The Great Social-Media Consumption Project: Open Mic Time!
As you may know, we have two audiences for WillVideoforFood:
- Online-video industry advocates (agencies, bloggers, marketers, media). These people quietly graze for stories, but rarely interact.
- The online-video junkies and Nalts watchers. These folks are more active on the web, and usually keep this blog alive with a clever thread of comments– which is more interesting than the blog itself.
Well guess what? It’s “open mic” time for the latter group, and the former group can listen carefully as if they’re watching a focus-group behind a 2-way mirror! Let’s learn how hard-core online junkies daily consume media and interact with friends, colleagues and family.
You see, our media consumption patterns have changed radically in recent months and years. We don’t wake up and watch morning shows, and then check e-mail (unless you’re wifeofnalts). Instead, we consume via a customized, electronic intravanious drip of what and who important to us via RSS, e-mail, YouTube, blogs, and social-networking applications.
I encourage the curious to read the thread below. Anyone can post comments, but I hope all readers will take note of the insights below. I may try to summarize them in a future post:
What’s a typical day for you on the computer? What do you most look forward to, and how do you consume the information?
- What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use e-mail less/more, or have new destinations you love?
- How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you? Do you find them, and share them? Or does someone you know help you find them? How on EARTH do you know so quickly when I post a new video? Do you use Google alerts to track certain words (like your name or a company name)?
- What advice would you have to people who are trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, online-video and other communication tools?
I’ll start with my own typical day (see more). You may want to write your own description before reading mine so it doesn’t bias you…
I tend to get online and check YouTube first. I’ll admit I like to see how my recent videos have done, and interact with viewers on my recent videos. Then I graze some of my favorite subscribers. Next I jump on my iGoogle page, which has RSS of my favorite sources. I look at headlines and trends, and blog if inclined. Then I’ll check my inboxes, but often get so overwhelmed I decide to go edit a video. As the day progresses, I jump back on WVFF to read comments, and post more. Occasionally I jump back on YouTube or check The Onion for a funny story or video. I usually adopt new tools based on what my virtual friends are doing… if Nutcheese says try Stumble! I do. If a friend sends a link to a video, I’ll watch it. If my video buds are playing with ning or a new site, I jump on and play around. I avoid news in general because it’s usually depressing but occasionally get excited about certain stories and dig deep (Drudge, etc.). I watch almost no television (unless someone is watching something interesting), and I end my day on my bed watching YouTube videos via my AppleTV… mostly surfing the top 100 rated videos of the day since the UI is so limited and that’s easy. I try to use Yahoo Buzz to keep current, and find topical subjects for videos. I also listen to see what friends and colleagues are talking about, which often inspires a video idea. I used to be vigilant about surfing my subscriptions but I’ve oversubscribed so I sadly miss the new videos of friends… wish there was a way to RSS my favorite subscriptions on my iGoogle so I’d know when Lemonette has a new video.
Mic check, mic check…1, 2, 3. Testes! Testes!
For me…
-Check email. (Usualy 5 or less new ones, but sometimes up to 10)
-Check New8Austin.com for local news and weather.
-Check Yahoo for News, Finance and Most Popular sections.
-Check CNN for News and Business section.
The above take less that 5 min unless there is an article I find really interesting.
-Next I check Willvideoforfood to check for new posts and/or comments. (this will repeat throughout the day in force depending if I’m working or not)
-Check Youtube for new Nalts video. (This is very important and get upset if he uploaded it the night before instead of in the morning. A few curse words may fly and the Nalts voodoo doll may get a prick or two) :o)
-Scan my subscription videos to see if there is something I want to see. (I have a few favorites as well, ususally the ones who tend to interact back with you)
-Check Twitter (this is new to me and get into it once in awhile, noone ever replies back to me except sometimes sukatra)
Then off to work or if I’m off, watch t.v! Yes, T.V!
I don’t RSS anything, anything new I hear of is usually through friends or by chance encountering it on here or casual browsing. I’m a big lame-o!
Okay Nalts, do I get $5 dollars for participating and a can of orange Fanta?
Breaker breaker 1-9…I have to start off by saying that I’m new to your blog (sad…I know) but am already addicted. I’ll send you my therapy bill.
