I started doing number 7 in the fall. Next up is number 2!

via Chris Brogan

I rang in 2010 with a great crowd of people: Mike, Frank, Nicole, Mel, Joe, Geoff and Rochelle.

Every one of those names up there is linked to a Twitter account. I met all of those people thanks to Twitter (either connecting on Twitter or having them connected to someone I had connected to on Twitter), and all of them in 2009. I know there are still nay-sayers – people who think that Twitter is just a bunch of nerds chatting online who couldn’t hold a conversation in real life so they’re hiding behind a utility – but as I mentioned last month, Twitter leads to more in-person interaction, not less.

I’m not the only one who made this observation about our new year’s eve gathering.

I know the other question on your mind is: Were we talking or tweeting all night? I just went through all of our Twitter streams. Frank tweeted 3 times while we were out; one of those was a photo from our night out. Rochelle tweeted once; it was a photo of our night out. I posted once; it was a scheduled happy new year tweet I had created two days prior.

So, we were either talking to each other, or we were standing around in awkward silence. And there was no awkward silence.

Here it is, another December 29. Our 2009 calendars are running out of usefulness. The aughts are nearly gone, and we’ll soon be writing 2010. It was last year at this time that I was writing:

I will, in no uncertain terms, not miss 2008. It began with a major snowstorm, a storm which has not abated for 363 days and counting.

I went on to say

My hope for you, dear reader: a happy and a healthy 2009.

My mom took time out to agree.

2009 was a really good year. There were some health problems in the family, but everyone’s alive and working and progressing and moving forward. I got to take personal days at the end of the year to relax, rather than spending them on funerals. I’m calling it a win from a healthy perspective.

Mitch’s year-end post is about growth, and for me, 2009 was about growth, and 2010 likely will be as well.

I set these goals for 2009:

• Take more photos for the greater good, not necessarily for sale. I’m hoping to put at least three new photos on flickr each week.

• Publish something in Corpse. It’s a publication I both enjoy and respect, and I’d be honored to be on their contributors list.

• Make this space here a lot prettier, more professional, and more useful. That includes better (more frequent, more informative) posting, and more creative use of space.

I took more pictures, but put them on Twitpic and Tumblr instead of Flickr. And it was more than 3 a week.

I did not publish anything in Corpse. To be honest, in mid-June they still had a note up that they would begin accepting submissions in May, and I haven’t checked back since.

I overhauled this space twice, more recently moving it to WordPress. While I still really like Blogger, I’ve learned that WordPress is a more professional platform, and I’m likely going to be taken more seriously by the more serious social media folks.

I moved in January to a smaller apartment that fits me better. I’m a short walk from almost everything I need; I’m closer to work. I’ve stepped up my social media efforts and really reached out to meet some new people in 2009. See this nearly ridiculous post about Twitter for a look at that. I’ve grown my LinkedIn network. I’ve launched an effort to help raise money to fund childhood cancer research.

In December, I launched two group-written blogs, one (just getting started) about collaboration and one about a lifelong passion, music.

I’ve begun coworking in the spaces of a local non-profit that supports urban sustainability.

I’ve designed new websites, I’ve talked people into blogging, I’ve helped organizations with social media tools. I’ve spoken to a couple of media groups.

I haven’t outlined specific goals for myself for 2010. They are more general than perhaps I’d like them to be, but I’ve been doing, more than planning the past six weeks or so. Here are three things I want to do in 2010.

• Collaborate. I’d like to start and maintain projects I’m passionate about. I’ve taken a running start at this, but I think more is going to come as I learn the intricacies of collaboration and relationship-building.

• Write. It seems like every year I wind up saying I want to write more, and what really ends up happening is that I take on the technical side of more things and write less. Not in 2010. I will be spending more time writing about what’s going on.

• Drop 12 pounds. That might sound like a weak weight-loss goal, but it’s realistic and achievable. When I graduated high school in 1994 I weighed 115 pounds. When I moved to Syracuse in 2003 I weighed 215 pounds. I now weigh 170 pounds – that’s a 45-pound drop from my high. And while I haven’t lost weight this year, I’ve lost two inches off my waist, which means I’m gaining muscle, which is heavier than fat. Twelve pounds allows me to keep gaining muscle, but forces me to make healthier food choices.

