How Do You Review?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 18, 2011
A couple of nights ago I watched a documentary called Heckler, which was put together by Jamie Kennedy of The Kennedy Experiment fame. It was all about criticism and heckling of entertainers and how they deal with it mentally, physically, and emotionally.
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Yeah, I know, you’re thinking mentally and emotionally are the same thing but they’re not in my context. Mentally is when you’re thinking about it later on and how it affects you in the long run. Emotionally is how you deal with it then and there, in the heat of the moment. Michael Richards is a perfect example of a guy who one bad night let his emotions get to him in a bad way, and look at how he’s had to deal with it mentally ever since.
There were some interesting things he did with this documentary. He talked to a lot of entertainers, mainly comedians, on the subject of heckling. He had lots of clips showing how some of these people reacted in public. Only one guy hit someone, but one guy got pelted with lots of garbage and another guy told the story of being cold cocked by a guy who heckled him and got insulted from the stage right back. Barbra Streisand’s in it yelling something back at a heckler, and some movie director named Uwe Boll actually dared some critics to fight him in a boxing match; he beat every single one of them up, one guy so bad he was vomiting for a long time afterwards. I don’t know why, but I actually enjoyed that.
But the most interesting thing he did was take many of the bad reviews he received for the movie Son of Mask (didn’t see it) to the people who wrote them, read the reviews in front of them, and asked them why they were so cruel.
His point was that as critics, none of them offered anything constructive, and in almost every case they made personal statements about him in general. A few backed down, a couple said it wasn’t personal (please) and a few were actually happy they’d gotten a rise out of him. One guy in particular said it was his goal to get known by any means possible, and the ruder he could be to someone the better he liked it. Yeah, I thought that guy was a punk.
It make me go back through some of my review posts on this blog to see just how bad I might have been here and there. I noticed that for the most part I’ve been really easy on things I didn’t like. Lucky for me, I like a lot more things than I don’t like; that’s a pretty nice life to have, right?
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The only times when I’ve been a bit more brusque than other times is when it was personal. For instance, my last review of Demand Studios wasn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever said here, yet in comparison to reviews by other people it was fairly sedate. I also believe my responses to the couple of people who wrote in support of them was fair and measured as well.
When I wrote my review of the movie Skyline, a movie that greatly disappointed me, I didn’t go after any of the actors in the movie, but rather the breakdown on the script of the movie itself. There wasn’t anything I thought was overly mean or malicious, just truthful.
I think the only time I got really mean was when I was having a fight with the people from some place that I’m not going to name, but it was all about Akismet and involved some other folks as well. To date it’s the only post of mine where I actually deleted comments because some were threatening, and I did a test and found that the email addresses used were all fake; wasn’t having that either.
Goodness, I was even relatively nice (relatively that is) when I wrote a post supporting our friend Sire when he was having a debate with someone over something that, in the long run, was not only stupid, but proved to be accurate regarding commenting. It was a little bit snarky at the time, but even the guy I wrote about stopped by and understood my point, which shows it couldn’t have been all that bad.
Here’s the thing. There are people we don’t like for whatever reason, but there’s no reason to be over the top or mean about it. For instance, there’s a lot of hate I see being directed at this kid Justin Bieber. The thing is he’s only 16 years old; any adult saying nasty things about a 16 year old should be ashamed of themselves. Saying you don’t get his music is one thing; after all, we’re older and it’s not for us. Saying things about his appearance or anything else should be off limit.
I hated when professionals were piling on this young lady below, Janet Evancho, when she was doing opera on one of those TV talent shows. They were saying she didn’t have the chops and wasn’t fully trained as an opera singer. Folks, she’s 10 Years Old! I thought she was fabulous, and in this day and age when many types of classical music aren’t as popular as they once were because more kids want to listen to newer music, one would think these folks would be encouraging her instead of bashing her. So she has an album and you don’t tough!
