Tonight I’ve put some thought into how I can eat better, thanks to the inspiration and knowledge gained from my chiropractor, Dr. Matt Milonas’s nutrition seminars.  Since I had Chipotle today, I went in search of whether or not they used hydrogenated ‘trans’ fats.  The first search result yielded ChipotleFan.com’s interactive nutrition label generator.  Part fun and part educational, I learned about what I ate through the site.  I’m happy to report that my order has no trans fats.

Currently, I’m ordering the 3 Soft Tacos with chicken, tomato salsa (with a dash of hot), cheese, and lettuce.  Being a huge fan of chips and salsa, I almost never order Chipotle without the chips.  Mmmmm!  For fun, I compare the difference in my order with chips and without.  Wow what a difference!  Chips add 570 calories and 27 grams of fat.  I’m surprised, however, that the chips only add 17% more sodium.  With a sodium intake of 2130mg (89% of the FDA’s recommended daily intake) already coming from the tacos, what’s another 433 grams?

Here are the orders, side by side:

Admittedly, I go a bit ‘light.’  Most people add sour cream and guacamole.  I’ve never liked sour cream, and I’m just warming to guacamole.  Not for the flavor, but I try to cut additional fat (even if it’s a good fat, a practice I should change).  The total damage spikes when you add these two.  Add both tack on an additional 23g of fat (35% RDA) to a total of 74g or 113% RDA for fat intake. Add just Guacamole and you add 13g of fat (20% RDA) to a total of 64g of fat (98% RDA). Wow!

As yummy as Chipotle is, it’s easy to get lulled into thinking this food is healthier for us than it is. While a world better than myriad other fast food joints, if the meals came with about half the quantity of food, that would be perfect.  We tend not to think of the quantity we’re consuming until we measure it.

What’s your Chipotle order? Build yours here.

A week ago Saturday I was a guest on the LAML Radio Podcast, invited to discuss the history of the LEGO community, particularly as it pertained to the once-central discussion site LUGNET. The opportunity came to me last-minute; I composed some thoughts for about a half hour beforehand and then had a good 40-minute discussion with James Wadsworth and Mike Huffman which you can listen to below.

While it was fun to recount the community history, I’m more excited about how LEGO fandom can catch up to the rest of the Internet. Mike is the developer behind BrickBuildr, a Flickr API-driven LEGO photo site. What we don’t see yet though is LEGO fan sites leveraging social network application platforms to reach broader audiences. With the news that adults compose not 5 but 20% of LEGO’s sales (link in German, Babelfish translation here), there’s a lot of opportunity to identify and connect people who are under the radar provided such applications are executed properly.

Here’s a link to the interview on the LAML Radio web site. See the small embedded link at the bottom of the page, I come in at about 17:00 on the podcast.

Enjoy, and I encourage comments!

I’d like to quickly thank the team at EventBrite for their fantastic customer service. Friday night I googled and emailed CEO Kevin Hartz, urgently requesting assistance in getting a friend’s information off the web as a matter of personal safety. Kevin replied Saturday morning, passing the issue to Rafael Orozco, their Director of Engineering, who promptly took care of it. I originally emailed Kevin because I wanted my request to go to a real decision-maker at the company, not a nameless web form. This is the kind of personal service and responsiveness that really impresses me.

EventBrite is an easy-to-use event hosting RSVP system for both free and paid events. I use it for Silicon Prairie Social and am very happy with it. If you are hosting any events of your own, please consider EventBrite.

I’m excited about the upcoming TECH cocktail Conference that’s happening one week from today here in Chicago, where it all started. This time Eric Olson and Frank Gruber are taking all of the energy that’s built up in Chicago tech thanks to events like their quarterly TECH cocktail mixer and funneling it into a conference centering around building a successful web business. The only thing I don’t like about the lineup is that I’m forced to choose between breakout sessions!

If you haven’t registered yet and plan to attend, do so now. The Early Bird tickets have sold out already, but even with that admission stands at only $350; a great value if you’re local. That’s less than other events with the same quality of speakers and you don’t have to pay for travel either.

I hope to see you there!

