Reading Trends Time Again

Off the wall statistics always interest me, and the "Trends" link on Google Reader has me hooked.

Since you clearly can't get enough of all things "Michael Beck", it's time to let you in a little deeper into my head by way of what I read on the Internet.

Mashable has been the number one blog I've read over the past 30 days, as I love all things Web 2.0. But like many folks on the Internet, I attack tech blogs with the "what's in it for me" approach. With Mashable, most of the articles I read have to do with new launches that offer free services that would benefit me. They only nail me 20% of the time.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Nintendo Wii, and my tastes are very specific: Virtual Console games (the old school NES/SNES stuff) and anything to do with hockey games and Mario Kart. With Nintendo Wii Fanboy, Nearly 1 out of every 4 articles tickles my fancy.

Wired bombards my reader with a plethora of subjects, 84% of which I could care less about. But I do find more articles of interest with Wired than I do with BoingBoing.

Lifehacker is good for republishing articles I just read in another blog, but once in a while they link me to something I haven't read yet, or heck, they even come up with original content from time to time. They get me to read 18% of the time. With Lifehacker you don't get a full RSS feed, so if you want to continue reading an article you have to click through to the site. I click through probably 5% of the time.

Download Squad is where I pick up most of my Windows XP news, as well as tips on cool software and a nifty new start up site here and there.

I find what Robert Scoble shares in his Google Reader as interesting as Mashable or Download Squad, and so much so that it actually ranks #6 in my Google Reader trends. (Keep up the sharing, Robert, I really enjoy it!)

Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net always has interesting blogging tips to share, which I am very religious in reading (I read nearly half of the articles that come my way from Problogger) . Now if I could just be as thorough in applying the tips and techniques, perhaps I'd have a bigger subscriber base.

Clark Howard is a radio personality in Atlanta, Georgia that teaches his listeners on how to be better consumers by saving money, finding bargains, and avoiding getting ripped off. I subscribe to his feed and read his "Websites mentioned" post each day as you never know when you might find a cool new product or service before the rest of the world does. I learned about the "Virgin Webplayer" and "Virgin Connect" service through Clark Howard. (Still bummed that thing went under so fast - I really liked it!)

Digital Inspiration is a blog I've picked up on recently and discovered they have a lot of great tips for using Google services, for example. They also publish some off-the-wall humor stuff like the piece they did on the company selling pillows embroidered with DOS directories.

Last, but not least, is Rhi in Pink, a blog that follows the daily life of Rhi, a 29 year old woman living in Portland, Oregon. Her writing style is a mixture of Carrie from Sex in the City (without the Sex, if that makes sense), Kevin Nealon as "Mr. Subliminal", and a conversation you'd have with your best female friend home from college after you haven't seen her in a few years and she has absolutely fabulous stories to tell you. Am I hooked? I've read every blog post she has put out in the last 30 days: the only blog scoring 100% in my top ten.

Writing for Kids Isn't Child's Play

I started playing with one of my lightly used domains tonight: Goobaga.com. Goobaga was supposed to be a cool sounding and brandable name that I could use for a blog, a product, or anything else that tickled my fancy.

Today Goobaga has become a repository for bedtime stories that I am going to start writing for my four year old son, Collin.

You'd think writing for a kid could be the easiest thing in the world. You'd be half right. While it's easy to dumb down any English sentence, how do you do it in a way that keeps the child's interest?

In "Mario Meets the Princess", I was faced with multiple lines of dialogue between Mario and the Princess. In an "adult" story, you break up the back-and-forth monotony by cracking out a thesaurus for use with your verbs, and interjecting descriptions of demeanor, environment, and ambiance. With a children's story, if you pull that out you'll confuse them to the point where they'll forget what the two characters are talking about.

In "Mario Saves the Toadstool People", I didn't have to spend any time introducing characters since it was already someone my son knew very well: Mario. This allowed me to jump right into the action. One minute Mario's fixing a clogged pipe, the next minute he's kicking turtle shells and listening to Toadstool people sing.

