The only downside to the story was that after it aired, several folks I didn’t know wanted to connect with me on Foursquare. Not sure why they’d care to know if I was at Viva Pops. They probably just wanted an “expert” to consult about the service.

No offense, but I think I’ll restrict my “I don’t know you but let’s connect” relationships to Twitter.

Melodie Tao, AKA @MyMelodie

Recently I took what some might think is a crazy leap, professionally: I left my comfortable position as a learning technology specialist at Qualcomm without a “next job” to go to. Qualcomm offered me a generous transition package (thanks, QC!) and I decided that a transition was just what I needed.

Having the leisure to read the newspaper all the way through in my yoga pants, I did exactly that. While reading the Business section of the San Diego Union-Tribune I happened upon an article outlining the companies in San Diego with the most revenue in 2009. I was surprised to realize that I had spent the last 12 years of my life working for 2 of the top 3 (Qualcomm and CareFusion, which was called Pyxis when I worked there).

Huh. That’s interesting. Why did I do that?

Well, clearly I was looking for stability, security, and good benefits. Did I get them?

Yes and no. The benefits at both were awesome (though, ironically, my cell phone was paid for at the healthcare company, and my health insurance benefits were  better at the telecom company). Neither company went under or lost much in stock value while I was there, so they were definitely stable.

However, at each place, my run of “feeling useful” lasted only about 5 years. After that, I more or less had to find another company to work for or feel I was stagnating. This is in stark contrast to what my parents experienced: my mom worked as a computer programmer for the U.S. government for 14 years, then transitioned to teaching at the junior college level, which she did at the same school for 25 years, rising to the level of department chairman. My dad was never really unemployed his whole life, spending just one week at home between his two-year stint in the Navy and his 40 years as a government intelligence analyst. Both were promoted numerous times and honored with many awards.

Their career stories are from another time, though. Today’s career cycle is much shorter, no matter where you work. Once you realize that, “safe” choices don’t feel so safe any more, and “risky” choices like freelancing, consulting, working for yourself, or working for a startup don’t seem so scary.

I decided to interview some folks I know who are living on the professional wild side and see if I could glean some wisdom that would help me decide my next move. I arranged to meet with Melodie Tao, a self-employed new media marketing and SEO professional here in San Diego.

Melodie is a consummate coworking and networking pro. Within 5 minutes, she’d made sure we were connected on LinkedIn and Facebook, and prompted me to remove old data from my profile (like my now-inactive Qualcomm email address).  She agreed to share her wisdom with me, which I now share with you.

So, Melodie, what do you do for a living?

I am an online marketing consultant, and I run my own social media marketing company. So I work with companies on how to use social media to strengthen their brand, to engage their customers, and to build customer loyalty. I also am a professional speaker on social media, speaking at conferences and events. I also teach online marketing and social media at Platt College, teaching my students how to market for companies but also how to create their own personal brand.

How long have you been coworking regularly?

I’ve had a consulting practice on the side for about 6 years, but I’ve been working completely independently only since January of this year.

What are some of the advantages of working for your own company?

I have a lot of freedom to choose how I’d like to structure my work and my day. There’s more flexibility. I can cowork with others that are in the same industry but working on their own things, so we can feed off each other’s success and collaborate. I feel that I’m not confined to one place or one project, and that I can take on any opportunity that comes along.

Do you have any favorite places to cowork?

Milano Coffee Company, where we are now, is great. This place has free wifi, it’s quiet compared to a lot of other coffee shops, and it’s clean.

I also like using the library. Most people don’t think to go to the library, but the Mission Valley branch of the library is really nice. It’s right in the Ikea shopping center. There’s a lot of room there, it’s very quiet, they have tables and desks you can use, and it’s the nicest library I’ve been to.

Lestat’s Coffee House is another nice one; they just opened up a second room, so there’s more room there than there used to be.

Downtown there is the HIVEHAUS, which is the coworking place where you can rent a desk. I don’t rent a desk there, because I don’t want to be confined to one place – I have clients everywhere. But every other Friday they offer free coworking through an event called Jelly.

Do you ever work from home?

Sometimes, but rarely. I find when I work from home I don’t concentrate as much. One day I may rent an office, but it doesn’t make sense for me now, becauses there’s a lot of partners I’m working with. Sometimes when I’m working with web developers, I’ll go and work at their office for the day.

Do you often meet with clients?

Yes, but it’s usually virtual. I do a lot of GoToMeetings with a client of mine in San Francisco. If I need to meet face-to-face, I’ll often do it at a coffee shop or at their place. Clients usually like meeting at their place anyway, because that way they don’t have to travel.

What are some of the disadvantages?

I wouldn’t call them disadvantages, I’d call them challenges. Some challenges are that I have to be my own manager – now, I’m an entrepreneur so I’m used to that, but that might be a challenge for some people who aren’t. You have to motivate yourself, set up a schedule, so that you know every day that you’re going to start work at 9:00 or whatever time you’ve picked. The benefit is you can often stop when you want, go for a run or take a yoga class. You have to have structure, but you can create that structure. It can be a lot more flexible.

