The Way I See It...

Memolane Is The Best Timeline!

2011-09-27T12:23:00.003-05:00

Last year I told you about a service called Memolane, they are an archiving site set up in a timeline format. Recently, at f8, facebook revealed the next evolution of their profile called Timeline; which I believe is an incorporation of a Memolane style service. Mockery is the best flattery, or so the saying goes; I guess it means something when Mark Zuckerberg wants to steal your idea. Of course, the Timeline is still under development and they are still fixing bugs and glitches; but Memolane is already a better product/service.

Not to long ago; the post may even still be showing below, I don't post much; I told you about a persistant bug at Memolane that wouldn't allow you to change your default facebook photo. I later edited that post after hearing from Megan at Memolane to assure everyone that they did have a fix and do care about customer service, even though they use GetSatisfaction which is particular about who they give customer service to; but that is another post entirely. We are talking about Memolane, and checking back with a follow up.

Memolane of greyeyesgabriel.

I really like this service and believe it is the best archiving tool with the best potential; I plan to use it for all of my blogs and feeds. There is a timeline at the bottom of the lane for quick reference back to a certain day; and a 4 way scrolling feature which allows for easy navigation. They show just about anything you post from anywhere on the web; as long as you have the attached the service/account which you are planning to archive. It will pull in all of your posts from any feed you submit to the lane, all the way back to the beginning; my personal lane starts on May 22, 2001. Being an archiving service, I don't visit it much myself; but I did go back to change my profile photo.

As you may recall; that was the bug issue that I originally posted about. I followed the directions that was originally given (yes, I still remembered) and removed my facebook service from the lane. Then I added the facebook service back to my lane. It worked; this time the reauthorization changed my profile photo to my current profile photo which was my first universal avatar. Much better and great job to the guys, and gals at Memolane; I can't wait to see what other services they develop for and what else they have planned. I highly reccomend and endorse Memolane for your social RSS archiving needs.

Facebook; Friending & Unfriending

2011-09-26T15:28:00.000-05:00

It had been reported that the new Facebook Timeline profile had a glitch that allowed users to see when their "friends" had silently "unfriended" them in the profile. I am actually happy to report to all of you "privacy" fans that the glitch issue has been fixed by facebook. I learned this from one of my newest developer friends, Edouard Gatouillat; who is the creator of one of my favorite facebook apps, Unfriend Finder.

Unfriend Finder works from a Javascript installed via Greasemonkey within your web browser making it secure. Unfriend Finder will track your friendlist, although it may take it a little while to start tracking. But once it does it will monitor your friend requests sent, denied, and accepted; but the best part of the script is that it tracks those that "unfriend" you on facebook. But it doesn't just tell you that you are unfriended; it lets you know if your friends have deactivated/reactivated their accounts, it lets you know if they left your friendlist or even if they blocked you. You can download and install Unfriend Finder from their website; I think you will appreciate the simplicity of this app and the knowledge of knowing who left your friendlist and when; even if it doesn't provide a reason why they left. Unfortunately, it doesn't locate the archive of unfriending from the past; but once installed; you will never have to guess who left your friendlist again.

I have thoroughly tested and continue to use Unfriend Finder on my facebook profile; I have been looking for something like this for a very long time. It is a tool that I wouldn't want to be without again, in fact I highly endorse it! Go to the website and install Unfriend Finder for your facebook profile on every browser you use.

Google+ vs. facebook = RockMelt

2011-07-25T23:24:00.002-05:00

RockMelt. Your browser. Re-Imagined.

I have been using the RockMelt browser since it's beginning; for those that have never heard of RockMelt, it is based around your facebook Open ID. You need to log in to facebook to use all of it's integration features, which allows you to have all of the features of facebook without being on facebook.

Where it gets really interesting is that they use the Google Chromium platform to build this specialized browser. As many of you know by my posts on facebook, I recommend Google Chrome because of it's Sandbox feature that hackers don't like. The Chromium Open Source project allows web developers to build their own browsers based on the Google Engine.

I find that using this Google/facebook hybrid gives me advantages such as being able to use Google Apps, and the ability to share over the social web with the click of a "share" button. This way I am able to share what I post on G+ flawlessly with facebook. Both have their own unique advantages; why should I throw away using one popular form of social media over the other? If I have the opportunity to integrate using the 2 or more most popular social networks into my webwork, then wouldn't that just strengthen my SEO?

