Category Archives: raincoaster media

Can YOU take it?

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Can you take it? I sure as hell can't.

Can you take it? I sure as hell can't.

And they won’t even tell you what “IT” is.

My problem is, IT is at home, IT being the task of packing up essentially a three bedroom house’s furniture and stuff and either bunging it into storage or moving it up to Yellowknife in the narrow window when there’s a (long) road up there which isn’t an ice road and besides I don’t even have a driver’s license anymore so How In God’s Name I Am Going To Do This I do not know, but anyway…

How was your week?

In case you’ve heard rumours, well, they’re all true unless you heard them from legendary fabulist Steven Schwartz, in which case they’re probably amazing fabrication and I’d appreciate your noting them in the comments, as one day I may write an encyclopedia of internet drama and cancer-faking mythologists are definitely going to feature prominently therein.

But the rumours about me moving to the land of permafrost and the lynx nuisance at the city dump? Those rumours are true.

Yes, some poor company has offered me gainful employment, almost like a normal person, starting July 1st, which means several things:

  1. this will be a major score for my female friends who want to pick up some clothes free, cuz god knows I ain’t taking anything I can’t fit into or didn’t graduate in
  2. I have a shitload of furniture for sale, at all levels of quality from Oh My God Amazing down to You’ve Got To Be Fucking Kidding Me
  3. I forget what this one is.

Anyhoodle, there will be a party at some point, probably of the bring-a-bottle variety or, knowing my friends, the bring-a-bottle-and-a-sleeping-bag variety. I’ve already handed the reins of the Shebeen Club to Ian Alexander Martin of Atomic Fez publishing reducing my press-release-writing workload considerably.

Before I leave I’ll be speaking at Northern Voice blogging conference and Social Media Camp Victoria, and my newest round of online workshops starts next week. Then, poof! I’ll be out of the Downtown Eastside and up in the land of the polar bear. Where a dinner of (excellent) fish and chips will run you $60.

GAH!

So, before I head off to the wilderness, I’m throwing yet another celebrity link roundup your way. In Vancouver, I could be relatively sure of bumping into one or more of these people every few months. In Yellowknife? Maybe not so much. So, that’s an improvement!

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EatDrinkTweet Social Media Workshop Discounts

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Eat Drink Tweet

Eat Drink Tweet

Just a quick note to let you all know I’ve got a whole whack of new social media workshops posted on raincoastermedia.com and if you’re at the EatDrinkTweet conference in Penticton, you can get  a discount! So what are you doing here? Go take a look and sign up!

Operation Global Media Domination: the Thank God It’s Not Me edition

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Total Information Awareness

Scientia est Potentia

As longtime readers of the ol’ raincoaster blog know, occasionally we take a good long look at our stats, indeed, nearly disappearing into our own fundamentals from time to time, most particularly when something has either gone spectacularly well or when it has gone spectacularly badly. We call this Operation Global Media Domination.

As you, gentle reader, are doubtless also aware, recently things have been going spectacularly badly with the exception of the unfortunately shortly-lived Cusack Effect. You may be sure that I am doing all in my power to drag my hits out of the ditch in which Automattic has thrown them (and a long, technical rant on why will doubtless be forthcoming) including appearing on podcasts, speaking at conferences (four this month: FOUR) and pimping out my blog in my linkblogging every chance I get.

It’s paying off slowly, as we’ve gone from about 650 hits a day in May up to 1100, but when Automattic made the link from the global tag pages NoFollow, they basically threw me off a cliff, or at least my hits. My graph:

I die! I DIE!!!

Is it any wonder I'm so fucking CRANKY?????

But there’s something worse than facing that graph: facing THIS graph:

Nick Denton is not a happy man

Nick Denton is not a happy man

Can you guess when the new Gawker redesign was implemented? Can you believe a man as smart as Denton has a cash bet that pageviews are going UP? Can you believe he still doesn’t see the problem?

Can you ever be thankful enough that that’s not you???

Nick Denton BOOM Winning. Just ask him.

