Well it is time for the last blog post of the semester, I am supposed to refer back to my previous posts, and see how I now understand social media, well to be honest, I do not see a point to Twitter, I can understand a rationale for using it for a business, or as a game. When the semester started I signed up for Twitter and Klout, as of today, my Klout score is 44, the highest it got to was 46, but it falls fairly quickly when you are not as active.  When I first signed up my score was a 32. According to Twitter, I have made 198 tweets, and have 27 followers, and I am following 126 people, not bad all things considered, I know enough about Twitter to create an account for my Barbershop Harmony group, I may do that after I get settled. When used effectively a company, or a celebrity can use social media to spread the word of themselves, this I find is the most appealing thing to me about social media, as an arts administrator it is good to be able to increase your brand image for your venue or group, or whatever.

Social media in a nice way to interact with others, and get news and information, as well as entertainment. I learned a lot about how and why social media exists, but there are still questions in my mind about how some of the systems/sites make a living, How for instance is Quora still around, shouldn’t they find a way to monetize it? Some social media outlets, are very well received, and well used, Facebook and Twitter right now are the kings of the hill. What they must do is find a way to continue to be relevant. As long as they can find a way they will continue to thrive, there have been other social media sites (programs/applications/engines?) that have been popular, and not remained relevant, Myspace comes to mind.

Well its blog time again, this week we were assigned to research a fellow student and find what we could about them. I chose to do a google search, and found my partners Facebook page, through that I learned where he live, and what city he is from and that he is a student here at CNU. Not very much. I found other with the same name, but it was easy to distinguish the difference.

As far as to what my partner found about me, He found my Barbershop quartet, and chorus, and pictures/video of us in action. He also found my LinkedIn page.  When it came to trying a more detailed search, he came across my famous namesakes, a music composer, and a colonial planter/statesman.

I am not surprised by what he found. I have googled myself many times in the past, and came up with similar results. I am pleased with these results. I live a mostly anonymous life, my main areas of interest ar music, and barbershop music for the most part. I am pleased to know that if anyone discovers things about me, that barbershop is what is found.

I suppose that if I had my way there might be more found about me, it would be nice if employers could find information about my work and how good I am at arts things, but maybe that will come later. I am also pleased that there is nothing that casts me in a negative light, I have lived a good life, and it is nice to see that my public image fits the life I lead. SO many people have things that they might not want known about themselves, so it is a good thing to have nothing to hide. Social media can be a good tool for marketing oneself, and I try to be sure that I stay away from things that might tarnish my reputation. Especially in a world like the one we have today.

The culture today of everyone sharing things about themselves can make it easy for someone to learn your secrets, it’s easier not to have any, I don’t post things about my private life, and thoughts out there, just a little way of keeping thing neat. I pity the persons who go to look for work, and are one day trying to explain a keg stent picture to a job interviewer. Since many of us are posting those embarrassing things about themselves, they may one day have to have that conversation; like a comedian I listen to saying it’s hard to tell your kids to say no to drugs if you have a pot leaf tattooed on your neck. It is easier just to avoid that by not posting those things.

It’s time for another blog post for my social media class. Today’s assignment is to assess the social media presence of a company or celebrity.

            I have decided to devote my task to George Takei. George used to be on one of my favorite TV shows. Star Trek (the original series). He played a character called Mr. Sulu. He was a major character, one of the bridge crew. He was the Helmsman, responsible for driving the starship. Every week he was a big part of the plot. Then the show went away. I would see George pop up here and there, but never anything big.

            When the star trek movies came out George was right there. He was the same old Sulu.

That was before the internet.

            George Takei didn’t invent the internet, but he sure learned how to use it. Social media came along and George is on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. He is a legend in my opinion,  

one of the neatest things George does it write reviews on Amazon.com. These are great, one of my favorite is the human hamster ball:         

When Brad asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said "jet pack," just like I have for the past four years. Now, Brad thinks I'm too far into my "Golden Years" to strap on any kind of propulsion unit, so each year his gifts have been disappointing: A bow-tie. A snuggie. Gel insoles.