When everyone started talking about facebook taking the #1 spot from Google; I was quick to point out all of the reasons that it wouldn't happen. The latest moves by Google to revamp and update their code for ease of integration of Google accounts just supports what I have said all along, Google became #1 for a reason and they have stayed true to their original model while innovating the web for more simple communication and sharing. Google is proving that Open Source is Social! Facebook is sure to copy another winning formula from upstarts to integrate into their platform; that is what they do best, copy what is working for others.

Google+ | facebook | twitter

Some old, Some new, and improved.

2011-04-07T23:07:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to provide some information for those that are viewing, The Way I See It... on the web. I have made some changes with my blog; like the obvious, a new design format. I also provided a social toolbar, so you can follow, friend, or like me and my services and products; you will notice it at the bottom of your browser. I have added a very easy to use timeline archive, developed by the fine folks over @Memolane; and I will be cleaning up the archive, clearing out the trash, and editing to fit the new format. You can still find the original blog feed @Blogger, but I have added a new blog feed @tumblr; while I am redirecting the way the feeds travel, the feedburner feed should remain as it is; there may be a few bugs, such as repeat information until I finish redirecting the blog feeds. Both blogs will remain active, as they offer different advantages, while maintaining a uniform look and feel. I will be making some other integrations and things may be a little messy around here for awhile; if you receive my blog through your email, or reader, the changes you see should remain minimal, other than more activity and social interaction. I hope you enjoy the new look, feel, and interaction of the new/old blog @The Way I See It...

..@greyeyesgabriel

Memolane facebook bug persists!

2011-04-06T00:01:00.003-05:00

source:http://support.memolane.com/memolane/topics/how_do_i_change_my_memolane_profile_picture

I tried to post this as a reply in the support forum at MemoLane; however, they useGetSatisfaction(<---won't let me tag them, go figure), which would not allow me to post to the memolane support forum. I have had nothing but a bad experience with GetSatisfaction on many platforms that I develop on and have yet to gain any satisfaction using their service; including the inability to delete my company accounts with them, but then how can you provide support for multiple platforms that you know nothing about? Outsourcing your support to a Forum company that restricts the voice of people that seek to assist others in the community that aren't receiving help from either GetSatisfaction or the company they are hosting. What kind of message does that send to customers? What kind of support does it provide when when select people can't even post their issues on the platform because they have been banned and blacklisted by the support forum that your company chooses to use. Everything below was the comment that I tried to post to the thread linked above; there is a long list of developers that have been banned from this community that misleadingly calls itself "GetSatisfaction!"

So sad; I had the same issue; after trying everything suggested here, including clearing my cache and restarting my browser, I was unsuccessful at removing the facebook feed and profile picture from this app; even after removing the app cookie from my facebook profile. Memolane must have my facebook profile saved to their cache, because it still displayed both the profile photo in every view, as well as the feed in whatever privacy setting was set before removing the facebook widget. This seems to be a rather serious privacy issue involving the integration with the facebook API. I would start by checking the data entered into the app registration on the facebook developers website; then see if facebook changed something in their format that would change how your app reacts with facebook; if it's nothing on facebook then I would go through the source code looking for missing semicolons or exclamations. Just a trouble shooting suggestion from another developer; also, I would suggest putting an input field for profile image control; if image hosting is an issue then you could provide a by URL hosting from such services as Photobucket, Flickr, Picasa, and maybe even an editing integration with Picnik or Photobucket; but at least an URL hosting image control feature would be nice for people to honestly take you seriously as a privacy service.

Unfortunately I could find no other option other than to delete that account; and then signed up for another account under the same email address, it worked just fine. The profile with the facebook bug was deleted and I was immediately able to sign up for a new account. As unfortunate as it is, this type of thing happens during the development of new and innovative services; which memolane displays on their service with the little "beta" tag. I hope that you find my information both useful and postive; I like and will continue to use the memolane service. I am sure that with this issue being over a month old that memolane is working on a fix to this issue; it is a small annoyance but not a vital flaw, for that matter it could be a virus. Good luck and happy coding!

