shawn farner|*feeding* the social web obsession

For the hell of it.
Update with something random; where you are, what you’re doing, what you’re eating, etc.

To share something.
Share a link to a funny YouTube video, the name of your new favorite song or something funny you saw/overheard.

To mass message.
This is where I think Twitter really shines.  People can see your Twitter feed or receive your updates in a variety of ways.  Out with nothing but your cell phone and need an opinion?  Update Twitter via text.  You’ll send one text message and reach all your followers no matter where they are; whether they subscribe to text updates, visit the Twitter site itself, see your update on Facebook or receive it via IM.  Twitter is also useful for providing quick updates to your followers as well.  If the time of an event has changed at the last second, updating everyone via Twitter is much more efficient than sending multiple texts and making multiple phone calls.

Sign up at Twitter.com

To do what? In this case, remove a registration hold on my university account. The hold was placed there due to a parking ticket I’ve since paid, but yet the hold remains. Why it is still there is a mystery of epic proportions; why it takes 24 hours for it to vanish is even more mind-boggling. Call me a cynic, but “It will take 24 hours for the hold to be taken off” sounds a lot like “We’re going to give ourselves 24 hours to take your hold off because we want to flex what little muscle we have here in the Parking Services Office.”

We’re in a digital age, people. While much of the university is still a slow moving bureaucracy, the ticketing and registration systems are both ELECTRONIC. How hard is it to go in and remove someone’s hold immediately when they come pay their ticket? It’s a process that would probably take ten seconds, yet the person working at the desk just throws your money into the cash drawer and returns to doing absolutely nothing. Not even a call in afterwards will do any good. I can’t even bust on a student worker in this case - it was a campus police officer who both accepted my payment and answered the phone when I called later. I feel as though I have a right to complain in this case, because for as many tickets as I’ve paid, I’ve probably staffed at least one full time officer. True story.

I paid my fine off at 7:21am this morning. I’ll keep you updated as to when they actually remove the hold.

To start off, the food court on campus here (Folger) has the most terrible sushi on earth.  After having decent sushi over the weekend, Folger’s just doesn’t cut it.  One thing I noticed is that their rice is really, really wet, and they use a lot of it.  A lot of rice and very little of anything else does not make for good sushi.  Seeing as I’m probably the only person who buys it from them, they should improve it for my sake.

How many of you use Twitter?  You should start.  It’s terribly addicting, though I haven’t discovered any real solid use for it yet.  I basically just update it via the web or text message it with some random thoughts every once in awhile.  If you came to this post via Twitter, I’m obviously not talking about you. :-P  And by the way, follow.

Speaking of web apps, I’ve been playing around lately on Ustream.tv and blogTV.  If you have some time to kill and want to see people make fools out of themselves, those are pretty good places to start.  I’m still a big fan of YouTube, but I feel it’s a bit flawed in that it doesn’t offer any sort of way to go live.  Until they do, these other services will fill the gap.  Here are some pretty funny shows you should watch if they’re on:

• Verbal Diarrhea
• The Moses Chronicles
• Knoxville Cam

I really need to get my Last.FM account rolling again.  The last time I even logged in was in 2006, and it seems as though people still use it.  I swore it would be something that was cool for a little bit but would then die a quick death.  Me, wrong?  Who knew such a thing was possible?  Is anyone else still using Last.FM?

I might have to start an end-of-the-week roundup of the most hilarious Facebook status messages I’ve seen throughout the week.  That’s an idea I’ll kick around.  This one is just way too good to save until Friday, though.  Ladies and gentlemen, my friend Davis Ly:  “All that studying counts for nothing….. Does Temple not want me to Gratulate!!!”

You may now all go about your business.

I spent a few hours after class getting this site up and running, and while it isn’t completely done, I’m satisfied enough to quit for today. You’re probably wondering why there is a Strong Bad video on the front page. The original Wordpress theme had a picture of some well to-do business people in that spot, and seeing as I’m not a well to-do business person, I didn’t think it fit. So until I find something more worthy, Strong Bad will probably keep that spot. [Edit: I've since changed the theme, so there is no longer a need for an irrelevant, though hilarious, YouTube video.]

If you’re bored tonight or if you’re getting drunk tonight and you’ll be bored later tonight, check out ustream.tv. While you’re really only likely to see Asian people lip-syncing to music and others sitting at their computers (probably watching the Asian people), you’ll find something entertaining every once in awhile.