On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla,Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to take action and help fight the passage of the Protect IP Act. So will WordPress.org.

If you want to join the protest by blacking out your WordPress site or applying a ribbon, there is now a variety of blackout plugins in the WordPress.org plugins directory. While joining the protest in this manner is laudable, please don’t forget to also make those phone calls to U.S. Senators — they’re the ones with the voting power.

Blackout the Internet on January 18th to prevent it from being blacked out by Corporations.

We are not the 99%

If people would focus more on themselves rather than things we’d be in a lot better place. People want and desire too many material items which places them in debt to those that they are organizing against. Just because you spent over $100,000 on your education doesn’t mean you are entitled to a well paying job. Learn a trade and actually do something that will be a life long skill, school is great but when times are tough hands on skills are what will get you by.

There are BILLIONS of barrels of oil right in the middle of the good ol U.S. of A. Billions I tell you! Shale Oil is the next big thing!!!!!111!1one

Talking about lying did you hear that congress doesn’t pay taxes, gets paid for the rest of their life even if they only serve one term, and that they feast on the dead but still warm bodies of puppies and kittens?! It’s true my uncle Sam’s friends cousins bosses gardener forwarded it to me, which means it must be true. I once read that the brand new (if 10 years ago is new) gold $1 coins don’t have “In God We Trust” on them. Wait I have one right here, nope there is no In God We Trust on the coin… Oh wait there it is on the fucking edge of the coin. See this is the problem with a large percentage of the general, they don’t really know what they are forwarding.

The unfortunate part is that many of the people who send these things are actually intelligent people, and I know they meant well when they forwarded along the message, but every person that reads this cutting edge information is another possible fish that might fall for the lies.

My real issue here is who is the idiot that first creates these false sensationalistic stories that tug on our heart-strings, hit on our religious beliefs, or social awareness. Was it really some smart person that thought they could pull a fast one on the me? Or is it some stupid bastard that thinks they can get the pitchforks and torches pulled on the targets of their deceit?

With great power comes great responsibility, and with the Internet it appears as though responsibility has got thrown out with the baby and bathwater.

Please think before you link, or forward.

Here is a list of websites that you can confirm facts on before forwarding along stories that could be deceiving or have misinformation.

Factcheck.Org
Snopes
Truth or Fiction
PolitiFact

By the way, Obama is a US citizen, Congress is held to the same laws as all citizens, the DreamAct would offer amnesty for illegals that join the military or has at least 2 years of college under their belt, AND if we all don’t buy gas one day it won’t do anything since we will buy gas another day… moron.

If you have a friend or family member that sends along emails or Facebook links to lies like those listed above, send them this email next time and maybe they will check their facts before they spread the lies.

Go as in AWAY from Gowalla

For those of you that don’t know I have been an avid user of Gowalla (and Foursquare) for well over a year. I first started with checkin apps when I discovered Foursquare, I loved the concept of being able to track where I had gone for my personal benefit but also I enjoyed sharing cool places I went to with others that I socialized with. When I discovered Gowalla I was impressed and felt they took the Foursquare concept to the next level with the addition of pins and really nice looking stamps and badges that you could collect for your Gowalla page. Sure these weren’t real tangible but I still thought it was neat. For a months I would check in on both Gowalla and Foursquare. Then Gowalla came out with what I thought was the killer app they incorporated a way to checkin to both them and other sites at the same time, I no longer had to spend time checking into two applications. Since then I’ve been almost exclusively a Gowalla user (except when I checked on Foursquare to make sure I got checked in).

Unfortunately today my use of Gowalla ends. It appears with the next version of Gowalla 4.0 they have transitioned their business away from the checkin application and decided to become a travel guide. Now when I log into Gowalla and attempt to checkin to where I am the first list of 20 or so places I see are “Recommended places”. Which is Gowalla speak for places that have paid us money to make sure you see them instead of where you actually are. That’s great Gowalla, good for you! You have discovered a business model that has completely alienated they majority of your userbase, the locals. If I wanted to use Gowalla as a travel guide I shouldn’t be forced to use it that way because although I love Disneyland I don’t need to see every Disneyland location near me instead of the places I am actually next to.

Why did you fuck up so bad? Because you didn’t actually try it out with your CORE users before you screwed it all up. Changes like this are something you test out with users that are willing to try out new things, you don’t just change it and tell your users to deal with it. Wait that isn’t exactly what you said. You told the users reading your blog that there has been a “Fabulous response”, I don’t think you are reading the same response I’m reading, because the majority of the responses on your blog have been negative. You have completely alienated the userbase that created the database you now use as your travelguide. More power to you for taking advantage to our two years of patronage to create yourself a business model that will be the end of you.

Bye Gowalla.