*since I couldn't GetSatisfaction on the Memolane support forum; I am trying to ensure that Memolane is aware of this issue, especially since this thread is listed as answered as if the suggested fix worked; which we can all clearly see is still persistent even after over a month of the original post on the bug. I did fix the problem, even though it required starting all over; which is a quick and easy process on Memolane. I still find Memolane to be a great web application which has great potential; especially as they grow and integrate more services...just wait and see what I do with it!

my GetSatisfaction profile: http://getsatisfaction.com/people/greyeyesgabriel

my Memolane profiles: http://memolane.com/greyeyesgabriel

http://memolane.com/greyeyesads

http://memolane.com/greyeyesview

**Edit: April 8, 2011

I have received word from the support staff at Memolane on this issue and I am updating this post with good news. I have provided the reply below which explains the timeline for fixes and improvements; I am impressed with the excellent response from the support staff that actually answered my post on the original facebook note; something that would have been ignored by some of the more popular start-ups. I strongly recommend the Memolane service for your feeds. Below is the not comment that I received from Meghan @Memolane support:

"Thank you for sharing your feedback about the profile picture bug. We are working on a fix for this bug that will address the issue of defaulting to a Facebook profile photo and the caching problem that is not keeping profile photos current with the services on your lane.

1) We will be changing the default hierarchy to put Twitter at the top, so that your default profile picture will be your Twitter profile photo when you add a Twitter account to Memolane.
2) Your profile photos will be synched with the online services you currently have added to your lane. When you remove a service, the cached profile image link will be removed as well to ensure that we are not pulling images from services that are no longer affiliated with your Memolane account.

We are planning an interface update that will allow you to choose your own profile photo, but that will not be available immediately. So, in the meantime we will be offering this solution, which we think is a much-needed improvement, until you, the users are able to choose your own profile photo.

I’m sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with Get Satisfaction. We are eager to hear from all our users who want to share their feedback. You are always welcome to e-mail us directly at support@memolane.com with any questions or feedback. The profile picture question has been updated with a new comment concerning the progress of our fix to that bug and the improvements we are planning. Please let me know if you have any other questions."

I am looking forward to it and thank you for responding. As you can see, Memolane really cares about the satisfaction of their customers; I only wish that I could say the same thing about Eric Suez and the Get Satisfaction team; take note GetSatisfaction, this is how you deal with unsatisfied customers; not by blacklisting them from your platform!

Why Google is #1

2011-04-03T01:47:00.002-05:00

source: greyeyesgabriel facebook notes
I am getting rather fed up with start-ups that offer great features on a free platform; only to restrict those features a year or two later when their user base grows, in an attempt to drive more people into paid platforms. I am seriously considering moving all of my main websites to Google Sites; not only would my sub-domain be associated with the largest web company, ensuring indexing by Google; but it would also allow me to use my Google Webmaster and Google Analytics codes without paying a hosting company hundreds of dollars a year just to be able to claim ownership and track my own websites. If I want to make it a social platform, all I have to do is add in Google Groups to the integration. I find it interesting how many people look at Google as a threat and want to take them down; yet Google started as, and still remains to be an open source community where you can find any information about web design and development, tutorials for coding, software, and just about anything else you need to know; as well as development tools all for free. Everything Google touches turns to gold; YouTube, Feedburner, Android, and the list goes on and on. Google is even developing cars that drive themselves with much success; no wonder people want to take down the Google giant, they have become the largest by providing resources and information for free!

Smaller companies just can't compete while offering their great features for free; they begin to struggle to please investors, or pay for exccess bandwidth, and begin to try to push their free users into paid platforms, then the free traffic leaves and the focus becomes getting the paid customers to pay more; this is what ends up leading to the failure of great startups with solid platforms. This is why I am pleased that I don't have investors involved in my startup; I would rather succeed or fail on my own merit without investors that have sunk millions of dollars into my platform expecting immediate returns, that's just not how it works in the real virtual reality! It takes years to build a platform, while earning the trust of your customers; the last thing a company would want to do is betray that trust and go back on promises made when they had first started with their fresh ideas and eagerness to take over the world, or at least the virtual world. Companies like Webs (formerly freewebs), Ning, and other resource providers for webmasters have fell victim to this type of practice and now some of the newer companies that were startups only a few years ago are making the same mistakes; there is a reson that all of these "free" developers flocked to your site in the first place, mostly because you offered the most control for those hidden codes that developers depend upon to show the search engines ownership and provide developers with the analytics data that they require to know where their traffic is coming from and other statistics that are vital to the development of our websites and networks.