I guess here’s my main point. Saying “you stink” doesn’t help anyone. Saying “I didn’t like it and here’s why”, then actually telling why, does help to a degree. I’ve had my critics. I wrote in my business newsletter days ago a story on when I wrote my first newsletter I sent it out to a lot of people to get their opinion on it, and anyone who actually made a comment commented on the look and format of the newsletter and not one person commented at all on what I’d written. In that instance I wasn’t helped at all since that’s what I was interested in hearing about.
I’m not saying don’t criticize things when you get irked. I certainly did when I had issues with a plugin that it seems a lot of people liked. But if you’re going to write some type of criticism, either temper yourself a little bit of make sure you do something like this. Now there’s a review! 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
5 Lessons Bloggers Can Learn From The Health Club
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 20, 2011
Suffice it to say I’ve gotten used to going to my health club. I can’t say I feel all that much healthier, but I can say that I know I’ve improved in some areas and held steady in some as well.
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It’s an interesting thing, going to a health club or gym. You start out, for the most part, not knowing anyone. Then, over time, you start becoming familiar with a few people here and there, and though you probably can’t or won’t count any of them as your best friend, you start talking to them, learning something here and there and having the opportunity to apply something they’ve said to your workout; or at least give it a shot.
It equates well with blogging when you think about it. Even if you think you know it all, you go to another blog and either learn something or have the opportunity to engage someone in a conversation where one of you might come away with something. And, unfortunately, it’s not always positive, yet it’s always another experience to learn from. Here are 5 lessons I believe bloggers can learn from health clubs.
1. Let’s start with a lady named Jen; I know it had to be longer, but that’s all I got. Within my first few weeks of being there Jen stopped me one day just to talk. I was telling her how my routine always started out by walking the track to loosen my knees up, as they’re slightly arthritic. I also told her that I only did 15 minutes, whether they loosened up or not. She said that doing only 15 minutes of cardio probably wasn’t going to do me much good, especially if I wasn’t able to push it from the start. She said I needed to try to get at least 25 to 30 minutes in for a good workout, and if I could walk longer I’d feel it because I’d start to speed up, I’d get a sweat on, and my heart would pump a little faster. I started doing that, increased my time to where I now won’t walk less than 30 minutes, and she was absolutely correct.
Sometimes new bloggers will ask how often I write, and when I say almost every day they say they can’t see themselves doing anything like that. The same goes for how long posts should be. The reality is that you get more traffic and more for your effort if you can write more and post just a little longer posts that some people might do. An entire blog of 250 word posts probably isn’t going to benefit you much. I wouldn’t expect everyone to try to write 1,000 word posts every day either. Trying to find ways to push your effort up just a little bit will get you more of what you might be looking for as far as traffic, comments, etc.
2. There’s this tiny woman named Tina. She’s very fit, though she doesn’t think she is. She’s a former bodybuilder who, just being 2 years younger than me, thinks she’s only a shell of what she used to be. Ask my wife; we can’t find an ounce of fat on her, but she can.
She offers a lot of tips to anyone who asks her something. One of the things she lamented to me was how many people lay down on the bench and do sit-ups or stomach crunches very fast. She said they get absolutely no benefit and actually will cause more harm to their backs. She showed me two ways of doing them, both much slower than what I had been doing, and said that if I could do it that way that I’d benefit more than I had been and have fewer problems with my back. I started doing them her way and my back problems went away.
In blogging, sometimes you have to learn from someone who’s been there and made the mistakes so you can improve yourself. Even when we tend to learn from what we see others doing, there’s often someone with more knowledge than the crowd who can help us progress a lot further. When we come upon those people, we need to sit still and just listen to what they have to say.
3. There’s this guy named Richard, big brotha (we like to say Mandingo lol) who’s the nicest guy as well. One day he was pushing this one machine really hard and, well, I knew that I was going to have to try it one day. Turned out to be the next day. I put on a weight I didn’t think was all that heavy, pushed it 15 times, and felt like I was the man. Two days later, over Christmas holiday at my mother’s, suddenly I couldn’t move and was in dire pain all day and half the day after that.
