Define Your Word

Urban Dictionary is a web-based slang dictionary which is edited by users –like YOU.

You can find definitions of words, phrases, etc. that you couldn’t come across in a normal dictionary. It looks like a normal online glossary, there are more interpretations for some words and every definition is followed by a sample sentence.

 

Btw, the webpage was born in 1999 and it has some rules that you should know before becoming one of the editors. First of all, you must provide a valid e-mail address. However, your post must be approved by other registered editors who either accept or reject your submitted definition. If there is no problem with your recommendation, it will be published online in the dictionary. The editors have the right to supervise definitions, hereby it could happen later that your suggestion is considered to delete. To make it more complex, in the case if your idea seems popular by voting (there is thumb ‘up’ and ‘down’ button) your entry cannot be deleted.   

Today, you can find more than 5.6 million definitions on Urban Dictionary. Editors receive approximately 2,000 suggestions per day. The site is visited by 15 million people per month and 80% of web users are under 25.  

AEGEE - European Students' Forum

"AEGEE is a student organisation that promotes co-operation, communication and integration amongst young people in Europe. As a non-governmental, politically independent, secular and non-profit organisation AEGEE is open to students and young people from all faculties and disciplines – today it counts 13.000 members, active in more than 200 university cities in 40 European countries, making it the biggest interdisciplinary student association in Europe."


My first experience with Aegee was a traveling summer university last year in Izmir, Turkey. There I gained friends who I still sometimes get together with, got to know another culture and had a wonderful time at the most wonderful beaches of the Aegean Sea. If you feel like taking part in thematic workshops, meetings and summer universities with young, open-minden people at various locations in and outer Europe, join today! Visit the homepage of Aegee or drop a visit at the Aegee Budapest office at Corvinus University.


www.aegee.org

I also attach a photo I made during the SU:

Google+ : Hangouts

Hangouts programme is a type of group video chat in which maximum of 10 people can participate at the same time.  

Video blogging

The ‘new’ way of blogging is vlogging. Actually, the first video that was posted alongside a blog entry happened in 2000. And then, 2004 was announced as “the year of the video blog”.

Vlogging is simply a blog through lens. Vidding can be made for different reasons: it can be either personal or professional. If you would like to create your own video blog, you will need a theme first of all, and a recorder of course. Your vlog will be good if you passionately care about your topic. If you want to maintain the interest of your vlogs’ visitors, then come up something new from time to time and don’t let your audience to get bored. After giving a catchy title to your video, you can share it via You Tube or Vimeo.  

Do start vlogging! 

Online supermarkets

Naturally, we’ve all heard about online shopping. When we talk about it, I don’t consider that groceries come into our mind at first. We know about Amazon or eBay where we can buy a broad variety of goods and services. However, this time let me introduce the idea of online supermarkets. It is something which is not that widespread yet. Perhaps this will be our future, but it also might be that only housewives of posh businessmen can afford themselves to order groceries straight to their doors. The service works inland too, but it is more popular abroad, like in the UK. Moreover, according to a study in this topic a spectacular boom can be expected between now and 2016.

The point of online shopping is that consumers can buy goods via the Internet. Nowadays, more and more online shops are available. To use them, you must register on the given site. After making a profile, giving your contacts, you can start to fill up your trolley. When you finish, you can select the most appropriate time you are free to receive the pack. Delivery fee depends on how much money you have to spend after finishing the shopping. If you reach a certain value, the delivery is free. You can use your credit card to make payments but it is also possible to pay in cash to the delivery guy.  

Kodály Method

Hello my dearest OnlineCommClass!

In this blog entry, I'd like to familiarize you with a great Hungarian audiovisual project called Kodály Method. What they basically do is remaking productions by various Hungarian bands and singers in a way that they create something brand new and unique.

In my favourite video, they went to shoot their film in a grade school with Erik Sumo Band, and took the kids there into the project.

If you fancy it, you might be interested in their party today at Merlin Theater. There is a slight chance you run into me there ;) Here is an external link for that:
http://www.facebook.com/events/264002440360489/

The Ricky Gervais Show

I have mentioned The Ricky Gervais Show during my well-prepared presentation on podcasts. It is the most downloaded podcast ever. All right? Good.
The Ricky Gervais Show features pointless conversation between British comedians and writing partners Ricky Gervais (obviously) and Stephen Merchant, and their friend, Karl Pilkington. Karl is a bit of an oddity, who doesn't really know much about the world, but he is unwittingly very funny. It really should be called The Karl Pilkington Show.
In 2010, an animated version of the podcast started on HBO, as a half-hour series. It features old recordings, with Hanna Barbera style animation added on top of it.
Here's a clip from it, my lovely chipmunks.

Man posts ex-girlfriend's nude pics on Facebook, gets convicted

We just discussed something like that in last week's class.  Here is the article, enjoy, and don't do anything stupid!

Mashable - the blog about social media

     Mashable is a Scottish-American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The site's primary focuses are news related to the social media, but it has several divisions where you can browse, too, such as Tech, Entertainment, and Business. 

Celebrities Read Tweets About Themselves

If this doesn't convince you that Twitter is great, nothing will.