The value is not in your features and what you can provide; the value is in the control of the website. As a developer, if I can not claim ownership of the site within my Google Webmaster account; or if I can't track my traffic to my website, then your service just depreciated to the point of me looking for a new service that will allow me to have that control. It is a slap in the face to me for you to say that you get to own my creative work after all of the time I have invested in developing it on your platform and telling everyone I know about your great service! Yes; I have severed ties with companies because of this type of practice, but at least I know that if I go with Google, it will be the last time I will ever have to move my hosting because of coding issues and ownership. Perhaps these startups need to remember who it was that made their service so popular in the first place; it's those developers that joined your free platform that told their friends, who told their friends, and so on; it's called viral advertising and it is the oldest form of advertising on the planet, also the most dependable and profitable. If you earn the trust of your customers, then you earn a client for life.

...a facebook thought...

2011-03-24T10:29:00.004-05:00

An inalienable right cannot be taken away; however it can be given away. There is only The Party; The Trilateral Commission, which creates division of the Citizens with the Party System, and popular advertising, media, and other forms of social interactions. It's simple "Divide & Conquer" theory in motion. Unite We Stand; But Divided We Fall! For those that don't know what The Trilateral Commission is about, I'll give you a hint; G8, G12, G24,...

...get the picture yet? How did China get so wealthy? Look at where the products in your house were made! There are 6 multinational corporations that own all the corporations in the world! If you bankrupt all the nations of the world, then that leaves them vulnerable to a hostile takeover, a corporate takeover; that owns their debt. The agenda of the New World Order will proceed as long as every Presidential Candidate remains to be members of The Trilateral Commission; and the citizens allow this puppet show to proceed. But a social uproar and uprising has already been prepared for and they are prepared to enact Marshall Law and put America on lock-down. While under Marshall Law there can be no elections held, thus putting America under the dictatorship of the corporate controlled puppet that was put in power, using Federal and Interpol troops to enforce and manipulate new and more controlling laws; including mandatory RFID chipping. A social cleansing, your choice; chip or die. That's what all of the mass coffins and graves are for; thinning the herd, namely those unsightly poor people. Control of oil is only a small portion of the equation; who is everyone in debt too? Credit? Credit companies? Credit Corporations? Guess who owns those Corporations?

Take it however you want; I am merely a messenger of God that calls it as I see it. The New World Order is the enslavement of mankind by wifi RFID tracking thus turning the natural world into a virtual reality where everything and everyone is tracked and accounted for, a collective, a hive; real world controlled electronically, all trade, all transactions traced. No privacy, only your thoughts; unless you express them on the web; such as I am doing here under my inalienable rights; cast upon me by my Father, the living God. I could go on and on and get into more detail; but I think the overall picture is quite clear; or at least that is The Way I See It...

An Interesting Trend!

2011-03-24T10:26:00.006-05:00

source: greyeyesgabriel facebook notes

I have noticed a trend lately; I find it a good way to connect with like minded people. There is a trend on twitter of using auto-responders to send direct messages to their new followers; but the content is changing. Instead of affiliate links; I am seeing more facebook accounts and facebook pages that are using custom pages. I find this a great way to increase traffic to connect with like minded people that might provide as much interest to you as you do to them, it's a wonder trade off. If you are utilizing pages to help build your brand connect with your customers on a personal level and interacting on their news feeds; this could be a great traffic generation tactic. I am not usually a fan of auto-responders and rarely utilize them in my web development; I find this to be an acceptable and responsible use of atuo-responders. The follow/unfollow platform of twitter is an excellent place to utilize this type of traffic generation to help brand yourself or your company.

Another change that I have noticed in twittter Direct Messages content is that there are more people branding themselves. There has been a marked decrease in the use of affiliate marketing on twitter; and an increase in original content being branded, whether it is a blog or a website or a local company, twitter DM auto-responders are a good use to grow your company through viral advertising. Some good examples would be your YouTube channel, your tumblr blog, your LinkedIn account, or your own social network or website. I like seeing these changes in the way people are growing in the twitter community while also connecting to the other social platforms; I feel that this could be one of the best uses of twitter yet.

For those friends of mine that just don't get twitter; and don't relly understand how to use it much less utilize it, I do have the screenshots for my "How to use twitter guide." I have been very busy lately in the real world but I haven't forgotten about you; once you learn what it is in basic form, then how to use it becomes much easier to understand. When I first joined twitter, it was so basic; very simple, and many of the functions of twitter are based in how users have utilized twitter; it is truly a community built and based platform, twitter responds to it's users; while facebook users respond to facebook. I just thought that I would share this all of my friends that are interested in this type of thing; I do have a mixed gather of friends from all over the world. I hope you have enjoyed my perspective of my personal experience on the social web; thank you, and I'll see you in the tree!

~greyeyesgabriel

Halloween Is Not Evil!