When I talked to him about it days later he said that it was a dicey machine that needed perfect precision and technique to do it right, otherwise one could seriously hurt themselves on it. He tried to show me the technique, but I realized this was one time I was going to have to defer on my macho because indeed it was a tricky machine.
Many of us read what a lot of other bloggers do, yet sometimes we have to realize that we can’t learn every technique that another blogger tells us. For instance, most of my posts are written within 5 minutes or so; I type fast, think fast, and have a pretty good imagination for topics. That’s not something that can really be learned, no matter how many times I might talk about it. Sure, people can improve their speed, learn where to get inspiration easier, but maybe not copy and do what I do. And there are plenty of people who do things I certainly can’t do, whether I’ve tried or not. Sometimes you just have to settle for being the best you can be and live with that; trust me, often that turns out to be pretty good.
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4. There’s this guy named Andy I met at the health club. He looks like an 80′s rocker, and is the nicest guy. He used to do security for Anthony Robbins in the 90′s, and thus has acquired a lot of those special ways of talking and giving out quotable phrases; it’s scary sometimes. lol
Andy has a body that looks like he pushes a lot of weight, but he doesn’t. As a matter of fact, he does something quite the opposite. He rarely uses more than 20 pounds at any time. But he does two things I just never see me doing. First, he commits to at least 4 hours at the health club whenever he goes. Second, it’s because it allows him to do multiple sets and reps for each thing he’s going to do. For instance, if he’s going to do a 20-pound barbell curl, he does 30 sets of 50 curls, and each one he does very slowly and deliberately. He does a set, rests 2 or 3 minutes, and does another set. Every time he goes to the health club, he selects a different part of the body to work on. Although he’s about 5 years younger than me, he’s “retired”; has enough money to live on so he doesn’t have to concern himself with a job, though he’ll do a project here and there just to stay busy.
Not everyone has the time to put into working on the perfect blog post. But what everyone has the ability to do is be consistent in effort, maximizing whatever it is they do. It’s not always about speed. It’s not always about content or SEO. It’s definitely not always about perfection. It’s about the effort to do whatever it is you have to do, giving what time you have to doing the best you can in the best way you can.
5. Finally there’s a young woman named Teresa. She’s stunning if you ask me and my wife. We always see her at the health club working out hard. Around the early part of December, after not seeing her for awhile, we saw her and she was looking great. We could tell she’d lost either weight or inches, and it was phenomenal because over all the time we’d seen her working out she didn’t look much different.
So I talked to her one day and told her how good I thought she was looking. She thanked me, then said she owed it all to my wife. Seems my wife, who’s been going to some type of health club for years, was talking to her about something and inadvertently gave her a tip that she decided she was going to try; man, I wish I could remember what it was now. So she started doing this thing my wife suggested to her and she lost 20 pounds in six weeks. I mentioned it to my wife later and she said she was stunned that her words convinced someone to try something new, but was glad it worked out.
Everyone we learn something from in blogging doesn’t have to be a guru. I’ve learned things from people who have only written two or three posts, and not always only about blogging. To me, if you’re open to reading and commenting on other people’s blogs, you’re open to learning something from almost anywhere. And when you do, sometimes you’re surprised because you weren’t expecting it at the time. That’s why blogging and the experience overall is so thrilling; you never know when you’re going to pick up something that will enrich your life. And, by extension, you never know when you’ll say something that will enrich someone else’s life.
And there you go; whew, this was long. So, hope you don’t mind, but I’m skipping a day to let this one have some time. That’s actually going to be something new I’m going to try; if I write a long post I’m going to think about skipping a day to give people time to catch up, if they so choose. After all, my goal was for 300 posts this year, not 365.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
Do What You Do And What You Know No Matter What
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 8, 2010
Last week I was listening to an online review of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. There were 4 people talking about the movie. Three of the people absolutely loved it; one guy hated it. The guy who hated it owned up to the fact that he’d never read any of the books, nor had he seen the other movies. So, he was lost, looking for action, and hoping the movie would entertain him even if he didn’t know anything about the series.
