I woke up in the morning excited about my evening ahead. I was going to be seeing Damien Jurado, a guy i've been found of for some time, at the Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush. As sad as it seems i was just as much excited about actually going to Bush Hall as i was actually seeing Damien Jurado. In my Uni days i used to walk past it all the time and see the list of amazing artists/bands that had performed there or were planning on performing there, so for me this was a long time coming.

While playing some of his music to my girlfriend (who was coming with me to the gig) via Myspace i gazed down to see who was going to be supporting him and lol and behold it was my new found favourite band, Bowerbirds. To say i was excited would have been an understatement. (Just ask the better half).

Fast forward a few hours and we arrived at the amazing Bush Hall, a place very similar to the Empire around the corner in terms of it's interior and grandeur but on a much smaller scale. I was very impressed by it's laid back feel, so we got some drinks and headed for the balcony.

Upon arrival at the top of the stairs the magnificent 3 piece from North Carolina Bowerbirds took to the stage. I recently got into this band as i had to review their debut album Hymns For A Dark Horse which flows as beautifully as any album you'll hear all year. For a 3 piece they certainly have a presence about them and immediately i was blown away by lead singer Phil Moore's amazing voice. Playing songs from the aforementioned album, Bowerbirds harmonies were their main draw, especially on 'In Our Talons', which was frighteningly stunning.

My only critisim of this set was that towards the end it seemed to get a bit samey. I guess the luxury with having an album is that you pick the order of the songs so that they all compliment each other, which should result in a much bigger sound. This way the weaker songs could fit a much bigger purpose. Unless you're playing an ATP Look Back gig you probably wouldn't play the album in order live and i guess this is where the cracks appear. Either way i would still give it a 8/10. A truly fitting band to the surroundings.

Next up was Kyle Field aka Little Wings.

I'll confess now, i didn't know who Little Wings was and i even if someone did tell me it was Kyle Field i would have still drawn a blank but thanks to Google i soon figured it out. He's basically an acclaimed visual artist (he's damn good) but was also in the amazing The Microphones (which i do know a fair bit about).

When you're put in front of a support band/artist that you've never heard before it takes one hell of a perofromance or incredibely strong to make me go wow. Unfortunately i didn't get that feelign with this performance. The main issue for me was his voice. Unless you're Thom Yorke i find it hard to listen to an out of tune voice and tro be fair to Yorke he only does that ocassion, whereas Field was constantly struggling to hit those notes. Whether this is intentional or not it certianly made the task of winnign me over that much harder. Musically a lot of songs sounded great but it really was a consant struggle with this guy. Thats as much as i want to say on this guy really.

Next up is the painful part of the night. Due to other commitments i only got see twenty minutes of Damien Jurado but thankfully he managed to capture my imagination in such a short space of time. Playing a few songs from the soon-to-be released album Caught In The Trees, Jurado was a lot more withdrawn as a perfromer than i expected him to be, which i should have really seen coming considering the type of music he plays.  Though his band are there to lift him up and form a great backing to his beautiful voice. I guess it's hard to properly review an artist/band you only got to see for twenty minutes but from those twenty minutes i would definitely look to go see him again but maybe for a bit longer!

[dailymotion id=k1W0Xfh6ihtcIivgml&related=1]

La gestione identitaria dell'internauta è uno degli elementi psicologicamente salienti del cyberspazio, universo dove alterare aspetti del sé come carattere, età, genere, aspetto fisico... fino al declino dell’identità nel simulacro “realtà vs finzione”. La questione è lievemente più complessa perché l’identità monolitica del reale non è necessariamente più “vera” dell’immaginaria identità poliedrica della rete.
E' una costante che la macchinicità della mente cataloghi la realtà secondo meccanismi di azione-reazione al fine di rendendoci performanti in contesti familiari, ma ciò per mezzo di dinamiche che tendono ad adagiare sulla carne semantica strategie che altro non sono se non maschere di ruoli che differiscono sensibilmente dall'Io assoluto che tutti vivono nel proprio assordante silenzio: in sostanza si sta parlando di una diga alla fluidità dell'esperienza, perché “se è vero che so chi sono allo stesso tempo chi sono diventato è il frutto di scelte fatte che hanno precluso altre scelte”... ed è veramente deprimente associare l'identità ad una spugna defertilizzata sulla quale l'acqua non ha più effetto; la libertà nella sperimentazione e nella perpetua ricerca dell'oltre è probabilmente un percorso destabilizante, ma è forse meglio il dolce ed annebbiante annichilimento del vino-meanstream?