Related articles

• Gowalla Updated To Version 4.0 – Removes Features, Adds Force Closes (androidpolice.com)
• Gowalla 4.0, Their Bold Revamp Towards Travel And Stories Goes Live (techcrunch.com)
• Gowalla flips its check-in service to be a social atlas for the world (thenextweb.com)
• Gowalla removes its defining features: Items and Notes (thenextweb.com)

You can buy a bumper sticker that says “Pray for Obama/Psalm 109″

This is what they are referencing:

8 May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

9 May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

10 May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be driven [d] from their ruined homes.

11 May a creditor seize all he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

via my friend over at his blog A Futile Mistake: Psalm 109.

I just can’t get over that people think this is right to say about ANY president regardless if you agree or disagree with him.

It’s sad that there are people like this, it’s scary that there are people so simple and uneducated to think like this and wish violence upon any one.  This isn’t a right vs. left thing, this isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing, this is just a group of ignorant fools…  Disagreeing with the current president isn’t wishing him dead.

Check out this video below, fast forward to 3:15 if you want to get directly to coverage about these stickers.

I’ve been on the Internet for about 14 years now.  I remember using the Mosaic browser, and even Lynx.  I’ve seen lots of trends come and go.  I’ve usually been close to the cutting edge when it comes to the “next big thing” on the Internet.  One of the biggest trends on the Internet lately is the number of people who claim they are Social Media Experts.  If there was ever a completely overused term for the 2009 version of the Internet it is this term.  From my observation those that claim to be social media experts are so just because they make the claim.  I’ve been on the Internet, interacting socially with others for years.  I’ve had various forms of blogs for 9+ years, used messengers, chat rooms, MMORPG, and etc. for years, thus my experience has to count for something, especially when compared to these people who all of the sudden claim they are the experts.

From my observation of the users of Twitter, just about 10% of its population claim to be a social media expert.  I find it humorous that so many people are claiming to be experts in social media.  First let us look at what Social Media is.  According to Wikipedia.

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

What you are reading right now (my blog) is a social interaction, it’s highly accessible at a domain that I’ve owned for 9+  years, and it’s scalable since I can easily expand upon it.  I allow social interaction, by the way of comments, which allows others to add their input to the information I share, and I’ve become a content producer because of this.  So if I read this definition correctly, I’ve done everything “social media” is for nearly 9 years, which in turn would probably make me an expert in the field.  How many other social media experts can claim this much experience?  Don’t answer that question it’s not really important.  I guess my main point is what makes someone an expert in their field?  In most fields it comes down to experience (hands on actually doing it day in day out experience) or certifications (book knowledge but no actual usage).  I don’t know of a Social Media Expert certification so it comes down to experience.  Experience isn’t having a couple thousand followers on Twitter, anyone can honestly do that, with a couple minutes of work a day.  I have only 160 followers on Twitter because I’ve chosen the path of not automatically following everyone that follows me.  This is an active decision I’ve made because I like to communicate personally with the people who follow me.  The creation of lists on Twitter appears to be my chance to finally expand my followers-base.  I can no separate people I follow into those that I want to personally communicate on a whatever my time frame is basis, and those that I just want to disseminate content to.

I wasn’t looking to actual make a point, just share my thoughts on the current state of Web 2.0 and the Social Media Expert explosion.  This is Daniel Schoonover Social Media Expert extraordinaire saying, don’t sell yourself short, but also don’t oversell yourself.

I’m not the only one to have ever said this.  Open Press Wire has a great article about it as well.

Twitter / Reggie Bush: My prayers go out to all t ….

I’m glad his USC Edumication taught him well…  Oh well they aren’t all smart.  I loved ya at USC Reggie but well you need one of the guys in your entourage or Kim to proofread your Tweets before you send them…

Reggie Bush, effected does not mean what you think it means...

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• Violence Breaks Out At G20 Death Protest (news.sky.com)

Anyway enjoy the followup updated video about the DTV transition.

Fresh & Easy family parking

Ok, today I rant about the stupid parking spots they have at Fresh & Easy. I love Fresh & Easy for the most part. They have a pretty good selection of food, a nice meat section, some decent prepared foods, and it’s right around the corner from our new home… But the one thing that absolutely ticks me off about them is their stupid inclusion of “Family” and “Hybrid” car parking spots.

Fresh & Easy hybrid parking

I mean WTF? These spots are some of the stupidest things out there. I first noticed them a couple years back at Ikea, and now here they are at a grocery store. I purposely use the spots when I shop there, since there is no law that allows them to enforce them. I’m honestly thinking on writing to them and complaining to them about how these spots probably put off more customers then they help. Come on Tesco (the company that owns Fresh & Easy) wise up and remove the useless excluded parking spots. Stop trying to be hip or cool by showing love towards families or hybrid car owners, and just show equal love to ALL your customers.  I still don’t understand what gives companies the notion that anyone deserves to have closer spots then anyone else…

Frehs & Easy Parking