I’m a Denver, Colorado native and have lived here my whole life. When I heard that the 2008 Democratic National Convention was going to be held in Denver I was stoked! The 2008 presidential election is going to be one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, and having the DNC in my home town was something that I had to participate in. With over 50,000 people from around the nation, media coverage from the around the world, tons of celebrities, all coming to Denver, how could anyone living in Colorado not become involved?

I knew that the convention was held in Denver from August 25th to August 29th, so the Sunday before the convention began, I purchased a small camcorder to capture my experiences during the week of the DNC. I had a lot of fun shooting video during that week, and I managed to film some pretty cool events that happened during that time. I attended the free and awesome Rage Against the Machine concert to support the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), as well as the following protest to end the war. I interviewed several people downtown as well to get their opinions of the DNC, and I will posting all the cool videos I shot during that week soon.

In the mean time, here is a YouTube teaser video showing a series of video stills form the video I shot that week, and below the video you can see all the photos individually with my commentary as well. I hope you enjoy the video and photos, and keep coming back because there is more coming soon! Thanks!

If you have trouble viewing the youtube video, click here.

The 2008 Democratic National Convention was from August 25th, to August 29th, 2008.

The Daily Show was at the DNC, and these two guys were part of the show.

Posters supporting numerous causes, events, and groups could be found throughout Denver.

All over Denver you could see patriotic support for the DNC.

Police from all over Colorado were in Denver to make sure things went ok during the DNC.

There were many protests during the week, and most of them went peacefully.

This is self-explanatory…haha

Protesters and media coverage during the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) protest

All over the 16th street mall downtown you could see people supporting their causes.

More protesters supporting IVAW.

Bullhorns always help you get your point across!

“This was an awesome poster!”

MSNBC covered the events of the DNC live almost nonstop.

Local strip bar Shotgun Willie’s parading their car through town!

This is from the “Pictures of you” Images From Iran art piece.

Left to Right: James Laurie (Flobots), Zach De La Rocha (RATM), Tom Morello (RATM), Wayne Kramer (MC5), and Boots Riley (The Coup)

This is my brother participating in the IVAW protest. Go Jared!

The Rage Against the Machine concert to support IVAW was EPIC!

8:11:55 PM  plugoo_buddy: [My Plugoo] [Phase] Hey man

8:12:09 PM  Cold Philter: Hey Phaser.

8:12:11 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I just got your post — I’m flattered and glad u enjoyed it

8:12:20 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] how did u find me

8:12:55 PM  Cold Philter: Through BlogCatalog.  I realized that if I need to start meeting other bloggers if I want anyone to check out my site.

8:13:22 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’m glad u did man

8:14:01 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, that’s a big piece of the blog equation I was missing.  The whole point of blogs is that you create a discussion…and I wasn’t.

8:14:04 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I have been blogging for about 3 months now and it’s going really well ever since i started networking

8:14:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] yea totally man

8:14:33 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i like ur site a lot it’s fucking sick

8:14:38 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i just RSS’d u

8:14:40 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, networking is awesome, it’s really good to get feedback from other bloggers.

8:14:48 PM  plugoo_buddy: [INFO] Visitor [Phase] has left the conversation.

8:15:28 PM  plugoo_buddy: [My Plugoo] [PHase] sorry i put u in my google reader

8:15:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [INFO] Visitor [PHase] has left the conversation.

8:16:40 PM  Cold Philter: No worries.  Awesome brother!  I’m glad you like the site.  It took a bit of work to get it the way I wanted it.

8:17:12 PM  plugoo_buddy: [My Plugoo] [Phase] I need to add a blogroll,  a newsletter and a few other widgets and i’m done. Did u design this page by urself?

8:18:30 PM  Cold Philter: I didn’t design the template, but I did design the graphics.  You can check how the template originally looked by going to www.sizlopedia.com/tigopedia/

8:18:39 PM  Cold Philter: The link is in my site’s footer.

8:20:12 PM  Cold Philter: It’s a pretty decent template, very customizable, and had most of the layout features I was looking for.

8:20:27 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] dude u r amazing

8:20:55 PM  Cold Philter: I better be…ha ha…I’m a web designer….

8:21:00 PM  Cold Philter: Well…not officially.

8:21:03 PM  Cold Philter: hehe

8:21:07 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] omg

8:21:17 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’ve been meaning to find one for a very long time

8:21:29 PM  Cold Philter: Yo, if you need any help, let me know.

