Announcing The One, Inc. (501c3)

This blog post is about something pretty darn close to my heart. A lot of us don’t have a lot of spare time in today’s fast paced world, but I feel strongly that what we do w/ that spare time needs to count. Anyone that knows me and knows my heart knows that I feel a strong connection to the homeless, in fact I have blogged about helping out and being blessed by them several times here.

One person that I came into contact with a while back, Aaron Reddin (@homelessheretic), is a true hero in my opinion. Not only does he serve tirelessly through his day job at St. Francis House Ministries, but every ounce of his spare time and creativity is poured out into finding ways to better serve (through love) our homeless population in Central Arkansas. One such endeavor includes his van ministry…

Not a lot of people know the story of The Van so I am going to enlighten you. Aaron posted on his Facebook wall one day that he wished he had a van that he could use to deliver supplies (sleeping bags, tents, food, water, clothing, etc.) to homeless camps around Central Arkansas. Later that day someone called him and told him to come pickup a van that someone had donated. From day one, people have received the Van and it’s purpose w/ open arms, many times just locating it in a parking lot and leaving cash under the windshield wiper blades, or waiting on him to come out of whatever establishment he was visiting to have him open it up so they could load up bags of clothing. I have seen this with my own eyes and it warms the soul to see this.

Not too long ago Aaron also had the idea of providing haircuts to our homeless friends with a portable barbers chair and a volunteer, a licensed beautician. Many of our homeless friends were overwhelmed and a few made the comment that they didn’t think they would ever be able to get another haircut. Can you imagine that something so simple can mean so much to someone in need?

Donna and I came to know Aaron and his wife Lane while volunteering at a warming center this winter in downtown Little Rock. We left the shelter a couple of times knowing in our hearts that we were supposed to partner with them in some sort of way but just didn’t know how at the time.  Over the next few months I have watched Aaron’s ministry expand to not only just the van, but also two more vehicles (an SUV and a Truck) that could be used to transport his latest dream from homeless camp to homeless camp, a portable shower system crafted inside a donated FEMA trailer. Please keep in mind that pretty much everything has been donated by friends in Central Arkansas. If this isn’t the love of Christ being demonstrated I don’t know what is. I get goosebumps thinking about what the first person to use our mobile shower system is going to think about it.

After a lot of prayer Donna and I decided that it was time for us to partner w/ Aaron and Lane in their ministry. I called on my friend and attorney, Shane Henry, and had him help us form a 501c3 corporation so we could do things the right way. I am pleased to announce that we are now legit. The One, Inc. is born. Everything about our organization is completely transparent. We use a system called GoFundMe.net to accept donations online and we strive to use every penny we get in to serve our homeless friends. We are in our very early stages right now but I suspect we will have a full blown website very soon (as soon as I have time to create one, :-) . Right now we do have a facebook page for The Van and The One, Inc.

From time to time I will be posting various needs we have for our ministry on my blog and my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and if you would like to help us out by donating these items you can contact me via email to: cotton@pleth.com and we will be more than happy to put your donations to use on the streets. We can also accept cash donations and issue a receipt for your taxes.

In addition to helping out our cities homeless, The Van was one of the first on the scene in Vilonia to deliver supplies to those affected by the deadly tornadoes that affected our neighbors and this weekend I am personally heading into Joplin to volunteer my time in the relief efforts. This is the sort of thing that we believe in, helping those in need and being a living demonstration of God’s love. It’s that simple.

In case you missed it, our ministry partner Aaron was recently on the Dr. Phil Show as an advocate for the homeless…

Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries on Gowalla…

I was going to save the surprise for this weekend’s tweetup at Wimpy’s but couldn’t keep a secret! The new Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries spot stamp is live on Gowalla! I think it looks great, can’t wait to see how it stands out on the iPhone next time I get ready to check-in.  If you are out and about this Sunday in the Conway area be sure to swing by Wimpy’s for our tweetup, you can RSVP on Facebook but it’s not necessary!

Also, stay tuned to Wimpy’s Twitter and Facebook accounts for some awesome announcements coming up in the very near future!!

