Some of the worlds most popular websites were affected today by a power outage in San Francisco. While many of those sites have come back online the event will likely be remembered as something like… Web 2.0 Blackout San Francisco July 2007.
Planet Chiropractic first became aware of the outage when RSS feeds stopped updating on a number of websites we follow for news reporting information.
While checking our servers for feed errors we noticed an increasing number of search queries for services that were affected. That lead us online to seek some trend information and we noticed some major websites had gone down.
Among the list of sites not accessible were the very popular Technorati, Craigslist, LiveJournal, Typepad, Yelp, AdBrite, and Netflix.
Power was restored to the affected area but some websites appear to have taken longer than others to get back online.
We’ll have an update on our RSS feeds for all content services we syndicate and will post more information if anything appears to be out of order.
There are mixed reviews in today’s news regarding yesterday’s CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debates. Some have touted the events as groundbreaking and historic and others have called them more evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. The event was a mixing of old media (television) and new media (internet) in a format that had not been done previously in the area of presidential debates.
Some 3000 people created videos and submitted them to the video web site for inclusion in the debate. Most of the reports suggested that this resulted in more authentic questions being asked of Democratic presidential candidates. Some suggested that there was a lack in two-way discussion between those asking questions and the candidates in the debate. Out of the near 3000 videos submitted, a few more than 35 appeared in the broadcast.
YouTube is owned by Google and it is currently one of the most popular destinations on the Internet. While videos like “Chronics of Narnia” (a Saturday Night Live spoof that was pulled from the popular video web site) helped drive the viral popularity of the web site, we’ll undoubtedly see an increasing number of 2008 election centered video content appearing on sites like YouTube and others, as the election grows near.
It will be interesting to see how the chiropractic profession votes in 2008, not only in the presidential election, but in local and regional elections as well. The larger chiropractic organizations will likely endorse a presidential candidate and we can expect to see news of that nature appearing in chiropractic newsletters and e-mail groups around August of 2008. If I recall correctly, chiropractic organizations representing member chiropractors in the United States have traditionally endorsed Republican candidates. Will that be different in 2008?
The Planet Chiropractic website intends to cover a number of topics of interest to the chiropractic profession in regards to the 2008 presidential election. Contact us if you have suggestions or related topics you’d like to see appearing on the web site.
I was just thinking about relationships, specifically the relationship that you have with your spouse or significant other. Both people need to get what they need out of the relationship or they probably won’t stay in it. Wouldn’t make much sense to stay in a relationship that you aren’t winning at. I know that one of the most important things to my husband is that he feels like he is pleasing me. He wants and needs my approval as much as I need his. In all the arrangements that we make we try to set it up so that we utilize our best talents and gifts and we do things for each other and for our family that we both can successfully acheive and feel good about ourselves.
My husband and I have a sort of unique situation but not as unique as it used to be in our society. I guess you can call him a stay at home dad. Only thing is that he doesn’t stay home much at all with four kids from 10 to 14 years old. Early on in our relationship we realized that it would be a lot easier to make the kind of money that we wanted to live on for me to work outside the home rather than him, in addition to the fact that I love what I do so much that I wouldn’t consider giving it up back then or now either. Before we had kids we had four chiropractic offices and he took care of the public relations amongst other things but when we had kids we felt it was much more important that they had a full time parent. My husband takes care of these kids with the same gusto as I practice chiropractic. He is great at it and he knows it. I can acknowledge him with my whole heart and absolutely mean it. Do you see how we set it up. Now look at your relationship. Do you feel like you are setting it up so that you can win? How about your partner? Do you always feel like he or she doesn’t measure up or disappoints you? Would you want to go through life knowing that your partner feels that way about you?
My husband coaches the wrestling team and the football team. He is on the board of directors of the gated community we live in. He is hands down the best new patient referrer in my practice. Rarely a week goes by that he doesn’t send a new patient in the office. In addition he takes care of the house. He arranges for any major repairs, does the minor ones and makes sure the cleaning lady shows up, the exterminator does his job, the bottled water is delivered and the dogs get to the groomer. He does the laundry and cooks too. He makes sure all of the cars are in good repair as well as the office. I have only started the list. He pays all of the bills and takes care of all the financial matters. He deals with the banks, the accountant and makes sure we get the best rates on our credit cards, cell phones etc. I hope he has time to read this article, it would make him so feel good and that is part of MY job.
