C Tann-Starr

If You Knew The Names Of The People Who Have Passed Through Here You'd Have A Cosmic Cow Pie... I've said it once and I will say it again: don't squander your social media opportunities people. Being a Raindexed writer got me here...

It all started when I agreed to run a business errand for someone out of state. I help them out from time to time and they have sent me to some very interesting places. We have a lovely working relationship and they found me right here on ActiveRain. Seriously... They were not looking for me per se. They were simply looking for independent contractors to cover specific geographical areas. As a Paralegal and Notary I thought it would be cool and interesting so I took the gig and made a couple of new friends. :-)

Sometimes, depending upon the assignment or if parking appears to be a possible issue, I will try to get someone to come with me. When you run around as much as I do you always want to let someone know where you are, where you are going next and what you plan to be doing or where you plan to be next.

I remember casually asking my gal pal Susana if she wanted to go with me to a recording studio. She opted to run a personal errand instead so I called the hubby next. He was taking the little minions to the park and didn't think we should unleash them around professional musicians (LOL). Since there are not too many people I trust with my personal business, I remember thinking, "Oh well... I'm on my own... No biggie... I'll grab the laptop, pick an outside office, do a blog post, run my errand, pick up my buddy and do the Wordy C things that I do to amuse myself between making money, trying to make money and complaining about not making money." That was an actual thought people (LOL). I have conversations with the cartoons in my head all the time, which I find very amusing but I digress (LOL).

That was the original plan... At least until I actually walked through the doors of this fabulous recording studio. Oh... my... word... Stepping from a nondescript industrial park warehouse stairwell through that steel door was like a Twilight Zone moment for me (ROTFL). This place is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful....

Imagine Wordy C standing there staring at a handcrafted, beautifully framed triple platinum CD collection of Pink.

I'm talking PINK as in have you ever heard the songs Sober and Lady Marmalade? Yeah bay-bays, I'm talking that Pink. I am a huge fan. Mega iTunes addict concerning her work (LOL). Rihanna was up on the wall too! You know: Please Don't Stop The Music? Take A Bow? Unfaithful? Yes, I am a Rihanna fan as well so being there was quite a treat. They only take clients from major recording labels and all the studios were in use. Yay! I was very careful not to disturb a single soul there. When you are a guest at someone else's business you have to respect other peoples privacy and their time. I enjoyed my little visit and hope one day I will have another opportunity to visit again. I felt like a tourist looking at the gold and platinum records on the studio walls and very nicely framed magazine articles. Kind of like when you go to Disney for the first time or a Hall of Fame.

Speechless? You betcha' because I am a huge Pink fan! Ask the people who are serious about Elvis what it feels like to get a peek behind the scenes of where they do or did their stuff. Seriously... For thirty whole seconds my brain wouldn't power. Then the silent stuttering began because I like collectibles and recognize the value and achievements presented there. Kid in a candy store happy? You betcha! In spades (LMAO). What can I say? The place is awe inspiring if you are seriously into music. I happen to be seriously into music and art. Just sayin...

Was I tempted to do one of those wordless posts and show off lots of eye candy? Yeah... but we all know Wordy C is wordy so stop playing yourselves and settle in for the remainder of this conversation because we are almost done (LOL).

Don't ask me where I am or where I was because I am not going to tell you for privacy and security reasons. This is a very special place that I got to visit and my friends kept telling me I should share such a pleasurable moment in my blogging life. The fact that I actually had a scheduled appointment to be there and meet with one of the most gracious men I have ever had the pleasure to meet in the music recording industry is amazing to me. His name is Peter Benjamin. He put me right at ease and was kind enough to give me a brief yet fascinating overview of what they do there and how the major record labels operate. What a nice man and stellar business owner. What a beautiful atmosphere to make a living in...

Did I mention I am really having a lot of fun being an ActiveRain Ambassador? I am you know...I appreciate being part of the program.

