Damn you Flickr!

Unless you're one of my dozen friends on Flickr, you wouldn't know that I've become obsessed; which is not a good thing to happen while I'm unemployed. A friend of mine had been bugging me to join for years and I kept writing back that I was perfectly happy with ofoto, now Kodak Gallery. Whenever I took pictures, which was usually trips and special occasions, I uploaded them there and invited friends and family to look at them. They could buy prints if they wanted although I don't know if anyone, other than me, has bought prints of my photos.

Finally, one day in June last year, after finding some pics of Santa Monica on Flickr, I thought it would be fun to upload some of my own since I'd been photographing my walks on the beach for a while. I uploaded several hundred photos from the last few years in L.A. only to discover that you have to subscribe to Flickr to upload that many. It took me almost a year but the day I planned my UK trip, April 1, 2008, I broke out the credit card and paid the $25 for a year of Flickr. Uh oh. I started uploading everything I had and tagging and sorting. Then I decided that I needed a new camera for my trip to the UK, my old one was well over four years old and less than two megapixels! Most camera phones are better than that now.

Two weeks and 700 photos later, I was a Flickr tagging and sorting maniac. Good thing I don't have a job because I spent about five whole days downloading, reviewing, tweaking, exporting, uploading, naming, tagging and organizing my photos. The reason I am reluctant to join these types of sites is not because I don't see the inherent value, it's because I know that if I like it, I'll get sucked in. It wasn't enough to have a place to send my friends to see pics of my trip, I needed to get more exposure! I joined groups, I looked at other people's photos, I submitted my photos, I made comments, I favorited and I tagged and tagged and tagged. Snapping like crazy at everything, I've uploading another 700 photos in the last month and signed up for Flickr stats which has since become a 7pm ritual, seeing how my photos performed that day. Performed? What's my ROI for this endeavor?

So far, it's not very good. Flickr'ing is keeping me from diligently applying for jobs and I've instead become obsessed with walls and pavement, no doubt fruitful pursuits. What I'd really like to see is more of my friends on Flickr. I know, I know! It's true though, you can't imagine how happy it makes me (and will make you) to see pictures of far away friends, family, babies, dogs and vacations pop up on the Flickr homepage. When I was in England, my relatives teased me for taking so many photos. They said I looked like tourist (imagine!) I explained that in the world that's young and hip, everyone takes pictures of everything. It's just another way that we communicate in this digital age. Showing people what we see through our eyes. That's a beautiful thing, no? So what are you waiting for?

Don't they have the Internet in Alaska?

In a couple of weeks, my little map covered in red dots is going to be archived. It will have been a year since it was started and they have to start over. I've had around 8,000 visits in the last year and before the map went away, I wanted to document where the dots are.


The majority of visits are from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia with a couple of other sizable dots in Iran (that's Sam's cousin!), India, and Indonesia (that's daysofturmoil).

Here’s where the rest of the dots appear with the notable absences in parentheses:

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Guyana, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico (No Cuba)

Hawaii and Newfoundland (No Alaska)

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Canary Islands, Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritius (all major cities or capitols of those countries) and Morocco

Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, (One dot in China), (Only two dots in Russia: Moscow and Siberia), (One dot in Kyrgyzstan and no other former Soviet “stans”)

Pakistan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan (No Afghanistan)

I find it fascinating. It's a potentially good indication of the prevalence of the Internet (or at least Blogger) around the world. In the case of China, it's especially indicative: only one dot for a country that has more Internet users than any other and for a blog that mentions China in 22 (make that 23) posts.

Music to live for

Music continues to be one of the things that I am grateful for every day. I don't think I could live without music. I just applied for a job at Pandora, which has been my work radio since I moved here. Before that it was KCRW on iTunes but my last job was on PCs and we weren't allowed to have iTunes. What's up with that? Anyway, there are so many great ways now to listen and discover new music - Pandora, Lala, Buzznet, Last.FM - and buy it with a click on iTunes or Amazon. Lala actually has amazing prices on CDs.

