Switching Again

..
..

http://crist.posterous.com/
http://crist.posterous.com/
http://crist.posterous.com/
http://crist.posterous.com/

..
..

Random Rants About Social Networking

Should Have Stayed With Myspace With Their Embedded Music Players:
Self portrait pictures taken in front of the mirror
Self portrait pictures where your arm is stickin out the frame
Andy Warhol-esque photoshop newbie profile pictures (You're not a photoshop expert, and coloring your portrait with pastels make you look like my nephew's finger painting mess)
Whole folders of the same profile pic taken with a different smile (Bitch you're not a model, and don't think those 100 pushups you did last night made a difference)

Why Did Facebook Have 2 Go There?:
Parents doing the things in the above lists
Parents and Kids putting each other on blast in front of 200 of their mutual friends
Changing around the privacy functions every couple of months
Tracking our internet activity and placing ads on our profile page reflecting that activity (Facebook = Big Brother?!)

Because of Social Networking Sites...
My boring life has something to look forward to in front of a monitor
I can be a semi celebrity
I can keep in touch with people I haven't seen in decades, whether I want to see them or not
I can put myself in a precarious position with present and future job references
I officially have a second identity, maybe a third or a fourth if my self esteem is that bad
I get a free play by play on sports, concerts, and drama with couples
I'm up to date with what's hot and what's not
I'm always in touch with my acquaintances, since social networking is like my elementary, junior high, high school, college, and workplaces, all in one recess session. :-)

The Folly of Yelp

A frat bro of mine recently tweeted:

"I hate yelp...fuck I hate yelp...I hate the people on yelp...bunch of hipster youngins who don't kno much about nething but have an opinion"

Of course just like the vast majority of published opinions online it is only a rant, and really a rant should not be taken literally. Rants usually come out of frustration at the spur of the moment. Initially Yelp started out as a restaurant/business guide where everyday people critique the establishment. Its appeal was a response to stuffy know-it-all journalists who appear not to know what they are talking about. After all this is your neighbor, your trusted friend who told you about your favorite restaurant, who convinced you to give this breakfast diner a chance, and you thanked them for it. It had something going in its inception but all of a sudden it blew up. Everybody started signing up for it. The designer added social networking capabilities to the site. The smartphone Yelp app surfaced enabling you to check in to the spot. Yelp became mainstream, and with the bandwagon getting built, the reviews from your close trusted friend became a rant from a 15 year old grade school flunkie.

This is why I can't really trust Yelp anymore. There will be a couple legit reviews, and then there will be one reviewer that had a bad experience with the waitress and decides to base their review on that, and then there will be the other reviewer who will give the 1 star crucifixion off the one dish that is overly repulsive than it actually is. At least journalists are conscious of their bias. There was one yelp review that focussed more on her relationship with someone else rather than the restaurant itself. Finally there are those yelpers that may be hired by the said establishment who give 1 star to the rival restaurant while giving 5 to another. By this time, it just appears that yelp is a better directory for establishments than a reputed guide for restaurants. At this point, the appeal of reviews from everyday people gets worn leaving people like me to rely on friends on what is the spot.

The Photographer

Everybody is afraid of the photographer

because of the photos he takes.

The photos reveal something about them

that is discomforting

a bad light covered under the tree masks the beauty of her smile

a pimple below the cheek reveals itself instead

a grimace on the face, when she is next to her boyfriend

a forced artificial smile, when he is next to his wife.

The photographer continues to take pictures,

makes mention others are scared to make.

And they ask him to retake the picture

and the same picture remains.

They request another angle, coming from another side.

They request another pose, sitting with their knees bent facing behind.

They request he stops and conclude he is bad with what he does.

But the photographer is professional

possesing no special lens or technique

capable of understanding that his eye simply aims

and the button is pressed at a random time.

The pictures reveal not of a truth of ugliness

but a show of sadness firmly denied for many years

and covered by lies therefore making it harder to accept

and holding them accountable for the face they always made.

Test Page

This is a test

The 10 LAKER HATER COMMANDMENTS!

1. Thou shall back ANY team that opposes the Lakers!

2. Thou shall dickride ONLY the major players and not the TEAM going against anybody vs Father Phil, Brother Kobe, Brother Pau, Brother Fish, Brother Lamar, Brother Ron, Brother Brown, Brother Fahrmar, Brother Luke, and Sister Sasha!

3. Thou shall not remain faithful to the Lakers or another team. Faith shall not be tolerated as you will switch many different jerseys in a lifetime with exception to the CLIPPERS!