My day starts off at the daycare (aka work, a construction company), so the first thing I do is check the weather/wind speeds for the day to make sure the little boys don’t fall off of the big roofs. I then open my email client where I check four emails (one for the company, one that is my work email, and the other two are for two people at work that don’t know how to use email, so I, therefore, am the sucker who has to check/read/print/compose/send for them daily). Since my boss still hasn’t shown up, I go to my internet provider’s site to look at the headlines and check my personal email, which usually only has one or two messages because I checked it right before bed…at midnight. I hate the news because there’s nothing ever really interesting, but occasionally I do read an article or two, and I’ll even forward the article if it really catches my attention (this is a rarity). If anyone emails a video to me, I wait to watch it at home because of the Nosey Nancys that lurk in the office. I then jump over to Myspace and Facebook (simultaneously because our network is terrifyingly slow). I check my messages, see who’s updated their page, look at all the new pictures my friends have uploaded, and listen to whatever song I’ve posted on my page. I usually read a bulletin or two on Myspace depending on who posted it. After that I head over to my blog list. Usually by this time, I’ve got a post of my own that I need to write, so I take care of that first because my boss still hasn’t made it in, and I want to get it done before the Nosey Nancys come creeping up to my desk. Around 10:30, the owner comes in and turns on his TV, so I get to listen to people yell and scream about the market for about 4 1/2 hours. Occasionally he changes the channel to the news, so I do have somewhat of an idea that there is a world out there that isn’t the internet. I try to check out at least three new websites each day that I’ve read or heard about. Throughout the rest of the day, I check my personal email and social networking sites once or twice before heading home. I watch a few TV shows but always with my laptop in my hands. I check all my RSS subscriptions, Myspace/Facebook, and my email before going to bed. By this time, I usually have a headache from staring at a computer screen for ten hours.
My only advice for someone trying to engage more would be to just do it. Eventually, it, like crack, becomes an addiction, and you’ll begin to wonder “How in God’s name did I end up this way?”
White trash hillbilly next door neighbors are my alarm clock. Wake every morning to the sound of their starving dogs yelping in the back yard and their butt naked overfed barely supervised children in the front. Plus the adults (and I use that term loosely) like to yell at each no closer than 20 feet apart while honking the truck horn (with the left hand while digging in their ass for fleas and body lice with the right).
Open eyes. Wonder where I am. Get depressed realizing my geography. Pull dog out from under my armpit. Swing legs off the bed and onto the tile floor. If already wearing pants, I waddle over to my mom’s room and let the dog in to jump up on her bed to put her butt on mom’s face. If mom spits and sputters and yells at the dog to get off, we know mom is alive for another day.
Check mom’s room for hidden drugs or booze to be flushed down the toilet. Put her phone back on the hook.
Waddle outside to the main water shutoff and turn the house water back on. Usually done shirtless.
Microwave myself a cup of coffee. Plop a can of dog food into the dog bowl. Curse the dog when my bare feet step in urine or shit on the living room carpet.
Tell mom what day it is, who she is, who I am, remind her to eat something and waddle back to my room with my coffee. Light a cigarette.
Plop down at my workstation. Turn on the TV just to the right of my laptop but mute the sound. Turn on my radio just to the left of my laptop to listen to farm reports. Turn on my laptop.
Perform the morning pill-cutting ritual with the blood pressure, heart and lung medications. Chase the stuff down with whatever flat soda pop is lying around. Light a cigarette. Wait for the morning bowel movement to announce itself.
After the BM, my laptop should have finished loading the operating system and a cluttered desktop faces me. I’m ready now for the internet.
Ritualistic torture events with Satan. Bandage up my wounds and take the little fucker to school. Laugh hysterically as he runs screaming up the steps, thinking to myself, “yeah, you guys deal with him for a while.”
Return to the house in a joyous mood, but then sob uncontrollably upon realizing that yes, Satan will return in just a few short hours.
Take a Xanax. or Five.
get on the computer and check twitter. Sometimes post my first tweet of the day, sometimes not.
Check my email and delete all the ones from my kid’s school and any twitterspam. Read any new other new messages. Usually there’s nothing.
Sob uncontrollably for another 20 minutes when I reealize how empty my life is.
Take another 10 Xanax.
Check youtube to see if my subscriptions have posted new videos. If you have, I’ll watch it. If others have, I’ll wait til later.
Comment on your new video and wait for the newbies to thumb it down.
Look at WVFF to see if there are any new blog posts. Review old posts for new comments I haven’t seen. Then go back and actually read your new posts and think about commenting. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Kidding. I never read your posts.
comment on your new blog post, responde to new posts on old blog entries. Note to self – always make sure your comment is borderline obscene.
Think about looking at vloggerheads, but blow it off until later.
Lie down on couch, wait for Xanax to kick in, then pass out for an hour or so.
Watch inane TV shows, waiting for that sexy hot Dr. Phil. If there’s a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or a stock market meltdown, switch channels obsessively between CNN and MSNBC to see who has the most shocking footage.
Think about taking a shower, then laugh like a maniac at the notion of me actually smelling fresh and clean.
Repeat this sequence throughout the day. Occasionally look at a CNN article if the lead is sufficiently shocking to grab my attention.
Go pick up satan from school. Compare notes with teacher about Hank’s behavior and discuss whether it makes sense to increase his dosage of elephant tranquilizers. Hope the teacher doesn’t smell me.
Return to house and start drinking. Watch the last 10 minutes of Dr. Phil, then see if Oprah has anything interesting on. Answer is usually no.