My wish for you is the same as it was last year. Have a happy and a healthy year.

I turn 33 years old today. And I think 33 is going to be a good year for me.

I didn’t feel like 30 was a milestone year. And with ups and downs along the way, I think 32 was a good upswing.

I’m learning more about myself. I’m more conscious of what my body is telling me, and while I won’t be reaching for my walker any time soon, I’m recognizing that I take longer to warm up, need to stretch more often, and wind up with more creaks and pops in the morning than I used to.

If Harry Chapin is a model – and he’s as good as any other, I guess – 33 is the year you kind of stop kidding yourself (read all the way through that song; it’s worth it).

Poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats were both dead before they turned 33, as were rockers Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly and Kurt Cobain. New York Giants great Tiki Barber had retired by 33, and both Mozart and Charlie Parker were in the last two years of their lives (Parker died at 34, Mozart at 35).

Those were all people who had great impacts on their professions, and for the most part, they had stopped affecting anything well before they were 33. I don’t find that depressing so much as I see it a call to action.

So, here’s to me, but here’s to you, also. I plan to have a great year, but I can’t do it alone. You’re coming with me.

Cheers.

Photo by emmyboop, used under a Creative Commons 2.0 By Attribution license. And the song is, of course, by Cracker.

My bar mitzvah was Saturday morning, November 11, 1989. Some of you who read this blog are very familiar with what a bar mitzvah is; I’ll beg your patience for a few moments. I’m sure the rest of you have an idea of what a bar mitzvah is, but perhaps not the full significance.

The word bar means “son of” (bat means “daughter of,” which is why we use that for girls). Mitzvah, on the other hand, has two definitions. It means both “commandment” and “good deed.” The transition from boyhood to manhood, in terms of the Jewish faith, takes place when one becomes a “son of the commandment” – that is, a child becomes responsible for following the rules himself, rather than having his parents take responsibility for his actions.

In the Old Testament, there are 613 commandments to follow. 365 of them are thou shalt nots – they’re prohibitions on doing something (like killing and stealing). The other 248 are things you’re required to do (like honoring your parents and leaving a corner of your field unharvested for the poor of the community to take).

Growing up, in religious school, we are taught to do mitzvot (the plural of mitzvah), like donating to charity and volunteering at nursing homes. We are taught that these are good deeds, but if we were to take a closer look at the language, we’d find out that this was just the stuff we’re supposed to do. They are good deeds. for sure, but they’re also commandments.

In other words, you don’t get an award for doing right by people. You just do right by people. If the core of the Bible really is “treat your neighbor as you would be treated,” it’s a good code to run by.

But things in 1989 weren’t all about doing the things you’re supposed to do for the people you’re supposed to take care of.

On June 4 of that year, my sister turned 7. Also on June 4, tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square, China, effectively ending seven weeks of protests by people with a variety of different causes.

Those tanks rolled right over Chinese citizens, crushing them. Something on the order of 500 people died, with many more arrested. The world was changing. I was 12, and even I could smell it.

On November 9 of that year, while I was in the final preparations for my bar mitzvah, citizens were at it again, but this time they won: the Berlin Wall came down.

Two years later, I was in my maternal grandparents’ basement, listening to the new Walkman my paternal grandmother had given me (actually, she got one for each of the three of us; and she lived across the street from my maternal grandparents, so we always got to see them all in one trip), when I stumbled across the news that brought all the stuff from 1989 together: Moscow fell.

The world was changing – and now it had changed. And it was people who changed it, in spite of their governments, not with them.

Give this a listen, a close listen, and check out the background images (sorry, EMI decided not to let me embed it – they should have just put a watermark on it and let it go).

Photo of the Berlin Wall, Nov. 9, 1989, by Sue Ream, used under a Creative Commons 3.0 By Attribution License.