I'm listening to some particularly amazing discs right now that I wanted to share with you.

1) I've only JUST discovered Cat Power with "Greatest" but she has a score of albums that I haven't heard. I'm really particular with female vocalists but I just love her stuff. Listen to one of my favorites from this album, "Love and Communication."

2) If you haven't heard The Gorillaz they are amazing! To get the full range of their music, you only have to listen to this song, below, and "Kids With Guns."



3) I've always liked Beck but the first album I actually bought is his latest, "The Information." I love everything on it and listened to all of his other albums. My next favorite album is "Sea Change." You can listen to three songs (including my favorite, "Cellphone's Dead") and read a great review on NPR. I'm telling you, new music is waiting to be discovered all over the Internet.

4) Thom Yorke is the lead singer of Radiohead. I like them but have never purchased their music. After hearing "Black Swan" on Pandora, I bought his solo album, "The Eraser," and am in love with it.

5) A friend introduced me to Beirut. He's a 19-year old from New Mexico who made an album inspired by gypsy music, it's amazing. This is the first song I heard but the rest of album, "Gulag Orkestar," is all different.

You can find out more about all of these artists on the websites I listed above. I encourage you to buy and try!

Look over there, it's a sex scandal!

I've been reading a book, recommended by a friend, called "Astrology for the Soul." I'm not a devout believer of astrology but I find pretty much any "what's it all about, what am I all about" questioning to be helpful and enjoyable. This book is about the North Node, which dictates what this life is all about for us, based on our past life! As the story goes, in my past life, I was a queen or some kind of royalty and I came into this life bossing people around, wanting to get my way, including my parents. Which is pretty much true. While it's natural for me to pursue the spotlight, it says, I will not be happy there and should instead devote myself to a humanitarian cause. Have I not been fumbling towards that same conclusion for months now? The description of my love life is shockingly true and too embarrassing to disclose here.

But I think the most interesting point is that it says Aquarius North Node people are here to bring in the New Age. We pick up messages from the future, as we have a way of seeing what is coming, and communicate those messages back to everyone else. If I follow a selfless path, I will have angels and support beyond my wildest dreams. I once went to a party with a good friend and a deaf comedienne with a knack for seeing auras and such, told me that she saw me coming up the drive surrounded by beautiful spirits. I can't help but think that this might be the point of my blog, to show people the future and rally for change.

So in the face of a brand new sex scandal - thank goodness, the Bush administration was a little dry in that area - I want to point out three stories from the paper that we should actually be concerned about. (By the way, I predict this girl will get a TV show from all the publicity.)

1) We're about to hit a major traffic jam in the Internet. Of course there are people who say that isn't likely, that we're improving the technology at the same rate that we're increasing demand for it, but it's not just about technology. Access requires physical and finite things like server space, power and a robust network to connect. Every day more people start using the Internet regularly and watch their first video or upload their first photo. Entire countries of people are still not on the Internet and young people are expecting in the near future to have access to all of their friends online, on video, all the time. We can bemoan the possibility of "missed opportunities" that are predicted but far more serious consequences await us as this network has become something our entire world depends on.

2) Small farmers in the United States are about to disappear forever. This is a critical issue. Mass-produced food is laden with chemicals, poisoning the animals, the earth, and us. It's devoid of nutrition, is tasteless and nearly half of it is not eaten but used as fuel so we can keep driving cars. The small farmer can't compete with the commercial farms and are selling out to developers. We're building houses and roads and gobbling all the islands of open space that dot the country. Birds that migrate thousands of miles need to stop somewhere to rest. If the islands disappear, they won't be able to rest and they'll die. Other animals will lose their habitats, migratory paths and will die or be killed trying to live in a human world. You must watch this great video about two endangered Whooping Cranes that landed on a farm in Tennessee. We apparently spent $11 million to hatch a group of them and teach them fly (most of them died but these two survived) but we can't stop developers from using up all the open space? I don't understand the logic of this!

