#Comedy

I think my tweets are funnier than anything I write longform. :-/

• Think I'm going underwear shopping at WalMart tonight. I smell a bunch of twitpics in your collective futures! #Bikinibriefs #packagebulge
• I'm thinking about renting a comedy this weekend. I better reserve Soul Surfer early at the @redbox. #comedy
• Every teardrop is a waterfall, huh? Then what is it when I take a piss, Chris Martin? #comedy #coldplayusedtobegood
• Not sure how I feel about signing up for my benefits and choosing Plan B.
• I think I'll change my gamertag to Farts McSphincter.
• I think I'll change my gamertag to Wang Cockengobble. #beatingadeadhorse
• Got my free Red Box code. Think I'll rent Green Horn...LOL! I wouldn't rent that if it came with $1.
• The Restaurant.com coupons have too many restrictions. Dine-in only for dinner during an eclipse while a virgin is present is a bit much.
• I feel like M Night missed an opportunity to use the Bloodhound Gang's Fire Water Burn in this movie. #thelastairbender
• Why hasn't there been a sequel to the bible? Harry Potter had like 10 books and I don't remember him being nailed to a cross. #comedy
• If Dippin Dots are the ice cream of the future, then we've been living in the future for like 10 years now.
• My wife turned 30 today. Time to trade her in for two 15 year olds. :-D #comedy

Also, this!

Twitter Giveaway Guide

There are multiple ways to handle a Twitter giveaway. I thought it would be a good idea to put together a helpful guide to giving stuff away on Twitter. People have the best intentions when doing this, but a lot of times get tripped up by some of the lesser known features of Twitter. You should always be well prepared before you send a contest tweet in order minimize frustration on both ends of the giveaway.

Code Posting

A lot of people prefer to post codes that can be redeemed on Xbox Live or iTunes. You may want to just post the code as is, or make it a little more difficult and change one or more of the characters to question marks and have people guess the right letter or number. This can make it more interesting, but keep in mind that not everyone is on an even playing field in these situations. Different browsers and operating systems can lend advantages or disadvantages to the copying and pasting of codes. Most people won't complain because it's great that you're giving away some swag. Just keep in mind that it can be a little frustrating and the point of a giveaway is to make people like you. It's also nice to drop a warning tweet 5 to 10 minutes before you actually post the code.

The DM

Another way is to let people enter your contest by direct messaging you. You can ask for a DM with a specific word, phrase, or even the answer to a trivia question. Then you can choose an entrant at random or pick the first correct entry. Getting DM's takes a lot of the frustration and guesswork out of a giveaway because only you can see the entries. Once chosen, simply DM the winner with information on their prize and then let the rest of your followers know who won.

One problem with the DM method is that only people you are following can send you a direct message. Unless you follow everyone who follows you, this can be a pain. If you're running a community Twitter account with a lot of followers, make sure you follow everyone back. Otherwise you will try to hold a contest and people will not be able to DM you. Then you can expect a flurry of angry tweets flooding your @ box. This is probably the number one mistake people make simply because they don't realize not everyone can DM you. Twitter should really enable a check box on your settings so you can allow DM's from everyone.

The Retweet

The retweet contest can work if you plan on getting entries over several days or even weeks. Simply create a post on your site with the text you want retweeted. Then tweet the message with the link to your post and your followers will do the rest. This method can both drive traffic to your site and bring you more followers. Retweeting is also a really easy way to enter for people. You will just need to make sure to specify how many entries are allowed per day. Use Random.org to pick a winner and then bask in your own awesomeness. A good example of a site that uses the retweet method is Week In Rewind (http://www.weekinrewind.com/search/label/Contests).

One thing to be mindful of on the retweet. The character limit is 140, so you will need to leave enough room for people to include the "RT" and your @name. That way you don't have people editing the tweet in order for it to fit.

Other Methods

There are other methods to drop free stuff onto your followers, but these seem to be the most popular. Incorporating your website in some way is also a plus. Have your followers find a specific piece of information from your site and DM it to you. Use Twitter to drive them to a post and have them comment on that post. For you podcasters, ask for a review in iTunes to act as the entry. You could even have people listen to a particular episode and have them DM or e-mail in a specific word or phrase you give out. The possibilities are practically endless.

I want to thank @seeson from 360Junkies and @Steve519 from PlatformNation for their input on this!

Quad Camera App

I won this application from 148apps on Twitter. It's a pretty slick little app. I like how the settings let you set different time intervals, contrasts, and picture layouts. All in all I recommend it. Especially if you win it for free!

Rent Houses And Adam Carolla Podcasting

I need to post more here, but damn if I haven't had much to say. I hate that, too. I'm not usually at a loss for words in real life (my wife can attest to that), but when it comes to typing it up, most of it gets lost.

Anyway, the hunt is still on for a rent house. We've got some leads. It really feels like I'm trying to track down a really rare action figure or comic book.

Calling people up and being like, "Do you have it in stock? Oh, somebody just bought it. Ok. No, please tell me more about how awesome it is. Thanks."

Or the other scenario, which goes like, "Do you have it in stock? Can you hold it till the end of March? Oh, you can't. Well, I would like to know that I'll have something before the last week in March. Thanks for nothing."

I heard yesterday that The Adam Carolla show is going off the air as of today. It really sucks, but I think it'll be good in the long run. He's planning on starting up a podcast. This really shows that radio is dying. Live 105.3 here in Dallas/Fort Worth switched from talk to sports. Some other station is syndicating Ryan Seacrest. Ugh. The world is slowly moving towards podcasting. It's growing and more people are getting into it every day.

Kind of like Twitter. Basically everything I'm into, people flock to in droves. :-)

Secret Tweet

I heard about SecretTweet.com the other day and I have to say, it's the most fascinating application of Twitter I've seen so far. Just reading the approved tweets can be a jaw-dropping experience, but then you switch over to the unabridged ones and it's even more incredible. Some of the things people say just make you realize that people have some deep dark secrets lurking inside them. Some that couldn't see the light of day without a service like this.

I'm totally addicted.

Scares And Repairs

It was a busy weekend. As you know, my 360 was in the process of dying. I called Xbox support on Saturday. As I was told by a twitter buddy, once I mentioned the red rings, the replacement process was automatic. Just verify that your power supply has a green light and done. The support guy was awfully chatty with his Canadian accent. Anyway, I will be sending it in this week.

I also dropped my truck off to have it fixed today. Got a nice rental car. Not much else to say about that...

Anyway, I decided that I wanted a scary movie for Halloween. I put The Shining in my Netflix queue and got it on Friday. I should have chosen something a little more recent.

The movie was creepy, but not scary. I understand that back when it came out it was considered the scariest thing ever, but by today's standards it's pretty weak.

Twittelating Apps

I've been test driving a few of the Twitter apps that were recommended to me and I think I've picked my favorite.

I started out with Twitterific, which isn't that terrific. Nothing bad about it, but it just didn't stand out to me as the defacto app.

So, I loaded Twittelator, Twinkle, and TwitterFon. Twinkle was the early front runner because you could see people near you and what they were saying. The deal breaker was when I tried on multiple occaisions to send a picture with the app and was either kicked back to the "desktop" or given a server error. FAIL.

TwitterFon was good, but it doesn't have the added features like location and pictures. That leaves me with Twittelator which only has one issue. It only shows me so many tweets and won't load anymore. I'm sure this would be fixed by paying for the Pro version, and I might do that soon. Otherwise, everything works just as promised. Even pictures!

Twitterific!

You just never know what's going to blow up and what isn't. Most comments that are made on Twitter just float on by without so much as a second thought. Then, on rare occasions, a topic explodes and we're all posting 140 characters as fast as we can type them. It's one reason out of 100 that I love Twitter.

Other reasons would be the constant flow of tweets, the ability to send SMS from your phone, and the immediacy of it. Honestly, I don't think there are 100 reasons. Can I change that to 5?

