The Tao of Twitter

There are 23.7 million tweets per day, on average, mostly human in origin. But that could be changing, if this post on HuffPo is any indication.

Animals, beds, toilets, trees, shoes, chairs and even bathroom scales are increasingly invading the Twitterverse. Apparently oversharing, self-promotion and narcissistic solipsism are not traits exclusive to homo sapiens.

Love in the time of 140 characters or less

Will flittering be the new speed dating?

Imagine walking into a dimly lit, swank lounge packed with 300+ singles, everyone wearing a numbered tag and holding a mobile device. A giant Big Brother screen looms, displaying a live-feed stream of the flirty tweets (aka "flitters") pinging about amongst the crowd. You spot an enticing stranger, and with thumbs poised on mobile device you begin to compose in your head the perfect in-140-characters-or-less come-on to #157....

My Debut Album Drops Today

Ha. Not really. I just made a dummy album cover, courtesy of Wikipedia and Flickr, just for fun, and thanks to this blog posting, "wikipedia names your band." My randomly-generated band name is Pajama Party--it rather fits, actually. Ditto the album's title. Almost makes me want to start a band.

You'll learn the easy 3-step how-to as well as view the posted album covers of others in the blogosphere who played along. As time wasters go, I'd give it big ups: http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/wikipedia-names-your-band

* Pants Sold Separately

(Shudder). I may not date for months. Novelty T-shirts are one thing. But this?? It looks like it was manufactured using the Shroud of Turin method.

So if you want one of these for yourself, don't expect me to play enabler by providing you with a link. Go to Google. The search keywords should be rather obvious...

Knitting Subway Dude, You Just Brightened my Day...

"Knit 1, Purl 2, Knit 1, Purl-- Dang, I think I dropped a stitch..."

Fashion for the Recession

Cutouts and peek-a-boo holes. An artful slash here and a provocative slice there... Now there's a Fashion Week trend I can get behind, even in these recessionary times. Especially in these recessionary times. Not for the actual fashion aesthetic, mind you, but simply as a matter of practicality. That threadbare T-shirt with the gaping hole in one shoulder, all those sartorial makeovers I've attempted on a garment armed with nothing more than a pair of scissors... Suddenly I've found a way to "spin" a woebegone wardrobe that screams "poverty" into one that purrs "fashion." This is one trend that I hope goes viral.

But I know how those fashionistas roll: troll the streets for inspiration, preempt the trends of the poor-and-not-so-famous, then dump said trend once it catches on. Or pair it with fur (another catwalk trend) to separate yourself from the (shudder) poor-hungry-tired masses for whom "the look" is not a conscious fashion choice but rather an economic necessity.

Oh Fashion... you heartless, spendthrift bitch...

Callout Cards

Is someone disrespecting you?

Making you or someone you know feel uncomfortable?

Tell 'em to back off with a Callout Card.

Send an amusing (for you) yet brutally-frank (for them) Callout Card to any and all who would use the technological marvels of the 21st Century--cellphones, emails, text messages, IM's--to pester and plague your peace of mind. Here's a sampling:

These would have been perfect for a certain "supervisor" (ha!) and saboteur extraordinaire I once had the misfortune of toiling under. Nothing would have saved me from her machinations, ultimately, or kept me in a job I otherwise loved but for her. But it would have been... cathartic.

http://www.thatsnotcool.com/CalloutCards.aspx

Obama's Book Club

Move over Oprah--there's a new book club in town... But for the smart & wonky set. Same literary windfall for the "chosen" few. But without the hankie-wringers. And everything is pretty much snark-proof (Jonathan Franzen would not dis this endorsement). As Publishers once spoke of "The Oprah Effect", they will soon speak of "The Obama Effect." And here are the latest two beneficiaries of a plug by Obama:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's about Lincoln's presidency, and how he packed his Cabinet with his rivals (not literally, of course. Lincoln didn't chop up his rivals and store them in the chifforobe, if that's where your sick mind was headed, Rahm Emanuel). Every politico and pundit is racing to the bookstore for this one, thinking it will be the key to unlocking Obama's nefarious plans for his administration... or at least explain why Obama would ever choose Hillary for Secretary of State (I'm still trying to figure that one out... but then I keep getting sidetracked by the thought of "Where's Willy?", a game I do not want to play--does anyone? Personally, I got enough of that old game during my days as a White House Intern... (not really)).