Technology Entertainment and Design – the video site

First of all, I must lay down TED is a global set of conferences that would like to bring together the 3 fields: technology, entertainment and design. One of my favourite websites’ aim is to make the audience acquainted with big ideas. Operators and participants of the site passionately believe in the power of ideas that can influence – moreover, even change (!) – our world. That is why conferences were born and took it upon itself to disseminate clever, entertaining ideas word wide.

Some facts:

• Originally, it was founded as a one-off event in 1984.
• The conference was held annually from 1990.
• Since 2006, talks have been available online through the websites: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes. As for the next step, events have been offering live streaming of talks since 2009.
• Nowadays over 1,050 talks can be found on the site for free. According to data, videos had been viewed 50 million times by January 2009. And what is more, the viewing figure stood at more than 500 million in June 2011, which reflects a seriously growing global audience. à It clearly shows us the webpage managed to hit the target and it proved to be an effective way of online communication. 
• TED staff is headquartered in New York City and Vancouver.
• Talks address an increasingly wide range of topics, thinkers are challenged to present their ideas in the most innovative and fascinating ways in 18 minutes or less. Every single talk is subtitled in English and translated into a number of languages – over 300 translations were done by volunteers.
• TED Prize was initiated in 2005. There is a performer every year who is given the opportunity to make a “wish to change the world” and $100,000 for starting his revolution. 

On the site you can choose from hundreds of videos by topic, speaker, length, etc. I prefer the ones under the ‘funny’ label; still, this time I would like to show you something else. If you have 19 mins, watch this talk on flow by the Hungarian psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Enjoy!

Just a random comment

So while I was doing research for my BA thesis today, I came across an interesting sentiment in one of the books I was reading about New Media. It reminded me of what Anna Vera had written about her reasons for not registering on Twitter. She claimed that even without doing that, she had completed half of the assignment: she was completely aware of the different uses, advantages and disadvantages of Twitter.

So here is the excerpt. David Gauntlett (author, Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster) is listing the key points of an outline for Media Studies 2.0 (in contrast to 1.0, which lacks an appropriate assessment of Web 2.0).

“The patronizing belief that students should be taught how to 'read' the media is replaced by the recognition that media audiences in general are already extremely capable interpreters of media content, with a critical eye and an understanding of contemporary media techniques, thanks in large to the large amount of coverage of this in popular media itself.” (David Gauntlett in Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media, 2009: 8)

Comment if you will, I just thought it was an interesting viewpoint, worthy of sharing. (And I haven't posted anything here in a while now, so this totally came in handy.)

And here's an awesome gif of Troy and Abed sitting in a blanket fort.

Tupac Back!

Tupac Amaru Shakur, better known as 2Pac is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time. The Harlem born and Oakland bound artist/poet/actor/activist was named on the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine and enjoyed massive critical and commercial success. Numerous classic albums, over 75 million records sold. An undisputably legendary legacy. 

On the night of September 7, 1996, after attending the Tyson - Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by. Six days later, he died of his wounds in the hospital leaving the music industry and millions of fans in deep sorrow.

Thanks to modern technology; however, Tupac's back. On April 15, 2012, a hologram of Pac performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in front of a crowd of more than 100.000 people. During a show headlined by Dr. Dre, who was the visionary behind the tribute, the legend rapped two of his most popular songs: "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" featuring Snoop Dogg. A truly emotional, yet spectacular moment and an unforgettable salute to the true master of the game.

Is it possible that we have witnessed a future trend?

Celebrity juice. Not from concentrate.

Perezhilton.com is all about celebrity gossips written by the homosexual Mario Armando Lavanderia who also craves the limelight. 

The site is pink and flashy and divided into 2 columns and many sections. Honestly, I took me a while to make sense of every little boxes. 

The blog is mainly about gossips, but there are sections which deal with fashion (cocoperez), fitness and health (fitperez), celebrity kids (perezitos) and animals (teddyhilton). Of course he has twitter and facebook accounts and even a shop where fans can buy his shirts or bags, incredible! 

He also likes posting pictures decorated with paint. 


Actually, I do not know who read this blog since there are not many comments or likes. Celebrities even hate Perez Hilton because of his cruel remarks. 

Notes on twitter.blog.com

Hey Guys!

I think you've already read and heard my opinion about Twitter and guess what: I accidentally chose a post-it in class with the following note: twitter.blog.com, so my negative reactions reached the directory of Twitter and this is my challenging punishment that I have to follow the events of Twitter.

(I think it's needless to state it again but I will: I do know the advantages of Twitter, I like it, I agree with its users but I do not want to have an account because of personal issues and that's it, nothing more.)

I started to catch up with this blog's entries and my early observation is the following: they care too much about the new star, Ryan Gosling, which is totally acceptable concerning his good-looking appearance and acting skills.

Twitter.blog.com is a blog, where the editors usually write a weekly summary of the events. They quote the most interesting Tweets and complement them with opinions and background information. You can read about stars' games and life and there are some really important issues and cases, for example, this week Tweeters saved the life of a kidnapped South African man, which is an amazing and fortunate story of the guy.

The blog's outlook has the same blue colors and design as Twitter, and their description-like text is the following "Every week we capture and share the incredible moments that could happen #OnlyOnTwitter". From now on I will share with you my experiences with this official Twitter blog and I'll emphasize the most interesting happenings.