He treats me like a queen and demands the same respect for me from the children. He acts like he is lucky to have me as his wife and the children have caught on. That’s not a small feat with two teenage daughters.
And catch this part. Sometimes when I talk to him about an issue or problem I am having he will give me his opinion and if I don’t feel like I have what it takes to carry it out he say, “What do you mean?. . . your Sharon Gorman.” He uses this tone of voice that tricks me into thinking I can accomplish anything I want out of life. That trickster. He doesn’t always agree with me but when push comes to shove he is always in my corner.
He is just what I needed in a husband and he has risen to the occasion. True I had to and have to let him know what I need but I try to never ask him to give me something that he doesn’t got.
Now let’s pan out a little. Let’s look a little further. Have we set it up with our staff members that they can win? Have we utilized their talents properly or do we ask them to give us something that they don’t got? Do we acknowledge them or do we feel like we are doing them a favor giving them a paycheck because we think that they are falling short? Would you want to work in a situation set up like that? Are you setting them up to win? Do your patients fall short? How about your parents? Your kids? Your friends?
Do you see people and accept people as they are or do you set them up to disappoint you so that you can feel like a victim of them? You can’t change them you can only change you. Are you willing to change? Are you willing to be responsible for the relationships in your life working out? Are you setting them up to win? Are you setting YOU up to win? (Ouch – a lot to look at there)
Sharon PS: Thanks Ron for the last 17 years!
– – – – – – – – – – Saturday July 28th – Focus Philosophy Day 3 Special events in one day!
Armand Rossi First: Gorman Chiropractic Life Center Grand Opening – Open House (New Location) 12 Noon – 3 pm Lots of food and LIVE entertainment !!! Lay lecture for patients @ 1PM Everyone Is Welcome !!!
Second: “How-To” Session On Building A Family Practice 3 Pm – 5 pm at office By Dr. Armand Rossi Third: Focus Meeting Begins at 7 @ Hotel Dinner at 6 pm
Directions: Gorman Chiropractic Life Center – 570-476-4100 21 Crystal St., E. Stroudsburg, PA Exit 308 off I-80. Make a right at ramp. Pass 2 lights and make a left at end. Make a left after rail road tracks. We will be on your right.
Howard Johnson Hotel Route 611 Bartonsville, PA (exit 302 off I-80)(570) 424-6100 for Reservations (ask for Focus Rate) Contact Sharon Gorman at (570) 350-4091
Future Focus 2007 Dates: August 18th, September 15th, October 20th, November 10th, December 1st
It’s Sunday afternoon at WordCamp 2007 in San Francisco and I’ve been at my laptop an estimated combined 18 hours since booting up early Saturday morning.
There are over 395 pressers (people using wordpress) in attendance and looking around the room it is rare to see someone not using their laptop.
I have not gotten a consensus as to how many here are receiving chiropractic care and I did not bring my portable xray unit or even my xray goggles to check cervical curves but looking around the room I can see alot of forward head carriage. This is something that is not good for your spine in case you are wondering.
Joseph (super wordpress developer) is sitting two seats to my left and he just commented on the hard wooden folding chairs many of us are sitting on.
There are three types of chairs here inside the Swedish American Hall. There is the standard wooden folding chair that has about an inch of padding (after this many hours it’s not so helpful). There are some red vinyl covered theater type chairs but those run along the walls of the hall which results in people having to do quite a bit of neck rotation (either to the right or left) depending on which side of the room one is sitting. The third type of chair are these big wooden chairs that must have been used at some point for the most important of Swedish Americans.
Here is a photo of one of the more regal chairs scattered around the hall. When I first came in on Saturday I thought these chairs were really cool but after sitting in them I discovered they are not the best for laptop use (sidearms are too high to allow free arm motion).
As I have been writing this I’ve been consciously noticing people lean increasingly forward, placing further stress on their spines and nervous systems. I myself just had to sit up straight as I caught myself getting sucked into my notebook screen.
