I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve been inspired - or really had any desire - to blog. As you can see, this thing has sat empty for a while. But this morning on my walk into work, I found inspiration again. Well, actually, it happened last night. But this morning as I walked in the crisp fall air, thinking about the conversations I had last night, inspiration suddenly came flooding back to me.

Over the last few weeks our go to after work spot has been our friend’s boat. As the weather gets cooler and taking our boat out becomes less and less appealing, we’ve found ourselves meeting up with a few friends to sit on one of their (much larger) boats under the camper top, have a few drinks and pretend  it’s still summer. Last night was no different.

Five of us sat around sipping rum and cokes, reliving stories from the summer that we’ve told a hundred times already and watching the few hardy suckers venturing out of the harbor into the chilly Lake Michigan air. Then, around the corner came a tiny blue sailboat, heavily loaded that looked like it had made quite the trek.

We passed remarks that he didn’t seem to know where he was headed in the harbor and our friend Joey – a seasoned sailor- commented that his boat looked more kit out for the Atlantic than Lake Michigan. We immediately assumed that we had encountered a Looper , joked a bit about the primitive nature of some of his equipment and moved on.

A bit later, our friend in the tiny blue boat tied up to the wall in front of us and stopped by for a visit. It turns out that his little vessel was, in fact, equipped to cross the Atlantic. He had left his home in Hamburg, Germany in May of 2010 and planned to see the world and sail “’til the money runs out.” He departed Hamburg for Africa, then crossed the Atlantic bound for Barbados. He spent some time trolling around the Caribbean, then headed northward for New York, the St. Lawrence Seaway, Canada, and eventually, Chicago.

We were fascinated. Most of us were baffled that one man in that little 20’ boat with such a small cabin, and certainly no head (marine bathroom), could handle that sort of journey. The five of us continued to work out the logistics of just how he had done it, and peppered him with questions like “But what do you do for food?” and “How long do you stay in one spot?”. We drank and talked well in to the night, learning that his next destination was the Mississippi river and eventually Mobile, Alabama. Eventually went our separate ways bidding our new friend farewell after pointing him in the direction of the nearest supermarket.

As I walked to work this morning, I was still awestruck by the logistics of such a journey. What did he do about money? How could he just up and leave for so long? How did that tiny boat make it? Didn’t he get bored? Scared? Then I realized I had forgotten to ask possibly the most important question of all – Why? What made him decide to up and leave everything in search of adventure? Did he have a family back home? Perhaps some tragic circumstance made him decided to leave everything behind and see the world. Or, then again, maybe he was just a little bit eccentric and wanted to see what was out there.

As I sat at my computer this morning recounting the story I had heard the night before to a few friends and coworkers over Facebook, I was kicking myself for not asking what his story was. I was inspired to share what I had learned, but I wanted to know more. I’ll be back at the harbor later this week, and I hope to run into the Crazy German so that I can really share his story with all of you. Because honestly, his bravery and sense of freedom are the first things that I've found this inspring in quite some time.

It's really funny how things come full circle.

The cynical part of me (which is a very large part) can't help but wonder if this is a response to the growing "Quit Facebook Day" movement. (The irony that this movement got huge support on, what else, its Facebook page can't be ignored though).

Facebook has become notorious for not considering what the users want, and implementing huge sweeping changes without considering their public. After every update, and they are becoming really really frequent, users get pissed and cry for the platform to go back to the good ol' days. This has gotten much worse of late, as users are now finding that their information is more public than they initially thought.

But following the huge public outcry about the forced "opt-out" of privacy features, it seems that Facebook is finally listening to their consumers. But are they really? As someone I follow on Twitter very aptly put it: You are not Facebook's customer. You are the product they are selling to their real customers: advertisers. For the first time, Facebook has been forced to live up to their users demands, because if they don't they stand to lose a good chunk of what they are selling: your information.

