Reading A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist

Found at

A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist.

Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play, and mostly for the better, says Martin Giles (interviewed here)

Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

Illustration by Ian Whadcock

THE annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, currently in progress, is famous for making connections among the global great and good. But when the delegates go home again, getting even a few of them together in a room becomes difficult. To allow the leaders to keep talking, the forum’s organisers last year launched a pilot version of a secure online service where members can post mini-biographies and other information, and create links with other users to form collaborative working groups. Dubbed the World Electronic Community, or WELCOM, the forum’s exclusive online network has only about 5,000 members.

But if any service deserves such a grand title it is surely Facebook, which celebrates its sixth birthday next month and is now the second most popular site on the internet after Google. The globe’s largest online social network boasts over 350m users—which, were it a nation, would make Facebook the world’s third most populous after China and India. That is not the only striking statistic associated with the business. Its users now post over 55m updates a day on the site and share more than 3.5 billion pieces of content with one another every week. As it has grown like Topsy, the site has also expanded way beyond its American roots: today some 70% of its audience is outside the United States.

Although Facebook is the world’s biggest social network, there are a number of other globetrotting sites, such as MySpace, which concentrates on music and entertainment; LinkedIn, which targets career-minded professionals; and Twitter, a networking service that lets members send out short, 140-character messages called “tweets”. All of these appear in a ranking of the world’s most popular networks by total monthly web visits (see chart 1), which also includes Orkut, a Google-owned service that is heavily used in India and Brazil, and QQ, which is big in China. On top of these there are other big national community sites such as Skyrock in France, VKontakte in Russia, and Cyworld in South Korea, as well as numerous smaller social networks that appeal to specific interests such as Muxlim, aimed at the world’s Muslims, and ResearchGATE, which connects scientists and researchers.

To be continued at A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mobile Internet Users grow 245% [India] – Facebook becomes most popular mobile social network [global] – Report (trak.in)
• Who’s Who in Social Networks for Business (startupprofessionals.com)
• Privacy: Managing the New Currency of the Social Web (mashable.com)

[Via http://fredzimny.wordpress.com]

Cyberdog is blogging

Ya may think it’s just another blog, ya may think “what does that Cyberdog Vyper has to say?”, ya may think whatever you want… no-one is forcing you to follow this my blog… but I’m blogging now… you like it or not

Anyways, what is my plan with this blog? Well, first of all I just wanna have the same thing as always with it… fun…

Furthermore I gonna use wordpress, same as MySpace to share with you my thoughts, my ideas, my music (even if that gonna be difficult as lol.. gotta get somehow the MySpace-Player in here xD)

And, after all, I gonna post my sets from my recent playlists here, like I already do on MySpace… let’s give it a try lol

[Via http://djcyberdog.wordpress.com]

Social Networking and your library

Social networking tools are a valuable way to promote your library. As a school librarian, it may not be as effective as it is for public librarians, but you can be assured the children notice when the library home page announces its presence on MySpace, Twitter, or Facebook.

They may not be willing to be your friend, but they might check in to see what’s up.  A savvy librarian can also link twitter and Myspace or Twitter and facebook. If you get your connections right you can update three places at once!

Because of the increase in popularity of these social networking options, you can set up an account, search for libraries, and instantly you have at least a dozen friends! Post videos, update often, and advertise on your homepage. A little typing goes a long way…Here are some tips.

How to Better Engage Facebook Fans: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-better-engage-facebook-fan-page-fans/

There’s even a facebook group called Libraries Using Facebook Pages.

Here are the slides from a presentation on libraries and facebook & Second Life. http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/education/brownbags/spring2008/slface2/SLandFacebook2.pdf

This is an excellent article for libraries considering Twitter. It answers many FAQ’s and offers sound advice: http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may09/milstein.shtml 

Myspace also has a group called Libraries on MySpace.

Here;s an interesting article on how one library has used MySpace (It is from 2007) http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6456389.html

Just remember, keep it fun, multimedia is always a hit, and update often.

A Guide to Twitter in Libraries: http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/a-guide-to-twitter-in-libraries/

[Via http://dpsmarians.wordpress.com]

In Lights EP, The River Court, free download!