Hole up in my office and obsessively look at twitter, youtube and WVFF to see if anything interests me. End up surfing vloggerheads to see if my friends have posted any new videos.
Spend the rest of the night yelling at Satan.
Occasionally go into nutcheese’s stickam room, hoping there are people in there i can either torture or exchange disgusting vile commentary with. Try to avoid nutcheese’s sexual harassment of me. Stalker.
Take my drugs and then couch surf for a couple of hours, waiting to pass out.
Rinse, lather and repeat.
For you, sukatra (click)
@6
“Windows Media Player cannot open the file.” That’s the error message I got. Time for more Xanax!
A typical day for me always begins with a visit to this site:
http://smouch.net/lol/
Enjoy!
1.What’s a typical day for you on the computer? What do you most look forward to, and how do you consume the information?
Well let’s see, the day starts with my getting up at some point (the hour varies), and I sit down at my desk and turn on my computer. I also turn on the TV because the prolonged lack of human interaction makes things a little too quiet.
I don’t actually look forward to anything on the internet anymore but out of force of habit, (and nothing better to do), I check certain sites that I have book marked via my IE 8 browser.
2.What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use e-mail less/more, or have new destinations you love?
I would have to say that my level of interest in the internet and what I believed to be it’s ability to help connect people and share creativity has greatly diminished over the year.
I guess it started with YouTube being a big let down after a year of wasting my time, attempting to share my creativity with the world there. Back when I still cared though, I would check the channels of the people that I had subscribed to, everyday. Now however, I can barely remember who I’m subbed to.
As far as e-mail goes, I’ve never had a reason to check it more that three times a week at best. That hasn’t changed in the past year. As I mentioned earlier, I’m becoming less interested in the internet as time passes, so I don’t tend to “explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations” much anymore.
The Enterprise has been decommissioned and my “boldly going” boots are hanging up in the closet somewhere. The whole internet thing is a bit of a yawn now that I’m not really that “net active” anymore.
When I believed that the internet was something that I was, (or at least could at some point become), a meaningful part of, it was an exciting adventure that was full of hope, (sort of like a journey to the Land of Oz to see the Wizard).
Now the internet mostly looks like “real space 2.0” to me. Every system that’s dysfunctional in mainstream reality has merely been digitized, duplicated and now defines the internet experience .
I don’t see the internet as a “next step” in human social development anymore. I just see it now as “more of the same” and that equals, “meh“.
3.How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you? Do you find them, and share them? Or does someone you know help you find them? How on EARTH do you know so quickly when I post a new video? Do you use Google alerts to track certain words (like your name or a company name)?
I don’t keep current on videos for the most part. For instance, I haven’t logged into Youtube in like 6 months, so with the exception of the occasional “subscription update e-mail” that I get once in a blue moon, I don’t keep up with videos that much.
The exceptions to that are those few people who’s channels or websites (like this one) that I directly saved to my browser bookmarks and decide to look in on and those that I have favorited on my Revver account.
That’s about the extent of my internet content consumption these days, not counting the never ending search for copyrighted material and the ubiquitous Happyslip presence that is rarely far from my view.
4.What advice would you have to people who are trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, online-video and other communication tools?
My advise? “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Run, run far…far away as fast as your legs can carry you!
In seriousness though, there is no need to “try to engage” anymore. They are being engaged automatically now. The transition has been made all too easy for the digital noob.
They saw something on TV they like? Bam! There’s a website for it.
They want to get more connected to that tried and true product they’ve been using for 3 generations? Bam! The company’s holding a contest on the website, where they must register their personal info to enter.
What’s that you say? You want to get a special code that you can enter on the website of your favorite show for exclusive behind the scenes info about next weeks episode? Well just send a text to this number with your cell phone and Bam!
It’s already happening everywhere you look.
“We have engaged the borg.” Assimilation has begun.
Alright, alright, I’ll throw my two bits in. But only because nobody wanted me to.
* What’s a typical day for you on the computer? What do you most look forward to, and how do you consume the information?
Most days, I find myself on the computer most of the day. When I wake up, I’ll check my email quickly, and if I uploaded a YouTube video the day before, pop over there to try and address any comments that were left. If anyone subscribed, I’ll head over to their channel and either post a comment or send a message, unless it takes too much work to do so.
I get ready for work, head off there, and it’s 8 hours on the company computer. During non-break time, I spend the time doing reports, selling products, etc-work related stuff. During my breaks, I’ll fire up my laptop and essentially continue my morning routine. I’ll probably surf through a few of my favorite blogs, comment if need be, and it’s beck to work.
What I look forward to the most is definitely my time in the evening. At some point after work, I’ll get to spend anywhere from half an hour to a couple hours goofing around online. I might get to produce a new YouTube video every now and then, and what time I don’t spend on that goes to surfing my subscriptions on YouTube, posting comments to the dozen or so blogs I frequent, and hitting any interesting posts from my feed reader.