2010-10-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

When I drive by a Christian church during October and see the signs for "The Fall Festival" I have to contain my laughter. So many of today's Christians in America are so against the celebration of Halloween as a celebration of the occult that they seek to find a more creative way to celebrate the holiday or just don't celebrate it at all. These Christians lack the understanding of how the holiday actually came to be celebrated, and rely only on what they have been told by someone else; in many cases, a minister of the church seeking creative ways to increase revenue for the church. With the most popular costumes being witches, ghosts, demons, or other occult figures; it becomes an easy target for these ministers to ignore the true foundations of Halloween or simply create a general "evil" to the holiday. They fail to mention that Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, is actually rooted in a Christian celebration to offer an alternative celebration to the pagan holiday of Samhain. So to celebrate a "Fall Festival" as an alternative to Halloween, is essentially a Christian alternative of a Christian alternative to a Celtic holiday. Many of the Christian holidays are celebrated at the time of a pagan holiday; but for this post, I will deal only with Halloween. For more information on Halloween, you can visit Wikipedia at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

To start with, the word Halloween is derived from All Hallows Eve, which means All Saints Eve; which is based in the Catholic celebration of All Souls Day as a way of remembering the saints, both known and unknown; and sending prayers for those souls still in purgatory awaiting purification. For a more detailed understanding of this holiday you can visit Wikipedia at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints. Since the Roman Catholic church has adopted Christianity; does this not make the celebration of Halloween a Christian celebration?

The holiday celebrated by the Celtics of Ireland; also referred to as pagans or the occult, based in the practices of the Druids, is called Samhain and is the celebration of the end of summer. It is known as the Celtic New Year, as it is the end of harvest and the celebration usually lasted several days. They would wear costumes to impersonate the dead as it was believed that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was so thin during this time that the dead could reach back into the world of the living. The celebration usually entailed building bonfires for purification and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into the fires. To say that the holiday has any relation to the worship of Satan only shows ignorance of the old religion. Even the surviving religion of Wicca does not promote Satan, for Wiccans do not believe in the existence of Satan. Wicca is a religion of nature and Karma; witches divination is an art of placing energy into the universe to create a positive outcome through visualization. To use "magic" for selfish gain or to impose evil upon another is forbidden in the practice and it is believed that what you put into the universe comes back on you tenfold. But that is off topic and should be saved for another time. To understand more about the celebration of Samhain, I would urge you to visit Wikipedia at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

The modern practice of Halloween in America is neither Christian, nor is it Pagan; it is simply a secular practice of blended cultures. It is neither Holy nor Unholy to practice the holiday celebration. I can understand not wanting to celebrate the holiday with the basis of having your children going door to door and begging for candy; or the trick if you don't get a treat including acts of vandalism. But to teach your children that there is some evil stigma at work on this night is just plain wrong. I believe that this stems from a fear of death in this country; a taboo subject that no one wants to deal with until they have to deal with it. There is no foundation for the "occult" within the holiday, other than the layer that Hollywood has blended with it in movies. The stories of murderers, evil spirits, and evil things happening in the movies are only stories meant to play on our imaginations, and increase revenue for the studio that produced the story. The real evils of Halloween, like people that tamper with candy to harm children is the only justifiable evil that I can perceive on Halloween. But these evils exist whether Halloween is celebrated or not; on a daily basis, it seems that mankind is never at a loss of finding ways to increase the suffering of their fellow man.

So, when you are sitting in that building that you refer to as the church, and you are listening to the minister preaching about the evil dangers of the occult practices of Halloween; remember that this building is not the church, but rather that that building has the church residing within it. Would Christ approve of the things being taught within this building in his name? Did Christ not accept everyone regardless of their sinful nature? Did Christ not stand up against the wrongful teachings of the church in his day? Would this building exist without the members that purchased it? Does the minister teach true Christian values? Do you know that the church is within you? Just some food for thought from a Christian minister at TheWalkingChurch|The Church Is Within You!

Steven Hawking: Science Proves That God Exists!

2010-09-03T21:39:00.001-05:00

Since this Steven Hawking changed his mind; but once you share such logical thoughts publicly; you can never truly take it back, no matter what logic you use to dispute your own logic.

Steven Hawking: Science Proves That God Exists!, posted with vodpod

Gulf Oil Relief Plan! (Not Federally Funded)

2010-06-09T00:43:00.002-05:00

Gulf Oil Disaster Relief Volunteer Program!!!

