Highlights of 2009 from my point of view.

This reminds me of when I bought my first Jay-Z album which was THE first Jay-Z album. Good days for hip-hop. Free of Soulja Boy and Plies.

Jaden Smith (son of Will) and Jackie Chan in the remake of our beloved 80s The Karate Kid.

SEX AND THE CITY, ultimate chick flick, hits the ladies with a sequel while all men whisper “Not again”. Lol. *jokes*

Frankly speaking, I’m quite tired of this bitch. She was arrested today on charges of assault. Go somewhere else and get the full story. Her shit is getting old.

With what may as well represent the strongest union on the face of Hollywood, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have called it quits after 23 years. I think if any couple lasted longer, they must not have “both” been A-listers. No more details at this time but it almost seems like congratulations are in order rather than sympathy. Because divorce after 23 yrs in Hollywood standards is as good as “Death do us part”.

This is some insane sibling rivalry – Katie rats on her brother to the parents for hiding beer in his room and he gets grounded for 3 months. As karma would have it, Katie’s brother ran into Katie’s “hook up” list with an active deadline as seen below. Katie’s brother, still pissed about his being grounded for beer, shares her “hook up” list on facebook. Lol. He even tags some of the dudes on the list. It shouldn’t be funny I know. But how do you rat on someone if you are not 100% clean? Not very smart. Click to make it larger.

I am so happy, Tony is home until Saturday now. We started the decorating process, and I finished the sweeping and organizing the living room. I also cleaned up my daughters room too. Been so busy this morning. I started cookies last night while we were eating dinner.

I may not be able to mop, this depends on high chair time for my daughter at lunch because she will only run all over it. However, I am pleased now with how the house looks. I will be making the cheese ball today I believe, and then tomorrow will be the chocolate covered fruit and gingerbread angels.

I had the time to research this morning another news reader, very nice. Bloglines is the name of it. It is easier to read blogs or sites that have feeds instead of page to page. I have only ever used them for usenet groups, it was HW to point out how she follows my every posting through Google, that I never really considered it that way before.

Using a news reader is like opening up your mail, and you see all the postings from the site that you can read directly from that program like mail. What a delight and easier to maintain when you are trend hunting or want information.

On bloglines I also notice something about email subscriptions. If  I am not mistaken this means I can transfer all the worthy emails I receive into that reader. WOW. I have a hard time saying no to worthy newsletters, which is why it is built up to like 5000. Part of the problem anyhow.

Have a productive but family type of day if possible. I woke up in the middle of the night for a washroom fix, and then came onto my blog to do some tagging and a few quick sentences to explain the links I posted.

I just posted on a couple of my friends’ walls and to my surprise, my public news feed is displaying my own posts on the wall which is weird but also what’s pissing me off even more is the fact that the news feed notifications are being published. I am pissed off at Facebook for implementing these stupid privacy updates about a week ago and just today it seems as if all my privacy and account settings were reset. I had to go and change them back to normal and now I can’t find the stupid settings to stop the news feed from showing my wall posts to everyone. I don’t know what the fuck just happened between now and five hours ago which was the last time I posted on a friend’s wall. Half my live News feed is flooded with messages I just wrote to my friends. Isn’t the feed supposed to show you stuff that your friends are doing? Not stuff that you know you are doing? I don’t want to go on Facebook and on my news feed, I see that I wrote to my friend a couple of seconds ago, I already know that. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT!?!?!?

So far, this is what I’ve done to make my stuff more private, settings –> Privacy Settings –> profile information –> Posts by Me. I changed it to ‘Only Me’ I will see what that does but this is my quick fix right now. I still see my own posts flooding my wall…this is REALLY pissing me off.

I remember back in the day when everyone started to get concerned about their privacy and they all went to the Facebook settings to un-check pretty much every setting/option in the news feed/wall section. Unfortunately, it’s not there any more and I have no clue where the fuck to go to stop my news feed from displaying every single thing that I do over Facebook. ARGGH I’m fed up with this site. I might just go and start using Twitter now, that’s what all the cool old people do now a days; it’s the Facebook for old people as I would like to say it.

As a wise, disgruntled, man once said, “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU”

Tom Cruise is back in a new spy action comedy with Cameron Diaz titled KNIGHT AND DAY. It promises a lot of explosion. And that equation has never gone wrong.

With 3 of the biggest blockbusters under his belt in a 12 month period, Sam proves that living in your car is not the end of the world.

French director Louis Leterrier directs CLASH OF THE TITANS, a remake of a 1985 classic of the same name starring (again) Sam Worthington as Persius alongside Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes in this on-steriods mythological recapture. Anticipation?? All I can say is “OMG, release the Kraken again why don’t you”

A memorable list for those of us under 40. We may not have known them personally but STILL our hearts have suffered these losses very directly.

Heathcliff

Tupac

Adam

Farrah

Christopher

Lisa

Kurt

Aaliyah

Patrick

Diana

Michael

I’m not very big on comedies but this looks like one worth looking forward to. Its called Hot Tub Time Machine starring John Cusack and Craig Robinson (who just happens to be in almost every 2009 comedy). Watch the trailer.