The Best of Weinergate

In case you are not familiar w/ Anthony Weiner, here’s a link to his Wikipedia page. In short, he’s the U.S. Representative from the 9th District of New York, and one heck of a bulldog politician from what I have seen of him during his career. Well, Weiner has been “in hot water” lately because he has an interesting hobby. While a lot of us enjoy things like Reading, Fishing, or Cooking, Representative Weiner prefers to snap lewd photos of himself and send them to his female friends via social media. I guess we should consider it a hobby, hopefully it’s not some sort of perverted obsession or something like that, that’s not my call to make, to each their own…

When this story first broke I immediately knew what had happened, he had sent a TwitPic via private message to a follower and didn’t realize that while his tweet was private, his twitpic was just sitting out there on the web for the world to see. Okay, rookie mistake, I took a few minutes to appreciate the irony of the fact that his name was Weiner and it was a photo of his Weiner that got him into trouble. Funny, I dare you not to laugh. Well, as days went on he adamantly denied sending the photo and said that his account was hacked and that’s how the photo got out there. I really wanted to believe this guy but in the back of my mind I knew he had probably sent the pic. I was working late one evening and saw an interview that Weiner did w/ Wolf Blitzer on CNN where when asked if the photo was of him, he had the most evasive answer I have ever seen in my life. hmmmm…

A few days later, CNN was on in my office and I watched what was probably the most horrific press conference I have ever seen in my life, this thing was a PR nightmare and the longer it went on, the harder it was to watch, of course I couldn’t turn away, just like when you see an auto accident or anything else traumatic, it draws you in. As this press conference went on Weiner admitted that he had sent the picture to the girl and yes, that was his pants tater in the photo. If I were consulting the guy, I would have tackled him to get off the stage following his public admission and apology but no, he continued on for what seemed like an eternity taking questions from reporters about the whole “weinergate” scandal and each time he answered the entire story started getting more and more bizarre. Apparently there were other women he sent pics too, and apparently there are other pics…  I started asking myself if others took photos of themselves and sent them to their wives or girlfriends, was I an oddball because I had never used that approach to women before? And, most importantly, does that approach work?

Weiner is a hard nosed Democrat who has always attracted a lot of heat from the conservative bloggers because honestly, he doesn’t give an inch when negotiating w/ conservatives and can at times be a little hard to get a long with from across the aisle. Well, long story short, a conservative blogger showed up a few minutes before Weiners press conference and got behind the podium and took questions from the press about his involvement in the scandal. We then learned that the photo of Weiner that we had all seen on the news wasn’t the only photo of Weiner out there, and apparently this guy was carrying around these photos on his phone. I stopped and thought to myself, what kind of dude carries around photos of another guys package on his phone? Lol, I am just glad I am not a political blogger and have these things to worry about. I have friends who let their kids play w/ their phones, can you imagine the dangers that would pose? Dad, what’s this?? LOL

Well, this blogger, I think his name is Anthony Breitbart, was asked to be on some XM radio show where he pulled the photo up on his phone and passed it around to the radio jocks to let them see this photo because there’s no harm in the photo going public right? After all it’s radio. Right, Radio that just so happens to be streamed online to millions of people watching the show from their home computers. You guessed it, a still frame from the radio show made it’s way to the twitterverse faster than ants crawling on a snow cone. It wasn’t before long we were all exposed to Rep. Weiner’s Weiner…  Joy.

Not long after the second photo was public, and trust me, it was one of those “in your face” type shots that just makes you giggle, the popular website TMZ posted some additional photos of Weiner sitting topless at his computer and then a few more followed where he was posing in the congressional locker room wearing only a towl and a smile. In one of the photos he appears to be grabbing his manhood, it’s just too embarrassing to describe so here’s the link, check them out for yourself.

You have to give it to this guy, he is devoted to his photography hobby! I bet I have seen 20 or so photos of this guy taking pictures of himself. I mean seriously, who has that kind of time? It wasn’t long after this scandal started that a few of my friends started sending me text messages w/ photos of their crotches, none of them naked (thank goodness, it’d be funny but highly innapropriate at the dinner table, or during a meeting. Come to think about it, there’s not really ever a good time to get photos like that from your friends, haha.).

Well, today, facing much pressure from his own party, he resigned. This guy was so popular w/ his friends in the 9th district of New York that he still has 4 million dollars in his re-election account just sitting there. It’s all kind of sad when you think about it, oh and get this, his wife just found out she’s pregnant. I’m not sure anyone from the press has scored an interview w/ her yet, if they have I haven’t seen it. Ironically, she works for Hillary Clinton and get this, Bill Clinton actually married Representative Weiner and his wife. Everywhere you turn and this political controversy is ironic and hilarious.