I want to give a huge shout-out and congratulations to my aunt, Cheryl Courtney Semick, who held her first book signing today at a Barnes & Noble in her home town of Peoria, IL. She has been a newspaper columnist for several years and is now expanding her writing career to bigger things. I’m so proud of her!

My aunt Cheryl co-wrote Gary’s Rock: A Mother’s Journey of Faith and Healing with Lois Johnson, who tragically lost her son when he drown in their nearby lake while out for a swim with neighbor kids. I must shamefully admit that I have not yet read the book and now I must.

Congratulations, Aunt Cheryl!

Yesterday I received this fax from E! Networks, parent company for G4, denying my request to share a 5-minute video of me being interviewed on The Screen Savers in late 2004. The experience was a memorable and significant one for me, and I would like to share the video with friends and LEGO fans alike. It’s currently not available anywhere online, instead the clip is handcuffed by DMCA laws and relegated to the studio archives to live out what could have been a useful life as a long-tail piece of content. I find this quite ironic, given that cease-and-decist-warrior Kevin Rose was a host on the show at the time and that The Screen Savers emerged from the far geek-friendlier TechTV.

I set myself up for this. I decided to do the right thing and ask permission from the studio to post the video, instead of violating the copyright laws. While I don’t regret my actions, I kinda expected their answer to be no. I believe the studio’s decision is an ill-conceived, antiquated relic of old-media practices.

The whole thing gets even more ironic, considering that:

• The interview happened almost three and a half years ago.
• It has been shared on the Internet before, in MPG format, before YouTube (and DMCA takedown notices) became popular.
• The clip has almost no commercial value to them, but tremendous personal value to me.

Here is a copy of the reply I received from E! Networks. Click to view it full size:

The studios and their lawyers continue to demonstrate that they don’t get it. Locking up content that was delivered over the airwaves for free in the first place is silly, and it limits the clips’ exposure to new and niche audiences that go beyond the mass audience of viewers.

A big PR win for G4 and other studios would be to post old show content and allow people to embed their favorite clips and discuss them. This way the content can live on. In return, the studios will receive even more exposure for their shows. And in the light of all of the takedown notices and restrictive practices of the last few years, they could be seen as revolutionaries for doing so.

I’d still love to share the video online. Here’s what you can do to help:

1. Write Marlene Lee, Executive Director of Rights and Clearances at E! Networks, and the one who denied my request. PLEASE keep your notes short and on topic. Also, please focus on the issue and don’t attack her or the studio personally. I have her fax number, but won’t post it here. If someone has the email convention for eentertainment.com I can post an obfuscated email address.
2. Digg this so it gets more attention and so more people write.
3. Twitter this, especially in reply to people like @leolaporte, @kevinrose, and @sarahlane.

Hopefully with that I’ll be able to show my interview segment soon!

Jake McKee, former Community Development Manager at my favorite toy company, LEGO®, recently talked about the company’s several-year process of opening up and listening to its biggest fans; grown-up builders, collectors, and hobbyists. Whether you’re a LEGO fan, a community manager for a consumer brand, or both, this video is both entertaining and well worth the watch:

Having experienced what Jake speaks of from the fan side, I thought I’d share a fan’s perspective in light of two of the Cluetrain’s 95 theses:

#34 To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.
#35 But first, they must belong to a community.

How it all began…

Right about the time some people were stocking up for Y2K, Brad Justus announced LEGO Direct, the new direct-to-consumer division at LEGO, by posting to the LEGO fan site LUGNET. This was a big deal. Until that time, the only LEGO employees who had “acknowledged” us adult fans were lawyers. Brad’s announcement was the first ray of light that our beloved company would talk to us.

Trust was a factor in the early days. Many of us were hopeful, but just didn’t buy the idea that the skies had parted and all would be right in the world. LEGO’s early communications to us were mostly announcements. Brad’s Q&A sessions at conventions like BrickFest overflowed with passionate fans questioning company decisions as LEGO was over-simplifying their product line. These same people expressed their enthusiasm for the product by demanding access to purchase greater varieties of parts in bulk quantities. Brad’s terse answers in these were so seen as PR speak that they even inspired this hilarious comic by Brendan Powell Smith, the artist behind illustrated LEGO Bible “The Brick Testament.”

