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Category Archives: This and That
Everybody’s Doing It!
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Well, maybe not everybody…not even very many people but you could make it everybody! 
If you read my Jude The Foodie column in Below The Falls or on JudeTheFoodie.com (you are likely already here) it would be great if you would “LIKE” me on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/JudeTheFoodie
The thing I love about the Facebook platform is that we can more easily talk to each other. 
I get a lot of ideas from my Facebook friends so join the crowd – everybody’s doing it!
Have a yummy day! JudeTheFoodie.com
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- Facebook & Social Media Fun (judethefoodie.com)
Facebook & Social Media Fun
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Greetings Friends!
It’s time to “like” Jude The Foodie on Facebook…She likes you!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/JudeTheFoodie
Building my website it fun…have people actually read it, well, that’s even more fun.
Tweet me @JudeTheFoodie as well.
Don’t forget, if you want a message on Twitter to get to me, be sure to start the Tweet with @JudeTheFoodie.
Join the fun by following and Tweeting #LewistonBest during the Rand McNally/USA Today Best of the Road competition coming to Lewiston NY tomorrow.
Have a yummy day!
Jude
JudeTheFoodie.com
Twitter: @JudeTheFoodie
Facebook: JudeTheFoodie
Don’t be afraid to show off your herb appeal
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UPDATE: It is not too late to plant an herb garden. This column was originally published one year ago. The picture above is how it looks one year later!
June 2nd, 2011
I have a friend who is a native of Southern California and lives in a beautiful home with a view of canyons and a peak at the Pacific Ocean.
One morning, just after the sprinklers did their thing, I walked through the sliding glass door to the backyard and smelled a fresh scent of rosemary. It was as if someone was cooking herb potatoes right there in the backyard. Combine the stunning view with the savory smell and I wanted to freeze that piece of time forever.
I soon realized the three foot wide bushes were rosemary. The stems of her plants are so hardy she can cut them and use them as skewers for grilling. Imagine infusing meat and vegetables this way. Yum!
This year I am planting some herbs in a long box on my deck. It gets sun from the east. It truly is an experiment because I think there may not be enough sun. The beauty of plants is that for a very small investment you can get a big bang. If they do not make it, it’s not like losing a tree.
Along with Rosemary, I planted Italian flat leaf Parsley for everyday cooking. It has seemingly doubled already and I only put them in yesterday.
I planted Sage because not only do I love the celery green color, I love using it in poultry dishes and as a surprise flavor in lemonade. Try adding some sage to your simple syrup (water and sugar boiled until thick) for a delicious surprise. Keep a few sprigs as a mystery garnish.
Tarragon is planted next to the parsley. I use this hint of licorice flavored herb in sauces and stews. Tarragon is the star of Béarnaise sauce. Sometimes I just use it as a pass through. I will make a sauce using whole sprigs of tarragon and removing them before serving. In the middle are garlic chives.
I have never used it before but not only did I like the shape and color next to the tarragon and rosemary, when I pinched a bit with my fingers and rubbed the essential oil I got an aroma which made me hungry.
There is a distinct garlic tone. I think I will use this in a sauté of vegetables or as part of a marinade for flank steak.
Here is a current look at the garden.
The tarragon didn’t make it so this year I dropped a German Thyme in its place. It smells really good and I’m excited to use it in sauce and for grilling.
How does your garden grow?
Have a yummy week!
Follow me @JudeTheFoodie on Twitter
Best of the Road…stay tuned!
The Art of the Facebook Friend Request
Leave a commentIt’s creepy to friend request someone a generation younger than you. I mean, really really creepy. Don’t do it. Then you are a creep.
I learned this early in my social media life. Years ago, when Facebook became an athletic department nemesis, our Director of Athletics gathered the entire department in a large classroom and explained that each coach needed to get on Facebook and see the pictures their student athletes posted and tagged. 14 of our 16 sports had pictures tagged which, if not an NCAA violation, were a violation of our code of behavior.
