Early in the year, Race-Dezert.com was approached for the purpose of initiating an advertising campaign. A fraction of the initiative was unconventional and something I had yet to see upon the web. I wanted to park a brand's Facebook and Twitter widget in the direct line of site and embed it above the fold of editorial and community-created forum content. The conventional banner ad was a no-brainer. But the direct engagement social widget advertising was a request that seemingly fell upon death ears.

It's rare that I make my way over here to RDC (Race-Dezert). But after a brief review of a Mint photo thread and seeing some good shots, I thought it a good idea to have a photo showdown. While I'm not going to offer any dough, until we can garner some form of sponsorship, I will offer a tweet or two to the winner's URL of choice and offer some web links to the three nominees referenced here.

This race photo is the second shot in a four-shot sequence captured at the 2010 SNORE Mint 400 desert off-road race and features the Orange County Motorsports Trophy Truck. The truck is seen dropping down from a hairpin turn that quickly developed into a silt bed. Much of the race course, which was located just north of the Las Vegas Strip, consisted of rough rocks and deep silt beds.

Here's a link for photographers, videographers and radio reporters alike. It's one of my all-time favorite companies for photo, audio and video equipment. And they have a great selection of used goods. I have been using them since the early years of my career as a photographer, dating back to the early-90s. Back then, B&H Photo distributed a regularly-published newsletter crafted from stapled paper. I purchased tens of thousands of dollars of equipment from that publication throughout the years. This link was inspired by Twitter friend JustinBrown17, specifically his reply to my post regarding photojournalist camera equipment and my prized Domke Camera Bag for working the newspaper scene. The photo used for this post was ripped from his Twitter page. Direct any photo credit therein. The kid's got motocross game. Just needs to begin branding his Twitter page. Check it.

I had mentioned I squeezed the trigger on a Gallery2 open source photo gallery install. Installing Gallery2 was quite simple. Though, integrating Gallery2 into the Joomla CMS was a bit more difficult but not like pulling teeth on a angry bear. I used the JFusion bridge component.

Do I stream? Do Ustream? Well, if you're considering launching a web cast that seeks to stream a live audio or live video show, then Ustream is an excellent platform to place your web streaming efforts into. I love the social media channel for its compartmentalized embed options, which can be easily tailored to your website's design layout. If you're not familiar with Ustream, a decent place to begin delving into how the platform works is found within the embedded video upon this page.

Looking to log into one of my personal business YouTube accounts, I was presented with a problem I had yet to fully address. Before I get into the semantics of what transpired to give me such tribulations, I would prefer to get straight to the business of outright warning you. When you are creating an account with any Google service, particularly with YouTube, you best be darn certain you are logged into the Google accounts, specifically the Google Gmail account, you want associated with the YouTube account, and be absolutely certain you are logged out of every fathomable Google service you don't want associated with the account. I would even go so far as to completely remove you browsers cookies, flushing them clean with a free tool such as Crap Cleaner, which has since been given the more politically correct term as CCleaner.

This morning began quite early. After an excruciatingly long day with a scant amount of sleep the evening previous, I slipped down down into a deep slumber by the time 2000 hours rolled around. It was a good day's work with formidable advances. I was convinced my body and mind was well deserving of the rest. After engaging in a dirt bike crash a few years back, which grenaded a Nikon D2X upon impact into my hip, it has proven quite difficult to work my way back into shape for the two- to five-mile runs I once performed on a regular basis. Even during that period of time, the calisthenics were difficult to maintain, as the hip was having nothing to do with it. It's amazing how a shin-high Yucca tree can be such a game changer. My entire back down to my upper leg was black and blue for months. Then, there after that crash, once I did pick up the pace on a weekly workout regiment, I was gleefully riding a Kawasaki KX110 one day with a few family members. And just when I was having the time of my life riding without goggles, I was roosted by my brother-in-law. An otherwise hilarious joke, which remained a hilarious joke, I was sent down tumbling into a ditch, where I assessed the damaged and quickly determined that I had at least broken a toe and sprained an ankle, the same ankle that kept me from a European club soccer tournament when I was younger and in the game. There were no apologies and quite simply no hard feelings. It's a man's world and the barbecue commenced right on time for yet another glorious occasion.

When it comes to technology and even social media, the Off-Road Industry (OFFROAD NATION) remains in a stooper, in part due to the archaic-minded mavens at the helm and likewise due to the snake oil salesmen who have delivered these the industry a sour taste of used car salesmanship. This remains true from aftermarket parts manufacturers to race promoters. I have my array of email accounts and keyword search tools that scan the web and more specifically the more prominent aspects of social media, scanning for anything pertaining to marketing, social media, public relations and e-commerce. Many of these search queries are focused intensely upon the overall #OFFROAD industry but delve into the #POWERSPORTS, #AUTOMOTIVE, #ACTIONSPORTS, #4X4 and related realms. Though, the update that arrived just moments ago was from one of my underground insiders, who forwarded me the content from an RDC thread, which opens as follows: