DON’T SAY “FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!” IF YOU DON’T USE TWITTER

If your business wants to abandon Twitter, that’s your choice. But maybe you should remove the cute “Follow us on Twitter!” messages from your ads in the local alt-weekly’s.

Recently, just for the heck of it, I figured I’d look up a local business on Twitter from an ad and saw this – updated 238 days ago.

This reminds me of Van Halen’s “brown M&M” clause, about removing all the brown M&M’s from the bowl of candy backstage. If they showed up at a gig and saw brown M&M’s, well, that meant their rider wasn’t read very throughly. If the promoter shrugs off the M&M part, what else could they have skipped? The safety measures? The power requirements?

It’s not being pompous, it’s paying attention to the details.

If a business shrugs off social media thing like this (thinking perhaps,”it doesn’t matter, no one will notice!”), that’s your choice. But it’s my choice to consider what other details you’re skipping over.

CAN I EMAIL YOU THIS LARGE FILE?

No, you can not. If you’re sending photos, audio files, video or anything else that is creeping over the 5MB mark, please, step away from your inbox, go to Dropbox, and open an account.

Once you’re set up, you’ll have 2GB of storage “in the cloud,” meaning, it’s not on your computer, it’s just somewhere else.

Some other uses for Dropbox:
Upload your vacation photos and share the link with family members.
Musicians, send your rough mixes to your band mates.
Bike nerds, upload PDF bike maps of cities you’ve ridden in.
Upload your most recent resume so you can access it from your crappy job.

Once you have your file uploaded, you can then share it with someone. Read “How do I link to files in my Dropbox?” and you’ll be slinging files in no time.

Install the Dropbox App on your iPhone and you’ll be able to shuffle documents around when you’re out of the office getting coffee.

You might even get a raise.

BROKE BUT HAPPY

I quit my job back in February with about $7000 in my savings account, the most I’ve ever had. It’s easier to do that when drawing a salary from an internet company based in NYC and you’re not paying rent, cable bills, etc.

Now it’s seven months later and my savings aren’t quite yet depleted, but some credit card debt has piled up (NY city taxes, dental work, bike, travel) and my income is nowhere near the “good ole days” of running Noisecreep.

But it’ll work out. I might be broke, but I’m happy.

DOORED

I was riding through Chinatown, minding my own biz, and some kid opened his door and I hit him. I was going slow, so nothing crazy happened, but the frame for my touring bag broke. This means the bag that I carry my 25lbs worth of stuff is broke now. Boo! Thankfully the kid gave me a few dollars towards a new frame.

This could have been a lot worse.

Providence, RI

Just two more days. Today I head to Boston, MA. Tomorrow is Portland, ME. This trip has been cruel to my bank account and credit card balance, but I will never regret this adventure (almost 11 months so far).

Once back to homebase (Stroudsburg, PA), I’ll be hard at work putting together an ebook of the adventure. I’m also planning on printing two zines: one of my tour diary. The other of photos of the people I met, along with text about each one of them.

I’ll also be “training” for my next adventure. New York City > Stroudsburg, PA > Philadelphia > New York City; in three days. It’s about 300 miles, but I want to do it. I need to sweat and feel some pain in riding. Enough buses and trains. I want to taste exhaust fumes on busy roads, pee in the woods and quite simply kick ass riding to those places. I want to do it as fast as I can, and do it on my Brompton.

Made it safely to my hosts home. We rode to a noise fest which I’m not into, so I kept riding. Made it here to College Hill… Lemme say this, the Brompton can climb. I mean, I have something to do with it, but still. Such a versatile bike!

I explored a bunch of the downtown area, and im pretty sure i saw a prostitue with a bum. I just ate a yummy bean burrito.

The long bus rides, the pricey tickets and uncertainity of staying with strangers is all worth it!

Tomorrow – BOSTON!

LAPS

I’ve been doing some laps at Central Park in recent weeks. Lots of aero bars and tourists on rented bikes.

My 40-60 mile jaunts between towns and cities are within my abilities so riding around the park is for the saddle time. I’m not trying to break any speed records, I just want to build up to 4-5 hours of time on a bike seat.

COMMUTE

Sometimes biking to work can be just as stressful as taking the subway. Aside from just staying alive on the streets you also have to remember a hundred different things. Forgetting deodorant ruins your whole day (and the day of those around you). Forgetting your headphones is even worse.