The common goal between writing for adults and writing for children is keeping the reader's attention.

With adults this is done by answering the "what happens next" question with enough interesting detail to paint a clear picture of the situation at hand and engage the reader to ask the same question again.

With children this is accomplished by answering the question quickly and simply with enough action to have them turn the page and have the "what happens next" question answered before they even have a chance to ask.

Boy do I need practice at that.

Mario, Goomba, and Paratroopa are trademarked and copyrighted images of Nintendo.

Someone please fix my head

It's haircut time again and in reflection, my last two haircuts have been colossal failures. I have not cared for the last two months and just went with "whatever", and "whatever" hasn't gotten me any positive attention during that time.

But the last two haircuts is just part of a long history of bad haircuts, as this video from August 8, 2006 demonstrates.



It has gotten to the point where if I don't put any sort of product in my hair (namely pomade) then I end up looking like Moe from the Three Stooges with a beard. It's horrible, and I need to come out of the gate with a good look this time around.

So now I turn the keys to the hair on my fat head over to you. I need image links, drawings, or whatever you can find that demonstrate which is the best haircut for me and why.

A Woman's Five Secrets for a Perfect Relationship

1. It's important to have a man who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.

2. It's important to have a man who can make you laugh.

3. It's important to have a man who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.

4. It's important to have a man who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.

5. It's very, very important that these four men don't know each other!

(This was forwarded to me in my e-mail today.)

Photo by Flickr user nattu

August 13, 2006: Traffic in Michigan

A year and a half ago I was pretty hot around the collar about traffic and road construction around metro Detroit. Even if you could care less about what I have to say, I have to admit the Sopranos spoof intro was pretty cool at the time.




Click to enlarge

Above you'll see the I-75/M-59 interchange I mentioned in the video. You had better know where you're going and know the exit is coming well in advance or else you're not hitting your exit on the first pass.

What blogs am I reading these days?

I actually clicked on an Internet advertisement...

I've been surfing the web since 1995, and if there's one thing I've gotten good at on the Internet in the past 13 years, it's how to put on blinders and ignore Internet advertising.

I can't tell you how many times I've been the "1,000,000th" visitor to a website and "eligible" for a prize, or how many chances I've had to win a ringtone, or get a free Xbox, or sign up for the "Money Tree", get free online storage for my music, and a bazillion other gimmicks. I learned how to not click on any of them.

Today I saw an advertisement that set me back on my heels a little.



"Parents Against Reprehensible Metal Music"? What the hell is that? I was pretty sure it was a joke, but there was no tip off as to who this was actually advertising for. The more I stared at that scowling woman and that goofy book with the crazy "No to Guitars" logo on it, the more I had to click. I was no match for this particular marketing ploy, and with a nervous twitch and a slow cursor, I crept over to the forbidden advertising box and... clicked.

My reward was a flash-laden website for the all new Toyota Matrix and I was invited to discover my "other me". I didn't spend but 30 seconds looking at the site before I "X'd" out the tab, but if their goal was to at least get me to take a peek, then mission accomplished.

Web 3.0: F@#K you. It's all for me.

While browsing through my newsreader this evening, I came across this video from 1938media. Loren Feldman makes it very simple to grasp: If you like him, great. If you don't, that's too bad.



Maybe he's on to something here. Could this be the start of a new attitude or movement? Could this be... Web 3.0?



Damn it, I don't have the balls to be that mean. I agree with Loren Feldman: he'll do his thing, I'll do mine.

Hockeytown is all a "Twitter"

The night started with such promise for the Detroit Red Wings in game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Nashville Predators, but then the unthinkable happened. I had to use the bathroom in the middle of play. (What, you thought I was going to say Nashville scored 2 goals in record time was unthinkable? Already happened twice in the series before game 4!)

I was gone for 3 minutes and when I came back to the television, the Detroit Red Wings were down 2-0 in the 1st period.

Fans were not thrilled in Hockeytown, and we took our frustrations to Twitter. Of course there were some Nashville fans there to cheer on their hard working boys from Tennessee as well.

Here's what the conversation looked like from the time Detroit scored to make the game 2-1, on their way to an eventual 3-2 loss:
(@hoopadoo is yours truly.)

@mediaphyter Boo, Detroit is on the board Link
@mediaphyter Ooh, what's that Red Wings? That's a spank. Nashville scores, 3-1. Link
@julzroguenine Osgood, please? Link
@julzroguenine Thank goodness, Dom's out! Link
@hoopadoo All I can say is about the tit for tat I just saw is haaaaaa haaaaaa take a hike old man Hasek Link
@pburleson Whoa Hasek just got pulled. That seemed kinda harsh, he had no chance. Link
@sigsegfalt YES! HASEK IS OUT! OZZIE IS IN! Link
@MissTrade @ hoopadoo even hasek is older than me @ 41 Link
@hoopadoo I hope Osgood starts the rest of the series too. I was done with Hasek after last year. Link
@dcweyh I'd trade both the Pistons and Tigers wins for a Wings win Link
@MaggieConv wtf is going on with detroit tonight?! bout time they put Ozzie in net. Link
@hoopadoo Why can't the Wings score 2 goals in 10 seconds? Oh that's right, Hasek plays for US. Link
@julzroguenine WTF? Draper was the only one who got a penalty? *grr* Link
@hoopadoo Oh man, Osgood had BETTER start game 5, he looks better in 4 minutes than Hasek has in 4 games... Link
@motownmutt @ mediaphyter Darn it, quit rooting against the good guys. Home ice is over-rated. Link
@julzroguenine Osgood keeping us in this game. Why oh why didn't he start tonight? Link
@sigsegfalt Osgood hasn't played in two weeks, and looks better than Hasek has all year. Link
@mediaphyter @ motownmutt Sorry Charlie. :) Link
@hoopadoo Oh, Osgood... We missed you. Thanks for bailing out Hasbeen. Link
@julzroguenine @ hoopadoo Amen to that! Link
@hoopadoo Why do the Red Wings make opposing goalies look so good in the playoffs? Link
@TheFitB Could the Red Wings be on the verge of another disappointing playoff run? Link
@GoodForm Defensive shell for the Predators Link
@hoopadoo @ TheFitB Well, remember we went into game 5 with a 2-2 series tie against Nashville back in '04. Wings won in 6. Link
@MichaelBeaton Bed Time . . night all . . . hope the wings can pull this out! Link
@TheFitB I forgot about that @ hoopadoo that was a rarity. Much respect for them even though I'm a Leafs fan Link
@dcweyh wings score 2-3 Link
@hoopadoo Yeah! Yeah! Goal Wings! Note to Ken Holland. Osgood, yay. Hasek, boo. Link
@motownmutt Red Wings w00t! 2, un-w00t 3 Link
@hoopadoo Ohhhhhh I thought the Wings game was about to be tied! Link
@sigsegfalt Datsyuk's gonna have to win this one on his own. Link
@MissTrade Wings in pred zone about 90 percent this peiod making ozzie seem good Link
@hoopadoo That was a bad whistle in the Wings game, puck wasn't controlled by Osgood. Link
@MissTrade Not complaining about whistle take what they give us Link
@TheFitB @ hoopadoo puck not controlled by Osgood is an understatement. Sitting in front of a wide open net and the whistle goes off??? Link
@hoopadoo @ MissTrade I don't want the refs to decide the game, that's all. Link
@hoopadoo @ TheFitB The ref will just tell you he "lost sight of the puck." Unreal. Link
@hoopadoo Datsyuk, the magic man? What happened to Shake'n'Bake? Link
@MissTrade Wings in 7 Link
@davidjhinson C'mon. 2.3 seconds. Hold on! Link
@julzroguenine And I can't believe I stayed up late for that... Gonna need lots of caffeine tomorrow... Link
@hoopadoo Hasek should be first star of the game... For Nashville.... Link
@davidjhinson Hot Damn! Preds Win! Link
@TheFitB Wow! Nashville ties the series with the Wings Link
@MaggieConv WTH there is no reason why Nashville should win ANY games vs detroit..but yet..they win another one. sad. Link
@bccarlso @ hoopadoo Haasek... haasek... you suck! OK, but seriously Z boy coulda scored a couple too. Link
@hoopadoo @ bccarlso I 'm out of angry things to say about Hasek. Link

Photo by Flickr user Dan4th

"In this corner we have the Senator from Illinois..."

