My review of Undercover Boss: Darth Vader

Note: Everything after the first paragraph is made up.

I have grown to like Undercover Boss quite a bit.  I am sure the actual events are enhanced or edited to tidy up the story, but I'll watch the "nice hard working person just trying to get by catches a well earned break" story anytime.

That is why the Darth Vader episode threw me so much.  I am pretty sure this was the first Sith CEO  (well... maybe the DirectTV guy) they featured.  They really should have known better.  Here are some of my observations about this episode...

PRE-UNDERCOVER PREP

Did the actually think just taping photos on the front of Vader's mask would full ANYONE?  Basically all this accomplished was to amplify his breathing.  Yeah, I know he tried the "I have allergies" line, but seriously.   And the cape???  He kept the cape??

UNDERCOVER

I have to admit, he looked hilarious in the Jawa outfit on his first assignment on the Sandcrawler.  It basically looked like a dickey.  We did see to softer side of Vader though.  I counted at least three Jawas he was sure to stop force choking before they died.

The Kamino segment was painful to watch.  EVERY moment he was left alone in the clone factory he kept going "No, I am your Father".  Funny the first time.  And ONLY the first time.

The last one was the riskiest of course.  The Dark Lord of the Sith trying to manage the weapon firing controls on yet another Death Star under construction???  I am pretty sure some of the Stormtroopers knew what was up, but they played along.  He did seem to learn that targeting planets was trickier than he thought.  Unfortunately so did Bespin, Hoth, and Upatu.

THE WRAP UP

So, all the people he worked with showed up Sith HQ (in Delaware I think) to discover who they actually had worked with.  This totally did not goes as planned I expect.  It featured and unending string of force chokes, Sarlacc tosses, "You have failed me for the last time", "You are as clumsy as you are stupid", and so on.

Of course the Death Star Training Officer that brought up "Take you child to work Day" had it coming.

The Walking Dead Rankings - Revised

As we all wait for October and the start of season 3 of The Walking Dead, I decided to update my earlier rankings.  I included any positive of negative movement in the list below.

(Graphic novel character development still omitted from these ratings)

1. Daryl Dixon (-)  Still cool and the most practical member of the group.  Plus, he put Dale down.
    
2. Glenn (-)  Shortround grows on ya.  Handy.  Honest.  A little goofy.
    
3. Maggie Greene (+2)  She seems normal.  Kind of makes her unique in the group.
    
4. Rick Grimes (-1)  Want to give Carl a gun?  Fine. Give him Daryl's gun?? You drop spot.
    
5. Otis (-1)  Kind of hard to move up being dead the second half of the season.
    
6. Hershel Greene (+4)  The man has a shotgun with unlimited ammo.
    
7. Andrea (+8)  She is a mixed bag, but is hanging with Michonne now.
    
8. Dale Horvath (+1)  Props for suggesting people behave humanely.  Tip: Night cornfield strolls = bad idea.
    
9. Carol Peletier (-)  At least you support Daryl.
    
10. Sophia Peletier (+2)  Since you had been bitten by a zombie, I forgive you dragging out the first half of the season.
     
11. Well walker (-)  Dude, don't go to pieces with your ranking.
     
12. Shane Walsh (+4)  Our head rubbing whack job had his moments.
     
13. Merle Dixon (-)  A bad guy, but his bout with the clap proved useful.
     
14. Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas (-8)  Almost forgot to list him.  There is a reason for that.
     
15. Carl Grimes (-7)  The kid is an idiot and his parents dress him funny.  AND he stole Daryl's gun.  AND he got Dale killed.
     
16. Lori Grimes (-2)  Car crashing, Carl losing, manipulative and basically useless hosebag.

Pinteresting, very Pinteresting (part 1)

OK, fairly recently joined the herd and decided to check Pinterest out.  An extremely bright colleague convinced me to do this.  She has a deep understanding of nearly all of the social platforms, but had never become a super-heavy user of any of them.  That all changed with Pinterest.  She LOVES Pinterest.

So I signed up.  I am a bit fuzzy on it, but pretty sure I chose to connect via my Twitter account.