Earlier this month Toronto based pop punk band, In Lights released their new EP The River Court for free download. The River Court is a follow up to their 2008 full-length Constellations. The band consists of Dylan French on vocals, Gavin Sutton on guitars and vocals, guitarist Nick Dooley, Andrew Brunette on bass and drummer Tyler Jones. The band brings together catchy beats, smooth vocals, awe-inspiring riffs and amazing bass lines. You can check out In Lights by visiting their MySpace or download the free EP The River Court Here.

[Via http://visionthenet.wordpress.com]

Beach House - Teen Dream;

Where you thinking that you gotta run to now with the beating of a tiny heart?

For the last two months or so, I have found myself entrapped in an undertow brought on by the whirling, haunting and dreamy sounds of Beach House. (While they are by no means a recently discovered band, it seems as if a full appreciation for their artistry had not made its full circle around my mind until a certain Sheep that I can always count on, found a home for one of their new tracks on a fabulously constructed mix.) It has become a familiar process as of late; no matter the time of day, I find myself granting permission to put the real world on pause, reach for whatever sound producing device may be near by and select any one of thirty tracks by the aforementioned Beach House. The result is an instant lull, followed by a sheepish smile, a deep cleansing breath and conversation between my eyes and the sky or perhaps a simple sigh, which precedes a spell induced staring contest with whatever stands in the space between my current state of mind and the baggage that has fallen, so effortlessly, from my conscious. Eventually, I am overcome with the desire to make some sort of contact with the outside world and let them know just ‘how much I love this band.’ (Fortunately, the Sheep has unlimited texting and, um, patience.)

You’d think this was some sort of religious experience, or perhaps one involving illicit drugs but neither of the above are true, really. What it is for me is simple. It’s Beach House’s ability to elevate the simplicity of sound to such heights – where the air is too thin to breathe, forcing the overcharged and underpaid synapses in my brain to finally come to a rest and allow my subconscious to get lost for a while. Perhaps, Rebecca Solnit, author of “A Field Guide to Getting Lost,” said it best: “To lose yourself: a voluptuous surrender, lost in your arms, lost to the world, utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away.” And that is what Beach House does for me. Their sound, so perfectly layered – like a big fucking ice cream cake – completely melts the taste buds of my mind, drops the temperature within my soul to somewhere deep below the point of zero and then transports me, stumbling gracefully through every note and hollow word, to a place where I am lost, yet comfortable with the idea of it all.

In an endless night,
could you feel the fright of an age that was and could never be?
So we hold it close when we feel the most
like a love that we could not leave behind
Turn the wheel to each way we feel until
I’m lost and I cannot find you there
Don’t forget the nights when it all felt right,
are you not the same as you used to be?

For the most part, my last two months have been spent procrastinating papers, cramming for exams, celebrating holidays, spending time with friends, learning how to speak Canadian and um, oh – that’s right – reevaluating the plans that I’ve been counting on and peeking through my hands as I fear for their unravelling. So, yeah, that might have something to do with needing an escape, but that does not away from how amazing this band actually is at what it does.

Have I gone too far? Personally, I don’t think so. A band has not had the power to make me feel this way since I was 12 years old. I believe that when one is lucky enough to have something affect them so strongly, it is important to realize how rare of an occurrence it truly is and to appreciate it, allowing it the space that it needs to consume, fulfill and eventually repair you.

With that being said, Beach House’s third full length album, Teen Dream (head over to NPR for a free preview), hits stores today, 1/26/09. I believe I can speak for both myself and our little wooly friend when I say that it is an album that needs to be heard, even if only once, you owe it to your soul. My superfreaky friend was cool enough post a great entry about the Teen Dream vinyl, including pictures – you should check it out.

Maybe this was not much of an album review but sometimes, some things are better left unexplained, especially when the opportunity exists to experience them. Take a deep breath, let your mind go and enjoy.

And thank you, Ms. Legrand and Mr. Scally.

Beach House Myspace
NPR Teen Dream Stream
Song of the Week

[Via http://wolvesamongthesheep.wordpress.com]

Social Networks: Finding People, Finding Trouble

YPSILANTI, Mich.- With the development of new technologies like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, it is easier than ever to reach out to people across the country and even through out the world to fulfill the unique human obsession of “social networking.”

The most common definition of social networking has something to do with technology, but if you really think about the words that make up the term, you might find that, even before the internet, computers and BlackBerrys, we all still had social networks made up of our friends, family and colleagues.