Cheers,
Anna

About my work

Hi Everybody!

Last time I wrote about almost nothing, so now I decided to share my work with you because you may find it interesting.

Some of you know that back in October I started working at FUNZINE magazine as an editor intern. This January I brought my Nikon camera with me to the office and I suddenly changed position at the magazine. 

The editor in chief sent me to different performances at Budapest's theaters where I was literally thrown into the profound water as we say it in Hungarian. I fortunately managed to do the task and I took some nice pictures, which now I'd like to share with you through links. So get an insight into my life out of school!

Cheers

Find my photos here!

Google +

Google+ is a relatively new social network site. The reason why it is really good is its circles. On most of the social network sites, we are 'hunting for friends'. But are they REALLY our friends???! It’s quite awkward if our teachers, boss or colleagues see a photo of us that was taken in the weekend party. 
I have some friends whose facebook-friends include some of their other friends’ parents. From that time, my friends don’t dare to share or comment as many things as they did before. They feel uncomfortable because they could never know who will check them. 


Despite, if you use Google+, you are entirely aware of which information can be visible by whom as you can create your own circles – as many as you wish. Thanks to your grouping, you can share the given info only with that group(s) you choose to share with.


Watch this video that contrasts facebook and google+ in a funny way:

This one helps you to explore Google+:

And to get to know more about circles, watch this one:

Bunny

Have a nice Easter Monday!

I.Watch.I.Read

The blog I have been following lately is called I.watch.i.read. The owner of the blog is a Hindi guy called Laya Maheshwari, a college student and movie buff who shares his reviews on films and occasionally on books and PC games (Lego Harry Potter LOL). He started the blog in June 2010 and has posted a few entries each month since then. In the owner’s introductory note, I found that he had a team of people with whom he was jointly working on the website. He named each of his friends who were dealing with the design of the blog  (e.g. the logo on the top and the stars at the end of the reviews).

Looking at the blog, I found it very well organized, and its details meticulously edited. The blog contains a sort of slideshow section (dunno how else to call it), in which the latest four reviews are shown in brief. Below that come the actual posts in cut versions so that you can click ’read more’ on the one you are interested in. The reviews introduce Hollywood films such as “The Iron Lady”, “The Woman in Black”, “The Hunger Games” (latter being the last post written in March 23) and sometimes Bollywood films as well, which is reasonable considering the guy’s whereabouts.  The content of the reviews is professionally written, comprehensive and very detailed. It gives such a vivid account I felt like I was actually watching the film. 

However, the blog doesn't seem to be very frequented. The couple of comments I saw on some posts were in most cases written by the owner's close friends. Actually, one of his posts written in February this year, namely "Of $50, a little housekeeping and a lot of slacking" is addressed to "Regular readers (yes, both of you)", very self-ironic indeed. This post is the only one since the intro that says something about his life, how he's getting on with school, and how he manages his blog. I think entries are very handy as they are more casual and entertaining than all those high-brow reviews, and also it's good to know something about the person whose blog you adore so much.

All in all, it is quite a resourceful blog, considering both its design and content. If you are into movies or just ran out of ideas what to watch, then consult this blog for advice.

P A J I B A - Sweetened by Mock, Lightened by Droll

This is the name of the site I followed in the last days. Hmm…where should I start? I was extremely curious where this name ‘pajiba’ comes from and what it could mean. Khm…according to the description I found on its website, pajiba refers to female private part as one with a stuffy nose might say it.

The previous slogan

Apart from this piece of information I couldn’t really get useful facts about the site. Unfortunately, I don’t know when the site was started – however it is mentioned the website was temporarily shut down because of its political column in 2006, so it’s a little clue: the site has been existing since 2006 for sure. :) I don’t know either how much money they could make on it. 

However, I do know that it is a movie/ television/ book review & gossip site. Its author group is an eclectic set of critics which involves 14 permanent bloggers, plus 5 collaborators as ‘featured players’ and the site’s illustrious regular commentators. The whole team criticizes harshly; everybody says his/her own opinion frankly, openly without any affectation. Some pieces of writings are quite rude; the authors usually use coarse words and slangs so sometimes it’s not that easy to make out. But certainly we get the gist of them. 

A nice, big picture is attached to every single post. Besides, videos are also embedded. If you click on ‘video’ in the header you can find one what presents a soundtrack or another one that promotes a new TV show. You will find videos of amusing and even scientific content; there is a wide range of style.

The site is totally up-to-date. I mean there was a day when 14 new blogs were uploaded! It’s impossible to follow. :) Of course this is not the every day case, but after a 1-day omission, I’m sure a new big dose is ready to arrive.

The structure of pajiba.com is absolutely combined. You have too many options in the header to choose from. Still, I will try to give a summary of what you can find in each window.