Tangent 1: My Twitter followers run roughly 60% female, 39.99% male, and .01% male with a white iPhone.  Conventional wisdom seems to have grossly underestimated the percentage of females interested in zombies, Star Wars, general snarkiness, ducks, and live tweeting god-awful SyFy Original Movies.

Tangent 1.1: I am influential on ducks.  Klout says so.  I have a duck board on Pinterest.

So, for those unfamiliar with Pinterest, you use it to share pictures or videos you find online or upload.  You organized them on "boards".  They give you a default set of boards that you can change.  Which I did.  Right away.  Few will be surprised that mine now include Star Wars, Alice Cooper, Graphics, Photography, Zombies, and (of course) Ducks.  Remember, I am influential about ducks.

You then start following people and your experience is defined by what they add to Pinterest - called "Pinning".  If you like one, you can re-share it, sort of an image re-tweet, and people following you see it - called "Repinning". I can only assume Pinterest initially populated my "following" list from Twitter.  I am also assuming EVERY female follower I have on Twitter has a Pinterest account.

This resulted in me swimming in a sea of wool skirts, clever kitchen designs, and brooding shirtless male models (most of which resided in boards called "Hotties" or "Future Husbands" or "Yum").

Tangent 2: My only beef with Pinterest so far is my female friends can have a "Hotties" board and are actually celebrated in the community.  If I fire up a "Hottie" board, it would not enhance my online brand.  That is OK though, I am influential on ducks, not hotties.  Clearly.

You can refine your experience by following someone, but dropping any of their boards, oh say like "Hotties", and still see much of what they pin.  Much like my colleague, I now LOVE Pinterest.  I have connected with people with similar interests, am awash in cool Star Wars pics, and can continue to share the duck gospel I am so well noted for.

Will probably explore this further in a future post.  So don't say I didn't warn you :)

Rock and Roll Faux of Fame (ver 1.2) #RnRFoF

Additions to my first post on the topic of awesome band names.  Still working on the proper form factor.  Open to guidance.  I think I my try something via Pinterest.

(UPDATE: I am trying Pinterest for this: http://pinterest.com/kthul/great-band-names/)

While this is a stong list, the editor's pick is Surplus Marco Scutaro Jerseys by @whitesoxski


Hat Quest - pretty sure this was @ohalchemygirl

Mutant Gonorrhea - @anniecolbert

Phantom Limb Tollbooth - @TinyNietzsche

Surplus Marco Scutaro Jerseys - @whitesoxski

Volcanic Ash Flow - @kellythul, inspired by "2012 Ice Age"

Even good spam is bad

Wanted to share some recent spam I got via e-mail. I was actually impressed by their manipulative effort and felt it merited some play by play. My inner monologue in in bold italics below.... (fancy, I know)

EMAIL OPENED......

Hello!

Seems a happy sort. Cheerful.

I just want to thank you for your wonderful blog commecon.blogspot.com.

Gee, I already feel warm and fuzzy. Someone LIKES it!!
 
I read the post "Top Ten Twitter Bios"

My most recent post at the time. Maybe this is real...

and then I spent another hour on your blog by reading your posts with pleasure :)

Big smile. Wait a sec. Even I wouldn't send an hour reading it. Maybe this is is a spammer.

Every article is interesting and easy to read.

Well, I DO fancy my writing is a like that, at least a bit. Would be nice if someone agreed. Hard not to really.

I really like the "Rock and Roll Faux of Fame (ver 1.1) #RnRFoF".

Hmmm. The EXACT title another recent post. An awkward title. Almost like it was captured via automation. Maybe my super-smart new friend is a spammer after all. That would be sad. He is saying such nice things. Maybe not. I can hope.

I work for Jooble company, we aggregate job adverts around the world.

Dammit.

My job is to persuade bloggers to link to our site.

Dammit. Dammit.

I really love my job! We have a friendly team and good management, but unfortunately I have no idea how to convince a blogger to link to us,

Wistful, faint flicker of hope he is real. So happy he like where he works. Poor fella, not sure what to do. If he is real, maybe old Kel can help him out... 'cuz I am like smart and stuff.