I took some more photos since I started this post so we could view some postures and see if we can offer some chiropractic tips on better sitting positions. After reviewing some images I think this next one sums it up best.
Forms of posture to avoid include what I’ve termed the “Mullenweg” which is demonstrated perfectly in the image to the left.
It is a photo of Matt (the worlds most famous Matt according to Google) Mullenweg in a classic forward head leaning position.
Understand that Matt has a fairly good reason to be sitting this way as he has been working insanely hard these past two days. (Many people volunteered at WordCamp and the event was superb.)
Looking at the photo see how Matt is supporting his head with his left hand while adeptly typing with his right hand. What is happening here is that the supporting muscles in his neck have tired and now his body is seeking another way to support the increasing pressure being placed on bones, ligaments, and discs in his spine.
Here are my spinal posture tips for traveling bloggers authoring more than 500+ words of fresh content daily on notebook computers…
Do your best to locate a comfortable surface to sit on, preferably one with back support
Sit up straight with your head squarely over your shoulders (not leaning forward)
Stick in your butt slightly, creating a small forward facing arch in your low back (to release lumber disc stress)
Keep your legs flat on the floor (resist the one leg folded up on opposite knee position to support your laptop)
Take breaks regularly
Number 5 is the most important tip of all. You can cheat on the others a bit as long as you continue to take regular breaks. Waiting until your battery is dead is not enough. I’d recommend users get up and move around (even if just to stand and stretch for 30 seconds) every 20 minutes or so.
Chiropractors in the San Francisco Bay area are using various methods to advertise their chiropractic services online.
I’m here in San Francisco for a WordCamp conference. While I’ve been here I’ve been visiting numerous websites and have noticed a number of chiropractic offices advertising on them.
I’ve seen offices as far as New York and Texas appearing in ads (they may want to revisit their internet advertising approach) and I’ve checked out a few websites for chiropractors in San Jose, Redwood City and the San Francisco area.
While at this conference we were discussing some do’s and don’ts of website design. One of the tips discussed that applies to a chiropractic website is (I’m being serious) if you are ugly as sin or look like you have not showered in a week you may be better off not showing your photo.
If that’s the case (you appear unkempt) it may be a good investment to get your self cleaned up. I only mention this because every once in a while I see a chiropractors photo on their website and they look horrible. However, the ones that I noticed while here in San Fran looked professional and well dressed.
One nice example was the office of Chiropractor, Gavin Carr in Palo Alto, CA. While this is a small photo, it’s a great picture of him and his family. You can see Dr. Carr, his wife, and three children, and they are all smiling and looking healthy. I’d go to this guy.
Check out your website. Is your photo on it? Do you appear smiling and professional or dumpy and frustrated? By the looks of the picture here I would figure they had it taken professionally. Looks great! For those interested, the office is called Stanford Chiropractic Center and you can visit it here.
Places I found chiropractors advertising local services included: CitySearch, Yelp, Google Search Results, and Planet Chiropractic.
It’s all in the details. When posting to chiropractic classifieds, some people write some terrific and descriptive advertisements. Others only post a few general sentences. Over the years I have noticed a significant difference in ad performance (measured by page views) when comparing detailed ads to plain Jane vanilla style ads.
Let’s take a look at some practice for sale ads and see if we can include more detail…
Chiropractic Office in Seaside California Interested in surfing or golfing on your lunch? Clinic for sale 1 mile to Monterey Beach and 10 min. to Pebble Beach Golf course in beautiful Carmel CA!
There were other details mentioned in the ad but including information about surfing and golfing is a plus. Mentioning Monterey Beach and Pebble Beach Golf are even better as they are recognizable keywords most people can relate to.
This ad is geared towards chiropractors seeking to live and practice in Carmel which is a beautiful beach community. If one wanted to get really detailed they could mention recreational possibilities along the Monterey Peninsula. I’d mention the abundance of parks, availability for camping, recreation trails along the ocean for roller blading and running, and many sports activities such as tennis.
