shawn farner|*feeding* the social media obsession

Well, here I am.

Life has been crazy the past few weeks.  I dealt with the passing of my great grandmother, I said goodbye to the wonderful people at Ritter Insurance Marketing and I made my way to Indiana, Pennsylvania.  I was an Orientation Leader for this year’s Welcome Weekend - we moved in over a thousand new freshmen Saturday morning and afternoon.  We also entertained 2,000+ students at the student union building on Saturday night.

Now that the pace seems to have slowed down, I’m finally starting to settle in.  In the next three to four months, this blog will probably cover very little about Central Pennsylvania.  From a social media standpoint, these will be the last few months in which I view the topic through student goggles.  There is, however, the possibility for something very cool.  As most know, I graduate this December (God willing) and will then venture out into the “real world”.  I would love to work in social media.  What better way to chronicle the trials and tribulations involved in a job search than with this blog?

I would also like to do a lot more video this semester. It seems as though funny things happen when I don’t have my Flip with me.  I saw a cop speed down the road and swerve around a car to pull over a cyclist yesterday.  Things like that need to be recorded on video.

I suppose that’s all for now.  I’ll eventually get back into posting regularly now that I’m here and growing used to my schedule.  If you’d like to get in contact at any time, you can do so via the Contact link in the top menu bar.  Until next time - adios, amigos.

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.