What I Want to Write About…

Posted on March 19, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Stick To What You Do Best: Facebook and the Writing on the Wall

tech & web

FBVERSUSTWITTER.BHAeiUvnzjmq.jpg
Facebook deciding to copy Twitter is a sign the social media giant is in trouble of tripping over itself.

When it comes to life-casting, sharing information and networking, my first experience of social media was with Live Journal. I was on there regularly from 2001 until 2005, when I discovered Myspace (before all the tweens did). I kept using LJ, but noticed as Myspace began being adopted by everyone, LJ was changing it’s features to look more like Myspace. Myspace inevitably did the same thing the following year as a bunch of the literate types exodused for the less-cluttered, more aesthetic Facebook. Myspace tried to clean up its profiles and added a bunch of features to copycat Facebook, but it was too late. The writing on the wall for any social media site is when it looks behind at the competitor and gives up its edge to conform to competition.

With that said, it should be no surprise that as Twitter’s star rises, Facebook would get worried. Facebook already tried to buy out Twitter: Facebook’s Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover – BusinessWeek. When that didn’t work, Facebook decided it would copy Twitter, saying that real-time streams were the future of social media. Unfortunately for Zuckerberg, it’s only ONE road to take in that bright new shiny future and 95% of us doubt that it’s the right road for Facebook to take.

The ensuing smack down…

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Posted on March 12, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Twitter Start Up!

tech & web

Alright, so I keep pimping Twitter to my friends as the end all and be all of social media (right now, of course). I tell them it’s like a cocktail party, full of the most interesting people in the world, and you get to listen to snatches of conversation, pick a huddle, join in on conversation (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t). The point of the party/Twitter is to make contacts. Hopefully you’ll be funny, intrigue people, and find people who are like you to connect with- thus a network of useful contacts starts emerging!

Why Twitter?

Honestly, Twitter gives you news before the news media has it. Twitter connects you with hilarious celebrities, introspective authors, and politicians. Twitter provides you a way to promote a business, a book, a movie, an album, a website and most importantly, yourself, all the while providing you with the ability to listen in on conversations with people who know how to market, use social media and the techy tools you’ve never heard of. Most importantly, if done right, you can get job opportunities, make contacts and friends, help people out and get helped in return. Twitter “CAN” be all that and more. No one really knows the true breadth of Twitter yet- new ways to use it are being found everyday.

How?

But how DO you start Twittering? Honestly? I signed up for Twitter last year and only started using it 3 months ago. It’s not something that is easily used. To the beginner, it can just seem like a weird, poorly designed rip-off of Facebook’s status updates. But it’s SO MUCH MORE!

twitter-whale.PQRmE0KQoGMm.jpg​
Twitter Picture: (This whale always seems so blissfully happy!)

Because I keep telling people to get on here, and passing along the articles I’ve found helpful, I just figured it would be easier to write an article of all my favorite web resources for Twitter. So here we are:

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Posted on March 10, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Storm on the Horizon

personal

My book is almost finished. I am almost 98% sure it’s going out to publishers this year, and I am 100% confident that when it does, it will be huge. There’s a little bit that’s left to be done, some extra revision, some peer edits, and one final plot point that I want to tweak- because I’m incredibly dissatisfied with this one aspect of one of my central characters.

Part of me is scared to finally finish it. There’s this massive feeling in my gut, the kind I get when I’m going up a huge incline on a rollercoaster, that something tremendously exciting/scary is about to happen, and that even though I know intellectually I’ll have fun and be glad I’m on the ride in 20 seconds, until then part of me is inwardly screaming to get off.

What leads me to ruminate about this in a post tonight is political in nature. Mainly because my book has a socio-political bent in it. I’m not worried about ITS acceptance, but rather my own. My book is somewhat critical of the Church and the fundamentalism that’s rampant in it today. It’s also critical of the way that generations tend to interact within the church, and how legalism plays a role in that. Of course, the plot is not about that stuff at all- but that stuff is the IDEOLOGY that steers my book. There’s actually hardly a mention of the Church in my book, other than a small role it plays in the mise-en-scence of small town America. But the critique is there, it’s the whole reason the book exists at all.