Click on the image above for an enlarged view.

So this is what it takes to get today's youth involved in politics: A bloody battle to the death, brought to you by the repeated smashing of your mouse button, and the allure of collecting $50,000 (like that will happen).

Xbox meets K-Street, anybody?

You Need a New Shirt (And Can Help a Cause While You're at it)

I opened my e-mail inbox and found some good news this evening: my friend and fellow blogger Marcus Langford has launched his new T-shirt online store, Marcus Langford Designs.

In what is probably best described as "Langford's sense of humor meets fabric and thread", Marcus has put up nearly 800 t-shirt combinations between different colors, garment type and impression designs. Browse through long enough and you're sure to find something that interests you!

The site is powered by SpreadShirt.com, so each transaction is guaranteed to be simple, secure and the t-shirts are of the highest quality.

About a month ago Marcus announced the The Marcus Langford Foundation, dedicated to the cause of breast cancer. At that time he generously pledged 20% of all profits from this t-shirt venture to go towards his foundation.

So not only do you get a quality t-shirt guaranteed to start a conversation wherever you go, but you can feel good knowing that a generous portion of the proceeds from your purchase is going to a fantastic cause.

Check out MLDtees.com today.

Best of luck to you in your new endeavor, Marcus!

Why do I love the music from Super Mario Brothers?

I always get a thrill out of seeing videos of people playing piano themes from the Super Mario Brothers games.

Perhaps it's just a little video game nostalgia, or I just can't get enough of that funky piano beat. Whatever it is, it's pretty cool.

Blinded by Your Crystal Ball

Driving along the road I get a sharp blip in my peripheral vision in the rear view mirror. "What the hell was that?" I mutter in my inner dialogue.

A moment later as the cars are picking up speed after the limit increased, I see police lights out of the corner of my eye, flashing at me and reflected through my mirror. I glance up for a better look, and I see no police car, no lights... but wait, something just blinded me from the car behind me.

"What the hell IS that?" I'm trying to keep my eye on the road, but there is some kind of disco ball hanging from the rear view mirror of the car behind me.

It's no disco ball, however. It's a crystal ball that supposed to create rainbows inside the car. It may accomplish that, but it manages to piss off the surrounding drivers in the process.

What do you think about these crystal balls hanging from people's rear view mirrors? Are the owners of these crystal balls aware of the visual distraction it causes to other drivers? Do you have one of these things in your own car? Has anyone ever complained to you about the distraction?

Or am I completely alone and nuts on this deal?

Photo by Flickr user shimown

The Blog Game: In a Dog Eat Dog Market, Winners Change the Meal

The following was originally posted as a comment to "What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?" on Mashable.

My answer to question number 5 was what I was hoping to get the most mileage out of. In short, blogs that bring "new blood" to the game, fresh readers who have limited exposure to blogs, are going to be the winners in this game. While the rest of us cannibalize traffic from each other through linkbacks and reciprocal links, the blogs that serve a niche outside of the "bloggers as readers" sphere will be the ones that climb the charts.

So for posterity's sake, if nothing else, I repost my comment here on my own personal blog.
---------

1. I use Mashable as a great resource for keeping up with new Web 2.0 startups. Most of the newer social networking sites I use now are ones (such as FriendFeed or Shouldi) I discovered through Mashable.

2. Blogs serve many purposes for me. In the case of news, it provides me further insight into a story, or sides of a story that traditional media outlets can't or won't. It also makes me aware of issues that are up and coming; the things that typically do not get covered by "big media" until story has reached a certain level of maturity.