Let’s view another… Santa Cruz Mountain Practice for Sale Must see unique location in beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains. Commute community to Silicon Valley. Great visibility on main street. Established 18 yrs. Cash practice. Diversified and Cox Flexion Distraction Technique. New Cox 100 table with auto long axis decompression still under warranty. Perfect start-up opportunity for motivated doctor who wants to live and work in this beautiful mountain community.
Nice and detailed. Mentioned techniques practiced (network patients may not want pettibon care), source of income, time in business, and equipment. This is great stuff, I can get a good idea of what this office would look like. Remember, not everyone knows where these locations are. One could include more details related to location… Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California.
Here is one in Pennsylvania… Northern York Pennsylvania – Attractive office situated beside major Interstate. Family care practice with low rent/overhead. Currently operating only 3 and one-half days. 50% cash, 50% insurance-based. Awesome staff. Doctor must relocate for family.
Let’s get some details on the Interstate. What towns does it connect? What major landmarks are along the Interstate?
Last one… Wellness-Based Chiropractic Office Chicago …a successful, lovely, warm, quaint, wellness-based Chiropractic office is now for sale in Chicago, IL. We educate our patients on subluxation and the causes of health and wellness. Located on the north-side of downtown, the practice has been successfully established for 2 years with very little advertising. This wellness oriented practice has many features…not to mention the best patients in the world.
With this ad you know what you are getting. Not the place for a personal injury chiropractor or someone who has no education in wellness care. I’d like some more details on location. Mention some landmarks in the area and get specific when naming businesses surrounding the office. Costco, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Golds Gym, if you have them near by, include information in your ads.
About 400 people will be gathering at the Swedish-American Hall on Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday, July 21 and Sunday, July 22 to reinforce community involvement around one of the world’s fastest growing open-source software platforms, known as WordPress. The meeting is known as WordCamp, and it’s the second annual event of its kind. The foundation behind WordPress is not a big corporate behemoth holding a conference in a swanky hotel for selected press and Internet celebrities. It’s more of a community event, with coffee, sandwiches, a barbecue, and a bunch of bloggers, gathered together to discuss something they are all passionate about.
WordPress, the popular blogging platform, now in over four years of development and use, is increasingly becoming the standard in what some in the mainstream media may call Web 2.0 blog engines.
This is not a story of cookie-cutter software used to make web sites. It’s a story of people from all over the world supporting something they benefit from using everyday. There’s no single company that wins as a result of the event. Rather, companies, groups, organizations, and individuals are independently adopting and backing this open-source platform for no other reason than its easy to use, features lickity split installs (typically under five minutes, especially on Linux), is easy to maintain, and is loaded with options (meaning you can do all all kinds of things with it you couldn’t do with an ordinary website).
The founders describe WordPress as a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. It’s everything that they say it is and more. I am representing Planet Chiropractic at the event as WordPress is the engine that powers the blog section of our site (known as Chiropractic Blogs). I’ve done hundreds of installs of WordPress software and I’ve been championing it amongst small and medium business circles as a way to build a more efficient and effective web presence.
Rather than be cheeky and call it a Web 2.0 platform lets say it’s a more efficient way to do things when it comes to getting your message out. Isn’t that what we are looking for in our eco-friendly drive to do more and waste less? People are increasingly becoming more concerned about carbon footprints and how they can be more energy-efficient. WordPress is a way to be more efficient in building Web platforms and saving one of our most valuable resources, time.
Many people don’t know it yet and many more don’t want to admit it, the old way of doing business on the Web is dead (or at least dying). While the initial popularity of WordPress use was from the blog community, individuals who had something to say, the numbers of small-business owners, medium size business owners, and corporate entities, are increasingly seeking involvement, and the platform is evolving as a result.
Service industries are loaded with companies that have created website templates focusing on any number of niche markets (such as attorney websites, chiropractic, medicine, acupuncture, and dentistry), and selling those templates as packages typically through trade journals and at business conferences.
While some of these companies claim they are creating unique websites with hundreds of pages of content, what they are in reality creating are hundreds of pages of search engine content penalties (such as duplicate content and interlinking schemes) that often result in only a mere handful of pages that include unique data. Business consumers are paying anywhere from $49 a month to $179 a month for these types of services and the great majority are scratching their heads wondering why their web sites don’t appear in search engines. I know this because I receive e-mails everyday from business owners seeking to improve the performance of their websites and these types of sites are the typical culprits.
