So…..I was robbed this past Friday.  Someone actually kicked the door in of my apartment, ransacked the place, and stole about $5000 worth of stuff.  I am still in shock and totally scared.  This will forever be known as the Christmas that I was robbed….I can see my self 15 years from now looking at my husband (who is currently my boyfriend) saying “Honey, do you remember that Christmas back in 2007 when we were robbed?…..yeah…that really sucked!”  Well maybe those won’t be my exact words, but I’m pretty sure it will go something like that.   

I still can’t believe it!  Thank goodness no one was there and the dog was in his crate.  The thing that hurts the most is they stole jewelry that had been passed down from my grandparents….items that can NEVER be replaced.  This whole thing feels like a poorly scripted cop drama.  The police actually dusted by things for fingerprints (which, by the way isn’t the easiest stuff to get off!).  I felt like I was in an episode of CSI or something.  

 I really hope this feeling of uneasiness goes away very soon.   I can’t bear to be at my apartment by myself and every little noise I hear freaks me out.  Like all people who have been robbed I feel completely violated.  It’s the weirdest feeling to get into bed and know that someone you don’t know has touched your mattress…..or find something on the floor that you know you didn’t put there.   I will say that it has made me realize how important it is to be aware of what is going on around you.  I have always tried to do that, but I think I had become somewhat lackadaisical about it…..well, not anymore!  After something like this happens to you I think you will always look at things a little bit differently.   

The fear and apprehension of being along in my apartment will pass and things will get back to normal, but I will never forget how this has made me feel and how it has changed my life forever.

  

Socon08

Sherry Heyl has asked me to help out with Socon08.  I had such a incredible time at Socon07 and I am so excited to be a part of the upcoming event.  When I received the email I  was filled with overwhelming excitement.  Partially because I love to help plan things.  It’s always something that I have enjoyed and helping plan the Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit was one of the best times!!  The biggest reason I am excited about helping out with Socon08 is I can’t wait to learn from all of the individuals involved.  I’m going to be like a sponge running around, soaking up everything that I can about social media.  It’s going to be GREAT!!!!! 

Faith in humanity

I was having lunch the other day with Sherry Heyl and we were talking about her company What A Concept! (amongst other things).  We got on the topic of employers looking at potential employees profiles on various social networking sites.  Up until that conversation my general attitude towards this was why should they not be able to?  If you make the choice to put the information out there then obviously you understand that it is as accessible as you make it…that is you can set your privacy settings in a way that allows only certain individuals to view your profile. (this may not be the case with some social networking sites, but I will say it is with the ones I am apart of)  So if you choose to put it out there and set the privacy settings to allow everyone to view it then how can you feel violated when a potential employer looks at it?  And why would it matter in the first place….people, for the most part, are decent human beings…..they award jobs based on merit and the candidates skills….they don’t judge you because you have a gay sister, or an incurable disease, or because you’re a single mother with 2 children….right!

 

WRONG!!  I was sitting there and I had one of these “DUH!” moments.  Sherry brought up such a great point…what if someone wants to join a community for people with MS and they are discriminated against and not hired for a position or what if a mother puts pictures of her children up and is not hired because of it.  Some of the basic ideas behind Web 2.0 are that of transparency, breaking down communication barriers to promote knowledge share and interactivity between groups or communities at levels that were never possible before.  People shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed about who they are or fear that if they are totally honest about themselves they will be persecuted for it….this would go against some of the fundamental ideas that makes social media great in the first place.

 

But unfortunately that is not the world we live.  People judge and are judged…..we jump to conclusions about individuals before even meeting them…..we stereotype…we base our opinions about people on things that have nothing to do with there character or what they stand for….we talk behind people’s back…..we gossip and talk about other people’s business.  There’s no getting around it…we have ALL been guilty of it at some point in our lives.  It’s sad but true….

 

I’m not really sure what the solution is or what the right answer it…..I guess to somehow alter human nature so that people get things because they deserve them and everyone is accepted for who they are….yea…that’s what should happen (by the way, that’s sarcasm)