To think all of it started from being a Rainmaker blogging on this network. The Cosmic Cow Pie gang is all about connecting the dots. If you are not Raindexed you really don't know what you are missing. You have no idea who is reading you out of those approximately 2.2 million people per month. My advice? Go e-mail an Ambassador of your choice and get some help setting up your Outside Blogs so the public can find you and your friends. Friends have a way of opening doors for you when you least expect it.

Do I think being a Rainmaker is worth it? Of course it is. All Ambassadors are Rainmakers (LOL).

My three Raindexed blogs got me in to see this. Imagine what your Outside blogs will do for you... Did I mention the moment was awe inspiring and absolutely priceless? I think I did (LOL). Enjoy the eye candy. I do have more. I'm just hoarding it (LOL). ;-)

How To Get Your Blog On Ambassador Style... It's easier than you think. Start with the idea that you never want to miss your moment. If you are addicted to the Rain like I am then sharing your thoughts and day becomes second nature. Anything at even given moment may inspire you to write a blog post.

Take the lovely Lizette Fitzpatrick for example. She was wondering how her crazy girlfriend from New York (me) could find the time to crank out so much social media. Here's the secret:

1- Buy a plug adapter for your car so you can power your cell phone and laptop no matter where you are.

2- Buy an Air Card so when your friends are not home to high-jack their Internet accounts and WiFi hot spots are not available (e.g. Starbucks ATT Wifi - two hours free every day if you buy a Starbucks gift card - LMAO) you can upload anything anywhere in the USA and PR. :-)

3- Buy a pillow for your laptop because your legs will get mad hot if you leave that thing sitting in your lap for a long time (LOL). Burning skin when in shorts is not conducive to getting your social media groove on. Trust me. Been there. Done that. Am soooo not doing it again (LOL).

Why waste time between appointments or when your clients are running late? Do e-mail. Play Mafia Wars. Make Facebook comments. Visit Victoria's Secret. Serial comment in ActiveRain. Spy on your children with that encrypted web cam you set up (LMAO).

You can also access the MLS while running around in the field and maybe sell that buyer a house down the block and around the corner from your original appointment. Hmm... finally said something useful and real estate related, eh? (LOL)

Here's a little car seat eye candy for your entertainment. Laptop $635, Air Card from Sprint $0 ($50 rebates are beautiful), Adapter $4.95, Pillow $6.95. For less than $700 you can maximize your Google Juice by never missing your moment. Think about it... You can tweet from the toilet or the tub if you go wireless. Just sayin (LOL). ;-)

If you do start making better use of your downtime while working in your car don't forget great music and to crank back your seat so you can lounge in your mobile office while typing. I love my outside blogs. I have three. Populating them is mad fun. I write on the fly off and on all day. You can draft what ever you want and post later people. No pressure. Take you time and edit it or let her rip and hit the send button (LOL).

Need an Outside Blog? Wanna join the Club Chaos SEO Bootcamp? Need to set up and get menionized? Shoot me an e-mail or e-mail the Ambassador of your choice. Don't know who is down with the high-jinx and Google Domination program? Ever hear of TLW? Paddy Pizappi? Jo Soss? Lizette Fitzpatrick? ActiveRain has a lot of resources and Ambassadors if you wanna get your social media groove on. Nothing beats a Rainmaker account.

Seriously. :-)

Sweetie, if you haven't been Raindexed you have no idea what you are truly missing. I have investors flying in from Taiwan right now because of my blogging on AR. Think you can't blog from the car or afford a mobile office? Think again. I even have a cooler with snack-age and everything (LOL). Get with the program people! Get mobile. Go global! Show me the eye candy! :-)

Queens County, New York, USA Tour of Homes (New music from Mommy and the Little Minions)

Time for another turtlerun. Blogging and jogging is always fun. Making music with your friends: priceless. The wee ones were helping Mommy make some noise. Cindy Tsui thought it was cool lounge music and so did I, especially when Stephen, the Blur Minion started bouncing on her couch when I put the ear buds on him (LOL). How could we not name it after him, eh?

One YouTube down, three more to go. More new music too... :-)

My Cow Pie Is Bigger Than Your Cow Pie! Is Not! Is Too! Nope-nah! Uuh-huh... Yeah, it is. No it aint. Bite me...