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Posted on March 6, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Watchmen Review: Pick a Character, Any Character

tv, books, & films

I love midnight showings. I absolutely love them- specifically at the Seattle Cinerama, a movie theater that really shows off what an awesome city Seattle is. It gathers the cream of the cinephile crop and stuffs them together in a lavish 1960’s built theater, with 808 seats and a thirty by ninety foot screen. I am SUCH a movie fan, and as a Cinema Studies major, I recently learned how incredible our local theater is. It’s one of four surviving and thriving Cinerama’s left in the world, (see Wikipedia’s History of Cinerama for more information) and Cinerama is not just a great theater downtown, but an amazing monument to the history of cinema in general. In short, I feel so lucky to have this in my hometown.

DSC_0007.Ew86kQ3Ej7co.jpg​

So Watchmen was an iconic film, firmly cementing the “graphic novel movie” as its own distinct genre, separate from the “comic book movie”. Following 300 and Sin City, Watchmen is a stylized movie that feels less like your typical movie, and more like a moving graphic novel, which is of course, what the fans wanted.

So here’s my review:

watchmen-babies.wCwWd1WXzdj0.jpg
(Milhouse from The Simpsons episode “Husbands and Knives”)

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Posted on March 5, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

WATCHMEN: Opening Night at the Cinerama

tv, books, & films

So it’s 38 degrees out (wind chill feels a lot worse), and we’ve been in line for a couple hours for tonight’s sold-out 12:01 am Watchmen. Vasant and I, along with my sister Mary and her boyfriend Matt have been here ridiculously early, at the freaking front of the line. I’ve never been here at the front. Usually, I always show up too late for these Cinerama premieres and get lousy seats. Not tonight!!

Thought, while I wait for the next couple hours, I’d upload some of the pictures I’ve gotten.

Awesome people have shown up to keep us company, which is of course, WHY you go to the Cinerama! DSC_0210.PV7HH1mSubCZ.jpg​

See Matt as Rorshach and “Rorshach” as Rorshach after the jump…

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Posted on February 18, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Lost Theories

tv, books, & films

Alright, so I need to write about the rest of my vacation and post my amazing photos, but it can wait, because LOST is on tonight!

If you haven’t seen last week’s episode “This Place is Death”, then do NOT read on because some huge things are discussed.

Below, a picture of Desmond and Mrs Hawking in Season 2, Episode 8 “Flashes Before Your Eyes”

3X08_DesmondHawkingStreet.YiEfG1yw1OcH.jpg

Read my theories after the jump…

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Posted on February 16, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

GOP Governors Support, Legislators Resist Stimulus

politics

G.O.P. Governors Support Obama – NYTimes.com

Interesting dichotomy between the two. The fire is fueled by angry DJ’s and bloggers who want America to fail in order to get re-elected in 2012…

But what would be nice is to get past politics for a while while the country recovers. That way, when it does, Republicans could say, “It wasn’t just Obama, we deserve the credit too…” which while Republican governors can say they supported the President, unfortunately, the Republican lawmakers are all about saving face with angry radio hosts.

Steven Colbert suggested that all who voted against the stimulus put their money where their mouths are and refuse the stimulus money on behalf of their constituents.

But hey, before I seem too partisan… most of the Democrats in the House stink too. The whole legislative branch has been the weakest link of our government for a long time. I’d love to see Pelosi removed from her post- having her as Speaker is going to only hinder Obama’s efforts to get bi-partisan cooperation.

Posted on February 16, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Facebook and the Question of Ownership

tv, books, & films

This is not as frustrating as sitting through an English lit lecture on “authorship” but it still managed to cause a minor stir today:

Posted yesterday by Consumerist, Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.” – this article picked up on changes made last Wednesday by Facebook on their terms of service agreement with their users. Basically they are saying that they own all the stuff that we users upload: pictures, video, blog posts, comments and messages… etc. Websites like Mashable reposted the article and started surmising what this means for us end-users and why Facebook hasn’t been forthcoming with this change, Facebook: All Your Stuff Is Ours, Even If You Quit. And really, why were they opting instead to change the terms of service quietly, choosing to wait for the oncoming blog-storm to roll in?