I can't help but notice that by accelerating the timeline, Facebook is showing their cards for the first time. Could it be that stoic old Zuckerberg has actually been shaken? It seems they may actually be afraid of this movement, because if they lose users advertisers will soon follow. This isn't exactly ground braking stuff, but I thought it was quite telling coming from a company that usually plays their cards pretty close to the chest.

It's no secret that with the new features that Facebook has been rolling out in recent weeks a whole new crop of privacy issues has arisen.

Among the complaints is the fact that websites will have access to a user' personal information when they click the "like" button from the site, or use Facebook connect. Another is that sites such as the Washington Post and Gawker are quietly installing apps to a user's profile, and compiling a "friends who use this app" box, which is essentially giving users a peek at their friends' browsing history.

While letting brands and companies have access to our personal information is indeed scary, I have to wonder how it is much scarier than allowing people we barely know access to the same details.

Think about it. You attend a party at a close friends house and find yourself mingling with some of of his work friends. You have a very pleasant chat, and when you log on to Facebook later that night you find you have several friend requests. This is part of what makes social networking so great - instant friends! However, have you ever stopped to consider that this person you barely know now has access to your photographs and personal information? Chances are you have, and you don't really care. But if you can say this about a stranger, how can you say otherwise about brands or websites?

Facebook is now offering an interesting new take on the web. Searching and sharing are easier than ever, but with that comes a caveat. The bottom line is this: if privacy is so important to you, you need to rethink what you are putting out there in the first place. If you don't want someone - be they family, acquaintances, perfect strangers or brands - to have access to certain information about yourself, this information probably doesn't belong on Facebook in the first place.

Just some food for thought.

I've been reading a lot lately about what leaders in my field think about my generation. It's not pretty. (See An Open Letter to Millenials and Dear Millennials: Your Parents Lied to You)

Admitedly, at fist I was kind of ashamed of my generation. Then I got to thinking about it. I can name one person that I know who fits the profile of the whiny, demanding, entitled Millennial. That's it. Just one.

While both of these posts make some very valid points about how we need to behave upon entering the workforce, I feel that as a young professional I need to stand up for my counterparts who are about to enter the "real world". (MissMegan88 wrote a similar post that admittedly inspired this one, you can read it here).

First off Mr. Baby Boomer, please don't make the mistake of thinking that our behavior as college students is the behavior that we will exhibit in the workforce. I have done my fair share of partying. I have stolen road signs. I have gone on Spring Break. I will even publicly admit to having done keg-stands and beer bongs. But there is a time and a place for all of this, and please don't think that we don't know that.

And yes, many of us were coddled growing up. We were told "it's ok, you tried your best" and "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game". But that doesn't mean we can't take criticism. The difference between our generation and yours is that we are used to hearing when we've done a good job, not that we aren't used to hearing when we've done a bad job. In what world is that a bad thing? Positive reinforcement never hurt anyone. I like to think of myself as a writer, and believe me Mr. Baby Boomer, when I was in school my papers saw just as much red ink as yours probably did. The only difference is at the top of an "A"paper,  teacher would give credit where credit is due and write "Good Work!" or "Nice Job". But trust me, I saw just as many nice jobs as I did "Not your best. See mes". But those notes inspired me to work harder. I liked being praised and dreaded being scolded, so therefore I worked towards positive reinforcement.

Many have said that we are entitled. Please, Mr. Baby Boomer, point that person out to me. I worked through college, and so did 95 percent of my friends. And by worked, I mean worked. I waited tables and I busted my ass. I worked unitl 2 am nightly without a break, and got up the next morning and headed off to my internship at 8 am. I don't say this to brag, or to make it sound like I think that I have already paid my dues, I say it because I know I'm not alone. My generation is ambitious, Mr. Baby Boomer. Most of us know what it's like to worry about how in the hell we're going to afford to put gas in our car next week, and are working so that someday we won't have to worry. We've worked the menial jobs. We've done the minimum wage thing. Many of us, by the time we graduate, have several internships totaling multiple years of experience on our resume. We smile, we get your coffee, we learn from your years of experience and the we go home, do our school work and head off to work where we smile while we bring your kid a plate of chicken fingers that in 45 minutes we'll be picking up off of the floor.

