Dear Technorati & Guy Kawasaki: WTF?

Riddle me this Batman? Why, twice in the last two weeks, have I been credited with mentioning both Guy Kawasaki's blog and Kevin Miller's blog by Technorati? Why are both these people getting a "blog reaction" from me when I haven't written a darn thing about either of them recently? Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against either man and I don't think there's anything nefarious going on but Technorati.com, the self proclaimed authority on blog tracking, seems to think that I am mentioning stories from both these guys in my blog and that, just simply, hasn't happened. Here's the link to Guy Kawasaki's blog that I supposedly mentioned.

As always his blog is interesting but I didn't say squat about this post...and www.Technorati.com sez I did. Hmmm. Here's also a link to Kevin Miller's blog.

Now, Mr. Kawasaki and I have never met, although we do have a mutual friend in Hugh MacLeod, but Kevin Miller and I did work together at American International School (AIS) this summer.

So here's the riddle: Is it possible to actually "manufacture" a perceived reference to an article or has Technorati messed up in some way? The reason I ask is that these "false positives" contribute to the said blog owner's "authority" rating on Technorati, thus making them more "popular" in terms of reference rating. Now I doubt that either one of these guys gives a damn, as both of their blogs are rated so, so much higher than mine but I'm asking myself, "So what do I get out of this deal?" And the answer is "O", zip, nada, sQuat with a capital Q!

And here's the kicker! By writing this post, I AM actually giving both these guys a reference! Damn. I think they should both give me a big fat Nuclear kiss!

For more on blogs, blogging and bloggers, check here:

Advertising People & Blogs - The Travis Diaries VI
How to Write the Best Damn Blog in the World
Throw That Blog a Bone!
If Blogs Are Free Are They Worthless?
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If You Like the Blog, Read the Book>/a>
2008 Annual Report - The Wild Wild East Dailies
Blog Redesign WWED
BarCamp Saigon 2008
Attraction vs. Conversion - How to Power Your Blog
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market?

This Carnival of Life! - Perspective V

3 Hours Today: (Click on the pics to make them bigger)

COFFEE 4:45
The coffee man closes at 5. If you don't get there by five, you don't get any coffee. My coffee man works in a place called the "wet market". The wet market is the opposite of a super market and is called wet because they hose the whole place down every night. All stalls outside and a bit of a big a steel barn inside, the wet market carries everything from live fish to dead cows and pigs, and of course, coffee. My coffee is a blend of Aribica and Robusta beans roasted to a somewhat oily perfection and positively delicious. 200 grams, 100 of each variety, costs around a dollar and are ground in a machine that must be 50 years old. It works just fine. The man puts the ground coffee in a plastic bag, then twists a rubber band around the top, leaving just a loop handy for me to unwind at home, then puts that bag into a small paper bag which is folded once and then secured by another rubber band. These two nicely wrapped bags are then put into a third pink plastic bag with small handles so I can carry it away easily. I have no idea why he uses three bags when one would do.

Starbucks has announced plans to open stores in Vietnam in the next few years. They won't have an impact on my coffee man at all. He gave me a complimentary bag at the Tet Holiday this year and always has a big smile when I arrive. They can't touch him.

A 12 CENT SOFT DRINK, 5pm
I honestly don't know what it is. A dark, somewhat syrupy sweet tea that is served over ice at a rolling stand outside the wet market and costs just 12 cents. I stand, drink and return the glass. It goes down quickly. Nice.

CIGARETTES, 5:15pm
The price of a pack of cigarettes in Vietnam must be one of the cheapest in the world. Marlboros cost a dollar. My cigarettes, called ERA, cost 20 cents and they taste just fine.

Cafe Sua Da, 5:20pm
Coffee on the street is a tradition here. Cafe Sua Da is an iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk added to make it a little sticky. I love it, even in it's varying consistencies around town, not so much for its aesthetics in the glass but for the time it provides for me in my little plastic chair on the street.

The African man stares out the third floor window of his hotel as the sun goes down on Saigon. He checks his cellphone as I finish my coffee, pay the woman 40 cents and walk away. Many Africans choose to live in Asia – working in trading businesses or teaching football to avoid the wars and economic insufficiencies of their own countries.

VEGETABLE SAMOSA, 5:45pm
The owner at Akbar Ali is a friend of mine. A northern Indian who can cook up a storm and makes a fine vegetable samosa. Originally, I had planned this order as a carryout but the setting sun and the bustle of the street convinced me that watching the world roll by would be a worthwhile spending of my next hour. And the world rolls.

The legless man in his three-wheeled chair, pushed by an odd but effective two-hand mechanism – I gave him 2000 dong – about 13 cents, the bicycle fruit sellers, the bicycle massage guys – they'll stop their bike, roll out a mat, and give you a massage on the sidewalk – no shit – there is no end to the businesses one can start with a bicycle in Vietnam. There are balloon sellers, squid sellers, dried fish sellers and even guys with plastic lamination machines powered by batteries who will slick up any piece of paper you choose to roll through their machine when they roll by. By making laminating portable they make it affordable and convenient for small business owners to laminate everything from menus to business signs and IDs. Guy Kawasaki forgot to mention this burgeoning trend in his book "Art of the Start". Truthfully, Americans should come here to learn how to start a business. I've seen more creativity on a bicycle here than I've seen out of Silicon Valley recently.