In rete oltre ad annientare il limite ingombrante della concezione negativa di queste maschere, si possono esplorare aspetti della propria individualità dei quali non si ha coscienza: la spugna non è più imprigionata dal dispotico monito: “sai chi sei! rendi conto a te stesso!! sii coerente!!!” in rete si ha la possibilità di amplificare percezione ed appercezione fino ad espandere il concetto di sé.

La stessa scelta del canale comunicativo esprime in qualche modo ciò che si è. Partendo dal presupposto che qualsiasi direzione si scelga di fatto implica un profondo percorso d'introspezione, chi si orienta alla comunicazione testuale preferisce le caratteristiche semantiche del linguaggio e probabilmente le dimensioni lineari, composite, razionali ed analitiche di sé, il cosiddetto “verbalizzatore”. Chi invece si basa su un ragionamento simbolico, immaginativo e sintetico sceglierà di esprimersi con le immagini, con avatar elaborati o dedicando molta attenzione agli aspetti grafici del proprio point of presence nella rete, il “visualizzatore”. O ancora la comunicazione sincrona che riflette spontaneità, libertà formale, prontezza e presenza temporale del sé, nonché quella asincrona dello stile meditato, riflessivo e misurato della comunicazione.

Qualsiasi sia il percorso l'importante è imboccarlo, qualsiasi sia l'innesco l'importante è trovarlo, qualsiasi sia il risultato l'importante è fruirlo, ma niente di tutto ciò sarà mai possibile se la spugna è sterile: che sensazione si prova mettendo i piedi nell'acqua sul bagnasciuga fissando l'orizzonte? Io faccio in modo di pensare che quei piedi siano la mente fluida e il mare la sconfinata possibilità di esplorazione..

Facebook is not helping either. I now have multiple ex-girlfriends as friends on there, and the photos of their children break my heart. Well, one in particular. My first love. We still Email from time to time, but I dare never mention feelings. Interstingly, I made amends to her during that whole Cult fiasco many years ago. Yet, no mention was ever made of the fact that it was she who betrayed me, lied to me, and harmed me. I bite my tongue on these things. They appear only here. And, such is the making of depressed mood. So be it. Martyrdom is what I do best. I deserve it. I am unloveable.

How righteously indignant I can be. What arrogance to think that I might be of some value to a woman; my love a merit to be achieved. Myself, a prize? A darstardly cognition of the evil, diseased self. I tighten the screws, and bleed from the temples. I fight with this, here, now. My unexpressed, shameful anger at those who have wronged me. I do not blame them entirely. I never have. I tend to blame myself most. Yet, it grows in me--this feeling of retribution or drive for validation. I matter, damnit. My feelings matter. They have value even if only as opinion.

It was the centenary of physics and my college celebrated it with a mega science expo.We were divided into groups so that each group concentrates on the 3 basic sciences namely Physics Chemistry and Maths.I was to concentrate on Chemistry and luckily my group had the best brains of the class.But the major set back was wrong attitude.We didn't have any discussion session or at least a brain storming one.There was no flow of information among the team members.The over hyped so called beauty with brains of my group came up with some childish idea of "low magnitude conservation of water while gardening".They used some filters beneath the soil and excess water would be absorbed by the filter and collected in another container so that it can be reused.

They didn't realize that their idea could not be implemented in reality as the number of people with gardens around their house is very very less and no one would even think about using it as much better,cost effective systems like sprinklers was already in the market.