I am hearing a lot of people Talking about the Gulf Oil Disaster; especially through the channels of social media! I am not seeing much action in response to this economic as well as environment disaster. I am not going to beat around the bush or be very Politically Correct; as many of you know, I call the way I see it...

I must first give thanks to Ron Phillips, my facebook friend for giving me the inspiration for this idea and got me to thinking about a solution to the reaction to action. So I have devised and developed a plan that circumvents the bureaucracy of the Federal Government, somewhat! This can be an on the job training experience; as most of my jobs have been. My social friends please bear with me as I really believe in this idea and I give it FREELY...

I will be sharing this like crazy.

Now, if the Federal Machine can't get itself started then it is up to Americans to save Americans! I am sending out a series of CHALLENGES!!! Challenge #1...

   To the Americans that are unemployed, that want to volunteer to go muck oil off of the wildlife and do whatever it takes to protect and save the very expensive beaches of the Untied States of America:

Are you serious? Do you really want to go help if you had a way? Are you really willing to do whatever it takes to protect and clean oil from the coastline of at least 4 states? Then if we can get this this rolling, you will be able to without worrying about a single expense! Would you REALLY be willing to do that are was that just a bunch of HYPE to make you seem like you are concerned about the reality that there are MILLIONS of GALLONS of oil that WILL change the ecosystem; but let's not get drowned in the blame game; we are here to solve a problem! Which brings me to challenge #2...

To the Local Governments being affected:

   Are you willing to INVITE THOUSANDS of VOLUNTEERS to your states to help protect and clean the shorelines of the people that YOU were hired to SERVE; the people that Elected you; the people that you go to church with, play golf with, your neighbors!!! Are you willing to do whatever it takes to support your local businesses during this time of need? Even if you have to petition Congress for retribution after the fact and the deed is paid? Will you stand up for your neighbors and the people your SERVE? This is the peak season for several of your industries and there will be A LOT MORE people not working!!! Why not at least make use of this vacancy and loss of revenue and turn it into something positive to show the solidarity of the Americans and the strength of the American Spirit!!! If you can do this then we can have Americans help save American resources!!! Which brings me to challenge #3...

To the Local Small Businesses:

This could be a hard one; you depend on the tourist industry that may not come this year; you depend on the fisherman to feed the tourists; you depend on people to fill that room; you depend on people BEING ON THE BEACHES!!! Could you survive losing profits for a month or two (unless challenge #4 is also met) while VOLUNTEERS help save and protect your beaches? Would you being willing to sacrifice for your fellow man that wants to come from anywhere in America and pitch in to help you? Would you be willing to house those VOLUNTEERS? Would you be willing to feed them? Provide them with supplies they would need to live? It would make a great tax write off at the end of the year. If you could manage to at least try to keep going through this effort then WE can make this happen! Which leads to challenge #4...

   To the American Corporations:

This will probably be the hardest sell of all; but I am willing to give it a shot; even CEO's have families, children, friends, which means that somewhere under that hard business, greedy kill or be killed persona; there beats a human heart! So I will attack you from every angle; first being to what you love the most, the money. This kind of generosity is rewarded in BIG DIVIDENDS by the IRS come tax season! Since the Federal Government is bewildered at what to do with the Oil Crisis, it is up to YOU to make this IDEA of Americans Helping Americans Happen! These small businesses can't do it on their own; and they can't depend on the help of the Federal Government any time soon. The Local Governments can only do so much with their tight budgets and low revenue; but these VOLUNTEERS would need certain supplies, lodging, clothing, food, to survive while they are helping save and protect the beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast, that I know you like to go to on vacation. These could be your family and friends volunteering down there in the brutal southern sun; how much did you make in PROFITS last quarter? I especially call out to BP and say that if the Federal Government can't give you a price, perhaps you should talk to the Local Governments; you should pitch in with funding to make this IDEA happen; even if it is on top of what you will have to pay the Federal Government! Would you be willing to give up a small fraction of that quarterly profit to help in this time of Great Need?

With that being said; how about a corporate sponsorship of this effort? This could only boost your company image after you have outsourced production to the lowest bidder; I understand you are only doing what had to be done to to ensure the survival of your business; but now is your chance to give back to the community in a REAL way! If you are a chain restaurant; give FREE meals to VOLUNTEERS! If you are a Hotel/Motel chain; let VOLUNTEERS stay for FREE! If you own a Bus Line; let VOLUNTEERS travel for FREE! If you have an Airline; let the VOLUNTEERS fly for FREE! If you manufacture soap, toothpaste, shampoo, shaving supplies, etc.; send trial size products to the VOLUNTEERS for FREE! If you can't help out in any other way; cash is always accepted in America, we also take Credit Cards! Do what you can as it is your DUTY as an American Citizen! Moving on the the last challenge #5...