Today's Cow Pie Talking Point is ANTITHESIS. Antithesis is simply an opposing argument. Had I titled it that you wouldn't be curious to see where this is going (LOL). We are going somewhere a few of you may not want to step so get real comfy because Wordy C is in the house and Cow Pie is about to be served... ;-)

Ever watch a social media spat across cyberspace? It can be mad fun watching your sociology class come to life. If you are really careful you can map a time line of theories by collecting and rearranging the comments to reflect who is pro and con on the subject being debated. Can't collect this stuff willy-nilly. You really have to pay attention to who is talking to who (parallel, primary conversations) and who is reacting to who (secondary, spin offs who don't follow the entire thread, just pick a line of reasoning and/or a person to support or attack). You can't have fun while learning something if you don't pay attention to the players spinning the game. All players have a strategy. It doesn't matter what line of business you are in or what the product is that you are selling. When writers start writing it is because they have something that they want to share with you. Period. From the absurd (arguing about cow pies while trying not to step in other people ____ ) to the sublime (proving string theory and the existence of God).

Social media is a game. Don't let anyone fool you. It's a tool to advance your agenda and agendas can encompass anything you like. Doesn't have to be serious. Doesn't have to be fluff. It just has to be you looking to dialog with another person in a way that they can relate to what you are advancing. Weapons of mass destruction? Staplers and restraining orders? The subject isn't the game. The presentation of the subject is the game. If strategy, diction, professionalism and prose make you feel better, feel free to substitute those words or the words of your choice but don't ever forget interpersonal communication skills are personal choices we make to convey what we intend to convey.

I like thinking of blogging as a "game" because gaming requires fluid thinking and multiple levels of skill and strategy. It's dynamic. It's organic. It never stays the same. The military plays war games to prepare the troops for the reality of battle. Bloggers play writing games to stimulate dialog while showcasing their points of order they wish to present to the reader while taking the reader on a journey down a path of thoughts we'd like them to explore. The best writers are the ones who are transparent. They are the ones who can find a way to make their cat's litter box a relevant analogy to the state of the economy with such a natural flow you don't blink an eye when you get to the end of their prose.

Blogging is a bloodsport. Heart, sweat and tears go into being transparent because we take a huge risk in exposing our inner selves in the context of another person's perception of reality. Writers are attempting to create a meeting of the minds. If we do our jobs well you may laugh or cry. You may agree or disagree. You may rant or rave. If we do our jobs well you will respond by initiating dialog with your friends, family, share the link, leave a comment, subscribe, etc... If we do our jobs right you will return again and again although you may never leave a comment...

Writers expose themselves by what they do and don't say. Can't fake truth. Can't teach funny. Can't hide mean. Can't duck the consequences of your actions (and on occasion non-action when a response is required).

What is in a person is going to come out one way or the other. Stick around cyberspace long enough and you will soon realize when someone is being serious, teasing, trying to make a point, share an idea or is just determined to spend their days pushing a button. These things are not mutually exclusive. You can have it all in one blog post or a series of missives (LOL).

If you are lucky you will subscribe to writers that hone their craft and grow. If you are unlucky, you will find yourself wondering why you keep coming back for more of the same crap you thought this person was over and done with. After all, they said they were done with it... yet some people don't know when to let a subject go. I see that in a lot of people who digitally foam at the mouth when responding to religious and/or political posts (LOL). It's like they go trolling for trouble because they have to have an argument to prove they are better or right rather than the other person.

My kids are learning disabled and they are monitored for milestones. Sometimes, they age out of a program when they reach a certain point in their young lives and/or development and we, as parents, have to enroll them in something more appropriate in relation to their level of functioning. When I wander around cyberspace I find myself routinely comparing grown people to my wee people because I respect the process that allows me to manage them.