I'm afraid I might lose my job because of it :(

Oh the guilt. My new fan is at risk! Wait.. my new fan is a spammer. Trying to guilt me. Sigh.

And that is why, instead of sending letters to thousands of different blogs, I am reading yours.

But he DID pick me. Crap, I wish this was real.

Honestly, I am not really sure if the link to our website in United States - (spam site URL), will be appropriate for your blog, but if you believe it will and you can add it, I would be really grateful to you! Our site is really cool, it can greatly help hundreds of people to find jobs.

Now grumbling through the rest of the spam. Crestfallen and irritated.

I wish you to have a good day and excellent mood! Thanks again for your nice blog. Write more! Thanks!

Yeah, yeah.

P.S. I am a Aries by zodiac sign too :)

Oh, now you are just being a dick. Expecting me to buy his is real by grabbing my month of birth from my profile to "personalize". You think I am dumb or something? I caught on SENTENCES ago.

Oh, and "by zodiac sign"? REALLY?? You already mentioned how clear and interesting I write and expect THAT not to jump out at me? Oh wait, there was no real evaluation of my prose. Dammit.

Best regards,

xxxxxxxx
Account Manager

Sad panda. Off to play Zombie Lane.

Top Ten Twitter Bios

Pretty self explanatory.  If you have suggestions on the rankings or new ones to add, please tweet/comment/e-mail me. 

The decisions of Thul are final.

(yes, the decisions of the "tool" are final... hardy har har)


TOP TEN TWITTER BIOS

1. I killed a lot of hitchhikers once. - @TakeSumE
    
2. I type words on my home computer and then, using an internet connection, I post those words to the world wide web. In my spare time I teach first grade. - @cheeseboy22
    
3. I come over here when I've pissed the Facebook people off. - @JuliAnaB
    
4. I can control your mind, then I will probably eat you. - @psychicrocodile
    
5. I squeeze my toothpaste from the middle. - @kimberleebic
    
6. I'm a comedian. I also like taking pictures in my underwear to fill the hole in my ego where parental love should be. - @aprilmacie
    
7. No idea what I'm doing here, peer pressure is a horrible thing. - @YeungJeans
    
8. I'm the only bee in your bonnet - @abitterfiglet
    
9. Made it from child actor to adult actor without a single trip to rehab.... - @kaceybarnfield
    
10. blah blah blah - @spicyasian

Rock and Roll Faux of Fame (ver 1.1) #RnRFoF

I figure SOMEONE needs to be in charge in cataloguing the huge number of completely awesome band names that emerge in Twitter. 

I'll gladly assume that responsibility. 

Here is a small starter list, please comment/e-mail/tweet me with others.

ROCK AND ROLL FAUX OF FAME (#RnRFoF) Ver 1.1
 
Selfish Porcupine, Bionic Turtle - @anniecolbert
 
Cake Zombies - @YeungJeans 

God Particle -  @natekelly

Arboretum Pathway - @TakeSumE    http://twitpic.com/7w4xl2

Biopsychosocial Context - @garwboy

Tattered Libido - @orzelc

 

Massive Thatchers - @megpickard
 

Fountains of Methane - @lastcurfew
 

Joplin - @LisaMarieBowman
 
Social Butterflies - @sarahvargo

I am not including my "Rhymes With Bunt", because that is not the kind of band name you share with polite company.

Many, many, more to come...

ver 1.1: added @anniecolbert names. I am ashamed I missed them initially

Just STOP

If you are adding new material to your EXISTING blog, do not say "I am adding a new blog tonight".

You are adding a post.

This completes my new post to my blog.

(Un)dead math

Given my fixation on things zombie, @mattress2448 posed the following question to me:

If a vampire bites a zombie, will it turn into a zombie or will the zombie turn into a vampire?

My initial response was that the vampire would get zombified.  This assessment was challenged by several folks, so let's get all scientifical about it.

Since (shockingly I might add) there are few zombie or vampire related operands in math, I had to introduce the following:

vv = vampire bite
\\\ = zombie scratch
mm = zombie bite

Now, I believe the following are not contested

Zombie (Z1) mm Human (H) = Zombie (Z2)
Zombie (Z1) /// Human (H) = /// Human (H)
Vampire (V1) vv Human (H) = Vampire (V2)

Since the second equation about does not yield an outcome relevant to the question - we discard it.  But we did get to use the way cool /// symbol.  Now, solving for human...

mm H = Z2-Z1
vv H = V2-V1

Divide by vampire bite

(mm H) / vv = (Z2-Z1) / vv
H = (V2/V1) / vv

Substitute for H

mm (V2/V1 / vv) / vv = (Z2-Z1) / vv

Cross multiply

mm (V2/V1 / vv) / (Z2-Z1).....

Well...  OK, lemme work on this some more....

I need a life...

The Walking Dead Rankings

As we approach halftime in season 2 of The Walking Dead, I felt it was time to share my mid-season rankings on the characters' favor-ability in my eyes.

(Graphic novel character development omitted from this ratings)

1. Daryl Dixon 
2. Glenn
3. Rick Grimes
4. Otis  
5. Maggie Greene
6. Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas 
7. Carol Peletier 
8. Carl Grimes
9. Dale Horvath
10. Hershel Greene  
11. Well walker
12. Sophia Peletier (JUST SHOW UP DAMMIT)
13. Merle Dixon 
14. Lori Grimes
15. Andrea
16. Shane Walsh

Zombie on the hot seat

While I am truly enjoying the second season of Walking Dead, I have noticed the walkers have seemed much faster this season.  Suspiciously faster.  Could they be juicing?  I sat down with one of them and asked the hard questions...

INTERVIEW WITH A WALKER

KT: Good afternoon

W: argh hhmt zaaa
(I want to bite you)

KT: We'll see about that.  So, enjoying the second season of Walking Dead?

W: eerd cess toggo tommieees
(Outside of a crossbow bolt in my thigh and having some bad Chinese one night, a Mr. Chu I believe, can't complain)

KT: You seem to be much quicker this season.  Larger too.  I am also noticing some acne between your wounds.  How can you explain that?

W: toogh mantnaaa..gaaarrr... umgongga
(Well, I got a new trainer and try and to focus on small meals more often... jockeys and such)

KT: I have your CDC tests here.  You have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs SIX times this season.  No action was taken because you have tended to eat the lab staff.

W: yraaaa... leeee strr
(Yum... lab staff...)

KT: What about those results?

W: rugurt grammen fof fofft noginess cuuuverttta joog joog
(Hey, I can't control what the people I eat take, it is not like they wear labels... unless it is a jersey with Bonds on the back... heh heh)

KT: The test levels were far too high for second hand consumption, the reflect that YOU consumed the drugs

W: dovaaas cusssooun ratiii aaaagg uuun
(Well, my trainer DID give me something, but he said it was flaxseed oil.  It tasted a little funny, so I ate his elbow.)

KT:  Flaxseed oil?  Really?  Your hat size would have increase 3 sizes if you still had all your head left!

W: eeeerg
(This interview is OVER)

KT: Fine.  Ah, Mr. Dixon?  Would you be so kind as to help our guest leave?

Mr. Dixon: (cocking crossbow) Damn happy to.

Review: Welcome 2 My Nightmare by Alice Cooper

Well, after the long wait for its release, and after many listens... here is my review of Alice Cooper's "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" (W2MN).   Alway dangerous to do a sequel to one of your best works, but this is a great album in its own quirky way.

"I Am Made of You"  (Alice Cooper, Bob Ezrin, Desmond Child)

Doesn't quite live up to Alice's list of killer first songs in past albums ("Hello, Hooray", "Sideshow", "Schools Out", "Brutal Planet", etc.), but a pretty strong start none the less.  Still trying to wrap my head around Alice using autotune.  We get to hear the piano part from "Steven" in the intro.... pretty sweet.

"Caffeine" (Cooper, Ezrin, Tommy Henriksen, Keith Nelson)

As a coffee addict, this speaks to me.  Great chorus and a rocking number.

Because I realize / If I close my eyes / I'm gonna wake up dead.