To the Entrepreneurs and Green Companies:

This is a time for action! There is a growing need for oil spill recovery as we move towards finding alternatives to the petroleum based slavery we are currently dependent on. That being said; if this IDEA goes anywhere, then there would be a very large pool of trained and qualified applicants that might be interested in a job offer. This is a great investment opportunity as well; an investment in your fellow Americans by investing in small businesses being effected in the region. If nothing else; a charitable contribution to the Local Non Profit Organizations would make for a nice tax break on your return; and it would make you feel good knowing that you are helping a very noble cause, as these Americans would be VOLUNTEERING their time and effort to do something that the Federal Government should have started organizing over a month ago! I personally call out to T. Boone Pickens to pitch on this; it would really help your agenda to push Congress for a Greener solution to energy!

When the World Trade Centers fell; Americans were there to clean up the disaster in UNITY! We need that same kind of UNITY in this time of economic failure; when unemployment is high and spending is low; we need to come together and solve our own problems rather than expecting our Government to react! This is a time for thinking in a different way; I have heard lots of IDEAS going around from creating hair booms, to using Hay to soak it up, to rerouting all of our nations wealth of grass clippings from mowed lawns destined for landfills or compost piles to the Gulf for oil collection duty! Of course I do see a logical failure to some of these like what to do with all of that oil soaked hay/grass once you have collected it. But it seems to me like if these FIVE CHALLENGES are met, then we could not only put Americans to work, but clean up a mess that is already a reality. What we need is a positive reaction to a negative action. Placing blame and calling names is getting us nowhere; to quote the rock band Live in their song White Discussion; "Look where all this talking got us, baby!"

   So what do you say AMERICA; can WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Can WE help ourselves; our neighbors, and our economy by donating time, money, or whatever resouces we have to react to the reality that we have now; or are we just gonna keep pointing fingers and calling names while we TALK ABOUT IT? Now is YOUR TIME; show the world that we are not LAZY AMERICANS that can't even clean up and protect our own environment. I will be passing this all over the internet and to my connections around the globe! Please don't consider this as spam; and if I offended you then good, TURN OFF THE TV, GET UP, and GO DO SOMETHING to make a difference in YOUR COUNTRY! Is this still the LAND OF THE FREE; AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE? Or are all of the BRAVE in a foreign country fighting to defend YOUR FREEDOM?!?

Thanksgiving Gratitude

2009-11-26T18:08:00.000-06:00

As an American; today I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, as most American's did this Thursday; but I just wanted to note some of the things that I am grateful for over this last year. It has been a very rough year for many of here in America, I keep those less fortunate than myself in my thoughts and my prayers throughout the year, but today is about reflection and showing gratitude for whatever life has brought to door. Sometimes it may appear bleak, and like nothing is going right; but, sometimes, what is going wrong is what is right. What doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger; is an old saying that I am fond of, but we truly grow when we gain wisdom from our experience. I have grown so much with the knowledge I have gained over the internet this last year; much less what I learned from the year before. I am grateful that I am in a position to be able to do this; it is only by the help from my father can I do what I am doing everyday; he is my first sponsor, providing me with an internet connection. As you can see; I rarely post to this blog, lots of micro blogs; but this is my personal forum, and I will try to post here more often; after all, you are interested in my thoughts, you subscribed.

I am grateful for my 2 beautiful children; both of which I had with me on this day. They grow up so fast; my boy is already a teenager; and my girl is almost out of elementary school. I am grateful for all of the time I get to spend with them; before I know it, they will be grown and have families of their own. They are really well behaved children; most of the time, I love them with all of my heart. I am grateful for my grandmother; God knows, she has been there for me all of my life; now I get to be there for her. It has been really hard for to adjust to having someone around all the time; and very frustrating dealing with confusion, but she won't be with us much longer.