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I remember when the first X-Files movie came out there were a lot of people who were saying the same exact thing. No matter that the movie did have excitement (heck, it had explosions within the first 5 minutes) and even aliens (man, a movie with aliens that also makes sense is my kind of movie), but people were upset because they didn’t know the history behind the show or the characters, felt left out, and thus rated the movie lower than it deserved.
Sometimes I think people just don’t get it. Everything in the world isn’t for everyone; that’s just life. I remember a review of a John Denver concert years ago where the woman who did the review stated up front that she hated John Denver and left the concert feeling the same way. In my opinion, how could she even think of writing a fair review if she went in already knowing she didn’t like it? Was she expecting him to do something special so she’d say “wow, I was wrong all these years” if she hated it?
I’m bringing this up because of the subject of influence and being “liked”. In yesterday’s post on Twitter Chats, I talked about how some people didn’t like others using Twitter in that fashion and the resulting dustups that end up with some people losing followers and others gaining some. Just as the concept of Twitter chats isn’t for everyone, neither is every blog for every person.
Well, maybe that’s a bit much. I like to think this blog is for everyone, but I know that every post isn’t for everyone. If I write about sports and you don’t like sports, I don’t expect you to stick around long. I know I can write about cleavage (especially if I add an image) and Sire‘s going to be there, but if I write about string theory, chaos theory and the calculations of quantum physics that says they’re possible (ugly stuff to be sure, but kind of fun in a way) it might not grab his attention as much, but there might be someone out there intrigued enough to read it all.
I know there are times when I talk tech and some folks stay away in droves because they don’t get it. i also know I go to blogs that talk about cars or other things that my mind can’t always figure out either. I certainly don’t always understand “mom” blogs, being neither a mom or a parent.
When there are things that don’t appeal to my sensibilities, I don’t sit down and gripe about them at that moment; I leave. Whether or not I come back is irrelevant. It’s obvious at that moment that a particular thing wasn’t written for me or to me, and thus I don’t have to try to force it into what I want it to be. There are plenty of other outlets, plenty of other people who’d appreciate my time, and those people who are doing something I’m not interested in are going to appreciate that I didn’t stop by and rake them through the coals because they weren’t my cup of tea at that moment either.
Don’t beat yourself up if you’re in a niche that not everyone can get behind. Those that do get behind it will be loyal to a fault, especially if you return that loyalty. And don’t beat yourself up if someone comes to your blog and leaves comments, yet you visit their blog and find yourself kind of lost. I think anyone who’s expecting me to stop by a punk rock blog just because they stopped by here and posted a comment is kidding themselves, just as I know I’d be kidding myself if I thought everyone should be watching and listening to every opera video I posted.
If you’re creating something, whether it’s a blog or website or book or music, create what you want, then find your particular audience, or they’ll find you. Don’t cater to someone who hasn’t invested time to learn what it is you have to offer. Sure, there are times when you might have to take a step back and give some background before moving forward. But like Harry Potter, X-Files and John Denver, if your stuff has been out there for awhile and a newcomer stops by and slams you for their ignorance, don’t bite; just go on with your bad selves. And if you’re wondering where that comes from, check out a clip from one of my favorites, the Muppets:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010-2012 Mitch Mitchell
How Can I Be Useful To You?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 6, 2010
Last week I was honored to have Chris Brogan stop by this blog for the first time and leave a comment. Of course, I’d been talking about his post regarding ways to write multiple posts in a day. He stated something interesting in the comment: “The qualifier might be USEFUL posts a day”.
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It got me to thinking about how often I’ve been “useful” to those who visit this blog. I know that my business blog is useful, if tough for some people to get into, but what about this blog? Is it supposed to be useful or entertaining? Can it be both?