So obviously, once the story broke yesterday, it started a flurry of indignant tweets and retweets on Twitter. I first picked up the story early in the day when just the Consumerist story was floating around, but as more and more people retweeted the news, bloggers began writing and by the end of the day, Facebook decided it needed to respond. Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos | The Social – CNET News

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Posted on February 12, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

At Disneyland and Wondering about Writing

personal

Vasant and I sat in the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside Pirate of the Caribbean) and talked about my trouble writing fantasy for nearly two hours today. If you’re going to have a talk about creativity, talking about it at a table right on the edge of the moonlit swamp is the place to do it! I wrote about my problems writing a specific genre a couple weeks ago in a post called “A MESS”, but to be less vague, the genre I have difficulty writing is fantasy. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy. I do. I love it. But there’s something subconsciously blocking me from producing any works of fiction in that genre at all. And the crazy part is- I’m finishing up a novel that has nothing to do with it. A novel I’m incredibly proud of and excited about. BUT… now that I’ve id’ed this problem in me, I can’t get it out of my head. I keep thinking there is a better writer within my subconscious that is being blocked by this mysterious hangup. Why would I love fantasy, have an incredible imagination, but feel frustrated and fogged in whenever I try to write it? And it’s not that I’m trying to write it and I’m just no good at it. I can’t write it. I can’t get more than a paragraph into it- I all of a sudden get angry, ditch the idea and walk away from the paper or laptop. It’s dumb.

I feel like when I can figure out what this problem is, and breakthrough with a completed short story in this genre, I’ll be able to get to parts of my imagination that for whatever reason have been blocked off. I don’t know why I blocked them off, but I know I have and I’m not resting until I solve this problem, open this door and write a fantasy story.

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Posted on February 2, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

Visual Map of SuperBowl Twittering

tv, books, & films

Okay, so I not only had fun at our impromptu SuperBowl party, but I had fun twittering during the game- as I said in last night’s post.

Brought to my attention by Twitter user @mashable, The New York Times picks up the chatter and maps the game visually across the nation. Very cool!

Map of Popular Super Bowl Words Used on Twitter – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com.

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personal

Sometimes It Takes a Month to Start a Year

I wanted to start the blogging year off with a personal post about the way I view New Year’s goals and hopes. In the following post, you’ll read nothing about the weight I hope to lose or the habits I’m giving up or the regimen I’m placing myself on. I know I’m young, but I [...]

personal

Thanksgiving (updated with pictures!)

So it’s almost here! One of my favorite holidays of the year! The preamble to the Christmas season! The holiday that kicks in the teeth of any diet you’re on and says “Sorry sucker! That stuffing smells too good to pass up!”

This year I am in a rush to finish up my novel (91,000 + [...]

personal

5 Years Ago

… 5 years ago I fell the first bit in love with my future husband, after years of not-really-caring about him. This post is to celebrate that.

5 years ago, I had already known Vasant Samudre for a couple years. He was best friends with my best friend Todd. Our acquaintance had been a Mr. Darcy/Elizabeth [...]

personal

Psychological Hiccups

In a flash a heart is slain
you have to ask in all this pain
Was your heart too soft?
Was your love in vain?
- Copeland, “Love Affair” Eat, Sleep, Repeat ♫ http://blip.fm/~cipry

(a post about the psychological struggles of the middle of this novel)

personal

Book Summer

Six years ago, I started writing a book called The Ashes. It began as a rambling analogy to something I was trying to communicate to my mother when we were out on a walk. It was a hot spring day, we were walking along the country roads, past the white fences protecting horses and alpacas [...]

personal

England Trip Thus Far

So I’ve been here for five days so far, and having (as usual) a wonderful time. This is my third trip to London, and being as third time is the charm, Vasant and I have skirted jet lag COMPLETELY on this trip. Although, that may have something to do with the fact that we don’t [...]

personal

Playing Catch-up.

So I’ve been having some serious “not the kind of thing one twitters about” medical issues this last month. I have sadly been unable to keep up regular entries on the site.
I don’t know who RSS feeds this, or checks it regularly, but to anyone who visits this site often, or happens upon it [...]

personal

Storm on the Horizon

My book is almost finished. I am almost 98% sure it’s going out to publishers this year, and I am 100% confident that when it does, it will be huge. There’s a little bit that’s left to be done, some extra revision, some peer edits, and one final plot point that I want to tweak- [...]

personal

At Disneyland and Wondering about Writing

Vasant and I sat in the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside Pirate of the Caribbean) and talked about my trouble writing fantasy for nearly two hours today. If you’re going to have a talk about creativity, talking about it at a table right on the edge of the moonlit swamp is the place to do [...]

personal tech & web tv, books, & films

True Love and Twittering During Superbowl

So I was sick all last week, so my efforts to try and blog more often totally crapped out. I had a three day migraine that lasted until midday Saturday. I’m still under the weather, but well enough to get out and about.
While I was sick, I missed a dinner reservation, a haircut, a gym [...]

personal

A MESS

Growling at myself today. I have a million things to do and I can’t stop to focus on any of them for more than a minute.
I’m taking a break from revision on the book to finish a short story I’ve been playing with since the fall. I am in love with the concept of this [...]

personal politics tv, books, & films

We Have a NEW PRESIDENT!!!!