Among the latest film and tv reviews, under ‘guides’ and ‘lists’ you can find blog entries making different classifications – which is my favourite part. Please, let me to be immersed in this section a little bit more. There are entries, like these: 

- 10 Real-Life Couples Which Feature Television Actors That You Had No Idea Existed 

- You Know I Can’t Let You Slide Through My Hands: All the Pretty Men

- Mindhole Blowers: 25 Bands That Wisely Changed Their Original Name

- 11 Crappiest Movies of Julia Robert’s Carrier

- You’re the Vulgarian, You F*ck: Our Favourite Verbal Film Fights

Usually, blog entries in these categories are quite short, it gives only a short description (sometimes only 2 lines) and nice pics are coming immediately. In other cases, for instance when we are reading a review, the extent of writing is much longer of course. Moreover, it isn’t rare you find references to other websites.

Under ‘news’ section you will find the latest trailers and the author opinion of the movie. Here you have the opportunity to peep into the upcoming film.

‘Celeb’ and ‘love’ parts provide us gossips; the genre of articles here is the same as tabloids’.

Towards the end of the list, there is a so called ‘the rest’ part, where you can find plenty of new tags. You will find here a dictionary, which could be useful as there are terms created by the author group. In addition, probably this is the hiding-place of more vulgar content pieces, but this is also the place for interviews, music reviews, dvd releases and reviews, etc.

Last but not least, if you click on the ‘cbr iv’ you are redirected to a new webpage – called Cannonball Read IV – which is specialized on book reviews.

This site has its own history. It started on Pajiba originally in 2008. After a time, this part developed into an independent webpage. The birth of this site is due to a competition, which pressed the competitors for reading and reviewing 100 books within a year’s time. The rivalry is held in every year; however, in 2010 the rules get friendlier and more attainable as the numbers of required reviews cut down to 52. So, if you have literary veins and passion for writing, take part in group blogging! (Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about allowances in money but you can get in touch with the competent authority.)

It’s a pity there isn’t an archive by date but you can find every post in each category in alphabetical order. As might be expected, you can write comments to all the entries and you can follow the site via Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon and Google+. Pajiba has a small, but growing and very devoted readership. As one of the Pajiba publishers depicted their average readers: they are “[w]ell-educated, liberal leaning, well-read, cynical smaller-budget movie fans that […] are very judgmental.” (Dustin Rowles)

What I’m sure about is that you won’t be bored if you visit Pajiba.com (especially if you are a BiG BiG movie fan). So what are you waiting for? 

Bloggin' all around me

Dear Media Group,

Two weeks ago I stole a small pink post-it paper after class. I grabbed it as fast as a could, and hurried for the door in a rather girlish fashion, before anyone could notice my demise. The paper I took contained sensitive information: the HTML address of a webblog I started to read soon after taking care of my six adopted children, the youngest of whom, Zulu, is a 4-years old African kid. Nevertheless, I will now return to my original topic, and try to stick to it through the whole post.

The blog I will be reviewing now is called Bloggasm. Bloggasm.com was created, and is run by young Simon Owens, and is mainly concerned with prominent bloggers and mainstream journalism. All the entries, containing reviews and interviews as well as short articles, are media related.

Entries are professionally written articles, both topic- and stylewise. I would rather call them articles than simple blog entries, since even the layout of the site resembles that of a daily newspaper, despite that it's missing any officials logos, or banners.

I was not too happy when I realised that the last entry to this blog was posted in mid-december. Bloggasm has been silent ever since. I am looking forward to seeing new entries in the near future, for this site provided me not only with news around the world of the media, but gave me an upclose image of people working in and for the media.

Hacking life

Long time, no see, everyone! So let's not waste any more time, here's my review of the blog I had to follow.

The Lifehacker (www.lifehacker.com) got my attention with its promising name/title, that's why I chose it. At first glance, the blog is mainly about the products of Apple, Microsoft, etc, and things that are connected to them, like programs, upgrades, downloads, and little tips of how to make their usage easier (life hacks = "anything that solves an everyday problem in a clever or non-obvious way", according to Wikipedia).

As I'm not really interested in this kind of stuff, I was a bit sceptical at first, but I found out that the blog covers a much bigger ground than I expected. There are also tips on how to cut back on your smartphone-addiction, how to keep your food fresh in the fridge, how to tell if your credit card got hacked, how to keep your belongings safe on a holiday, and lots and lots of others.

The entries are kept neatly and can be accessed easily (okay, not so easily; it's a bit chaotic at first, but you can get used to it). The staff keeps the blog very much up-to-date, putting up more than 15 entires every single day, and they also pay attention to the webpage's Twitter account (http://twitter.com/lifehacker).

All in all, great website, I'm actually thinking about following it, not because I have to, but because I want to.

I tried to find a funny picture but I failed. Sorry to dissapoint you all.

meseböl

As I was absent from the class where the blogs were assigned, I have decided to choose one on my own. I guess it's against the rules -- that must make me an against-the-rules guy. So I thought I would write about a site that I have following more-or-less for the past couple of years: Mashable. (http://mashable.com/)  If Mashable was already assigned to somebody else, then I am really sorry for pooping in their pie. I'll gladly buy them a beer for the inconvenience.

An independent news site, Mashable mainly deals with news about social media, technology, and digital culture. As such, it is a great source of information for most of the topics that are relevant to our course: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, wikis, etc. The site is constantly updated with news, in a variety of formats: infographics, videos, photos, and good old text. As it is often the case with big, influential blogs, Mashable is technically a blog, but it looks and feels like a news site.  The header at the top of the site lists the main news sections of Mashable, which are Social Media, Tech, Business, Entertainment, US & World (US is not part of the world), and Video.