They were given one week to clean things up and staff was asked to set up an account and poke around, as well. I set my account up then forgot about it. About a month before my son was graduating from high school I got my first friend request. It was from his best friend. I only knew because I got an e-mail about his request and that he wrote on my wall. My wall?
I accepted and took a peek at my account but still had no idea how it really worked. Within a week at least 20 of his friends requested me and I accepted them all. My son thought it was the strangest thing and did not want to have any part of me being on Facebook. I totally respected his feelings and never EVER asked him to include me. This was his world and I did not want to interfere.
The kids included me in conversation and when they went away to school they kept in touch with a quick post or tag. Sometime first semester my son requested me and I enjoy being a part of this world.
Here are my rules:
I never request anyone a generation younger than me. That includes my cousin’s kids, my son’s friends and kids in the neighborhood. If they want me in their timeline they request me. I am pleased to say I have developed wonderful relationships with many of the “cousins” and respect their invitations by not stalking their wall.
Unless they are close personal friends, I do not request any co-workers. I think it is important to recognize that relationships at work are not the same as relationships outside of work.
If I do not recognize a name (especially a female who chooses not to use her maiden name) and we have no friends in common, I ignore. Linkedin and Twitter are the professional me. Facebook is a peek inside my living room. I don’t open my door to strangers.
That little icon pops up and gives me a burst of excitement every time. Who will it be? Is it someone I haven’t heard from in years? High school? College? I can hardly wait to click the little red icon and see who it is…
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
When You Tweet With Me, You Tweet With Me!
Leave a commentI think of this every Friday when I copy my followers that week from my Excel spreadsheet to my word document, that I spend a lot of time trying to be “social” with social media. I know what you are thinking…Excel spreadsheet…Word document…she’s geek of the week.
I just don’t get this fully automated social media nonsense. It really seems like an oxymoron to me – how do you automate something which is supposed to be about social interaction? That doesn’t sound very social to me!
I had someone reach out to me on my www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com blog yesterday asking me about what I thought about adding personal stuff on her “pro” Twitter account. Please follow @ldelmonte – she is an interesting lady and learning about all of this social media etiquette. I told her I really did not enjoy Twitter until I spent more time doing @mentions rather than just Tweeting my ideas. I also began enjoying it more when I took the time to read other people’s blogs and visit their websites. It helped me know whether I wanted them in my timeline and I always get great pleasure ReTweeting someone’s Tweet if I think my followers will enjoy it as much as I do.
You can also over-do ReTweeting, in my opinion. It is a lot like forwarding e-mails. I stopped using one of my e-mail accounts because I have a person who ONLY sends me forwarded e-mails (who hasn’t read the one about the dollar coins not having “In God We Trust” on it by now? It does, by the way, on the side). How many in this room delete e-mails whose subject line starts with FWD:? Take time to tell me why you like the Tweet and you engage in “social” media.
I vet my followers and use thought when I follow someone. I take pride in the fact that I follow only 17 people/associations that do not follow me. I take pride in the fact that I am on a lot of lists (one list for every 15 followers…not bad at all). I take pride that I personally thank each follower who took the time to follow me that week.
When you Tweet with me, you Tweet with me!
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
Vet Your Twitter Followers with This Ratio
2 CommentsAnyone who knows me knows I am a numbers geek. I count everything…the stairs (twelve from my second floor to the first then one more), cars ahead of me in the toll line, people at a boardroom table wearing school colors, and how many wheels of parmesan cheese were in the aging vault in Parma, Italy (over 26,000 valued at over $1.7 million).
I have been Tweeting a lot lately about how important I think it is to read the Tweets of a follower before making the decision to follow them. Being followed is a privilege, not a right.
In March I revived my original Twitter account @JudeCaserta and decided to keep track of my followers. Along with doing this I paid careful attention to the Tweets of folks before I would follow back. Over time, there was one relatively sure fire way to know if an account is spam without reading too many Tweets.