8:21:37 PM  Cold Philter: Is your blog Wordpress?

8:21:39 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i do!!!

8:21:42 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] no squarespace

8:22:01 PM  Cold Philter: Hmmm…not too familiar with that software…how do you like it?

8:22:06 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I need to add a blogroll, a newsletter for people to subscribe for my news updates

8:22:09 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] it’s Hosted

8:22:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] very easy to use but i’m useless at tech web design

8:23:15 PM  Cold Philter: Ah, I gotcha.  Newsletter is good, get subscribers in addition to RSS

8:23:26 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i have a huge facebook group

8:23:28 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] myspace

8:23:37 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’m on blog catalog and 1 other blog network

8:23:44 PM  Cold Philter: Oh yeah?  That’s cool.

8:23:45 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] but I need both those

8:24:26 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, I don’t have a blogroll either, another reason why I’m meeting some other bloggers.

8:24:36 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] you have a good eye if u were to change anything about my site what would it be

8:24:59 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I have a shit ton of fans/readers on facebook so u hit up the right guy

8:25:12 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i have a vastly growing subscriber base

8:25:22 PM  Cold Philter: That’s awesome….good job!

8:25:28 PM  Cold Philter: As far as your site….

8:25:30 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] so i’ll help u out

8:25:30 PM  Cold Philter: Let’s see.

8:25:41 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’ll put u in my blogroll once i have one lol

8:25:48 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] right now i just have a links section

8:26:03 PM  Cold Philter: I would make the banner a little smaller, add  a cool background graphic maybe.

8:26:25 PM  Cold Philter: Nothing too showy though….something faded.

8:27:15 PM  Cold Philter: I like the pictures you included in those links of your friends.

8:27:35 PM  Cold Philter: Putting funny/cool pictures relevant to your post would be good.

8:27:39 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] my web-design friend thought of adding a backgroudn scheme too

8:28:11 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, something simple, doesn’t need to be complicated.

8:28:21 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] what would u do

8:29:27 PM  Cold Philter: Hmmm…I would put in some graphic relevant to what your site’s about…your stories with women. 

8:29:41 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] it cant be a woman in the background theme tho

8:29:42 PM  Cold Philter: Because it’s The Phase Files…maybe a faded photograph of files…

8:29:49 PM  Cold Philter: No…no woman…

8:29:49 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] that’s waht i was thinking of!!!!

8:30:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] it shouldnt’ be a woman

8:30:10 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i like the folder idea

8:30:11 PM  Cold Philter: I bet you could find a nice royalty free photo you could use.

8:30:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] how do i get a blogroll

8:30:25 PM  Cold Philter: Change the color on it…

8:30:54 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] color on what

8:30:58 PM  Cold Philter: Well, wordpress has a blogroll widget.

8:31:16 PM  Cold Philter: The color of the files so it matches your site and blends well.

8:31:31 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] yea my web designer mentioned that

8:32:32 PM  Cold Philter: Not sure what you would do for a blogroll on your site.  Just add the links in the sidebar as a panel probably.

8:32:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] yea but by and large u like the site

8:34:06 PM  Cold Philter: Yes, I think you write good content, but the site design needs something.

8:34:35 PM  Cold Philter: It wouldn’t take much.

8:34:47 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’m all ears

8:34:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i want the best relationship themed blog

8:35:48 PM  Cold Philter: Well, like I said, the background, maybe adjust the colors some, maybe change the font style…basic things really.

8:37:02 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] back

8:37:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] you want to get in there

8:37:15 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] lol

8:37:32 PM  Cold Philter: Haha.

8:38:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I wish I could introduce myself but I cant — it would ruin the mystery

8:38:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I’m 23

8:38:17 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] live in Boston

8:38:43 PM  Cold Philter: haha…it’s all good. 

8:38:53 PM  Cold Philter: Don’t tell anyone.

8:39:00 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] my friends know

8:39:06 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] and friends of friends but that’s it

8:39:31 PM  Cold Philter: Good.  Keep your anonymity.  Safer anyway.  That way you have the freedom to say whatever you like.

8:39:53 PM  Cold Philter: Anyone searches my name in Google, they immediately know everything I’ve written.