Imagine my delight when I came home to the ZORB HUMAN HAMSTER BALL in our back yard. "Not as good a jet pack," Brad noted, shrugging. "But safer."

Brad was a bit winded after blowing it up for six hours (I recommend an air pump), so we left it inflated. We strapped it to our car roof using the 120 left-over bungee cords from our home bungee jumping kit (I would NOT recommend this product). We then drove up to the Hollywood Hills sign for a test roll.

To my embarrassment, the first thing that happened was I got stuck halfway in, my legs wiggling on the outside. Brad enlisted some startled Korean tourists, who after a serious side deliberation and a vote, cut my pants free and squeezed me in by slathering margarine on my hips. (Brad keeps some in the car just in case.) They launched me forward with a coordinated "Hana, Dulh, SEHT!"

Perhaps I should have practiced on a flat surface. Over I went, like James in his giant peach, tumbling and bouncing through brush and bracken, my body pressed flat like lettuce in a salad spinner. Apparently, as in space, in the Human Hamster Ball no one can hear you scream.

I reached a series of McMansions, bounced high over some gated walls, then splash landed in an infinity pool, terrifying a group of overprivileged children at a birthday party. I began to run inside the ball, and sure enough, I soon became a human paddlewheel. My forward inertia pushed me over the pool's edge and into the busy street below. Brad, who had been following my progress via hang glider, waved his hands in warning, but I thought he was just saying hi, so I waved back, with a big thumbs up.

Oh myyy. Friends, you haven't experienced Newton's Third Law of Motion until your Human Hamster Ball collides with a semi heading the opposite way. I ricocheted like an eight ball and flew several hundred feet, then bounced from car to car until I finally came to rest somewhere along Rodeo Drive. My chosen mode of transport created quite the stir, especially when I again needed help being pulled back out of the ball.

Thanks again, LAFD, for understanding. I swear I'm not doing these things just to get your hunky attention”. (Amazon.com/Matrix Zorb Cold Weather Human Hamster Ball)

George has also written a couple of books. In 1994 he wrote an autobiography;

“To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu”. This was well received, but again it was before the internet and social media were a big deal, so it did not go viral or anything like that.

His latest book is called: Oh Myyy! (There Goes The Internet) (November, 2012) on the other hand, was written as an e-book, and it my understanding that it has gone viral. It was released in paperback at the same time as the E-book, and debuted at #10 on the New York Time best seller list. Her is the book description from Amazon.com:

How did a 75-year old actor from Star Trek become a social media juggernaut? Why does everything he posts spread like wildfire across the ether, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of likes and shares? And what can other sites, celebrities and companies do to attain his stratospheric engagement levels, which hover or top 100 percent while theirs languish in the single digits? 

Read about George Takei’s meteoric rise and dominance of the Internet in Oh Myyy (There Goes the Internet), published of course in electronic format. 
In this groundbreaking, hilarious and informative book, Takei recounts his experiences on platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, where fans and pundits alike have crowned him King. He muses about everything from the nature of viral sharing, to the taming of Internet trolls, to why Yoda, bacon and cats are such popular memes. Takei isn’t afraid to tell it likes he sees it, and to engage the reader just as he does his legions of fans. 

Both provokingly thoughtful and wickedly funny, Oh Myyy! captures and comments upon the quirky nature of our plugged-in culture. With Takei’s conversational yet authoritative style, peppered with some of his favorite images from the web, readers should be prepared to LOL, even as they can’t help but hear his words in their heads in that unmistakable, deep bass.

