#twibbon Competition – how many can you fit?
OK, some of you may be wondering what the hell I’m playing at with these #twibbons on my picture, well – it’s all @karmadillo‘s fault – honest! She started it!
Basically, we’re seeing how many #twibbons we can fit onto one image – This was where I stood this morning, 5-4 to me. However I’ve just spotted that she’s upped the ante – I need to get another three! Three bloody #twibbons goddamit!! Aw, let’s just say bye-bye to my ugly behatted mug and be done with it!
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Update:
Okie dokie, that’s currently 8-7 to me (although what the heck we look like I have no idea!?!) but there is a serious point to this post. I found the twibbon site via @BullyingUK and, if you only get one twibbon to raise awareness make sure it’s theirs.
Bullying is an insiduous and awful way to treat another person and the work that BullyingUK does through outreach and their website bullying.co.uk is vital. If you can just grab one of their #twibbons, either the big one you can see over my image (just!) or the little one in the corner of Sas’s then I’d be very grateful, truly!
Of course if you can pop them a little donation too that’d be swell! Or, if you’re planning to do some online shopping head over to buy.at.bullying and they’ll get a donation from your favourite store!
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Update 2:
OK, ceasefire was called last night at 8 #twibbons each, but I’d just like to finish by saying, support @BullyingUK!!!!
(please!?)
Welcome to Twitbook
Has it really been less than a month since I saw the way the wind was blowing and asked “Since when did twitter become facebook“?
That was a post aimed squarely at the creators of the Spymaster game, although a (dis)honourable mention went out to twitterscope – who seem to have changed their webpage…
But I will say this for the Spymaster team. They listened to the public and gave people the option to opt-out. So much kudos goes to them for that. I signed up for it and almost completely forgot my rage. But recently I’ve seen the one thing that really annoyed me about facebook. It’s infected twitter and gone round the twitterverse faster than swine flu. The inane quizzes have hit twitter.
I realise that people look for this sort of thing when they’re bored but surely, with the sheer scale of twitter, it’s possible to find someone tweeting about something that you’re interested in – then all you need to do is drop them a message then Bang! And the dirt is gone… Whoops, sorry! I mean ta-da! You have a new friend who shares at least one interest with you. Maybe you can learn something from them, maybe they can learn something from you…
I know one thing though. Your followers aren’t going to learn anything about you from these arbitrary quizzes that you’ve taken online in 30 seconds. I won’t learn anything about you from the What animal are you most like? quiz and, unless I’m going to eat you (and believe me that’s not going to happen!), the What flavour ice-cream quiz is no use either.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh. There is one quiz that I’d like to see people take – the What Muppet are you? quiz. But that’s only if the answer that comes up every time is “A right proper muppet who keeps clogging other people’s streams up with this pointless shoite!”
Of course once one game arrived then it became open season. I’ve noticed a few tweets starting up for the 140 Mafia game. Thankfully I haven’t had many, but it’s only a matter of time.
I hate to be the one to say “I told you so”, but I’m sure I may have mentioned the PirateNinjaMafia War – lo and behold – it came true!
Now, do you think I should start talking about the “Everyone in the world give Ethan a fiver” game that I can feel in my water? It’s coming – it’s just over the horizon… I’m sure of it!
And now I read on Mashable that someone’s ported Pokes to twitter… And I quote from the Poke.ly website: Poke.ly was launched with the aim of providing users with a new form of expression in the social space!
New form of expression!?! Is that like the iPhone’s “new features”? New to the product but been around for years elsewhere? I’m a huge fan of Open Source, and the fact that twitter has such an open attitude to use of its API is fantastic. There are some great apps out there that tie into twitter and use the information in a fun and constructive way.
But all these pointless (anti) social networking games are just annoying. Please people, take them to one platform and keep them there, let the rest of us have somewhere we can share thoughts.
I’ll be over on friendfeed…
The National Tea Party
OK, I’ve spent too many posts whinging about this and that, so I’d like to make a more lighthearted announcement.
Today, ladies and gentlemen, I joined The National Tea Party via the NTP Twibe page, courtesy of the Pembrokeshire Tea Co, who are also known for their Emergency Tea Response Unit.
For those people who don’t know, the European Parliamentary elections are being held this week (Thursday 4 June 2009 if you’re not sure of the date!), and in some places in the UK local elections are also being held. It’s quite concerning at the moment after the well publicised MPs Expenses row as there are so many people disillusioned with the democratic process, so anything that encourages people can only be a good thing!