8:39:56 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i wont get too degrading

8:39:58 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] lol

8:40:52 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] did u RSS my site

8:41:15 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, not degrading, but maybe you don’t want an employer finding your site for example.

8:41:29 PM  Cold Philter: I RSS’d through Firefox.

8:42:40 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] yea that’s true

8:43:16 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] let me ask u something, what’s the fastest way to get a site to grow exponentionally

8:43:33 PM  Cold Philter: Haha….if I knew that I’d be doing it!

8:43:58 PM  Cold Philter: I think it’s a combination of a few factors working together.

8:44:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i have a great team doing word of mouth and i’m networking very well

8:44:31 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] u picked the right guy

8:44:36 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] i’m telling u

8:45:32 PM  Cold Philter: Great content, Great site design, networking, giving the visitors something they want.

8:45:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [Phase] I got almost all of that

8:46:03 PM  Cold Philter: You checked out my contact page right?

8:46:20 PM  plugoo_buddy: [INFO] Visitor [Phase] has left the conversation.

8:46:32 PM  plugoo_buddy: [My Plugoo] [phase] i’m there now

8:46:44 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] why

8:47:21 PM  Cold Philter: I saw on my stats that someone viewed it.  The form isn’t working since I upgraded my Wordpress.

8:47:30 PM  Cold Philter: I need to get another plugin for it.

8:47:43 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] where do u get plugins

8:48:07 PM  Cold Philter: Well, the plugins I need are made specifically for wordpress.

8:48:21 PM  Cold Philter: But you can get widgets that work on most sites regardless.

8:48:32 PM  Cold Philter: Like this chat box is a widget.

8:48:54 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] this is fucking sick

8:48:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] where did u get it

8:49:04 PM  Cold Philter: www.plugoo.com

8:49:11 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ur the man

8:49:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what else can u get there

8:49:37 PM  Cold Philter: Well, that site just makes that one widget.

8:50:10 PM  Cold Philter: But if you got to www.widgetbox.com they have 1,000’s of different widgets.

8:50:10 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] it’s pretty sick

8:50:23 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] dude how do u know of these sites i’ve been looking for like a week

8:50:42 PM  Cold Philter: You can make your own as well, like turn your blog into a widget to put on myspace and facebook.

8:50:55 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] hahaha no

8:51:04 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my Identity doesn’t get revealed

8:51:07 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] good idea otherwise

8:51:19 PM  Cold Philter: Right, but you could put it in that facebook right?

8:51:21 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’m glad u contacted me man i needed a techi

8:52:23 PM  Cold Philter: Check my myspace page.  www.myspace.com/coldphiltre

8:52:31 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i always thought wordpress was a piece of shit i used to ahve it

8:52:32 PM  Cold Philter: You can see my blog as a widget there.

8:52:58 PM  Cold Philter: Hmmmm….I really like Wordpess…but I haven’t used anything else…so.

8:53:11 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ur in Colorado

8:53:17 PM  Cold Philter: Word.

8:53:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] and ur my age

8:53:26 PM  Cold Philter: I’m 24.

8:53:28 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] add the phase files on there

8:54:00 PM  Cold Philter: Add it where?

8:54:10 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] no i’m saying friend me

8:54:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my username is phaes files

8:54:25 PM  Cold Philter: alrighty.

8:55:05 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, I could hook you up with some good suggestions too, SEO tips, stuff like that.

8:55:15 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ooo fire awa

8:55:25 PM  Cold Philter: Are you getting any google searches?

8:55:36 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] if u type in "Phase files" i’m first

8:55:41 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] "the phase files" i’m first

8:55:53 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] "Phase" not there yet but hopefully soon lol

8:55:57 PM  Cold Philter: What about your articles?

8:56:04 PM  Cold Philter: People searching those in google?

8:56:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] how would they know to

8:56:34 PM  Cold Philter: They don’t, but they search for words that are in your post and that shows your site.

8:56:53 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] oh ok

8:57:03 PM  Cold Philter: Like….someone might search "Austrian Women" and it would bring up your entry.

8:57:12 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] good call!! hold on

8:57:39 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] fuck nothing

8:57:51 PM  Cold Philter: You should add Google Analytics to your site, it will tell you all of the searches that bring up your web site.

8:58:00 PM  Cold Philter: And Google Webmaster Tools.

8:58:09 PM  Cold Philter: Shit is awesome yo.