Nick Denton BOOM Winning. Just ask him.

Operation Global Media Domination: the WordCamp Victoria Situation

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Total Information Awareness

Scientia est Potentia

How does it go? A prophet is never esteemed in his own house…? something like that? Well, fortunately this prophet is esteemed, and that highly, in the nearby megalopolis of Victoria, British Columbia, to which I am constantly drawn and not just by the drinks that Shawn Soole cooks up for me…

though significantly by them, it must be admitted.

Indeed, I am drawn thither by the constant call to speak at WordCamps, SocialMediaCamps, IdeaWaves, and other tech-related compound words, which opportunities are seldom offered to me in my own humble burb of Vancouver, not that I am sulking about it, no sir! I mean, how could you resist this:

The Digital Revolution: Lessons from the Homeless

The Digital Divide is very real, and when the gap is bridged the results can be surprising, creative, instructive, even inspiring. By focusing on case studies of social media use among homeless individuals (taken from my personal teaching practice) this talk will provide radical new strategies for more informed and effective communications for anyone.

I ask yez.

In any case, if you want to see me speak a little closer to home, or on the other hand fear physical proximity to me while wishing to appease me with an offering of cash and/or Paypal, I’ve just announced a raft of new and returning blogging and social media workshops, some online, some IRL, over at my social media site, so go check them out.

Wonder how good I am? Ask Mike Vardy (of Eventualism, LifeAsAHuman, and DNTO):

Lorraine is likely better known by her Twitter handle (and business monicker of sorts), @raincoaster. She runs Raincoaster Media…and she really knows her stuff. She’s been doing this for a long time and has the right mix of credentials and knowledge to offer what a lot of those doing the same kind of thing can’t: nuanced comprehension.

Awwww. And for your information NO, I DID NOT HAVE TO BRIBE HIM, which is good, as I have, as we all know, no money.

But if you sign up for a course, I’ll have money! And then I can bribe YOU! Wouldn’t that be fabulous???

Sure it would. Shut up.

Operation Global Media Domination: the Divine Situation

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As I’ve mentioned elsewhere online, there is the very slight chance that this could go to my head:

raincoaster is a god. Hire her. Immediately.

In related news, I think I’ve sent out about 700 emails today from three different email addresses, plus Facebook invitations for another 500 or so, for two different events. Oh wait: THREE different events.

Event #1 is the Social Media Club of Vancouver’s Meet the Geek dinner this coming Tuesday which, if you’re in Vancouver, you really shouldn’t miss. It’s a custom menu in a private dining room underneath Blood Alley, to raise money to help finish the Downtown Eastside social media documentary With Glowing Hearts. The film-makers and some of the stars will be in attendance, as will some of Vancouver’s finest geeks, who will be happy to demystify the world of tech over a plate of good nosh. If you ask nicely, they might even give you a peek at their iPads.

Event #2 is The Shebeen Club’s Going Pro: Getting Real in the Writing World with Sylvia Taylor on Monday, the 27th (a week later than usual). This month, we’ll have a restaurant all to ourselves as we move to the Everything Cafe on Pender Street. Sylvia will talk about the issue of professionalism and approaching your literary career as a business, which is particularly necessary in an economic climate like ours.

Event #3 is raincoaster media’s full day Social Media for NonProfits workshop that I’m teaching with Wes Regan of Building Opportunities With Business. This is the one that helps me keep a roof over my head. Which one did I do last? That’s right.

In also-related news, today I was interviewed by Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun about the Meet the Geek dinner and her post should be up tomorrow online and hopefully in the paper this Saturday, and tomorrow it’s going to be on Breakfast Television as well. So, now I just have two more blog posts to do and then I can go to bed.

Oh, one more thing: Eight people on four continents all send me this with “Saw it and thought of you” comments. Let no-one say I don’t have a strong brand identity.

After seeing the success of the Old Spice commercials the mighty and terrible Cthulhu decided to sell his own scented products. Great Old Spice body wash; stop thinking in only four dimensions.