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April 29, 2007

Face(book) It, MySpace, You Suck

facebook.gifMore and more recently, I’ve been becoming a bigger Facebook advocate and a MySpace nay-sayer. However, it’s been a slowly developing thing, mainly because there aren’t quite as many of my friends on Facebook... yet. Here are the 12 reasons why I like Facebook moreso than MySpace.

1. Visual Aesthetics
Facebook is so much better looking than MySpace, it’s ridiculous. MySpace really lives up to it’s name by allowing users to hack their profile and add whatever they want to the site. That’s okay if you don’t want to have your own blog somewhere that’s designed to your liking, but most times it’s annoying and can really slow down the performance of your machine (who needs floating letters anyway?).

Facebook is clean and implores modern design techniques, not to mention white space. Users there aren’t concerned with customizing their page, they’re more concerned with connecting with friends.

2. Usability
On MySpace, have you ever wanted to jump right into your friends list? How about check out photos with one click? Better yet, wouldn’t you like to know if/when your friends change something on their profiles? Those first two tasks on MySpace aren’t quick to do and the third is nearly impossible. On Facebook, all three are simple and there’s more where that came from.

Additionally, Facebook continues to create a better user-experience and also informs users when new things have been incorporated. To me, that’s a LOT better than Tom posting a bulletin saying that something has screwed up and they’re fixing it.

3. No One is Hacking My Account
The way that Facebook is built doesn’t allow users to try and hack into my account. MySpace is built using many sub-domains, which can easily be faked. It’s sad that we had to educate MySpace users that if you were already signed in, you don’t have to log in again – the only thing off limits on MySpace are certain profiles. If you think security had nothing to do with users dumping IE in favor of a more secure Firefox, think again.

4. Private Profiles Annoy Me
Seriously, what’s the point of being on a social web site (a network that connects people, organizations and concepts) if your profile is private? Nothing irritates me more than thinking I can go read someone’s profile and encountering this stupid message:

This profile is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile.

Fine. Whatever. Make your profile private. On Facebook, no one has to worry about seeing that message because you can’t even click on a user’s name if you’re not in their network.

5. Pokes
To address the whole privacy deal on Facebook, if you want to see someone’s profile that you don’t have access to, you “poke” that person. They’re notified of the poke (which is really just a nudge, or a, “hey, what’s up”)and then they have the chance to poke you back. If they do, then you both have the chance to check out each other’s profile for seven days. Now you know who’s looking at your profile.

6. News Feed
The first thing you see when you log in to Facebook is your friends’ news feed – things that your friends have recently done. This includes changes to events, groups, photos, notes, relationships, friends, wall posts, profiles, status and posts. If you have several friends, this can get overbearing – so all you do is go to your preferences and mess with a frequency lever for each category.

7. Even More Privacy
When editing your contact information on Facebook, you can set certain information to be more private than others. Your three options are:

8. Blog Incorporation
I never understood why MySpace had it’s own blogging software and no ability to import posts from my blog. I know some people that post entries on their personal blog and ALSO on MySpace. On Facebook, I just tell it what my RSS feed is and it imports them when they’re updated. Integration is key.

9. Less Advertising
When Rupert Murdock bought MySpace for $587M, it was speculated that he was trying to build a network to compete with MTV. I guess the way you combat MTV is by adding an ad anywhere that you can. The kids that watch MTV like tons of shit everywhere, right? We gotta speak to their ADD.

Facebook’s site is virtually ad-free and it makes it so much nicer. That could always change, though, if someone wants to pony up the $8B price tag that Facebook carries.

10. Photo Tagging
Facebook had unlimited photo uploading and albums long before MySpace did. Not only that, but you can order prints of your favorite photos, too. However, the best photo feature on Facebook is the ability to tag photos. That means if I have a photo with Bruno in it, I can associate some meta data on that photo pointing to him and that photo will show up in HIS photo area. You can essentially let others do work for you.

11. Third-Party Developers
It seems that MySpace is locking more and more down recently and disallowing users to include things in their profile (like flash photo albums, music players, etc.) – maybe in response to hackers? Whatever the cause, it’s annoying. Facebook takes an opposite approach and like other Web 2.0 sites, it’s opened up it’s API and allows developers to create their own plug-ins. Now you can download a plug-in that allows you to upload photos directly from iPhoto.