3) 1 in every 100 adult Americans is in prison. This is the highest incarceration rate of any country at any time in history. The numbers are frightening for certain ethnicities, 1 in 35 black men is in prison. In the 1990's we passed mandatory sentencing and increased penalties for drug offenses. We had more money then and prisons were a booming business. Now they're overcrowded, crime has not gone down in response and the "drug war" is a joke. Housewives in the Midwest are getting hooked on meth cooked up in a house down the street using legal ingredients. Non-violent drunk driving offenders are mixed in the with murderers and rapists and very few people are receiving any kind of treatment. At the same time, our president is defending our right to torture to keep our country safe.

There are positive changes happening the in the world too, but even these are overshadowed by the sex scandal of a guy who stood on a soapbox for morality. Why hasn't everyone figured out yet that the people who preach morality are almost always the ones committing the offenses they so vehemently reproach?

Stumbling down the rabbit hole

I recently met with the folks at StumbleUpon to discuss possible marketing partnerships. They were a 12-person company in May when they were bought by eBay and now are pushing 20 but still work in a single open room in downtown San Francisco. The team looked at me with mild interest when I walked in but quickly went back to their keyboards and with headphones on, returned to their work. The people I met with were so nice and enthusiastic about their product I immediately wanted to work for them. To be fair, I told them that I’d never heard of or used StumbleUpon and in fact hadn’t really even used a single social bookmarking site.

They went into their short pitch about how StumbleUpon is so much more than bookmarking; it’s discovery rather than ranking. When you join, you are asked to create a profile where you tell SU what your interests are. Then you start “stumbling,” pages from the Internet that have been given a thumbs up by the Stumble community are served to you based on your interests. In the first few minutes I found a satellite map of the Earth to show where it's light and where it's dark, an incredible portfolio of black and white photographs taken of wild animals in Africa, a fun Jackson Pollock type interactive painting game, and a blog about a town in Greece. Each page I give a thumbs up to gets shown to more people like me and the system becomes more intelligent about what I like. There's no ranking so there's no incentive to be anything but genuine. In other words, no one’s trying to out do each other and the popularity of a page is only relevant to those whose interests it matches.

The community aspect is really compelling. It’s easy to share and pass on pages you like – which include games, blogs, videos, pictures, news, etc – and to find friends based on what you both like. You can blog about things you’ve seen or read with one click and instead of a link, it’s the actual page. As someone who has become increasingly annoyed with Facebook and its superficiality, this seems really cool. It keeps track of what I’ve like, let’s me see what my friends like and gives everyone the opportunity to be discover, comment on and curate content.

Facebook, by comparison, tricks you into thinking that something personal and customized is going on – someone said you’re cute or has given you a present or thinks you’re alike or posted something personal on your page – when in reality, everyone got that message. The system requires you to spam all your friends before you can retrieve your highly impersonal message. It reminds me of what was happening in email in the late nineties when a friend would blast their entire address book with some joke, hoax or gross picture. I got to the point where I sent emails to friends asking them to take me off the stupid list or replied with evidence that their forward to sign a petition was a hoax. That’s not connecting or even sharing, it’s being a human billboard with flashing neon lights that doesn’t care what’s being said or who’s hearing it as long as people are looking at you. Meanwhile, Facebook and its dozens of independent apps are collecting data about you and your friends.

A few months ago, I thought Facebook was cool and actually pitched it to a couple of people (who have probably joined and spent more time on it than me) but haven't been sold on the quality of what's being shared. Why bite someone as a vampire or throw a snowball at them? I’m amazed at how active my friends are on it! I get ten invitations a week to fill out quizzes or see the drawing they posted using the crude tools on Facebook that makes it look a two year old drew it. They send cards and hotness points and form silly groups like "Every time you join this group god kills a kitten!" I actually do like looking at photos that people upload but obviously people have a lot of time on their hands.