My favorite part about this scandal has been watching respected reporters on television like Wolf Blitzer have to say things like “It doesn’t surprise me that pressure has been mounting for Weiner” while keeping a straight face, and respected news outlets printing headlines like, ‘It’s Time for Weiner to Pull Out!”, you just can’t make this stuff up.  Seeing as how we might not have another political controversy like this one again for quite sometime I figured I would do this post and include some of my favorite links, headlines, and of course screengrabs from the past few weeks so we could look back on them and laugh…

Just click on the links below to view the larger image…

Television Screengrabs:

Awesome Headlines:

Websites / Media Reports:

These are just a few that I have collected from around the web, I know there are thousands. Please feel free to comment below w/ links to your favorite Weinergate scandal headlines or photos. While it appears this scandal is going to die down soon, maybe in some small way we can keep this thing going on for a little longer… (no pun intended)

Wordcamp Fayetteville Information…

I got this press release today about WordCamp Fayetteville and wanted to pass it along…

WordCamp Fayetteville 2011 Speaker Lineup Announced

Jane Wells of the nonprofit WordPress Foundation will deliver the July 30th noon keynote address “The Future of WordPress” at WordCamp Fayetteville on the University of Arkansas campus. A slate of additional speakers – mostly from Northwest Arkansas – will speak on a range of topics, including the power of WordPress for nonprofit entities, how educational institutions use the software and the formation of the student-run and WordPress-powered magazine, The Arkansas Angle.

A moderated forum will address the topic “Finding A Niche Online: Success Stories” that features representatives from several companies, including Fort Smith’s The City Wire, on how they were commercially successful in finding an online voice. Additional speakers are geared toward technically advanced applications of WordPress, enriching Northwest Arkansas’ web developer and designer community.

WordCamp Fayetteville (http://2011.fayetteville.wordcamp.org) is Northwest Arkansas’ premier technology conference scheduled for July 30 – 31, 2011 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development on the University of Arkansas campus. Sunday’s events will be at The Belford Group in Fayetteville. WordCamps are held throughout the world and are organized on the local level by enthusiasts of WordPress. There will be a similar event in Chicago on the same day. WordCamp Fayetteville is sponsored by the nonprofit WordPress Foundation. Donations are tax-deductible. The philosophy behind WordCamps is that they break even financially and sponsors step up to subsidize a $30 ticket that would otherwise be much more expensive. WordCamp Fayetteville is prohibited from advertising. Tickets are available at http://2011.fayetteville.wordcamp.org/register.

At WordCamp Fayetteville, up to 300 people will spend the day learning about the free, open-source software called WordPress and how to better communicate and do business online.

“This is our second year and we think it’s putting Northwest Arkansas on the map among web developers,” said event founder Christopher Spencer, publisher of Ozarks Unbound. There are three content tracks that attendees can move between this year. They include: the Blogger track with its emphasis on writing, the Developer tack for those designing for WordPress and the Business track which focuses on making money with the software. A $30 ticket to WordCamp Fayetteville includes a day’s worth of programming, a t-shirt, a swag bag, Saturday lunch, an after party at Teatro Scarpino and an informal meet Sunday with presenters called the Guru Gallery.

“It’s the best $30 you can spend,” Spencer said.

WordCamp Fayetteville is generously supported this year by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, Paze Interactive and VaultPress. For more information, please contact Christopher Spencer at 479.530.4943 or christopher@ozarksunbound.com. Also check out http://wordcampfayetteville.com.

