Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

BDA: #BarfoedDoesAmerica

February 23, 2011

I am not what you would call a masterful Tweeter. DJ Steve? With his pictures of snack packaging and philosophical musings (sample: “I dare anyone to not want Wendy’s right now”)? Practically Twitter’s poster-child. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum, advertising Lifting Fog posts (when available ROFL) and complaining about library noise. On occasion I might link to a video from 2006. I’m a premature grandparent struggling to figure out what the buttons do.

And yet…fate so often conspires to throw us headlong into those very arenas we’re least skilled in. Woefully unprepared, we just make do. Bratty teenagers get pregnant; I’m driven to Twitter to collect my cross-country thoughts.

More apt wordplay after the jump!

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Live-Tweeting the Apocalypse

July 26, 2009

Floodfest2009 (House)

We’ve been dancing this dance for over a year now, guys (happy 1st anniversary, btw!), so you know pretty well by now that I’m a veritable bottomless pit of imaginative excuses. I’ve got material for every occasion, like:

Holiday laziness!

To explain my month-long vacation from Lifting Fog (shorter than the last one by two weeks!) would mean painful recollections of Russian Roulette tournaments, extraterrestrial probing, and drug addiction… (Jan. 15, 2009)

Seasonal affective disorder!

…undergoing radical eyebrow surgery, or doing missionary work in Zambia, or taking the LSATs (Oct. 17, 2008)

Indecisive feelings on a movie I desperately wanted to like!

One week later I sat down to watch the movie again, this time in IMAX. It seemed right to offer Watchmen, a film so unavoidably tangled in decades of hype and expectation, a second chance. (Mar. 31, 2009)

My dedication to time-sensitive blogging is the stuff that wins lifetime achievement awards. But two weeks ago, I was finally afforded a LEGITIMATE reason not to blog when my apartment — a three-bedroom pre-war in Hamilton Heights — started drowning in dirty pipe water. Ceilings caving in. Hallways flooding. THE APOCALYPSE, FAM. This being 2009, though, and my priorities being well-organized…I was able to tweet the whole rusty mess.

Twitter Apocalypse Floodfest2009

Won’t you join in the fun?

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Posted in Bildungsroman, Technocentricity | 1 Comment »

Thoughts on Digital Identity in an Increasingly Transparent Future

June 5, 2009
An example of an individual who has mapped out his digital identity

An example of an individual who has mapped out his digital identity

How many tweets have you deleted so far in your life? How many photos have you de-tagged since you joined Facebook? If you’re like me, over the years you’ve determined that all Facebook photos and ill-timed tweets are not created equal and are not all fit to print. As I’m sure many people have realized, social networking sites thrive on the evaporation of a wall of privacy that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. Contact information, personal photographs, and self expression have exploded on the internet, all under the guise of “privacy” in the form of marking a check box to disallow certain people access to your digital life. Ten years ago (or about that time) I remember having my grandfather over for dinner. It was the night we decided to show him the Internet. We determined the best way to simultaneously blow his mind and sufficiently freak him out was to show him that his personal information was available without much searching. When we hit up whatever yellow pages site was popular at the time, we quickly located him and showed him that his address was available for anyone to see. We took it a step further by showing him how we could get directions to his house using that address. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t terrified. The best way I could describe his reaction would be to call him mystified. I’ll never forget what he said after his jaw finally un-dropped: “If I didn’t put that stuff on there, then how did it get there?” We all had a good laugh about the whole thing, but part of me always ruminated on what he said. Much like a child can often see through something and arrive at a very simple explanation for something immensely complicated, my grandfather had showed me something increasingly alarming about the Internet. (more…)

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Posted in Technocentricity | 5 Comments »

Ways to Beat Monday Boredom Vol. 1: Use Twitter’s Search Function

January 12, 2009

Twitter Search

Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays, right? WRONG! It’s time to wake up, readers. It’s time to shake yourself out of that advanced state of Monday afternoon atrophy and laugh again. The best way I beat the Monday blues (other than daydreaming about being a steamy new star on Gossip Girl or presenting a Golden Globe to Kate Winslet) is head over to the most underrated (and impossible to explain to people) social networking site this side of the interweb: Twitter! Few people realize the potential Twitter has as a massive communications relay device, let alone one of the best features it offers: the Search function.

Just head on over to the trend searcher and let your mind race with the possibility of uncovering secret and undiscovered tweet trends. A trend is when a lot of people on Twitter are posting about similar things. The gosh darn thing is so smart that it tracks these trends and lets you follow them (and search them). The results are the most recent tweets (posts) containing your search query. Here are some ideas to help you start:

– One of my personal favorites terms to search: Booyah
– For older readers, try searching a cuss word, like: F**k (sorry Mom, but it’s just so damn funny!)
– Or just browse the most popular trends on the main search page listed as Trending Topics

Happy searching! Let us know if you think of any good ones.

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Posted in Technocentricity | 1 Comment »

Tweet Tweet, Muthaf*cka

December 4, 2008

fp9073hannah-montana-best-of-both-worlds-posters1The world is getting smaller and smaller. From cell phones to PDAs to digital cameras, we’re inundated with devices designed to help us better communicate, network, and generally keep it real. Instant gratification, once reserved only for disposable diapers and fast food, has seeped into every corner of our lives in a way that’s both addicting and scary. The thought of partitioning those lives seems antiquated, and maybe impossible – no matter where we go, there’s a way to track our movements. To know what we’re doing. We’ve reached an age where the personal and public are one and the same as only Philip K. Dick or Skynet could have foreseen. Did you know my grandmother reads this blog?

Keep reading!

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Posted in Technocentricity | 5 Comments »

This Just In: I’m Driving

September 18, 2008
Idiots/Poor People Need Not Apply

Web 2.0: Idiots/Poor People Need Not Apply

Attention dear Fog blogists: I’m writing to you today from the US-101 (the Hollywood Freeway, that is) mid Starbucks sip. And no, I’m not stuck in traffic, I’m doing a healthy 70 mph (miles per hour, for our European audience). Web 2.0 is like a beautiful sunrise for me everyday. No, I’ve never been up early enough to enjoy an actual sunrise (has anyone?). (Editor’s note: Henning has) What I mean is that I watch a video of the sun rising (time lapse of course, I’m a busy person) everyday on YouTube. On my phone. In the car. While I’m driving. Do I have your attention yet? Do you think I’m a geek, a technophile, an asshole? Good. Because I just twittered about my hatred for anything older than 3G technology in the time it took you to judge me. Loser.

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Posted in Bildungsroman, Technocentricity | 5 Comments »