StumbleUpon is less about billboarding though and more about falling down the rabbit hole. I discovered VideoJug, a site that shows you how to do everything, through video. From avoiding getting ripped off by a mechanic to keeping your arm from getting trapped when cuddling in bed, users offer answers to life’s challenges with a video. There’s something for everyone! I also recently went to an event for girl geeks and one of the speakers was Leah Culver, a totally beautiful developer who founded Pownce with Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg. I haven't used it yet but it's all about sharing things with your friends - real things, not made up things like hotness points. Call me crazy but I want food at the end of my fork, not just a poke in the mouth.

I'm back (sort of)

Another month is about to pass with an abysmal number of entries. I know I shouldn't feel this guilty, it's just a blog, but it feels like giving up and maybe I've just given up on too many things lately. I see my friends on TV, they're creating TV shows and acting in big feature films and I wonder if I've made the right decision.

I started exercising again which always seems to be the first commitment. A person who can commit to exercise, it seems, can commit to anything. Maybe it's because our everything in our culture is created to allow us the luxury of not exercising. We are encouraged to use our brains, not our bodies for work. We drive, instead of walking or biking, to that job. At jobs like mine, a big beautiful cafeteria full of good - and healthy and cheap! - food is at my doorstep so again, I can return more quickly to sit at my desk. Once I get home, I've already spent the last ten hours training my body to sit, it takes a mentally strong person to say "now, I'm going to move only for the sake of moving."

I finally got an Internet connection this week (like getting a membership to the gym) thought that would instantly restore my blogging activity. Blogging, it seems, is like exercise - once out of shape, it's harder to do. But there are other barriers. I found myself one day feeling a little overexposed after someone I met found my blog. I've always thought of this project as my secret identity. A place where I can talk about things without worrying about people getting bored and without being judged. Once my identity is discovered, I don't feel safe anymore. I can't write about trouble at work if I think my co-workers are reading. I can't write about sex if someone I might want to date is reading.

So today, I Googled myself to see just how exposed I am and discovered the root of the anxiety. A number of sites that I have information on, or buy from, have chosen to use my name, my location, my interests and my purchases for marketing. It seems that someone might want to buy a book from Amazon because I bought it, or join a Meetup because I'm in it, or put their resume on LinkedIn so they can link to me. It's funny because my name has been on the Internet for a long time associated with acting jobs but that never felt invasive I guess because I was playing a character. But having my personal habits show up online as a piece of advertising feels like too much. And why can they do that without asking?

The privacy settings for these sites are buried and took a while to find. On LinkedIn, I couldn't hide some of the information, I had to hide all of it. I ended up deleting my Meetup profile because they didn't offer privacy settings at all, but Amazon, surprisingly, was the most difficult. A Google search revealed friends names, items on my wishlist, and items recently purchased! What if I was buying something to help with an embarrassing condition? (I'm NOT but what if I was?!) Privacy restored, for the time being, I feel a little more able to blog. I have lots of notes, things I've wanted to write but haven't yet, and I find it very comforting that Malcolm Gladwell hasn't updated his blog since January (of course he's probably writing a book, darn!)

My ass in exchange for the Internet

I finally ordered the Internet! I signed up for a two-year deal with Verizon for broadband. I put a little card in my computer (I don’t have it yet) and I get a connection via satellite the same way phones do. When I called this weekend, I had to give them my social security number as part of the application process. I played my little argument against it, “do you know it’s illegal to require it?” I asked? "Wow, really? But seriously, if you want service, you have to give it." They literally won’t process you without it.

They have to run a credit check, see, and they say it’s to protect me – so thieves can’t add lines of service and run up my bill – but it’s really to protect them from thieves adding lines of service and running up my bill. So I offered to pay a deposit. It’s what I do with my utilities and other services that want to run a credit check. I paid PG&E $115 to get my gas and electricity turned on. When I move out, they give it back. It covers me in case I don’t pay a bill because, in the case of energy, they have to actually send someone out to shut it off.