We do it because, believe it or not, we're driven. We want more. You're right: we are a generation of instant gratification. I won't deny that, but I will deny that we don't want to work for it.

I'm not sure who you've hired, Mr. Baby Boomer, but they certainly aren't the best of what our generation has to offer. Sure, we expect positive reinforcement, but we also aren't afraid to hear what we've done wrong. Remember, most of us are either still in school or have just left, we're used to our work being critiqued.

This all being said, I was fortunate to land a wonderful job with an amazing agency pretty much right out of college. Notice I say fortunate, not lucky. I have had friends tell me how lucky I was to get good grades, how lucky I was to graduate in four years and how lucky I was to get such a great job. I don't deny that I am incredibly fortunate, but I will tell you here exactly what I told them: luck didn't have shit to do with it. I don't have one friend who wasn't presented with the same opportunities I was, but I have several who haven't taken advantage of them. I have worked my ass off for everything that I have, and will continue to do so until the day I retire.

So please, Mr. Baby Boomer, cut our generation some slack. We're not as whiny as you think, and we sure as hell aren't lazy.

As most of you have no doubt already heard, Kalamazoo towing company T&J Towing is suing Western Michigan student Justin Kurtz for the statements posted to his Facebook group.

The background, for those unfamiliar is this: Kurtz started the group after he believed his car was illegally towed from the parking lot of his apartment complex. His window was damaged, and he believes that T&J employees broke into his car and removed his parking sticker. Kurtz is certainly not the first to complain about the practices of the company, but he was the first to take it social. He created a Facebook group called "Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing" that grew rapidly.

Kurtz posted his story, and asked others to do the same, but to remain respectful and not to post threats of violence. Students and area residents did just that. The group grew to eight thousand members, and soon the story was picked up by local media. The Arboretums (Kurtz's apartment complex) and several other area businesses have since severed their relationships with T&J, and Joe Bird, the company's president, has responded with a lawsuit asking that the group be taken down, Kurtz cease and desist his "libelous and slanderous written statements", and that Kurtz pay $750K in damages.

 After appearing in the local media, the story was soon posted to Digg, where it gained a viral following. Since then it has been picked up by dozens of national and international media outlets, most notably CNN Justice, and INC.com. The response? Kurtz's group has nearly three thousand new members at last count, and has earned massive support from people as far away as New Zealand. Supporters are taking Kurtz's fight beyond Facebook and have filed claims to the BBB, and are posting false reviews on Google Maps taunting the company for their shady business practices.

Behold the power of Facebook. This case is expected to be another example in the loosely set president that social media is protected by the first amendment. Bird has to prove that Kurtz knowingly posted false and harmful statements to the group's wall with the intent of damaging T&J's reputation, which is notoriously difficult.

This is just another in a litany of examples of why companies should embrace the medium instead of fighting against it. We now have the unique ability to hear exactly what our customers think about us, right from the source, and fix what has gone wrong in their eyes.  Had T&J reached out to Kurtz and the thousands of other angry fans to explain themselves and make things right, this story could have had a very different ending. What could have been a local example of a business doing right by its community has become an international story about how not to deal social backlash.

Good luck, Justin!

I remember the day I signed up for Facebook.

I was 18, about to graduate from high school, and had just received my WMU e-mail login. I was stoked. As I sat in the school newspaper office bored out of my mind waiting for the last few staffers to turn in their drafts to be edited, I decided to get online and see what this whole "Facebook" thing was about.

It was pretty basic back then. I added some friends, wrote on their walls and logged out. For the next few months I collected friends that I had met once in the hallway of my dorms, or at some trashy party in the student ghetto.