Applied Behavioral Analysis is a beautiful thing. Everyone human fits the profile because we all have points of leverage that can be triggered to influence us (LOL). Hang around a bunch of therapists long enough and you will start incorporating their way of thinking into your blog posts. ;-)

You'd think experienced bloggers would be "aging out" as their craft matures. For the uninitiated: aging out is the theoretical process delineating when and how individuals reduce the frequency of their "offending behavior" as they age. ABA is all about self corrections and rewarding socially acceptable behavior. Socially acceptable behavior has a pretty wide spectrum and no one has cornered the market on it's predominate culture or intercultural ramifications.

Social media fascinates me in this respect... So does spoofing about Cow Pies because we all know it's just a politically correct euphemism for "Bullshit" so why pretend one word is more correct or socially palatable than the other? If you are conveying what you intend then all else is an illusion, a fallacy, a bit of sophistry from someone else who wants to change the meaning of your work and dilute your words from being a pithy, relevant remark to bland milk toast imagery.

You don't have to be evil to say what you mean, you just have to be honest enough to mean what you say. It has been my experience that most people recognize and know the difference even if they don't like or agree with you every single day. At least we respect each other enough to come back and try to have new conversations. That is the fun of blogging. Never knowing what you're going to get and never knowing what you are going to share until you have the nerve to go there...

One should always blog like a child seeking to age out and experience a new adventure. One should also be careful not to step in other people's cow pies while fertilizing the blogosphere with their own organic material (LOL).

This concludes our Cow Pie lesson for the day. Until our next organic adventure, play nice in the electronic sandbox people. ;-)

I have a small landing page that does incredibly well because I link back to most of my AR holdings from there. It was created to be a bounce page to what I want you to see and where I want you to go. People can find my websites and calculators there or check out RSS feeds to Real Estate News and my blogs.

It sometimes pops up pretty high in the search engines depending upon what you are looking for based upon the embedded RSS feeds. Recently, I have noticed an increase of requests to exchange links. Please stop asking. The answer is, "No. No Thank You."

I don't exchange links with people I do not know. I don't exchange links with businesses that I do not use. I don't exchange links to increase my rankings in the search engines. I will add a link if I like something. I will add a link in support of my friends. I have a small group of advertisers and that is all that I need to support my blogging habits. I don't understand why people get angry at writers who do not wish to exchange links. I do not understand why people get upset if we decide to not respond to unsolicited e-mail.

I routinely do not respond to unsolicited e-mail that annoys me. It's nothing against you. It is simply me not wanting to go in a direction I believe I do not wish to go. If I have a few large pictures from Yotveta on my TannStarr.com landing page it is only because I am truly impressed with their food and service and I like talking about them on my blog. They did not pay for those Outside Blog Minion Report covers. I created them because I went hyper-local there, blogged about my thoughts on the subject and it is a fave place to eat while in Fresh Meadows, Queens County, New York. I am a regular... Quit bugging me about my eating habbits. I get invitations to go places all of the time. I have wee people. I have to pick and choose who, where, when and how to spend our time. It's not an insult if I don't come. it's simply a scheduling conflict. I am involved in a lot of projects and am falling behind in my blogging because I routinely work from 8 AM to 8PM or beyond. If I don't answer your e-mail the same day, don't e-mail me the next day about not answering you. It might flip my b*tch switch.

The Outside Blog Minion Report is about what we did today and not who pays me. This is a very important distinction readers need to know about me and bloggers in general. We will let you know if we are doing paid advertising. Seriously... Don't assume... You are doing the writer and businesses we enjoy a disservice when you do. I simply write about what I like and dislike during my day. Nothing more. I am not as complicated as a few of you assume. Haven't you noticed that I am very easily amused? I high-jack blogs for Pete's sake (LOL). My websites relax me and are fun. The business is a plus, but there is more to life than business. All writers don't want the same thing. We each have a plan for our work and only we can decide what to do with our original content.

These Covers represent parts of my daily life. They have personal and emotional value to me and I do not need a third party link exchange to bring value into my cyberlife, my websites or my blogs. Interacting with my friends, family, peers and readers do that just fine.

My life is not fodder for your link exchange programs. Advertising? Sometimes we can talk about that but it's not the reason I created my blogs. I created them to share what I see, do and to talk... :-)