Take a look at the ratio of total followers to number of lists they appear on. For example, just a few hours ago I was followed by someone who has 1,407 followers and is following 1,548. Not bad, actually. His problem is that he is listed only 6 times and one of the lists he is on is actually called spammers! Dude is listed 1 time for every 234 followers. Not a good addition to your timeline.
Mine is a reasonably good 17. I have 734 followers and appear on 42 lists (none of which say spam or imply spam!). I was followed yesterday by a woman who is followed by 5,605 people and is on 393 lists – so that’s about a 14 (I think that’s great!). One of my favorite Tweeps has 764 followers and is on 116 lists for a ratio of about 6. He is a superstar!
So, for a quick way to vet your followers, check the number of lists they appear on to the number of followers. A quick block never hurt anyone!
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
Who’s Idea Was It to Tweet Famous People’s Quotes, Anyway?
Leave a commentI’ll admit it; I’m in a cranky mood right now. What’s with all of these famous people quotes? The more followers you have the more famous people quotes.
Every time I read something about how to be a good and generous Tweeter, gurus will tell you to add value to folk’s timeline. They say: be yourself, don’t try to sell all of the time and Tweet interesting quotes. Really?
Let’s say you are using Twitter to make valuable connections and hope to market your product or service to folks who will benefit. Think of Twitter as a great big cocktail party. Here is what a famous people Tweeter would sound like at a party:
@You: Hi @FamousPeopleQuotes! It’s nice to meet you. Tell me something about yourself.
@ FamousPeopleQuotes!: “Till I was 13, I thought my name was “”Shut Up.”"”"” Joe Namath
@You: Wow, Shut UP? That must have been rough!
@FPQ: “You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don’t find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast which is what I tried to do.” Jane Fonda
@You: Well, shutting up is helpful sometimes but I am glad to hear you learned a lot fast. Good for you!
@FPQ: Friends are the sunshine of life. John Hay
@You: Friends are great! So, what brings you to this party? Are you friends of the host?
@FPQ: “Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.” Stephen King
@You: Wow – I can really see why they invited you!
@FPQ: Let me tell you how to increase your friends by a million in 15 minutes without ever even meeting them, OK?
@You, talking to yourself – I just wasted two minutes of my life I can never get back.
Don’t be @FamousPeopleQuotes!
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
Do I Over Think Twitter? Youbetcha!
Leave a commentDo I over think Twitter? Youbetcha!
And, I have a reason. I was sick of not being able to enjoy my timeline.
First off, I’m no Twitter guru – fewer than 400 followers does not make me an expert but I’ll bet I am more the norm than the big guys who have a gazillion followers.
You open an account and are ready to Tweet. First you realize you are Tweeting to no one because while you are following 201 accounts only your two best friends follow you. It seems easier to just text them, doesn’t it?
Next, folks start to follow you and you are so happy you follow them back. A new Tweeter does not realize that they may be following bots that will fill your timeline with Tweet-spam and drown out any chance you have of reading relevant and interesting Tweets.
If Twitter is about relationships then perhaps the term should be defined:
- A connection, association or involvement
A connection implies at least two things, same with association or involvement.
If you and I do not know each other and you follow me I have an obligation to determine if I want a connection, association or involvement with you. I ask folks who follow me and who are not from college athletics how they found me and why they followed me. I have had some very interesting answers and have enjoyed their exchange. Because of this obligation, I do not automatically follow everyone who follows me. You may seem interesting to me but Tweet so frequently each day, and worse, repeat the frequent Tweets that I may list you without following you.
Here is a pet peeve: if you follow me, I follow you back then you unfollow me. What’s that about? Remember that relationship thing? I liken it to a cold call in business. It would be like making a cold call to a blue chip prospect and leaving a message. When the prospect actually calls you back, you don’t answer and don’t return the call. That’s rude and very bad for the business relationship you had hoped to develop when you made the initial call.