I am overwhelmed to the point of tears. It was a wonderful speech. It hit hard against the darkness of the last 8 years. It offered hope, and while drawing differences between the present and the past, offered continuity with our most enduring values. 

The White House’s website is up, with a new look and a [...]

personal tv, books, & films

Saving My Livejournal

What’s not “about to fall apart” these days? We were discouraged from giving gift cards at the holidays because businesses are filing Chapter 11 right and left, people are moving banks because of rumors that a financial institution is about to fail, and it seems that nothing right now is stable enough for us to [...]

personal

Wanting to Get Outta Town

So I’m taking my sister to the airport tonight. She lives in London, has for the last 2.5 years, and absolutely loves it. I love the airport. While I’m stuck here finishing up my education with my husband, the airport makes me giddy where the possibility of travel seems imminent.
Vasant and I are looking into [...]

personal

A post composed listening to the aforementioned playlist…

I’m taking down our tree this weekend. It’s gorgeous and beautiful… and dead. Every night when I turn the lights off, I’m convinced it’s gonna go up in flames, but I am sucha Christmas nut that I can’t resist going to sleep, bathed in the fushia glow of the mulit-colored lights.
I’ve been thinking way too [...]

politics

Eight Years Ago Today

9/11 Memories:

Was looking through a photo album of 9/11 and began to cry again. Like I have, like we all have, every year for the last eight.
I was in bed that morning, and as odd as it sounds, I woke up feeling something was wrong. I went upstairs and turned on the TV, a sinking [...]

politics

GOP Governors Support, Legislators Resist Stimulus

G.O.P. Governors Support Obama – NYTimes.com
Interesting dichotomy between the two. The fire is fueled by angry DJ’s and bloggers who want America to fail in order to get re-elected in 2012…
But what would be nice is to get past politics for a while while the country recovers. That way, when it does, Republicans could say, [...]

personal politics tv, books, & films

We Have a NEW PRESIDENT!!!!

I am overwhelmed to the point of tears. It was a wonderful speech. It hit hard against the darkness of the last 8 years. It offered hope, and while drawing differences between the present and the past, offered continuity with our most enduring values. 

The White House’s website is up, with a new look and a [...]

politics tv, books, & films

Obama Honors McCain at a Dinner the Night Before Inauguration

So this is incredibly classy:
Obama to host McCain at bipart. dinner – Jonathan Martin – Politico.com.

politics

Jacob Heilbrunn: Is Obama Selling Out to the Right?

Jacob Heilbrunn: Is Obama Selling Out to the Right?.
Good post, irritating subject. Either Pelosi and Reid positioned Obama because they felt he’d be an easy target to manipulate for their own agenda, or the left is really outraged that Obama was elected to lead a whole country, and not themselves alone. 
It’s like no one has [...]

tech & web

Stick To What You Do Best: Facebook and the Writing on the Wall

Facebook deciding to copy Twitter is a sign the social media giant is in trouble of tripping over itself.

When it comes to life-casting, sharing information and networking, my first experience of social media was with Live Journal. I was on there regularly from 2001 until 2005, when I discovered Myspace (before all the tweens did). [...]

tech & web

Twitter Start Up!

Alright, so I keep pimping Twitter to my friends as the end all and be all of social media (right now, of course). I tell them it’s like a cocktail party, full of the most interesting people in the world, and you get to listen to snatches of conversation, pick a huddle, join in on [...]

personal tech & web tv, books, & films

True Love and Twittering During Superbowl

So I was sick all last week, so my efforts to try and blog more often totally crapped out. I had a three day migraine that lasted until midday Saturday. I’m still under the weather, but well enough to get out and about.
While I was sick, I missed a dinner reservation, a haircut, a gym [...]

tech & web

A Surplus Population

“Well, if they’d rather die, they had better do it and decrease the Surplus Population.” – Ebenezer Scrooge
Chewing The Fat: Requiem. by Dave Hingsburger. 
A friend of mine posted this article. I read in horror a tale about paramedics who were called to the aid of a 59 year old man. H had called for their [...]