Possibly the most brilliant hire Brad Justus made was Jake McKee. Jake came to LEGO in 2000, having already established his street cred among fans as an avid builder. He positioned himself internally to be the advocate for fans and an ambassador to the company for the fans.

While a LEGO employee, Jake made it a point to visit club meetings and displays throughout the country. He also actively participated in his local club (TexLUG), not as an employee but as a builder, because LEGO was his hobby. He also wrote the book “Getting Started with LEGO Trains” as a fan with an interest in sharing train building with others.

Jake brought more conversational, two-way style to fan-company relations while communicating the company’s priorities in a way that fans could respect. In short, Jake exemplified both #34 and #35 above. Even in the face of very unpopular moves on the part of the company, he never lost that street cred within the community at large.

Steve Witt, a former intern of Jake’s, took his place in 2006 as community liaison, while Jake moved on to new opportunities. I wasn’t very involved with the LEGO community during Steve’s first couple years, but I did have the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Steve at BrickWorld 2007. Compared to Brad and Jake, Steve is the most casual of the three. From my limited exposure, he strikes me more as “one of the gang” than a corporate representative, though he still fielded the dodgeball questions in the convention’s Q&A session expertly.

Lessons Learned

1. Break Bad News First: One key to “first belonging to the community” that got overlooked was the keen ability to anticipate what would be interpreted as bad news and preemptively acknowledge it to the community. This is best exemplified when LEGO slightly changed the tints of their gray and brown bricks in early 2004, sparking nothing short of an uprising in the online community. While Jake handled the aftermath expertly, nothing LEGO did could have made the fans happy in this situation. Announcing it first along with plans to make favorite bricks available in the old colors for a while longer would have lessened the blow. Takeaway: If you have bad news to give your core fans, deliver it first instead of letting them discover it.
   
2. Trust Your Fans (skip the NDAs): As the company has reached out to fan groups for input into new product developments and initiatives, more often than not fans would be required to sign an NDA before LEGO revealed their plans. This has caused, and continues to cause, mistrust between NDA’ed fans and the general fan public; either that they aren’t representing the group’s interest well, or that they’re being bought off with privileged information. While I don’t personally subscribe to those thoughts (disclaimer: I have been under LEGO NDA in the past but am not currently), I understand why they occur. My thoughts are simply this: If you’re coming to your biggest fans for input into your products, realize that they only want to help your company, assuming there’s something in it for them. Give them enough incentive to participate and show them that you trust them by ditching the NDA while simultaneously communicating the sensitivity of the information being discussed.

All in all, it’s been a wonderful experience seeing the LEGO company open up to its fan community. It’s amazing how far things have come in just eight short years. The company that before sent their lawyers after domain names and logos now invites these same people to help design products, decide bulk parts offerings, and display at public shows worldwide. LEGO hasn’t been perfect about their interactions, but this is uncharted territory for all of us.

Additional Reference

• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Video: Mark William Hansen on LEGO Co-Creation

Everyone out there who follows a web-two-point-oh personality has probably heard by now about Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Good People Day 08″ initiative (short video), where he challenges everyone to talk about good people you know. Here are just two of the ones I’d like to highlight:

Jason Jacobsohn of Networking Insight
Many of you in Chicago technology know Jason from his work at the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Center, KMG Enterprises, and through his blog, Networking Insight. I don’t know Jason very well yet personally, but from the several interactions I’ve had with him I can say he’s a great guy and someone who ‘gets it.’ He’s been gracious and helpful to me each time I’ve come to him with a question, and I believe him to be trustworthy. The more I see come out of Jason, whether it’s good content on his site, how he keeps in touch with people, or his upcoming event, the Great Chicago Networking Extravaganza, the more I see that Jason is a good person well deserving of his success.