In Clay Shirkey’s ” It Takes a Village to Find a Phone,” Evan Guttman, the friend of Ivanna, a woman who lost her SideKick cell phone in a New York City taxi cab, uses his already established network of friends and acquaintances to track down and find the teenage girl who ended up with the phone.

The complexity and extent of the human network in the age of technology is astounding.  People use to play the celebrity-themed game ” Six Degrees of Separation”  where you would try to find a celebrity who can be separated by more than six relationships from Kevin Bacon, and it was fairly difficult to do.

Now, you can play that game with anyone from anywhere and connect them, through their social network, to just about anyone on the planet, though it may take more than six degrees to make a connection. But, in ” It Takes a Village to Find a Phone,”  the connections that were unearthed to find and retrieve the lost/stolen phone created a level of attention that had some unintended consequences.

Guttman turned the effort to find the phone and get it back from the teenage girl who possessed it, perhaps unintentionally, into a witch-hunt to avenge a perceived crime against his friend.

The unique circumstance of knowing who had the phone and knowing that she and her family did not intend to return it, made people following Guttman’s campaign to get it back take the hostage-takers’ position personally.

The concept of the “one-person media outlet” in this situation unfolded in the willingness of individual followers of the campaign to investigate and gather information that not only provided information to Guttman, but also added fresh angles to what became a national and international story.

The eventual return of the cell phone and the arrest of the girl who had it, raised a few questions.  Was it ethical to gang up on a teenage girl, making an example of her, humiliating her, potentially perpetuating  racial stereotypes and highlighting the disparity between classes in American society? 

Perhaps not, but it does show what the social nature of human beings, mixed with the latest technologies, is capable of doing.  There are undoubtedly better ways to utilize social networks. This just happens to be a case-study in how much power people can have if they work together.

[Via http://mattlane10.wordpress.com]

Claudette Jameson Must Die!

I wanted to build an empire off of this name, but it seems it has been tarnished since birth. A name I created for a virtual game that soon became an alias to keep my real name private soon spun out of control, and now the person who is Claudette Jameson is ruining my own well being.

This alter ego is turning me into someone online who I’m not in real life. An oversexed, attention whore, who never wears clothes, who is depressed or angry most of the time and wonders why she is single.  It’s effecting my personal life because I am now turning to drugs and alcohol to deal with the attack I’ve  experienced online.  This alter ego has made me addict to the internet, where I go in hopes of comfort and attention, things I’ve rarely get, and because of my actions on various message boards and websites many of my online friends have given up and abandoned me.

I don’t want to be this person anymore. I want to go back to who I was almost 3 years ago. I want to go back to being happy most of the time instead of crying all the time and making suicide threats for attention. I never did that in the past. Actually, I was afraid, embarrassed for people to know that I had those thoughts because I thought that I would lose friends or end up in a mental facility again.  I saw this alias as a way of  being able to say what I wanted and not be afraid. I thought I was in control of it, but at the end of the day it was in control of me.

So now she must die. I must destroy her. I have to do this so I can be happy.  If I just lived as me and stopped battling between these 2 people. I would be happier. It’s like she’s possessed by demons and now she’s controlling me.  That may be the reason why I could never go through with most of my suicide attempts. I don’t want to kill me. Claudette wants to die. She’s the one who is suicidal. She’s the one who is hurting, who cries herself to sleep, she’s the one who wants to end it all. I’m ok. I need to get rid of her and that first step to doing that is getting rid of her name. 

I have to get rid of everything associated with her. Her Twitter account, her Facebook page, her Myspace, as well as this blog and all the other blogs with her name. I’m sorry, but I have to let her die. She has done nothing but cause me pain over these few years.  All of this could have died down by now if it wasn’t for me wanting to keep her alive. I felt like I needed her to be known, but I don’t. Now she’s just a distraction from the real world and who I really am. I can’t find me with her in the way. So I have to kill her.

[Via http://claudettejameson.wordpress.com]

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine -- Just Do It!

Suicide is no laughing matter, but social networking is slowly killing us. Good thing you can now give in to the temptation to “disappear” from the world of status updates and mindless tweets by unplugging your online self (or selves) with the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine!

For those of you out there who are tired of your social network, the nifty Sucide Machine online application lets you “delete all your energy sucking social networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web 2.0 alter-ego.”

The process to defriend, detweet, and linkout is so deceptively simple that demanding “you cease this activity immediately,” citing a violation of users’ privacy. Of course, this is nonsense since the more than 1,000 people who have committed “social suicide” release this information under their own volition!