12. Status Updates
Gone are the days of the ever-changing names and captions on your MySpace profile. As I mentioned in another post about Twitter, the status update is one of the cooler things about Facebook. Changing your status allows friends to know what you’re thinking at a particular time. For example, my status (updated 22 hours ago) is currently:

Seth is ready to have his damn car back. If only to go grocery shopping.

I’m sure there are many more, but I think that Facebook reigns supreme. I don’t care about updating MySpace anymore and I have a feeling that once more and more users migrate to Facebook, MySpace will deteriorate even more.

Posted by Seth at 09:21 PM | Comments (8)

April 22, 2007

The Return of the Mack

This weekend has been one of the best weekends in a very long time. I had the pleasure of frying twinkies for my co-workers, I attended a beer tasting at Cellar Rat, had some great spicy tuna rolls at Nara, saw David Sedaris at the Uptown, saw The Decemberists at the Uptown, chilled at Harry's Country Club and hung out with friends. All in all, not too bad if you ask me.

Be the icing on the cake was something I was alerted to on Friday night. A co-worker and I were just getting out of the Sedaris show and I received a text message from Bruno:

DUDE WE RE AT THE CASHEW CALL ME.

Yes, it was in all caps. And when a message is in all caps, it usually means one of two things – someone's pissed off or something is very important. I assumed it was the later and made contact with him. Text messaging about this wasn't going to work, so he calls me up.

Bruno: So we're at the Cashew and you're never going to believe who's here.
Seth: (racking my brain) Uh, I dunno, who?
Bruno: Think blond.
Seth: Blond? Hmmm... NO WAY!
Bruno: Yeah! You gotta come.
Seth: We're on our way!

If you're thinking what I originally thought, there was some blond-haired chick there. But that wasn't the case. When Bruno said “think blond,” he really meant “think Blonde,” the very pretentious snobby upscale bar shit hole night club in Kansas City. The very place I met Toolman.

Now do you see the urgency in which we fled to the Cashew?

We arrived and quickly found Bruno and company out on the patio, so we joined them. We ordered drinks and Bruno filled me in on the haps. To see if he was right – to really be sure Toolman was in the house – I had to go see for myself. I ventured upstairs and poked my head around the filled tables. Sure enough, rocking a track jacket and talking to nobody in particular, was Toolman.

I giggled. Was this really happening? It must have been, because he was standing right there. I wanted to talk to him, but I had no gameplan...so I ran away, back to our table and told the original story to Toolman rookies. Naturally, they couldn't believe that this guy was that bad, that my story was true. So I was issued a bet that if he came downstairs, I would go talk to him. Stupid bets, I love 'em all.

Sure enough, about five minutes later, Toolman came downstairs and I got up to go win my bet. I caught him before he went into the bathroom (I wasn't about to have another initial conversation with him in a restroom):

Me: Hey man! What's up?

Toolman: Yeah, hey.

[ He completely doesn't recognize me! This could be good. ]

Me: Remember me? We met up at Blonde a few months ago?

Toolman: Uhhh... wait, yeah! We were there for that event thing.

Me: That's right!

Toolman: Yeah, yeah... It was December 8th.

[ WTF? He remembered the date? ]

Me: Uh, right. That's kinda creepy.

Toolman: Yeah I remember because my ex-girlfriend was there that night and it was her birthday.

Me: Ohhhh, that's right!

Toolman: Yeah, pssh, whatever.

Me: Truth. Well, me and some friends are out on the patio if you want to come have a drink with us.

Toolman: Cool man, we'll see.

Me: Awesome, see you later.

----------
The bet was won. I strode back over to the table and informed everyone of not only the conversation, but that he remembered the DAY we met. They thought it was weird, too. And then I told them that we were probably going to have a guest join us. Sure enough, barely two minutes later, Toolman and Partner-in-Crime (PC) show up. Sadly, so much happened in the next 15 minutes, or so, that there's no way I can do a play-by-play.
----------

Toolman and PC introduced themselves to the table – some of which gave them false names. It was fairly obvious that Toolman and PC were lit, or well on their way, but that didn't deter us. We talked about a whole variety of topics. Toolman explained that he was once an intern for a Congressman and that he had been in the Oval Office “like five times, or something.” He also offered up that if ANYONE in the White House didn't know Bill Clinton was having sex with an intern, they were idiots. I then made the point that he was the damn President and that he could have sex with anyone that he wanted to. Toolman agreed.