I like to start a little bit later on Monday mornings, and plan my week. A lot of people don’t like Mondays, because they have to get back to work and they’re stressed out. I step back instead and plan the days ahead. Monday’s reserved for regrouping.

Do you have any tips for coworking beginners?

I would recommend doing what you’re doing, connecting with a lot of people in your industry who are doing similar things. Ask them what’s working for them. Networking, doing informational interviews. Networking is key. When you’re networking be very clear about what is your goal. If you tell that to people, they’ll be able to help you, and if any opportunity comes up, they’ll think of you immediately. Be very clear about what you’re doing.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated, and that you’re available for freelance opportunities (if you are). Keep up with your online portfolio if you have one, your blog, be active on social media. Be a resource for people. Give tips to people. If you want to be an HR manager, say, then tweet HR tips. People will think of you as a resource then, and when they’re looking to hire someone like you, you’ll come to mind.

I hear you’re going to Hong Kong soon. Tell me about that!

Yes! I am speaking at an online conference through the Internet Society (ISOC). I’ll be giving a presentation on search engine optimization and social media, on how to improve your search results with social media, and how to optimize your domain name through having a good website and good social media presence. That’s next week, and I’m excited about that.

Well, have a great trip, Melodie, and let’s cowork again when you get back!

Him: “What?”
Me: “Was that a Twitter quote I just saw on the screen?”
Him: “What do you mean?”
Me: “I mean instead of quoting a movie critic about this series, they quoted a tweeter.”

Ken cycled back through the previous frames, and sure enough, there it was:

@plectrude's review

Who or what is “plectrude”? A new arts magazine? A grandmother from Sheboygan? The pimply teen across the street? I decided to find out. I looked up the @plectrude account on Twitter, which said it was a person in Romania with 33 followers. Ken suspected it was a front for HBO. I sent them the following tweet:

Shortly afterward, I got a reply:

@thepegisin yes, I know. they asked for my permission :) thank you so much for that still. is it ok if I post it on my blog? :D

I said of course, and later found this blog post. If her bio is accurate, @plectrude is a 23-year-old woman from Romania. You can read more about her at her blog, potential hikikomori.

Or she’s a front for HBO, and I fell for it. You decide.

My husband does not share my love of Harry Potter. Dumbledore, Hogwarts and Quidditch leave him cold. But he loves me, and I love the books, so he made it his business to find out when the next Harry Potter film was coming out (July 15), and when it could be seen in the best of all possible formats, IMAX 3D (July 29).

Since it was opening day for this film in IMAX, we knew we’d have to wait in line to get decent seats, so we lined up at Edwards Mira Mesa Stadium 18 at 5:30 for the 7:40 PM show. We’d gone right after work, and given that we’d be in the movie until about 10PM, I bought concessions – a practice we call “conceding,” since we know the food is both terrible and overpriced. I got a hot dog, a medium popcorn, a medium soda, and some fruit gummies, which cost almost $20. IMAX movies cost more, in this case $16.50 each, so by the time we took our seats, we were already in for over $50.

Half a C note.

My friends, as much as I love Harry Potter, this gave me pause.

Another thing that gave me pause – the much-vaunted, totally immersive 3D effects in this movie only lasted for about the first 15 minutes. Then a flashing red symbol told us it was time to take off our 3D glasses, which remained perched on top of my head for more than 2 hours.

The final thing that made me question my decision to spend extra to see this movie in IMAX 3D? The screen is not much bigger than a regular movie screen.

Now, if you’ve ever seen a movie at the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park, you’re thinking, “What? No way! IMAX screens are huge!” And that IMAX screen is huge, something like 75 feet wide, and completely surrounds your field of vision in a curved dome. But the IMAX screen at the Fleet is different than the IMAX screen at Edwards Mira Mesa. It’s what’s called an IMAX Dome theater, and it’s the only one in San Diego (and was the first in the world, by the way). What’s at the Edwards Mira Mesa is known as a IMAX MPX theater, which is rectangular, and according to the IMAX website, is “specifically designed to enable multiplex operators to more cost effectively enter into the IMAX® theatre business, by retrofitting an existing stadium seating auditorium or via an economical new build.” In other words, sell you “IMAX” without having to build a new theater. Which means the screen is not much bigger than that of a conventional theater – and only about 1/3 the size of traditional IMAX.

Now when you pay your $5 extra per ticket to see an “IMAX” movie, they really work hard to convince you that the movie you are about to see is the most pristine, incredible, optimum movie experience imaginable. An usher tells you that the sound will be incredible, even upsetting to some people, but that they won’t turn the sound down – it’s a bajillion watts and 999 speakers behind the screen, all aimed at you, and that’s the ride you paid for, buddy. And it is good, don’t get me wrong. The sound is probably the best I’ve ever heard in a theater.

But is it worth twice the price of a regular movie? Or even 3 times?