Claiming the 2nd place in Technorati's Top 100 blogs (http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/) at the time of this writing, Mashable sees 20 million unique visitors every month, and is followed by 4 million people on social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Interesting fact: I am one of those people on Facebook. I think the reason that so many people follow this site is that it is a well-written, easily understandable, and credible source for news and information about social media; something that many people are really interested in right now.

Boooooiiiiingg

The blog I was tasked to follow is Boing Boing, a multi-award winning publishing entity and one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Run by up and coming writers and accomplished journalists, Boing Boing deals with technological and cultural curiosities, and exciting or funny stuff from the web.

Boing Boing started off as a small circulation self-published magazine by current co-editor Mark Frauenfelder and his wife in 1988. 15 issues were published with the maximum circulation of 17500. Common topics included sci-fi, technology, futurism and left wing politics. In 1995, Boing Boing was transformed into a web site and was relaunched as a weblog in 2000.

Over the years, the staff has been expanded with the addition of several editors who previously contributed to the likes of The New York Times, Wired magazine, The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian. In addition, Boing Boing often features guest bloggers including scientists, journalists and authors. I don’t know 99% of them.

Boing Boing is supported by advertising. In the first business quarter of 2010, they reportedly earned $27000 so it is safe to say that the editors can make a nice living without the worry of going to the poorhouse anytime soon.

I was curious to find out how they can make this money off of this blog, but I haven’t really come up with an answer. Personally, I have never heard of this weblog before and it seems to me that they don’t really care about marketing a lot. Surely, in accordance with the current trends, they are available on Facebook and Twitter, but these options are not exploited enough and the editors don’t really have many followers either. Considering the fact that Boing Boing is one of the most visited blogs, it was quite surprising to realize that there aren’t many user comments. I expected to see hundreds and hundreds of replies, but the post count didn’t even go above 10 sometimes.

The layout is quite simple and esthetic, you are definitely not going to get lost on this site. Most importantly, it is a pleasure to the eye due to its colorful display filled with large images. Also, there are different sections available from the header (?) such as features, books, reviews, science and geek stuff. I especially like the very clever archive. Of course, there is a monthly archive rooting back to 1999 and you can search recent articles listed by days. Moreover, there is a tag cloud which features hundreds of keywords with the most popular ones boldfaced and highlighted in different color.

The blog is updated quite frequently. Up until 4pm ET (Eastern Time Zone), 19 articles were published on April 2. In average, there are at least 30 posts daily. Today’s subjects included Autism Awareness Day, Tibet, Irish Catholic priests sharing gay porn, etc. The posts are usually written in an informal, casual style so visitors can perceive and understand everything easily. Also, the articles contain a lot of references such as links to other sites, quotations, excerpts from books, etc.

In addition, Boing Boing produces two weekly podcasts entitled “Boing Boing Boing” and “Get Illuminated” which are intended to cover actualities, the week’s posts and feature interviews with creative figures such as writers and artists. I don’t know 99% of these people either.

All in all, Boing Boing is quite a decent blog; however, it is not exactly my cup of tea. Surely, I’ve read many exciting stuff over the weeks, but vast majority of the subjects are not really enticing for me. Concerning their success, I’m quite clueless. Maybe I should keep following them and take some notes so one day I could get over 25 grand in a quarter. Git dat dinero, muchachos and chiquitas!

The notorious blogger - Dooce

The blog I had to check the last few weeks was Dooce.com, the website of Heather B. Armstrong, now officially earning her living as a professional blogger.

She lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two daughters, her life dedicated entirely to her blog now: taking and editing photos, jotting down thoughts, writing posts, and answering to readers' replies without end. In the 'About' section of her site she tells us about herself, where she was raised and how she ended up in the blogging business, emphasising big time that it's not like hanging around all day in your PJ's doing nothing. What she does is basically the same thing any office worker spends his days with, only she has the advantage (or is it rather a nightmare?) of working from home.

The blog was launched in 2001 in Los Angeles as a rather personal one. The next year saw the incident when Armstrong was fired from her job as a graphic designer because she published satirical stories about her collegues and workplace. Nevertheless, she continued blogging, and, probably partly because of her being 'dooced' - a term born out of her misfortune - she started to gain hundreds of new followers. By 2005 she had enough income from the ads on the site that her husband could quit his job and join in with her, taking responsibility for the marketing part of the business.

The blog itself mainly consists of entries about Armstrong's family and dogs, little funny anecdotes from their lives; but she regularly posts some of her favourite tweets she encounters daily, and uploads nice pictures she finds while looking around.

So.. why so many followers? Firstly, because there's always something fresh to read. She posts at least once each day, and there are also these 'Daily Photo' and 'Daily Style' sections which she usually remembers to refresh about every other day as well. Her writing style is quite unique and funny, it's very easy to read, and although you may not get every little detail if you are not a regular reader, there is always something amusing and entertaining, even touching in her stories. She also posts all kinds of advice to the readers, be it about healthy diets, depression, or the kind of lamp you should buy from Ikea.