Mashable.com says that George is the #1 most influential person on Facebook, with more than 4.2 million followers. Takei also has 700,000 followers on Twitter. (Amazon.com/George Takei)

George has used his position in social media to highlight the causes he holds dear, equality. (Gay and straight), the poor treatment of Asian Americans in this country during WWII. You see George and his family were interned in the camps for Japanese Americans during that war. He currently stars in Allegiance, on Broadway. This play is about that time in our history where we thought it was ok to lock away these people because they were different, and looked like our enemy in a time of war. It is a dear subject for Mr. Takei.  He also continues to work in film and TV. Having starred with Tom Hanks in 2011, and started a TV series on Nickelodeon the same year.

My suggestions to Mr. Takei, Keep it up, you are showing the rest of us how it should be done.

Thanks for all that you do Mr. Sulu.

 It's time for another Blog for class, Late again because I misplaced my syllabus that told me when it was due and what to write about, Seems normal for me, I need to be better about these things. This Blog is to be about a day without the Internet, and how I deal with it, and about my thoughts and reflections on the event. 

     My day without the Internet started Friday morning. My wife and I were traveling to Ocean City Maryland for the weekend. I got up, and started to get ready for my trip, my first instinct was to log on and check email, I remembered I was spending the day without the Internet, and decided not to check it. I also had an urge to check out my Facebook, and twitter accounts. I declined to do both. I had a printed copy of my directions to my hotel, and I remembered to get them from the printer. We set off, about an hour after we had planned, nothing new there. We often joke about how that keeps happening to us. I drove to OC, as we call Ocean City, and listened to the radio in my can, normally I would use Pandora, or Spotify while driving, but since I was doing without the Internet I decided that would be cheating. I got to the hotel and learned it had a free Wi-Fi connection, I would not need that today.

The first event of our convention was to begin at 5:30, so we crossed the street to the convention center. Once we got there my friend Ritchie asked if I had seen the Facebook post about Mike Rowe (the dirty jobs guy). It seems he was there at our convention. I told him I was on an Internet free day. So, he told me all about it. Cool. Mike is a member of our barbershop hobby, his High School music teacher was a famous man in our world. Mike rarely gets back for one of our conventions, and this doing away with my Internet for the day was looking a bit more difficult as I progressed.   I already missed checking in to see what was going on, and the news. During the first contest session, I kept my phone off and in my pocket. That’s not so bad. When the contest was over my family asked me to see where we could get something to eat at 11 pm, but without the Internet I was unable to do it. We drove down the street until we found a burger place, and stooped in for a late supper. The back to the hotel, and to sleep for the night.

Saturday morning I decided to again forgo Internet for the day. It was nerve wracking not being able to check in and get the latest news. Funny in years past this was how my weekends used to be. Now I am so addicted to my RSS feeds and Facebook/twitter and email, that I missed being in touch. I was lonely, at first, then I got involved with the events at the convention. My only slip was after the afternoon session, the presenter (otherwise known as the MC) said that to determine who did a better job presenting the contest to log on to twitter and cast my vote. OK, I pulled out my phone, and tweeted that Tony had done a better job. Oops, I was doing without the Internet today. Oh well, it that is my only slip I’m still good. Saturday continued and my phone stayed in my pocket. I missed the news from is continued until I arrived home, It’s about a 3 hour drive to OC, and I had a hard time with the radio, but my wife understood I was conducting an experiment, and did not complain. I put in a CD after a while and we listened to some good music. We got home, unloaded the car, and took a nap. That nap lasted until Monday morning. I got up, logged on and realized I had missed a lot of stuff. Big wreck in Indy Car racing, drivers hospitalized. In NASCAR my favorite driver had a really bad day. Wow, I didn’t used to follow a lot of that stuff, politics, and sports, and similar stuff. I really felt out of touch.

It seemed worse to me after I got back online than when I was locked out, I did not seem to care about it if I didn’t hear it at the time. Once I got back in, I really noticed that I was behind. Being connected really enhances my day. So much for being able to turn it off. I bothered me more after the fact than it did while it was happening. Interesting!

