The term Social Media is really odd to me.  The notion of socializing (ie: Social Event, Ice Cream Social, Pot Luck Social, etc) has always carried to notion of face to face time.  So I find it funny that we’ve dubbed sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Linked In as “social networks”.  Personally I feel the need to connect with people face to face even less if I am online and up to date on who is sick, who has a new job or whose kid is potty training.  Social Media has taken something away from the actual socializing part of networking and friendship.  Where I’m thrilled to have to opportunity to connect with past classmates, past coworkers, like minded individuals and new customers (and find value in it), I do think it’s important to get out of the house and shake a hand in person once in a while too.

Last night I was able to marry my “Social Networking” with my “Socializing” efforts by attending a Webgrrls International networking event.  Webgrrls International is an organization that connects women who are focused on augmenting their career through the use of technology.  Remarkably, Webgrrls has made a name for itself by using both an online community and face time events to connect.  I was impressed with the variety of women in attendance as well as the opportunities that presented themselves.  Of course, an added benefit to attending an event focused mainly on career minded women, is that there was an overwhelming sense of gears grinding in effort  to help everyone find solutions to their unique problems.  In all honesty, this event was very different from other networking events I’ve attended and it really exceeded my expectations.  The Webgrrls team does a fabulous job of breaking down the barriers of shyness and virtually eliminates the awkward conversations that are an inevitable result of networking.  How, you ask?  Well, I guess you’ll just have to find a local chapter and find out for yourself: http://webgrrls.com/

Get yourselves out there!  Find the mix of social media and socializing that fits you, and make sure you leverage it to be the best you that you can be!

With the ever-so-handy-dandy internet, access to others’ personal information is easy, making the protection your own identity all the more difficult and all the more important.  Everything can go from handy-dandy to nightmare pretty quickly if you’ve ever been a victim of identity theft.  I was recently the victim of credit card fraud, and by a relative no less.  She decided it would be a fun joke to sign us up for an additional subscription to Netflix as well as a subscription to an adult content website.  Needless to say, we didn’t see the humor.  With relatives like that, who needs enemies, right?

Protecting your own identity aside, running an e-commerce site puts you in the driver seat of protecting the identity of every person that uses your site.  That’s a lot of personal and financial data and it’s a big responsibility when you think about it like that.  Geek Bouteek recently encountered an incident where we had to come to the rescue of some poor unsuspecting individuals whose ID’s were stolen in attempt to purchase our merchandise.  Now, we’re flattered that someone likes our shirts enough to try to place a few big orders, but we’re not flattered enough to let anyone do it at the expense of others.

We here at Geek Bouteek value our customers and our Rogue Nation readers and want you to know that we’re being vigilant in the battle against identity theft.   If you, or someone you know, have been a victim of Identity Theft, please read through the Federal Trade Commission’s instructions on how to recover and what steps to take:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html

I was laid off at the end of last year, yet even without a paycheck, I’m still busy as ever.  The company I was employed by hit rough times as a result of the bad economy and laid off their entire staff.  I’m not complaining though, there are several silver linings in this cloud.  For starters, I’ll be able to devote a lot more time to Geek Bouteek and the Rogue Nation!

As part of the big downsizing I was a part of, we had to give up our office space.  They say growing pains are hard, but shrinking pains may be harder.  We went from 30 employees to 0 in about 2.5 years.  Throughout the 12 years of existing, the company had amassed a ton of equipment and infastrucure to run operations.  We had several Terabites of data to backup and about 2 years ago we took a financial plunge and bought a tape drive backup system with a tape autoloader.  This thing not only backs up massive amounts of data, the device itself is massive, and at this point totally unnessessary.

Downsizing pains were able to bring us into the new technological era.  The company is still running without employees, in a spare bedroom office on the UWS, and the few of us who stuck it through are working on a project to project freelance basis.  Equipment-wise, we gave away and dontated some 25 computers, even more monitors and are in the process of selling that monster backup system.  We’ve gone serverless and for the most part, wireless.

Our backup, our server hosting and our day to day to file storage has all been moved to cloud hosting and storage.  For little to no money, you can store a ton of data (securely too) our there in virtuality.  It gives you ease of access as well, because the data is no longer location specific.  For companies going virtual, cloud storage gives you the option to work anywhere you’ve got computer access.  The new lack of machinery and space to put machinery is kind of awesome.  I’m loving the cloud storage so much, I’ve signed up for a service called Zumo Drive which gives up to 2G of free storage.  You install a plugin that creates a virtual drive on any machine you install it, and through your login you have instant access to anything you store there!  There are many other similar services, but this is the one I’ve been using for my personal information, and we upgraded the storage with a paid subscription for our new virtual office.  Check them out at http://www.zumodrive.com/

After all the hard work we put in to downsize, I can’t see us ever going back to the old way of storing data.  Cloud storage rocks!

