caveat, raise 5 thousand dollars. It’s basically a political trump card. It puts me in a position, which began as a common chide, of now becoming a fund raiser for a cause that while is very worthy, doesn’t really fire me up enough to take even more of what little precious time that I have with my family, away from them.

I have received a lot of support from the Twitter community from Stockton and abroad encouraging the pursuit of the goal (thank you by the way), but much to the displeasure of the crowd I will have to bow out. Let’s say politics have won this round. While in a perfect world I would love to drop everything and raise the 5 thousand dollars that it would take to have @susanEggman shave her head, not only embarrass her, but more importantly provide the funds to whatever children’s cancer society that Lincoln High school is benefitting, I must swallow my pride and accept defeat.

I am still game to get my head shaved, and invite fellow Stockton Tweeps to do the same, as long as it doesn’t cost any money. With my stupid start up and educational pilgrimage, I really have very little cash to spare. The only tangible thing of value that I could give to benefit the research of children’s cancer at this point is my dignity by allowing my locks to taken.

Feel free if you are a philanthropist in search of a cause, to take this episode of Parks and Recreation and run with it. It will not be considered poaching and you will be assured run in the paper and possibly TV coverage. It has some legs, but will take a lot of energy to meet the goal, especially in this recession. I hate pussing out, but through many battles and wild stunts I have learned to fold my hand. Thank you Kenny Rogers. Now excuse me while I go to write a check that the City Council is making me do, because I do business in an Enterprise Zone.

Politics 1, @brewery33 -100, Lincoln High School St. Baldrick’s Day complete win, because lots of people are talking about your event. Keep it philanthropic.

With a little help from my friends

I have been at an odds with the @recordnet’s decision to paywall their content. My initial reaction was that they were basically slitting their throat. As the notion of charging for content has fermented in my mind a while, I think that the decision is not far from the solution. Definitely not anywhere close, but closer to solution than to total and utter failure.

Being in business myself, I respect the ideal that a business must make money. Profits are not the only reason a business must produce a black bottom line. For instance if an organization plans any sort of future, innovation and pushing limits is essential. In order to innovate and push limits the organization must employ some pretty talented staff. Talented staff costs money. I get it.

Rather than outline the history of the newspapers presence on the web, we will just assume that if you have made it this far in the essay that you understand the newspapers are charging for previously free content. If you are not aware of that, let me Google that for you.

Enter the paywall. A blogging colleague by geographic area, stated some pretty good criticism of the new fangled business plan that the Record was embarking upon. @slickDiaz noted that if we are supposed to pay for this content, make it worth our while by offering some dynamic content such as podcasts, video, and supporting documents, just to name a few. I have a whole long winded opinion that addresses this approach, but since people like to read 500ish words, I will practice brevity and speak on it another day.

What if we allowed people that are paying customers, to share the article with their friends by providing a link to the paying customer. This special link would end with a number that a script on the referenced page recognizes and allows the person who followed the link access. Influence by creating a social following. I am sure through scripting this could all be possible and traceable to analyze what type of content is popular, by digital word of mouth. Yes there will probably be some sort of hack that will generate scripts to allow common journalism thieves to view the documents without receiving a link from a subscriber, but I don’t think that I would worry so much about people pirating my writing, because at least they are receiving my news and have worked hard to get the news from my source. It is actually kind of flattering.

The notion of allowing people to share is not so crazy. Liken the concept to making a copy of an article to share with a group that you are working with, or to post on the bulletin board at work. Copyright laws are probably broken when people share writing this way, but you just reached an audience that would have otherwise never read your offering. It creates a sort of affiliance program that might encourage people that do not subscribe to the online version of the paper to realize the value of the product through a little taste, from a person that they trust. You could even leverage the power of suggestion by offering local influential bloggers a free account to offer to their readers a peek behind the paywall at the green pastures of dynamic content.

People such as myself and the rest of my generation, digest news a touch different than say our parents and grandparents. Through a completely un-scientific poll I conducted, found that the only people that have agreed to the new paywall model the Record has offered us, are the old people who probably use an aol email start their web surfing by reading the news at Yahoo!, and think that an email client is someone that I sell things to. In my opinion it is time to upgrade your news criers from the kid on the corner and the creepy guy that hangs out in front of the grocery store to the revolutionary idea of social sales.

If anything, the managing staff at the Record could allow this notion access onto the agenda of whatever meeting that whatever board of executives deal with the online subscription department. At that point they can realize that I don’t know what I am talking about and continue down the path of alienating their audience.

Education explained in fragmented sentences

My support of a California State University of Stockton was coaxed into the cage for an all out pay per view match by my friend @slickDiaz. It is my opinion that if we have some sort of public education at the higher level, our community stands to benefit in the long run. Sure I agree with @slickdiaz in the fact that immediate results will not be realized, but we are running a marathon right?

Education is the key to creating the intellectual stock pile that corporations hunger for. I am not so much a proponent of the suit and tie corporate America, but I haven’t even made my point yet, so give me a chance. Since Stockton is essentially devoid of any high paying career other than lawyers to process foreclosures and doctors to medicate and cure the uninsured, the prospect of fostering the idea of a someday state university isn’t so bad of an idea.