In my opinion, WordPress is changing the entire landscape and there will be a major shakeup of the old model in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the old model, WordPress invites community, it gets people engaged in the conversation, it’s non-static, it’s invigorating, and it’s one of the most exciting things out there.
Platforms like WordPress solve one of the dilemmas of new businesses by lowering the bar considerably in building a successful business presence online. The world wants to see your business, they want to engage in conversation with you and your employees, they’re interested in what your thoughts are as they research doing business with you. Providing that information in a lively interactive format offers them better opportunities to choose your business when the opportunity arises.
If you’re using WordPress to drive your website or blog, send me an e-mail so I can check it out.
I know what you are thinking, what in the heck is WordCamp and if it’s a place you go to learn how to spell, or learn how to put together words without creating compound sentences, it’s about time you’re going.
Sorry but that’s not it. WordCamp is for a group of techie people that are all using a blogging software known as WordPress. WordPress is the engine behind this blog section of Planet Chiropractic and that’s primarily why I am going. I’ve been writing increasingly about open-source software and how we’ve been using that software at Planet Chiropractic during the past decade or so. I’ve written about Ubuntu on my Dell and software tools such as Synergy, which are both open source. I’ve also mentioned all our servers run either Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, or RedHat Linux.
A group of people continue to work really hard in developing the blog software known as WordPress. As a result, like millions of others throughout the world, we have the freedom to use that software as our blog backbone. WordPress is the engine behind everything you see here on this page (unless of course you’re reading this in an RSS feed). People working on open source deserve more credit and more support from everyone that’s benefiting from their hard work. Least I can do is buy some drinks.
I’ve had some opportunities to work with wordpress multiuser installs and I can tell that there are some huge potential’s for use in creating multiple user blogs, which could all revolve around a singular theme, or be completely and totally unique from one another. Some educational institutions are making good use if this newer style of WP software.
We’ll be getting get together this Saturday (7-21) and Sunday to go over some WordPress features as a group. There are just shy of 400 people attending and there is a number of speakers that are going to address topics such as podcasting and blogging versus journalism.
What I love about my Internet tech friends is they really know how to get proper nutrition (at least for computer geeks). Take a look at some excerpts from the registration schedule…
Saturday 7/21 Schedule 9:30 AM – Registration and Coffee 12 PM – Sandwich Lunch Evening – Drinks at TBD location
Sunday 7/22 Schedule 9:30 AM – Registration and Coffee 12 PM – BBQ Lunch
Coffee – Sandwiches – Drinks (hope that means alcohol) – Coffee – Barbecue
An interesting pattern has been emerging on the major television networks in the USA. According to a news report on Planet Chiropractic, Monday night featured 3 prime time TV shows that involved actors playing roles as chiropractors.
The shows (in order they appeared for broadcast) are Everybody Hates Chris, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Two and a Half Men. All 3 shows are filmed in Los Angeles, CA. Everybody Hates Chris is filmed on the Paramount Studios lot @ 5555 Melrose Ave in Hollywood. The other two, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Two and a Half Men are filmed on the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios lot @ 4000 Warner Boulevard in Burbank.
I’ve worked on both of these lots and I’ll tell you making TV shows does not appear to be easy work. First there is the drive. Driving anywhere in LA can be hell. My chiropractic office is located closer to the Sony lot in Culver City and I end up there more frequently but I’ve made calls to Paramount and sometimes Burbank. For those that work there everyday, they are on their feet loooong hours. They work inside big warehouses that are always hot and dusty. In comparison, my work is easy and for me it’s like being a kid in a candy shop. Every time I’ve come onto sets I’ve been treated very well by cast and crew. They have big layouts of food known as craft services (which everyone is tired of but me) and everyone wants to make sure I’m eating enough.
While others are running around with headsets, radios, tool belts, and such, I’m the guy eating the Twizzlers, having a Dr. Pepper, and maybe one of those Lattes you make in those automated Latte making machines. It’s a tough job and I’m just the right person to do it!