As far as the schedule goes, this is what was listed in today’s email. I am sure that this is subject to some re-arrangement between now and the actual conference…

Blogger Track -

  • 9 a.m. – Writing for the Web (Sara White. Serrabellum Digital Design)
  • 10 a.m. – Guest Blogging: How to find the best and avoid the pests (Andy Crofford)
  • 11 a.m.  – The Arkansas Angle student-run multimedia magazine (Tom Hapgood and Bret Schulte, University of Arkansas)
  • 2 p.m. – Numbers & Graphs & Keywords, Oh My! (Analytics for the blogger) (Angela Belford, The Belford Group )
  • 3 p.m. – The DIY Website: Using WordPress for Nonprofit Organizations’ Website (Angie Albright, Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter; Jody Dilday, Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas)
  • 4 p.m. – WordPress and Education (Jane Wells, WordPress Foundation)

Business Track –

  • 9 a.m. – Monetizing Your Blog Beyond the Banner Ads (Syed Balkhi, WP Beginner)
  • 10 a.m. – Target Practice: Using Analytics To Improve Your Aim (Angela Belford, The Belford Group )
  • 11 a.m.  – Texture, Rhythm and Scale: The Elements of Design (Sonia Davis Gutierrez, New Design School)
  • 2 p.m. – Social Media Consistency: Skip the Overwhelm and Create a Schedule That Works (Lela Davidson, Media Consultant)
  • 3 p.m. – Making WordPress Profitable for Agencies / Design Firms (Cotton Rohrscheib, Pleth LLC)
  • 4 p.m. – How to Harness the Power of Facebook to Build a More Interactive Community for Your Blog (Syed Balkhi, WP Beginner)

Developer Track –

  • 9 a.m. – The Ultimate WordPress Experience – WordPress as a CMS (Mitch Canter, Studio Nashvegas)
  • 10 a.m. – Win friends and influence people with BuddyPress (Shelley Keith, Southern Arkansas University)
  • 11 a.m.  – Custom Post Types and You (Mitch Canter, Studio Nashvegas)
  • 2 p.m. – Bare-Bones WordPress: Starting Your Theme With Starkers, HTML5 Boilerplate, and 960 Grid System (Tom Black, University of Arkansas School of Law)
  • 3 p.m. – Embrace the Mullet: CSS is the Party in the Back (a CSS ‘how-to’) (Tom Hapgood, University of Arkansas)
  • 4 p.m. – Theme Building and Security (A representative from iThemes)

Transitioning to Mac…

I have admired Steve Jobs and the Apple brand for several years now and last fall I purchased a MacBook Pro so I could start getting used to the Mac environment in hopes of one day transitioning from Windows to Mac for development. While I have really enjoyed the MacBook Pro, I still haven’t gotten away from my PC’s for developing client projects. This past week I made a move that is going to force me to make the transition, I ordered a new 27.5″ iMac, a new MacBook Pro (for my wife), and an iPad. The MacBook Pro and the iMac came in last week and I have been in the process of moving files over for the past few days.

I am really enjoying the iMac, it’s a powerful machine and is extremely comfortable to work on. My biggest drawbacks so far have been software related, I have several applications that run on my Window’s environment that will not run on the Mac, without installing Parallels and I’m not wanting to do that. I’m not talking about a lot of software, primarily 3 or 4 applications. I have done a lot of research and came up with some suitable replacements but haven’t found my comfort zone in these programs just yet. I am really hoping that I can find my comfort zone this week.

Pleth Gowalla Stamp

I am pretty excited about our new custom Gowalla stamp for all 3 of our Pleth offices. We still have some minor design issues to work out w/ Gowalla on the stamp but other than that I am real happy with how it turned out. You can view our Conway office location on Gowalla here…

Jonesboro Open House

This past week I traveled across the state to Jonesboro to meet up with our team for the ribbon cutting of our Jonesboro office and open house. We had a great turnout for the event from the local business community as well as the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce. We recently upgraded our Jonesboro office furnishings and it’s really looking nice. Probably one of the coolest things about the Jonesboro office was the glass doors. Steven Trotter, our project manager, has spent a lot of time designing the vinyl overlay for the doors to reflect each of our personalities. The finished product is pretty hard to explain but there are some photos available in my picasa galleries if you want to check them out

This is a group shot of our team that was taken right after the ribbon cutting. Some additional photos are available here…

I’m Speaking at Wordcamp…

I will be presenting on the business track during WordCamp Fayetteville 2011 on July 30, 2011 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The topic of my session will be WordPress profitability for Agencies / Development firms. I attended last years WordCamp along w/ Keith Crawford and we had a blast. You can checkout the tentative list of speakers / sessions online here.

You can also register for the event online here…

Aaron Reddin from The One, Inc. on THV

How cool is it that KTHV not only asked Aaron to be on their Hero Central segment but also that they donated $1000 to our cause? I love it. If you missed the interview last night, here it is…