Social networking sites aren’t anything new, but some of the newer ones are just plain stupid. Example: Twitter.
For those of you who don’t know, Twitter is an “update” system for your life… yeah, how lame is that? The whole purpose of the site/service is to allow you to make continual updates throughout the day of everything you are doing. You just ate a hamburger? That’s great. Going shopping or mowing the lawn? Congrats. Going fishing or simply watching TV? Hope you have fun. News flash: I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES!
Umm… no, basic updates are not meaningful. Again, I don’t care that you are eating soup, running late to a meeting or partying. If you are running late to a meeting, the last thing you need to be doing is playing on your phone, updating your twitter. How about get in the car and drive to your meeting?! And, if you have enough free time to keep an eye on what everyone else is doing in their lives, well… that says a lot about what you are doing (or more so, NOT doing).
The only thing good about Twitter? It is a stalker’s dream come true.
Now, before you ask, I can already hear some people saying, “Well isn’t a blog essentially the same thing?”. No, not even close. Blog posts are meant to be informative and entertaining. I don’t publish posts unless there is some substance to it: humor, informative, educational, etc. I gain nothing by knowing you just washed your car.
Do you use Twitter? Surely I am not the only one that thinks this is one of the worst ideas ever…
LuLuGal over at How I Save Money has tagged me for a six word memoir. Just as she claims, I am not good at poetry (thx to Keith for my EPIC poetry in high school LOL)… but here goes:
Live on less than you make.
Here are the rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post
4. Tag at least five more blogs
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play
April 1. I always seem to get suckered into falling for at least one prank each year, simply because the prankster does a good job at convincing me that whatever it is “could” be true. I have seen a lot of really good blog posts and some not-so-great ones in the past few years. So, instead of trying to pull one myself, I am going to give you some tips on how to create a successful April Fools post.
It Must Be Believable and Original
A post about you hitting the lottery or finding buried treasure isn’t very believable simply because things like that are extremely rare. Your post needs to have at least some sort of credibility to it, something that could actually happen and wouldn’t raise suspicion immediately. For example, a video post from Shoemoney describing how to make $1,000 in one hour is credible, because he is a well known blogger who makes a lot of money from the internet.
Lead Up To The Planned Post
In the blogging world, its good practice to make posts as frequent as possible (a few per day is optimum). If you do this, then completely stop a few days before April 1, your readers will begin to wonder “what’s up”. This can help add to the suspense of your post when you do post it.
Posting Early: The New Fad?
What better way to catch someone off guard than to publish your post a day early? My buddy John pulled this stunt by releasing his John Chow Blogger Cola a day early. The majority of the comments so far have “figured it out”, but some seem to have totally fallen for it. By posting early, this leaves John totally open to post something even wilder on April 1!
Get Your Friends To Help
The odds of you pulling off a successful prank can increase greatly if you get your friends involved. Have someone do a guest post on your site, announcing something tragic, like a motorcycle accident, then take it one step further and have a few others post comments with their condolences, prayers, etc. This will get your readers thinking, “hey, maybe something bad DID actually happen”. So evil!
These are just a few ideas that you can use to help create a really great April Fools post.
Have you ever pulled off a prank of “epic proportion”?
I received a Sanyo Xacti CG6 digital camera / camcorder in to review a few days ago.
I owned a Sony camcorder a few years ago but since it was so big, I rarely took it out with me and ended up getting rid of it. It recorded to Hi 8 tapes, and now I have no way to even view those recordings. Fail.
The Xacti is absolutely tiny. Weighing in at just over 5 ounces, this camcorder can easily fit in your pocket and even doubles as a 6 MP digital camera. One of the coolest things about this unit is the fact that it records directly to an SD / SDHC memory card in MPEG-4 format. I can either connect the Xacti directly to my computer via USB cable or use a card reader with the SD card and load my videos quickly without having to convert anything.
I’ve tested the Xacti a little so far around my apartment, but I am waiting for the weather to clear up so I can get some decent outdoor videos. Oh, and if Keith’s car is out of the shop by Friday, I am sure we will get some videos of that too.
Yeah, I am a bit late on this one, but I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday. This is the first time I can remember where Easter was not in April, which totally threw me off for a good week or so beforehand. Anyway, just an update to a previous post about the Vancouver Union Gospel Mission - John Chow members raised over $7,500 in donations, very nice!
