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Like Facebook’s timeline,

it’s time to rewind:

realign, reassign, recombine

the DNA from scene of my crimes.

[And yes, I'm doing this in rhyme.]

Let’s start from Cloud 9:

From Earth's birth, I remember last year when-

Dishing here with Red Sox fans at college in 2010;

Now living in fear of not paying the rent.

 I used to stick this in my “quotes” store:

But I realized more here-

to truly hear=

only you can adhere

to the words you pioneer. So:

My ex-wallpaper on my desktop.

The fresh wallpaper to be next swapped.

“This is Not the Net You Knew“:

The new Twitter frittered the nightly news.

We paid Steve Jobs his knightly dues.

Google ‘s newest doodle ooh’s-

while Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich stews.

It’s sugar, and spice, and everything nice-

Thus, a New Year's resolution: cure sweet tooth.

 But it comes down to stop sugarcoating the truth-

a countdown to a year with all & nothing to  lose.

Hi, Peter. What’s happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.

One of those short, succulent, & simple movies.

So was my visit to the MoMA.

First stop was here:

'Standard Deviations: Types and Families in Contemporary Design'

Integration of technology into the human race has been a curious journey from the beginning of accumulation in the human pool for talent. I’ve never been a self-proclaimed computer fanatic well-versed in ‘leet speak‘, but the more we marry the digital species, a kind of interracial fascination has sprouted over the years.

There’s still my obsession with words- but until now, I’ve never studied cyber language closely. Ever wondered how those Microsoft fonts were designed (my favorite still has to be Jokerman; certainly had  too much time on my hands experimenting as a child..)? For machines by humans, of course. Which is exactly why I find the following ironic:

"Never send a human to do a machine's job." Matrix moment, anyone?

Geek's version of fun: playing with typefaces.

I suppose in a way, writing  is advertising itself. In the creative process especially, less is truly more. Writing poetry over the years, I found myself shunning and dropping articles (“a”/”‘the”) left and right. Copywriting and logo branding are perfect examples of ‘beauty is nothing without brains’. Why else would Diet Coke give its face a makeover, or JCPenney vomit their words of girls being too pretty to do homework?

Also, I learned a new word of the day:

A "pangram": A sentence that contains all letters of the alphabet. Sure beats playing Scrabble.

And reunited with an ancient childhood friend:

Wow. Anyone remember these?

On to the next stop:

'Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects'

You may have heard of Google’s new app “Newsmap“:

Google's Newsmap feature.

When it first came out, I was a little irritated- seeing as I had mentally concocted that idea a year before (guess it pays to patent!). The only difference is that I hadn’t thought of the color coding (in addition, instead of providing links to articles, I thought that my ideal version of a news article would list under 10 bullet points of relevant statistics, facts, & quotes).

I’m glad that communication has become so much more diversely interactive- like Chris Woebken’s billboard housing bats and translating bat lingo for humans:

Finally, maybe we'll get to see Batman.

Or Jack Schulze’s “Here and There”- a 3D spin off Foursquare (which reminds me of this futuristic scene from “Inception”)

Dialogue really has transformed- from written to oral to digital. Think this image really best sums it up:

So, what’s happening? We are talking. Maybe about TPS reports, but in terms of social media, the constant chatter that drives the majority of us to communicate with each other is overlapping. I think it comes down to how much you want to say, and what truly is important- minimally speaking, just listening.

How do YOU want to define yourself?

The question remains, especially in this jobless economy: Do you want to let the world know who you are, without the bravado of vanity metrics?

“Joanna: Yeah. You know what, yeah, I do. I do want to express myself, okay. And I don’t need 37 pieces of flair to do it.”

[And as for tomorrow, I think I'll be okay...]

Got Milk? (For creative juices that have stopped flowing, that is.)

July 27th was a Wednesday.

At the end of a workday, a bobcat walked to Barnes and Noble’s (which reminds me-I’ll miss my childhood spent at Borders), and met up with a few other Batesies at one of her favorite culinary spots in Chelsea. They took the 6 up to Central Park to see Imelda May in action:

In the time we bobcats roamed last night, we discussed our professional goals (real world talk…). In the never-ending quest to “search for ourselves” as we get older, I now have many young bobcats asking me for career advice. For the ones who haven’t decided yet, I first show them this video:

Then, I remind them that’s what the BCDC‘s for, but I’m afraid I can only offer a simple solution: you have to love what you do. Just as you want a brand or person to be ‘authentic’, only can you be the best at your job. Ever since the age of 9, I knew I always wanted to write ( I’ll probably post a story or two from my early pre-adolescent phase, if I rack up the guts to), analyze something (warning: I am the worst person to see a movie with), and simply, hang around people .

The only advice I give, however, is to really check for cover letter typos (especially when listening to a ’90s party anthem you haven’t heard in a long time). Because there’s nothing more embarrassing than:

“I can be reached at *insert phone # here*. “

and writing instead:

“I can be breached at *insert phone # here*.”

Oh, privacy issues these days….Speaking of which, like many others, I’ve developed a slight obsession with Google-  from Facebook to Google+, and Firefox to Google Chrome (that said: move over, Jersey Shore, because Commercial Kings is in).  Maybe it’s a sign, but the whole world is googling (well, probably except China).

July 27th was a Wednesday. 

At the end of a workday, a bobcat’s story concluded happily.

Wafels & Dinges: We finally meet!

Social Media, or “Antisocial” Media?

We live in a social network. Whether it’s which dorm or house you reside on campus, which professors you have, or even where you sit in Commons- instantaneously makes us all part of the “Bates bubble“. We hold this truth to be self-evident: that the velocity regardless of however fast the individual travels, our fate is inevitable. We’re bound to cross paths, and I mean, “worlds collide” {Here’s a “Seinfeld”-ian example that reminds us why we can’t live alone}

It’s only recently that so many people who can’t stop talking (especially businesses to market products) have taken it to a whole new level: the Internet. As we “twitter” and fritter away throughout our lives, it fascinates me that the Web has become a virtual chat-room for all to come and go to express themselves freely- although this certainly does entail harmful “antisocial” consequences as well, like the spawning of the privacy debate on Facebook , the suicide of Tyler Clementi, and most recently, this WikiLeaks controversy.

And of course, as Bates is always a beehive for boundless buzz, a dialogue about dialogue is to be expected. As part of the “Race in a Post-Human World” panel (for those including me who read “post-human” and said, “What in the world is that?”, click here)l, Bates is hosting a series of lecturers who will talk about online identities. This evening, author Lisa Nakamura is to discuss the roles that race and sexuality play in the cyberterrain.

Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay. After all, I am writing this blog. Because as the storyline goes, “you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”