They didn't realize the intensity of the event and got the idea approved without even discussing it with the boys of the group.

the so called beauties.........Remember... A wrong,baseless attitude takes you no where....

altogether it was a sick display of maturity and all brains where to drains.

Na verdade, eu estou ouvindo o novo disco Versus todo agora, mas ele ainda não saiu.

O que saiu oficialmente foi a primeira música do disco, Moronic Colossus, no myspace dos caras.

Vou dizer que eu nunca tinha dado a mínima pra essa banda até que meu amigo Daniel – esse que escreveu o post sobre o disco porcaria do Iced Earth – falou tanto que eu resolvi dar uma chance.

E não é que o negócio é um metal viril de verdade?

ouve lá.

First, the random rules (hat tip to edu-flack and cool-cat Bob LeDrew, who tipped his hat to Connie Crosby):

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on the blog.
• Write six random things about yourself.
• Tag six people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know they have been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

OK, so here goes:

1. I'm still waiting for someone to nominate me for the Hot Blogger Calendar. Seriously. I'm not just pimping it for shits and giggles. I will be VERY disappointed if I'm not at least nominated. Seriously.
2. When I was a kid, I quit ballet because they re-scheduled the class for Saturday mornings and it conflicted with my cartoons. I can't remember what cockamamie excuse I gave my mom, because I'm pretty certain she would not have let me quit ballet for the Smurfs.
3. I refuse to clean the litter box. That's my husband's job. I used to do it when I was single, but now I have a husband. This arrangement infuriates him, but I don't care. I refuse to clean the litter box.
4. When I auditioned for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire a couple of years ago, a photographer took a candid picture of some of us and it came out in the Sun Sentinel. I saw the picture online and it was such a bad picture of me I never told anyone.
5. I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. No, really.
6. You know those airbrushed vans with like wizards and topless chicks? My dream car in high school was an pink Suzuki Samurai with an airbrushed portrait of Jon Bon Jovi on the hood. Specifically this picture:

And now for my victims: Robyne, because she's still one of the cool kids. Suasoria, because she's one of the smartest people I know. Lola Granola because her ass-print story made me damn near pee my pants. Amy Hennessey because she's my Hawaiian homey. Ashia because she's been in People magazine, so it's almost like tagging Britney. Chris Faile because I had forgotten how amusing he could be.

"...keep your head up."

For the record, my favorite singer in reggae is Marcia Griffiths. She is credited with the mega hit "Electric Boogie," by far one of the biggest, most recognizable tunes in the history of the world. In fact its one of the earliest dancing tunes I remember to have come out of Jamaica. Known as the Empress of Reggae Music, Marcia was one of the I-Threes, who sang harmonies alongside Bob Marley and the Wailers. Of her material I most enjoy the solo work she did for the legendary Studio One label. Marcia Griffiths totaled 16 solo albums released, 4 with Bob Marley, and 2 with the I-Threes in a career spanning over 30 years of performing. She is still featured on tour alongside Beres Hammond.

That is what I call inspiration for all the young ladies out here striving to make a dream come through. Personally I like to play female artists whether at a live gig or putting down a studio mix even though many DJs ignore those selections as a whole. Big up DJ Pauze from Shock Out Radio out of the UK everytime. He has a slew of female artists from the UK, and the Caribbean islands that he is promoting. Check out his MySpace dedicated to promoting his female artists.

When myspace provided a music player on profiles, it served as an unique novelty. But how many times could you listen to the same song before driving a number 2 pencil into your optical nerve?

Advent Project Playlist: a free web-base jukebox program that streams audio into several social sites, i.e. facebook or myspace. Now more integrated into facebook, it streams songs as if it was a MP3 player inside your profile.

The user interface is quite easy to navigate around in finding your favorite songs or artists. However, its common for the songs to stop working at times. But lucky the same song has multiple sources to choose from. So even if one source goes down, you can simply search for it again.

