Archive for February, 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Are You A Facebook “Friend Whore”?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on February 14, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, February 14th, 2009Or are you just REALLY popular?
I was picking on a friend recently about the fact that he had over 300 friends on Facebook. I asked him “Honestly, how many of those people could you or would you call for lunch this week?” He had to admit the number was a little lower than 300 people. Which got me thinking: what is a normal number of friends to have on Facebook? I’m reasonably well-networked in real life and have done a fair amount of events planning, so I’m acutely aware that a reasonably sociable person has less than ten close friends, and a range of acquaintances that typically extends to around 150 people. I’ve only used my Facebook account regularly for a few weeks, have around 60 “friends”, and am about to start adding and deleting with a little more focus. According to various small-scale studies, having an excessively large number of friends on Facebook suggests that one may have poor social judgment or be narcissistic. Any attempt to establish an optimal number of Facebook friends will have to factor in things like age, social class, and whether the person was an early user, when Facebook was college-only. These early users may have hundreds of friends, in spite of the fact that they rarely use the site. And then there are trophy friends to consider. How many friends do you have? What are they really worth? Well, according to this article, about 37 cents.
Valentine’s Day 2009: Don’t Have A Black Saturday
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 13, 2009 by admin in Holidays
Friday, February 13th, 2009Take control of your love life
If you haven’t finished your Valentine shopping by now, you may have a Black Saturday hot on the heels of your Black Friday. We’ve already offered up some Valentine Day suggestions here and here , but we have just a couple more thoughts. First of all, if you’re a woman, you might consider helping your man buy the gifts you want with a Control Your Man Talking Remote
Mellodrama: The Mellotron Documentary
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 12, 2009 by admin in Music
Thursday, February 12th, 2009Whether you’re old enough to have listened to the Beatles and the Moody Blues when they were new, or if you’re into the Beastie Boys, or any of thousands of current artists in rap and pop, the music you listen to owes a lot to an instrument you may have never heard of: the Mellotron. [...]
Whether you’re old enough to have listened to the Beatles and the Moody Blues when they were new, or if you’re into the Beastie Boys, or any of thousands of current artists in rap and pop, the music you listen to owes a lot to an instrument you may have never heard of: the Mellotron. The Mellotron was “the original sampler”, using actual sounds on recording tape which were manipulated mechanically to alter pitch with a keyboard. Sounds barbaric by todays digital sampling standards, but part of the beauty of the Mellotron was the fact that the sound it made was NOT accurate; it tended to have a haunting quality all its own. Sunday is the world premiere of Dianna Dilworth’s Mellodrama: The Mellotron Documentary at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. The trailer is featured here, and I hope this film gets decent distribution. It looks very well done if the trailer is any indication.
Faceboom: Over Forty On Facebook
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on February 11, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009With the recent spike in users over 40 on Facebook, I’ve watched some funny things playing out, so I thought I’d share some important notes with the boomer crowd. First of all, “LOL” does not mean “Lots of Love”. So when you post something like “Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that [...]
With the recent spike in users over 40 on Facebook, I’ve watched some funny things playing out, so I thought I’d share some important notes with the boomer crowd. First of all, “LOL” does not mean “Lots of Love”. So when you post something like “Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that grandpa passed away last night. I’ll let you know about funeral arrangements. LOL“, it comes across a little differently than you intended. Much like the story going around recently in which the guy shares: “my 8-year-old sister proudly declared that she knows that ‘WTF’ means ‘Wow, That’s Funny’ and has been using it all over the internet“. When you’re using Facebook, just rememeber, you’re not grandma, and you’re not an 8-year-old girl. “Poking” someone isn’t dirty, but it’s not especially purposeful, either. And that “Wall-to-wall” thing? Yeah. Everyone can read it. Stop typing sweet nothings to your best friend’s girlfriend. We all find it pretty amusing, but people get killed over this sort of stuff. And lastly, drunk Facebooking is just like drunk e-mailing or drunk dialing. Only worse, for two reasons: 1.) You can “Facebook” somebody without having their e-mail OR their number, and 2.) Everyone is watching. Anyone have an amusing Facebook story?
A Hoarse Of A Different Colour
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on February 10, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009Why British People Can’t Spell Color
As someone who sometimes worries about the state of the English language, this UK Telegraph piece about how Brits are better at spelling than Americans are caught my eye. However, the piece may be good example of adoxography (skilled writing on an unimportant subject) since, as this article points out, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. Add to that the fact that the British can’t seem to spell words like color, center, theater, etc., and it may all be a moot point (not to be confused with a mute point, a favorite eggcorn of mine). Who was it who said that England and America are two countries separated only by a common language? I think they were on to something. Personally, I’m more curious lately about the secret Facebook program that causes typos in everything I type in my “status” box. By the way, words like “adoxography” are not in my personal vocabulary. More unusual words for you here.