In and around wondering why iowavote.com was mentioned in yet another debate, when it is a domain name for sale and has no Web site tied to it, a few other things came before my mind.

Words Matter – I honestly was hoping meliorism was going to be my word for the week, as it was Merriam-Webster’s Word for the Day on Sunday. However, it ended up being monomania, thanks to talk show host Josh Dukelow of Fresh Take. Look them both up and tell me if you agree with my choice.

I Post Links To Make Money From Amazon But Don’t Actually Make Any – This week I got another reminder from Amazon that I need to post more notices on my blog that I am an “affiliate” of theirs. This means if you click on links to the retail giant here on The Hot Iron and buy something, then I make some money. For example, this piece of jewelry. For all of the years I have been doing this, I have made US $4.00. Yes, four dollars. That could all change if someone buys this jewelry though.

Or Buy This Book On New England Travel – Steve Jermanok has been writing about travel for years in major publications and on his blog. Speaking of his blog, I built his very first blog in my past consulting business. The New Englander has released this book on New England travel and I am going to refer people to whenever they ask me about going to the six-state region where I grew up but haven’t lived in for years.

Make Flossing Great Again – It was announced that the Quip Refillable Floss Pick got the seal of acceptance from the American Dental Association. As one of my kiddos is a prolific flosser I am going to get it for her for Christmas. As she isn’t a regular reader here, please don’t tell her to spoil the surprise. Note this link is not to Amazon, nor does it have any impact on my income from said dental organization.

Roll Your Own Music Player – For those who know me, they know I am all about controlling my content online. That’s why I have my own blog rather than posting on LinkedIn or other platforms. I also host my own contacts and calendar with NextCloud which is something I haven’t written much about but could write volumes. When I came across this article by Matthew Wilber on hosting his own music player. Granted if you have a hard time with Apple Music or Spotify, you won’t want to even think about reading this! But for those of you who do as I do, it’s a great learning experience.

Learn About Scrum Too – A couple of links came to my purview which are excellent resources for Scrum. One is the Scrum Training Series with great overview videos and an accompanying FAQ section. The other is the EduScrum presentation I learned about last week that you can watch it here.

Mini Me First Computer – My first computer should have been the TRS-80 Model I, but then the Model III came out. No worries, as I can now buy a mini model of the Model I that I can actually use to house a Raspberry Pi, which is a very small computer. Or I can use it as a Christmas tree ornament, which is likely what I would use it for.

New to Me, From The Beyond – Paul Harvey was the genial radio host whose style was well-known for many years. He was based in Chicago and I once saw him getting into his limo on Michigan Avenue and he turned to me and smiled. Before I was born he recorded this monologue, “If I Were The Devil.” Not completely sure, but it seems like it could have been written this good day.

This week I had the honor to speak to the class of Dr. Sara Steffes Hansen as part of the Interactive Web Management Program at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. The topic was on consulting, as her class will be consulting to non-profits on the Web and social media. For the past several years I have given this guest lecture in person, and this year it was virtual with a recorded presentation and live Q & A. Despite this, the questions from the students were some of the best I have been asked. Though only one student turned their camera on…

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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As you settle down to read what passed by my brain this week, allow yourself the indulgence of some delicious nuts and candies, as well as some informative or at least colorful magazines… all to benefit my kiddos’ Girl Scouts troop!

Save Advertising – Garage door opener maker LiftMaster released a commercial this week with a take from the 80’s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The particular scene is when Ferris works over Cameron to take his Dad’s car for an ill-fated drive. The ad features Alan Ruck, the actor who played Cameron in the movie. With all of the attention on Millennials and Baby Boomers, it’s nice to see advertisers focus on my generation, Generation X.

What You Can and Can’t Zoom – Zoom has recently released some new features to help you better manage virtual training sessions. Note none of these have anything to do with taking you off mute when you think you are not. Additionally, though I should have guessed it was the case, you can only hold one meeting at a time with a single Zoom account.

Meet the New Radio, Same as the Old Radio – SiriusXM released a new radio receiver that looks a lot like the built-in capabilities for SiriusXM that comes with most new cars. Maybe for those cars that don’t have satellite radio receiving baked in this may be a worthy investment, but unfortunately is in a long line of lacking in innovation from the network.

