Blog is a Mix Tape

beyond the 140: killer apps and devil dolls

2008-03-25T07:57:29Z

@toddkelley you are so wrong for that avatar. I have seen the black devil doll trailer. in HD! about 15 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to toddkelley

@toddkelley heh heh heh. Undercover Black Man posted a link to it a couple months back. SOOOOO wrong. Funny. But SOOOO wrong. about 15 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to toddkelley

Black Devil Doll (Not Safe For You Anywhere). There is nothing right about this at all. And, of course I want to see every minute of it.

http://quotably.com/ is hot about 12 hours ago from twitterrific

have I said recently how much I adore skitch? about 11 hours ago from twitterrific

trying out this friendfeed joint. I'm not sure how it's different from plaxo pulse but I'll give it a shot. about 10 hours ago from twitterrific

It was a "fun with the internetz" day. Quotably really is great for following a twitter conversation. Especially if you don't follow all the people who are talking with the person driving the convo. I used it several times today. Tweetburner launched today too but I haven't really checked it out yet.

Skitch is kind of a killer App (mac only). I'm here.

As Mau pointed out to me, the big thing about friendfeed may be that it makes facebook updating a passive activity. (Yeah, I'm back on facebook after a 2 month hiatus. Sigh.)

I also really like drop.io.

np: way down in the hole by tom waits about 11 hours ago from twitterrific

i did this for @michellej but since I like drop.io so much, I figured I'd share. I'm not going back to pownce. http://drop.io/waydownhole/

Pretty cool, right?

Am I really buying the day26 album? about 2 hours ago from twhirl

My name is a Jason and I'm a Making The Band addict.

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speakeasy: more than you ever wanted to know about facebook

2008-01-24T09:03:55Z

I despise Facebook. This enormously successful American business describes itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". But hang on. Why on God's earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me? Why should my relationships be mediated through the imagination of a bunch of supergeeks in California? What was wrong with the pub?

-With friends like these... by Tom Hodgkinson, The Guardian, 01.14.08

I was back on facebook briefly yesterday, with good reason, and then jumped right back off. In the 2 weeks I'd been gone, my deactivated account had received Oregon Trail invitations (what?) and more stupid "Fun Wall" posts than I care to think about.

Let's just go get a drink.

Current music: Blanche – A Year From Now

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one line: i got out just in time

2008-01-16T07:17:26Z

I clicked on over to my Facebook account, only to find --I'D BEEN SPAMMED!!!

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song for sunday: that thing happened...

2008-01-14T05:16:01Z

That Night [Live] (Feat. Clara Hill)

Jazzanova

Berlin got a new show in 2006, Belle et Fou realised by four star chef and event caterer HANS-PETER WODARZ and producer/director ARTHUR CASTRO. Besides dance, theatre and refined culinary delights, this new project from the makers of Pomp, Duck & Circumstance has one very special highlight to offer: the soundtrack is by JAZZANOVA.

-quango.com

This track is of particular interest because it was originally sung by Vikter Duplaix. Clara Hill gives it a completely different vibe. I dig it. The whole soundtrack, however, is stellar. Jazzanova can do very little wrong.

I'm staring at the screen, distracted by the corny profile that 60 Minutes is doing on Facebook (although I'm impressed that after the first half of puff, Leslie Stahl is digging into Beacon a bit), and thinking about what I want to share about my week. That's what these song for sunday posts have become. For some odd reason, I want to talk about how I've been postponing cleaning my bathroom all week and using remember the milk to do so. That's not a good story.

I feel like I should say something about the week I had with my sister - it began with us leaving Vegas, the middle was having Ethiopian at Nyala, the end was dropping her off at the airport for her to return to school today - but I'm not trying to get all sappy up in this piece. Especially when I know she's reading. The highlight, however, was switching iPods with her at McCarran Airport and getting her into Björk. She left town with a CD packed with my favorite tracks from across her entire catalog. Bomb.

I could talk about the Murakami Exhibit (that needs it's own post) or the trip we took to Pink's yesterday (but I might turn that into something for laist) or my initial thoughts on the first two episodes of the final season of The Wire or on all the signs that I'm starting to act like a grown-up that showed themselves this week. I could talk about all those things but I don't feel like it.

It's Sunday, Andy Rooney is being crabby, my feet are up and I'm still not going to clean that damn bathroom.

It's enough.

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Merry Reduction Day

2008-01-05T08:33:58Z

It is important to remember that sites like Facebook are pieces of software that we can choose to use or not use, just like we choose to use Firefox or Safari or neither.

-If all your friends jumped off of a bridge by Ben Brown, Internet Rock Star, 01.02.08

At one point last fall, I realized I was trying to run five blogs, two Flickr accounts, and a del.icio.us page, all the while keeping up a constant patter on Twitter, IM, and email. Only two of those things were strictly necessary for my work; the rest just made their way into my life somehow. Sure, I was doing a lot of it because it was fun, but I knew I had to scale back or else I was going to end up speaking only in 140-character, hyperlinked sentences.

-Re-evaluating Your Online Commitments by wood.tang, 43 Folders, 01.01.08

I'm deeming the first Monday of this new year (and possibly subsequent years) Merry Reduction Day. Having already celebrated Happy Introvert Day this year, I'm all about unrecognized holidays in 2008. The point of Merry Reduction Day is this - reduce, re-evaluate, delete (not quite as alliterative as those greener Rs but what are you gonna do? ). I feel like I'm everywhere on the web and I'm realizing I don't need to be. I've come to dislike Facebook (after digging it for not being myspace) but now that I have a relatively large network of people there and it is this mixture of work and friends and family, I feel like my chocolate is getting all up in my peanut butter. Plus, I don't think I can take one more super wall post or werewolf invitation (the irony of this, of course, being that I was often the one inviting others to these stupid apps a few months ago). So, on Monday, Facebook is gone.

Also on the potential chopping block:

Most of these don't cause the time suck and brain drain that Facebook does but I maintain them (or let fester) just because and doing so prevents me from doing other important and necessary work or fun. To be honest, the only social network I need is twitter. 140 character bursts from intelligent people I like is so best and I love that the conversation is going 24/7 (but we'll revisit twitter in a later post). Last.fm and twitter are where I spend most of my web social time and there are a few other services I use more for functionality than community but what I'm saying is I don't need all this nonsense. Ben Brown likens Facebook and myspace to Costco or Wal-Mart and he's so right.

I don't want your 60 rolls of toilet paper, free samples, or deals that aren't really deals. I just want to feel connected in meaningful ways with the people that matter to me in the contexts that make the most sense.

So, get ready Monday, it's going to be a great day. Oh, and if you're playing scrabulous with me on facebook, we better hustle and finish and find a fitting alternative to the cool way (facebook does do some things very well) that scrabble is played there.

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