Kelly McKiernan of BZPower and LEGO
LEGO fans out there will probably know Kelly from the Bionicle community site BZPower. Kelly has been a mainstay in the LEGO community for years and has used his unique combination of web development, administrative, and interpersonal communication skills to be a driving force behind many community projects. In many cases, Kelly taught me the meaning of “cooler heads will prevail” by living it out in the numerous conference calls, emails, and online discussions we participated in together. From working with him, I know he’s an invaluable asset to any team that must bridge the challenging gap between technology and business interests while navigating political minefields without setting off (m)any mines. ;^)

I’m moving my RSS feed over to FeedBurner. If you subscribe to my RSS feed, you will need to re-subscribe to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TimCourtney

No more updates will be posted to the feed to which you are currently subscribed.

I just received word of this event from Phil Rosenberg over at Rainmakers Global. Looks pretty cool — I may check it out. Be sure to pass the word on to other area professionals you think may be interested:

What could be better than a picture on your profile?

LinkedIn: Face-to-Face!

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put a face on some of those connections? Those with whom you interact on-line? Well here’s your chance!

Come for the People, Sample the Cuisine, Stay for the Music!

Friday, October 19th, 2007
Meet/Greet from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Dragonfly Mandarin
832 W. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
312-787-7600

www.dragonflymandarin.com

For $20.00, one can purchase a Package, entitling you to two drink tickets and an appetizer

Easy to get to, at Randolph and Green Street

Valet parking available for $10.00 .. or ample street parking, nearby!

If you’d like to stay for dinner, book a table and receive a 20% discount (ex-tax/alcohol) Please keep in mind — tipping should be based on the entire bill! Access their website for menus and even make reservations, on-line!

Attendees are urged to bring:
a smile, a laugh or two, and lots of business cards!!

I just read the Brazen Careerist post today entitled “5 steps to taming materialism, from an accidental expert.” If you haven’t read it yet, take 5 minutes and go read it now.

I love this post. In it, Penelope echoes many of my own feelings on owning possessions and clutter. Those of you who know me well know that I enjoy a tasteful setup, but am very sparse on “stuff.” I conduct frequent purges and give away/throw away stuff I’m not using. I pick up after myself several times throughout the day, too. Maybe it’s a reaction to a little bit much clutter in my room and in my parents’ house growing up. I dunno, but I like living “clutter free.”

Here are a couple quotes from her post that stuck out to me in particular:

When I was making a lot of money, I had great work clothes and a BMW (hey, I lived in LA), but that was about it, in terms of splurging. I kept an inexpensive apartment, and people used to tell me I was nuts to live there when I had so much money. They told me I was uncomfortable with success, and I worried they were right, but I stayed there. In hindsight, I realize it felt safe to live somewhere I could afford if my company went bankrupt. Which it did.

I’m still dreaming about that beamer. But I do selectively buy nice things (nice clothes are one thing I enjoy in particular), and I never buy on credit. In June, I bought a new MacBook Pro and some accessories with cash by putting money away for several months beforehand. For dress shirts, I hit up Banana Republic or Jos. A. Bank on clearance sales, and have even had great success finding dressy-casual like-new shirts and jeans at Plato’s Closet. I’m just a teeny bit proud that I have a slowly growing high-end business/casual wardrobe at a fraction of retail price.

When I moved from Los Angeles to New York City my husband and I rented a 500-square-foot apartment. We told ourselves we’d only be there for a year, until we got more settled in the city. So we put all our books in storage, most of our furniture, clothes that were not in season and everything we wouldn’t be using in the next three or four months.

I have a garage at my apartment. The only reason I go in there is to get my bike. Among the things I keep there are boxes for computer equipment, an unfinished bookshelf, and some winter clothes including scarves and sweaters.

The bad thing about stuff is you have to move it. When I went away for my freshman year of college, my parents towed their box trailer behind the car, full of stuff. 80% of that stuff stayed packed underneath my jacked-up bed frame and was never used. I moved home to commute locally after my freshman year, and a lot of that stuff stayed in storage at my grandparents’ house in New Hampshire until I could bring it back. That experience alone taught me the value of living, and moving lightly. Now, as I prep to move apartments this weekend, I’m happy that I live the low-clutter life that I do.

People think that what’s holding them back from taking risk is some big financial idea of stability and well being, but it’s really fear of losing your comfortable material life, whatever that is.

Now that’s something to ponder. I’ll add to that: You don’t take it with you when you die.