I’ve just added twitter updates to my sidebar. By doing that, any of my readers can see what I’m doing right now (assuming I’ve told twitter).

I’ve played with twitter for a while now and I am still trying to gather my thoughts on the product.

The Service
For those who don’t know, twitter is a web application that allows registered users to post what they are doing “right now.” They make updates pretty simple. You can update using their web site, text message 40404, and email.

You can follow other users as well. So, if I want to know what my friend Jeff Noble or Capillya is doing, I “follow” him. Once I follow someone, it text messages me an update of “what they are doing.”

The Usage
Twitter makes it easy to update what you are doing… allowing me text message what I am doing it great. In addition, there are some really nice apps that make updating really simple. For instance, Jott.com allows me to call a toll-free number and make twitter updates via voice calls.

The Review
A friend of mine (after discussing twitter), told me that it isn’t a viable service. He called it a “feature” not a product. His thought behind the statement is that this is something Facebook and most other social networking sites have built into their product.

I guess I sort of agree. My only argument is not the service itself. The twitter service is similar to Facebook status update. Facebook does allow you to update status and you can even receive mobile updates when someone updates their status (this is something I’ve had to literally show someone).

The argument is the way the service is used. Facebook users update their status as a statement of feeling while twitter users utilize updates as statements on what they are doing….

Typical Facebook updates look like “RJ Martino is bored” or “RJ Martino is lucky to have such a great friend”

Typical Twitter updates look like “RJ Martino is writing a review on twitter.com” or “RJ Martino is going to a court appearance”

This is hard to explain… but to sum it up, facebook updates tell followers how they are feeling… twitter updates tell you what people are actually doing, not what they’re feeling.

So, as a technical review, I don’t think twitter is much than Facebook. But after using it for some time, there is no doubt that they are used in two different ways.

It seems almost certain that twitter is a viable product by the number of users but I’ve stopped making predictions on product viability.

      

I am trying Jott.com out and it’s really cool. I recommend it. It’s a lot of fun. This will actually sent using Jott.com. listen

Powered by Jott

      

I was lucky enough to be highlighted by an exciting new publication Talk Business Quarterly. You can read the article below.

Although Talk Business Quarterly is new, Talk business has been covering Arkansas Business since 1999. Roby Brock is the host and executive producer of Talk Business and his show can be seen on Fox 16.

Check out his website at www.talkbusiness.net

In exchange for his nice article, I thought I’d give him a little exposure on my media outlet… rjmartino.com… I probably got a little more exposure than he did.

Read the article
Young Guns.pdf

      

Saturday night Amy and I ate dinner with friends… We had a great time and had some stimulating conversations. It was fun… but then… when we thought the fun was over… we went to Rachel and Chris’ house.

Rachel and Chris have a kid that is 20 months old. Santa brought him a 4-foot basketball goal… for the next three hours Chris, Daniel, and I played games on the 4-foot basketball goal including HORSE, free throw contest, and 1-minute 3-point contests… it was a blast.

I love life… but I’d rather be a kid any day of the week.

      

Obviously Arkansas Business thinks we should go bigger.

Link to Article

A SMALL apartment project in Jacksonville drew an $849,000 transaction. Martino & Carrasquillo Investments LLC, led by Ronald Martino, acquired Loop Road Apartments at 306 Loop Road from Carl and Claudia Clem. The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $678,960 from Imperial Capital Bank of Glendale, Calif.

PS… don’t call me Ronald.

      

Roxane Martino made me a new design… what do you think? She even stuck our logo at the top… talk about cheap advertising.

      

Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I’m confused. Maybe it’s inexperience. Maybe it’s poor management. Maybe it’s poor people.

But in my short experience it seems that when I’m pushing someone to get involved in a project, I’m doing most of the work. I can motivate someone to get involved with a project that they’re not initially excited about but after a few weeks, that fizzle goes away. Once the fizzle goes away, I’m the one that’s baby sitting, making sure work is getting done and making sure that the fizzle, that was once there, doesn’t go away. Many times the fizzle is long gone and they’re just doing the work so they don’t disappoint themselves or me.

Well, I think from now on, I’m going to look for people to bring ideas to me. I think I’ll wait to find the people that are willing to stick it out through the inevitable highs and lows. I’ll wait to see what ideas I want to get involved with rather than bringing ideas to people. I won’t try to change people’s minds or ideas until I’m completely sold on the people.

As I’ve said before, people are more important than ideas. Once I know I have solid people then I’ll share ideas. But I still won’t push ideas onto people. I’ll do my best to explain a vision and hope they catch fire… I’m not interested in the fizzle, I need to see the fire.

      

In July I rented my house to a family and since then, I’ve been living in Bryant about 30 miles from the Little Rock. The drive takes about 30 minutes and its been killing me.

I’ve purchased a few

I finally found a house here in Little Rock… Its off of Hillsborough and its in the process of being remodeled… a process that I swore I would never do again… but this time it’s different… this time people are getting paid to do the work… it goes a lot faster, its better quality, and it keeps the stress off of me. I don’t think I’ll be there for a long time but it is a step in the right direction… I’m excited to see the property after the work is done.

      

I’ve always wondered why people act like they need a daily cup of coffee to wake up. I’ve always been a little wired and never needed anything to “wake me up.”

Recently I’ve been waking up early and have really been struggling (I’ve always been a hard sleeper).

I’ve decided to move my workout to the mornings and because of that, I’ve started using N.O.-Xplode as a supplement. Every morning, I drink a cup of this stuff… it’s great. Its just like someone else drinking coffee… I need it to get going and as soon as I take it, I’m up and ready to go. I think the stuff is meth… My heart pumps a little faster and my brain works a little faster.

I’m not recommending the product or anything like that, I’m just happy that I found my morning coffee.

      

Everyone knows New Year’s Day is my favorite holiday. On this day, we’re able to wipe away all the mistakes we made and start fresh. We get to evaluate our prior year, during the evaluation we’re not critical on our selves, we’re just evaluating to make ourselves better next year.

I made a lot of mistakes last year. I’m hoping to make a lot more this year I’ve learned a lot more than I ever expected and achieved more than some thought was possible.

I look forward to 2008, I will own the year and this time next year, I’ll be standing with my 3 page list of goals and red pen… I’ll have a bunch of the goals achieved and a lot more goals that I didn’t even come close… but at least I’m trying.