Hi. I’m Chris Dufour. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.

According to this place on the interwebz, I do things like digital strategy, creative content development, and event planning. I dig words like brandjacking, LOLling, and memefucking. From time to time, I write on this electro-buoyant tablature. Occasionally, I make rock. Ultimately, I blow doors down. I also like things in triumvirates.

Above all things, I chronicle the AWESOME. Been a bit delinquent in that lately. Alas, I’m sometimes given to fly.

You can holla at me via Twitter, which I monitor ridiculously, or contact me via this website.

This is my current favorite internet meme:

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

With that melancholy Kerouac quote, I turn mine eyes west and southwards, saddling a well oiled rubber-footed beast to drive, drive, drive. Firstly, I shall flagellate myself with adventures never before experienced in Nashville and continue Down South to the hellish humidity of Hattiesburg. Strong madness still consumes that town. Perhaps I’ll recount this adventure here as it reveals itself to me.

A mighty welcome to so many of you lovely new consumers to this blog. Traffic whore I am, I value your boundless criticism of the horrors chronicled within. It is only through such murderous sadism that we writers find the divining rods to a life less ordinary.

See you on the road.

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Apologies to all you good people for the lack of substantial new content lately. Work at @Du4.llc has taken off in the past couple months, and a smattering of other esoteria has also begun vying for my time. Instead of whining about it though, I figured I’d post a quick update on what’s new in AWESOME-Land.

• I’m hard at work on what I’m publicly calling #TheBigBookThing on Twitter. It’s a novel-like narrative that addresses a lot of my investigations into posthumanity and transhumanism here on the blog, but its design for publication will be anything but traditional book. Speaking of which, I’m looking for creative app developers that are interested in pushing the boundaries of traditional narrative storytelling on tablet devices. If that’s you, please send me a note.
• My friend Matt Armstrong has just assumed the Executive Directorship of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. If you’re in the DC area, I highly recommend you come by one of the public meetings of the commission to see what they’re up to and add your 2 cents.
• Moments Places International, a Fort Worth, Texas-based bed and breakfast company, just retained my services for some web redesign and social media work. I’m seeking feedback from anyone who wants to comment on what may make their site better seen and better found.
• I’m finally getting back into the music business. A couple friends and I have started up a new rock and roll project to gig in the DC / North Virginia area, so I’ve had my head down and my headphones on learning lyrics. Stay tuned to my Twitter feed and the hashtag #Facemelters for more updates on songs and forthcoming venues. Spoiler alert: there will be Oasis.
• I’ll be at Ignite DC #7 as a guest of the fine fellas at the White Canvas Group. Grab a ticket, come by, and say hi.
• A tremendous dick is finally out of the way, and we should all just move on.
• I highly encourage you to come to Realtime NY on June 6, the event formerly known as TWTRCON. The lads and lasses at Modern Media put on a GREAT show with lots of usable, valuable info.
• I’m still on the schedule to speak in London for the Information Operations Europe 2011 conference, travel arrangements allowing. Guess I should finish that slide deck.
• Please consider joining me for a great regional Sister Cities conference in Riverside, California, September 30 to October 1. If you can’t go, consider sponsoring a young professional or youth enthusiast who may be interested in contributing to citizen diplomacy efforts like Sister Cities.
• My Queen of Wifely AWESOMENESS and I are finally planning our honeymoon, a 2-week adventure from Florence, Italy through the South of France to Paris. Hotels, travel tips, and recommendations are always appreciated.
• More AWESOME travel coming up too to New Orleans, Fort Worth, Riverside, Houston, New York, the UK, and – with luck – a cross country road trip down memory lane to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where I spent four AWESOME years with my Dad before he died.
• Current obsessions: Mass Effect 2, L.A. Noire, Deadliest Catch on Netflix streaming, Breaking Bad on AMC, the Foo Fighters’ new album Wasting Light, Dark Horse Digital Comics, Scrabble for iPad, Animal Planet’s My Cat From Hell.

Depending on how the summer shapes up, there may very well may be some professional work changes to report. Despite my love of the freedom of independent consulting, Sean Connery said it best: “Never say never again.”

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

No links of the week this week: @Du4.llc closed two new clients this week, and I’m preparing for a trip to Dublin. I’ve never been to Ireland before, so this stands to be a lot of fun. If you’re in the area – we’ll be traveling through Galway and Dingle too – holla atcha boy, and we can link up for a taste of the Old Country.