Here’s how it works: Once you hand over your log-in details and click “commit,” the program will delete each bit of info one by one — Twitter tweets, MySpace contacts, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections — so you don’t have to do it yourself manually.

But before you meet your real neighbors again, it’s important to bear in mind that there’s no UNDO button. Once you’ve committed social suicide, you are signed out forever and the only way to get back into the “matrix” is to start over all again.

RIP 2.0: the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will host a cybermemorial in your honor, but don’t be surprised if some of your “friends” are tempted to sign out forever too — and join you in the real world in 52 minutes instead of 9 hours 35 minutes!

This article does not necessarily endorse social suicide, but if we highly encourage you to share it with anyone you know who’s in dire need of online intervention.

Posted via web from yellowperilist

[Via http://sixpondmeadow.com]

Facebook is an effective tool for propaganda

As we all know that social networking websites have been the centre of most of the internet community, and not to forget the youngsters, youngster interact with these websites (like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5,LinkedIn) more than 30 times a day. The fact that these websites have became an effective tool for propaganda against top political leaders as a large amount.

There are certain advertisements roaming around on social networking websites particularly on Facebook. These kinds of advertisements often have text, photographs, audio or video clips in which unknown people try to present negative opinion against politicians.

While talking about Facebook particularly, here on Facebook anyone can create his own advertisement with the provided guidelines and can decide terms and conditions based upon per day payment through various sources.

All attempts to find out the source of any of these advertisements have simply failed because those who post them do not show their identity. But the data, given with the advertisements, showed that thousands of people view them regularly.

Azeem Ashraf, a software engineer said:

It seems that everyone is a member of a social network these days. Whether it’s your kids on MySpace and Facebook, or your colleagues on LinkedIn, people are taking advantage of these new online meeting spaces to make friends, communicate and expand business opportunities,

Some of the lawyers states that if there is no source mentioned then no legal action can be taken against the source that created the negative advertisements.

Khwaja Naumanul Haq, a lawyer, said

the users do not enjoy any of the immunities granted to social networking sites under the law, so they should be careful to always act appropriately when posting messages or files to the sites.

There is another trend that the top political personalities create their own dedicated fan pages (profile in other words) for their fans in order to interact with their fans. This trend is quite good and far more positive than that of advertisements.

For instance there is a page on Facebook by former military dictator Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf and Pervez Musharraf has attracted 90,012 fans in just few months. The number of fans on the fan page of Imran Khan are 34,676. Both the personalities regularly interact with their fans and respond them accordingly.

[Via http://mansoorahm.wordpress.com]

TweetDeck, seamlessly integrate Twitter into your life.



Looking for a one-stop Twitter shop? With all of Twitter’s capabilities and options there has to be a place to contain it all to one screen. A place you can view it all tweets you want to keep up with, easily see message coming in to you, and respond to it all.

Such a place (really, it’s more of a tool) does exist. Meet TweetDeck (click here to download). TweetDeck makes tweeting not only easy, but also completely customizable to your dealership’s wants and needs.  TweetDeck just makes using Twitter easier than you could have ever imagined.  How you ask?

Why we love TweetDeck:

1.  It’s a one stop shop for all your Twitter needs.
TweetDeck allows you to see everything from your Twitter account in a single glance. You no longer have to click on mentions, the feed, or your direct messages. Just one screen to look at, and everything is arranged logically.

2. It can update everywhere!
Tweetdeck has buttons that allow you to send you tweet to not only Twitter, but also to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace.  Send to all, send to one, send to a couple, and do it all from one place.

3. Customizable viewing.
You can customize your screen. View multiple accounts, your personal twitter account and your dealership account on one screen, AT THE SAME TIME! View mentions, direct messages, tweets and new followers, AT THE SAME TIME!

4. It allows you to the people you follow into logical categories.
TweetDeck allows you to separate those you’re following into groups (i.e. other dealers, RV Industry, customers, community etc.).

TweetDeck might be exactly what you need to kick your tweeting into high gear and make it (even more) enjoyable.

Find out more about TweetDeck at this “How-To” page, or check out this informative video.

[Via http://rvsocialmedia.com]

Strip Club Life... Revisited...

I visited my old life yesterday and I have to say that it was good. I have really been able to reflect on what truly has brought me to the place I am now. There was a perfect storm, if you will, of reasons that I decided to make the changes I have. I realize that it was really a matter of too much for too long without restraint. Whether it be smoking, drinking, partying, etc… I was just out of control!

I am on the verge of going back to the club where it all started. I stopped in to say hello, not really having any ulterior motives, and I ended up getting offered a job. I do not plan on making it a career, but more a springboard out of my poverty and on to a life that I want. The fact is, DJ’s do not stay anywhere for very long, usually, I was one of the exceptions to the rule as I was at Oasis for 3 years. I am going to say now that I am putting a time limit on staying in the business. I will do the best job I can while stashing away my earnings and making my exit when the time is right. All the while, I will be pursuing my interests in graphic design and photo restoration and design. Oh, and most importantly, going to the gym and continuing my return to health.

I also visited my girl D… It was so good to see her, though I feel that my absence has caused a bit of uneasy conversation and I found myself a bit at a loss for something to say other than the common pleasantries. For what reason? I really don’t know, it wasn’t her, she has always meant a lot to me. I think that it was just because I really feel like I made a total ass of myself at the end of my tenure there. I was really fucked up at that point, and I feel like I let a few people down, including and especially her. D, I love you, you are my sister I never had, and I am sorry for abandoning you!

I know that what I did was, in the long run, for the better. I am feeling good and thinking more clearly than I have in years. Though I have made a lot of good decisions lately, I still am second guessing some of my choices. I really think that going back into the fold is going to be the best route to take, and I turned down an offer from an old friend to help with a job. The job would have been one that I would have to be the loud, aggressive salesman again… but, I just don’t feel that I have that in me anymore. It’s not that I fear the work, but, I fear who I am when I do that work. However long or short my time is in this existence, I don’t want to be that person anymore.

I like who I am now, and who I plan to become. I am a happier person and have a life to look forward to every day, good times and bad. It is with that thought that I leave you for now.

Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support.
As always, take care and remember…

Every day is a chance to turn it all around!

- Kenny

<——- Back to Kenny Is Losing It – Home

Donate to Kenny Is Losing It

[Via http://kennyislosingit.wordpress.com]

I Love The Internet (pt. 18)

- Flexibility: it’s almost never, ever overrated.

- Christ. Look, I accept that this is essentially a nation composed of obese weapon fanatics, so the idea of a company that sells chocolate guns strikes me less a preposterous joke, than a great business idea. But chocolate ammo? Chocolate grenades? Really?

- I remember hearing about these Seth McFarlane-designed Alice in Wonderland figurines, but I never got to see the finished products until now, and…holy shit. Incidentally, for those of you who think I’m talking about the Family Guy writer, I’m talking about the guy who made things like this.

- In this crazy world of instant worldwide internet saturation, I am eternally grateful for the simple fact that a lot of hot girls don’t seem to realize that taking a sexy picture of yourself and put it on Facebook or MySpace doesn’t so much lead to that cute guy that lives a few houses down noticing you as much as it leads to random websites archiving your “private” pictures.

- It’s a known, but little-discussed fact that movies change a ton during the process from idea to full-fledged project, and the interesting tweaks that occur grow in stature when you’re talking about Avatar, a film that’s maybe two months old but is already the second-highest grossing movie of all time. Side note: I agree with this blogger when he says that this treatment might have made a “better” movie than what we eventually got.

- Mark Millar is one of the most prolific comic writers of the last decade or so, overseeing acts such as turning Superman into a dedicated commie, turning Wolverine into essentially a mind-controlled zombie ninja, and tearing apart the Marvel Universe, just to name a few. But when he says his newest work, Nemesis, can be described as…well, I’ll just let him describe it:

‘”Nemesis” is a reversal of the Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark archetype. What if this genius billionaire was just this total shit, and the only thing that stood between him and a city was the cops? It’s Batman versus Commissioner Gordon, in a weird way. Or maybe a super-villain version of “Se7en.” A billionaire anarchist up against ordinary people. The Joker’s the best thing in the Batman movies, so this guy is a bit of an amalgamation of all the stuff we like.’

Sure, Batman as the Joker seems like a good idea, but everyone knows DC won’t let that fly, so how close could it really be…

Well then. Note – DC is not amused.

- Are the citizens of Dubai incapable of showing even a modicum of simplicity in their architecture?