But the biggest use of blogs for me is it allows me to customize the daily information download into my brain. Instead of pouring through headlines on the main page of CNN or Fox News, I'm getting custom content delivered into my reader that only deals with my interests.

3. Are bloggers journalists?
Not all bloggers are. Bloggers fall into five main categories:
Journalists
Columnists
Diarists
Conversationists
Multi-Level Marketers

Some bloggers may fall into multiple categories.

4. Are you more likely to trust a company that has a corporate blog?
Not unless that corporate blog is very candid about company issues both good and bad. Otherwise it's just another advertising avenue.

5. Flipping the question: what are blogs bad at? What’s the worst thing about blogs?

Reaching out to non-bloggers and people who don't know how to work a newsreader [is what blogs are currently bad at].
If you look at the top blogs, most of the top blogs, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Boing Boing, Lifehacker, Mashable... 13 of the top 20 blogs are aimed at bloggers and people in the technology community.

The other 7? Celebrity gossip, Post Secret (personal gossip), Politics and a LOLcat site that's a hit with the young social networking demographic.

Too many blogs spring up [I'm no less guilty] and try to gobble up a share of the "bloggers as readers" market because they have free access to those readers simply by leaving comments that include a link to their own site. It's like being able to staple your business card to the cover story of every copy of someone else's magazine for free. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of that? [I would, and do!]

But the blogs that are getting exposure to an audience that typically didn't read blogs before are becoming the rising stars. When CNN started including the segment "what the bloggers are saying..." after all the big news stories, a whole new audience of people suddenly became curious about this new medium and [started] checking out political blogs.

When entertainment news stories started quoting TMZ.com as a source, there was a whole new group of people who became curious about blogs.

As people started posting LOLcat pictures back and forth as comments on each other's MySpace profiles, a whole different audience got exposed to a blogging website.

Going forward we're going to start seeing a trend where political blogs, humor blogs, gossip blogs and other blogs that speak to bigger demographic slices are going to start becoming the top blogs because they have bigger pools to pull readers from.

The rest of the blogs will continue to arm wrestle for the same readers while they report on everyone else's success.

Photo by Flickr user Aine D

Training to Type the Alphabet in Under Four Seconds

So here's a glimpse at my "humorous" side. Here's a video my brother and I did in October of 2006.

Am I a champion typist, or what?

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Nostalgia #1

I'm going to throw out a little something different here, and perhaps we'll do this again from time to time.

I'm going to give you two random screenshots from old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games.

In the comments, guess the name of the games and share your fondest memory of each game as well.

Let's see who can get them right!

Game #1: I'm tossing you a softball here. If you spent any time playing the NES in the 80s, you had to have come in contact with this game at least once. Hint: You picked up weapons and car upgrades off of the track as you raced.


Game #2: A little harder. Hint: This was an SNK title, and one of the cool parts about it was when you picked up the machine gun. You could shoot your enemies or punish them with a vicious physical blow from the blunt side of the gun!

I have a crush...

...from someone on me!

Okay, as we covered yesterday, online advertising never lies. So yesterday a banner ad claimed that I am liked in Milford. Again, knowing that online advertising is 100% accurate, I asked those Milford peeps to step forward. No one did.

So today, I have been hit with this:


It now appears that one of my buddies has a full blown crush on me. I'm taking that to mean one of my female buddies friends, because the flip side is... well... no.... NO! (Not condemning the lifestyle, simply stating it is not my choice.)

Anyways, knowing that online advertising NEVER lies, it's time for my crush to reveal herself since clicking on the ad did not reveal it. So I'm definitely flattered and who knows, I may even reciprocate!

Don't be shy, tell this guy... or online advertising's reputation for honesty may be forever tarnished.

My Friends from Milford Like Me...

Was cruising through MySpace and got hit with this banner ad. As advertising never lies and is always 100% accurate, my curiosity got tickled.