Stockton being Stockton, breeds cynicism. So to address the barrage of shit that my fellow Stocktonians will throw at me, allow to me elaborate. Sure we won’t be dripping in ass like ASU or spawn a tradition as rich as Notre Dame, but we can educate some of the many impoverished and neglected residents of this struggling City that prior to the notion of a real college degree, outside of a prestigious $120,000 private college degree, were left with the decision to drive forklift at the Port of Stockton or join the ranks of the skilled tradesman in construction and vie for jobs that don’t even exist, and there is always retail.

I may sound like an asshole and the perennial optimist will more than likely lampoon my viewpoint, but the internet is for opinion, and if you don’t like my opinion, don’t read my writing. I enjoy living in Stockton and have quite the passion to ensure my success along with inspiring people to pipe up and become a part of the process. “You need to be part of the solution Andy”. Well we can’t find the solution unless we have dickheads like me to float hare brained and half baked ideas to the masses to get people to talk and think about the outcome, hence coming to a solution. Also, to those that snap to judge my rhetoric and label it as negative or mean, let me give you a little walk down Andy lane, so you can better see what the world looks like from my point of view.

Now I am an advocate for a state university because I am just the type of Stocktonian that could use the facility. I am 31, married, marginally smart, made horrible decisions as a youth and now want to reconcile my educational goals in hopes of providing my family with an improved and more financially viable life. Our possession of Delta college is an asset. It serves to train people to perform certain tasks through certificate programs. Which is good and needed, but only serves those that are interested in becoming a chef or working an electron microscope. Delta even offers Associate of Arts degrees, which in the work world are as valuable as my Costco club membership card.

I am sure that Stockton is full of people that are in a similar quandary that I am in. I want a degree so that I can further my educational pilgrimage and pursue a professional degree and ultimately produce a more fulfilling career that smiles upon my sanity as well as my bank account. As I near my exit of Delta and ponder my next move, CSU Stanislaus came onto my radar. Only problem is that they don’t degree solely in Stockton. I would have to travel to Stanislaus, in Turlock, to complete my coursework.

Since I have a burgeoning family coupled with a demanding work and civic schedule this option does not work for me. So am I to be thrown to the wolves and be relegated to a lifetime of good enough, just because I was retarded when I was young? No, since I value my education and have balls the size of California, I have made the decision to attend to the affluent local private university in Stockton. Now truth be told this is going to cost me roughly $40,000 just to attain my Bachelor degree, but you have pay to play. This isn’t even including what professional school costs upon graduation. I understand that through prudence and sheer hustle you can subsidize your tuition by seeking out various scholarships, but there are only so many of those, and for the sake of argument the large figure catches eyeballs.

If I had the luxury of even a satellite program extension of the CSU Stanislaus that would allow me and the hundreds of others like me the opportunity to degree in Stockton, I would be all over it like Apple is on devices. Since I am not afforded the luxury of a State University I will plunk down the cash. What saddens me is that I am much more able to substantiate the outlay of such a large sum of cash than say the guy that made similar life choices as I did, only wasn’t afforded the luxury of the family business safety net. I am by no means rich, but I happen to hold down a job that allows my family the simple luxuries of life. I feel bad for those that don’t have much and are starting from the pit, which is so deep that the 45 minute drive to Turlock isn’t the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hump Day Haiku: The State of the Digital Union

roguementality:

Today I was going to bum everyone one out with a sob story of how my state of mind is sort of in the doldrums.  Don’t worry though, I’m going to stay with the party line, after all, a coach once told me “no one is going to feel sorry for you except for maybe your mom, so you might as well suck it up.”  So, let’s keep it topical and talk current events that matter to more people than just me (and presumably my mom).

I historically don’t curry too much favor for technology based news.  I have multiple conspiracy theories to support starting a world wide digital insurgency, I feel that Sky Net could become self aware at any moment, I live in fear that somewhere there is a Bill Gates doppelganger bent on world destruction, and the fact that Google knows what I want to know before I finish typing it in the search field makes me more worrisome than satisfied with its ease.  My anti-tech sentiments, while keeping me in a safe bubble, put me behind the power curve over the years on gems like the ipod, DVR, and the amazing Adobe Illustrator.  The bottom line is, Bob is right. And even though I can now accept that the times are a-changin’, I will always interact with the tech world with with one hand on my gun.

There is one gentleman though who has opened my eyes to the potentially positive exploits of the digital world.  My legally bound brother from another mother, Andy.  From schooling me on intricacies of Gates v. Jobs while on a run or introducing me to twitter, he for better or worse, brought me to the party.  He tweets with the creme de la creme of the Stockton social media’lites, lives by the @garyvee’s motto of Crush It, and is using the technology, social media, and the interwebs to get his business hustle on.

This week on twitter he has been gushing about Steve Jobs and the introduction of the Apple Tablet, which by all accounts should cure the world of it’s ills.  The amount of buzz that the Apple Tablet Announcement received on the internet over the past month illustrates the impact that social media has had on technology.  Five years ago, I would have only known about the Apple Tablet unveiling if I was talking to some tech savvy person in the know or had an interest in that arena (which I didn’t).  Now, the ease of seeing #appletablet or #apple or #stevejobs as a trending topic on my twitter account and hearing friends, who are in the know, tweet about #appletablet allows technology news permeate directly to me.  This in turn involuntarily raises the interest level in the topic (see: this post) and puts information at your doorstep. 

Is this good?  I don’t know but like a Google search, its easy.  Even if it isn’t, at least I will know right away when Sky Net does become self aware and that gives me a chance on Judgement Day…

Apple Tablet Huh?

Better to know than not know?

Hmmm, well I guess so…