chrissie brodigan

Glen Hansard - Leave Lyrics

I can’t wait forever is all that you said
Before you stood up
And you won’t disappoint me
I can do that myself
But I’m glad that you’ve come
Now if you don’t mind

Leave, leave,
And free yourself at the same time
Leave, leave,
I don’t understand, you’ve already gone

And I hope you feel better
Now that it’s out
What took you so long
And the truth has a habit
Of falling out of your mouth
But now that it’s come
If you don’t mind

Leave, leave,
And please yourself at the same time
Leave, leave,
Let go of my hand
You said what you have to now
Leave, leave,
Let go of my hand
You said what you came to now
Leave, leave,
Leave, leave,
Let go of my hand
You said what you have to now
Leave, leave…

Skydiving Into Social Networking: When Users Go Tandem

As a seasoned online product manager, I’ve signed up for just about every social network that remotely seems like it might be “the one for me.” I joined, I received some “friend” requests from random users, I admired (on occasion) the information architecture, graphic design, slick AJAX and CSS, and I failed to be delighted and amazed. And, therefore, I was anti-social.

I’m thinking about this, because I’ve been trying to seduce my non-online friends into joining Twitter. Most commonly they look at my profile and time-line and laugh and say things like: “So not for me,” “I don’t get it,” “How do you get work done?” and the ever-favorite “We’re so different you and me.”

Until recently, my year-old Twitter account had two updates. In the past two months I’ve gone from two to 2,500 updates. This is the most outstanding piece of evident addiction to an online product/social network that I’ve come across.

What blew up my timeline and my repeat visits (in spite of unremarkable, unreliable Twitter uptime)? Honestly, it was @mknell (Matt Knell). Because, I think that’s the answer that so many social networks can’t recognize or recognize but can’t replicate.

Social networking is a bit like skydiving for most people. Putting your life online (if you’re not Julia Alison or Emily Gould) can be frightening, because what if you do something stupid, what if you meet someone stranger than yourself, or worse someone who has bad intentions. The “what ifs” far outnumber the “why nots.”

Somehow, Twitter got it right (mind you there’s a lot they have wrong too). If you create a profile and follow at least one community leader, a well-connected and kind person, who can introduce you to his/her circle of friends/followers, amazing things happen. It’s the 6 degrees of separation phenomenon at work online.

One person, in the Twitterverse, can guide you into interactions with many people, and suddenly you go from a single-follow to many follows and followers. How can other social networks create the same addictive response and the same connected experience? I have a few suggestions:

1. Discovery–DO encourage a user to join because their friends are already online - current models, focus their energies on exploiting your contacts after the sign-up process. Put the discovery of existing friends at the beginning of the experience.

2. Authenticity–DON’T assign a “guide” to every user, it’s pedestrian and hokey and an inauthentic experience is a major fail. Instead disclose the profiles of staff members like Twitter’s @_evan @airrun @al3x @alissa @benfu @biz @bs @crystal @ev @goldman @jack @jeremy @jkalucki @krissy @lane @meangrape @robey @stevej and make it clear that members can follow and communicate (protect the staff members as well - remind them that their professional and personal identities need not overlap under a single username).

3. Findability–DO make the after sign-up search process topic-based. Summize makes finding like-minded people ridiculously easy.

4. Say NO to SPAM–DO make it hard for spammers to interact with users. This is a must-have from the start - and, shame on you Twitter for not getting this right sooner.

5. Love Bomb–DO promote a culture of love-bombing. Sure, the top 20 Twitter users bitch a whole lot, but for the most part the whimsical nature of the interface and the tone set by the founders and staffers themselves is about sharing and caring for things, people, places, and happenings across the world.

Lastly, if you are creating a social network or improving an existing one, make it possible for people to make mistakes, delete them, and build a long-lasting profile and presence. Don’t over-plan the experience, the best things that happen in the Twitterverse, start online, but actually happen offline in Tweetups.

Skydiving takes a lot of time to master, tandem skydiving can happen in a day. Addiction starts with interaction. Interaction starts with one real friend.

You can find me @chrissieb

Change

More than a few things lately have me thinking about change.

In my own life … the last year in particular, I changed:

… cities, moving from VA to New York, and
… relationships, going from single to married, and
married to single (nearly as quickly), and
… my hair changed from blonde to red to brown, and
… I changed apartments (twice) and jobs (3 times – ouch!), and
… went from regular coke to diet coke.

We accept the basic truth that change happens all around us every day; we just don’t always see it happening in ourselves. Or want to see it.

I’ve met more than a few people who have uttered the words, “I can’t change.” To be honest, I bet I say those same words as often as I hear them.

There are many days, down to specific moments, where I’ve wished I could stop time. Stop time, so that I could stay the person I was in that particular place. And, those times aren’t an album full of the great moments of my life—many of them are the most painful ones.

Sometimes it’s been easier to want to hold onto a painful moment, be it a bad relationship, a rundown apartment on a bad street, or a dissatisfying job. There’s so much more to be feared in what could happen outside that status quo, where the pain is at least familiar. Superhuman leaps or baby steps towards new people or places could make things worse.

But, we don’t always have the choice to not change. I’ve spent the last year in constant change, in search of something to hold onto and unwilling to slow down long enough to get over all the fears I have.

Change—it forces itself in. It’s not always dramatic. We don’t wake up fully transformed into new, better, more complete people. We don’t wake up to be sad, traumatized, or more fearful people either. Change is smaller than that. It’s the kind of thing that sometimes we can’t even see ourselves, not at first, not unless we fess-up and look really close, which thank God we almost never do.

When it happens and when it’s realized, it feels obvious. And, once again, I try to stand really still bargaining with time, fate, serendipity, and God. Hoping to hold onto it this time, because I don’t want to have to change again.

Bluebird of Happiness Lyrics - Mojave 3

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a light to guide me along
gotta find a way back home

running for your life won’t get you so far
running for your life so far

gotta find a road to bring me home slow
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a road to bring me home slow
gotta find a way back home

the loving in your eye that holds you alive
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a road that brings me back slow
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home

saw you turning
big eyes burning on your way
nothing out there
the time to tell you what you own

never wanted to feel this pain
never wanted to feel so sad
never wanted to feel this pain
today
today

never wanted to feel this pain
never watned to feel so sad
never wanted to feel this way
today
today
today

never wanted to feel this way
never wanted to feel this pain

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a light to guide me along
gotta find a way back home

never wanted to feel this way
never wanted to feel this pain

gotta find a road that brings me back slow
gotta find a way back home

the loving in your eye that holds you alive
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a road that brings me back slow
gotta find a way back home

gotta find a way to get home strong
gotta find a way back home
gotta find a way back home
gotta find a way back home

Glen Hansard - Falling Slowly Lyrics

I don’t know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can’t react
And games that never amount
To more than they’re meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You’ve made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can’t go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I’m painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It’s time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You’ve made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You’ve made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I’ll sing along