Image via Wikipedia

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Image via Wikipedia

“A plan never survives first contact with the enemy,” said Mike Trexler, my mentor from my days on the IED Task Force. Today, that enemy is Mobility.

In my efforts to go super-mobile at SXSW in Austin, I seem to have broken the cross-posting mechanisms linked between Must. Be. AWESOME!!! and the other social streams I set up to report from the road. As a result, posting here will be light over the next 10 days.

I will maintain a steady stream-of-consciousness mobilely (I’m MAKING that a word) with some meatier content on my Posterous site which is proving to be a MUCH more AWESOME way of uploading and sharing content on the fly. Also be sure to check out the other social streams I previously detailed in this post.

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

175 years ago today, the Republic of Texas formed after a five-month battle against Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna‘s despotic dissolution of the Constitution of 1824. Texas remained an independent republic until its annexation by the United States in 1846, becoming the 28th state of the Union.

Despite my Mississipian birth handicap, I consider myself a son of Texas, and I learned the above facts like every other child of the Lone Star State in first grade. I plan to celebrate in extremis next week at SXSW and at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I hope to do some of that celebrating with you.

This Station Ident is for all you Texans out there, whether displaced by geography and commitment or enjoying a cold Shiner deep in the heart. Bravo too much, as the Indians said about the Rangers.

The Texas Declaration of Independence, signed by Samuel Houston and 50 others. What state will YOU create when you make your declaration of independence?

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Related articles

• Celebrating Texas Independence Day (dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com)
• Texas Independence Day 2011 (coffeemuses.com)
• “Happy 175th Birthday, Dear Texas!” and related posts (quotidiangrace.blogspot.com)
• Remember the Alamo! (roscoesdreams.wordpress.com)
• Texas Independence Day (fastcompany.com)
• YOUR Declaration of Independence (escapefromcubiclenation.com)
• >Texas Tidbits: Closing In On Independence (fishfearme.wordpress.com)

Having recently completed my most recent full-time gig and with nothing other than AWESOME @Du4.llc client work on the table for 2011, I am suddenly struck by the notion that I have a lot of time on my hands. So at the suggestion of the lovely Mrs. Dufour, I’m considering a whirlwind driving tour of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Kerouac’s been on my mind a lot lately too, so this might provide a cool opportunity to do some long-form writing as I refill the rapidly draining creative tank.

Got some suggestions on where I should go? America is my oyster. Leave feedback in the comments section.

The home in which I grew up on Hyacinth Drive in Longview, Texas. Photo taken by fellow Longview compadre Eric Semlear.

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

For as much time as I spend gaming, I sure don’t write enough about the games I play. I’m an extremely picky and snobby gamer too, so my experiences with game titles have to be pretty damn AWESOME to suck up the time and attention I’ll spend ignoring my wife, not working, and otherwise sitting around in my underwear with an Xbox controller in my hands. Look for some game write-ups in the coming weeks.

No Links of the Week this week either. Tons of client work and pre-Christmas shits and giggles. But if you saw something that tickled your fancy, let me know.

Stay classy, Wasteland!

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Original art from newspaper comics on the walls of the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

I’m struggling to get back into the blog saddle after several weeks of travel and madness. I’m cooking up a couple special posts soon, but I wanted to take a moment and welcome all the newcomers who are happening upon Must. Be. AWESOME!!! for the first time.

WELCOME!

I just returned from four days in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I attended the Sister Cities International (SCI) Annual Conference. I am a raging fan of Sister Cities, as you will see from some future blog posts, and I’m very proud to announce that I’ve been elected to SCI’s Board of Directors. This is a big deal to me as I’m following in the footsteps of my AWESOME mother, Mae Ferguson, who not only served on the board but acted as its president for two AWESOME years. I had an amazing time in ABQ where I met hundreds of new friends and colleagues from all over the world.

If you’re one of those new sisters or brothers, and you’re coming to the blog for the first time, I hope you enjoy it. I’m always open to feedback, so feel free to holler at me in the comments section of any post or via the contact form. I can’t wait to talk to you more!

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Outgoing SCI Chairman (and personal friend & mentor to me), Mike Hyatt, from Albuquerque.