It's always nice to read about people you know and like, and it can also be fun to share your very thoughts with the world... but I'm not sure I could do it for a living. Working from home definitely can make you go mad, and after a time you can't not post when you know that thousands of people are waiting for your next story. Well, whatever our stance in this matter, it's a fact that Armstrong does a good job entertaining her audience. The only question is when (if at all) she'll get flipping bored with it and start something real with her life.

Blog-post

The website I chose to observe carefully for the last weeks is called TMZ. First of all, I would not really call it a blog, it is actually a celebrity news website. The letters stand for thirty-mile zone, referring to the most central area of movie making in Los Angeles. The website debuted in November 2005, and has provided the most fascinating details about our favourite celebrities’ life since.

That's the standard.

It was almost impossible to read through all the articles because first, they have about one million new articles a day, second, I don’t know half of the celebs presented on the blog. It’s a shame but I’m quite undereducated in this topic and honestly, I don’t really want to extend my knowledge.

I would compare this blog to the Hungarian Blikk which is not exactly a compliment and although you can find a few almost interesting posts, it is rather meaningless and sometimes even vicious gossiping all the time. I know that peeking into famous people’s life can be fascinating for millions, but come on, why would anybody read a whole article about how sweaty Mila Kunis was when she came out from the gym (okay, I know the boys would disagree here) or how American reality show participants beat up their exes?!

All in all, it was not the best choice for me and I did not fall in love with it but TMZ definitely does a good job with digging up the dirt and if you want to stop thinking and just relax your mind for an hour, this is the perfect website to read but be careful not to be stuck there longer, it can be dangerous for your brain.

Sleepy morning...

No matter how rare it is, I overslept this morning. I just got up, and realised that I missed my train. Anyway, here is a must see movie for the lot of ya!

Dead blog - Blog P.I.

I chose to follow Blog P.I. Wait, following it is quite a strong word, considering its more than one year long post-draught. Still, let’s see what I could find out.

Blog P.I. is (was?) a fairly exciting blog about the uses of Internet in U.S. politics, with Web 2.0 in its main focus. The blog is mainly written by William Beutler, an Internet analyst, and as it is said on the ‘about’ page, he tries to base his posts on observation and reason instead of opinion.

The last couple of posts weren’t really commented, that might have been the reason for the stop. Also, Beutler has now a blog on Wikipedia, apparently still running. Actually, the last post of Blog P.I. (January 2011) is about his new blog’s TV appearance; one of the intentions with this post was probably to inform his former followers where they can read from him now.

By having a look at the posts before the above mentioned last one, we can probably sense the style of the blog. One post is about Austan Goolsbee, who has videos on YouTube about Obama’s economic policies and other possibilities. Goolsbee became successful immediately with his videos, and had a recent one uploaded not long before the post was written. The post contains two Goolsbee-videos, so the reader can see who is he/she reading about. The post before this is about Sean Parker and how he’s defended by whom, while the one before that is about social media.

I haven’t gone too many posts back, but the most recent post were written irregularly and with a long time passing between them. That’s definitely not the way to keep a blog successful. There are no problems with the design or the content in my opinion, but there wasn’t enough attention paid to the blog by the contributor(s)… And that’s how a blog can just fade away.

Homework post: Kottke.org

The blog I had to follow in the past week or so is Jason Kottke's kottke.org, a site that a guy living in New York City uses to share all the funny and/or interesting things he finds online.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Sounds so soulful, don't you agree?

In 2010, American Express launched “UNSTAGED: An Original Series from American Express” in partnership with VEVO and YouTube with the aim to bring concert and home entertainment experiences to new heights.

UNSTAGED features some of the most respected artists of the music industry playing at legendary venues across the United States, employs iconic figures of the film industry to direct the live streams and uses digital and social media such as twitter and YouTube to connect the audience to the live shows in order to create an unforgettable concert experience. Users are able to control and influence their viewing experience by sending in song requests or choosing between the director’s cam and alternative cameras from the backstage or the audience’s point of view.

In September, the 4 time Grammy Award winning hip hop and soul band The Roots and 9 time Grammy Award recipient singer-songwriter John Legend started off the UNSTAGED experience by taking the stage in Hell’s Kitchen’s infamous music venue, the Terminal 5 and giving a special one-off live-streamed performance directed by none other than the legendary Spike Lee.

The show was put on the same week when The Roots’ and Legend’s joint collaboration R&B/soul record, Wake Up! was released. Heavily inspired by the US presidential election of 2008, John Legend, one of the classiest male singers of our time and future Hall of Fame The Roots revive the politically engaged soul music of the 1960s and 70s. Mind you, this record is not just a simple imitation, it attempts to capture the spirit of change and raise awareness to social issues which are still relevant as of today. Timeless soul, suave, raw raps, stomping bass and drums. Magnificent.

In addition to the excerpts from Wake Up!, songs from John Legend’s own work and The Roots’ previous record entitled How I Got Over were played as well. Astonishingly, of course.

I am probably not as much of a concert-buff as most of you are, but this was one of the greatest music experiences of my life. Without a doubt, The Roots and Mr. Legend put on a hell of a show.

The whole performance was available on YouTube for quite a long time, but it has been deleted or made private for no logical reason. Fortunately, the clips are still there so I created a PLAYLIST for you guys. It is definitely worth watching.