- I have some friends who don’t really like Michael Cera, because in their words “he plays the same character in every movie.” Um…just about every actor plays the same character in every movie, right? But I’ve been excited about the upcoming movie adaptation of fantastic indie comic “Scott Pilgrim”, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and this still from the last fight scene between Pilgrim and his nemesis Gideon’s cronies just has me even more excited.

- Out of all the hip-hop video vixens that have “blown up” over the years (Melissa Ford, Vida Guerra, Ki Toy Johnson, Gloria Velez, etc.), it is still absolutely insane that the painfully fine Nicole Ricca still gets almost zero recognition.

- Some people might say that this flamethrower/mosquito killer is total overkill. As a native Floridian, my only response is, “Why isn’t this in stores yet?”

- Did you know that with maybe five minutes of work, you can hack into your friend’s Kodak Easyshare Wireless Picture Frame? If you’re wondering why you would even want to do something like that, well…you’ve never pulled a prank on someone, have you?

- “Thou speakest rightly, sir. No man misdeals with Joshua Quince, by Jesu!” Verily, brothers and sisters, the most excellent comedie and tragic romance of Two Gentleman of Lebowski is as a drought of the most delectable heavenly nectar.

- Iron Man’s new armor is sick as fuck. That is all.

- Indie games! Thanks to Boing Boing for this guide to the 2010 Indie Games Festival; my personal favorite so far is Today I Die. Go check it out.

-People (mostly foreigners) always talk about how, despite large amounts of evidence to the contrary, Americans act like everything about our country trumps everything about every other country in the world, throughout time. Well, that’s just plain not true. My proof? The fact that any red-blooded American man will fucking melt if you throw an attractive foreign girl his way, as this list of the top 15 countries with the hottest women will attest.

- The Perplexus looks like a freakish mix between an M.C. Escher drawing, a pinball game and a couple of hits of LSD. I’m sure it goes without saying that I absolutely love it.

- I don’t care if you don’t give a shit about architecture or CGI; you need to watch this absolutely breathtaking video by the Third and the Seventh on the aspect of architectural art from a photographic viewpoint:

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

[Via http://noksblog.wordpress.com]

Wanna twitter my facebook in myspace?

The first social media network I joined was Myspace. I reconnected with about a dozen people from my past, got bored, and have since abandoned it. Nowadays, I only log back in if I get a notice that someone sent me a message or has sent me a friend request. Unfortunately, I usually end up spending 10 minutes trying to remember my login/password, only to finally log in to see that it was just spammer extraordinaire Jessica DD Juggs. (Just so’s you know, I accepted. Her brains are awesome.)

Facebook was the next thing to suck me in. It started out being alright. I actually made more quality connections through it, and I’m not ashamed to admit that most of my friends are my online friends that I’ve made through there. Or my “imaginary” friends as my husband likes to refer to them. It all started going downhill fast when the developers made all the interface changes in an attempt to become more Twitterfied. It’s one big ‘ole shitfest now, but I still log in to keep in touch with the girls. Ah, the things I do for boobs.

Aaaaand that takes us to Twitter. I personally have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. For most people, it’s just one big competition for attention where only a select few are declared victorious. To make it even more challenging, there’s the ever annoying character limit. So not only do I have the pressure of trying to think of something witty to say, I also have to do it right at 140 characters. What the what?

It cracks me up whenever I log into Twitter, because 90% of my timeline tweets are coming from people who are “working hard” at their job. Where the heck do these people work, and is their workload so light that they can spend so much time tweeting? And seriously, is it worth it to risk losing your job (you know, the thing that allows you to buy all those pretty, shiny distractions in your life) just so you can tweet to your online brethren that verra verra special NSFW picture of some pretty peen?

It’s Friday, so let’s take a peek at a few of the tweets on my timeline currently, shall we?

“boss passing thru, brb!”
“Lots of work to do today. Will be lurking”
“omg this day is made of suck. fml. tgif beeches!”

and my personal favorite :  “I mean the pic from last night where his wang looks huge…does anyone have that one??”

One of my friends – let’s call her Sadie – used to be on Facebook and Twitter all day long. The girl didn’t even bother trying to be careful about it because her supervisor started following her on Twitter, and she didn’t even notice! One day, she absolutely freaked out because she had been called in and was told that she was walking on thin ice with her “unproductivity”. Apparently her boss had been following her on Twitter for a little while and had taken screenshots of her Twitter page as proof. You’d think that at that point, she’d just give up tweeting cold turkey during company time, but nope. She just locked her tweets and sneaks in between tasks with her Crackberry.