4. Thou shall not pay attention to the game until the last 4 minutes of the 4th quarter!

5. Thou shall walk the streets of LA professing your love to hate and FEARING the BITE of the BLACK MAMBA!

6. Thou shall OPPOSE Brother Kobe by chanting M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!

7. Thou shall observe the sabbath day February 20th, the birth of Charles Barkley!

8. Thou shall blend with the crowd of the opposing team, acting like you know SHIT about the team!

9. Thou shall chant BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! Because you are NOT from LA.

10. Thou shall SHUT THE FUCK UP after the Lakers take the CHAMPIONSHIP!

Attention Whoring on Facebook

As with everybody on Facebook, I felt compelled to utilize the filtering function for my news feeds. We have those friends that constantly post on a feed about how great their farm is, what celebrity they are similar to, etc. When you work on a desk, Facebook, as do many other gossip sites out there provide that moment of distraction from the stresses of number crunching and whichever research you have to do in front of that computer monitor assigned to you. The news feed is just about the most convenient way to keep in touch with your friends without being there with them. It interests me what people feel at the moment as they express it in the status, yet it annoys the fuck out of me when I have to sift through filler news feeds, crap like spam from social network newbies trying out a new app.

At least with Facebook there is a way to block apps from spamming on your news feeds. There have been however multiple instances where people say offensive things, maybe cracks about my favorite sports teams, a right winged political statement, or a statement about a celebrity I hold dear. Luckily Facebook also have a way to filter out status updates from specific people. Predictably I already filter out specific people on my news feeds. It's certainly a lot better and less malicious than deleting friends or your own Facebook. Surprisingly though, I don't filter my conservative friends, or my Laker hater friends because there's one specific type of Facebooker I can't stand at all - the middle aged attention whoring teeny bopper.

Now who is this middle aged attention whoring teeny bopper? (S)he is the one who constantly updates her (or his) status almost every hour trying to fish for comments. The status updates consist of vague 3-4 word statuses that pertains to a specific individual (s)he tries to get attention from to whole whiny depressing narratives about how down or trapped (s)he feels and the only cure for it are encouraging comments from the Facebook world. I can understand a need to vent but it gets rather annoying when it becomes a regular post pattern. On a site like Facebook I like to hear what's going on with people for the sake of keeping in touch, and I like to stimulate my mind and get challenged intellectually. Posts from middle aged attention whoring teeny boppers does none of the latter and whenever I read such status updates from the same person, it's about time to filter out their stupid ranting without hurting their feelings.

It is forgivable for teens and extremely young adults to succumb to this online behavior. I will be the first to admit to committing the same foolishness back in the Myspace and Friendster days. Being an attention whore truly is adolescent and I jokingly admit to it on my info. However as one hits their late 20s to possibly their mid 30s, the attention whoring should be outgrown. If one happens to see somebody at work or in public acting like a blatant attention whore (bars and clubs exempted), one would think that person looks very pathetic and is in need of therapy. I don't expect such behavior from my Facebook friends when I see them in person, but it becomes a nuisance when I take my 5-10 minute Facebook break from work only to be wasted on people who litter insincere and pathetic status updates on my news feed. Seriously, you're an adult now. Act like it, even if you're logged in.

If you happen to be on my friend's list shilling comments, chances are you have already been filtered off my news feed. I no longer waste a second trying to figure out who the fuck you're talking about. If you want to get help or vent, find a friend and call or IM a friend that actually cares - you can benefit from the personal exchange rather than tossing it out there hoping someone will make you feel better in 1 to 2 comments. Facebook, as well as all the other social networking sites are a public domain, key word PUBLIC. Treat it as if you're at a party full of us friends. Don't be the party pooper who kills the mood because you want to hog all the attention in the room. We'll end up distancing ourselves from you as if you cut a fart and we know it was you.

3 Hip Hop Albums That Made Me

.. in no particular order.

1 - Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia

In death the producer known as Jay Dilla (then Jay Dee) is heralded a legend, and this is one of his earlier work before he broke ground with his Detroit crew - Slum Village. Meanwhile, the Pharcyde is ridin' hot as LA's alternate underground to the gangsterisms and I do recall this album dropped around the same time as Dogg Food by Daz and Kurupt (better known as the Dogg Pound, or DPG). Even listening to it now this album was a beautiful amalgamation of Dilla's early work and Pharcyde's way out underdog-ish lyricism. Known as the Pharcyde's "dark album" this might be the last time you'd see all 4 together putting together a studio album (though Rock the Bells 2008 provided hope for a reunion in the studio).

