On Why I Find Twitter Incredibly Useful (and comments on Gossip Girl)

In our technologically-driven world of gadgets and gizmos, there are limitless avenues to receive information. You can be a traditionalist; read the paper or call your friends by telephone to find out how they are, maybe even send a postcard if your handwriting isn't ruined by constant keyboard strokes. Or you can be what I would call the typical college student; facebook and myspace account, reading status updates through the news feeds, and having a few websites bookmarked, maybe just for news or sports.

Or, if you so dare, you can be a completely tech driven individual, facebook news feeds, RSS feeds for favorite blogs/websites, and finally a Twitter account to follow everything from friends and family to restaurant discounts and the latest TV ratings numbers.

I love Twitter. Instead of spending time browsing numerous websites for information, I receive everything in a nice, concise 140 character tweet. And if I need to read an article, a convenient tinyURL is placed so I can go straight to it without having to drive through avenues of ads and banners. I use an app called Tweetie where I can do everything that I need to with Twitter without having to open my browser and go to the website itself.

I've had the account for a pretty long time now, and I'm ecstatic at the fact that its gained such enormous popularity, because now everyone has one. I used to follow a couple of blogs and that was it, but now I can follow all of my favorite video game sites, television gossip sites, game developers, friends, and more. And the simple fact that more of the hometown people are jumping on the twitter train is awesome because it keeps me updated on all the news that would've just passed me by. How else would I have known that Alexand was doing his laundry, or that Raf got excused from jury duty? Without simple, small status updates I'd never know!

But all faux internet sarcasm aside, I really do find it incredibly useful. Every now and then I see a facebook status update of someone saying "twitter is for people who have no lives, gonna go pick up New Moon!!!" or something of that nature, and I'm like, no, you just don't see the advantages of it. So, if so inclined, if you don't have a twitter account yet, go sign up for one, and follow me @nazer858 and follow the coolkids @coolkidsroom too. And Direct Message on twitter is seriously the best way to get in touch with me, sends a text straight through my phone, awesome.

And I finally caught up on Gossip Girl. Is it just me or when all the kids work together to solve a problem at the end of the seasons does it remind anyone else of the Scooby gang? And if you haven't checked out PopCap Games' (the makers of Bejeweled) latest drug, check out Plants vs. Zombies, its awesome. Thanks for reading, I'll see you all in San Diego, I'm coming in Monday night at 8:30 PST.

OMFG Indeed!

There has been a ton of buzz behind the new Gossip Girl ads, many sites saying they're too "racy" and that the use of the term "OMFG" isn't suitable for children. Personally I think the ads awesome, and they properly portray the show.


We've come a long way haven't we...

Welcome Back

After a three month long writers strike, the entertainment industry is making another push to finish out this years TV season. Before the strike many shows left us with a ton of potential season enders, not knowing for sure when their show would return. Our television-starved eyes were given images of BFFs crying by an airplane, weird musical episodes, crazy plot revelations and so on. Even though I live a life of endless entertainment viewing, and with Lost and ABDC gone (for now), I'm eagerly awaiting the return of some of my favorite shows so I can fit them into my schedule.

Tonight NBC airs new episodes of My Name Is Earl, but the week after we see the return of everyones favorite (overrated) comedy The Office. Alongside that we have new episodes of Scrubs and of course a coolkids personal favorite 30 Rock. You can also look for new episodes of Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, House, and so on in the upcoming weeks, and another run of Lost episodes before Spring TV ends and Summer TV makes its appearance. Use the internets to find your local TV listings.

So for those of you who have spent the prime time hours doing nothing but checking fantasy stats and learning to knit, get ready for TV to make its return. Finally, something to turn people away from American Idol and Deal Or No Deal. TV, nice to have you with us once again.

The Writers Strike is Over

No I haven't been living under a rock, I know that the strike is over, but the reason I haven't posted yet is because today (Tuesday) the members of the WGA West and WGA East are voting to officially call off the strike now that a deal has been made. I held off on posting about it because the strike isn't "officially" over with, but since voting is today and many writers are already back to work I'm going to go ahead and say that yes, after months and months of picket lines, the WGA finally got a deal with the AMPTP which allows them to receive a cut on new media, basically an "if you get paid, we get paid" kind of deal.

Now keep in mind that the writers did not receive everything they asked for, but after being off work for such a long period of time, they had to come to a compromise, and that's what negotiating is, isn't it? Making sacrifices and having both sides come together to really work something out, and over the weekend that happened. Many say that the disaster that was the Golden Globes was the turning point for the AMPTP to come back to the table and get a deal going, but I'm glad that it's over. Hollywood as we once knew it is back to its usual routine, everyone is back to work, and production for many of our favorite shows is back in order.

Now it's not like we'll get new episodes of our favorite shows out of nowhere. Easier shows like 30 Rock and The Office will probably get a few new episodes airing around April/May, but giant production shows that revolve around a specific timeline like 24 won't return until January 2009. Pilot season as we know it will most likely not happen, and new shows that came out this year (Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies, Chuck) will probably wait till the fall for new episodes to air, but that all depends on how production goes. TV Guide keeps an updated list on the status of shows which can be found here.

So the important thing coming out of all of this is that the WGA, as well as all of the United Hollywood, fought for what they deserved, and for the most part it worked out. So now I'm going to eat the thai food I just bought and watch some reruns of Gossip Girl, PEACE.