No can do, the rep said. If my credit isn't any good, I'll have to pay a deposit but I can't pay one to BYPASS the credit check. How does phone service get to be so difficult to acquire? I’m going to pay for the equipment up front, immediately, with a credit card and it’s non-refundable. I’m going to pay in advance for every month of service AND if I don’t pay, they can turn off my service (at the push of a button) I mean, maybe there’s a chance that they can’t with this card thingy but lord, a credit check? It just seems excessively invasive (welcome to the new America!)

But wait, there’s MORE! They get a credit guy on the phone to now verify some details from my report that only I would know – to make sure it’s actually me calling – and this is after I’ve given every vital piece of data on myself to a 22-year old in Cleveland (what kind of credit does he have I wonder?) “Where were you issued your social security card?” they ask? And where did I live prior to my current address? What outstanding debt do I have? What state did I first pay taxes in? Finally I pass the screening test and I’m allowed to purchase the equipment and commit to two-years of service. Seriously, could they cover their own asses any more on my dime? I don’t think so.

The wonderful world of Wired

Do you ever get the feeling that despite ALL the time you already spend on the web that there's a million, even a gazillion, totally cool things happening that you aren't experiencing? I have come to realize that I'm a creature in conflict. I dream of living a simple life and resist technology in so many small ways (like insisting that I don't need the Internet on my phone when I find myself MANY times a day wishing that I did), and at the same time curse that I'm missing all this cool stuff on the Internet.

I spent the day browsing eBay, bidding on items and putting on up for sale, and was led into a rabbit-holes looking for veg shoes which led me to etsy. I ended up creating an account to buy some super cute t-shirts and then subsequently found another site where a woman makes clothes from old clothes, which are so interesting but most is sold out. My coworker wanted music and I started a radio station with CocoRosie on Pandora, which I visited once a year ago but didn't come back for some reason, and have since been listening to the COOLEST f'ing music that I've never heard of!

I've also been online researching video sites and found that Wired partnered with PBS to create a science show. Wired magazine has been some of the best reading since Chris Anderson took over as editor-in-chief and now this is just so fantastic. You can watch videos and see demonstrations of the weird and wild stuff Wired reports on. Science hasn't been this cool since the turn of (last) century. And they were smart enough to cast a cute host...hey, I know this guy! Our short films played at a screening together in Hollywood. Ah, Hollywood, I miss ye.

"This article documents a current event."

We've all received the emails forwarded by someone you hardly know, a call for help, sign a petition, send money now! In the early days of the Internet, there were a lot of these and many if not most, were hoaxes. I was a regular email user long before many people I know so it wasn't unheard of for me to literally receive the same chain letter for years and years and years. I was always kind of flabbergasted when someone I considered to be intelligent and informed would forward some crap to me. I would look up the letter on the Internet, find out the truth and email the sender to let them know they can stop worrying, the call for help isn't real.

I don't get as many of those types of emails now but I got one today. It was about a kidnapped girl and it was a plea to forward a photo of her all over the Internet in hopes that she'll be found. The email, naturally, was from someone I hardly know so I was suspicious. I looked it up. It turns out it's not only real but has so ubiquitously populated the Internet that when you type in the girl's name in Google, it yields 1,450,000 results! Kidnapped only a month ago, it's been mentioned on 47,251 blogs and has a complete entry in Wikipedia outlining the entire ordeal with up to minute updates.

And yet, despite this kind of exposure that a decade ago did not exist, Madeleine McCann has not been found and there are no significant developments in the case. The reigning theory is that she was sold into a pedophile trafficking ring operating in Morocco. I imagine that this increased exposure still doesn't reach the kind of people who might actually come across this girl. I thought I would become the 47,252nd blog to mention it in hopes that I'm wrong.