2 posts tagged “sxsw”

For those of you who weren't at SXSW this past week, you may not be aware of the hottest trend to come out of this once-a-year drunkfest: SouthByScurvy. Yes, 5 (or 9, depending how rockstar you are) days of partying left some most of us bringing home more than our schwag bags on the plane; we also came down with the most vile, most putrid, and apparently most contagious virus to hit the Geek world since MyDoom. Endless coughing (I pulled a muscle last night in my chest; thought I had first punctured a lung), sneezing, runny noses, fever, headaches, sore throats and more, you'd think we were all a walking Ny-Quil ad. In fact, we kind of are, except NOTHING seems to be curing this affliction, and some (read: me) are starting to (facetiously) wonder if this is the Beginning of the End. Like the alien species in an 80's sci-fi flick, it's gaining strength (and even has its own Twitter account!) and is now tackling poor, undeserving souls that didn't spend the last week or so putting nothing but Mexican food and alcohol into their sleepless bodies...you'd think it'd spare the innocent. But NO. As for me, I consider myself lucky - I managed to (thus far) avoid the fever and body aches, though my doctor today said I could expect to harbor this pornstar voice and pesky cough for another TWO WEEKS. Oh, joy.

Will this keep me from SXSW '09? You must be kidding? Who'd let a little thing like the plague keep me from having this much fun?

I woke up early this morning with lofty aspirations of being productive, getting those things that remain on my "to-do" list finally checked off with a satisfying swoop of my Micron01 Pen. Have you used one of those pens, by the way? They're an artist's dream, and coupled with your trusty Moleskine notebook, you feel like an intellectual pontificating the issues of the day instead of a commuter making your shopping list while on public transportation. But I digress. Today, yes, TODAY, I was going to rule the world of productivity.

And then I arrived at work - early, no less - only to be sucked in by the wonderful world of my online identity. My browser, still open from yesterday, displayed my Facebook & Pownce home pages and my Typepad control panel, and my 2nd monitor had open the Pownce AIR app and of course Twitterific. I'd like to say I have ADD as an excuse why I'm so easily distracted, but alas, I think it's more the overwhelming mediums of communication to which I'm somewhat (read: completely) addicted. Let me elaborate.

I met a boy (guy/man/dude - whatever you want to call a member of the opposite gender around the same age and to whom I was attracted) and in my infinitely inebriated wisdom, I decided he needed to put in a little effort to capture my attention. (I prefer to call this "wooing", an apparently antiquated activity pontificated upon in my still yet-to-be-posted diatribe on being born in the wrong era). As such, I told him only my first name and then suggested he head over to his search engine of choice and query simply "Aubrey". Taking it one step further, I proffered that if he was lazy, he could save two characters and simply search on "Aubs". In fact, do it yourself. See what I'm talking about!? I'm not overly anonymous. Thus, the title of this post.

"Controlling" your online identity has long been regarded as important, especially for job-seekers. However, with the rise of one social networking site after another, I suggest that employers are having to be more lenient in their assessment of candidates, knowing that most of us DO have a MySpace or Facebook site and, while we can control what WE say about ourselves (and how we do it), it's not always possible to control comments/notes/posts from friends or other randoms on the internet that can often leave us in being seen in a negative light. For me, this is less important; I've had a website (no, Ryan, it is NOT a blog!) since 2000 and after 753 posts, not to mention early-adopting the username of "Aubs" or "Aubrey" on just about every Web 2.0 site out there, "Control" to me only references a Janet Jackson album of days past. No, control is not my issue; maintenance, however, is.

I am very conscious of my omnipresence on the Web. Yes, people "know" me (or think they do) from seeing me on Flickr. They'll say: "You're Willo's friend!" or "Isn't that Ali?" when running into us at a local park or at the Geek equivalent to Sundance, SXSW. (If I had a dollar for every person who I finally "met" there after knowing of them online for years, I could buy an iPhone. Oh right. I already did that. Anyway.) What I find hard, and increasingly harder these days, is maintaining all of my 'online' presences while trying to maintain/enjoy/cultivate my offline one. (You know, that little thing called "real life". Geekyfantastics, have ya heard of it?) I've maintained AubreySabala.com for seven years now, mainly on Typepad (with a stint on Movable Type with much thanks to the very patient Jon Armstrong for his assistance). But then there's AubreySays, a site that I never really had any time to devote to, unfortunately, since really, I know some awesome things too, just don't have the time to update/maintain/search for awesomeness. And then there's Vox, where I'm actually posting THIS from (they enable cross-posting) in an effort to test out that functionality since it seems to be pretty easy to embed photos and videos and even songs a bit easier than you would on Typepad. (I have long overlooked this offshoot of the brilliant folks at Six Apart, so it's due time for me to check out. Thus, why today's productivity is now decreased). Basically, what I need is a macro-level online
"identity manager" (and yes, I've seen Jaiku - I need more than that) where I can do everything I want to do online. It's the interconnectivity that I'm looking for - I want my Pownce to post to my Facebook and my Twitter; my Facebook to import to my blog; my Blog to post songs to Pownce, and I want it in one simple, user-friendly control panel. Basically, I've put myself out there. I'm just tired of putting myself OUT THERE in six separate applications that don't always talk to each other.

Aubs may be everywhere, but being everywhere takes time, time that could be better used being a pseudo-intellectual while BARTing to work. Or - dare I say it? - going "off the grid" and heading out for a weekend with no laptops, no iPhones, just Aubs + Nature = Relaxation. If only my ADD would allow it...