I had worked for RGIS (an inventory service) for 4 years before they laid me off last year; after cutting my hours in half. During this time, I got to see where America's economy was headed from the inside out; so about 2.5 years ago, I started doing research on work from home jobs, internet marketing, and such. I went in with one rule; a job, any job, should make you money, not cost you money. In doing this, I did not waste money I didn't have on a scheme that didn't make me any money; or a program that was so complicated and full of "training" that you give up on it before you get anywhere near turning a profit. I had some friends that got jobs doing internet service calls; all it required was a computer, a mic, and an internet connection. Of course, they were slaves to the computer; they had to claim hours through the company, mostly odd hours that no one else wanted, making very little per call. This wasn't for me, and most of the other "work at home jobs" that I came across were just companies offering to sell you info on how to find those jobs. I started freelance writing; but that was really more journalist driven, and I still like writing. ( I still freelance a little bit, but mostly opinion pieces; imagine that.) Then I discovered affiliate marketing and started building my first advertising geared website; then I discovered just how much work is involved, but I have stuck with it. I had an idea a couple of years ago based some information that i came across; I was looking at major corporations and their web performance based on keywords. It dawned on me that one thing all of these companies had in common was a branded name; in fact most of their keyword lists were mostly just different variations of the same branded name. Names like Walmart, Target, Sears, etc. Everyone of these companies started with a brand name that was not well known; even Google started as an unknown and competed with Yahoo! and MSN, they are now the #1 website on the web. I had an idea of personal sponsorship; based on a search I did for my username, I couldn't believe the results I got; much less where they were coming from. Comments that I had posted on myspace, commets from YouTube, accounts from the social networks; so I bought the domain www.greyeyesgabrielinternational.com and created my brand on my username; my webtag. I decided that my first ad campaign would be "...search greyeyesgabriel..." and my company was born.

Right now, you may be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with Thanksgiving?" Well, you see, this is one of the things I am most grateful for; I am grateful to God for allowing me the vision to be able to bring this idea to life. I am grateful for all of you out there in Virtual Reality; my success or failure depends on your satisfaction with my brand name. I am grateful for all of the support that I have received from all of friends, new and long time as well; thank you. I am grateful for my family; they all play their part in ensuring our survival, none of us could make it on our own. This has been a very rough year; there have been many ups and downs, and I am grateful to still be above ground. I am grateful to have come from a couple of very talented people; and I hope to be able to utilize my natural talents to help benefit your needs in the years to come. I am grateful that I live in a place where I am not beaten, arrested, or killed for voicing my opinion and pray for those that fighting for those inalienable rights of all of the citizens of the world. I just wanted to share my gratitude with you; I hope you have enjoyed the ride so far, thank you, as always, for supporting the greyeyesgabriel brand.

~greyeyesgabriel

Random Thoughts

2009-11-25T04:43:00.000-06:00

Interesting little thing that I came across in a web search for greyeyesgabriel; nice to know that someone thought about me; even if it was random, LOL...

Random Thoughts: "Search greyeyesgabriel."

Are you watching you

2009-09-12T21:14:00.001-05:00

Are you watching your National Debt http://htxt.it/MNK0 Your amount of the Debt is over $38,000...

Star Trekking across

2009-09-09T15:02:00.001-05:00

Star Trekking across the Universe; always going forward, cause we can't find reverse...

It all starts with t

2009-09-09T15:01:00.001-05:00

It all starts with the International Space Station; as a dry dock for assembly of the first Starship designed for Intergalactic travel...

but my point was tha

2009-09-09T14:55:00.001-05:00

but my point was that we now have the technology and the minds to create the ideas of Gene Roddenberry...

...if I could figure

2009-09-09T14:52:00.001-05:00

...if I could figure out a way to incorporate solid laser technology into holographic technology...

...the only flaw I h

2009-09-09T14:51:00.001-05:00

...the only flaw I have is that interaction with Sims would still be limited by the current holographic properties; but perhaps...

...in which the envi

2009-09-09T14:48:00.001-05:00

...in which the environment would be a completely solid base that is still flexible where it would need to be...

Utilizing various en

2009-09-09T14:46:00.001-05:00

Utilizing various entertainment technologies; one could build a HoloDeck that could support an interactive program with a human...

...while talking wit

2009-09-09T14:44:00.001-05:00

...while talking with my father about Star Trek and the genius of Gene Roddenberry while sitting on the front porch under the starry sky...

I actually worked ou

2009-09-09T14:41:00.001-05:00

I actually worked out an idea for a working HoloDeck design based on current technology...

You are only limited

2009-09-09T14:39:00.001-05:00

You are only limited by your own perception; invention only happens when perception of known scientific law is challenged.

Have you read your 2

2009-09-08T14:06:00.001-05:00

Have you read your 21st Century survival guide? Read "1984" by George Orwell to get the overall view of what society is turning into...