Also coming soon is the very anticipated Iron Man 2 with Robert Downey Jr. Don Cheadle replaces Terence Howard as Jim Rhodes (Rhodey/War Machine). Cool trailer too. Can’t wait for this.

Brittany Murphy, star of films like Sin City, Clueless & 8 Mile has been confirmed dead as she was brought into the Cedars-Sinai hospital, in Los Angeles today. She went into cardiac arrest and not much detail is being released at this time. She was 32. We pray for her family and friends. We thought the 2010 celeb reaper was done. This is bad, real bad Michael Jackson.

Pop icon Beyonce’s mother has filed for divorce against her husband and father of Beyonce, Matthew Knowles for no apparent reason. We do know that Matthew Knowles was hit with a paternity lawsuit by another woman last year and also the couple have not been living together as man and wife for a while now. There’s nothing as annoying as celebrity parents making headlines I know, but  thought you’d like to know. They’ll be fine. Everybody’s rich now

No arrests made yet.

Border Patrol at Texas have detained Lil Wayne and his entourage as copious amounts of Marijuana were found 2 hours ago in the tour buses taking him to Texas for a concert in Laredo, TX. Concert has been postponed and no official arrests have been made. The kid is talented and obviously needs his creativity-weed stash. Dudes should let him off with a warning. Its only a little ‘erb. Its not like they found heroin. Or a 12 year old girl tied in back.

These dislikes are not yours. They are mine. If you can relate, that’s great. And if you can’t relate, then I’m truly sorry.

1) The event invitations from halfway across the globe. Ok. It’s annoying enough when you have to decline 7 events a day from parties around your area. But that event invitation from Birmingham or Croatia that shows up on my news feed every Wednesday may drive me insane.

2) The status update of enlightenment. These are the Facebook version of an Oscar-bait movie that screams, “Look at me, I wrote something deep, don’t just stand there “like” it or leave a comment”. Well I might but I am very sure if I googled the punchline of your quotes, I’ll find who deserves the real credit so thanks, but no thanks.

3) The tagged stuff without me in them. Ok. I understand the need to tag me in a picture or video to get a wide reach on Facebook. And because of this I ordinarily don’t mind being tagged randomly, but since you tagged 50 other people and their smart asses want to comment on your photo or video all day, my notifications will go nuts. And nobody wants that.

4) Friend thieves. You have a friend on FB (sometimes in another country). They’re not as social as you are. They don’t get around. But everyday, your mutual friends are growing considerably because they sit on your page and just add your connections with a shopping cart. Once or twice is ok. But to see mutual friends grow from 2 to 60 in one month can be very disturbing.

5) The monotonous photo session. Humans are vain by nature, but some more than others. I believe that one’s profile picture album is MEANT for basic vanity while photo albums are meant for friends, family and memorable events. Not these folks. They have several full 80 picture albums of themselves in the same clothing taking pictures with their own left hand in the same damn room, snapping the same “better side” of their face. The only variation in some of these albums is that sometimes the shots move from face to shoes. Mirror shots are by far more forgivable.

6) The TMI status update. The I’m-fighting-with-my-best friend status update. The I-broke-up-with-his-broke-ass status update. The I’m-so-over-you status update. The Baby-How-could-you-do-that-to-me? status update. The last-night-was-perfect status update. The I-should-be-texting-this-but-instead-I’ll-publish-it status update. I am of the mind that if a status update does not benefit people around you in some way, don’t post it. And keep your laundry indoors.

7) The mysterious friend request. They add you. Name unfamiliar. No real photo of themselves. Just wallpapers of cars, models or athletes. Their friend list is 30 names strong. They expect you to accept the friend request when it’s obviously a Black Ops profile compiling a hit list.

The Exhibitionist female. Almost all her pictures are suggestive. Constant snap shots of her own ass and tits. Like she’s auditioning for porn. Only this time for comments instead of a paycheck. Nothing wrong with being in porn. Hold on, I will even help you make calls. Just make sure you get it done right. You’re either decent or indecent. I am not judging. I like both kind of women. It’s the in-betweens I hate.

9) The thread inbox message. You get a message from someone who decided to also send to 20 others. And you MUST sit through everyone’s replies for weeks. You almost want to shoot the sender in the end.

10) Don’t poke. Fucking say Hello.

11) Don’t give me a beer on Facebook. Text me, let’s go to a real bar and have a real drink.

12) Application requests. Join my Vampire crew??? Fuck off.

13) Quizzes. What Spice Girl am I??? Fuck off.

14) People on Facebook older than 45. Like seriously parents, you couldn’t let us have this ONE thing to ourselves. What are you even doing here? Really? Farmville? You can’t afford to start a REAL farm?

15) Facebook urging me to say hello to people I don’t feel like talking to. Sounds like something my grandma would do which is also as annoying as the People you may know suggestions.

16) The ever-changing relationship status.  Please make up your mind before setting your “love status” to anything. We don’t need to be asking you “What happened?” every weekend.