Monday night was chiropractic night on major television networks in the United States. The evening started out at 8 p.m. prime time on the CW Network (KTLA in Los Angeles) with Everybody Hates Chris and a repeat episode titled: Everybody Hates Thanksgiving (originally aired on November 20, 2006). The episode features Wayne Brady in his role as Uncle Louis, the chiropractor. Everyone is happy to see Uncle Louis and the entire family gets adjusted before having Thanksgiving dinner. 8:30 p.m. we change stations to CBS (channel 2 in Los Angeles) for a repeat episode of the New Adventures of Old Christine.
The New Adventures of Old Christine features Emmy Award winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld), in a comedy about a single mom who is an owner of a 30 minute workout gym. Julia’s character on the show is Christine Campbell, a Mar Vista resident having a new adventure every day.
The episode is known as Sleepless in Mar Vista, and it was episode 15 of season 2. The episode originally aired on March 12, 2007. In the episode some funny jokes are made about sleeping pills, as Christine makes a number of embarrassing phone calls she doesn’t remember making after taking prescription sleep medication.
Early in the show Christine pays a visit to her chiropractor, Dr. Mike, after not being able to get a good night sleep. He adjusts her neck while she is lying face up, and then he has her lay on her stomach and adjusts her mid back and lower back. During the adjustments she utters some strong words of gratitude that are fitting for her character. The role of Dr. Mike was played by Tim Bagley. Tim was a regular on the popular CBS TV show The King of Queens, which ended this year after nine successful seasons.
In what must be a total coincidence, doing a Google search for “Dr. Mike Mar Vista” brings up the chiropractic website of Michael Dorausch (founder / creator of Planet Chiropractic). In an even greater coincidence, Dr. Mike’s Mar Vista chiropractic office is located next door to a 30 minute woman’s workout gym (Curves) which is owned by a single mom.
The New Adventures of Old Christine is directed by Andy Ackerman and writers include Danielle Evenson and Allan Rice. The show is absolutely fantastic. The writers provide great material and the cast is delightfully funny and entertaining.
This wouldn’t be the first time Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been seen on television receiving chiropractic care. Chiropractic has been featured several times on the hit series Seinfeld. There have been episodes when Julia (playing the role of Elaine Benes) received house calls from a chiropractor after sleeping on a bad bed. While it’s nice that an image was made that chiropractors still make house calls, the reality is that it’s much easier than bringing the entire cast and local 44 onto a location shoot.
At 9 p.m. CBS broadcast 2 1/2 men, a show featuring Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer. On the show Jon plays the role of Alan Harper, chiropractor. During the commercial breaks CBS aired previews for the summer film titled Chuck & Larry, featuring Adam Sandler and Kevin James (from the King of Queens). What involvement do they have with chiropractic? You may have to check back soon to find out.
Just another night of chiropractic featured on network television. We’ll be back with more news on The New Adventures of Old Christine, Everybody Hates Chris, Seinfeld, the King of Queens, and other shows featuring funny scenarios including chiropractic. Like your chiropractic adjustment… to be continued.
Armand Rossi
I have not gotten a consensus as to how many here are receiving chiropractic care and I did not bring my portable xray unit or even my xray goggles to check cervical curves but looking around the room I can see alot of forward head carriage. This is something that is not good for your spine in case you are wondering.
Here is a photo of one of the more regal chairs scattered around the hall. When I first came in on Saturday I thought these chairs were really cool but after sitting in them I discovered they are not the best for laptop use (sidearms are too high to allow free arm motion).
Forms of posture to avoid include what I’ve termed the “
One nice example was the office of Chiropractor, Gavin Carr in Palo Alto, CA. While this is a small photo, it’s a great picture of him and his family. You can see Dr. Carr, his wife, and three children, and they are all smiling and looking healthy. I’d go to this guy.
The New Adventures of Old Christine features Emmy Award winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld), in a comedy about a single mom who is an owner of a 30 minute workout gym. Julia’s character on the show is Christine Campbell, a Mar Vista resident having a new adventure every day.