Perhaps, you wonder why I am writing about a concert from 2 years ago on a Monday night. I have a legitimate explanation. Right now, my man Shawn Corey Carter better known as Jay-Z a.k.a. Jigga, a.k.a. The Greates of All Time, a.k.a. Young Hov is about to go on stage at SXSW, in Austin, TX and put on a show which will be aired live on YouTube in the very same format. I had this idea that while I am waiting for Hov, I’m going to write this post about this UNSTAGED concert presented in the very same format. Meanwhile I'm listening to Wake Up! and some Jay-Z tunes of course.

P.S.: Unfortunately, the show is streamed in the US only. Middle finger up. Too bad I asked him to perform Can't Knock the Hustle via twitter. Viewers can decide which songs shall be performed. Alright, NY Knicks @ Chicago Bulls then.

P.S.: My beloved Knicks lost. Two middle fingers up.

have fun, be creative

While busy online communicating, let's take a break and draw a stickman! :) This is an inspiring little game that will surely give wings to your creativity, just be careful about the animals sticking around :D And don't forget to check the gallery under 'menu' to see fantastic pieces of art other people created. Have fun!

QR code

Probably, most of you have already heard about QR codes. However, if you belong to those who haven’t, then here is a blog entry for YOU.

In the last couple of weeks, I bumped into these little (or not that little) signs basically everywhere and I had no idea about their function. I saw them on the last page of leaflets, on the bottom corner of posters/billboards on the streets or in the underground stops. I even saw one - in extra large size - on the side of a house. So, I became curious what they could be good for. 

First of all, let’s make this acronym clear for everybody. ‘QR Code’ is the short version of Quick Response Code. These codes are similar to a simple barcode that you can see on packages and labels of every single product in shops. The difference between a QR code and a barcode – besides their appearance – is the capacity of information they can hold and share. As for the exterior, a barcode is a linear one-dimensional code and its capability goes up to 20 numerical digits, whereas a QR code is two-dimensional matrix barcode that is able to store thousands of alphanumeric characters of data.

They look like this:

QR code

The code was invented in Japan in 1994. Originally, it was designed for automotive industry (for Toyota’s subsidiary, Denso Wave) but nowadays they are used worldwide  in consumer advertising and packaging.

Now, let’s have a closer look how they work. To read a QR code, you need to have a camera-enabled smartphone. If you’ve already had one, then you only need to download a QR code reader that is able to scan a code like that. (You can download one from the website of i-nigma or kaywa). From this point, the whole process is just a piece of cake. You enter your ‘camera function’, let your QR reader scan the code and hop! you are on the advertiser’s website immediately. Once, the code is on your phone, you can have the latest information straight from the horse’s mouth. You can obtain relevant details about the given business or get the direction to there. Or you can find an URL link which you can click on to see a movie trailer. In other cases, you can get a coupon which is consumable in shops. The list is endless.

A card company, for instance, uses QR codes in business:

You can use QR codes in a number of ways. Here is a video for brainstorming:

And now, probably you get some ideas what for you would use a QR code. Then, this is the time, I guess, to generate your own code. You can do that using kaywa again or studying a bit closer Google’s tool here. 

Ok, so now you can easily grow your own business! ;) Go ahead!! 

PLN

PLN is the new buzzword in social media, it stands for : Professional Learning Network.

People who are eager to learn and train themselves even outside of university courses, degrees, and conferences, participate in professional online discussions. They are looking for like-minded professionals and engage in conversations about professional issues, events, trends, etc. They do it by following colleagues on Twitter, friending them on Facebook, or maybe sharing a beer with them in a pub if they are lucky enough to live in the same city.

Read this article on How Twitter can be used for professional development. Feel free to comment.

Let's put a smile on that face!

As next week's topic is going to be Twitter, I thought I'd warm you guys up by sharing one of my favourite Twitter accounts/profiles/whatevers.

Here it is!

It's very informative, register and follow now!

tl;dr

This has been a quite fine day,
I just got home now,
Hope this entry is not long.

Shameless pimping

Our sweet darling newborn, also the subject of our wonderful future joint case study and presentation, both with my good friend and colleague, Miss Ági Csóka. May I present you:

TÁSKARÁDIÓ

a new Hungarian music blog with great tuneage and amazing visuals

Find us on Facebook!

Another type of text message

We've discussed the language of text messages and how they differ from normal language, however, there is a special type of text message that requires an even more sophisticated encoding system, and this is the drunk text message.Here is a collection of messages sent after or during hard day's nights (attention! not always delicate and sophisticated), and here is the Hungarian version which I'm sure you have all heard of.

YAAAY -.-

As the complete computer geek that I am I guess I actually managed to delete my former post.
Well, whatever, it didn't get any comments either way (boo-hoo), so I guess I'll just have to think of something else that I can write about. Come up with something. Something... Something related to online communication.... ANYTHING... COME OOOON!

Posting a Blog Entry 101

Edit: I cut the post, yahoo!

As I have promised, here is the blog entry about how to post a blog entry. To make it less boring, which it might become for some of you at one point or another, I'm going to include a number of illustrations and pop culture references for your entertainment.