I Actually Came Up With This One – When the fun turns into work, it’s no longer fun.

Your Web Site Can’t Write Itself… Yet – A worthy read is from the Nielsen Norman Group on auditing the content on your Web site to determine what to write next. For some people who see making even basic edits to Web content an arduous event, this may be overkill. For a more basic approach, this post I wrote 3 years ago on a simple Web content plan may be more suitable.

Cherry on the Learning Sundae – A few weeks ago I mentioned the rebranding of Evolve Solutions Group. This week Evolve launched a series of newsletters with a nice twist, where by referring others to sign up for them, you get Evolve swag. You can see the topics of their newsletters and signup here and note this will help me get a t-shirt as I already earned stickers and the water bottle.

Quantity Not Quality – Google sent me an email this week telling me, "From 10/30/2020, we will not allow new sites to be monetized using AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob in unsupported languages or where they do not contain content." Note they don’t say the content has to be any good, simply that it has to exist.

A Retail Marriage Made In Wisconsin – This week discount retailer Kohls started selling clothing from Lands’ End. This was first announced in the early pandemic days and clearly didn’t make my radar then, but the site of the lighthouse-branded apparel is a nice addition for the retailer that has struggled like its fellow brick-n-mortar retailers for years.

Recall by Parents for Change – Where most every school district that surrounds the one my kiddos go to started the school year in person, mine did not. It has been frustrating, and as misery loves company, my family has not been alone in it. A group called AASD (Appleton Area School District) Parents for Change has filed to petition to recall 3 school board members. I have learned issues with the school system go beyond simply the pandemic response, and got a lot of insight from a rally last weekend I attended, hearing it first hand from fellow parents, many who are also teachers. I am following closely and will likely get involved if I can.

Ping This – Have you ever been asked to “ping” a Web site or IP address, and after saying you have no idea what the requestor is asking, you are then led down a path to do so? Next time try this Web site instead to perform the ping.

Flattening the Scrum Learning Curve – A key to successful Scrum teams is relationships among the team members. I found this article with helpful questions for a new Scrum Master on a team to ask the Product Owner.

Henry Would Approve – I needed to create a Gantt chart this week, but wanted to make it so I could easily edit it without special tools or complex manual adjustments. I learned this can be easily done in PowerPoint and this article showed how to create such a Gantt chart with the popular presentation tool.

Herbie Rides Again… in my neighborhood?

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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The last thing I want to do is pile on to the loathing of this calendar year. That being said, this week didn’t turn out completely as planned, but after stopping and shifting a few times I can fairly say I pretty much made it to Friday.

A Facebag of Cash – If you or someone you loved lived in the State of Illinois between mid-2011 and the present and also happened to have a Facebook account, you may qualify for money from the social media behemoth. A class-action lawsuit against Facebook has been settled over their use of facial recognition software on their platform. I’m also interested to see what the next class-action case is against them.

The New Gold Standard – Speaking of states and money, new to me is the fact that Nevada and Utah have issued something called ”Goldbacks” which is valid currency in those states that resembles traditional paper money but made with gold. A $1 Nevada Goldback is valued at about $3 as of this writing. You can buy them in those states as well as online. I’m intrigued by this and may order some – worst case scenario I would have a nice shiny bookmark.

Never Thought It Was Dead – I learned about LinkedIn Live from a colleague’s post on, you guessed it, LinkedIn, as he was asking if anyone had used it. I wasn’t aware of it, especially as I haven’t seen anyone using it or promoting they are using it. An “integrated” solution certainly adds value, but for me simply linking to a Zoom event will suffice.

If you have used LinkedIn Live, please post a comment as I would like to know how it works for you.

IWM FTW – The University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh (UWO) has been named one of the top schools in the US (number 6 actually) for the next generation of Web designers according to College Magazine. This is attributed to UWO’s Interactive Web Management (IWM) program. IWM is a cross-disciplinary program that creates well-rounded, holistic students that understand all aspects of the Web and online. I have a little insight into its awesomeness as I have been honored to be a guest lecture at one of its classes, Application of New & Emerging Media Journalism, for the past few years and will be this fall as well. Go Titans!