Anyway, tomorrow is the day we're planning on going to the AT&T store and get our iPhones. Yes, even with the announcement of the G1, we are still going to make the switch. Honestly, the G1 doesn't look like anything more than a phone running Windows Mobile. It'll be open source, sure, but I'm not sure that will be able to compete with the app store.

Twitter is Down

This is absolutely brilliant. I know exactly how he feels. And about the jews, too. Damn jews.

Flickrdown

Yesterday, I posed the question on Twitter whether there was an app that would allow you to download all of your Flickr photos to your desktop. I was quickly answered by Jay900, who pointed me to Flickrdown. I used it last night, and it is awesome!

The only thing that I can see that this app needs is some RSS support. My idea is something like an RSS reader, but it automatically downloads any new photos directly to your machine. No need to go in and select the new ones. I'm sure this is possible, and if I had any idea how to implement this, I would.

You could even go as far as having a separate folder for photos that you tag. The app would recognize the tag (for example, the tag "print"), and then you could know that you want to print that photo. Then uploading it to a store like Walgreens would be a snap.

Basically, I take a lot of photos with my phone and send them to Flickr, so those pics rarely actually get saved on my hard drive.

Anyway, it's a great program and I recommend it if you use Flickr with your phone.

A Question of Community

Today was a pretty interesting day. I had a very good discussion on Twitter about the gaming community. I think it was well received. I try to make good points without sounding like an idiot. Today was one day that I was successful.

The gist is this. DirtyDiva asked the question "Do you feel like you're well represented within large companies' walls?". Personally, I don't think that I am well represented inside Microsoft. I do believe that my habits, usage, and general stats are kept somewhere in a giant database. Is that a proper representation of me? Kinda, but not really.

As I'm sure anyone would attest, I'm a little more complicated than my gamer data would let on. I'm a complex human being with complex thoughts. Well, sometimes my thoughts aren't that complex, but still! :-p

I honestly believe that the community focus Microsoft has is purely for marketing. It's great for everyone that's involved, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, people like Major Nelson and Trixie aren't getting a paycheck because Microsoft loves us that much. They get a paycheck because somebody at Microsoft realized the power of word of mouth. They realized that a bunch of guys running a website can be a very valuable tool. And they are.

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I'm merely stating that the perks you get as a community leader or MVP aren't simply due to MS loving you and wanting to be your BFF. It's a marketing scheme, pure and simple.

It certainly benefits those of us that are in the community. Who doesn't want free games? And honestly, I have no problem with it. Microsoft should be pouring money and resources into this community because we have a lot of influence on people. It's a good thing.

I just don't want people to be so naive as to think that Microsoft really wants to be your friend. They have another agenda, and that is to come out on top in the console war. If, for one second, you think that the community is any less of a pawn than HD-DVD or Xbox LIVE, then you need to wake up and smell the RROD.

We are just another chess piece to move around the board. How we take advantage of that fact will determine who really comes out on top.

Twitter

I listened to This Week In Tech today. I almost turned it off about half way through because it was so boring, but I'm glad I powered through. The conversation turned to Pownce, and eventually Twitter. The question was raised at the purpose of Twitter and why people use it when it doesn't work as well as Pownce.

The short answer is that people user Twitter because their friends are using Twitter. And if you're using something else, you're still using it on the side. Most of the people that are my followers on Pownce were my followers first on Twitter.

I'll be honest. When I first heard about Twitter (on TWIT), I thought it was a ridiculous idea. 140 characters? Microblogging? This is madness!

This is Twitter!!!

Now I'm completely hooked. It's the first site I open. The one I refresh at least a hundred times a day (wonder why it's down so much). And the one I obsessively send text messages to. It has literally become the one site that I cannot imagine not having.

There are so many uses for Twitter. I see news pop up faster on Twitter than anywhere else. Someone dies and it's instantly on Twitter. Game news spreads like wildfire in the group that I follow. People hook up for gaming sessions, podcasts, and just bullshit sessions on the site every night.

It is also a way to promote yourself. It's easy to post a link to your latest blog post or podcast url. And, if someone becomes too much of a nuisance with all their tweets, just stop following them.