I decided to do a completely subjective, non-scientific experiment. I’d seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in IMAX 3D at Edwards. Now I would go and see it again, this time in “standard definition” – i.e., a regular theater, at regular prices. I’d found out if the extra I paid for “IMAX” was worth it to me.

For my second viewing, I chose the UltraStar Del Mar Highlands. UltraStar is my favorite movie theater chain, because they feature really clean, crisp digital projection in all their theaters, but cost the same as a regular movie (and often less – movies there are $5.50 all day Tuesday, and if you clip the coupon you’d find in the San Diego Union-Tribune every Friday, they are $5.50 anytime). Essentially, they improved my movie experience without passing the cost on to me. I like that.

It’s still a long movie, and I hadn’t had dinner, so again, I conceded. This time I used another coupon UltraStar offers in the newspaper, and got a medium popcorn and a medium soda for $6. Boy, I thought, I am becoming a cheap date. So far I’d only laid out $11.50.

I was in Theater 8, and I asked the usher how big the screen was. He told me it was 18 feet by 37 feet. To my eye, it was only slightly smaller than the IMAX one at Edwards.

I saw the movie again, and it was just as thrilling, just as immersive, and just as magical as my previous viewing. Yes, “IMAX” was better in terms of picture and sound quality, but twice as good? No, not nearly.

So I may be saving my husband a lot of money when we go to the movies in the future. And if I ever want to go have a real IMAX experience, I’ll consult bigmoviezone.com, which allows you to search for theaters by type of projection or whether the screen is rectangular or domed.

Yay for cheap dates!

Ask the donkey?

This is my shoulder, and it has a story to tell.

When I was 19, I got a tattoo. I got it for the sheer hell of it, and as my friend Jeff Rebello drove me to his favorite tattoo place (Tiger Jimmy’s), I really had no idea what permanent skin statement I wanted. We were listening to the radio station Mighty 690, which at that time played oldies, and as we pulled up I heard the announcer say, “That was The Four Tops with their first U.S. single, Ask the Lonely.” Something about that made me think, “Yeah, that’s perfect. That’s what I’ll put on my shoulder.” I can only blame a misspent youth brooding over Smiths songs and the fact that I’d been sucking down vodka while anticipating the pain of the tattoo needle.

I went in, paid my $15, unzipped the back of my orange flowered minidress, pulled down the right shoulder, and got inked. Seven Marines silently watched me. This was 1985, and back then (pre-Gun ‘N Roses) only hookers and strippers got tattoos. They probably wondered where I worked and if they could follow me there.

Fast-forward 23 years. It’s November ’08. I am at my friend Athan’s wedding in Long Island. Athan is a longtime music freak, so I am surrounded by music-industry types. My ASK THE LONELY tattoo has remained lonely, as I vowed to have only one (and have a standing bet with my friend Jesse that I will get no other – he claims they’re like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t have just one). Over the years, as I worked in the music industry, I often used my tattoo as a trivia question: “What was the first U.S. single The Four Tops had? It’s 3 words that are tattooed on my shoulder.” No one ever answered correctly, even A&R guys and rock music critics. I remained smug in my knowledge of Motown and steely one-tattoo resolve.

Or so I thought.

I got busted, hard, by a guy at the reception with an iPhone.

I’d gotten many answers to my trivia question over the years, the funniest one being, “Walk Away Renee?” (Yeah, I’m going to tattoo Walk Away Renee on my shoulder. Try again.) But no one ever said to me, “You’re wrong. The Four Tops’ first U.S. single is not 3 words.” That’s what Mr. Smartypants was saying to me now.

ME: No way.

HIM: Way. Look.

He holds up his iPhone, and the screen shows me how ill-informed I’d been all these years: The Four Tops’ first U.S. single was Baby I Need Your Loving.

I gaped. My husband gaped. I said, “I’ve been asking that question for over 20 years. I thought I knew the right answer. No one busted me. No one.”

Not long afterward, I bought an iPhone. Never again.

My choice of mobile phone is not without consequence. I work as a learning technology specialist for Qualcomm, and I felt it incumbent on me to never carry a phone that didn’t have a Qualcomm chip in it. For this reason, you could have found a Palm Treo 650 in my purse at this wedding. I grabbed said phone and desperately tried to disprove Mr. Smartypants, but couldn’t get online (DAMMIT!).

What led me to defect to the iPhone was (1) the powerful evidence I’d just received that I was waaaay behind without it, and (2) the fact that I pay for my own phone, and thus can pick whatever I want. I also believe that you can’t beat the competition by knowing nothing about them.

What led me to finally blog about this experience was hearing that Qualcomm’s president, Steve Altman, actually welcomes the iPhone because it drives users to the 3G network, which Qualcomm helped invent and reaps royalties from. And because one day over beers I told the story to Amanda Coolong and Dan Tentler, and they said, “You have to write about this.”

Now that my illusions are shattered, I might as well let go of some other long-held beliefs. I just noticed that my tattoo has gone from its original black to a kind of blue-green. It also looks like it says ASK THE DONKEY. Maybe it’s time for a touch-up?

Just don’t tell Jesse.

1989, when my tattoo was still crisp