tv, books, & films

Once Again, Through the Looking Glass

Alrighty, alrighty, alrighty. Lost’s episode “The Lighthouse” was just as good as I thought it would be. In that episode I guessed (in these comments on John Cabrera’s most excellent Lost post) that this episode would be about Jacob bringing people to the Island. I also commented, after my husband Vasant made this epic catch, [...]

tv, books, & films

A “bloop” in time…

Alright, so now that I’ve broken the blog in for 2010, let’s get down to business.
LOST STARTS TOMORROW.
I’m not going to get into the intricate theories until after I see the season premiere. Honestly, since the producer’s said they won’t be focusing on DHARMA and a lot of other aspects, I want to wait to [...]

tv, books, & films

Watchmen Review: Pick a Character, Any Character

I love midnight showings. I absolutely love them- specifically at the Seattle Cinerama, a movie theater that really shows off what an awesome city Seattle is. It gathers the cream of the cinephile crop and stuffs them together in a lavish 1960’s built theater, with 808 seats and a thirty by ninety foot screen. I [...]

tv, books, & films

WATCHMEN: Opening Night at the Cinerama

So it’s 38 degrees out (wind chill feels a lot worse), and we’ve been in line for a couple hours for tonight’s sold-out 12:01 am Watchmen. Vasant and I, along with my sister Mary and her boyfriend Matt have been here ridiculously early, at the freaking front of the line. I’ve never been here at [...]

tv, books, & films

Lost Theories

Alright, so I need to write about the rest of my vacation and post my amazing photos, but it can wait, because LOST is on tonight!
If you haven’t seen last week’s episode “This Place is Death”, then do NOT read on because some huge things are discussed.
Below, a picture of Desmond and Mrs Hawking in [...]

tv, books, & films

Facebook and the Question of Ownership

This is not as frustrating as sitting through an English lit lecture on “authorship” but it still managed to cause a minor stir today:
Posted yesterday by Consumerist, Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.” – this article picked up on changes made last Wednesday by Facebook [...]

tv, books, & films

Visual Map of SuperBowl Twittering

Okay, so I not only had fun at our impromptu SuperBowl party, but I had fun twittering during the game- as I said in last night’s post.
Brought to my attention by Twitter user @mashable, The New York Times picks up the chatter and maps the game visually across the nation. Very cool!
Map of [...]

personal tech & web tv, books, & films

True Love and Twittering During Superbowl

So I was sick all last week, so my efforts to try and blog more often totally crapped out. I had a three day migraine that lasted until midday Saturday. I’m still under the weather, but well enough to get out and about.
While I was sick, I missed a dinner reservation, a haircut, a gym [...]

personal politics tv, books, & films

We Have a NEW PRESIDENT!!!!

I am overwhelmed to the point of tears. It was a wonderful speech. It hit hard against the darkness of the last 8 years. It offered hope, and while drawing differences between the present and the past, offered continuity with our most enduring values. 

The White House’s website is up, with a new look and a [...]

tv, books, & films

My favorite Lost episode…

I’m watching “The Constant” right now, arguably the best episode of LOST’s season 4, and debatably the best episode of the entire series.
Theory:

You can’t help but think that Desmond’s adventure through time and his desperate attempt to connect with Penelope Widmore is going to be integral to the series finale, and tie up the entire [...]

politics tv, books, & films

Obama Honors McCain at a Dinner the Night Before Inauguration

So this is incredibly classy:
Obama to host McCain at bipart. dinner – Jonathan Martin – Politico.com.

personal tv, books, & films

Saving My Livejournal

What’s not “about to fall apart” these days? We were discouraged from giving gift cards at the holidays because businesses are filing Chapter 11 right and left, people are moving banks because of rumors that a financial institution is about to fail, and it seems that nothing right now is stable enough for us to [...]

tv, books, & films

Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Event

Found this on a mad Twittering spree…
Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Event.
I would LOVE to do this.

tv, books, & films

Disney Leaves Narnia Franchise | /Film

Disney Leaves Narnia Franchise | /Film.
I think this could actually be a GREAT DEVELOPMENT. I mean, I love Disney, but mainly, I love classic Disney. Not “let’s pin all our monetary hopes on the prayer that Miley Cyrus will stay 16 and on our channel forever” Disney.
I’m so happy Walden is proceeding without them!

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