A couple of other friends have the usual office desk job, and spend most of their time at work reading fanfiction. I shit you not. THEY ARE GETTING PAID TO READ SMUT.

Do we live in the Twilight Zone where people get paid whilst tweeting their work day away? It completely boggles my mind.

And yes, I totally said “whilst”.

[Via http://reignsreign.wordpress.com]

Psychic Chasms

Review-

Neon Indian- Psychic Chasms.

I had listened to the EP six months ago and was a little impressed by it’s poppy dance that I do enjoy, but this LP went flat after listening to it three times.  As I walked downtown from my house listening to it on my ipod I was unable to stop myself from walking with the groove and having a little uncontrollable dance in my step. As I faced the traffic jam from the red light behind me with lots of bored passengers who have nothing better to do then stare at me because their moving death boxes keep them separated from the outside world and they think I don’t notice which usually I don’t. The LP of same name as the EP is about the same funky lo-fi groove from the past couple of years many American artists have produced and will probably continue to produce. I did enjoy the album the first two times I listened to it and think it has lots of safe mass appeal. I do not think this album will be on my infinite repeat list or be my inspiration for the new year, but it’s good for a party as it’s not too off the wall and has that easy laid back groove. But Neon Indian sound like too many other bands and even has song titles that nod to his influences. I find this annoying and put off by the copycat or should I say cut copy style and I wonder how his MGMT felt like about his choices. Or if a black moth or a super rainbow blinded him in the studio or should I say bedroom and clouded his judgment? Because of this ability to pin down the other artists I am more reluctant to give it a high score. It it is a solid release, but just a little too much of weak lyrics and the sparklie mono tape disco for me. I would give this to a girl on her birthday. Don’t be surprised when talking to friends about your new Neon Indian purchase that you confuse it with lots of other hip bands that sound the same in name and feeling.

4/10 replays

http://www.myspace.com/neonindian

[Via http://mymusicnotyours.wordpress.com]

Blast From Tha Past: Floetry~<i>"Gettin' Late..."</i>

These are absolutely MY GURLS!  

These two chicks appeared on the scene from England with they own lil style!
~Floetry, consistin’ of  Marsha Ambrosius (“the Songstress“) -she looks like my baby sis, Aquila, and Natalie Stewart (“the Floacist“),  two friends who met attending Brits Performing Arts School.    In 1997, Ambrosius and Stewart began writin’ songs and playin’ shows in and around London.   Three years later, they moved to America.    To me they did the dayumm thang!.    The Talkin’  Headz say that Nat was  replaced with somebody name Amanda Diva,  for tours in 2007, and then ~Floetry  just faded off into the sunset.    :-(     Marsha  later signed as a solo artist to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.     Heard nuthin new of Nat…but she’s on Myspace with some coo-ass shyt- “She Luv Like…”   is off the deep end…

I’m tellin U~~~

I’m “addin’ as a friend” as we speak!~♦

That’s all I know…

“Floetic” (the CD this song is on!) went Gold,  and is still the  “gol-darn”  shyt, part’ na!~

::I dare you to say it isnt!::

[Via http://benzbaby.wordpress.com]

myspace migration

I’ve been doing some digging around my old electronic self to get reminders on some favourite gigs/albums/culture of past years so I can post a little decade round up of my faves.I know this may seem late but I don’t know how people find the fine to do this before the year/decade is actually out. That’s what January is for!

So this research has consisted of searching old emails (frequently do end of year Top 5’s with mates)  and blogs; pre-”stranded” I was over there on old myspace, circa 2006/2007 getting introduced to blogging that way.  Funny how quickly I migrated to facebook- seems like it was spring/summer 2007- and started ignoring myspace. Anyhow – decided to copy and paste the blogs from myspace in here with their original post dates so that I have them in one place. I’ve tagged them all as myspace archive in case anyone is so inclined as to want to browse them. It’s the same sort of chat I do here really, music, culture, things to get to, reviews of things gotten to by me. I should really delete the myspace account outright- like the many millions that are being haemorrhaged from the platform in the past year- but I can’t bear to delete it fully just yet….soon, soon.

[Via http://stranded.ie]