The Defining Moment: F D R’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, by Jonathan Alter. The lucky author who got a plug from Obama on 60 Minutes last Sunday. The New York Times has an (unintentionally) funny piece about how three different writers/publishers of a soon-to-be-released book on FDR almost wet themselves watching 60 Minutes, wondering if theirs was the book Obama was reading and about to name before a nationwide televised audience...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/books/18book.html?em

Clearly, the man reads... and a lot. And publishers obviously send Obama advance copies of books all the time. But I'm a little worried about this Obama Effect... Is the desk in the Oval Office going to be buried under unsolicited manuscripts? Did we just trade in a President who doesn't read at all for a President who maybe reads too much? Will Obama be nose-deep in the latest by Ken Follet while Putin invades Alaska? Is this why some evangelicals suspect Obama is really the Antichrist? Because a black man who reads lots of really smart books... well, he must be the Antichrist. Clearly.

And if there is an "Obama Effect," might there also be a "Reverse-Obama Effect"? The evidence suggests there is:

Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Joe the Plumber, you have nooo idea what you did for Karl Marx's book sales... and how amused Karl Marx is, wherever he is. Because your thoughtless use of the word "Socialist" has led to a worldwide surge in book sales (not to mention tons of "capital") for that old German socialist... communist... whatever. For real. (I know it's hard to tell with me, sometimes.) But not to be outdone, Joe has written(!) a new book, Joe The Plumber: Fighting For The American Dream, available "exclusively" through his incredibly stupid new website: http://www.secureourdream.com/html/store.php?content_id=9&nav_id=7&

Book of Collected Wisdom of Sarah Palin, by Russell Blackstone. Apparently, Sarah Palin is about to sign a $7 million book deal (WTF?!!). In the meantime, though, there's this 120-page book... which, um, does have 100 blank pages in it, just so you know. You can buy it here: http://books.cafepress.com/item/book-of-collected-wisdom-of-sarah-palin/304373749

VIDEO: The Onion covers Obama Withdrawal

Oh how I love The Onion at its best. And this "news segment" is great! I'm thinking of sending it to my family, who have been a little worried (for real) about how I'll deal with life now that the election is over. It's hilarious. Go watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_95F5e-Ac

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It's no longer just a fantasy from a movie--now it's science. Selective memory erasure is possible... in mice, anyway--which makes me laugh, because right now I'm picturing a mousy mouse dressed like Joel Barish and an orange-dyed mouse dressed like Clementine.

Humans may very well be next. Last year, scientists published findings suggesting that certain drugs may be able to refashion memories when administered shortly after traumatic events. Now they are looking for ways to reshape and/or erase painful memories even years afterwards.

That would be a great scientific breakthrough for, say, people suffering from PTSD. But for traumatic breakups? Ooh... I don't know. I don't think that's a good idea, actually.

I read Charlie Kaufman's original script--not the shooting script--which started with a flash-forward to the future, when an 80-year-old Clementine shows up at the clinic yet again asking to have all memories of one Joel Barish erased... again. I don't know that the movie actually needed that scene. But it illustrates Kaufman's viewpoint on the wisdom of erasing memories of people we once loved. And the tragedy of it is, if Clementine and Joel had just kept their memories of each other, good bad ugly and everything in between... maybe they could have learned from it, and even figured out one day how to make their relationship work in the long-term. Maybe not. But impulsive memory-erasure just kept those two locked in an eternal cycle of the wisdom-less mind. (Sigh)

Here's the article behind this post http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-07/the-end-of-bad-memories/