* What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use e-mail less/more, or have new destinations you love?
Due to some pretty rough family stuff, I was unable to spend almost any time online for about a year, which came to a glorious end in late may/early June. I’ve mostly picked back up where I had left off before the family crisis era, but one or two things are new. I’ve definitely used RSS feeds a lot more than I used to. I also bought an iPod, and so I have a lot of podcasts, and have even created a few sample podcasts to experiment with the medium. In the next few months, I want to convert my YT videos into a podcast, and kick off a real podcast of my own, discussing mainly the viral video phenomenon (and lamenting that the closest thing I’ll ever have to a viral video is a birthing goat!)
* How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you? Do you find them, and share them? Or does someone you know help you find them? How on EARTH do you know so quickly when I post a new video? Do you use Google alerts to track certain words (like your name or a company name)?
Essentially, I only subscribe to people I actually enjoy watching, and so when they make new videos, I find them almost immediately.
I should point out one thing I do use that I find handy. I sort my email like an obsessive compulsive loony. I have about 6 different email accounts that relate to various aspects of my life, and I use my own domain to give me unlimited email addresses that are forwarded to my gmail account. Everything is forwarded to one gmail account, and I use filters to sort all of my accounts out. I have dozens of filters, some as specific as “YT Subscribers” which catches messages every time I get an email saying that someone has subscribed to my videos, and some as vague as “Not from YT” In case I want to see only messages that come from outside the world of YouTube. It’s a beautiful system, and allows me to sort and process my emails insanely quickly. Which is good, because when I missed getting online over the weekend, I had over 500 relevant emails waiting for me. In less than an hour, they were all sorted and dealt with.
* What advice would you have to people who are trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, online-video and other communication tools?
Don’t look at me. Seriously, I’ve got a few things down, but for the most part, I’m about as relevant to 2008 as a commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld (ow, micro-burn!). Going through my Freecycle filter, I saw a stack of 4 VCR’s being given away, and I instantly wanted them. This is all to say that I’m admittedly not ultra-mega Web 2.0 Savvy. I have a twitter account I’ve used twice. My facebook account is updated at least once a year. I try to update my blog every other week, even though I dream of doing daily updates. If it weren’t for TubeMogul and sometimes stickam, nobody outside of YouTube would know I exist online.
No kids, if you want to be a Web 2.0 Elitist, don’t mimic me. The closest you’ll ever get is Web 1.7.8 service pack 3 with the Java code update
flip the computer or reboot
click a script that opens 3 browsers and pre-programed web pages, programs, updates etc…
coffee – shower
check to see if Kevin has answered any of my e-mails – (intentional guilt alert) hopes are usually dashed when it’s only a subscribers update list. Check out the titles on my news subscriber list on You Tube, hit playlist, check all the other e-mails, update the blog, see what destruction e v has caused, fix that – skim this blog and other social networks. If there’s an interesting video in the background or an item catches my ear or eye via news or e-mail I’ll grab material for a later video – depends on time. At night I watch the lighter or more thoughtful videos/blogs/antics/stuff comment or send a message while watching and working on other projects. I don’t watch TV unless I remember to flip on the evening news, and considering I get it faster on the net in the a m I know a lot more by the time Brian Williams decides to give NBC’s account, but I try and take note of what they decide to report. In between that I have one online radio station I listen to during the day and only check e-mail on occasion.
I started wondering lately if I should be doing something else, I’ve been toying with the idea of going internet cold turkey and giving it up altogether; just to see what would happen. I’ve decided to think more about that closer to thanksgiving.
@10: Good Lord! Have you no dignity? You know everyone here, myself included is going to read the first 3 words and skip to the end, right?
@8 That’s the coolest website ever. I’m going to be adding that to my list of daily sites to check out! Thanks for the heads up!
@9 If a website asks for my info before letting me view what’s going on on that page I NEVER view. Not worth my time. I hate that!
@11 – I went from Internet junkie to having no internet almost overnight. It hurts. A lot. Believe me, after trying to cope for about 4 months, I bought a $400 cell phone just so I could have some usable Internet.
Of course, my disconnectivity was forced. Maybe had I wanted to give it up I could have waited 5 months, when the phone was selling for $200. Ug.
@12 – That’s why my last line sums the whole thing up. Geez! Everyone’s a critic!
@10, 12 HaHa! When I wrote mine initially, I thought, “Damn, these guys are gonna reem me for writing a freakin’ book!” Thanks for taking my worries away! ;o)
@3 – Hi Jane, and welcome to the world of posting at wvff. You should get some red pills by mail this week. Taking them makes posting here so much more fulfilling. Some of our comments even make sense then!
