The Hot Iron is participating in NaBloPoMo, are you? What, you don’t know what NaBloPoMo is? No worries, as it stands for National Blog Posting Month. The idea is bloggers write a post every day for the entire month of November.

Easy, right? Well, maybe. As many bloggers have other projects or lives to balance with their blogging, it can be a challenge. I have decided to take on this challenge, namely as it fits well with a business goal I have for myself before the end of the year.

Where an idea like NaBloPoMo can be cliché, it can also be a motivator as well. Here’s to a month of wisdom, thoughts and ideas!

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As I recently upgraded to a new notebook, it is time to find a new home for a perfectly good workhorse, my Sony VAIO V505EX Notebook PC, which is up for auction on eBay through next Sunday, October 18. The notebook is pictured below.

This PC was a workhorse for me, as I ran my little Internet consulting firm off it for the first several years. You can view the V505EX specs in PDF format here, and full support information is available here on Sony’s Web site. In addition to the specs I upgraded the memory to 2 GB and the hard drive to 100 GB. It also includes a port replicator/docking station and the restore CDs.

Bidding starts at a penny for this great buy in a notebook PC.

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Imagine a journal where for an entire year where each day is chronicled by somebody different. If you can envision it, or even if you can’t, you can follow it starting in January, 2010 with the3six5 project.

The idea for the3six5 came from Daniel Honigman and Len Kendall, 2 fellow Chicagoans who come up with a lot of great ideas. When I heard they came up with this, I had to get in on it.

In their own words, this is what the3six5 is all about:

Everyday for 365 days, a different person will write an entry about their experience that day. It doesn't have to be about a specific topic, the key is that it somehow relates to what is happening in the world that day and how it relates to them. By doing so, starting from January 1 to December 31 of 2010, we will have a snapshot of the entire year, told from the perspective of 365 individual voices. 365 days will be made available and volunteers from across the country will be able to pick a date of their choice. There is no guarantee that any day will be better than others, because no one can predict the future. Regardless if the selected day in 2010 brings something newsworthy, everyone has a short story to tell that will help create the experience of living through a year in this country.

Each author will write a 250 word reflection which will be posted to "lifestreaming" site Posterous. Posterous.com was selected over a typical blog or website because of its simplicity and its ability to distribute content across all the major social networks. You can access this page by simply going to www.the3six5.com. If all goes well, my dream would be to publish the posterous stream as a book. I suppose you could call it a crowdsourced journal of 2010.

Where it’s first-come, first-serve for dates, each day of the year means something different to different people. By people, located in all parts of the world, writing a short reflection after that day happens, in the end there will be a unique journal for the year.

I will be writing an entry for August 19, 2010. I have also made a contribution – US$5.00 – to the fundraising to make a book of all the entries. I will not receive any compensation for this project, which is fine as money is not why I am involved in this. Being one of 365 people contributing to this body of work is thrill enough. There are still dates available, and details on the project and information to signup is available on the site.

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The next likemind will be Friday, October 16, 2009 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more information on likemind, you can read this great article on likemind from the New York Times.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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Dunkirk has a new mailing address. Effective immediately, post mail and packages can be sent to:

Dunkirk Systems, LLC
17 E. Monroe St., Suite 120
Chicago, IL 60603-5608 US

Our phone number remains the same, as does our Web site and email addresses.

You may be wondering why the immediate change. As many entrepreneurial companies do, Dunkirk has had its mailing address at a UPS Store. This has worked very well for us for over 3 years. But after a change in management, service went downhill at an accelerated rate that it effected the level of business at the store, and we just got informed it is shutting down next week! Fortunately we had an option, and have a new mailing address at a different UPS Store, one with a different franchisee and one that comes on high recommendation from customers.

Now it’s back to changing our address everywhere…

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