NCAA Tournament
Are any of you college basketball fans? The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, with the Sweet 16 already announced. I am not a basketball fan, but I watch the occasional game here and there. Keith isn’t a fan either, but that didn’t stop him from joining a pool with some of this other friends. He won this pool a few years ago simply by picking “teams with funny names” - nice! He has the championship game as Memphis vs Tennessee, with Memphis taking the win. Are any of you betting in pools this year?
Tax Time
Josh came down yesterday to help me get my taxes done. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good with taxes, but hey, I’m learning. We usually wait until the last moment to work on my taxes. I think this is the earliest they have been completed… ever. Have you prepared your taxes yet? Are you able to prepare them by yourself? And most importantly, what do you plan to do with your “economic stimulus” money?
HDR Photography
As many of you already know, I am pretty interested in photography. I love taking pictures of anything and everything. I got into infrared photography about two years ago with my old Nikon D50, but when I got rid of that camera / lens / filter setup, I didn’t pick up another IR filter for my new camera. I have been wanting to do more IR shots but can’t justify spending money on the filter since they are so expensive.
But, something new I am looking to try is HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. HDR is a technique that “allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques.” I am sure you have seen some photos online that have amazing colors and you wonder how exactly they were able to take such a nice photo, when nothing you snap comes even close. HDR is your answer.
I will be experimenting with some HDR photos in the coming weeks and if any turn out decent, I will post them up here. Have any of you created HDR photos? If so, were you happy with the results?
The Screen Savers Video
I thought this video was lost forever, but turns out, the former site owner Josh had a copy of his appearance on TechTV’s The Screen Savers. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to ask him about it sooner. Anyway, you can check out the first segment below.
If you remember, I am giving away some goodies that I snagged at CES: CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller, a Cooler Master 512 MB Flash Drive and an Imation 1 GB Flash Drive.
To enter, simply submit your email address to my RSS by Email Subscription box on the top right side of my blog.
Things have been going pretty well and we are currently at 83 RSS readers. I’d sure like to hit 100 by the end of this contest, so I have decided to spice things up a bit!
If the blog hits at least 100 RSS readers by the end of the giveaway (Feb. 19), then I will give the first selected winner an additional $25.00 via Paypal on top of their choice of prize!
So, if you haven’t entered already, please do so for a chance to win some pretty cool prizes… and free COLD HARD CASH!
For those of you that have already entered, thanks! And also, be sure to verify your subscription by clicking the link in the activation email.
As you may already know, OCIA.net received a total overhaul last July, which included a new look as well as a custom-designed back end. Unfortunately, the OCIA.net Forums were not part of this upgrade and are still using the old software and layout.
I had planned to remedy this sooner, but finances have been tight lately so that has not been possible. But, with your help, this might soon become a reality!
It just so happens that my pal Derek Semmler is holding a contest where the winner will take home $106.34… which would go a long way to help get the new forums up and running.
So, I simply ask that you hit the front page of OCIA.net and click the square ad on the right side of the page that takes you to his blog. You would be doing a great favor for the site and who knows, you may even like his blog enough to bookmark it!
Today is the 1 year anniversary for this blog. I totally forgot that this date was coming up, and I had just started on writing a different post when it hit me!
In the past year, I have made a total of 626 posts which have received 1,399 comments. On Technorati, I have a Rank of 32,949, Authority of 180 and 149 fans (people who list me as a favorite).
I have also had the opportunity to meet some really great people through blogging that I would not have known otherwise. I look forward to another great year for this blog. Thanks to everyone for their support and comments, which is what has made this blog what it is today. And a huge thanks goes out to my friend Bob Buskirk for giving me the idea and motivation to start this project a year ago.
My buddy John has made it to the final round of a contest over at The Thinking Blog where the winner will take home a Ruff PC Laptop! So, why should you vote for John?
Because if he wins, he will take the laptop and give it away to someone on his site, thus giving you a chance to win this cool laptop! The voting is in the final round with only five contestants left. You can use the widget below to cast your vote!
Attending the 2008 CES in Las Vegas next month, but not sure what to do after the show ends each day? Well, you’re in luck! John Chow has recently posted his 2008 CES Party List which is a great reference to help you find out what is going on outside of the show.
Of course, getting invited to those “invite only” parties is up to you hehe…