Soon after, Toolman realized that one of the girls sitting at the table was a teacher. Love was in the air after he asked her name, received a fake one (again) and told her, “that's a lovely name... but I'm not trying to get in your pants, or anything.” Classy. If he actually had any chance whatsoever, that immediately left when he told the teacher that she taught in a shitty district and that he needs to come teach where he's at.

We then discussed the Kansas City School District and what sad state its in. I said that the new superintendant should help get things back on track. Toolman disagreed and said, “he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.” Granted Mr. Amato led a major turnaround in New York schools, but apparently that doesn't matter here.

I then tried to ruffle his feathers by saying NY had more culture than Europe. Toolman just scoffed it off. So I asked him if he'd ever been to NY. “Dude, are you trying to tell me that I've never been to NY?” No, I wasn't... if you recall, I asked him. “I fuckin' grew up in Vermont.” That means yes, he's been to NY.

Then Toolman asked if me and the co-worker were on a date. We said no. “Daaaaaamn... I was gonna say nice!” So he had now essentially hit on two of the girls at the table. We could only laugh. He then managed to piss off the only German at the table by butchering the German language, and shortly after that, no one was paying attention to him.

He and PC took off, stumbled to Toolman's car and drove away. Smart.

Like I said before, it was a good weekend.

Posted by Seth at 11:12 AM | Comments (1)

April 21, 2007

Carmic Retribution

Since messing up my car one week ago, the past week has been up and down in terms of good points and bad points. As I've stated before here, I'm not a big believer in regret – it just doesn't work for me. Things happen. You make choices and you have to live with those choices. If you spend time regretting those decisions, then what are you missing in the present moment? I say regret = bad.

Instead, I focus my energy and thoughts on the now... and the future. While I don't want to say it, I tend to feel that karma influences some of the decisions I make, the things I say or the actions I do. I fully bought into what your parents teach you, “what goes around comes around.” I won't throw gum onto the ground for fear that I'll step in some a few minutes later (but why am I thinking of throwing gum on the ground anyway? that's the bigger question). It's a simple thought, but it definitely enters my mind.

Last week, the reason for my trip to Arkansas was two-fold. First, it had been too long since seeing friends and family. Second, I had been invited by several of my old professors to speak in some Advertising classes at the University of Arkansas. I discussed how interactive things are changing advertising and gave some tips on job-hunting. I had a great time and have already been invited to do it again next fall.

Good karma.

Coming home from Arkansas, I spent a few hours driving around Stockton Lake, scoping out the campgrounds before the upcoming camping trip.

Good karma.

Shortly after that, I didn't pay attention to the road and screwed my car up.

Bad karma.

That evening, my pal picked me up and took me home from Missouri's ultimate destination, Nevada.

Good karma.

I get home and realize that my keys are STILL in my car. In Missouri's ultimate destination, Nevada.

Bad karma.

Luckily, I was able to get a hold of my landlord and he swung by to let me in, free of charge.

Good karma.

On Monday I talked with my insurance agency and pleaded with them to tow my car BACK to Kansas City for repair. I spoke with several agents and managers, and was told late Monday afternoon that my car WOULD be towed back to KC.

Good karma.

On Tuesday, I hitched a ride down to the body shop to get my keys out of the car and to see the damage. It looked like a lot of bad was going on and the repair man's list kept growing. I started to really wish that the car would be totaled.

Bad karma.

Wednesday, I was told that the car was going to be repaired as it feel a few hundred dollars under the total amount. The good thing, I have a small deductible to pay. The even better thing, my bumper that's been messed up since almost day one was messed up even more in the accident... it will now be fixed.

Good karma.

Also on Wednesday, I found out that I had won a free pass to the upcoming Future of Online Advertising conference in New York. I'll be able to visit friends and family!

Good karma.

While in Arkansas, I had my first cup of coffee. Technically, it was a latte – a Chai Tea Latte, to be exact. I enjoyed it so much, that I've had three cups of it in the past week. On Thursday, I got a cup on the way to work. As I'm walking, I spill the coffee on my shirt.