A year later when they added the ability to upload photos it got really exciting. Now not only could you stalk the people you met once at a party, but you could share the photos of said party and see what else your new friend has been up to.

Over the next few years the platform evolved quickly and changed drastically. No longer just a place for drunk college kids to share photos and memories of their debauchery, soon you could interact with your siblings in high school and eventually Mom, Dad, Aunt Sue and your favorite brands of sneakers and energy drinks. It's now a medium for sharing and conversation not just between people, but brands and organizations as well.

So that being said, 20-somethings, it's time for us to evolve with it. As recent or soon-to-be college grads, it's time to embrace Facebook for the wonderful networking tool it can be outside of our little niche as well.

I can't tell you how many friends I have who have dropped their last name from their profiles  in hopes of hiding from future employers. Bad idea, I say. Keep the last name, get rid of the photos of yourself doing a kegstand on spring break. Create a presence that shows who you are both personally and professionally. Do some personal brand building and SEO.

Create an online portfolio at yourfirstandlastname.com. If you're not a programmer (as I certainly am not) there are tons of tools out there to help you with this. Get on LinkedIn, if you're not already. Build an online presence so that when an employer types your name into Google, the first three things they see are your portfolio, your LinkedIn page, and all of the insightful things you are sharing on Facebook. And, if you've really got cajones, blog. Read up on what's going on in your field and get your two cents out there. It can only help you.

I promise you, future grads, Facebook does not need to be the dirty little secret that prevents you from getting a job. I guarantee that if used correctly, it can be what gives you the advantage over the millions of other eager young go-getters out there.

Trust me, I'm a professional.

Let me preface this by saying I live with an IT person. I know how they work. It's all smoke and mirrors.

So it's a typical day at the office. The internet is slow and the printer doesn't work. You get pissed and walk over to IT.

You: "Shit's broken. The printer won't work and I can't get to the Google."
IT Guy: "Nope, I just printed something 5 minutes ago. User error."
You: "No! Take my machine! Look! It won't print"
IT Guy:"UGH!" <rolls eyes. scoffs. makes several other pissed off noises so you know you're really putting him out.> <click click click> "Huh. Must be your machine. Have you tried rebooting?"
You: "Yeah. That's your answer every time."
IT Guy: "Leave it with me."

10 minutes later.

IT Guy: "Here's your document."
You: "Hey, cool. Did you fix my machine?"
IT Guy: "Sure."<long list of acronyms. DSLAN. FTP. PHP. GHB. PCP.>

20 minutes later.

You: <facedesk>

It's my theory that IT guys could get by without ever doing any work, and there ain't nothin' the rest of us can ever do about it. They use big fancy acronyms and get to look down on the rest of us peons who depend on them to do our work on a daily basis. But do we ever really know what it is they do? No. We can tell them somethings broken, and they can say " No, it's not." and that's the end of it.

In short: I should have been an IT person. I could totally sit in a cube all day and play solitaire while answering the phone and saying "Hello, IT? Have you tried turning it off and on again?" while acting superior and generally put out at having to deal with the huddled masses.

Disclaimer: This is meant to be funny. I realize that IT people do a ton of shit on a daily basis that I couldn't even begin to fathom. Please don't send me angry e-mails. And if you haven't watched the IT Crowd, you really should. Netfilx that shit. Now.

I posted this on our work blog today, and thought I'd share it with the world.

I’ve been following the Nestle train-wreck with morbid curiosity all day.  I’m captivated.

Among the angry ranters are hoards of social media types crying out for this guy to lose his job (which I don’t necessarily disagree with), and crucifying Nestle for their downright lousy social and crisis management skills.

One post really stuck out to me:

Alan Stevens Simple rules of a PR crisis: When your cow falls in a ditch, firstly get the cow out of the ditch, then find out how it fell in, then make sure it never falls in again. I’m afraid your cow is still in the ditch.

So simple, but so true. I wish my crisis management prof in college would have put down the textbook and told us this.