As I get close to post #900 I decided that I would take just a quick look at topics I’ve written on over the past 3 years, but I’m going in a different direction. For instance, I’ve written around 55 posts on entertainment topics. Out of all those posts, only one could be considered as useful, that being when I spoke on how to create playlists on Windows Media Player. Certainly a post like Saturday’s top 20 sports movies isn’t useful, but it’s fun and, in my opinion, is the type of thing where some folks might enjoy comparing their favorites to mine; an outlet for expression that anyone who likes movies can comment and know that there are no wrong responses (that is, unless someone actually thinks The Fish That Ate Pittsburgh is a top 20 film).
I then looked at personal posts, where I get to talk about anything I want to, sometimes things that have nothing to do with my norm here (do I even have a norm?). I’ve written around 50 of those, and I have to admit that determining what’s useful or not is a little bit harder. For instance, my update post on my gym workouts might not be useful to a majority of people, but if there’s someone who’s been thinking about joining a gym to lose weight and reads my post on my travails, have I given them something useful to think about, since I mention it also takes changing one’s diet? Personally I’d have found something like that useful before I joined the gym, but what about anyone else? Anyway, based on my own criteria, I think at least 7 of those posts were fairly useful; the others, well, at least half are subject to interpretation.
And of course there’s the Sunday Question, which may or may not be useful to people. Its intention is to get people thinking most of the time, and to me, that’s useful. However, I’m not sure people learn anything from it, unless they’re learning something about themselves that they never thought of before.
Anyway, based on the quick review, it would seem that I’m useful at least 80% of the time on this blog; I really hadn’t expected that at all. I’ve talked about blogging, writing, software, plugins, product review, health, social media, motivation and posted some interviews. There are more topics, of course, but you get the drift. For me, it’s been an interesting mix of things over time, and I hope to continue it.
Still, I figure it’s time to ask this question; how can I be of more use to you? Are there topics I haven’t covered that you might want to see me tackle, if I’m able? I’m not going to ask what you don’t want me to talk about because, well, I’m going to write what I want to write about, even when it’s a tough topic to discuss like issues of race. And I will tell a story or two here and there, like my story about The Keys. But I figure why not ask, as it’s the holiday season, I’m on the cusp of 900 posts, and who knows, there might be other posts in your questions as well.
Go ahead; let’s see what I do and don’t know as far as helping you out. But if you ask me how to build a car; ain’t gonna happen! 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
Sunday Question – What Do You Really Think About Blogging?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 28, 2010
Today’s question seems like an easy one, but it really isn’t. I’m of the opinion that most people blog because they feel they have to, rather than because they actually love it. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.
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I write 3 blogs. I absolutely love writing this blog. If I could generate enough income to live on for the rest of my life just by writing this blog I’d do it. Trust me, often I’m limiting myself to one blog post a day; I come up with enough ideas to write 4 or 5 times a day on this blog. But of course there’s that money thing getting in the way again.
My business blog I like writing, but it’s not as satisfying as this one. The topics I talk about on that blog can be tough for some people to deal with, and after aren’t for everyone. To me, that’s my “grown up” blog. I could actually write twice a day with that one, but it wouldn’t do me much good. I’ve spent most of my blog commenting time promoting this blog because it’s fairly universal; the other blog, well, when it fits I do it, but if not I’ll use this URL instead.
My finance blog… well, that one’s the wild card. It probably takes the most research because I need to feel a real opinion coming before I’ll write something for it, and I also need to make sure my opinion is backed up with something, either fact or news. The intention for that blog, I admit was only to make money. However, once again it’s kind of a hoidy-toidy blog, because finance topics are really a finite niche. I think only two people from this blog have ever commented on that one; it is what it is.
So there you go, a bit more honesty. How about you? Do you really love your blog and blogging, or do you sometimes find it to be a chore because of time, or ideas, or anything else that might make the process less than pleasurable?
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