8:58:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’ve read about those in my blogigng  book

8:58:28 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, I have them both….really cool.

8:58:28 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my site tell me my hit count, uniques, etc

8:58:30 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what is a robt?

8:58:32 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] robot?

8:58:43 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’ll tell u exactly what it counts on squarespace h/o

8:59:20 PM  Cold Philter: A robot finds all your pages and sends them to the search engines so that they can be found if someone searches for them.

8:59:40 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] how do i know how good my SEO is

8:59:56 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] for "phase files" and "the phase files" I’m first which is prob a good sign

9:00:09 PM  Cold Philter: Well, that’s difficult, you’ll know if your posts get google searches a lot.

9:00:22 PM  Cold Philter: Go to google and type in "negative people".

9:00:42 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ok 1 sec

9:00:49 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] use " " or no

9:00:56 PM  Cold Philter: Doesn’t matter

9:01:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ok i did

9:01:24 PM  Cold Philter: My article should come up #5 right?

9:01:40 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] Ya

9:01:41 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] it did

9:01:56 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] negative people suck

9:01:58 PM  Cold Philter: I get about 5-10 people searching for that post a day.

9:02:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what about "pussy…. where were you?"

9:02:20 PM  Cold Philter: haha

9:02:26 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] lol

9:02:52 PM  Cold Philter: The key is to find out the words people search for and include those in your writings.

9:02:53 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] shit it didn’t show up

9:03:15 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] phase is a big one

9:03:39 PM  Cold Philter: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php

9:03:48 PM  Cold Philter: This tool is really useful.

9:03:59 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] wow!

9:04:03 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] let me ask u something

9:04:13 PM  Cold Philter: Type in a word, and it gives you all the most popular searches that use that word.

9:04:22 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] hahaha

9:04:27 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] let me ask

9:04:31 PM  Cold Philter: Ok?

9:05:03 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i thought the most important thing that needs to optimize SEO was ur brand name aka The Phase Files or Phase Files

9:05:22 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i thought the higher up they show on google, the better indicator of how well the site is accomplising SEO

9:05:42 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, that’s part of it….but there’s a lot factoring into it.

9:05:57 PM  Cold Philter: You want to get those most people possible viewing your site right?

9:06:05 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what words would u recommend i start using then more often

9:06:07 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] yea!

9:06:58 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] dude ur like a blogging expert

9:07:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] god bless

9:07:28 PM  Cold Philter: I don’t know….if your next article is about a certain topic….search for that word in the SEO tool, and find out what keywords people search for the most, and incorporate those into what you write.

9:07:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my next story on monday

9:08:05 PM  Cold Philter: What’s it about?

9:08:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] is about how i get the worst head ever from my crush in 5th grade

9:08:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] like 2 years ago

9:08:23 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’m going to make fun of her and call her out on how awful it was

9:08:32 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i timed it 23:50 that’s bad

9:08:43 PM  Cold Philter: Ha ha….well ok.

9:09:05 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] yea she was attrocious

9:09:21 PM  Cold Philter: Search "head" the SEO tool.

9:09:37 PM  Cold Philter: "how to give head"  - 3682 searches

9:09:52 PM  Cold Philter: "girls giving head" - 2856 searches

9:10:06 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] so let me ask u this

9:10:13 PM  Cold Philter: "women giving head" - 1228 searches

9:10:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] if i incorporate DIRECT words  into the langauge of my story for instance

9:10:27 PM  Cold Philter: You’ll be competing with a lot of porn, but that’s what people are searching for.

9:10:30 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] of the "Women giving head"

9:10:34 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] I would generate higher SEO

9:11:14 PM  Cold Philter: Yes, because when a person searches for an exact phrase that’s in your site, your article will more likely show up in a search.

9:11:25 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] dude ur a lifesavor!

9:11:31 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] thats waht SEO is!!!

9:11:49 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i never knew of a resource to use to optimize it!!! I will make my stories flow based around the language to optimize SEO from that site u gave me

9:11:56 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] hell ya! well done

9:11:57 PM  Cold Philter: All seo is, is making your site easy for people to find in search engines.

9:12:13 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] dude how the fuck do u know all this

9:12:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what are the other secrets

9:12:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] lol

9:12:35 PM  Cold Philter: Blog Carnivals.

9:12:40 PM  Cold Philter: Those are good too.