17) “Married” to best female friend relationship status. A bit high-schooly innit?

18) Constant deactivators. Stay on or get off forever. If you have to tell us via status update that you’ve been off Facebook for weeks, then we clearly didn’t miss you. Suck it.

19) The complainers of Facebook upgrades. Millions are spent to better a site you never paid for. Shut the fuck up and learn the improvements.

17) Mister X “also commented” on a picture you commented on 2 years ago. Do I have to know this? It’s ok if it’s the same day or week. But damn, can a brother get a divorce from these issues?

18) Vague status updates. “OMG, I can’t believe me and that person did that thing we were not supposed to do this year”. We won’t ask you what you’re talking about. Spit it out or make like Valium and swallow it.

19) The Holy Users. “I am in church right now giving praise to God”. Um… no you’re not. You’re on Facebook via mobile web.

20) People who demand a “dislike” button. If you don’t like something about someone, tell them in their inbox or write a fricking blog. Man up. Stop waiting for Facebook.

And finally

21) People who create fake FB accounts to comment on pictures and write on the wall of their primary profile in order to make themselves “appear” loved. Wow.

-Jay.

Life is cruel. This is their last photograph as a couple. This was the night before the scandal. And if they looked so damn happy hours before, then how could things have gone so wrong? I don’t want to take sides anymore. They’re both amazing people. Plus I don’t think I’ve seen a genuine smile on either of their faces since then. Oh well. What’s done is done.

Now do you see how a purity ring can rush you into stupid decisions? He is getting married to achieve what some us get done by just going to the movies. Tsk tsk. I mean how old is this kid? I pity Danielle (his bride-to-be) though. We’ll see how this won’t end in an infidelity circus.

Lucky guy. We will pray for you.

A time when the diamonds on your neck didn’t do the dancing for you.

Here’s the newest video from pop star icon Rihanna.

screenshot from http://snackr.net/

Sometime around last Thursday, I did an intense cleansing of my computer. After moving a massive amount of photos, docs, and mp3s to my hard drive, I was finally able to do everything I have ever dreamed of (at that moment): install Snow Leopard and other cool new toys.

sidebar: when I say intense cleansing, I mean INTENSE. Did you know that when your Macbook’s Hard Drive runs out of available space, it spells it out for you? When I saw, “Available: Zero KB”, I knew I needed to get cracking.

The first toy I downloaded was Snackr. Best. Decision. Ever. If you’re not using this FREE app, ummm, why the hell not? Especially as an ad-freak, PR enthused, closet tech-geek, journalism student, this thing is SO COOL. It’s a news ticker for your laptop. The ticker shows headline, source, how long ago it was published, and a preview (should you choose to click the headline). Yo Anderson Cooper, what you got on that?

How am I using my Snackr feed? After toying around with different ways, I’ve decided to use it as a compliment to my Google Reader (which I use solely for blogs that I NEED to read daily, or, postly?). Essentially, it’s a news feed of what’s interesting to me. I’ve got a bunch of feeds from various areas or authors on Advertising Age, True/Slant and Wired, the ‘Comment is free: America’ feed from The Guardian, Mashable, and more of the like. These aren’t places I am able to read every article every day. It’s pleasant, and easy, to have them roll across the bottom of my screen and pick what to read, when to read, without having to untangle the web.

How can you use it?

• Journalism students: Subscribe to your favorite news sources, specifically for in-depth news. You know where you’re going to get your breaking news (iPhone, Twitter, etc), but wouldn’t it be convenient to have a ticker full of the numerous places/journalists publishing fantastic, in-depth stories? Get snacking.
• Other students: Whatever your emphasis is, there are news sources for it. It’s the Internet. If you were majoring in Canadian fur trading, I’m sure you could find things (btw, that’s actually a class at University of Minnesota-Duluth). A friend of mine who is a nursing major asked why she would use it. Well, there is Nurse.com, MedicalNewsToday.com, and probably a gazillion (exaggeration alert) other news sources for the nursing industry.
• Communications Professionals: I can see this tool being useful in many ways, but two in particular:
  • Follow feeds that pertain to the industry of your client(s). You won’t read every article. Nor should you have to. But you will see the headlines, and Snackr even has a nice ‘preview’ feature for you. If the same topic keeps scrolling by, maybe it merits some further digging.
  • Get a feed of your favorite news sources on the roll. You’re busy keeping up with your client(s) all day, right? Well you can still know what’s going on outside of the clientsphere- without wasting interwebz time.
• My Mother: My mom loves looking for new recipes, cooking tools, and the like online. Instead of wasting time combing through different sites to see what looks good, why not have them scrolling across your desktop? “Green Bean Birthday Cake” doesn’t sound too great, so don’t click on it. “Deep Fried Green Bean Birthday Cake” sounds interesting, I might click the preview on that.

Indulge your craving, become a Snackr.

photo credit: law_keven

Please watch this and leave comments if you may. Personally I still don’t see any proof. Plus the fact that the song was NOT play forward makes me suspicious of the nature of the source. If you own a decent software, you can make Jay-Z say ANYTHING. But who really knows.