We’re frequently told to save money. Particularly for retirement, when we’re going to be in declining health and we probably should just enjoy ourselves instead of working a lot.

We’re also told to curb our spending, especially what we’re borrowing, particularly when it comes to credit cards.

This week, I got a credit card offer in the mail. It encouraged me to go to a website, punch in a 9-digit number, and I could have confirmation of my approval in 30 seconds. The card came with a $29 one-time processing fee, a $95 one-time enrollment fee, a $48 annual fee, and a $7 monthly fee, billed at $84 annually.

In other words, it would have taken me about 30 seconds to drop $256 before I’d even received the card in the mail.

The other thing that happened this week is that I started to consolidate a 401(k) from a previous job into my current job’s 401(k) plan. My current job’s plan is far out-performing the other, and I thought it’d be nice to have all of that in one place.

I logged into my old job’s plan account management tools. It had a rollover button, but it was for rolling accounts in, not out to other plans. So I logged into the other account, and it told me to call customer service.

I called customer service, punched my way through an automated system to get to a human, who then patched me over to the rollover department, who sent me to an administrator for our company’s plan, who told me I’d have to call my HR department.

The next day, I did, and they sent me forms for accepting a rollover.

Now that I knew how the acceptance side worked, I had to get a check from the plan I was closing. I logged into the website, called the number I was given, and was told to call the plan administrator at the company.

I did, and she dropped forms in the mail, which meant two more days.

I got the forms; it’s a fairly complicated package. Here’s what I have to do.

- Fill out a form, and mail it to the receiving plan for a signature to say it’s actually a retirement plant. Then they have to mail it back to me.

- Write a letter (they include a sample), fill out another form, and include the form I received from my current plan, and mail that to the company I used to work for.

- The company I used to work for will then mail the package to my old plan, who will take up to 10 business days to review my 4 sheets of paper and cut a check. I’m unclear on whether the check goes to my old company and then to me, or if it comes right to me.

- Once I get the check, I have five more pages to fill out and mail to my HR department along with the check, and they will then forward the check to the receiving plan, who will take up to 10 business days to process the rollover.

So let’s review. Spend $256 for the privilege of receiving a credit card: 30 seconds. Roll a prior 401(k) into a current 401(k): 20 business days of processing, plus 17 postal days, plus the time it actually takes for me and my HR representatives to fill out the forms and switch envelopes, plus whatever time it takes for my current plan to sign a piece of paper saying it’s a retirement plan.

So yeah, it’s going to take 2 months for wiser savings, vs. 30 seconds for a bad borrowing decision that I’m sure ropes in a lot of people.

I think this is what they call a FAIL.

I’ve been cleaning house lately, organizing, reorganizing. So far it’s netted me two trash bags, three recycle bins, and a dining room that is definitely a fire hazard. But it’s getting better. It’s all in an effort to help me reorganize some of what I’m doing these days.

In reorganizing, I found something from my days at Reminder Publications, where I edited a bi-weekly newspaper and wrote for several weeklies before I moved to Syracuse. Here it is, typos, grammar errors and all:

Notes from the belfry
By Josh Shear
Editor, The Journal Bravo

Here’s tidbits, observations, and ruminations that have crossed my mind and eyes in recent weeks.

***

First, a little correction. Cindy Bow got her tattoo in Vermont before the art of tattooing was legal in Massachusetts, not before it was legal in the U.S.

***

Hershey’s wins the Big Spender award for the summer sweepstakes contests. While some companies give away CDs, concert tickets, and trips to amusement parks, the Pennsylvania-based confectioner is offering a first prize of a $10 gift certificate.

Two out of three contestants, though, will win a bag of Hershey’s candy – but to get their coupon, winners will have to send a three-by-five card in a Number Ten envelope to the company. I foresee a lot of people not bothering.

***

While I doubt there were actually 5,000 people at the Cracker concert at Stearn Square in Springfield July 10 as reported in the daily paper, the show was a blast, with frontman Dave Lowery tipping his hat to a youngster in the front with a sign. Also, kudos to the band for doing “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which was long a favorite cover of Lowery’s former band, Camper Van Beethoven. Apparently, they’re getting along now – they were on a co-bill in May when I was in Hollywood.

***

If you were one of the people Tim Owens (“TimmyT”) handed a CD at the Cracker show, check out track two. Good stuff, buddy!

***

I like my music, and on occasion, my TV. Even though I work in an office with two people hooked on reality television, neither has ever come in raging about last night’s programming – and I just don’t get why some people do.

Check out The Smoking Gun’s Web site (click on “archive”) for letters about Ruben and Clay from American Idol. While I admit to having missed every single second of the show, I can’t imagine why people put so much time and effort into the show. The Smoking Gun printed 10 letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission complaining about what they believe was a rigged election to make Ruben Stoddard this year’s winner.

One woman wrote that she and her husband spent three hours trying to get through to vote and couldn’t. Three hours? There has to be something better that could ahve been done with that time. But they’re not the only ones – TSG printed a letter from a 56-year-old businesswoman from Colorado who also spent three hours trying to get through to vote for Clay.

And a man and his niece spent a lot of time actually getting through in weeks prior – the two one week made over 800 calls, and the next week, he made 621 on his own. THey only managed to get in a few dozen between them for the finals, though.

Ah, what people will do to amuse me.

***

This business has its ups and downs, but I have to say for the past four years, I’ve enjoyed being a part of the Reminder Publications team and, just as important, the role journalism has played both in my life and in the communities I’ve covered. It’s off to the ivory towers for me, though, and I head soon to the graduate program at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications.

You can find me at my desk until August 8, but as this issue reaches stands, I pass the editorship of The Journal Bravo into the very capable hands of Sarah Corigliano, who has spent the past two years here at RPI as assistant editor of The Reminder.

It occurs to me that was a hopeful look. We’re talking about mid-July of 2003.

We all know the newspaper industry has had more downs than ups since then, but that journalism is blooming – you no longer need a printed byline to practice good reportage.

I also found something entirely different when I moved to Syracuse. I expected to do a masters program, pretend to look for a job, then just do a PhD and lose myself in those towers. Instead, I have found people, communities, and a job in media, and I won’t even think about a PhD for a long time, if ever. I’m getting so much more out of connecting with people and communities.

Beware of the possibility of more of this, by the way. My saintly father snipped and saved everything I had published over my four years on the newspaper, including the spaghetti suppers I reported on. I’m moving them to a more portable packaging method, and so memories are being stirred as I do so.

Mitch tagged me in one of those “things you don’t know about me” memes. While I usually don’t take part in these, neither does Mitch, so I figured I’d better give it a shot.

The rules:

» Mention the person who tagged you

» Mention seven things about yourself most people don’t know

» Tag seven people, and try to let them know they’ve been tagged

This actually is, and isn’t, easy. I’m pretty open about me, so there might not be seven things you don’t know about me. On the other hand, my life changed course drastically about five and a half years ago, so some people don’t know my former life, and some people don’t know my current life.

1. I recorded and sold out a run of 250 CDs of (primarily) original music (there was a traditional ballad on there, and I excerpted a Tom Waits tune inside one of my own – and paid licensing rights and everything).

2. I am very afraid of heights. Afraid enough that it will get in the way of minor tasks – though I find workarounds for life-changing moments. For example, it will take weeks for me to screw up the courage to climb on a counter to change a light bulb, but I was able to go to my happy place when it came to taking the cable car up and down Masada.

3. In my three years of retail banking (yep, you read that correctly), I sold dozens of Internet banking accounts to people who were only thinking about buying computers. Since it was free for them but I got a commission, I don’t feel too badly about it, but I haven’t decided if I’m proud of it.

4. I am fiercely loyal to my friends and generous (perhaps) to a fault, and the reverse is true as well: if you cross me, I will hold a grudge for years, maybe decades (I haven’t been alive long enough yet to explore that second part).

5. If you’ve never tried my cooking, find a way to get invited to a dinner party at my place. Plan a minimum of four hours, and expect to spend some time over the ensuing days thinking about one or more of the conversations we had.

6. Music has surely saved my life, more than once.

7. I’m not crazy about organized religion, but I love many traditions and will never give them up.

Tagging: Zach, Libby, Amy, Wayne, Ellen, Beth and Lisa.

Those who know me, know I’m very active. It’s not just the twice a week tennis, the occasional bowling league, the cycling around town, the summer softball league, and my preference for walking to places when possible.

I’m also active in CNYSPaRC, 40 Below and other things as they come up.

Often that stuff comes with lugging a laptop or two around with me, or sometimes books to tide me over while I’m between, say, a meeting and a hockey game.

All that activity came to a head in early February, when in the middle of a tennis match, my neck said, “we need to talk.”

So I’ve been limiting my activity for a while, and finally, I decided to take a leap and do something I’ve never done before: get a professional massage.

Melissa Heavener at Armory Massage had signed up for a Twitter account and connected with some folks in the Syracuse area, and so I had at least a little peek into her personality and the information she was imparting to people, and her rates seemed reasonable enough (hey, you go find me some licensed professionals who charge $65 an hour for their time), so I got in touch.

I made a 30-minute appointment, though Melissa spent a fair bit longer than that with me, if you include a medical history, taking pre-massage questions, and a bit of after-care discussion and chatter.

I went in with very little in terms of expectations. My entire “experience” with professional massage had come from “Friends” and Rush Hour 2, not exactly, um, yeah, you see where I’m going with that.

After going over some medical history (definitely nothing invasive), she explained to me that the injury was probably the result of a bunch of things coming to a head, rather than an in-the-moment action.

Weight-wise, she said, “your head’s like a bowling ball on a broomstick, and every bit you move your head forward, you double the weight.”

Ouch. Think about that as you’re setting up your computer monitor.

She then went on to explain that most neck injuries start at the pelvis. And if you look at my activities – from swinging a tennis racket or bat, to bowling, to swiveling one way or another to use a mouse – pretty much everything starts with motion at the pelvis and then works its way up.

She then went through an example of how the body transitions to new normals. If you’re one of those people who typically speaks with the phone resting on your shoulder and your head bent far onto it, eventually, it hurts, and you start resting it in a different position, which then becomes normal. Sooner or later, you’re walking around with your shoulders four inches higher than they used to be, and you’re trying to figure out why you’re sore.

Her explanation as to what she does, basically, was try to undo all the re-positioning harm people had done to their bodies, by working backward through the alterations, trying to get people back to their original positions.

So, we hit the table, and Melissa did what she does.

I was definitely able to feel the change as she started working on my left arm. She stopped to ask if I noticed anything, and I could tell that my right shoulder was higher than my left. It was also clear to me that she found some unevenness in my hips, though I couldn’t for the life of me identify it.

Things I now know are normal after a massage, and that you should expect if you’re going in for your first go: go hydrated. You’re going to leave dehydrated, as the massage gets your fluids flowing, and your organs start working double-quick. You may get sore; it’d been a little over a month since I’d had a good workout, so I definitely felt a workout-type muscle soreness the next day. There was also some grogginess; Melissa had warned me of this, too.

I’m also more conscious of my posture, but it takes some effort, and it’s not something I’m doing automatically yet.

The answer is yes, I’ll be back.

And now, a little about Melissa and the business…

Melissa has been a licensed massage therapist since 2001 (here’s what that takes in New York), and had her own business in Buffalo.

She moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for someone else, before returning upstate. She began working at Armory Massage, and then started to take it over in December of 2007.

The business is growing: after an interview yesterday, she took on a fourth therapist.

Since the office is (likely by the nature of the relaxation part of the work) very quiet-inducing, and as a social person, Melissa is starting to use Twitter and Facebook, and is looking to start doing demos (if you’ve got an office, give her a call) and to get involved a little more in the community and do some social networking.

I’m putting her business in the “downtown Syracuse business I’ll be patronizing regularly” column.

Also, if you missed it, here’s the Armory Massage Web site.

Photos used by kind permission of Melissa Heavener / Armory Massage