Two pasty female tourists walk by and one says, "fuck him". My soundtrack is always out of context around here.

This carnival of life, I live in...

The cyclo men just sit and watch. And the rats move quickly from street drain to street drain – part of the neighborhood – just doing their job like everyone else. The woman with a baby comes to my table and says, "Hello sir ––––––– Baby". She repeats the word Baby a number of times but I do not respond. I will not make eye contact with her. There are tens of these women on the street and the "baby scam", as we call it, is just an old parlour trick. The chance that the baby is actually theirs is minimal and what's more plausible is that they, or a member of their family, owes a local two-bit gangster some money so they are put to the street with babies to beg money, or sell gum. Or, they just flat out work for him. It is their job. After a while here, you realize that you cannot help every person on the street and come to understand that the BMWs, Lexus' and Bentleys and Rolls we are seeing more and more of are owned by the people who employ these other people. I saw a Ferrari this week. And the world rolls by. Some just roll a little phat-er than others. (Yes, that is a double entendre. Many men are named "Phat" here.)

In Vietnam, a tiny alley – one only just wide enough for walking or a motorbike – is called a "Hem". And they are everywhere off the main streets. Above one particular hem in my neighborhood is a Buddha shrine. This shrine, mounted on the top of an upside down u-shaped entry portal is maintained every day by one of the residents of the Hem. He carries a ladder, and with it, refreshes the incense, rice wine and other offerings to the Buddha. He does this next to a building that has a freeze of the Virgin Mary on it's facade and another adorned with a full Virgin Mary statue in it's crown. Neither building is a church. Yes, we all can just get along.

Samosa's arrive and I'm swigging from a litre and a half of Pepsi I just bought at one of the new modern convenience stores in the hood. Their efficiency will kill a few old-school sellers on the street.

We have a neighborhood Albino. He is full Vietnamese but an Albino. It's doubtful he's ever heard of Edgar and Johnny Winter.

And the kid in the barber shop reminds me of me so many years ago. He's gotten himself a classic buzz cut with just some whisps left over hanging down onto his forehead when the barber gives him that lightning quick speed finish of a head scratching with tonic. He grins like a Cheshire fucking cat and jumps out of the chair as mom pays the barber. The old men continue to gossip as mom n' boy board the motorbike – the kid scratching his head again and again over his big grin. Sped away.

Next to me at my table float "Good Morning Vietnam" t-shirts in a shop next door.

And boys bounce a ball in front of the barber shop until a man on a motorbike spills it in an attempt to avoid the ball and peripherally a boy. His avoidance is successful. He looses a shoe, and stumbles about putting his whole kit back together for some time. Some chiding, some words, but he is not unhappy... call Vanity Fair... I've got a scoop!

HOME AGAIN, 7:15pm
My list of NPR podcasts to get through just keeps growing. If I had the regular radio on in the states this stuff would all just play in the background but here it comes as podcasts and just backs up in my computer until I review, listen and either save or delete. 57, today. It's like Tivo for radio. I have all sorts of things pre-programmed from news to music to book reviews but never seem to get through it all.

Todays reviews are a mix of a guy who worked in Afghanistan trying to eliminate poppy cultivation, another Jewish writer having yet another cultural epiphany regarding his American self-actualization and Garrison Keillor, who has no problems about who he is at all. I don't have a fucking chance. When white-ex-big-advertisng-agency-guys living in Korea and Vietnam turn into a hot topic, I'll be everyone's Kim-Chi Home Companion. Phat phucking chance.

And then there's luck. I know, at this point in my life, that I certainly didn't make it all happen. There's always luck involved. And circumstance, and happenstance, serendipity and timing.

FLASH!

In other news today, ADWEEK Magazine features a story on a new Phizer Diet drug for pets. Somebody's gotta be fucking kidding me. Lite Beer for dogs? GeeZuzz! Doggie Prozac can't be far off...

The "Bitches of EastWick"!

I can just so, fucking see it...

...and the world rolls by...this carnival of life...

For more on the "Perspective" or "Little Things" series, click below:

My Morning Wake-Up Call - Perspective XX: The Little Things XII
We'll Have A Gay Old Time - Perspective XIX: The Little Things XII
"Rolled Foggy Disposed Ricepaper" - Perspective XVIII: The Little Things XI
Joyeux Noel - Perspective XVII: The Little Things X
Lunch With Obama - Perspective XVI: The Little Things IX
One Motley Crue On The Bus Today - Perspective XV: The Little Things VIII
Attraction vs. Conversion: How To Power Your Blog - Perspective XIV: The Little Things VII
A glass box full of deep fried chicken heads - Perspective XIII: The Little Things VI
Seoul Searching - Perspective XII
He Would Have Shot Me 40 Years Ago - Perspective XI: The Little Things V
Chomsky on Colour & Sleep - Perspective X: The Little Things IV.2
Running With Scizzors - Perspective IX: The Little Things IV
Henry Miler II - Perspective VIII : The Little Things III.1
Henry Miller - Perspective VII: The Little Things III
Big Brother - Perspective VI: The Little Things II
This Carnival of Life! - Perspective V
The Art Walk - Perspective IV: The Little Things
Bentley #5 - Perspective III.2
Bentley vs. Vespa - Perspective III.1
Bentleys Invade Vietnam - Perspective III
Death Of A Colleague - Perspective II
Perspective

Are the Bloggerati Missing the market?