Our assignment for this blog was to interview someone over age 55 and talk with them about their attitudes on technology and social media. I chose to interview my dad. My dad is 74 years old. He was born a few years before the start of WWII. He grew up in Las Vegas Nevada. His prompted his dad to have a phone installed. My dad has not been without one since. In the early days it was a “party line” phone, you called the operator and had them connect calls for you,

Image courtesy of archshrk.com

 and when you got an incoming call you had to listen for the correct ring. When I was a kid I remember our ring was 3, it had to ring three times before we could answer, three close rings together. In the 1960’s party lines were already obsolete, but our phone exchange where we lived was one of the last one to change over to dial telephones.  My father was really happy to get a phone as a kid, but he still mostly ran over to his friends’ houses to get up with them. Now as an adult, my father has a land line phone, and a cell phone. He did not get his cell until 2001. My girlfriend at the time convinced him it would be a good thing to have. Two days after he got his first cell, he got into an accident and was injured. He used his phone to call for help and call home to let my mother know what had happened. Now he won’t leave the house without it. He started using the internet and e-mail in ’99. He really enjoys this medium of communication. His attitudes towards most social media is rather pedestrian, he does not want anything to do with it. He would still much rather call his buddies, and talk rather than log in to Facebook.  He got an account last year to vote in the American Idol stuff. He saw that he could get more votes for his favorite performers with Facebook, so he created an account. He logs in about once a week, and looks for messages, then he’s done for the week. My dad thinks that social media is making it easier for people not to connect on a personal level, doing it online leaves it at casual. As for me, I don’t believe that. I do feel that sometimes we, especially those of us that have come of age since the invention of such things spend far too much time this way. We may just be better off if we turn off, log out and go visit a friend. A thought my dad readily agrees with.

Well, Here is my first Blog for class, It is late, I hope that I don't mess that up again. I am here today to talk about me. My presence in social media as it were. First a little history. I am a very non traditional student. I restarted college in August 2009, after a career in the Navy where I worked  as an Electronics Technician. My family got our first computer in the 1970's, it was a Radio Shack TRS80. Not much of a computer by today's standards. Then we got a Coleco Adam computer. (OMG, spell check does not recognize Coleco or Colecovision. That makes me feel old). I got my first modern computer, a Pentium in 1996, I paid AOL for the privilege of connecting to the internet, and giving me an e-mail address. Later I learned about Hotmail, I got an address billbyrd@hotmail.com (It's still active an forwards to my gmail. That's where I started. I got an account at Myspace when it was hip, (probably there, I have not checked it for years) Once I had access to high speed internet i left AOL behind, and now pity those who are still wearing training wheels. I learned about Palm pilots in the late 90's and bought one even before a cell phone. I have been a cell phone user since 1997, and got my first smart phone when Palm invented the Treo. In 2006, I discovered Facebook. (My timeline only goes back to 2008 for some reason) and I have 1370 friends, many group and pages that I follow. Interesting point, I know almost all of the personally. I sing in Barbershop quartets and choruses. So I have spent real world time with most of them. I am members of several list serve type discussion groups, mostly involving Barbershop music. I started this Blogger page some time ago, but Have never done much with it. I have been on linked-in for a few years, and google+ since they started it a while back. 

I signed up for Twitter for the class, and checked my Klout score,found out right away, due to my lever of activity on Facebook I had a score of 39. Now here is is barely two weeks later, and I am up to 45. I still don't quite know how I feel about Twitter, but I will play with it, and send my thoughts out to the twitterverse for all to see. I will hold my judgement on the need for it. 

I have a tendency to get wrapped up in projects, and forget to do other things that I am supposed to be doing, so we can anticipate I may miss another deadline, but through the use of electronic reminders and prompts, I hope to avoid that fate.

Well for now, I have run out of things to talk about, Have a great weekend.  

1988 Fiero Formula For sale

Great car, I just cannot complete it on current budget.