Basically, I use the site to communicate, to complain, to promote, and to exclaim. When I say something funny, I can instantly type it in and hit send. Now everybody sees it. It's awesome!

Snail Mail

Has it really been six days since my last blog post? Damn. I wanted to post something at least every other day, but I guess that didn't happen. I will try to do better.

I have been really busy with both my jobs this last week or so. Yesterday was probably the worst day at the post office for me so far. Hopefully that will be as bad as it gets. I'm still learning the route and trying to get faster at casing, and I don't think I'm doing bad. Of course, compared to my regular I'm a snail (mail?). I can take some solace in the fact that the other two new hires are having just as much trouble as I am. Silver lining FTW.

I've carved out a little time to play some games this week, fortunately. I got Assassin's Creed in the mail from my Canadian twitter buddy DjDatz. I've only played it for maybe 2 hours, so I'll save my first impressions. I haven't even assassinated anyone yet, if that gives any indication as to my progress.

I did finish the easy guitar tour on Rock Band. They really chose some great songs for the game. I'm loving all the 90's stuff like Black Hole Sun and Creep. I'm not so thrilled about the inclusion of some older stuff like Don't Fear the Reaper and Suffragette City. I know why they put Blue Oyster Cult in there. More cowbell. However I don't know how David Bowie is any good. I've never met anyone who is a fan.

Oh, and how atrocious is that Fall Out Boy song? Could they not have licensed something off of Infinity On High? I mean, where did they find that piece of shit, their demo tape?

Comedy Gold

I downloaded Mike Birbiglia's album, My Secret Public Journal Live, the other day. I was crying when I listened to it! This guy is hilarious. And surprisingly, he's pretty clean. Especially considering what I normally listen to.



Also, the king of twitter, DaKing240, posted this video. It's one of the best videos ever!

Call of Duty 4 MP Beta

Thanks to a twitter friend of mine, I got the code to download the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta tonight. I've been playing it and it is completely awesome! You can level up and earn new things like weapons and "perks". Personally, I have my guy outfitted with an assault rifle, smoke grenade, better aim, and a RPG launcher. There's other stuff, but that's the stuff I care about. Hehe. The beta is opening to everyone else on Monday, the 27th, so I'll have all weekend to hone my skills before the noobs arrive.

In other news, Stranglehold got delayed by about a week for some reason. Now it's not hitting till Sept 5th. Dammit! I guess that will give me more time with the COD4 beta, but I need to be getting achievements since my sister has a higher gamerscore than I do. Oh the pain!

Teh Internets

Either I'm just bored with the web or the internet has gotten boring here lately. Maybe I just need a few new sites to visit, but I don't think that's it. I'm bored with the forums and blogs. Facebook does nothing for me. Pownce sucks. Purrrnce is dull. MySpace is ok. The various forums I visit are just the same thing over and over. Twitter is the only thing that keeps me interested.

New Music...Wednesday?

Can't believe it's been 6 days since my last post. I think twitter is taking up a lot of my blogging that used to go here.

Anyway, I downloaded the new Korn and (hed)p.e. albums this last weekend. I like them both quite a bit. Korn just never lets me down, and (hed)p.e. just has a sound you don't hear anymore. I heart them both!

Transformers

We went and saw the Transformers movie this weekend. It was really freakin' awesome! The special effects were incredible and the action was insane. I was disappointed that they didn't use Soundwave as the boombox, but oh well. Maybe in the sequels.

100 Damned Guns won the best country and western award from Ft Worth Weekly. Congratulations to those guys. They deserved to win.

I'm still waiting for Pownce.com to show why it's better than Twitter. So far I have mostly the same friends, so it's pointless to double post. Thanks, Kevin Rose! :-p

By the way, if you want an invite to Pownce, send me your e-mail address.

Pownce

I got an invite to join Pownce.com from DaKing240. Not sure what the big difference is between Pownce and Twitter, but I guess I'm going to find out.

http://pownce.com/GeminiACe/

im in ur twitter postin ur bizness