"The Nightmare Returns" (Cooper, Ezrin)

Ahhh, here's the Alice sing-song voice we need in a nightmare album.  "Years Ago" is still the best of these, but enjoyed this one as well.

"A Runaway Train" (Cooper, Ezrin, Dennis Dunaway)

First song on W2MN co-written with an original Alice Cooper band member - Dennis Dunaway.  There are three of these on the album - and all the surviving original band members play on these tracks.  Straight ahead rock with plenty of musical elements echoing a train running out of control.

"Last Man on Earth" (Cooper, Ezrin, Piggy D, David Spreng)

Alice as Tom Waits??

Just like "Some Folks" on Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice works in a vaudeville-esque ditty.  Heavily features a tuba.  Yes, a tuba.

"The Congregation" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen)

Alice as the Beatles?

If Alice had been a member of the Beatles, pretty sure this is what is would have sounded like.  Also, Rob Zombie appears on this track.  Any song that indicates hell is mostly populated with Wall Street types, defrocked priests, telemarketers, lawyers, pimps, and mimes is OK by me.

"I'll Bite Your Face Off" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen, Neal Smith)

Alice as the Rolling Stones?

Alice has proven he can execute the Stones sound dead to rights with "Sunset Babies (All Have Rabies)" off the Dirty Diamonds album.  Eagerly awaiting the opportunity to sing "I'll bite your face off!!" along with Alice  next live show I see.  Quite catchy.  Neal Smith from the original group co-wrote.

She put the whip in the cream

"Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen)

Alice as a techno/rap guy singing about disco??

Pretty much a comedy/rock song.  It is funny.  The background singers do sound quite a bit the the Winkies for Wizard of Oz.  Not sure how I feel about that.  Still, the title (and chorus) of this song make it a keeper.

"Ghouls Gone Wild" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen)

Alice as Dick Dale?

Not sure it was wise to put the two most heavily comedy/rock songs back to back.  Fun song, VERY reminiscent of "Summertime Blue" in parts.  Mark Volman (of the Turtles) turns in some awesome backgroud vocals.

"Something to Remember Me By" (Cooper, Dick Wagner)

I usually like Alice's ballads, but this one is kind of just "meh" for me.

"When Hell Comes Home" (Cooper, Ezrin, Michael Bruce)

OK, no comedy here.  Alcoholic father.  Abused mother.  Dead alcoholic father.  Michael Bruce from the original group co-wrote. A dark, bluesy rock number.  Listen close at the end, when the abusive father gets his comeuppance, he faintly yells out "Steven!".  You KNEW we would hear from the main character from the original Nightmare.

"What Baby Wants" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen, Ke$ha)

I figured I'd hate this song since it is a duet of sorts with Ke$ha.  I didn't hate it, but don't love it either.  At least Alice didn't go with Justin Bieber as the devil.  I can buy Ke$ha as the princess of darkness.

"I Gotta Get Outta Here" (Cooper, Ezrin, Patterson Hood)

Alice as Dwight Yokam?

Tinges of country creep into the closing number.  Alice recaps the stories from the previous songs, then a choir of voices responds with an operatic "What part of dead don't you get?" Alice starts to protest to no avail.

"The Underture" (Cooper, Ezrin, Henriksen, Child, Wagner, Jeremy Rubolino, Kelly Jay Fordham)

Instrumental track featuring songs from both Nightmares.  Love it.

Bonus Track:

"Under the Bed"

There are several packages of this album with different extras.  Mine had this song.  It is a perfect Nightmare song, not sure why it didn't make the actual album.

My cat went under the bed and disappeared
All we found was a tail and a paw, and an ear

Who Stole my Death Star?

After multiple viewings of various episodes during my beloved SpikeTV Labor Day Star Wars Marathon (in honor of the Death Star construction workers, AT AT line workers, and the Oompa Loopma warthogs manning the furnace conveyor on Bespin I guess), I have determined Palpatine is an outstanding business role model.

Think about it...

1. He rapidly rose from a lowly senator representing the most annoying planet in the Republic to Emperor
2. He secured a spiffy cadre of guards AND color coded them 
3. EVERYONE took his calls 
4. Plus the whole lightening from the fingers thing. Frick'n awesome. 