I use care and reason when I follow someone that does not know me.
Sometimes I follow an entity like the NCAA. I am interested in what they have to say with no illusions they will follow me back.
Sometimes I follow a person who is in the media or an expert in things I am interested in, again with no illusions they will follow me back. I simply am interested in what they Tweet and enjoy reading their Tweets in my timeline.
Sometimes I follow someone who was recommended to me by a fellow follower. If I read and like their bio and a few pages of their Tweets I will follow them. If, eventually they do not follow me back I will unfollow them. My thought is, they made a reasoned decision not to follow me and if we don’t have a relationship and they are not interested in my contribution to Twitter then unfollowing is a good way to clean my timeline.
Unlike in The Godfather (perhaps the greatest movie of all time…just sayin’) when Michael says, “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business,” once you realize Twitter is personal, you will think more about relationships and make more reasoned decisions of who is in your timeline, too!
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
How my Twitter Account Got the Social Media Equivalent of VD
Leave a commentI used to be AthleticBudget (because AthleticBudgetCoach was too long) but blew up the account late last year. I was new to Twitter, but let’s face it; Twitter is still so new that we are all basically new to it.
I decided I was going to use Twitter for business and Facebook for friends. I have stayed with this and enjoy Facebook with friends old and new as well as my son’s friends who are scattered at college. Although I share plenty of personal stuff about me, Twitter is primarily a way for me to share my expertise about college athletics and athletic business in particular.
In September I went to the dark side of Twitter. I did three things that ruined my account as well as seriously damage my e-mail, filling it with pharmacy spam and more.
- 1. I registered for a webinar on how to rapidly increase your Twitter following.
Actually, I mistakenly registered twice. I know this because when these two very famous social media guys send me emails they send one to Jude and one to Judith. As a result I get not one but two copies of each stupid spam email on how to enhance my non-existent body part as well as those UPS packages I never received.
My bad the first!
- 2. I actually did the rapid follow method.
OK, this is where you follow followers of people you think are your “market” then drop them if they do not follow you within a few days. So I did the 200 a day and dropped every few days. I went from 100 followers to 1,200 followers in about 10 days. Cool? No, not so cool!
I ended up with 100’s of Twitter accounts that were basically robot spammers. They filled my timeline with crap about how to get more followers (that went well the first time!), joining the Trump network (cult like – sorry Trump network) and basically how to make a million bucks in 15 minutes without ever turning on your computer.
My bad the second!
- 3. I relied on a social media program to respond and manage new followers.
This may have been my greatest sin. It certainly does get more time consuming as you gain more followers to personally thank them and interact with them but there is no greater single thing that makes Twitter fun and valuable. When you rely upon a computer program to interact with your followers you become just another spam robot. I just dropped a guy who looked pretty cool when he first followed me because he posted nice quotes. The problem is he never actually Tweets anything live…just those silly quotes. I “un-followed” him with no regret.
My bad the third!
Here is my new approach to building a grass roots following:
- Before I follow anyone I click on their profile and read at least two pages of Tweets. If they Tweet 100’s of times a day I will not follow back. Timeline hogs are not invited to my party.
- I only follow those who look interesting to me (and who will not clutter my timeline as described in #1). Here is a question: if someone gives you something for free that you did not request or desire do you have to keep it? How many plastic cups that say Acme Flange & Widget Company do you need to keep in your cluttered cupboards?
- I always personally thank each follower, whether I follow them or not. I have met some very cool people this way. After a while you can spot a computerized message a mile away. I really enjoy Tweeting back and forth with folks.
Twitter no longer feels like standing on the 50 yard line at Ralph Wilson Stadium and speaking in my inside voice without a microphone hoping just one person will hear me.
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
Twitter: JudeCaserta
http://www.MidMajorMom.WordPress.com
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