In general, I think that most of what’s currently on Broadway is over dramatized drivel.  Yes, there’s some oldie-but-goodies too, but there’s just not a lot out there that appeals to me.

My gut reaction to Green Day’s American Idiot, the musical was, “Great, another sellout band” but then I logically thought it through and it makes perfect sense.  I had to put my (somewhat) unnatural distaste of all things Broadway aside to be able to appreciate that the American Idiot album was tailor made for the Great White Way.  The one act, through-sung show features all of the tracks from the American Idiot album, as well as some b-sides and tracks from the 21st Century Breadown album.  Back in the mid 90’s, The Who’s Tommy was on Broadway and I went to go see it with my fellow High School Drama Club members (yeah, I know - poke fun all you want) and I was mesmerized.  I even started playing Pinball because I was inspired by Pinball Wizard.

In reading a synopsis of the plot of American Idiot, the Musical, I don’t think it will disappoint.  The story -like quality of the songs, and the subtext naturally lend themselves to a n entertaining show full of sex, drugs and rock and roll.  Much to my 10 year son’s disappointment, I don’t think it will be a kid-friendly show, being that the story IS full of drugs, sex and rock and roll.  At this point in life, he hasn’t delved into the deeper meaning of lyrics.  He just thinks Green Day sounds cool…

American Idiot starts in previews March 24, 2010 and officially opens April 20th.  Check out their website for more details : http://www.americanidiotonbroadway.com/?gclid=CPi91bSq6J8CFdx05QodJDzrGQ

OK, first of all, I apologize for this post being a few days late, we were actually floating around on a boat in the Caribbean without Internet access (seriously) and in the rush of the holiday didn’t have the foresight to write this beforehand.

So we survived another year, another decade (barely), and it’s time to take a very quick look back, take stock, and let you know what’s in store going forward for the Geek Bouteek.

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who made 2009 the most succussful year in the admittedly short history of the Bouteek, we made great strives in both the number of shirts we offer and the size of the audience we reach, and we feel that we can only go up from here.  It won’t be easy, but as I’ve always said, nothing worth doing ever is.

Looking to 2010, starting immediately we will be looking to add even more designs to our site, while at the same time looking at a possible overhaul of geekbouteek.com.  From a technical standpoint there a some limitations to our current platform that will restrict our ability to easily scale our operations.

On the conventions front, we are currently looking to expand our presence out in the field, looking at all possibilities within the Northeast in order to get ourselves in front of more people.  We’ve had great success at the New York ComicCon the last two years and we hoping that can translate to a wider audience.

So thanks again to all involved and we hope everyone has a healthy and successful 2010 (and beyond)!

Naughty or nice?  Santa’s not the only one who’s watching!  If you were good and geeky, hopefully there’s a Geek Bouteek shirt wrapped with your name on it under the tree…

Merry Christmas Rogue Nation readers and Geek Bouteek fans!  We hope you arrive safely to and from your destinations, and that Jolly Old St. Nick brings you everything on your wish list.

We’ll be taking a holiday break until the New Year, so Happy New Year too!  Expect tales of our holiday adventures when we are back in January.

Have you put off buying Christmas presents again until the last minute?  Well, have no fear, as a gift to all the geeks out there we are offering FREE USPS Priority Mail Shipping on all domestic orders placed by 11:59 EST on Sunday, December 20th.  All eligible orders will be shipped out by USPS Priority Mail no later than Monday, December 21st a should arrive in time for the big day. Simply select the FREE Priority Mail shipping option when checking out.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that your shirts will arrive in time for Christmas, that ultimately depends on mother nature and the United States Postal Service.

Have a very Merry and Geeky Christmas from all of us at the Geek Bouteek!

Ok, so I really don’t have much to say about Tiger Woods, except that I feel a bit left out without a few words about the nonsense over the past few weeks.

Quick thoughts:

• Tiger Woods is an idiot and a dirtbag
• He has not one, but two, stupid names (Eldrick AND Tiger)
• He’s become insanely famous and insanely rich because he can hit a little white ball into a little hole.  Not exactly curing cancer there, buddy

That’s about my take on it, except that it’s fascinating how rabid and irresponsible virtually every major news source becomes when one of these freakshow stories come to light (Jon and Kate, anyone?).  I mean, I know it’s all about chasing eyeballs and getting attention, it’s just a bit sad that this is what get’s our attention.

Anyways, if you really want a more in depth analysis of the whole “Tiger Woods is a cheating bastard” story, check out this article from the Sports Guy over at ESPN (I admit, I did read it).  It should tide you over until tonights episode of EXTRA.

Rogue Nation readers - be sure to get your geek on and check out Geek Bouteek’s Cyber Monday sale!  Get 20% off storewide.  Don’t miss this 1 day sale!!

Rogue Nation is  in the process of being listed on Technorati.  To verify we are who we say we are, they’ve asked us to publish this: PZYVQCTYGXJ3 .  Exciting, no?