Awwwwwww... so is it like more than a friend? If so, is it strictly platonic, or are we getting it on at some point?

Inquiring minds want to know.

(Don't burst my bubble about the fallacy of online marketing... MySpace would never, ever lie to me, so I know my Milford admirer is out there.)

Gas Prices So High, Even the Kid Can See

I was playing "gas station" with my boy this evening before his bedtime, and after deciding on which kind of gas he wanted I let him know it was going to be $4.00 per gallon.

Let's just say that wasn't cool with Collin. Listen to his reaction.

Me and My Son: Our Seesmic Debut

Signed up for an alpha testing account on Seesmic.com and this is the first video I captured on the service.

Seesmic is best described as a video version of Twitter. Don't know what Twitter is? It's a platform for shouting to the world what you are doing at that very moment... 140 characters at a time.



For the record, Collin's favorite website is the free flash game website friv.com, and I have no advertisement agreement with them. (To friv.com: My son just plugged you, and he's pretty cute, so if you want to drop some dough this way, I won't say no.)

Also, as my boy just admitted, he's pretty hooked on Super Mario Brothers 3, which gets the kid in me pretty pumped as it was a favorite of mine in my pre-pubescent years.

I'll keep you posted on what I think about Seesmic.com as I get to use the service more.

Regional Commercial Classics: What do you remember?

Growing up in metro Detroit there are three main local commercials I will never forget.

First and foremost, there was "Mel Farr... Superstar!" Mel Farr Ford featured commercials where he would be in his trademark tan suit and flying over the city of Detroit bringing all of us the best deals in town. Anyone who spent any time in Michigan in the pre-cable days will clearly remember this commercial. (See one here.) Even the dealership website features Mel Farr flying around and following your mouse cursor.

Keeping to the car dealership theme, there was always this commercial from Alan Ford in Bloomfield Hills, MI of a hillbilly playing a guitar with his dog by his side singing, "Here Dog, come on Dog, me and Dog want you to go to Telegraph Road... right now.... and get a good deal!"

But what takes the cake was this Detroit Zoo commercial, played for years on local television.
"Five minutes please. Just five minutes!"


What local commercials do you remember from where you have lived?

McCain: Nothing But Trouble?

MySpace ads are known for their off-the-wall themes, and this "give your opinion" ad is no different.



But is it just me or did they go out of their way to choose a picture of McCain to make him look like Dan Aykroyd's character from Nothing But Trouble?

Canon Reinvents the Polaroid Camera?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user pieterjanviaene

I can't even roll with this story, it's so ridiculous. But it made you click, so that makes me the last official prank of April Fools' Day. (I'm cheering inside my mind right now.)

Yes, today was April Fools' Day. From the moment I woke up to now, as I wind down for the evening, I wonder if anything productive was accomplished on the Internet today.

Let's see, there was Gmail's "Custom Time" prank, that promised Gmail users the ability to make any e-mail appear in the recipient's inbox as having been received hours, days or months earlier than when you actually sent it.

Then there was Google Books "new" feature: Scratch and Sniff. Click on a scratch and sniff book and your computer would recreate the scent.

Heck, even Google AdSense got in the act, introducing AdSense for Conversations. Participant would wear special headgear that holds a screen over their head, displaying advertising relevant to the conversation taking place between you and the person wearing the screen.

Google didn't stop there, and the blog Google Operating System put together a complete list of all the great Google pranks for your enjoyment.

Google wasn't the only one in the act. How many of you were "Rickrolled" today? It's bad enough when your friends do it to you, but YouTube itself got in the act, "Rickrolling" everyone who clicked on a video on their main page. Daily Mahalo users thought they were getting to see an exclusive Steve Jobs interview, but no. RICKROLLED!

I remember when April Fools' Day jokes were more plentiful offline, as opposed to online. As a kid growing up my mother always fooled us with the exact same one every year: the rubber band on the kitchen hand sprayer trick. Turned on the water and we got the water fountain.

What was your favorite April Fools' joke today? Did you fall for any of them?