persistence and the number 241543903

persistence is a powerful thing.  one can put their tweets on auto rotation with software, and keep posting their blog entries at random or regular intervals, and eventually, if they are persistent, everyone on their timeline will get a shot at that hyperlink on Twitter.  facebook is the same way, if one posts the same information with different "headlines" or eye catching compelling titles, eventually their fr and fam  will see it, and give it a click.  Linkedin is no different, join enough groups, post links to enough professionals, and again, use compelling short topics,  people will see us.

so there really is a fine line between persistence and outright spam.  i tend to think of spam as redundant, the same post over and over with no variation, this is annoying, and shallow, and obvious, but is persistence spam as well?  i guess spam in and of itself then is hard to define when we look at the word in light of persistence, one person's spam is another's determination?

no, i am not OCD, no I am not OCD, no I am not OCD..  if i tell myself i am not obsessive compulsive, being a ferret, is that not a bit of obsession?

so my point is this:  there is a pretty unique number we can find by gOOgling it, that is going to gOOgle and typing in the number 241543903.   here, i've done it for you, right click this link ( open in another window ) but remember to come "back" here when you are through
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=241543903

the third "hit"  or gOOGle entry states:

Oct 26, 2009 ... 241543903 (a.k.a Heads in Freezers) is a numerical keyword associated with a photo meme that involves people taking pictures with their ...  


so we know that the story dates back to at least October 2009 and yet persists to this day, to wit, if you simply type in gOOgle in your search on Twitter, you can still find this story, almost 15 months later!

so this is spam or persistence?  well, if you are a pissed off, drunken sot with no life, and want something to complain about, it's probably spam to you, and should be barred from the internet, and these people who stick their heads in freezers are complete losers, and they are all part of a plan to spam the entire world with their idiot photos on flicker or Twitpic or wherever it is they are posting them

however if you are one of the people with your head in the freezer, you think the number 241543903 is a cute reminder of the viral effect of the internet, and you have your half second of fame, not quite andy warhol's 15 min, but what the heck

and alas, if you are the ingenious creater of 241543903, you are quite tickled with yourself,  because against all odds, in the very face of logic, and all that is important to anyone in this world, with absolutely no key word search, no help from corporate investors, this crazy if not entirely random number is associated with people sticking their heads in freezers and having it's own set of searches on gOOgle.  without persistence, and keeping this crazy story alive it would have died out in an hour, when the first person didn't rush to put his/her head in the freezer!  whoever set out to make this point had to have persistence, to keep it alive this long, that much is clear



often, my fine folks, the difference between failure and success is persistence

thomas edison said, he failed 1,000 times in attempting to create artificial light, and  failure was just part of success, the two go hand in hand

so next time you want to give up, next time you are exhausted, next time you are convinced that it's probably all been a big waste of time, remember:

the difference between making it, and not making it, is "one more try"