Social Networking Blues

We all do it, even without realizing we do it. Some of us do it more than others, while others do it a lot more than some. We do it in the morning, sipping our caffeinated beverage of choice (you know what mine is), midday, while munching our lunch, sometimes while preparing meatless meatloaf (or any other healthy fare) for dinner, and often deep into the wee hours. In fact, most of us, or dare I say, all of us, do it throughout the day and night, as often as we can, whenever we can steal a minute here or a half-second there. Admit it, you’re doing it now! Heck, so am I! Yikes! I can’t stop doing it!

What are we all doing? You guessed it, social networking. Or more to the point: electronic, online, surfing-the-net, cyber-social networking. It’s the new sitting-around-the-coffee-shop-chatting-with-your-pals interaction, replacing face-to-face meet-and-greets with “tweets,” “shouts,” “subscribers,” and “Facebook friends.” (go ahead, add me as your friend, I dare ya!). It’s the phenomenon that is and has been sweeping the world for years, only now it appears to be multiplying faster than the national deficit.

You want to know what the ironic, funny thing of all this is? I never in a million years ever thought that I would be heavily involved in social networking, let alone writing a blog post about it. LET ALONE CREATING A MUSIC VIDEO ABOUT IT! But I am and have. More on the vid in a minute.

How did I get involved in all this electronic-interaction of the cyber kind? You’re looking at it, or, more to the point, reading it. Yup, blogging. It all started with my video website, livelife365.com. I created that site as a venue to help people improve their lives and to share that information with as many people as possible, probably one of the many reasons you created your site, right? One of the first things I did was create this blog. Blogging, I discovered, was an excellent way to reach hundreds of people, with the ultimate goal: hoping as many interested people as possible would eventually visit my vid site. Blogging is, after all, a form of social networking, as I soon found out, with commenting being a major electronic interaction between like-minded souls.

And it just kind of snowballed from there. As I visited and read more blogs, I discovered more social networking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, and Entrecard. And tremendous sites for bloggers like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. As a videographer, I naturally migrated to video-sharing sites like YouTube and FunnyorDie. I went social networking crazy, and if it weren’t for healthy sites like Iowa Avenue, I might have gone nuts, or at least more nutty than I already am.

What eventually evolved from all this social networking, which so often does for me, was a seed of creativity. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I have kind of a love/hate thing going with social networking. I love visiting cool and interesting blogs and websites, learning new things and meeting a diverse group of bloggers and SoNets (my new word, just invented, for “social networkers”). But, quite frankly, it can get exhausting, overwhelming, tedious (at times), and time-consuming. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy visiting dozens of blogs and sites every day, but there are times when I wish I could hop aboard a time machine and travel back to a place where there were no computers, or even televisions, for that matter. And then I stumble upon a new site that catches my eye and I thank god that I live in this amazing technological time period. Sleep? Who needs sleep?

So, one night, I was doing my social networking thing, and my brain, while fighting fatigue and getting punchy, came up with the following song. I then got out my trusty video camera and began shooting. As always, I had help. Mostly, my good buddy and the other half of the Hungry and Poor Band, Dale from Electric Canyon Studios. Dale is the guy who makes my voice sound better than average, while adding so much to my mediocre guitar playing it is beyond words. He is also a master video editor. His magical touch and relentless patience makes our collaborative efforts effortless. You may recognize him from my I Miss My Hair video; he’s the one with hair! Thanks, Dale.

Please take a few minutes and enjoy my latest music video:

SOCIAL NETWORKING BLUES




Sure, social networking can seem like an endless chore, at times, but more often than not it is an effort of joy, a linking between souls connected, perhaps tens of thousands of miles away, through the touch of a mouse, the flicker of a finger across a keyboard, or the click of a link, like this one, which will take you to Mike‘s Lyrics, if you would like to read along while you watch:

SOCIAL NETWORKING BLUES.

And remember, please drop me a comment at my video site letting me know what you think about my latest, or any other, video.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

A Potpourri of Fun and Prizes

I write this post with a disclaimer right up front--I am not feeling well. I have been slugging it out with the dreaded late summer allergies that make living in this area of the world, while most of the time a wonderful experience, a sneezing, phlegm-filled, runny nose of a miserable way to exist. Oh, and don't forget the heavy headedness, the askew equilibrium and dizziness...mix them all together in a pot and you have my present condition. So, you have been forewarned! There is a very good chance that what follows is nothing but a jumble of nonsense...and I'm not talking about my regular serving of nonsense--this has the potential of being much more nonsensical. Still with me, brave soldier? Wonderful, carry on...

First off: this blog has been the recipient of more awards! I guess some people like my brand of nonsense.

Karen over at My Funny Dad, Harry and Uncle Che from AZ Blogging both, it appears, love livelife365--and that's a good thing. They have awarded this blog the:


With these awards there are rules, and they are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

But, for now, I'm going to mix things up a bit (this is the potpourri part) and return to this award stuff later...

Now, where was I? Right, blowing my nose and wishing I were on Maui sipping an ice-cold beverage with the surf pounding in my ears.

Dick Cheney in a Dress?


Is it just me who is not that enamoured with Republican Vice President Nominee Sarah Palin's looks?

Every other post or article I read mention her beauty queen looks and how hot she is. Huh? What am I not seeing?
Okay, she IS better looking than the Veep we currently have in office, I'll give her that. But, to me at least, she's not much better looking than Joe Biden.

And, again, for me at least, I'll take Biden's politics over hers any day.

On that note, here is a music video I made a few months ago, when the Dems couldn't decide who to pick--Hillary or Barack.

It's called "Pick One."



Techno...no ping!

Has anyone else not been getting their pings returned from Technorati? Or is this just "pick on Mike week"? Sniff, sniff. I know it's not just me, given the hundreds of other poor souls pleading for resolution of this issue in the Technorati Support Forums.

For those of us interested in blog ranking on these sites, this becomes a major issue if left unresolved. Read a few posts and you get a good idea how upsetting this is. But what can you do, besides post a question and wait? Call them up? Sure, right after I finish speaking to Google and Yahoo. Grin and bear it, I guess. If anyone has any suggestions that can help with this issue, I'm all ears. In the meantime, here's a video that should ease your (my) misery. If you like it, don't forget to vote "Funny."

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Hold on, gotta blow my nose. Wow, did you hear that? Okay, next...oh, wait a minute, gotta...snee...snee...snee...

SNEEZE!

Here, watch this while I go get more Kleenex:



For those of you still with me, thanks--I know that last video was difficult to watch. (told you I wasn't feeling well!)

Lastly, for you Entrecarders out there. I have added my video site, livelife365.com, to Entrecard, but since both this blog and my vid site go by the same name, confusion is bound to rear its ugly head and, well, confuse us. So, to avoid as much of that as possible, here, side by side,

are the two different ads for both sites. The one on the left is the one you've been using to drop on my blog. The new one, on the right, is for the video site. They both share one frightening similarity: mug shots of my face while holding objects of my affection.


That's about it for today. What? Where are the prizes? And the blogs I need to list to go along with the awards? Do I need to sneeze all over this laptop again to remind you all that I'm not well?

Tell you what--I will announce my nominees for the I Love Your Blog awards (unless anyone wants to volunteer, and if you are STILL reading this, I will give you an award...but not a prize) later on this week.

Yes, prizes. I know, the title lured you in with the hope of a prize, and for that, all I can say is...ahhhh...ahhhh...ahhhhh....AAAAHHHHHH....

CHOOOOO!

peace,

Mike