Mutt Media: Suggestions for giving back this season

While it’s true that this is the season to give, some of us may feel a bit strapped financially during the holidays. We need to remember that at this time of year, more than ever – there are people less fortunate that need our help.

So how do we give to others in need while still taking care of our family and friends? Here are some great resources that empower us to give without even writing a check. Some of these sites will seamlessly make donations to charities while you shop, while others will help you clean out your house and send along items you no longer have use for to those who do. Please take a moment before the stress of the season takes its grip to have a look and find the cause that speaks to you. Here are just a few.

Give While You Shop

Goodshop.com and GiveClicks.com. Here are two sites where a portion of how you spend goes to charity. Select your cause, shop and donations are made. Want to donate to a loved one’s college education? Enroll your credit card info at UPromise.com and use this portal to access hundreds of stores you probably already shop at….added bonus: whenever you use enrolled credit cards on or offline – you’re donating!

Clean House & Give Back – A Great Way to Recycle

Give your gently-worn shoes via SolestoSouls.com,where your donations are distributed to those in need, whether due to financial hardships or natural disasters. You can also help others in their search for employment by donating your previously (but gently)-worn business attire at CareerGear.org (for men) or TheWomensAlliance.org or DressForSuccess.org (for women).

Kids can give back to by donating their stuffed animals, children’s books and blankets via ProjectNightNight.org.

Happy Holidays

The Daily Bone 4.9.10 | Mutt Media talks about cyber-bullying & applauds new crop of legislation for prevention/penalties

Mutt Media on cyber bullying

You can’t pick up the newspaper (or, if you prefer to read online, peruse the headlines) lately without coming across one story or another where the phenomenon of cyber-bullying isn’t discussed. The effects of this online form of bullying can be severely traumatizing for the victims and can lead to isolation, depression and suicide.

Children have always been bullied, whether in the playground, in school or on the very blocks that they live and play. It remains a disturbing part of growing up; a seemingly random assignment of torment to particular kids, sometimes with provocation and more often, without any. Bullying today has been taken to new heights with the emergence of social networking and the ability of our children to be constantly “plugged in” whether via their computers or cell phones.

What was once limited to the time kids spent in and around the school or playground has now infiltrated our homes on a 24 hour rotation without end. Kids are not only using Facebook, but text messaging, AIM Instant Messaging, YouTube and video chats. The ability to virally reach an infinite audience – even those we don’t know personally, has given new meaning to the word torment. There is, quite literally – NO ESCAPE.

What can we do to stop this? In a word? PARTICIPATION. If that word is not enough, then here’s another. WATCH (closely!). TALK is a good one, too. As parents, we have got to step up and engage with our children. Find out what they are doing online, and just as you would correct their manners at the dinner table, do so with their behavior in this forum.

Don’t even get me started on monitoring your children’s “harmless” photos that they post and tag for all to see. That’s a topic for another post.

For now, I will leave you with this thought. It is much easier to post your feelings, thoughts, etc (both naughty and nice) on a screen of some sort. Let’s try to encourage real, LIVE interaction whenever possible. So much gets lost or misinterpreted via emails, texting and the like. What ever happened to actually picking up the phone?

I will post instructions on how to limit your children’s computer time, which programs they use and for how long in a future post, but for now – dialogue!

I, for one, would hate to think that one of my kids could be participating in cyber-bullying a classmate or friend – or worse – to be on the receiving end of this awful behavior and taunting.

Here are links to just a few of the articles of interest on this subject.

Rachel Neblett, Cyber bully victim

Click here if you’d like to read the official press release announcing Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper’s co-sponsorship of an important bill that will criminalize cyber-bullying against minors.

Some cyber-bullying resources and sites of interest:

• Stop Cyber Bullying Now
• Cyber Bullying Research Center
• Real life Stories
• Alexis Pilkington (Local Long Island Girl posthumous Facebook Page)
• the story of Rachel Neblett (another girl who committed suicide)

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 11.12.09 Facebook proves Teen innocent of robbery

Another incredible story, courtesy of Facebook.