9:12:41 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] what’s taht

9:12:58 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ur like my coach haha

9:13:28 PM  Cold Philter: A blog carnival you submit your blog entries to a web site, and then they post a link to your site on their blog in a series with other people’s blogs.

9:13:43 PM  Cold Philter: It’s important to get linked by other web sites.

9:14:15 PM  Cold Philter: The more site’s that link to your site, the higher your rank in search engines, and the easier people will find your site.

9:14:19 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] HOW DO I FIND ONE

9:14:27 PM  Cold Philter: www.blogcarnival.com

9:15:02 PM  Cold Philter: Every time I write an article I submit the link to at least 5 upcoming blog carnivals.

9:15:02 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] so

9:15:14 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] how do i know whom to submit it to and where and what’s it for

9:15:30 PM  Cold Philter: That’s the sucky part.

9:15:40 PM  Cold Philter: You have to look through the list.

9:15:57 PM  Cold Philter: And read what they are about, and if they want articles that deal with what you’re talking about.

9:15:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i had no idea this shit was so complex

9:16:10 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] thats what so hard about mine

9:16:16 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] I have the most unique blog on the net

9:16:22 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] u know

9:16:46 PM  Cold Philter: Well….if could be put into the "relationship advice" I think.

9:16:52 PM  Cold Philter: That would be a category for it.

9:17:02 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] oh really

9:17:23 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] dude u’ve taught me so much

9:17:34 PM  Cold Philter: I think so….because even though you aren’t giving out advice directly, you are sharing your stories that deal with dating and relationships.

9:17:42 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] you seriously just did me a lot of help

9:18:01 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] you’re automatically given the #1 spot on my blogroll

9:18:07 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’m serious

9:18:13 PM  Cold Philter: Word, thanks!

9:18:16 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] bec. I will get a lot of hits

9:18:24 PM  Cold Philter: Do you mind if I make this conversation a blog entry?  Haha.

9:18:29 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i already have a lot of readers and incoming traffic

9:18:44 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] hahaha sure why not it optimizes my SEO t bec. of my name PHASE

9:18:46 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] hahaha jk

9:18:48 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] leave that part out

9:19:06 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] ur like the Buddha of blogging

9:19:21 PM  Cold Philter: Naw…..I wish.

9:19:30 PM  Cold Philter: If that were true, I’d be successful at it.

9:19:35 PM  Cold Philter: But I think I’ll get there.

9:19:44 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] I can create the most entertaining material out there but w/o SEO tips I wouldn’t be doing as well

9:19:50 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my goal is to publish a book

9:20:20 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i held off on putting in adsense to generate enough traffic to justify higher PPC

9:20:29 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] pay per click

9:20:45 PM  Cold Philter: I see.

9:21:15 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i just figured out today how to use my RSS folder

9:21:26 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] I knew I had Google Reader but I didn’t know how to use it

9:21:35 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] this is all newlol

9:21:54 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, I use Firefox and my email program for RSS feeds.

9:22:32 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] word

9:22:38 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] my next story will blow u away

9:22:43 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i never seize to not entertain

9:22:57 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’m going to need ur help optimizing and making the most out of SEO

9:23:17 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] in return i’ll put u atop my blogroll and whatever else u need

9:23:33 PM  Cold Philter: Yo, comment on one of my posts, and put in your web site address in the address field.

9:23:46 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] sure

9:23:51 PM  plugoo_buddy: [INFO] Visitor [phase] has left the conversation.

9:23:58 PM  Cold Philter: Than my site will be linking to yours, and I’ll get a new comment.

9:25:14 PM  plugoo_buddy: [My Plugoo] [phase] done

9:25:32 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] it’s in ur day in the ilfe

9:26:09 PM  Cold Philter: That’s why it’s important to comment on other people’s blogs, because then you get a new site linking to yours.

9:26:24 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] that’s why i have as large a fan base as id o

9:26:28 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] in only 3 months

9:26:42 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] 27 subscribers in the last 2 days

9:26:47 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] that should giv eu an idea

9:26:56 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] Phase is on the rise

9:27:39 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] yo add me on BlogCatalog

9:27:47 PM  Cold Philter: Pretty good man, I’m impressed, I don’t know honestly how many subscribers I have.  FeedBurner says I have 10 or so.

9:27:52 PM  Cold Philter: I think I already did.

