So, I was just minding my own business today when I saw a Tweet from @bsimi">@bsimi explaining that today at the @RSHotel dirty martinis would cost $7 in memory of Megapixel. I didn’t know her, and my instinct is to double check before I assume things I read online reflect reality.  Some people have dry, even invisible, senses of humor, so it pays to confirm stuff.  Sadly, it’s true–Meg Porter, aka Megapixel on Twitter, died in a car accident a week ago yesterday.  Seems she may have been on a single-lane road when a big-rig was going the other way.  Regardless, it was sad–she was just 24 years-old. 

What makes her death even more poignant is that while she had over 3000 followers on Twitter, she let everyone follow her life via her vlog posts on MegPorter.com.  I haven’t had a chance to look at many of them, but in the few I watched she seemed like a pretty normal 24 year-old woman–her whole life ahead of her.  Life is funny this way–some of us go away early, some of us stick around, while others can’t decide what to do.

The thing is, thanks to social media, no one goes away fully.  We’ve all heard the phrase "they’ll live on in our hearts" and it’s true but now, those who have passed on can live on through their own words, their own voice, their own face through social media–in a tiny tiny, but significant way, it’s like they’re immortal. 

So, when I found Meg’s blog I saw the YouTube video she recorded back on the 21st and immediately thought "Oh, @bsimi">@bsimi is just kidding or something."  If I hadn’t Googled any further, I’d have never known the difference. 

I’m not sure what I’m getting at, really.  I think maybe I’m hoping stories like this one will encourage us all to blog/vlog/record/document/whatever our lives more. 

As scary as it is to contemplate, we may check out before we expect to.  Best to make sure there’s something people can remember us by.

Just my ¥2, of course.

Totally forgot to add this link:

megan-porter.gonetoosoon.org/

As always, here is a nice 50MB version of Jay ThePal’s Jay TheVlog for June 27, 2009 hosted by Lisa of OnLisaReinsRadar.com fame so you can podcast away! Subscribe to Jay ThePal’s feed with this link! Or, just watch the YouTube player below.

Now you can show your love for JayThePal and financially support him AT THE SAME TIME!

Over at Zazzle, you can find two different T-shirts featuring the eye-popping Jay ThePal logo–an economically sound, white Jay ThePal T-shirt for just $13 and a stylishly
stylish black Jay ThePal T-shirt for just $22!

Buying these shirts helps make Jay ThePal’s videos possible. So, if you can see your way clear to pick up either of them we’d really appreciate it! In fact, if you buy one, LET US KNOW and Jay ThePal will personally thank you in one of his videos and we’ll link to your blog!

Don’t know who Jay ThePal is?

Jay ThePal is a puppet-American living in New York City with his cousin Kay ThePal and his two human roommates, ThePete and Siskita. Jay has his own presence on the Web at 12seconds.tv/channel/jaythepal, Twitter, Facebook, Chi.mp (jaythepal.mp ) and even has his own website at jay.thepal.us. If you haven’t watched his 12s, his Jay The
Vlogs or the first episode of Tee Vee with Jay and Kay (the first episode of a show he shot with his cousin Kay), you should check them out!

Wrong.

Google Ads (at least the ones on my website) pay webmasters per click.

How many TV advertisers pay TV networks based on viewers “clicking through” their TV commercials?

How many magazine or newspaper advertisers are paid based on how many people actually go to an advertiser’s website?

So, you get TV, newspapers and magazines getting paid big bucks just show ads.

But as a webmaster, I have to rely on the ability of a Google Ad to find it’s market in my audience. The thing is, I don’t want the ads to be obtrusive, so I go with text-only ads. Of course, it’s against the Terms of Service (ToS) to ask my site visitors to click on ads (even politely), so my only choice is be obnoxious to my audience by going with graphical ads or trust Google to do their job and display the best ads.

Not very fair since Google regularly misinterprets the words on this site. Back during the 2008 presidential election, I was slamming Bush and conservatives who would vote for him and what ads pop up on my site? Republican dating sites.

Well done, Google.

Now, to be honest, I don’t really pay attention to how many unique visitors I get per day. When I have checked I discovered it can range from a few hundred to a few thousand every day. Yet, do I get paid for every unique visitor who has a Google Ad downloaded to his or her browser? No.

Meanwhile, Google gets to traffic in my information, your information, and all the while they claim that their interest is in “not being evil.”

Sorry, G, but displaying your ads is a service I provide to you. Yet you only pay me when people click. You benefit no matter what because your logo is displayed to every visitor I get. Your clients benefit no matter what because their ads are displayed to my audience whether my audience clicks or not.

Does this seem fair to anyone?

So, claiming to not be evil and getting a service from people without paying for it?–that seems pretty evil to me.

Am I going to take the ads down? No way. I make a couple hundred bucks a year off of them and that’s a couple hundred bucks I wouldn’t get otherwise. But imagine how much I’d be making if I were paid based on how often an ad was displayed to a visitor…

Don’t like YouTube? Check out the 67MB mp4 version of Jay ThePal’s Jay TheVlog for June 13, 2009″ hosted, as always by Lisa Rein, the brains behind OnLisaReinsRadar.com!

In the meantime, here’s the YouTube embed:

Thanks for watching! Got a question for Jay ThePal (or Kay ThePal, Jay’s cousin) comment below or find Jay on Twitter, Facebook or 12seconds.tv! Kay can be found on Twitter and over at her own website, kay.thepal.us.

First off, THANK YOU JEFF PULVER (@jeffpulver ) for inviting Jay ThePal! It was a truly great experience for both myself and for my wife Sierra (@Siskita ) and for Jay ThePal and Kay ThePal, too ;) Not only did we get to network and meet a lot of great people, we also learned quite a bit from the talks given by some really intelligent and interesting people. I’ve been to other conferences/conventions and usually the panels and talks are kind of on the “meh” side of things, but I think I managed to pick up something from every talk/panel we watched. My only gripe is that they seemed too short. But short makes sense at a conference based on microblogging and how it is changing our world. Besides, all the folks who spoke were so friendly and approachable, we had no trouble just walking up and talking to them after they were done speaking.

Be sure to check out JeffPulver.com and 140conf.com!

Second, I’d like to throw a HUGE THANKS to Sol Lipman aka Sol on 12seconds.tv and @thesolster on Twitter. Without his support and enthusiasm, we never would have gotten into #140conf. (Hell, Jay wouldn’t be as popular either!)

I have STACKS of people to say thanks to beyond Jeff and Sol, but I want to make sure I have a comprehensive list before I go and forget to mention someone. I hope to have that up in the next day or two.

Until then, go check out Jay ThePal and his Jay TheVlogs! Or check out Kay ThePal and the videos she has at her site.

You can also check out two flickr sets that I’ll be adding more pics to soon:

#140conf Day 1:
www.flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157619816438619/
#140conf Day 2:
www.flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157619901583210/

You can also check out The12stream for a couple of #140conf-related vids I’ve already posted on 12seconds.tv.

This is only the beginning… YEAH!

]]> http://thepete.com/very-weird-subway-train-i-saw-this-evening-at-the-a-train-platform-42nd-street/feed/ 0 http://thepete.com/jaythepal-and-i-are-ready-for-140conf-man-yeah/ http://thepete.com/jaythepal-and-i-are-ready-for-140conf-man-yeah/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:03:17 +0000 ThePete http://thepete.com/jaythepal-and-i-are-ready-for-140conf-man-yeah/

@JayThePal and I are Ready for #140conf man, YEAH!, originally uploaded by thepetecom.