Bad karma? Or just an omen?

As you can see, my past week has been pretty up and down. I really don't know how this karma thing works, as some of the items above aren't really in my control. That's how it goes, though. I'll just keep focusing on doing things the right way and not throw gum on the ground.

Posted by Seth at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2007

I Wreck My Car

Back in High School, Todd and I used to do prank phone calls (scandalous, I know), and one of the meanest ones we did was call a tow truck service and pretend that we had wrecked a car. It was well past midnight and we went to see if the dude would show up. Of course, he did, why wouldn’t he?

The whole prank revolved around the line, “I wreck my car,” said with a foreign accent.

Yesterday, on the way back from Fayetteville and fresh off of scouting for campsites, I had to call a towing service and say that I had wrecked my car. It wasn’t a good feeling.

I was traveling up highway 39 in Missouri and was constantly checking a map to make sure that I was on course. Sure enough, I was, until my car swerved a bit to the right and hit a creek bridge. My front passenger tire was instantly flat and I swerved back onto the road. I didn’t slam on my brakes, instead I just let off the gas and fought to keep control of the car. About 75-100 feet later, I pulled the car over and nearly had a panic attack.

Upon inspection, I had actually busted my front passenger wheel. Busted. The tire had no chance. My passenger side view mirror was gone. The passenger doors and windows were scraped. My rear passenger tire was flat. And there was some damage to the front bumper. And that’s just what I can see, who knows what’s going on under the car.

I called my insurance and got their assistance on what I should do next. That’s when we called Phillips Towing out of Nevada, Missouri. While I was waiting on my tow, I walked around and inspected the scene. I tried to find parts of my side view mirror, but there were surprisingly very few to find – until I looked up in a tree (15 feet off the road and behind the accident) and found a large portion of the mirror casing.

About 45 minutes later, who I assumed was, Philliip arrived. We loaded up the car and started the 45 mile drive back to Nevada. About 10 miles into the trip, Phillip gets a phone call from someone who had locked their keys in their car. We were only two miles away, so we veered off course to help.

We finally got to the tow yard and dropped my car off. Thankfully, Bruno came down and picked me up to take me back to Kansas City. I grabbed all the stuff I needed out of the car and we were off. He dropped me off at home and planned on picking me back up soon to go to Aaron’s 30th birthday celebration.

I was about to check my mail when I realized that I had left my keys in my car. The bad day had just gotten worse.

An hour later, my landlord let me in and I gave up on the evening. It was literally one of the worst days of my life. But there’s a bright side – and it’s a humbling one – all of the people that helped me yesterday were great. From all the phone calls, text messages, tows, rides, offered places to stay, etc., I wouldn’t be sitting in my place right now telling this sad story, if it weren’t for them.

Thank you to everyone who helped me out yesterday, even if it was just an encouraging message on the phone. It did wonders.

I took as many photos as I could from my camera phone (they turned out nicely). I must say that looking back at the photos now, it doesn’t look like it was a very scary, or serious, ordeal. But when I was looking over that creek and thinking that I could’ve flown into a tree, or worse... then yeah, that was scary.

Anyway, so yesterday, “I wreck my car,” and I’ve never been so thankful that I’m okay.

Posted by Seth at 12:39 PM | Comments (10)

April 05, 2007

Gasp! Why, I Never!

Things at SHS are sometimes odd. But the past few weeks at work have been very strange and sometimes extremely personal. People keep asking me the weirdest things:

“Have you ever put a half-eaten hot dog in your pocket?”

“Have you ever asked how many Cheetos tattoos you can get for $100?”

“Have you ever assisted a middle-aged bald Arabian magician with his act?”

I’m glad to say that I’ve never done any of those... though the Cheetos tattoos do sound cool. The reason for such weird questions is our latest creation – Houlihan’s virtual I Never game. You can go online, answer some pre-written questions (or write your own), invite your friends/family and get the low-down. If you’ve ever played I Never before, this is about as close as you can get to it in the online realm.

It’s very fun and rewarding when your clients challenge you to do something like this. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Posted by Seth at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2007

Fooling Day

Found this over on Woolard Speak and thought it to be on target for today's holiday. Funny stuff.

Posted by Seth at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)