Now, I am not pointing this out just because many (rightly) have determined Palpatine and I likely have exact matching results on Pace Color Palette testing.

Honest.
 

Sometime during my third viewing of Return of the Jedi, I determined I could have rocketed up the old corporate turbo-lift had I limited my comments to the following gems he offered in the movie:

• Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL (PowerPoint, white paper, business model, etc.) 
• I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear 
• Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen 
• You will find that it is you who are mistaken, about a great many things 
• Only now, at the end, do you understand... 
• Now, you will pay the price for your lack of vision! 

It's never too late. I'll put these into action from here on out. 

Not sure if I'll sport the robe as well, but it is tempting.

Rabid Wombat - Analogy 1

I think it is safe to stipulate that the rabid wombat has been underutilized as structural device in analogies.  I plan to work to correct that.  So...

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

You can explain the risks of certain situations, but full understanding of those risks is often not achieved until they are experienced directly.

THE ANALOGY

There is a room.  In the room is a rabid wombat and a baby.  You are preparing someone to go in with the following guidance:

Objective: We get the baby out of there.  I mean geez, there is a rabid wombat in the room with that baby.  That is bad.

For purposes of this analogy, let's call our baby retriever "Gus".

Background/Risks/Considerations provided to Gus (probably via PowerPoint)

• Rabid wombats are mean
• Rabid wombats snarl and menace
• Babies are squirmy
• Do not expect the baby to significantly assist in logistics 
• The wombat probably won't want the baby to leave at will indicate this to you  

What happens

Gus indicates he understand the situation/risks and outlines his plan... a plan best summarized as "I move fast, ignore the wombat, grab the baby, and get out of there".

The first execution of this plan actually runs along the lines of "Gus enters the room, the wombat menaces, Gus rapidly exits"

You debrief on the first attempt.  

Gus shares "That wombat looked REALLY mean and menacing.  The baby gave ZERO indication he would effectively partner with me on this project.  Gus does acknowledge none of this should have been a surprise to him since it had been shared in advance, but his experience has deepened his understanding of the terms "mean", "menace", and "squirmy" and their relation to the risk profile of the whole baby/wombat thing.

Armed with a true understanding of the situation, Gus returns to the room and is able to now execute the plan.

THE LESSON

Risks often sound more manageable when explained verses actually experienced.  Hopefully the lessons learned via this analogy can:

• Reduce the number of times people rush to say "I understand and accept the risks"
• Prompt activity to gain actual experience in managed ways to round out the true risk understanding
• Reduce modifications to risk mitigation plans once things "go live"

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ breakdown

Just felt like sharing some trends I have noticed in using Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ simultaneously 

                                                                FACEBOOK        TWITTER           GOOGLE+

How much I care if there are
more people following/friending me              Not at all                  Tons                  Not at all
than I follow/friend

Percent of posts related to Google+          
(which I mainly do now to annoy                 15%                         20%                      60%
Matt Cava)  

Percent of connections that pretty               85%                          30%                      15%
much hate me    

Where do I post the most                            3                               1                           2

Where do people respond to my                  2                               3                           1
posts the most?

Average percent evil I operate at                80%                           75%                      30%
(Note: 92% is my upper limit)

Where do I make new connections             3                                 2                           1

Places where my posts are                        1                                 1                            1
superior to Christy Berka's

What do I check first?                               3                                 1                            2

Connections                                             430                            1,257                     148

Will probably add to this later on.

