Kevin Vandever

Here are this week’s recommendations:

@jennifervides and I were recently introduced to each other by our mutual friend, Julio Varela, and we have quickly formed a friendship. She and I are the co-founders of #collegefootballtweetup, which will take place on Saturday, November 14 when my UNC Tar Heels take on her University of Miami Hurricanes. To make things more interesting, Jennifer and I engaged in a little friendly wager for this particular game. You can read about it here and my response here. If you can look past her poor taste in college football teams you will find a very cool person. I look forward to November 14.

@angelica7641 and I got to know each over a few social media conversations, specifically on what to expect when implementing a social media strategy in the workplace. She was very helpful and provided a unique perspective on the subject. I can also tell you that she is a Steeler’s fan who lives in Chicago and that she is currently working on a very important media project that will right the terrible wrong that took place shortly after the Bears/Steelers game last Sunday. She loves to promote this project so please ask her about it.

@jeffmello is a fellow Red Sox fan and runs The Ulitmate Sports Calendar, a very cool web site where you can keep track of when your favorite teams play and have reminders sent to you via RSS feed, email, or text. He can also be found on Twitter many evenings blipping his favorite #mellotunes for our listening pleasure (please don’t let the fact that there is a small group of people working together to ban a certain artist from the #mellotunes blip feed get in the way of your enjoyment)

@justinthesouth is a family man, owner of the Social Village and all around nice guy. He is the first to sincerely ask about someone’s day, remember a project he or she is working on, and promote them in one form or another. He is also a Red Sox fan, but I don’t think he likes my Tar Heels very much.

@katjaib is someone whom I just started to interact with on Twitter, and I am glad that I did. She is upbeat and positive and believes that we should use our powers for good. I agree with her. Check out her blog, Pay It Forward, to see what I mean. Plus, Kat really liked my pirate tweet on International Talk Like A Pirate Day and that scored big-time points.

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: #followfriday, Twitter

In the glory days of the Miami Hurricane football program, the team was known for its swagger. The problem was that swagger meant one thing to the Hurricane fan and quite another to the rest of the civilized world. In fact, I much less enjoyed the football program’s collapse than I did the disappearance of the taunting, trash-talking, fighting…er, I mean swagger. Well, the ‘Canes have won the first two games of their season and each victory has released a little more of that old swagger.

So, today I was tweeting with new friend and now arch rival, Jennifer Vides. Jennifer is a big time college football fan…that’s the cool part. What’s not so cool is that she is also a big time ‘Canes fan. As a UNC alum, I cannot not stand for this and after some Twitter trash talking, we decided on a #collegefootballtweetup and, more importantly, a wager. As Jennifer puts it, this wager is for “pinks”; that is, the loser has to praise the winner’s team on his or her blog. What that really means is that Jennifer will be posting grand UNC praise on her blog on or around November 14, 2009. That is good thing, too, because she is an excellent writer and will represent quite nicely.

Join the party, pick any side you want as long as it is UNC, and come have some fun with us.

#collegefootballtweetup: November 14, 2009, UNC Tar Heels vs. Miami Hurricanes.
Location: To be determined, but will posted when finalized.

The canes will have to leave their swagger at the door because it ain’t happening in our house!

Check out Jennifer’s blog post on the wager.

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: #collegefootballtweetup, College Football, Miami, UNC

Dear KKJZ,

Why did you play smooth jazz on my radio station this morning? (yes, it’s partly mine because it’s a member supported, public radio station). It not only bothered me, but it scared my 14-year daughter, who maintained her senses enough to break the glass case in my car and hit the emergency button, which automatically switched the radio to the iPod setting and immediately played “My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane. I am thankful she was there as I was too busy keeping myself from driving into a gas truck to put us out of our misery, but also very sorry that she had to witness such noise coming from 88.1 on my FM dial. I am asking you for the sake of jazz music, good taste, decency, and most of all, for the children to please stop playing this “music” now! There is already a station for that sort of stuff, it is 94.7 The Wave. We don’t need two. If Chuck Niles were still alive, he would take a set of those obnoxious smooth jazz wind chimes and….Ok, you get the point.

Right down the middle and straight ahead,

Kevin Vandever.

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: Jazz, KKJZ, No Smooth Jazz

Here is a link to a column I wrote on the 1-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. I thought I’d share this with you because the words apply today as they did 7 years ago.

Shaking IT Up: The Proper Perspective

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: 9/11

This question was posed to me the other day: Who’s the Evil Empire?

My quick answer: The Yankees, their fans, their payrol, their stadium, their obnoxious owners, their uniforms, their announcers…damn, especially their horrific announcers “an a-bomb for A-Rod”…pathetic, Tex, Damon (traitor), Stray-Rod, Godzilla, Joba (whoa, second Star Wars reference), Posada (played with Ruth and Gehrig, I think), Wang (love making Wang jokes) and most of the rest of the players (I give Jeter and Rivera a pass because even as a Red Sox fan, I kind of respect them). Oh yeah, I can’t forget two of the Hall of Fame evil doers, Bucky effing Dent and Aaron effing Boone.

Hope this helps. Please help shape this answer so we can educate the world.

Go Sox!

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: Baseball, Evil Empire, Red Sox, Yankees

Remember the movie City Slickers? Billy Crystal plays Mitch Robbins, a 30-something husband and father who, in the midst of a midlife crisis, finds a renewed outlook when he and a couple buddies take a cattle driving vacation. There is one scene in the movie where Mitch and the rough and rugged cow hand, Curly Washburn (played brilliantly by Jack Palance), are riding in from the day’s cattle drive and engage in the following dialogue (warning: this clip contains one word of profanity) Curly and Mitch

Well, I would like you to think about it for a moment. What is your one thing? What is your purpose? Why do you do what you do? Don’t worry, I am not representing a specific religion, a social movement, or a PR firm. I am not a life coach, motivational speaker or self-help guru. There is no right or wrong answer, only that you think about the question. (No offense to those professions or beliefs and your one thing may be associated with one or more of them, but the question from me is not.) I ask because I wonder if we think about it enough. We are bombarded with the how tos. How to run a business, how to make more money, and how to be a better spouse, parent, friend, and employee. Yet, we are not asking why. My daughter and I sometimes play this game. It starts spontaneously when one of us asks the other to do something and continues like so:

Me: “You should study for that test?”
Daughter: “Why?”
Me: “So you can get a good grade”
Daughter: “Why?”
Me: “So you can get into a good college”
Daughter: “Why?”
Me: “So you have more opportunities”
Daughter: “Why?”
Me: “So you live a happy life”
Daughter: “Why?”

We go on and on until my wife or my other daughter begs us to stop. We should all be playing this game, although maybe not so annoyingly. Your one thing is the why. It is what should drive you to do what you do and, just as important, not do what you don’t need to. Your one thing will be your barometer, your guide, and motivator all in one. It will give you purpose, give life meaning, and provide a journey. It may end up changing very little, it may change much, but give your one thing a chance. It’s still OK to ask how, but don’t forget to ask why, and for the why to make any sense you need to be like Curly and find your one thing.

Another great scene from the movie that explains what might happen if you don’t find your one thing.

written by Kevin Vandever \\ tags: Looking Inward, Purpose, Your one thing