If there is something that you don't get, sorry.

t0m hanx, + ryan

This is a video of a thing:

The Blog of Jenna Marbles

I know I said in class that I don't watch an embedded video but I hope that you're not like me and you'll watch this!

This in an example of The Youtube Blog of Jenna Marbles. I chose this because it was the first I saw and it has the most views among her videos - more than 30 million! It's connected to blogging, it's "useful", and it's fun! I also recommend you to watch other videos of hers. She's brilliant.

Also, there's a special treat in the video. The first one to find it wins a prize: I'll send them a smiley face in reply.

The long awaited football post - Unsung heroes

After it had been made clear to me that there's a strong demand for football, I decided not to hesitate and post these lines.

Football is the most popular sport in the world. It has some well-known faces - you don't have to be a big fan to know who Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo is. After watching a football match, fans usually remember the goal scorers. But there's the other end of the field, where every team has another very important player.

It is said that you have to be crazy to be a goalkeeper. (Or in some cases, even crazier.) Goalkeepers are usually the unsung heroes of victories, but they're much more overtly blamed for some losses. If a goalkeeper makes a mistake, there's nobody behind him to repair the damage; if he saves, he just did, why he's there. The only exception is the penalty shoot-out, where the roles are just the opposite: scoring there is obvious, missing a penalty is a tragic error, and saving one can make a keeper a real hero, at least for the day. From the next day or league match on, everything is back to the usual ways.

Fortunately, there are many fans, who remember the greatest goalkeeping efforts. Let this video stand here as a song for usually unsung heroes - what song could be better for this than what I like to call simply the best song ever.

(Yeah, the creator missed the last sounds - nothing is perfect.)

Goalkeepers in the video in order: Gordon Banks (England vs. Brazil, "The Save of the Century"), Manuel Neuer (Schalke vs. Duisburg), Peter Schmeichel (Man U vs. Rapid), Hans-Jörg Butt (Leverkusen vs. Hertha), René Higuita (Colombia vs. England, "The Scorpion Kick Save"), Gianluigi Buffon (Parma vs. Inter), Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool vs. Arsenal), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid vs. ???), Petr Cech (Czech Rep. vs. Holland), Manuel Neuer (Schalke vs. Porto), Jussi Jaaskelainen (Bolton vs. Aston Villa), Edwin van der Sar (Holland vs. Czech Rep.), David Seaman (Arsenal vs. Sheffield Utd.), Manuel Neuer (Schalke vs. Hamburg), Shay Given (Newcastle Utd. vs. ???), Antti Niemi (Southampton vs. Aston Villa), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid vs. Atl. Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus vs. Milan), Manuel Neuer (Schalke vs. Stuttgart), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid vs. Sevilla)

haiku

I don't know what to write here,
I'm not creative,
But I sure like Breaking Bad.

Completely Useless Post

It seems that I'm the only one here who has no life, since I'm the only one who has already experimented with blogging.


I used Blogspot but soon realised that nobody is interested in my life, so I changed to Tumblr. Usually I post pictures and music and sometimes one-sentence long details of my super-exciting life.

colourfulillusions.tumblr.com --> this is my microblog, but it's still far from interesting, so I might give up soon and start skateboarding or playing chess.


Anyway, here is a picture of a wombat, the coolest animal in the universe!


Have a good night!

 

 

"People always talk about the weather"

When people try to avoid the tension that silence can cause during a conversation...
When people say something just for the sake of saying something...
When people feel they have no chance to find common interest with their speaking partner...
... they always talk about the weather.

And the Hungarian attitude goes like this: 

"Ohh in summer you wish it was cooler 

And in winter you wish it was milder 

Conditions - they are never in your favour"

Picturing

Instead of writing, I will show you one of my pictures I took on Sunday. It pictures the footprints one left after climbing out of the pool and (part of) my figure.

Go with the flow!

I've never tried blogging before but I accept this challange! I was "always" interested in the topic, therefore I wrote an 8-page-long essay on the difference between the old and new diary culture. I shortly introduced the "history of blogging" and the history of diary writing which goes back to the 17th century, when Samuel Pepys wrote his personal diary, which included detailed information of the London fire in 1666.

So why am I babbling about the history of diaries? If you're still awake after my first paragraph I kinda get the taste  of blogging. No, I don't. I'm babbling about diaries because I'm a true believer of them. I have 4 or 5 little books at home, which are full of memories and thoughts. Now I see the guy-peers' face as looking strange while reading my blog-entry thinking 'what a girlish-romantic soul is she'. Apart from compulsory writing tasks at school I think I love writing but just for myself. Why? Because it's girlish stuff!!! Just kidding, but I believe that blog-writing reached a professional level these days as we can see the wide variety of them, so the judging of personal blog-entires and online diaries is not my task because it's far too subjective. I personally read some blogs - which I think became obvious for you after my presentations on blogs and blogging - but I don't write one because as you can see I easily take a private, personal tone, I start to speak about myself and at that very moment I become vulnerable, especially in the online universe.

SO, I think this entry satisfies the task "write your first blog-entry" but it doesn't provide an intellectual supply for you. I promise I'll try my best and find a concept for my entries. As the title suggest I just went with the flow of my Monday-afternoon-mind, which is quite tired and Mondayish!

Cheers!

P.S.: I think I will delete this entry after reading it again :D