» WTF

In a World of Acronyms and Interns..

dbjorklund — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:51:23 +0000

A post where I say Freelance Ad Guy a lot!

Over on Twitter I decided partly as an experiment and mostly just for fun to create a sub character to my already very decidedly caricature of myself.. I created Freelance Ad Guy and since his wisdom would be sporadic at best he became a sub character instead of having a whole new account. I like to think of my Twitter account as a sitcom with an ensemble cast. Why would there be a need for Freelance Ad Guy? Well he takes all that goes wrong behind the scenes not only in Advertising and Marketing but the whole creative workplace and then relates it in an entertaining manner. Now in doing this I have offended some people because he does hit a little too close to home for some and.. well… I get to see Freelance Ad Guy as an acronym.. some people are just not very nice. The more fun ones are when I get accused of giving out “trade secrets” sure sometimes Freelance Ad Guy gives acceptable wisdom but for the most part its a joke, not to be taken seriously. I wouldn’t hire Freelance Ad Guy and I would hope you wouldn’t either. Obviously people out there are because I would’ve ran out of material before I started if Freelance Ad Guy wasn’t getting work. I look at this little Twitter show of mine as an extension of what I try to do with my interns, I don’t so much focus on teaching them how to use particular software because they should already know that, I focus on trying to impart all the things I learned the hard way doing this for almost twenty plus years. Now if they listen I don’t know but I can at least say I tried…

Are you tweeting yourself out of a job

dbjorklund — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:04:34 +0000

Lately I’ve been seeing around the big media websites articles with this theme. A sensational title like the above plus a filling helping of horror stories in the body about some poor individual who lost out on that great career because of that compromising photo and statement placed online. The moral is always the same Myspace/Face book/Twitter/whatever social website your using is going to ruin you professionally and leave you pumping gas for a living. Sure some caution needs to be taken with your online self and if your in consideration for a position with the Red Cross perhaps its best to not to post about how your a vampire and can’t wait to get your hands on all that free blood. These articles though, I feel are going to an extreme bordering on an almost sort of censorship, they want you to be so afraid of posting any sort of humanizing details that we all revert to just blind consumers again. The real power of social media and the internet in general is the low cost entree into being able to speak your mind about the important issues of the day. Those who follow me online know I’m very opinionated and post things that they might not agree with and some stuff they would be terrified to post in fear of a potential employer or client find it and be offended. Sure I’m concerned about such things but I also feel I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t say what was on my mind. Advice for how to handle oneself online is something I find all these articles to be lacking so I will share the rule that I find works pretty much everywhere in life, Understand just what exactly TMI really means. A little bit of responsibility is in order when you post online, When you show photos of you and the neighbor’s dog doing keg stands every Friday night a company might not find you to be a reliable professional but if you have photos of you at a political rally high fiveing G.W.B they’re going to over look that.

WTF?: Internet nicknames in real life.

Eric — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:45:53 +0000

Ok so I have a pretty wacky handle on the interwebs here. CaptAngryPants.

Why? It was more given to me really. I had a coworker once that was fond of saying “Do it up Captian” or similar just referring to people as Captain. Nothing really odd, I know. But in this same group of coworkers, it was common to ask me if I had my Angry Pants on that day. I can be a surly cuss at times.

Once and while, my handle is used in real life, but usually more so when someone is making a joke or if I am being a surly cuss. But on a daily basis, I am Eric. That is my name. I like it.

Ok, ok, so I am rambling. But it is at least partially at heart to my question: Why do people use their very obviously fake names in real life?

Now I can understand having a stage name, cause well, we need our strippers and pornstars. But it seems really queer to me to for the more average person even the “internet special” person to be using a stage name in real life. You go to some meeting or convention and they want to be referred to as the stagename.

I’m sorry? I wanna call you Bill or Sam or Angelica. It just seems impersonal to call them by their handle or it seems douchey on their part to want to be called by the monkier. I want to communicate to the person inside, not the faux shell. And don’t even get me started on those special types that desired to be called their Wiccan, Werewolf, Fae or Furry names. *shudders*

I guess I live too much in a closed off world or are they just douchebags?