Often, taking advantage of this program softens the usage on my ipod, and it's stand alone player option is appealing to listening outside of facebook or myspace. Project Playlist can be found under applications in facebook, or by embedded code via projectplaylist.com.

I think this sort of thing is great, particularly because I'm one of those people who has footprints all over the net.

(Seriously, I'm pretty easy to find. If you know any of my usernames--and I have several--you can pretty much map out a good chunk of my life. One of the women I recently dated told me some pretty surprising things about myself, though nothing really unsettling. Still, it makes you wonder how much of yourself is really out there. If SkyNet ever comes after me, I'll need a miracle.)

Digressions aside, I think it's more than a little appalling that a popular social networking site like Myspace doesn't have this same awesome capability (or if they do, I sure as hell can't find it). For those of you interested in tracking down even more of me, here's my Myspace page, but I don't really maintain it that well anymore. I check in, occasionally do a survey or something, and sometimes re-connect with people who have found me, but that's pretty much it. I'm much more active on Facebook (such as it is), primarily because I've found their applications to be a little more user friendly. But the Myspace blog hasn't been touched in over two years, in part because of limitations like this.

Now, I'm holding out hope that Myspace will change its ways. The application is still pretty popular with the young adult and teen crowd (though others are gaining ground), and they have made some pretty nifty modifications in the last couple of years. They need to work on the functionality of their blogs, and internal calendars if I'm going to continue using it as an outreach tool to advertise YA programs and services to Houston-area teens. Still, I continue to hold out hope that they'll improve. Until then, check for my updates on Facebook.

And, oh yeah... it's been nearly 6 months since my last post. Miss me? ;-)

Well, it kinda is. But it kinda isn't.

Actually, this is a photo follow-up to one of the final posts on my now abandoned MySpace blog. I have the photos on Facebook, not on MySpace, but some of my MySpace friends still refuse to go FB. So this is mainly for them.

If you're not them, it's okay; it's for you, too.

(I would've imported the 100+ posts from that rusty old MySpace blog here, but apparently you can't do that. I am, however, thinking about bringing over [ie: copying and pasting in] some of my MySpace Classics from time to time, but I'm not sure yet...)

First, for those who never saw the original post, I've taken the liberty of providing its contents here. The photo follow-up afterward...

***

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Snap, crackle, pop!
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping

Yo, so check it out...

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not really Mr. Fashion or anything like that. You know I’m usually rockin’ some cargo pants and maybe like a button-up Dickies work shirt or something like that.

Sometimes I think if I really wanted to, I could dress pretty pimptastically. Usually my goal, though, is just not to look like a slob or completely unpresentable. Plus, it can be pretty expensive to dress nice, and spending a ton of money on clothes ain’t my thing.

But a stroll through JC Penney last weekend made me realize what could be:

Awwww yeeeeeeee-uhhh! A white linen suit, son! Complete with with the drawstring pants -- no beltloops! I know the picture’s not that great, but trust me -- it was a sight to behold. Okay, maybe not. But it looked awesomely zany enough for me.

If I had money to burn, you better believe I woulda walked out the store wearing that, although probably with a different color shirt. And don’t think I didn’t go find a pair of gold-rimmed, white-tinted sunglasses that would’ve completely taken it over the top.

Even on sale -- the suit, a shirt, the sunglasses, and some of those woven loafer shoes (which I was told was what would go with it) -- I thought it was a little steep. All totaled, my phone calculator told me it came out to about $175 before tax. I don’t know if that’s a lot or not; however, it was certainly too much for me to spend on a suit I thought was awesome, but would probably wear like once or twice ever.

Seriously, when am I gonna wear a white linen suit?

It’s not like I go to the club or anything; girls would probably laugh me out of the place if I came in like that anyway. And it probably wouldn’t be wise to stroll into a job interview lookin’ like I came straight from the 35th Annual Conference of South American Drug Lords.

Someday maybe I’ll have a reason to go buy me a white linen suit. Right now, though, I can’t think of any.

8:15 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

BRILLIANT! I guess it kind of depends what sort of job you're interviewing for.