Somebody's gotta help me. I can't figure out why not a single blog in the technorati or social marketing arena is talking about the world's largest market. Why are the bloggerati preaching to the choir and not the church?

Has anyone noticed that Korea is the #1 broadband internet penetrated country on the planet – with over 80% of 48 million people connected? Has anyone noticed that OhMyNews from South Korea has been around since 2000 and pioneered the area of citizen reporting way beyond any of the recent offerings in the west? (Translate: Truemors) Yes, OhMyNews has an International edition (click below).

Excerpts From Wild Wild East:

"It is the first of its kind (OhMyNews) in the world to accept, edit and publish articles from its readers, in an open source style of news reporting. About 20% of the site's content is written by the 55-person staff while the majority of articles are written by other freelance contributors who are mostly ordinary citizens."

Whoa! Innovation and entrepreneurship from Asia? "Tsunami go wrong way Kimosabe!"

Okay, I'm boring you. Let's talk about the 78 million siliconmunists in Vietnam, who drew 20 billion US in foreign investment last year, the largest on the planet, or the insanely growing blogging universe here...or China. Anybody wanna talk China? Ok, that's 1.5 billion people and I need to check my Internet connected numbers and bandwidth and so-forth but why?

Oh wait...The world is round? You don't fall off it when you leave America? Oh dear. The marketing community calls this market the "BRIC" market.

Brazil. Russia. India. China. These are the fastest growing, largest consumer markets in the world – and if products aren't coherent with the world's next largest middle class they will simply die. Are we inventing anything these markets want to use? Imagine digging up a Yahoo logo in a thousand years and the archaeologist explaining to his students that the word meant "a cowboy's cry".

"Short of nominating Ron Paul, the dark-horse populist candidate for president in 2008, it’s doubtful that America’s taste in candidates will ever veer towards people of my background – you know, red-light visiting, expatriate, advertising sorts, (Did I mention I’ve also smoked marijuana more than once?), but should I ever venture a run, there’s one plank I would insist on in my platform:

That every American of Selective Service age be required to spend at least two years abroad in either a military, or humanitarian capacity – or, at the very least, certainly those accepted to university – our future leaders.

I know, I hear a few million asses being laughed off right now. “What the hell is he thinking?”, you’re thinking. And I am required, not by any law, but by sheer sense of national duty, to tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking that America has spent far too much national capital on letting our military be our international face and not near enough letting our real faces be our face. It’s time to get out of the house and take a walk around the globe.

Right now America is a terribly misunderstood super-power with almost no national plan for growing good will in a world where the European Union has already surpassed the US in market size and Asia looms as the world’s next greatest and most profitable middle class. America's branding is in the dumper.

Too much politics for you? Well, that can wait. All I can tell you right now is that the world I was about to find in Korea was like a good cold slap in the face to this American and I couldn’t wait to get back to Chicago to tell the big boys about it."

Oh, I've got a big ole thread here, but then again, that's why I've written a Book. More on this later...


For more on blogs, blogging and bloggers, check here:

Advertising People & Blogs - The Travis Diaries VI
How to Write the Best Damn Blog in the World
Throw That Blog a Bone!
If Blogs Are Free Are They Worthless?
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If You Like the Blog, Read the Book>/a>
2008 Annual Report - The Wild Wild East Dailies
Blog Redesign WWED
BarCamp Saigon 2008
Attraction vs. Conversion - How to Power Your Blog
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market?

For more on digital marketing and social networking see:

Xing vs. LinkedIn: Round II
Trial and Error: The New Normal
What's Wrong With My Social Networking? Xing vs. LinkedIn I
Low Tech Germany. Who Knew?
Advertising People and Blogs
How to Write the Best Blog in the World
What If Gutenberg Had a Blog?
If Blogs Are Free Does That Make Them Worthless?
Detri-Viral Marketing II: The Top 10 Social Media Blunders
Bright Lights, Big Internet and the WWED
Saigon Digital Marketing Conference Successfully Avoids Plumbers Convention
A Tale of Many Marketing Conferences
Detri-Viral Marketing I: How Web 2.0 Can Go Against A Brand
Marketing Predictions for 2009
Barcamp Saigon 2008
"Ignore Everybody" is Born: A Plug for Hugh MacLeod
Are the Bloggerati Missing the Market? Asia has Risen,
Into the Gapinvoid - Web 2.0 Social Networking Born 20 Years Ago