@9
I think more and more people are going to disconnect from the social networking aspect of the net. It’s too much like shouting into a room overcrowded with other people shouting. People want REAL and they want PERSONAL. SOME people. There will always be those who are perfectly content being controlled, herded, targeted, directed, quantified.
I blame vloggers. Vloggers suffer from Echolalia and Brain Bulimia. Basically, they are serial regurgitators. They are the black mold on online video which is choking this media. Vlogging is a lazy person’s game. Generally, an untalented lazy person’s game. They dumb down the art of video. Fie on them! Fie! Fie! I eschew vlogs, vlogging, vloggers and most of all, Vloggerheads. But I have to admit, in moments of weakness and laziness, I’ve vlogged, too. I’m so ashamed.
@8
That’s the second time today you’ve smooched me. Are we dating now?
@7
You need a QuickTime plugin.
Unfurl myself from the stupor that I like to call sleep. Drag my ever increasing ass downstairs followed closely by the dog and cats. All of whom want food or somewhere to dispose of prior evenings dinner.
Grind the coffee, make the coffee, boot the computer, let the dog back in, check the email paying particular attention to the email responses from WVFF, Comments from YT and VH’s, pour the coffee, drink the coffee, repeat as needed.
Check IE7 RSS feeds of news, blogs, vlogs, comic sites and new comments on WVFF. Check for new videos on YT. Comment multiple times on multiple videos and respond to Skype calls and messages. Try to remember if I have checked all the RSS’s. Since they keep updating and I lost most on my short term memory in those addled days of the ‘70s I find myself in a perpetual do while loop.
The phone rings for some business and thankfully breaks the loop.
Take a shower.
Check for more messages and thank all that is holy that I have never found the least bit of interest in Twitter or Texting.
Hit the road. Checking for new emails as I move through hot spots on my way to the next den of horrors that I like to call employment.
Arrive at house of horrors booting computer and monitoring same RSS and Gmail links for changes in the only interesting thing in my life.
Work until I am done.
Repeat: Hit the Road.
Arrive at home kiss the dog and kick the wife. Feed the cat and boot the computer. Check all messages and update on YT subs. Re-enter the loop until I notice that the sun has long since gone down and the beer has been depleted and the wife has gone to bed.
Pass out.
(This is by no means a representation of my normal day and should at no time be construed as an admission that my life is at all wasted or boring. Moreover I have stolen the general ideas for this from the postings of Sukatra and the MJD whose postings have caused me to fall into the black hole of despair and loneliness )
^ Jesus saves.
@17 MWAH!
I had the same hair as that guy in 1987.
I promise to have a short post. normally I read all the comments on here, but the length of nearly every comment means I am lazy and won’t read them.
email starts on log-in, so does IM, RSS reader (desktop applications for the win), and skype (though no one ever calls me).
read email while waiting for my rss reader to update the feed list. usually 10 or so emails, most from WVFF.
Once email is done being checked, I read the rss stuff. Anything from WVFF I open in a browser and read and comment.
then I open a browser.
check facebook, deviantart, youtube, and twitter. in that order.
then I think about what I want to do for the rest of the day. which normally involves homework because I don’t get to use internet until after I come back from school.
and I am done. short, I think, though probably my longest comment ever.
@8
YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a very self-centered ass on the internet. I hit iGoogle (RSS EVERYWHERE!), then I hit YouTube.
I read A LOT of news, because I am literally always on the look out for something to take an angle on. I also look out for polarizing stories to make fun of both sides of – that is my brain gravy. Not necessarily the stuff that gets viewed the most, but I am usually most proud of those pieces.
I reply to comments and myspace mail all day. I twitter, etc. I make myself very accessible and people often times ask stuff I’ve answered a billion times (WHAT EDITING SOFTWARE? HOW DO YO MAKE CARTUNES? UR SO GHEY!).
I am buying an iPhone tomorrow so I will officially be someone who can have no life while attending events.
But yeah, it’s me, current events, me. SELF!
@4
I admit, Kevin, that I didn’t really answer ANY of the questions posed by this post, but seriously, Kevin, you’re asking for proprietary info.
😀
I drag my ass out of bed by noon. I always start off my day with a good piss. From there I make my way to the couch where my laptop is. I turn on my TV and choose a show that my TiVo will be frozen on all day. I first check my email for all the messages I plan on ignoring. I read them, but still ignore them. I get my daily fucked up email from Diana and ponder how someone could be so twisted and how she finds such fucked up videos to send to me.
At that point my breakfast is delivered to me as I browse through the latest videos posted on vloggerheads. I used to go to YouTube first, but my latest addiction is vloggerheads. I have my morning smoke as I search for specific people’s videos first then I check out whatever looks interesting. At this point I try not to fall back asleep because most vlogs are so fucking boring. I smoke my second cigarette that triggers my glorious morning shit. All is good in the world at this point.
I decide to drag my ass out for my daily walk through the ghetto and try not to step on any fresh steaming piles of shit or syringes. The other stuff I do on my walk is none of your fucking business. My phone tends to start ringing at this point because people figure I’m actually awake. They know better than to call me in the morning. The text message start around this time too except for those of you who are on a fucked up east coast schedule and find it amusing to send me messages when I’m sleeping.
I make my way back home to open up my stickam room around 6 pm. After I open the room I tend to mute it and minimize the window because it bores the shit out of me. I only pay attention when Sukatra or Diana are in there keeping thing entertaining. My dinner is delivered to me at this time so that everyone in my stickam room can watch as I stuff my face. It’s very attractive. It gives Sukatra a boner.
While I ignore stickam I tend to multi-task online between watching videos on vlogger heads and YouTube, juggling a few instant messenger conversations I have going on at once, phone calls, watching videos, editing videos, answer comments on my videos (if I’m in the mood), stumbling, catching up on a couple blogs I follow, and answer emails. While multi-tasking all these things I usually have a game of solitaire or spades going on too. When I am going out I will just leave my stickam room open… it’s okay because everyone is used to me ignoring them anyways.
My evening starts to slow down about 10 where I then catch up on the news (The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart and TMZ). I have a couple TV shows that I will actually watch too.
At midnight I get a second wind and am totally awake. This is the time where I can actually focus on all the emails that were sent to me, read my book in the tub, editing my photography, and edit videos without constant distractions. I reply to a number of ongoing email conversations I have going. Lately this is actually a time I use to ponder on what my next move will be since I’m not working and reflect on what that “inner peace” thing means. Yeah… I’m deep. I also have an addiction to googling the shit out of things. When I get on a mission to learn about something I get totally out of control and end up getting stuck on it forever! Googling is dangerous for me.
When I’m working I try to go to sleep by 2 or 3 am and wake up by 9 or 10am, but lately I’ve found that I don’t tend to make it to sleep until about 5 or 6 am hence the wake up time of noon.
In other words my computer addiction is out of control right now, but that will change when I start working again. When I’m working I don’t go online at all during the day. I’m in no hurry to start working though. I’m enjoying this break from all the stress.
We need to rename this vlog to the “WVFF Sardonic Writing Challange”
^ Blog. This be a blog.
ummm yeah…sorry.
@25 Nutcheese: We don’t know any Diana. She doesn’t comment here. Zat one of your inner circle secret society clique partners? Who is it?
You people all have much more interesting lives then me:
I get up, do my shit, try to get to work on time (it is exactly 1.7 miles from my house. I occasionally ride my bike, when I have time and it isn’t too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc.)
I get to work and boot up 31 computers. I check my email. And that’s about it for online entertainment until I get home. You see, I work at a middle school and we have thIs brand-spanking-new filtering software the blocks EVERYTHING!!
Then I spend the rest of the day trying to impart my computer knowledge into the minds of kids who all have ADD or PMS or something and don’t give a shit about computers unless they can get to MySpace. Which, of course, they can’t.
BTW, sukatra, I probably have several Hanks, and much worse, in my school. I work in a small urban district. We have kids who have coke whores for moms. We have kids who have grandparents younger than me.
But I digress.
When I get home, I try to catch up on everything I’ve missed. I used to go to YouTube first, but now I head here first. Sometimes I read Kevin’s blogs, usually I just look for comments by my favorite WVFF commenters, such as MDJ, NutCheese and, of course, the one and only sukatra. I have my own blog, but I only blog about 3 times a year. My life is too boring.
Eventually I catch up on my YT subscriptions, read the Onion, watch last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report online because my husband’s too freaking cheap to get cable. When there is a new episode, I watch Californication. I go to Facebook, I Stumble, and once in a while I visit Nutcheese’s Stickam room. Sometimes I’m there so briefly that no one knows I’m there before I’ve already gone.
and, #8: you are an jerk!!
That’s about it.
* I wake up, get ready for school and check my e-mail and check my comments. I don’t respond to most of it yet. I set my freinds on “device updates” so I get Twitters from people all day long. I go to school, come back. I get on the computer as soon as I get home. I watch ny subscriptions, respond to stuff, and look at Yahoo and AOL news as well as other video based news stuff. Watch people on blogTV sometimes.I do homework, and eat dinner. Then I read blogs, check mysapce and fb, go on blogTV if anyone is live, ect… That’s on a week day. Weekend involve more of the same. 🙂 The internet is a much as my life as it’s allowed to be in my house… any my other life is SAT prep so yeah… lol
* I check me e-mail more, and I get more e-mails. Ive been on YT for 2 years, but the first year it didn’t mean much to me. Now I’ve made friends because of it. Also, BlogTV is my main form of entertainment. I watch more movies than TV, but that my be due in part to the writers strike and its lingering effects. I don’t read as much as I used to, but now I’m going to be part of a reading collab channel so that may change again.
* I get news because when I sign into AIM, the AOL home page opens up and I have to go to the yahoo homepage when I check my e-mail. I still regulalarly check my fav specialty sites, MuggleNet, The HP Alliance, others…. The main thing is that I am always refreshing when I’m on. I’m subscribed to like 260 people , and if I refresh and there is nothing new in oven an hour I am disappointed. As for google alerts, I only use the google news search feature to see if anything new has happened in the Madeline McCann case. 🙁
* I would say first join the social network or community that your “IRL” freinds do. FB for college, MySpace for younger or older musicians, Youtube for video, wordpress or fiction alley for writing, flickr or deviant art for photography and arts.. THere are so many site for so many different uses it’s wonderful. But overall, step one, get an e-mail address!
hmm interesting post Nalts, I have more to say but idk how to word it.
Keep being you!
~<3 Michelle
@Nutsack
I’m Diana you douchebag!
Typical Day:
Wake up at 5:45 am and grab my iPhone. While still in bed I check my email. I get out of bed turn my home computer on. I open my 29 tabs in Firefox which include my customized google home page with the RSS feeds to my favorite blogs. Anything that catches my eye as a good title to a post I open in a new tab. My tabs include: Perezhilton, Techmeme, Craigslist, etc. I go through these if I have time and the kids aren’t out of bed yet. Once the kids are out of bed I ignore the Internet and do the mom thing of breakfast and off to school.
I get ready for work. I turn on my Windows Mobile work cell phone. I grab my iPhone (personal phone) and while walking out the door check my 100+ work email and check for any personal email. I head to work, turn my laptop on, check my work email once again. Check my personal email on my iPhone. While at work I only visit tech related sites on my laptop since I’m in a tech field (I figure I can claim I was keeping up with the industry if they complain about surfing). Sometimes, like last week, there will be a YouTube video that Techmeme has linked to and I will send it to my coworkers. Last week there was the new “I’m a PC” ad out so I sent that to the fellow Engineers and we got a laugh out of it.
The rest of the work day if I want to surf I pull out my iPhone and surf on Safari. Sometimes I check the weather, sometimes Google Maps on the iPhone. I had a YouTube video emailed to me last week that I watched on my phone while sitting in rush hour traffic.
I get home, I do the mom thing again: dinner, homework, playtime. I help my 10 year old daughter on YouTube while she searches for Jonas Brothers, and various other songs. My ears perk up when I hear her computer say “Miley Cyrus Topless”. I ask her what she is watching and she says, “I don’t know mom I just wanted to hear a Miley Cyrus song.” So, we have the talk about stuff like that on the Internet and how if she runs across it just to press the back button. Finally the kids get to bed.
I wander downstairs. Check my home computer RSS feeds again on my Google Home Page. If I see something interesting like this post tonight I read it, but I rarely comment. Maybe check out YouTube if I’m bored and can’t think of anything better to do. Sometimes watch SouthPark although I’m still annoyed I can’t watch them on YouTube.
What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use email less/more, or have new destinations you love?
I use email more now that I have an iPhone. Well, maybe not use it more, but I sure respond faster (within minutes) now. I love customizing google with all my RSS feeds. I use YouTube less than a year ago. I use MySpace more than a year ago (surprisingly because I year ago I hated it). I use Facebook less than a year ago.
How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you?
RSS feeds, people send me YouTube vids sometimes, other times I send the videos (not often), I don’t usually know when you submit a new video, but if I subscribed to you on YouTube I might know more often (I actually really like your videos, but somehow have spent a lot less time on YouTube the last 6 months). I don’t use Google Alerts, but my husband does.
What Advice would you have to people who are trying…?
little girls try…adults do
@32
Diana Yu Douchebag, Diana Yu Douchebag. Doesn’t ring a bell. So, you’re half Chinese and half Italian? Is Mr. Douchebag first generation?
Fat Man Blues
by Jolie Blond
12/08/01
Well, I got up this morning
with 40-ounce cases of malt liquor on my mind,
stumbled to the toilet,
my eyes wouldn’t open,
so I peed on the floor
and stumbled wet-footed
back out the door.
Found my jeans by the smell,
slipped wobbly legs right on in . . .
fell backwards on a stack of cardboard shelves,
grabbed the first shirt
that fell to the ground.
Man, if I didn’t need that paycheck so bad
morning wouldn’t see me coming ’round.
Fell out the door
and watched my feet
to make sure
the front one fell ahead of the back
as I wobbled under the 10:45 sun
toward the place I work
for the money, gotta get, to support my fun.
They already know
there’s no sense talking at me
before I shoot that coffee
down my raspy, acid reflux throat,
get my left eye open a mite,
my right eye focused
and my brain reconnected to my sight.
Kevin’s never going to read these
@8 that was pretty funny. I just pissed a lot of people off. thinning the herd thinning the herd.
@37
No way, Jose is he gonna read all this! Neither am I.
^ What he’ll do is look at the numbers. He likes numbers. He’ll see 40 comments and see success. What we ought to do is spam comment the hell out of one of his less interesting posts which will convince him that posts about organizing search engine priorities is a popular topic.
@37 and @40, so true!
Kevin, I expect a summary of all comments here by morning! Step to it Mister!
Oh, yeah…what did that black lady tell you at the end of the invisible video?
This is a random post to help Kevin feel better about himself by raising the post count.
Happy?
Saints and Sinners, Russians in Little Tokyo
Stayed at The Centinella this weekend. Stresses have all but paralyzed my mind, so why not crash in a fleabag motel a few days … catch up on mattress sleep and showers?
The Centinella sits deep in the heart of crack ghetto turf. I often
have to turn down opportunities to buy crack from the street vendors on my 200 foot walks from the motel to the nearby 7-11. You have to be careful how you decline street dealers, especially if you’re a middle-aged white man walking the dark streets of Inglewood at 2:30 in the morning. When crack sales are
down, a mugging will work just as well to bring home the green.
The motel has 11 units in various states of disrepair and is operated by an absentee manager from India, who used to own a gas station and is working on a 4 year plan to get another one. It also sits right up against the twisted, bruised fence of The Grace Chapel, an A-frame church that looks like it came right out of “Little House on the Prairie.”
Sundays at The Centinella amuse me. The Grace Chapel windows look directly on to the motel room doors twenty feet away. Check out time is 11:00, the height of Sunday services at the Chapel. So the Sunday parishioners get treated to a view of every kind of drug-addled, sex-crazed, shabbily attired shirtless sinner stumbling out of their rooms into the harsh light of day as they (the parishioners) sing about the glory of purity and forbearance.
Sometimes the sinners and saints look at each other; the saint with tolerance and pity, the sinner with embarrassment and longing.
Yes, I stay in a motel so crummy even the manager doesn’t want to be here— isn’t here most of the time. The regulars, including me, know that to check in to the place one has to go a mile down the road to a hotel managed by his sister to get a key or have your towels exchanged.
He lost his gas station “because I wasn’t paying attention” he says.
Next time will be different.
Last night I helped with the post arrest-and-bailout party after the
Russian’s boyfriend bailed her out of the 77th Precinct jail at 1 a.m.
last night. Me, the boyfriend, the Russian, a phone dispatch girl /dominatrix and her unemployed painter husband caravaned from the jail to an all night Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo (downtown L.A.) where we drank sake, cursed police entrapment techniques and made a big, drunken scene over the poor quality of the mishusui / vegetable soup.
The first arrest for prostitution is $1,000 bail (cash), no 10 percent
down thing like with burglary, assault or murder. Prostitution and
public cigarette smoking are cash cows for the government here. The boyfriend got the $1,000 cash from his roommate. God only knows why his roommate had $1,000 cash on a Tuesday midnight.
Wow great story mdj.
And here’s another tick on this blog’s way to 100 comments.
I’m eating oatmeal. Does anybody care?
@34. Nutsack
Marquis… if you’re gonna try to mess with me do it under your real name… grow some balls dude
Why do you hide under other names to talk shit…. grow a backbone too while you’re growing balls!!
This blog is getting too intense. And it’s not even because of the entries.
Well, at least Kevin feels important when he sees how many comments it got…regardless of their content.
@46 PrincessDi:
Pot calling the kettle black. You first. Or are you saying that you’re a REAL princess?
I’m a REAL Marquis. Royalty don’t ya know. And Kevin is a prankster. Let’s get a couple of Dukes and Duchesses in here and hold court.
@49
yeah, well I’m a REAL Brindle. that’s like… godly. so, just go bow down and pray to me like you would to the flying spaghetti monster. remember, I’ve been touched by his noodily appendage.
I’m a real looser. Not the imitation kind, like most of the others out there. I was uncool before the uncool kids were.
Sarah Palin’s Vagina is now following me on twitter.
– Typical day: Open computer, read email if any, go to WillVideoForFood.com. Go to work and repeat. Clear browser cache and history and do some work for a while. Repeat opening routine. Repeat clear history/do some work for a while. Repeat opening routine, etc.
– In the past year I have honed my online activities so that instead of a wide variety of sites, I rarely leave Mother Yahoo and WillVideoForFood.com. Occasionally I Google something if I see it at WillVideoForFood.com.
– It is pretty easy to keep current on the sites that interest me – see description of typical day, above. This also explains how I know so quickly when you post a new video (for variety, I sometimes check YouTube, but you self promote quite thoroughly, as well). I have used Google alerts for specific news items I care to track but it never occurred to track my own name – but I’ll bet you do it!
– Advice for people trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, etc: GET A LIFE.