Rodney Bradford is a Brooklyn teen who was accused of a robbery that took place on October 17 and was held on Riker’s Island for 12 days!!!

Turns out that Bradley had been wrongly identified at the scene by a “witness” who claimed to see him there. In fact, he was at his father’s home in Harlem – nowhere near where the robbery took place in the Farragut section of Brooklyn. Even other, multiple witnesses coming forward to say they saw Rodney at his father’s wasn’t enough to clear him from being a suspect.

It was only thanks to a status update on Facebook, “Where my IHOP?” that they were able to trace Bradley’s electronic “fingerprint” back to his dad’s computer back in Harlem.

The family is taking the position that Facebook saved Rodney. Pretty scary. Robert Reuland, Bradford’s attorney said it well…”It reflects the pervasiveness that Web sites and social networking has on our lives.”

You can read the story in its entirety as it appeared in the New York post by clicking here.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 10.26.09 Teens and how they are contributing creative content online

According to a 2005 study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life project (Lenhardt & Madden,2005), more than one-half of all American teens—and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet—could be considered media creators.

For the purpose of the study, a media creator is someone who created a blog or webpage ,posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations. Most have done two or more of these activities. One-third of teens share what they create online with others, 22 percent have their own websites, 19 percent blog, and 19 percent remix online content…some interesting statistics…

Here’s a piece that my son made awhile back that at last count had almost 90,000 hits on YouTube. Go figure. Topic? Call of Duty and his Top 10 Weapons. Kids these days!

Mutt Media's Brooklyn Wants a Pancake!

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 6.15.09 My daughter & I go see Jonas Bros. thanks to Ryan Seacrest & Twitter

MuttMediaNY_thanks_Ryan_Seacrest

Sometimes I have no idea why I do the things I do. Like following Ryan Seacrest on Twitter. I don’t really have a particular affinity for him but there he is on my Twitter list of people I follow. His Tweets are usually pretty cool and unlike some, not so frequent that I’ve wanted to turn him off, so there he remains.

On Thursday, I happened to log on and the most recent Tweet by those I follow was from Ryan announcing to his Z100 listeners that the Jonas Brothers were performing that night at a free show at Irving Plaza (the Filmore). Now, I am not an avid Z100 listener, nor do I consider myself a Jonas Brothers fan, but I do have an 11 year old daughter who has set up a shrine to them in her bedroom.

I think I saw this Tweet at around 4PM and within minutes I grabbed a screenshot (see above) and forwarded it to the BEST ticket broker I know – John Bretschneider over at All Shows.

John happens to be a good friend and so the fact that this was a free show and he wouldn’t make money on me didn’t stop me from asking him to check into this and make sure it wasn’t a rumor.

By 6:30 I had was at dinner with the family. I hadn’t yet told my 11 year old daughter (according to her the future Mrs. Nick Jonas) that this was in the works, so as I was feverishly checking my phone for confirmation, she became suspicious and asked me what was keeping me so distracted.

Since John is so connected, he was able verify that there was a show, that it was unadvertised until that very morning and only then to the Jonas Brothers Fan Club and get us VIP’d so we could watch from an area where we could actually see the band.

My daughter reacted like she just won the Mega Million Jackpot and we were off for a last-minute, unplanned and spontaneous mother/daughter night out. It was great. Here’s a clip (taken from youtube):

So, thanks Twitter, Ryan, John and the adorable Jonas Brothers.

This story has a bittersweet ending. My daughter left a bit miffed at Nick. He ran right by her as they exited (he was less than a foot away) and he didn’t fall down on one knee to propose. I told her that he was probably too embarressed in front of all those people, to which I got the proverbial eye-roll.

Moral of the story – Twitter works!

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 6.11.09 Tip #10 Do your homework!!

Mutt Media Tip #10

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

10. Finally, it has never been easier to research your target employer. Once you have dazzled them with your résumé, Blog and get that interview – BE PREPARED!

Aside from your physical appearance, communication skills and experience, be informed about your potential employer.

Go to your preferred search engine and look up the person who will be interviewing you! Have they been quoted in an article or press release? Are they on a networking site where you can see their work history and background? Get to know the person and the Company as best you can. Who have their Clients been? What is their philosophy?

