Tag Social media

“Hey…” she said, “go give that guy a water bottle.”
The homeless man she was nodding toward was sitting on a bench with an overstuffed shopping cart.
“Man,” I chided myself as I made my way toward him with my water in tow, “I didn’t even see this guy. She’s better at this than I am!”
Later, I smiled as she beckoned a waitress in a conspiratorial tone. ?See that older couple at the table on the other side of the dining room?” she asked, “Do you think you can put their meal on our bill, please? Don’t tell them though, it might be seen as a bit creepy.”
The couple, previously invisible to me, was sharing a small meal and positively glowed as the waitress removed their bill.
She’s much better at this than me!
Using her Facebook account, my wife gathered donations of soap, shampoo, lotions, and other toiletry items to place in bags to distribute with the water bottles. As we sat at the table at home, she commented “I read your blog…I had no idea you talked about me so much.”
“Of course,” I affirmed, “All of my best ideas came from you.” In fact, it would be helpful if you would choose a name so I can stop referring to you constantly as “My Wife” when I write.
She thought for a second. She bounced around names of muses, mythological deities, and a few Shakespearean characters. Finally, she decided.
“Watson!” she exclaimed proudly. Soon, she had determined her logo. The silhouette of a Victorian gentleman with a bowler making an “At-Your-Service” bow. It was humble, and emphasized her service orientation.
While stuffing the bags, she thought of the Rook labels that I place on the water bottles.
“Perhaps we should label these bags with both of our logos.” She mused.
She had indeed done most of the work with these.
“True. However, many RLSHs, when they combine forces, often form a kind of team, with a new logo.”
“Yes, but just two of us, we hardly constitute a ‘team,’ and I really don’t want to form a team with a bunch of people I don’t know.” She confessed.
A new voice joined the conversation. Our daugther’s fiancee’, who sidled up to the table and began stuffing bags noted “I’ve already chosen my name…Sage.”
“Nice!” I nodded, “It’s a plant indigenous to this area, it is often used for cleansing, and has a double-meaning for wisdom.”
My daughter wasn’t too far behind. “My name’s always been ‘Ember.’ I’ll use that one.”
I grinned over at my wife and she nodded.
It looks like we have a team now.
Soon, our new RLSH group had chosen a name (Desert Sage), adopted a logo (a simple line drawing of a sage leaf) and made plans to create a Facebook page to generate awareness, contributions, and support. Alas, “Desert Sage” was taken in Facebook, so we had to create it under a different name. The RLSH team Desert Sage, consisting of Watson, Ember, Sage, and myself can be contacted at the “Arid Sage” Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Sage/226532500791094
Rook

So I swing thru the Mickey D’s parking lot & there’s these two young guys, one tall & really thin the other really short but put together. Tall thin guy is trying to get away from the short one & short one is staying right on him telling him “Yeah you keep walking ” and other BS. So I put it in park & pop my seat belt & just wait for shorty to grab tall & skinny & start weighing my options:
1. grab shorty: I’ve got just as much Muscle & I’m well outside the 30 Lbs rule on him, I’m no miraculous Fighter but once I’ve got a hold of you you’re in trouble. Put a choke on him & toss him around like raggedy Andy while I’m doing it & tell tall guy to call 911.
2. Climb out with my 9mm.
Fortunately neither happened & tall skinny reached his car. I was surprised he didn’t pull out a gun & then I’d have to jump out to cover shorty in a complete flip of events. Shorty gets to his car & it has a out of state plate on it. You’d think these people would realize, especially in light of recent events that Florida isn’t a good state to threaten people in…Dumb-asses.
 

Tothian and many other RLS are stepping up to try and help with more sophisticated communication tools and I think this is great.  I have some expereince with this and see this as a growing interest in the community.  Be that as it is, I’d like everyone interested in this to ask themselves two things.  One, who in the rls community has experience running boards or websites like this?  And two, if we are suffering from lack of experience in this, would we want some seasoned guidance?
If ‘no one’ and ‘yes’ are the overall answers to the questions above, please take the initiative and contact me.  I can and will help get something ‘real’ going.  Blitz, Tothian and others are are scrambling to make a difference here and I have some unique experience that can contribute.
Its important to say, I’m not trying to create another brand of something others have been working on.  If I could caution everyone on one thing and one thing only, it would be running off in different directions.  The last thing we need is everyone proposing something new.  I’m trying to help unify the many people who see a need.  Hopefully, a combined effort will lead us to a quality platform and a connected community.
Why even create a tool?  Don’t we have MySpace and Frappr?  First, I feel its important to create a virtual Hall of Superheroes where we control access.  I want someone (or a council of someones) to have some control over who gets to read what.  Forums are great for this as are rl chat systems like TeamSpeak.  I believe this would lead to better communication and better trust over allowing us to put things out there and ask for help without feeling like we are being watched or monitored.  If this was not already obvious, I’m sure there are least a few law enforcement folks watching the super hero movement on MySpace.
Like Tothian, I’m not so much concerned about leading this effort as much as contributing.  I can offer my significant experience in this and hopefully that can make a difference.  My experience?  I led one of the top City of Heroes portals for over a year (forums, roster, news, live chat, all that junk) and, as my secret identity, I have created and managed a business website that maintains a forum (for three years) as well as host and present at conferences (7 years).
So if you would like, coordinate through me, or if there is a solid movement, I’ll give input if invited.  I’ll gladly do whatever I can to get something ‘quality’ up and and running if this is something people want to see.
I realize not everyone in our community is a team player (and thats just fine).  We do need to unite on this, however, and get behind a process that has us coming together – not leading off in different directions.