Short But Sweet Links – Raise your hand if you like to create short URLs that you can share with people that are easy to read? You know, something like https://psurl.com/elmo that will take you to this cute but annoying video for brushing your teeth. If I have lost you, read on with caution, but there’s the ability to create your own with self-hosted Web software called YOURLS. I have used it for years, and that was after years building my own Web software to create short URLs. If you use YOURLS, a vital update came out over the pandemic.

Note if you would like to have your own URL shortener and don’t have your own Web server, my friends at Name.com offer this service. And if you follow this short URL https://psurl.com/domain you will get a $5 towards it… and I get something too!

Deep Fried Thoughts – There’s only one way to learn if you don’t like a deep fried Oreo and that’s by eating one. It sinks in even more if you make it yourself.

Stacking Up Work – Part of the Scrum framework is the backlog. In short, it is what you want to work on, and the process of refining the backlog helps determine what you will work on next. I watched an interesting presentation this week titled “Stack Your Backlog” by Joe Krebs which used the analogy of fire wood to describe how you can effectively work with your backlog, from the condition and size of the wood to how you stack it. Where the recording of the presentation is not available yet, the slides are available. Though the audio doesn’t accompany it, you can infer much of his points from the slides alone.

Good for Deeds – Whenever a political candidate is asked why they are running, rarely do you get an answer that is anything close to down to earth. For me that has been the case until I heard about Seth Reid, who is running as an independent candidate for Winnebago County, Wisconsin Register of Deeds. This office is hardly one that drives people to vote, but Reid’s goals are noble and interesting – he comes from a computer security background and wants to apply this knowledge to the office to ensure all records are secure. He is running against a Republican incumbent and there’s no Democratic opponent. Watch this video of Seth Reid and you’ll know why he has my vote.

Nice Wheels – This past weekend my family finally ventured the whole 2 blocks to the taco truck that has been showing up in our neighborhood for a month or so. Why we hadn’t patronized it earlier is unclear, but we went there the day after seeing the movie Chef. Coincidence?

Savage – While on a caffeine quest the other night I found Starbucks was closed, yet the Dunkin’ next door was open. And in case anyone has tunnel vision when they were going to the Seattle-based store, the Canton, Massachusetts-based store is making sure your horizon is broadened.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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As I compile this week’s learnings, I am getting alerts on my phone of the score of the Red Sox / Yankees game in progress. As much of a Boston fan as I am, I didn’t even realize they were playing. Sadly sports hasn’t been anywhere near top of mine as it usually would be this time of year.

TMI – It’s somewhat strange getting the “making of the sausage” of my kiddos’ education in the form of alerts as to assignments and grades are posted by their teachers. One alert in particular had feedback from the teacher on the analysis of a short story Thing 1 read. As I had no idea what the story was about, and it was some form of very creative writing, it made for interesting dinner conversation to get the context of it all.

Podcasting 2.0 – Just when you though Joe Rogan’s deal with Spotify was the biggest news in the world of podcasting, recently Adam Curry, the co-creator of podcasting and Dave Jones, the creator of the Freedom Controller platform announced the Podcast Index. Its goal is a next-generation, open directory of all podcasts out there, open to any app or technology that wants to deliver podcasts to your ear. And fittingly, there’s a podcast for the project (its RSS feed link here) which I finally got a chance to listen to the first 2 episodes in the morning this week. There’s a lot of “making of the sausage” of podcasting along with the goals for this project. Though I don’t produce podcasts – yet – I consume them, and am looking forward to seeing this in action.

Oh, 2-1-3-4 – There’s such a thing as contact requests in Zoom, as I got my first one this week.

Let There Be Journalism – Dr. Vincent Filak is a professor of journalism who literally writes the book on it, and his textbook is a mainstay in many university programs. I know him through the guest lectures I have done where he teaches at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, and in between the great philosophical chats we have I read his blog, Dynamics of Writing. This week he wrote about looking back on the “incident” with the Covington Catholic high school kids from a pure journalistic standpoint. I wish there was more of this type of reporting out there, as I might even re-subscribe to cable TV and newspapers again.

