It's Steve (now in blog form)

The Aardvark post from a few minutes ago has gotten me into a social media mood.  Time to harvest some of the literary excellence from my various feeds.

• Another question from Aardvark: Why is eastfield college so ghetto?    (Because you’re far too classy)
• From Twitter: Im at red lobster and I got the two numbers that looks like my zodiac sign, 69 the cancer sign, the crab.. What are the odds. Lol.. (I’m as surprised as you are, buddy.  Never saw that whole see-a-crab-at-Red-Lobster thing coming…)
• From Twitter: fukkin this iced coffee from Mickey D’s up  (Ah, the further wussification of the American wanna-be gangster)
• From Twitter: I just saw this guy that looks like this I guy I used to have a massive crush on. Huge mindfuck right there…  (That is a great story. Totally didn’t expect the M. Night twist at the end.)
• From Facebook: Did the OJ Simpson through the airport. We are the last to board. Nothing but blue skies ahead…  (I’m assuming that this was the OJ Simpson running thing, not the OJ Simpson cutting people’s heads off thing.)

Hurray for social web!!

If you’re waiting for me to get back to you, feel free to grab a snack and get comfortable.

The other day I wrote up a really positive marketing program I was on the receiving end of on Twitter (again, good job WubbzyJen).  It seems that some of you were interested in the topic so here’s a little follow up.

This is my Twitter account.  After I talked about the Wubbzy encounter I got a couple of new Twitter followers.  The first was TwittMarketing.  His bio:

Name Twit Marketing
Location California
Web http://tweetvirus.com
Bio Want your Tweets to go Viral? Click the link above to learn how.

This stuff makes me sad.  Twitter is a slick communication vehicle.  That always seems to drag in the exploiters.  I don’t want my tweets to go viral.  I certainly don’t want to get followed by random folks with Twitter bots.  This is exactly the sort of behavior that forces folks to move their communications out of the public discourse and lock things down.

Another follower turned up about the same time.  http://twitter.com/socialnetmarket Wow!  Could this be true?!? “Major Web 2.0 training lauches Thrus Jan 22 2009. Private Invitation Only – tweet me up soon to get signed up”  That sounds fantastic!  I’m gonna get in on the ground floor.

Anyway, this is what it looks like when authentic communication starts to get undermined by profiteers.  Believe me, I know a lot about how dangerous these guys can be to a community.  They’re insidious not because they are flooding, but because they are attempting to proliferate the idea that lots of people should engage in this sort of behavior.  Don’t get me wrong, most of the people who will buy and use this stuff are nice people just trying to make some extra cash.  But when enough amateur marketeers get involved, the larger signal to noise ratio of the entire community can skew the wrong way.  

Dang, I really liked Twitter…

I was in Vegas for Consumer Electronics Show this week.  Obviously this is very exciting considering my overarching gadget fetish.  It was fun except for the day I spent with food poisoning (special thanks to the IGN crew for what I assume was discount fish in the cocktail party appetizers).  There were a few of highlights to the trip.

The porno convention was in town!- It’s an odd thing to be walking through the casino and have a porn star go walking by in an outfit that can only be described as a creative use of dental floss and postage stamps.  There were a lot of them running around.  It got to the point where I was basically afraid to touch anything (its almost worse to touch it if you do know where it’s been).

Can I pay with PayPal?- I’m not sure if this means that their brand is incredibly strong or if it’s tanking.  

Even to dorky for me- Star Trek fans are an odd breed.  Lacking even the respect of other sci-fi dorks, they wander aimlessly from convention to convention desperately hoping Shatner can fill some sort of hole in their life.  Now in between conventions, they can gamble away the hard earned dollars they would normally spend of models and phasers.  I give you, Star Trek slots.  Well done, gambling industry.

Journalists need a sense of irony, not depth perception- I really really like this poster.  Norm!

I was in Vegas most of the week.  On the second day I got a crazy call from Kim.  She had taken the dog out to pee and the door locked behind her.  Her keys and phone were locked in the house.  So was Ben.  So as she’s freaking out outside, Ben sat in the window grinning and waving.  

About that time Kim’s friend showed up with her 3 year old for a play date.  You may not know this, but a 3 year old has a couple of interesting properties: (1) they can be stuffed through a doggy door, (2) they often can talk enough to understand that you want them to unlock the door once you have stuffed them through said doggy door.  Big thanks to Kim’s friend and her B&E baby for getting us back in.

Poor Mike Seaver.  It turns out that he’s just an actor named Kirk Cameron (and doesn’t have a best friend named Boner).  It also turns out that he’s become the spokesman for some super hard core conservative Christians.  In this video he shows up with Ron Comfort.  

Ron’s gig is debating atheists.  He’s all about intelligent design.  Here he attempts to prove the existence of God with a banana  (a Christian god that is. Bananas provide no evidence of Allah or Buddha, so don’t even try it).  The fundamental design excellence of the banana must indicate a higher power.  Here, you’ll see.

An excellent point, Ron.  Allow me to rebut.  This is my friend the pineapple.  It has a ridiculous amount of segments around it’s circumference perfectly shaped for a plastic grocery bag.  On top, there isn’t a tab for easy opening, but rather a giant spiky crown that would desperately love to take an eye out.  The wrapper isn’t a good indication of ripeness necessarily and if you eat it at the wrong time acids in the flesh can literally sear the inside of your mouth and throat.  The pineapple a fruit intent on killing you if you attempt to eat it.  WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW, RON??!?

Merry Christmas, everybody!