9:28:47 PM  Cold Philter: Hmmm…maybe I didn’t.

9:28:52 PM  Cold Philter: Oh, yeah I did.

9:28:54 PM  Cold Philter: I see ya.

9:29:07 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] square space etell su

9:29:11 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] tells u

9:29:18 PM  Cold Philter: Ah…

9:29:40 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] yea it has a subscriber count

9:29:44 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] and it has a bar graph

9:29:50 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] day by day counting the exact number of each day

9:30:09 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] so i’ll know how many i got today in like a half hour

9:30:16 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i think it’s going to be a lot

9:30:24 PM  Cold Philter: Word.

9:30:34 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] people check their RSS right

9:30:45 PM  Cold Philter: Bloggers do, that’s for sure.

9:30:58 PM  Cold Philter: I do, because it’s part of my email.

9:31:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i’m fucking retarded with that stuff

9:31:18 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] do u have AIM btw?

9:31:29 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah.  My sn is ColdPhilter

9:31:37 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] or facebook

9:31:51 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah, that too.  Don’t really use it much though.

9:32:08 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] u should

9:32:13 PM  Cold Philter: Yeah?

9:32:21 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] lol dude

9:32:25 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] i have my fan group there

9:32:31 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] they have a blogging network applicaiton

9:32:35 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] the entire world is on it

9:32:37 PM  Cold Philter: Haha….oh really?

9:32:39 PM  plugoo_buddy: [phase] no reason not to

9:32:52 PM  Cold Philter: Hook it up!

9:32:54 PM  Cold Philter: haha

9:43:00 PM  plugoo_buddy: [INFO] Visitor [phase] has left the conversation.

“We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.”

“Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?”

I lost my job this morning…and I’m STOKED!

     Losing a job is sweet when the job isn’t that great…or downright sucks. There’s a key word in that sentence there. Actually, it’s one of my favorite acronyms. J.O.B. - just over broke. Sorry, I don’t mean to start badmouthing jobs here (actually I do, let’s just hope that there aren’t any potential employers reading this), but I had to say that.

     This isn’t to say that there aren’t “good” jobs out there to be obtained, there are, however they are rare. I tend to think that the definition of what a job is prevents it from receiving a high status of awesomeness. Here’s the definition from my Oxford American Dictionary on my computer:

     That’s a good definition to me of what a job is, but it points out what jobs are lacking, and that’s growth potential. I guess this is the primary difference between a career and a job. A career encourages growth and advancement over a length of time. A job in my opinion gives little focus on growth and advancement, concentrating in the present, which creates stagnation in the employee. The job I just lost was much like that, leaving you with a feeling of insignificance and expendability, with little if no chance of growth within the company.

     So instead of feeling much loss or distress from being told I lost my job because I didn’t switch my monitor screen settings the previous work night back from a vertical to a horizontal position (can you tell they wanted me outta there?), I felt relief. I almost felt glad…almost. I did like most of my coworkers, and won’t be able to see them as often now. One of these days though I hope to be fired for a legitimate reason like stealing from the vending machines, peeing under my desk or saying “cha-cha” too many times.

     Isn’t there something grossly wrong with this situation? To feel relief about losing a job instead of regret? Do companies honestly want to create employees that are completely indifferent about the place they spend the majority of their waking time? I suppose it makes the firing process that much easier, but it seems like a lot of companies have their priorities out of whack.

     I remember a few weeks ago being told to stop asking questions about my job/work because I was questioning authority (when in fact I was trying to learn), and was accused of insubordination. It’s hard for me to believe that the desire to learn and improve my performance can be looked upon as being negative. Yet again, I haven’t experienced many dictatorships either, but the rules by which that company governed its employees seem to fit in line with autocracy.

     Luckily for me I have faith in myself. I have faith in myself that I will become employed with a company that appreciates its employees. As long as I know and tell myself that my value to this world exceeds whatever dollar sign the corporate world wants to tag onto it, I’ll be just fine. Hopefully if you’re in the same situation as me right now, you have the same understanding about your worth.

I suggest reading the article: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job, by Steve Pavlina. It gives some real insight on jobs and work in general.

     Oh, I’m currently giving dance lessons for a fee if anyone of you out there in the dubya dubya dubya needs some help gettin’ jiggy wit it or crunked up or………..you get what I mean. Just hit me up. Peace.