Look at the Company Website and Blog and find out who they are. This will go a long way toward making a lasting impression and shows you’ve done your homework.

When the time comes during your interview (and it usually does) when you are asked if YOU have any questions, be prepared! Look carefully at the research you’ve done in preparation and ask an informed question – whether it be about the direction of their business or some recent changes made within the company. Just show them that you’ve kept up with your industry and specifically – with Company XYZ. This will go a really long way. Trust me.

Mutt Media | the Daily Bone 6.10.09 Do some Twitter Citizens yield too much power?

A few weeks ago, Twitter made an announcement that they were becoming involved in a proposed new reality TV series that centered around the micro-blogging platform.

The premise of the show was people using Twitter to track down celebrities. For anyone not familiar, there are many celebrities who use the site – and quite often I might add.

These include Rainn Wilson (The Office), Demi & Ashton (please don’t ask, “Demi & Ashton who?”), Kim Kardashian, John Mayer and the list goes on and on. Some have well over a million followers, so it’s fair to say they can have a huge influence. And they use their accounts to tweet often. Well, someone, possibly a publicist – may be tweeting on their behalf (even though I think that’s a big no-no).

Anyway, back to my point. Ashton & Demi were not on board with the reality TV concept. How can you blame them when you look at the proposed premise of the show? Celebrity stalkers via Twitter? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Twitter backed off the reality TV concept – for now. But here’s another concept…the very population that helped to put Twitter on the map and bring it mainstream would/should/will be alienated should such a project come to fruition. So here’s a case of the tail wagging the dog

Does this give the celebrity population the right to dictate the business model that the Twitter “executives” envision for their company? I am torn between feeling that celebrities (who, incidentally have shrewdly embraced this technology as a free modality to aid in their self-promotion [not that there's anything wrong with that]) are feeling that this is a one way street.

Just log on and check out one of these celebrities. Millions of followers but some not following many themselves. That is to say, they are very interested in talking at – but not really listening to – their fans. This does not go for all of them.

But I forgive Rainn for not following me back. He makes me laugh with every one of his tweets.

Oh, and follow MM on Twitter to hear from me at all hours of the day

Here’s a great clip from Larry King’s show. He interviews Kutcher and Sean Combs, who says here that you Tweet because you have something to say. Agreed.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 6.3.09 LEET-Like Spelling Bee by Mike Luckovich

Leek-like Spelling Bee by Mike Luckovich

I thought this was a cute cartoon that appeared in one of my morning papers last week by Mike Luckovich.

Normally Luckovich does politically-bent cartoons (go to the link if you’d like to see more of his work) but I thought this was one worthy of a post for Mutt Media & the Daily Bone.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember my post from May 7, 2009 where I gave a brief overview of LEET (1337), the shorthand “language” that our kids are adopting in their day-to-day online communications.

This shorthand is sometimes hard to decipher and my concern is that – in a sense it is slowly edging-out our English language. My kids (daughter especially, who is, incidentally, the younger of the two) has become an expert in paring down her words into these little snippets in order to get her messages (txt, email and the like) deployed more quickly. She routinely will answer “IDK” when asked a question….this is worrisome!!

Do you know what “IDK” means? If not, then just answer “IDK” (that was a hint).

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 6.2.09 Ever hear of a "jobvite"?

Read an interesting article in the New York Times on Sunday 5.31.09 called, “Finding New Employees, Via Social Networks”. You can click on the link to read the full article but to sum it up, Julie Weed tells the story of Alan Kennedy, a 54 year old man who found himself unemployed. Kennedy is now working at Hubspot, thanks to some social networking and Facebook.

I’ve spoken here before about how Facebook profiles can be used FOR and work AGAINST you during your job search. Cleaning up your account for your job search is paramount but once that’s done you can begin to take advantage of some third party applications that are designed to assist you in your search using social networking.

Jobvite & Appirio are two companies that an employer may seek out to fill positions. Keep in mind that these cater to the Company, not the individual.

Go check out how they work and how they can affect your job search!

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved