The Rise of Collective Intelligence

Ok, at first glance this might seem like a very academic subject for me to be addressing after my two last posts centering around the "f" word, but actually it is just another take on the FIO philosophy (see my March 4 post and do the math to learn what FIO means).

My previous entries have talked about how FIO means, essentially, just doing something out of blind faith that you will succeed and waiting for success to come find you. The theory of collective intelligence seems to be the Mac Daddy of FIO-ism. Collective intelligence is the intersection of the FIO's out there, in some way devoting time, thought and/or energy to topics they are interested/talented in and companies then using their expertise to effortlessly profit.

This report gives some perfect examples of what I mean. Read the Lego example on page 18. Lego holds an annual contest to get ideas for new pieces. The winner receives not only the satisfaction of knowing that they--a total layperson far from being a trained Lego-maker--designed this great piece, but 5% of the sales of the piece as well. And the company, the article states, effortlessly enjoyed a 10% decrease in design and labor costs and a 10% increase in revenue. I'd say that's a win-win situation, wouldn't you?

An even better example is YouTube. Two 20-somethings basically set it up and let people populate it with their videos--then sell it to Google for $1.65 billion. Then, on the flip side, is my current FIO poster child--an amateur video producer makes a iPod fan video, uploads it to YouTube, where an Apple ad exec just HAPPENS to see it. The exec personally calls the dude who made it and asks if he'd like his video to be featured during the World Series. I mean, come on--how can you read that and deny that there is definite truth to FIO?

Work-Life Balance and FIO

It's been a really long time since I've blogged about my favorite topic, FIO. (Not sure what FIO means? Clearly you need to do some homework and familiarize yourself with this blog and the dominant theme in my life.)

I have to tell you: lately my blogging has taken a distinct FIO turn. Life is just too busy--I have a new job, kids, housework, a husband, some attempts at a social life that does not take place exclusively online, some semblance of an exercise regimen that I try to stick to, etc. In short: there are only so many hours in a day--24 to be exact. And when 8 of those hours are taken up at work and 2 commuting, that leaves 14 hours. Subtract 7 from that for sleep, and that leaves 7 hours to do all of those things listed above, plus stuff like grocery shop, recreate in some way or another...oh, and keep up with blogging, twitter, Facebook and all the rest of it.

The bottom line? There are not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done that I want to get done. If I didn't care about blogging I'd just forget about it, but for whatever reason blogging is my main favorite thing to do in life. Well, writing is, and since sadly no book deal has magically materialized, blogging is about the only for-fun writing I get to do. Like anything fun that people get addicted to: scrapbooking, working out, shopping, whatever--I have gotten addicted to writing. If I don't do it I start to go crazy and I'm already crazy enough, so I've learned to just make time for it and blog regularly.

The problem is that when you're on a tight schedule like I am, sometimes your blogging suffers. Like maybe the TV is on and you're sitting on the sofa next to your husband, who's giving you the stink-eye worse and worse with every passing minute and you're rushing to finish your post so you can be done with it and he can stop sighing and making snide comments about the computer. Maybe you get distracted, or cut corners on the thought you're trying to work through via that day's blog post. The result is a half-baked blog post at best; and one that's just flat-out wrong or offensive in a way you didn't mean.

My best example of this was when I wrote a post about Chris Brogan and something he said on Twitter. I was rushing to finish because one of the kids was bugging me to HURRY UP AND GET OFF THE COMPUTER so I cut my post off short (I have no idea what it was I cut but I distinctly remember that I had a larger point but I just stopped where I was because I couldn't take the whining anymore). Next thing I know Chris Brogan is tweeting the link to my post and lambasting me in the comments. In that case it worked out ok for me because that was the most blog traffic I have ever gotten, but still, half-baked is half-baked.

So twice in the past week or so I have FIO'd a blog post on my other blog. Read this post--then read the comments. Whoops. Now same thing with the post I wrote yesterday about Comcast and customer service--I meant the post to be about the larger issue of social media and customer service being kind of at odds with each other, with social media being done by people who are truly passionate about their jobs and their companies and customer service people usually, well, not so much. Then Social Media Today picked it up and suddenly a "meh" post in obscurity was seen by thousands of people.

Now Matthew (my 11 year-old son) has strep, I'm sick with something, the work-week has started, Thanksgiving is coming...and I have comments to respond to and need to email the poor Comcast guy to explain that I really didn't mean to take pot shots at him or Comcast in particular--I meant to talk about customer service in general and include other examples like Sprint, etc...but I was pressed for time and hit "publish post" before I'd finished my thoughts.

Sigh. Welcome to my world.

FIO FTW

If you read this blog you are familiar with my favorite concept: FIO. If you don't know what that means--well, bet you wish you'd been reading all along, don't you? I won't make you dig for it because it's Friday--FIO=fuck it off. As in, doing things the easiest yet most effective way possible.

This video is a shining example of FIO at work. I read several reports about the iPhone 4 having issues with reception when people hold it by the metal band around the edges so I tried it. I had a mind to share but video is not my best skill, so I did this half-assed...actually, more like quarter-assed, at best--video showing the bars going down when I gripped the phone around the metal band. I uploaded it to YouTube and didn't think about it again.



Just my luck that this issue is very newsworthy the past few days; today I get an email from YouTube saying the video is so popular do I want to apply for revenue share for it. Huh? What's up with the dozens of comments and over 3,800 views in 2 days? NOTHING I've ever done has gotten that much traffic. Anyone can clearly see that it's the crappiest, lowest-quality video ever made and uploaded to YouTube. Who knew?

Just goes to show--it's not about how much effort you put into something; it's half luck and half knowing what people are already talking about.

Eco=FIO

After much deliberation, I still haven't come up with a comprehensive list of resolutions for 2009, so I'm settling on just one: this year I'm going to become more "green."

The beauty of the green lifestyle is that much of it is just a way to turn what is really a bunch of fuck it off (FIO) ways into something admirable and PC. If you think if it, doing what's right for the environment is, in many cases, just the same as being cheap and/or lazy.

Examples:

1) Gift wrapping. Only enviro-haters who want the earth to turn into a fireball buy fancy paper that's sole purpose is to envelop a gift already boxed or otherwise packaged for a few minutes until it's disdainfully ripped off and thrown in the trash. The eco-friendly way to wrap a gift is to use newspaper or, better yet, just hand it to the recipient unwrapped and explain to him or her that you're being eco-friendly and forgoing wrapping paper. You will score bonus points for being green, and will have saved yourself not only the expense of wrapping paper, bows, tape and a gift tag, but the chore of actually wrapping the gift.

2) Holiday or Greeting Cards. So you forgot to send a friend a birthday card, or didn't feel like shelling out upwards of $25 for cards (who am I kidding--most people purchase custom-crafted holiday cards that cost several dollars each; the sky is the limit because, after all, Christmas only comes once a year!)? Should you feel like a rude, forgetful slacker? No! You should feel like an eco-hero, because you saved not only the money for the cards and postage, but the trees that would have had to die for that card and of course the carbon footprint that card would have left on the planet: the gas for the mail truck, the machines that process mail--it all adds up, you know. Instead, you can just send an email saying happy birthday (or holiday, or whatever)-I just saved a tree in your honor by not sending you a card.

3) Personal grooming.Showering: wastes water and necessitates the purchase of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and whatever other accoutrements you personally like to add to your shower or bath experience. Deodorant costs money and contains harmful, cancer-causing aluminum and is encased in earth-killing plastic. God forbid you use the aerosol kind--don't even get me started on the carbon footprint and health hazard that is aerosol anything. Ditto toothpaste. Instead of wasting time, money and effort showering and grooming daily, limit showers to once or twice a week (hey, Europeans do it so it must be great), skip the surfectant-laden shampoo and other cleanser and buy a big slab of eco-soap that does double duty as shampoo and body wash. Skip toothpaste--baking soda on a finger is good enough and saves the landfills from being filled with used toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes. And so on--basically the dirtier you are, the closer to the earth you are, right?

Ok, actually, after writing #3 I realized that there's no way I can ever go green--I am way too vain and lazy to ever become an eco-vigilante of that magnitude. I'll stick to not wrapping gifts or sending cards and exploring the world of luxury organic grooming products from my friend's online store, Organically Happy. I do admit that I have recently tried two eco products and was pleasantly surprised that they turned out to be better than their chemical-laden equivalents: Filthy Farmgirl Royal Almond handmade soap and SensAtia Grapefruit & Avocado Body Balm.

Well, here's to another year of living the FIO life and loving it!

*Moral of this post: don't write a blog post while you're watching TV; I've already had two people point out typos and/or grammar mistakes in this post.

Blog-to Book-Deal #92

Ok, not really--I'm not sure if the actual number of blog-to-book deals to date is 92; I just stole "92" from the title of this article that appeared in the March 30, 2008 New York Times.

Christian Lander, an Internet copy writer, has a blog called Stuff White People Like. I would have given the guy a book deal for the title alone. I have to go read it but at a super quick glance (who, me--offer an opinion based upon a mere glance?) it looks hilarious. Hilarious, apparently, to the tune of $300,000, according to the NYT article.

Look at it this way--turn on your TV on any given evening and chances are you will find a reality show of some sort. Dating shows, beauty contests, a million different takes on the theme of survival, people battling it out to lose weight, people crammed in a house trying to annoy the shit out of each other, etc. You name it and there's a reality show about it. The whole premise is that people are entertaining enough just by themselves; no need for writers to sweat it out trying to write scripts or come up with ideas.

Isn't the same thing true of blogs? I'm certainly no literary agent yet I spend an inordinate amount of time reading various blogs. If I were in a position to make money by translating interesting ones into book deals I'd be set for life. Sit back and surf the infinite number of unsolicited book pitches--what could be easier? It's like being a modeling agent sitting at a pool filled with hot young girls--just sit there with a cocktail and take your pick of the ones who would make you the most money.

At any rate, is this not yet more evidence that FIO is the way the world operates now?

As is this, for that matter--my new FIO poster child, Penelope Trunk, blogging about how writing without typos is totally outdated. I say poster child because she embodies the spirit of FIO--that is, fuck rules--make your own, then laugh all the way to the bank.

Spawn of FIO

Mimi (aka Wednesday--my preferred name for her) was going to a birthday party today. I asked what she wanted to get the girl for a present. Her answer?

"I'll just give her some cash."

She insisted that buying a gift card is a waste of money--you have to pay $3 or whatever to activate it.

Clearly, she's inherited the FIO gene from me--or, I should say, the gene formerly known as FIO and now known as "Green."

• Why put a lot of thought into picking a gift; after all, who is better qualified to pick the perfect gift: the gift giver or the recipient? That's a lazy and inconsiderate way of thinking about it, right? Wrong! That's the green way of looking at it. Do you really want to saddle the gift recipient with not only a gift he/she won't use (wasting resources) but with the carbon footprint that unwanted gift left in its wake: the driving to the store, the manufacturing of the product, the lights in the store, etc? Of course not.


• Sure a gift card is neatly packaged and does, after all, contain the word "gift." But A) it costs more than its cash equivalent and B) it adds unnecessary waste to the planet. First there's the cardboard wrapper, then the nasty plastic card itself--destined for the landfill as soon as the recipient uses it. Cash might be tacky, but there is no wasted packaging when you hand someone a $20. And you saved yourself $8--the $3 you would have had to spend to activate the card and the $5 more than $20 you would have had to spend because Visa or AmEx gift cards only come in increments of $25.

In the end, though, I insisted Wednesday give the girl a gift card, not cash, so I did leave the carbon footprint to the store and back, spent $25 instead of $20 (plus $3 to activate it)--and the supermarket cashier felt the need to put the cardboard-sheathed plastic card inside not just one but TWO plastic bags--a small one inside a bigger one, even though the only thing the bigger one contained was a bottle of Diet Pepsi and a pack of gum.

What would a BPE have done in this situation? On one hand, no self-respecting BPE would ever have their kid show up at a party with anything less than a Martha Stewart-esque wrapped gift with matching bow and card. Then again, don't BPE get bonus points for being green?

FIO Blogging=Posterous

I have found the winning FIO combo in life: AudioBoo plus Posterous. Audioboo has an iPhone app, which means you just dictate into your phone--as if you're talking on the phone, just to yourself--then it automatically posts the resulting stream-of-conscious genius to Posterous (a FIO version of blogging where you can post via email or voicemail).

The only crying shame of the whole arrangement is that you can't post from Audioboo to Blogger--because if you could you'd be hearing a lot more from me. As it is, I tried it yesterday and posted to Posterous, so I'll have to settle for posting to Posterous than taking the extra step of writing some perfunctory post in here linking to it over there. Like this.

Or you could just subscribe to my Posterous.....

Is She Really Mistaken?

I don't have time to write what my British friend, Jane, would call "a proper post" so I figure I'd do the FIO thing and re-purpose an old post. It's AS IF I were writing this post now because I am, yet again, getting ready to read The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?

I read it a while ago and remain obsessed with it because, as much as people dis Leslie Bennetts' ideas--including me, in theory--I can't help but think that ultimately she's right. In case you don't want to read the book I'll give you the FIO synopsis: women should never quit working to stay home with kids, no matter how much money their husbands make, because there are no guarantees in life and if he dies or leaves you, you're SOL.

I'll save further comment for later, after I (and, of course, you) have read it again.

Blog Action Day, FIO-Style

Today is Blog Action Day, "an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day." The point? "...to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion."

Anyway, the point is to blog about poverty from whatever perspective you want. Naturally, what you write should be compelling, moving and inspiring--after all, we're talking about poverty, which is, of course, no laughing matter.

I know I'm going to hell but, as I've been growing increasingly anxious over the past few days about what I'm going to say about poverty, the only thing that continues to come to my mind is: Poverty is bad. Which then of course brings to mind this clip from South Park; watch it and, whenever he says the phrase "drugs are bad" just mentally substitute "poverty is bad."




If this is not the most FIO post about poverty EVER, I don't know what is. But hey--the rules say that the best thing a blogger can do to spread the word on Blog Action Day is to "use the style, personality and topic" your audience is used to to talk about poverty. Seriously.

Forget Waiting for a Book Deal--You Can Create and Sell Your Own Book

My friend Renee is my guru of stuff like The Secret and The 4-Hour Work Week--basically all that power of positive thinking stuff that most people think is a crock but I personally buy into. She reads my blog and knows about my obsession with the book deal because she sent me this link.

Unless I'm reading it wrong it appears you can write a book and, for a cost of $3.66 per book with fewer than 108 pages (or $1.50 plus $.02 per book if it's more than 108 pages) print it and sell it on Amazon or wherever you want.

Um, how cool is that?

Now that we know there is the actual option of writing a book we all need to think of something to write and do it, if for no other reason than curiosity. If a random nobody writes a book and manages to market it successfully enough I suppose it would be possible to create your own million dollar book deal.

For instance--I have been listening to the audiobook of The Secret (also kindly given to me by Renee--thanks if you're reading this!) and Jack Canfield, the guy who wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul, tells the story of how he decided he wanted to earn $100,000 in a year and dreamed up the idea for that book and went for it. Here's his bio now:

Jack Canfield, has worked his way from being a teacher to holding a Guinness world record for having seven books simultaneously on The New York Times® Best Sellers list. As a coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, he's sold more than 80 million books. Canfield has traveled to over 21 countries, delivering hundreds of keynote speeches, workshops and trainings each year. Canfield has appeared on numerous television shows. Today, he shares his success strategies with companies and associations worldwide

The only problem is that, if I apply Jack Canfield's theories to myself, I can already tell you that I would never succeed at building my own million-dollar empire because the only part of it I'd want is the million dollars.

I don't actually want to be an entrepreneur or build an empire. I don't want to travel or do any public speaking. I want the structure of going to an office every day and having someone else worry about the details. So if I apply the principles of The Secret to myself I've already shot any chances of being a passive millionaire--or any kind of millionaire--because I don't actually WANT to have that life and the universe only sends you what you want.

Oh well. The universe sent me a cool new job and the link to this self publishing thing so the message is that if I ever want to publish a book I can just do it myself. The universe also probably knows I have no initiative beyond writing this blog so won't be publishing a book anytime soon, unless it's a book of short short stories. Yes, that is an actual writing genre, by the way.

Obviously, the concept of short short stories was tailor-made for me; it may as well be called FIO fiction. Read these stories and tell me you don't think they're a stroke of FIO genius.

FIO Movie Recap 2008

Didn't get to the movie theater 50 times in 2008 like I did? Fear not--here are my reviews so you can plan your Netflix queue accordingly.

In an effort to stay true to this blog's FIO theme, I'm dispensing with any (ok, almost any) commentary and sticking to two categories: sucked or rocked. All caps means it REALLY rocked or sucked.

First Sunday--sadly, sucked
Cloverfield--rocked
Untraceable--rocked
The Eye--sucked
Step Up 2 the Streets--rocked
The Bank Job--rocked
Horton Hears a Who--sucked (can't compete with original)
Meet the Browns--don't really remember but I'm going with rocked
21--ROCKED
Flawless--can't really remember but I seem to remember it was good, so rocked
The Ruins--sucked so bad it rocked
88 Minutes--rocked
Forgetting Sarah Marshall--ROCKED
Deception--ROCKED
Baby Mama--ROCKED
Iron Man--rocked (Patrick would put that in all caps; it was his best movie of 2008)
The Strangers--ROCKED
Sex and the City--rocked
Zohan--rocked
Kung Fu Panda--rocked
The Happening--didn't totally suck but didn't really rock either
The Incredible Hulk--rocked
Wanted--rocked
Hancock--rocked, even though it got horrible reviews
The Dark Knight--ROCKED. Heath Ledger BETTER get the Oscar for it.
Step Brothers--ROCKED. Mimi's favorite movie ever--except for Baby Mama.
American Teen--SUCKED. This was the WORST movie of 2008. How do you make a documentary about teen angst boring? Well, this person did.
The Pineapple Express--ROCKED HARD. Started a heated dispute between Patrick and I; I SWEAR in the preview one guy says "It smells like pot's vagina." Patrick maintains he's saying "God's vagina." I'm sticking with pot's vagina, even though in reality he does say God's vagina, because pot's vagina is funnier.
Tropic Thunder--ROCKED
Death Race--ROCKED
Traitor--ROCKED
Burn After Reading--rocked
The Family That Preys--rocked
Lakeview Terrace--rocked (although verging on sucked)
Body of Lies--rocked
Righteous Kill--ROCKED
Semi Pro--SUCKED. Not funny at all; total disappointment.
Street Kings--ROCKED
Vantage Point--rocked
Transporter 3--basically sucked
Twilight--sorry, but SUCKED
Quantum of Solace--ROCKED. Too violent my ASS--it was awesome.
Four Christmases--ROCKED
What Happens in Vegas--ROCKED
The Day the Earth Stood Still--sucked
Benjamin Button--rocked (notice that isn't all caps; it wasn't that great and was VERY LONG)

Best movie of 2008? I'm going with Righteous Kill. How can you top De Niro and Pacino together?

Do you think that if I spend enough time writing about blogger success stories the universe will just see fit to turn me into one?

Dooce® (are you impressed I know how to produce that little "R" in html?) is more fodder for my just do it even if you don't know why you're doing it and eventually it will pay off theory.

In case you are not already aware of what Dooce is, it's the blog of Heather Armstrong, notable apparently because writing it at work apparently caused her to lose her job and she managed to turn that frown upside down and transition from, in her words "making a lot of money as a web designer" to being able to support herself writing about the details of her daily life. Now her website--through advertising revenue as far as I can tell, plus I think some products--brings in enough money to support her family and enable her husband to be a stay-home dad.

Oh, and of course she got a book deal out of it, resulting in "Things I Learned About My Dad: Humorous and Heartfelt Essays, edited by the creator of www.dooce.com." That's a new level of FIO publishing/fame that I hadn't previously considered: Editor. As in, get other people to write it then get your name on the cover and most of the royalties. A+ Heather Armstrong--you go girl!

Blog Action Day Results=I Win For Most Shameful

If I thought my post on Blog Action Day was FIO when I wrote it, now I feel even worse. Or, to be honest, I can't really say "worse" because I'm personally still laughing about it, but I know I should be feeling ashamed that I'm probably the only one out of 12,800 bloggers who didn't do a tear-jerker or violin-playing worthy post.

Oh, well--at least there were 14,052 other serious posts so mine won't upset the karma scale too much.

Readin'

Since I haven't been able to type or play computer games much I've had to resort to other recreational pursuits. I'm not much of a TV lover (although the new Denise Richardson show looks promising for trashy entertainment; that girl has a worse trash mouth than I do and it is NOT attractive) so I have mostly been reading. A lot.

I already wrote about Augusten's new book--naturally it rocked. Since then I have read the following:

Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher. It was good but depressing and freaky. If you want to feel normal, read this book. Just reading it is exhausting; I can't imagine having to live it. This book could serve as a FIO DSM: if you relate to this girl and/or have experienced what she has, you're crazy; if not, you're fine. Ok--sorry--I know "crazy" is not the PC term, but since I am supposedly crazy myself I'm allowed to call it that. And I'm telling you--I am 1000% less crazy than this poor woman.

Split by Suzanne Finnamore. I read this book because Augusten recommends it; I think she's a good friend of his. Lucky cow. Anyway, while I did like it and ultimately think she's a good writer, it took a long time to warm to her style. It could have something to do with the fact that I cannot relate to women who know their husbands are cheating yet choose to live in denial and want him anyway. Her story is that one day her husband just announces he's leaving and she is devastated and desperately wants him back, even when we learn, though a series of flashbacks spanning as far back as the beginning of their relationship, that he was a serial cheater.

She describes finding a book of poetry--with a romantic inscription and "xoxo Me"--in their house and it's sure not hers. She finds a cocktail napkin with some romantic song lyrics written on it in her husband's handwriting, complete with some other woman's name written in the margins or something; not only does she find it but she finds it on the floor of the nursery when she is 8 months pregnant.

Then of course there's the blatantly obvious: he has left her for another woman who he moves in with and proceeds to have a baby with. Throughout the whole thing Finnamore just swoons about how much she loves him; she repeatedly sleeps with him and, right up till the very last paragraph, seems to revel in the fact that he still likes to be with her or spend time with her or sleep with her when the fancy strikes him. She lovingly describes how he will just show up unannounced and help himself to her food, her furniture--even her mail. The guy turns my stomach--he leaves her for this other woman, then is cheating on the other woman with her. All the while she's painting him in this romantic light; how what they had was so beautiful and special and he obviously can't live without her. Meanwhile, it's blaringly apparent that the guy is a sociopath who does what he wants, when he wants, with who he wants and doesn't give it a second thought. Scott Peterson was very charming and sincere, too--and look how that turned out.

I don't mean to cut on Augusten's friend, but I just don't understand how she can stand to look at this guy, much less continue to mourn losing him and want him back. The book is good, but I say that very reluctantly because the whole thing was almost ruined by her ridiculous longing for her dick of an ex-husband.

Ok, well my pinkie is totally numb now so that will have to suffice; I'll fill you in on the other books I've read when I regain the feeling in my finger.

Not Feeling It

Wow--I feel bad abandoning this poor blog--there's nothing but crickets going on in here lately. Between working, writing in my other blog, taking care of kids, and spending time with Patrick, there just never seems to be any time left to write in here. Not to mention any creative juices I may have had are getting used up in less creative endeavors like writing about Twitter and Facebook.

Then--as if the busy schedule weren't enough to suck the life out of this blog--enter Strattera. It's for ADHD and supposed to make you be able to concentrate like a normal person; however, for me "normal" seems to translate into "lethargic and boring." Whereas before Strattera I was able to do 20 things at once, such as work, keep up with two blogs, read a million blogs a day, stay on top of gmail and work email--AND Twitter--now it's all I can do to plod through one thing at a time. Granted, I've only been taking it for a few days--hopefully I won't be forever stuck feeling like a stoned train wreck. Not to mention nauseous and with a horrible headache.

Even in my Strattera fog I am able to stay on-topic; however--I was checking out one of my favorite websites, Crazymeds to see if the wicked headaches I've been having are a side effect of the Strattera and realized that Jerod Poore--awesome creator of Crazymeds--refers to himself as a "citizen medical expert." In other words, FIO doctor. And the thing is that he totally rocks and is actually better, smarter and far more knowledgeable about meds than any doctor I've ever known.

In fact, Jerod Poore's expertise is the reason I'm on Strattera in the first place. I met with my doctor--who charges $120 for 30 minutes--and said I'd read about Strattera and it sounded like it would work for me. He got all excited and was like I think this would actually work really well for you, etc, etc. Here I've been going to this guy for several years, every 3 months or whatever, $120 a pop, and the way it always plays out is that I look something up on crazymeds and suggest it to him and he prescribes it.

Anyway, if you ever have questions about any psychopharmalogical substance, go see what Jerod has to say about it on crazymeds. I do have to say that the layout of the site is insanely bad, but it's worth weeding through the horrible navigation because nowhere else will you find such comprehensive, detailed reviews of every single crazy med known to man.

Is Twitter the Equivalent of Trash Art?

As you may have noticed on the sidebar on the right side of this page I am now "Tweeting" (or is it twittering?). I started doing it because every day I read several marketing newsletters and many blogs and social media is basically the only thing any of them talk about. For those of you who are not receiving marketing newsletters daily and don't know the first thing about marketing--or care to know it--Wikipedia defines it as:

...an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

In other words, Facebook, MySpace, blogging, etc, etc.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you--if you want to learn more about it you can read my other blog, Mizz Information, or google it and you too can become an "expert" (I have written 3 articles for EzineArticles and am now an "Expert").

At any rate, lately all I seemed to be reading about was Twitter. Don't ask me why but it's apparently considered to be a trend or asset in the business world, so in an effort to always keep my resume fresh, naturally I had to get with the times and start tweeting.

Two things about Twitter: first, I have no idea what the actual value of it is. I personally see it as sort of an art form reminiscent of a gumball machine that dispensed--for a quarter--pieces of trash in little plastic balls. In other words, I see Twitter as a completely FIO way of being some kind of modern day poet.

The thing is, like Christopher Goodwin's gumballs (see link above), ultimately people's tweets seem to me to be the literary version of small pieces of trash encapsulated in little plastic bubbles. Take a look at my "tweets" in the sidebar: you basically have I think 150 characters to make some kind of witty quip or otherwise somehow relevant observation. I like it because I personally am entertained by my own witty quips, but as far as the overall point or value of Twitter, I'm stumped.

It's funny to me the way people I see as being big guns in the business or marketing worlds seem to place a high level of importance on social media stuff I think of as relevant only to teenagers. Penelope Trunk, uber business woman and 6-figure blog to book deal getter, is doing it. Barak Obama is doing it (or at least someone posing as him is doing it). I won't waste anymore time looking up who else is doing it; I think it's safe to assume most writers or marketing people or just plain anyone trying to be down with the times is doing it.

Twitter is, for me, at the same time entertaining and boring. Yes, it's kind of fun to write any random thought in 150 words or less and release it into the universe, and to read other people's random thoughts. Then again, are other people's random thoughts really that interesting? Or are mine, for that matter? It's one thing if you're 16 and trying to stay in constant contact with your "peeps" and the minutiae of your life is all you talk about anyway, but do adults really have anything interesting to tweet about?

The Real Reason I Love Social Media

In 140 characters or fewer, this is why I love social media:

@themediaishirin Helping laid off media employees find new work 140 characters at a time. Email us at mediaishiring@gmail.com

Reasons why this is awesome:

1) A 140 character resume as a serious way to find a new job? Hells yeah. You can't get more FIO than that, unless the world is reduced to communicating via meaningful glances or tongue clicks.

2) The name is really themediaishiring. But the dude either mistyped and left off the "g" or that was too long a username. Does he sweat it? Nope--in the awesome world of social media stuff like that just doesn't matter.

In traditional communications there are all kinds of rules: you have to have a journalism degree; you have to proof and edit and proof again--mistakes are forbidden; you have to use correct punctuation; you have to use italics and footnotes with subscripts and all that kind of stuff.

But in "new" media? Fuck that shit. Forget the "g" on the end of your name? Makes it more authentic. Italics? So old-school. Typos? Whatever--everyone knows bloggers are so busy furiously expressing themselves that they can't be bothered with editing or proofing. And don't even think of hiring someone to edit for you--that's a big no-no; again with the authenticity.

And times like now, when I started a post but have to be somewhere in 5 minutes so don't have time to think of a snappy ending--no matter.