Social Media Breakfast in Cincinnati
1716892071This morning, Jason Falls and I made the short trip up to Cincinnati to attend the Social Media Breakfast. Cincinnati is the 9th city to host such an event.

There was a nice turnout especially when you consider how early we met. Got to connect with a couple people that I already knew like Roger Bauer and Krista Neher and a lot of people that I didn't including Albert Maruggi, Chris Bergman, podcaster Cliff Ravenscraft, Aaron Forgue, Michelle Lentz, Chris Ainsworth and a bunch of other people whose names I didn't write down (Sorry!).

We had a lot of really great discussions with topics ranging from Twitter to how social media impacts traditional media to Mahalo to personal branding to earthquakes. It was a nice change of pace from the panels and social mixers we've held here in Louisville. Everyone was eager and willing to chime in and share what they've learned.

Mira gives to Locks of Love
After seeing Miles shave his head for St. Baldrick's last month, Mira decided that she wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love.

Today, she went to Z Salon and Spa to get the full Princess treatment. She got her hair washed, cut, styled and even got a little lip gloss and eye shadow. The great thing is that Z does all of the Locks of Love cuts free of charge.




Before


After

Mira had a blast and her hair is adorable. Check out the full set of photos on Flickr.

Experienced my first earthquake
A 5.2-5.4 magnitude earthquake hit the Midwest this morning. The quake was centered along the border of Illinois and Indiana; however, it could definitely be felt here in Louisville.

I woke up to the mild shaking at around 5:40AM and went right back to bed. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a badass that fears no earthquake. However, that's not the reason I was sleeping like a baby again by 5:42AM.

1. (The obvious one) We live in Louisville, KY. We don't do earthquakes. Bourbon? Yep. Cigarettes? Thousands of cartons per day. Horses? Sure. Earthquakes? Not so much.

2. There is a new neighborhood being built less than a 1/4 mile from our house. Over the past few days, they have been blasting giant holes in the ground to install drainage pipes. This morning's quake felt very similar to what we feel every time they blast. It was just a longer, sustained shake.



When the shaking started, I woke up for a second, looked at the clock and muttered something about idiots with dynamite.

This is the first earthquake felt in Louisville since 1988; however, I am expecting that we'll have a few more quake-like blasts in our neighborhood starting in about an hour.

SMC Louisville April '08 event recap
Tonight, the Social Media Club of Louisville held their April event tonight at the Fox and Hound Pub & Grille. The agenda for tonight was networking followed by a panel on blogging followed by more networking. The panel consisted of Chris Pearson, Rob May, Jason Falls and Michelle Jones.

Unfortunately, due to the noise from the other part of the restaurant, I wasn't able to hear any of the panel. None of it. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had the same problem (see here, here, here and here).

Of course, I go to these events for the networking, so the audio issues didn't phase me. I had good conversations with Todd Earwood, Nick Huhn about Profilactic, Jesse Lucas about filmmaking, Melissa King about porkchops, Aaron Marshall about cuddling, Rob May, former CNET colleague Brian Herbert about being unemployed (me, not him), Micheal Schnuerle about maps and Doug Petch about how we can improve our Profilactic badges.

There were also quite a few new faces. By Todd Earwood's count, there were about 55 people in attendance. Definitely one of the biggest crowds so far.

Loving unemployment so far
It's hard to believe that it has been a week since I spent my last day at the office. This week has been a whirlwind of calls, lunches and meetings with old friends, potential business partners and advisors.

It has been great focusing on Profilactic / Aggregated Media 100% and getting feedback on our business plan. I'm really feeling energized about the potential. It also feels great to have so many people around me who support the project.

Plus, it has been nice to spend more time with Amy and the kids during the day. On Thursday, I got to attend a paleontology field trip with Mahlon. That is something I would normally have missed out on.

Next week is more of the same. I get to go on another paleontology field trip. This time, it is to a newly-discovered fossil bed. Plus, there is the monthly web meetup of Forge Louisville on Thursday night.

Unemployment is imminent
I got laid off from my job today. After almost 9 years and many (many) rounds of layoffs during the first bubble, my number finally came up. Strangely, I am feeling a huge sense of relief right now.

After going to SXSW, I had already made the decision that I needed to either find a new job or make Profilactic my job. I even had offers for some great positions In Austin and Boston. However, I couldn't quite make myself take that crucial first step in either direction.

Today, however, I got a not-so-subtle nudge that I needed and it feels much different than I expected it would. Sure, I'm upset about not getting to work with the great group of friends that I've made over the past 9 years; however, I'm also energized about having more time to dedicate to something I am truly passionate about.

Of course, I think all of the support I've gotten from friends and family has helped a lot. I've answered at least 50 e-mails, Twitter direct messages or phone calls this evening from people wishing me well and encouraging me to take Profilactic to the next level.

My last day in the office is Friday. After that, I will be taking a couple of weeks off before diving in to the startup world with both feet.

Guitar Hero on Tour

I am all over this! Just don't expect me to do that ridiculous dance... in public anyway.

Forge Louisville Mar. '08 event recap
Last night, Forge Louisville held their larger, quarterly event at Primo in downtown Louisville. I attended the first one back in November of last year and it was a good time, so I was eager to get this group together again.

I arrived at around 5:45pm and the place was already packed. According to John Williamson, about 95 people signed up for the event. That's pretty amazing considering there was a $25 cover charge.

The agenda for the event was pretty simple -- a couple of speeches from established local entrepreneurs, lots of networking, wine and food. It's not exactly beer and Guitar Hero, but I made it work.

Upon walking in the door, I ran into Michelle Jones of Forge Louisville and Mathias Kolehmainen from Telemics. From there, I had conversations with old GLI pal Tom McMahon who now runs an angel fund through Growth Services, Michael Schnuerle about this photo, David Watson from Frost Brown Todd with whom we discussed licensing agreements, Lesa Seibert who introduced me to the guys from Label X, Joe Wheeler, Todd Earwood, Rob May and Josh Rosenthal who recounted his snowy drive to Austin for SXSW.

About midway through the event, Matt Winn introduced the featured speakers: Tom Noland who is SVP of Corporate Communications from Humana, Tom Cottingham who founded the Cobb Group and TechRepublic and Andy Swan who founded DaytradeTeam.com and MyTrade.com.

Following the speakers, I talked to Tom Cottingham and Matt Winn (separately) about Profilactic and Heath Gross of the Sedulo Group about video game business ideas. I also finally got to meet web designer and Wordpress guru Chris Pearson and Carson McDonald of Mission Data. Carson and the rest of the Profilactic team geeked out on talk of Java, Ruby on Rails, PHP and web hosting.

Unfortunately, I saw lots of people I wanted to talk to, like Lenny Grover from Chrysalis Ventures, Nick Huhn from Yum! Brands and Eddie Babbage from Resonant Vibes, but wasn't able to. Maybe next time.