Here is why the universe is a safer place since I stopped coding

DO UNTIL (you figure out where to post)

  IF (you live for Farmville) THEN
      USE [facebook]
  ELSE
      IF (interested-based relationships are your thing) THEN
          IF (you are long-winded) THEN
             USE [google+]
          ELSE
             USE [twitter]
          END IF
     ELSE
         IF (personal-based relationships are your thing) THEN
             IF (you actually have personal relationships in good standing) THEN
                  USE [facebook]
             ELSE
                  USE [craigslist]
             END IF
         ELSE
              USE [angry birds]
         END IF
    END IF

END UNTIL

Google+

So, I have been playing with Google+ (gplus.to/kellythul) and here are some early observations:

• Location check-in is super crazy easy
   
• Appears to be plan to fold in Blogger to some degree.  If that is deep integration, it is going to confuse me.  I have viewed this blog and my Twitter and Facebook activity as connected, but different
   
• Circles look to be an effective way to organize feeds to work, home, industry, etc. -- IF you approach them thoughtfully and have some level of organizational skill.  So, I'm doomed pretty much
   
• The "sparks" feature is an awesome way to catch posts on your interests (and yes, the first one I set up was for Alice Cooper).  Sparks will be wasting much of my remaining existence
  
• As you would expect, works quite well on my Droid.  Not sure how the mobile integration will happen for iPhone users - but it clearly has to somehow/sometime.  Not that I associate with iPhone users of course
    
• Today was the first day where for a fleeting moment I wondered if my Facebook page will end up like my I-think-I-have-one-but-not-completely-sure MySpace page.  It was fleeting, but it crossed my mind
   
• Still seeing big differences in my use of Google+ and Twitter.  Google+ does not appear to be a particularly nurturing environment for hashtag games... and I GOTS to have my hashtag games

More to come... someday.

Bog Panda vs. Sewer Shark

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I love live tweeting SyFy original movies with the gang on Saturday nights.  Oh, and sorry for the whole flooding your time line thing.

Live tweeting the broadcast has resulted in basically a crowd sourced "Mystery Science Theater 3000" show.  Even better, the cast of these cinematic gems are starting to show up and join in the fun on Twitter.

It is kind of cool to get Robert Davi tweeting you about your "Swamp Shark" GetGlue check-in -- or to have the actor playing "Almighty Thor" correct you and explain he is not the "sissy" son, he is the "inexperienced" son of Odin (an Odin played by Kevin Nash in all his Outsiders glory).

I'd like to take the crowd sourcing to the next level and work together to develop the ultimate B-movie screenplay.  Everything is in play... casting, tag lines, story arc, etc.. 

I have just started to play with this concept a little bit and have set up the BOG PANDA VS. SEWER SHARK wiki to house our masterpiece.  Matt Johnson came up with the Sewer Shark concept, but Bog Panda is all mine :)

If you want in, email me at kelly.thul@gmail.com and I'll set you up with edit access to this wiki. To grant access, I'll need to use either your email address or wikispaces ID.

I'll likely be fiddling with this as a solo effort if there are no takers, but would love some partners in crime. 

The Unbearable Niceness of Being

The evening of June 8, I tweeted/wall posted the following:

 

@kellythul I plan to be pleasant and supportive in person and in social media tomorrow. Just to confuse people. 

This resulted in some interesting observations during the longest June 9th of my life (that STILL isn't over as I write this).  These observations included:

 

1. I like to pick on people - I really do.  I started to twitch when a nemesis posted the morning downpour made her look like a "wet dog", and all I could say was "Sorry to hear!".  I had several more interesting thoughts I could have offered related to the "wet dog" that was served to me on a silver doggie bowl.
    
2. People expect me to be unpleasant - Greeting people with a simple "Hello" or "Nice to see you" left both of us standing there confused... waiting for the next comment to undo the initial pleasantries.  The number of "OK, now you are starting to creep me out" also grew as I remained true to only uttering pleasant/supportive comments throughout the day.
    
3. People like to pick on me - Easy target to be sure.  I am shoe lace challenged, unfettered by focus, and just a tad goofy.  But it is less fun to point that out if I just reply nicely.
    
4. The further away you are from me, the more you like me (keeping in mind everything is relative) - In aggregate, my Facebook connections are more local, while my Twitter gang is far more distributed.  Barely a ripple occurred in Twitter when I posted my ill-advised "niceness day" plan, but Facebook lit up with a VERY heavy skepticism that I could pull it off. 

So, all in all, it was an interesting experiment I have little desire to repeat again any time soon. 

 

So, I'll hang on until midnight tonight with the whole "nice" thing, but look forward to a June 10th dedicated to catching up with a few people.