Posted by Lu on Mar 13, 2008 10:35 AM

$175 is a bit much. Adam got a suit for $95 recently at Penny's on clearance. Actually, sales at Penny's are not really sales. They always have a sale. You gotta look for the clearance. If you wait about 3 or 4 months, I almost guarantee you that suit will be ready for you to purchase it at a much lower price.

Posted by Brittany on Mar 14, 2008 10:47 AM

***

Now the photo follow-up I promised: I went back to JC Penney just over a month later and happened to find the suit still on display (presumably because it's so lame awesome no one but myself has any interest in it...).

So what did I do?

No, I didn't buy it.

But -- laugh if you will -- you can best believe I tried that motherlover on, and -- naturally -- I got some photos to document the occasion:

The photo-op was pretty spur-of-the-moment. If I'd have known I was gonna end up at JC Penney again, and had I known the suit was still there, I'd have done things a little differently:

- I'd have brought a real camera
- I'd have shaved off the facial scruff
- I'd have posed facing the opposite angle so you couldn't see the price stickers on the sunglasses
- I wouldn't have worn the black shirt underneath or my trademark black socks

In any case, if they'd have had the items featured in these pictures in a smaller size and for less cost (even though the price was down slightly from the first time I was there), I might have been tempted to buy them.

And that, of course, would have immediately increased my level of pimptasticness at least threefold.

meebo와 비교해서 서비스의 특징은

• MySpace, Skype 지원
• 윈도우용 어플리케이션 있음

정도 인것 같다.

meebo와 비교해서 가장 먼저 보이는 불편한 점은
imo용 계정을 따로 가지고 있지 않아서
다중 계정을 한번에 접속할 수 없고
아이디와 비번을 매번 입력해야 할것 같은게
불편하게 느껴진다.

이외에도 meebo는 계속해서 발전해서
화상채팅, 게임, 블로그위젯(meebo chat), 대화방(meebo room) 같은 많은 장점이 있는것 같다.

후발로 나온 imo가 어떻게 meebo와 차별적으로 서비스를 키워갈지 지켜봐야 겠다.

[웹 imo]

[어플리케이션 imo - 로그인 창]

[어플리케이션 imo - 버디리스트 창]

[어플리케이션 imo - 대화창]

[어플리케이션 imo - tray icon #1]

[어플리케이션 imo - tray icon #2]

How to look up IDs:

http://profile.myspace.com/Modules/Applications/Pages/Canvas.aspx?appId=104283&appParams=%7B%22show_user_id%22%3A%IDNUMBERHERE%22%7D

Replace the red text with the ID number and paste it into your browser.

374976387- Ghetto Mulishia: This guy is leaving VERY nasty comments about people, insulting handicaps, and messing with TheBadSeed members. He's around level 55+ and costs about 20mil to hitlist. Even if you're low level and poor, you can punch him! Keep him in the hospital, he deserves it.

22119161151- Cary Z Mike: This guy is messing with mob members. Take him down.

324654073- Bigg Zee: This one has been harassing my mob members. It only costs like 1.54mil to hitlist him and I've already done it 8 times. He's a level 36 insomniac with a good win/loss ratio. Right now he has whacked 32 mobsters and has been killed 18 times (10 of those thanks to me and my mobsters). Let's get his death count over his kill count!

Message me on Mobsters or post a comment here if you need anyone else. Don't forget to add me too, and tell all of your friends about this site. http://www.moblist.wordpress.com!

So, it got me thinking.  Here are some startling statistics for you:

• Facebook has 90 million active users, more than 75% log in each day and (in 2007) 22% of them were under 18
• MySpace, according to analyst Jeremiah Owyang, has 110 million active users, 15% of which are under 18
• In July, Wordpress said that 257,163 blogs were created to bring them to a total of 1,102,039 active blogs
• As of January 2008, Twitter had over 700,000 users - as of today, they have 2,419,242 twitterers

The interesting thing is that the majority of Facebook and Myspace users are over 18!  The other thing you should note is how quickly these communities are growing...and obviously this isn't a comprehensive list!  This isn't just a "kid" thing.  But, the digital generation is growing and kids find it second nature to share over the web. 