2 - Chino XL - Here to Save You All

On the cover of this particular source magazine was Ice Cube throwing up the Westside at the time when tensions between East Coast and West Coast artist started simmering. Inside that issue was probably the longest Hip Hop quotable I ever read by this emcee from Jersey known as Chino XL. Subjectwise, he was Eminem before Eminem hooked up with Dre. Major lyrics, major production. Best known for his random punchlines, Chino stirred up the pot, even pissing off Pac when he got out of prison (On Riiiot, he stated "In this industry, I'll try not to get fucked like Pac in jail), which led an irate Pac to dedicate a line at the end of his classic "Hit 'em Up" (Chino XL - FUCK YOU TOO!). The second single on there, Kreep, flipped the Radiohead classic into a rap version of it with the same self loathing theme. This shit was raw then, and raw now.

3 - Outkast - ATLiens

BET heads like myself knew Outkast as them typical pimp rappers, but we knew there were more to them than just being Southernplaylistic pimps if you ever listened to their first album. ATLiens dropped a couple years later and grabbed the MTV audience with their spaced out next dimensional lyricism and provided the blueprint of some next level production provided by Organized Noize.

Commentary > Media

So I am reading a random status from a random friend of mine on Facebook. “The news is soooo depressing.” It is natural to be depressed with constant reports of bickering in the white house to additional troops sent to Afghanistan to random murders happening locally. These type of news story doesn't bring ratings and today, we get our news by people putting their spin on them. For the past couple of years I noticed our news has transitioned to something else. No longer do we see what is actually happening for us to judge ourselves, but another person’s opinion on what is happening. News is nearly dead, not because of what we call bias, but because of commentary.

A car drives down the street. The driver constantly honks, getting the attention of the neighbors. The paint finish on the car is pastel pink with polkadots all over and bird droppings on the hood. Now with that said, the news headline would read “Man in ugly car annoys neighbors.” On TV, we will get several “experts” commenting about the man. On another channel, we will have a commentary about why people should not honk their horns in a residential area. Gone is the actual reporting. Whether writing an actual news article, the writer doesn’t describe what the car looks like and simply calls it ‘ugly.’ The writer also does not interview any of the neighbors to even confirm whether they were truly annoyed or if they understood what the man was doing. Then when you go on TV, already we would be hearing how people ‘feel’ about it. We the viewer however already developed an opinion based on what we read and hear without getting real facts, and we are not willing to spend extra time in our lives on research because we simply have more pressing matters, but if we were asked to poll how we felt about the guy in the car, we’d hang him on a stick.

That is what news is to me today. We almost never get the real story whether it is our public policy or a world event. If the language presented to us is too fuzzy for us to understand then we would be dependent on a translator. Often times that translator ends up spewing commentary and his (or her) two cents about the matter. The Bill O Reilys, Keith Olbermanns, Glenn Becks, Jon Stewarts and countless bloggers are our real source of news, unfortunately. These men (and women) don’t report. They do have a good understanding on what’s going on in the world and have already shaped the public’s opinion. For most of us in this country, we are not journalists and we would not look up the real facts ourselves unless we are paid handsomely for these efforts as do these commentators. As a result, their shows achieve higher ratings than their actual news programs. Want to know why we hate Fox News? It is not because it is ‘allegedly’ off a right slant (that’s another discussion), it is because the majority of its programming are commentators in a shouting match over what’s happening in Washington and around the world. This is far more appealing than watching the actual news and it shows by Bill O Reily’s ratings. News is simply too depressing to watch. Why not get entertained by people arguing about it?

As the internet becomes our daily (more like hourly) newspaper, it also gets inundated with other commentators providing their own ‘spin’ on the issues as we affectionately call “Blogging.” Anybody who posts articles on their Facebook (me included) is guilty for following specific blogs because they share and shape our views of the world. As much as I for example personally should read right leaning blogs to ‘balance’ my views, I don’t simply because I’ll get pissed since the majority of them seem antagonize a person such as myself. Despite that, the layout of huffingtonpost.com is too nicely designed for me to read another site, and Huffingtonpost has a tendency to oversensationalize events and have misleading headlines as opposed to its actual article.

Bottom line, while commentators and bloggers are not exactly the ‘end of the world’,’ media outlets need to find again that responsibility of actually broadcasting actual news and letting us judge for ourselves. Maybe npr.org is the only real news outlet out there because they’re not commericially funded, but until they make their site more eye-catching, I’m doomed to read Huffington Post. What we need is another reporter who just describes, not spin.

FF13 Anticipation

Dindji (10:43:26 AM): man to some people FFXIII is just another game
Dindji (10:43:31 AM): to some peopl eit's just another RPG
Dindji(10:43:38 AM): to some people it's just another final fantasy gae
Dindji (10:43:39 AM): game*
Dindji (10:44:29 AM): but to me that shit means way more than that....for me this is square's last hope....it's like that chick i've been in a relationship with for a long time and she keeps fuckin up...but i remember the good ole days so i stay with her hoping she'd go back...and i'm just waiting for her to fuck up one more time and i'm done with her