Archive for the 'Diversions' category

Great Awkward Social Media Moments in History Part 29,834,021

May 25 2010 Published by under Diversions, Humor, Miscellany, Technology, The Internet

Social media is full of awkward moments. There was the George Allen “macaca” incident, the “Key Influencer’s” denigration of Memphis, these not so great moments from Facebook, and too many more to possibly catalog.  That’s the thing I love about social media.  It really affords you possibilities to interact with others that you would never otherwise have.

Take, for instance, my recent retweet about a Bertolli’s ad campaign.  @LowbrowKate tweeted the following.

Marissa Tomei is WAY to good for this: http://intotheheartofitaly.yahoo.com/

I couldn’t agree more.  I have been a fan of Tomei since My Cousin Vinny.  She’s way to good an actress to be shilling frozen Italian food in webisode format.  But look at the rest of the cast and you will see the star of the short lived MTV Sports – none other than Mr. Dan Cortese.  So I added some commentary on my retweet.

RT @lowbrowkate: Marissa Tomei is WAY to good for this: http://bit.ly/aFCSJF | Dan Cortese makes sense, though. He needs the work.

Well last night I got a reply from Mr. Cortese (which has since been removed).  Here’s the screen grab from Tweetdeck.

I couldn’t help but have some fun with Cortese.  My reply back?

@dancortese1 No offense, dude. You were great in Veronica’s Closet.

Where else but social media can a two-bit political hack and a D-list TV star interact so freely?

God bless the Internet.

(For the record, I had to Google Cortese to find something he was in other than MTV Sports. I don’t recall ever having seen Veronica’s Closet.  He has apparently done more stuff recently.  Frankly I am jealous that he got to travel through Italy with Marisa Tomei.  Back in the early 90s, many a guy I know would have traded a left testicle for that opportunity.  Way to go, Dan!)

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The Facebook Questionnaire I’d Like To See

Sep 21 2009 Published by under Diversions, Society, Technology, The Internet

After the lastest round of the “25 things” style questionnaire (in this case called, Don’t You Dare Lie), I decided to create the Facebook questionnaire I’d like to see. You see, I really don’t care what the last thing you ate was, and frankly I have zero interest in knowing what song is stuck in your head. The song that my 4 year old has permanently wedged in my brain is bad enough. I also have a problem with the fact that many of these questions don’t also include the obvious follow up.

So without further ado, I’ll throw out the 26 questions I’d really like to ask, but would be unlikely to actually answer myself.

  1. Have you ever been arrested?
  2. Were you guilty or innocent and what were the charges?
  3. Will you ever drink that much again?
  4. How much do you hate your job?
  5. How many times per day do you pray for an earthquake just to break up the boredom?
  6. How many times per day to you hope for the sweet release that only death will bring?
  7. Where did you lose your virginity?
  8. How much did it suck?
  9. If you could go back in time and give that person pointers, would you?
  10. If you could go back in time and not be such a whore (or manwhore), would you?
  11. Speaking of sex, how many kids do you have?
  12. How many did you have on purpose?
  13. How many times have you wished you had that vasectomy you joked about in college?
  14. If you could have any celebrity killed, which would it be?
  15. Would you make it painful or quick and easy?
  16. Would anyone miss Lindsay Lohan?
  17. Have you ever done drugs?
  18. Are you still in contact with the person who sold/gave them to you?
  19. Can I have their number?
  20. Do you like Internet porn?
  21. Ya, me either. How many times per day do you look at some just to make sure you still don’t?
  22. Really? That’s a lot! You’re very thorough in your “research” aren’t you?
  23. How many drinks does it take before you make really bad decisions?
  24. Want to go out tonight for drinks?
  25. How much time have you spent answering Facebook questionnaires/quizzes in a desperate attempt to regain some semblance of a connection with another human being?
  26. How’s that working out for you?

Answer these questions then send this to or tag 20 of your closest friends then prepare for them to be terrified by your answers. Be sure to tag me so I’ll be able to keep track of the implosion of your career for my own twisted pleasure.

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Of Political Wordles

Jun 17 2008 Published by under Diversions, Miscellany, Technology, The Internet

@KatieHarbath points me to Wordle, and interesting “printed word as art” sort of project. It allows you to take a large block of text (this blog post, for instance) and it will convert the phrases into a word cloud based on their relative frequency of usage. You can mess around with the colors, fonts, skew, and other factors to make your art.

This is the Worlde created using that post (click the img to see it larger).

Like many things on the net, the relative usefulness of this is low versus the entertainment value. As a blogger, however, I like it for the way it frames the things I’m talking about in the larger context of the total volume of traffic on those subjects.

It’s worth a few minutes of your time to test it out.

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