This blog post goes out Brian Moseley who – after seeing one my last post – felt I was holding back on music suggestions. So for Brian here’s my top 10 of 2009.

#1 Dominos by The Big Pink: The song that got Brian’s attention.

#2 Out of the Blue by Julian Casablancas: Strokes front man with a super catchy track

#3 Casablanca – Malajube: French Canadian rockers who were up for the coveted Polaris Prize in 2009.

#4 Only If You Run by Julian Plenti: Another solo project, this time from Interpol’s lead singer.

#5 Lisztomania by Phoenix: You’ve heard it a million times.

$6 The Outsiders by Doves: My favourite track from my favourite album of the year (Kingdom of Rust).

#7 Nothing to Worry About by Peter, Bjorn and John: Remember Young Folks? The track with all the whistling. Yeah, those guys.

#8 Gunman by Them Crooked Vultures: Not a particularly surprising collaboration given the people in this band, but this stomper delivers some face melting riffage.

#9I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman by K-os: The album wasn’t quite as solid from start to finish as his last two, but this song was so great, you’d never notice.

#10 Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear: Hipsters? Yes. But it was fun to listen to and my son’s face lights up every time the piano in the intro starts up.

Honourable Mentions - I'll Fight by Wilco and You're What She Came for by Franz Ferdinand.

I’m kicking the doors down.

Up until this point, this blog has served as my social media opinion and best practice stomping ground. I’ve kept the focus sharply on that subject for about a year now, but I’m realizing that I have more to say on a broader range of topics.

So starting this year I’m going to experiment with some new topics and methods of delivering those topics. Part of this stems from a new job that'll be spent living and breathing digital media and marketing even more than I already do - but mostly this is just me looking for a new challenge.

I’ll still have a heavy bent on digital media, marketing, social media and technology, but look for other elements of me to start peaking through.

Maybe it’ll be music or a band I’m currently enamoured with.

Maybe some thoughts on the iPad (because you clearly haven’t heard enough of that yet).

Or maybe I’ll just keep posting random pictures of my son (I’m kidding…come back).

Either way, it’ll be a slightly different reading experience that I hope people enjoy and stick with me for.

If you follow me on Twitter or read this blog with any regularity you’ll know that I’m no fan of the current state of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission). They have become my favourite whipping boy for what not to do in customer service.

But after reading this article I feel like there might be a glimmer of hope for the Red Rocket.

It’s no secret they’ve been reluctant to embrace technology or use it to its fullest potential (turnstiles, tokens, paper tickets). But with this new blue ribbon task force put together to evaluate customer service the TTC is in a position to draw on the valuable feedback that already exists.

By embracing the social media tools that they’ve really only toyed with to this point, they could be tapping into the online community for people’s thoughts and opinions – in real time!

Using their Twitter accounts for more than just status updates and service issues, they could be talking directly to passengers about their experiences and where they see gaps in service.

Facebook would be perfect for quick surveys or topical discussion groups. And doing a blog search would turn up all the TTC enthusiasts and detractors who already have the attention of the online community.

This doesn’t replace their efforts to track customer satisfaction, but it's a useful and inexpensive extension. It would be foolish to imagine that social media will answer all the TTC’s customer service issues, but with a vocal online community already offering up their opinions, suggestions and insights – why not tap into that? On top of that, you're showing a committment to your customers by meeting them on their turf - in their environment - online.

I posted last week about how Roger’s simple act of engaging me via Twitter (in my environment) was enough for me to take notice and save me as a customer. The TTC has no competition to speak of, but imagine the response if they just asked their customers how they felt about the current state of the TTC's customer service. For me it would be a giant step in the right direction.

I'm a huge fan of Mitch Joel. Watch this video to find out why.

You can see the original posting here at Mitch's site Twist Image

Over the past few days I’d been mulling over a theme for a posting when that same theme started cropping up everywhere. It made an appearance in someone's blog posting and then a magazine I was reading. It was mentioned in an audio book I’m listening to and even popped up in a casual conversation with a friend.

Basically, the reoccurring themes was – are we consciously putting limits on ourselves and our abilities? Let me explain.

I was reading an article by Robert J. Holland in which he questions how anyone can follow hundreds of people on Twitter and possibly get any work down. Holland goes on to mention (as if boasting) that he limits the amount of people he follows to 30 (now 44) because any more would be far too distracting.

Then while reading this blog posting from Chris Brogan, he cautions about spreading yourself too thin in the online world.

As I said, I’m seeing this all over the place. We are constantly setting limitations on our informational input/output levels or building dams on how much we can process. That’s fine and I understand the urge to set your own limits. Not everyone can watch television with a laptop in front of them and divide their concentration between both efforts. And not everyone has the time to write blogs, post to Twitter and keep their Facebook page up to date.

But what if future generations are simply expected to pull this off? Our hunger for information at break-neck speeds isn’t diminishing – it’s only becoming more ravenous. So isn’t it safe to assume that the next crop of communicators will be forced to have their fingers in multiple pies (so to speak)?

Alarmists predicted 10+ years ago (incorrectly) that email would be the death of face-to-face conversation. These same people screamed that Blackberries would have them working all hours of the day and would be a constant distraction (also incorrect, to a degree). Companies still don’t trust their employees to have full access to the internet as the temptation to slack-off is too great.

The reality is that these tools took time to adjust to. We needed to adapt our thinking and the way we approached our work but now businesses couldn’t survive without email, mobile offices and of course the internet.

Now here we are celebrating social media, but doing it all over again, with post after post instructing people to limit how much information they take in, instead of saying – take in as much as you can, find a comfortable place and work from their. Adjust your habits, try something new and push your limits.

I don't mean to point fingers at the "old guard" but are you really helping yourself by closing doors? By trying to force new styles of communication and technology into your old style of work habits aren’t you just putting a date-stamp on your knowledge and capabilities? 

How can you definitively say “I can only keep track of a few followers on Twitter,” when you’ve never tried to follow more? How can you say you have trouble monitoring more than one or two social networks when you’ve never attempted to start a third?

Social media is still in its nascent stages so you can decide now to fit it into your existing schedule or you can choose to adapt, try a new schedule and really test your limits.

Which one will you choose?