A Presidential Trek – John Burke, the president of Trek Bicycles, has written the Presidential Playbook 2020: 16 Nonpartisan Solutions to Save America. You can buy the book or get it for free in PDF format if you provide your email address. I did the latter, and though I haven’t read it completely I scanned the table of contents. His solutions, on the surface, are rather obvious, including “fix the health care system” and “reform campaign finance.” I am interested to find out, however, how he thinks progress can be made towards these.

Modern Proverb, By Me – She who controls their own Web hosting truly controls their Web destiny.

Cool Possible Trigger Warning – A contest is going on to nominate the Coolest Things Made in Wisconsin. Of course there are things related to cheese and the Packers, and there’s even one thing that’s NSFW. It’s also a great showcase of innovation here in America’s Dairyland.

A Smarter Way To Web – A wise person shared this article with me on how you can use heuristic analysis to increase Web site performance. For me personally, there wasn’t a lot I learned new from it. However it did reinforce my belief that a Web site is not a chicken spinning in a Popeil oven – you don’t just set it and forget it!

A Smarter Way to Learn – I participated in an intriguing Webinar on EduScrum, or how the Scrum framework is being applied in education. It was interesting to see how one particular school in the Netherlands had self-driven classrooms. The recording of the Webinar is not live yet, but it may be posted on this page where the concept of EduScrum is discussed.

2020 Has Been a Grind – Bruxism is the clinical term for teeth grinding. I know, as I suffer (is that the right word?) from it. This article talks about all the ways the pandemic has impacted people’s teeth, even if they didn’t contract the pesky virus.

More Good News – This weekly summary you are reading is not the only one coming out of the Fox River valley of Wisconsin. Insight Magazine’s editor Brian Rasmussen publishes Feel Good Friday weekly to those who subscribe to their newsletter. Insight is a local business magazine (yes, actually in print) that has kept me informed of all going on in my still relatively new home, and this weekly list is a nice addition to their reporting.

As the temperatures have dipped here in US upper Midwest, I found leaves on trees are already starting to change colors. I also found Words are Birds.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Several years ago I “got into” writing. Granted, I was blogging here at The Hot Iron for over a decade at that point. Even with a body of work – some of it even beyond the world of business and technology – I never considered myself a “writer” per se. Visiting the Lit Fest in Chicago and taking it all in for the first time, a mere few blocks from my then home, was the boost I needed. Where I haven’t published yet beyond this Web site, I have expanded on what I write here, and have in various stages pieces in need of time to finish and submit for possible publishing.

That is if you don’t count some short stories I have submitted recently. And the emphasis here is on short – as in 53 words short. On and off for the last year I have submitted entries for the monthly 53-Word Short Story contest by Press 53, a fiction and poetry publishing house in North Carolina. I discovered this when looking for writing contests for one of my kids, who at one point was interested in such contests then later wasn’t. However I got bitten by this serial unique challenge.

For August’s contest, the writing prompt was to write about “Sunday.” That’s it, that’s all they give you, and it is up to your creativity – and brevity – to craft something unique and prize-winning. As you can tell by the title of this post I did not win, and as a result my prose will not be published in one of their journals.

But as words must be free, I share “Any Given” with you here:

"While awaiting our lobsters to brighten, we slurped steamers – simmered in Harpoon IPA, from the same Portsmouth dock as the crustaceans. Aptly accompanying our ocean harvest was corn on-the-cob, homemade potato salad and more of said IPA.

Ten o’clock may seem early for such a feast, but there’s only three hours till kick-off."

The preceding is a true story, as annually we would have a lobster bake during one week’s tailgating before a New England Patriots home game back in the day.

If you’re so inclined you can read the winning entry here, learn about this month’s contest and how you too can compete with me for the fame and glory of a very, very short story.

Deconstructing Short Story Writing

Writing can take many forms. What I originally saw as business and technology writing was in reality story writing, and upon that realization it opened and expanded my mind to what else I could write. But I will save an in-depth deconstruction for another time – just get out there and write!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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