Aw, look honey...she got her first comment!  Go get the video camera, quick!

Hoy asistí a Día de weblogs. Miré a todos y escuché sin parar. Anoté obedientemente algunos conceptos y al mismo tiempo intenté encontrar un patrón estético en el público. Debo admitir que no pude lograrlo...En la segunda fila una persona se autodefinió como "una señora blogger de mas de cuarenta", atrás mio habia dos nerds con mal aliento, justo frente a mi una linda chica con algo de onda y remera amarilla de twitter. Llegué y me fui del evento con uno de los oradores: Martin Kogan (de myspace), a quien declaro portador de las mejores zapatillas del auditorio.
Unas Adidas de Mark Gonzalez, el modelo: Superskate Vulcan Slip.

Fue así como una vez mas confirmé que para saber con quien andas solo debes mirar su calzado.

]]> http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/?p=540 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:36:06 +0000 kreuzer33 http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/?p=540 MySpace, Facebook,  Hi5, each are using OpenSocial, a Google backed social networking application which allows developers to access core functions and information from social networking Web sites. At the present time, if you were to add up the various social networks that are now using OpenSocial, it reaches approximately 350 million users.

Erick Schonfeld takes a look at OpenSocial on TechCrunch:

Six months ago, OpenSocial was nothing but a list of promised partnerships. But the social network application platform backed by Google has made a lot of progress since then as those partners started to go live with their OpenSocial Apps. First there was MySpace and Orkut, then Hi5, and most recently Friendster. It will soon reach 500 million, as four more social networks and services prepare to launch by the end of of September.

Google’s Joe Kraus gave me an update today on OpenSocial’s progress. He wouldn’t say which partners would launch next, but by the size of that pink bar in the graph above, one of them is relatively large—about the same size as Orkut. (My guess is that it will be either Bebo or Six Apart). He also mentioned some partners, such as imeem, launched without ever contacting Google (thanks to Apache Shindig) and that at this point only 10 percent of the engineers hashing out the OpenSocial specifications are from Google.

So how many OpenSocial apps are actually being used? There are about 4,500 different apps so far, which have been installed more than 150 million times.

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks: Profile Information (user data), Friends Information (social graph), and Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff). It will be interesting to see how the adoption rate of OpenSocial increases over the second half of 2008 as it has made incredible progress in the first half. Thoughts?

The advent of digital and the lowering of the threshold on entry into our industry has raised the bar. No longer does being a good photographer make it...you have to know how to market yourself in the digital age.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Technorati, YouTube, flickr, MySpace, Friendfeed, Stumbleupon, DEL.ICIO.US, DIGG, Mybloglog, Photography Voter, PictureSocial, Zoomr, Photrade, AllTop, Ning, and contributing to various forums are all considered to be part of what we are now to do. How do you decide which of these is right for you and your business? Does your brand play well with these technologies? Are you sure you want to be a wedding photographer? The new shape of the industry will allow only the most relevant and strong to survive. It is like Darwin's theory only for Web 2.0.

5 Things that will help you build a brand that will stand the test of time and help you stand out from the crowd!

1) Brand Your Business :: Actually hire a professional to help you do this! Your brand should reflect your own insights and personality, not just what you think your customers want to see.

2) Develop Your Brand :: Be consistent with your message. Each contact with your clients or potential clients should reinforce your brand's message.

3) Showcase Your Brand :: Website, Blog, Newsletter, Email Template, Business Cards, Studio, Mailers, and Products should all shine with your developed brand image.

4) Market Your Brand :: Create viral touch points. Here is where the new shape of the industry comes into play.

5) Grow Your Brand :: Allow your clients to help promote you! Update your images on your site and blog often. Remind your ambassadors what you are up to, ie newsletters. Do what you do best...shoot!