So, brew up, sit back and don’t forget to vote!
And for those who are interested – It’s Lemon and Honey in Earl Grey – without fail. Anything else is just a heathen abomination and therefore wrong! Yes, that includes you Milk adders too. I can only say “HOW VERY DARE YOU!“
#babyphotos
OK, @FizzyDuck got me thinking with photos like this one. How would people like to play the “Who’s child/baby photo is this?” game?
Of course I’d need to get a prize of some sort, so the question is – what would be a suitable prize, and – more importantly – would people be up for it?
If there’s enough support then I’ll be happy to run it but it depends entirely on you! If @BullyingUK are OK with the idea I’d like to tie this in with raising awareness for the great work that they do in supporting children and young people (like we used to be!) through what can be a hugely difficult time.
So, if you’re interested in joining in, or would like to suggest a (sensible) prize please drop me a message on twitter (@efan78), leave a comment here on the blog, or email the special address: photo@efan78.com!
#Eurovision, thank you twitter!
So, that’s it. Another year over with congratulations to Norway with their entry Alexander Rybek, and (if you believe the way the results were reported this morning) the UK were shat on from a great height again. But you see, I don’t agree with this idea. I don’t think that Jade should have won just because the song was written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. In fact I think that’s probably why I don’t think that It’s My Time was a Eurovision hit. You see it’s just too much like a song from a show. It reminds me of With One Look or Tell Me On a Sunday.
That’s no bad thing, it managed to get lots of votes, and the Europe-wide campaign that Jade and Andrew did certainly seems to have helped so well done to them, douze points for effort!
But that wasn’t the point of this post, you see this year I decided to spend the evening at home. Andy was in from work and (because he was up early in the morning) wasn’t going out so I stayed in with him. Now Andy’s one of the type that I hate when it comes to Eurovision – You know who you are! You sit there and spit vitriolic bile all through the run up. You see someone who enjoys the show and understands that the comedic put downs are meant to be just that, comedic, and you decide to deride them. And no, “Eurovision’s shit hur hur hur!” is not a comic comment, and “You must be really sad wanting to watch that” doesn’t count as witty banter.
I don’t like football, planting myself in front of the TV for 90 mins (plus breaks) every week, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week doesn’t interest me. 22 men running round a garden, kicking a bag of wind and earning enough each year to pay the staffing costs for my whole department makes me more angry than excited. But I know what the football fans are feeling, you see I am a Eurovision fan.
For one week of every year I know that a spectacle is being finalised. I know that Europe-wide (and in Israel & Azerbaijan too) acts are preparing, votes are being cast, sequins are being sewn and the wheels of the ESC roll on in preperation for that week. I know that, for that week, I will have 7 or 8 hours of TV that I will enjoy. Yes, even the songs I don’t like I can still enjoy because I can let lose my inner bitch.
So, this year I was at home instead of the party that I wanted to go to, with a partner who openly scorns the show in public and yet avidly watches it when in the house with me. What can I do? Last year I was able to have a text conversation with one of my friends, but too much of that was spent explaining the rules, why don’t they read out all the scores? Why aren’t Ireland in it anymore? What, there are semi finals now? And so on.
But this year was different, I’d seen people watching Britain’s Got Talent using the hashtag #BGT and I’d tweeted through the semis using #Eurovision (which was what others were using it seemed via the trending topics) so I set myself up a few tabs (one with a Eurovision search, one with a search set for @ThoroughlyGood who I’d been tweeting with earlier and who was a great host! and one for my own @replies) and sat down to enjoy.
And do you know what? It was great fun! I tweeted at people, I was DM’d, I made sweeping statements and got feedback instantly, I saw other people’s comments and answered back. It was just like being at a Eurovision party with all my friends, except I didn’t need to dress up or have to find my way home at silly o’clock in the morning.
So, thank you to all the people that joined in with the twitter Eurovision party, and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again for Oslo 2010!
I’ve got a semi coming…
So, the whole of the Tyne Tees area is abuzz with antici…pation. Last night’s football match caused tears, cheers and so much emotion by some of the people I work with.
Then this morning they chatted about it, the fact that both teams could still fall out of the premier league, they dissected the match, the goals, the performances. And then looked at me askance, tutted and said they couldn’t believe it. Why? Because I’ve just been able to buy the Eurovision 2009 album!
I enjoy Eurovision, not because it’s political, not because of the tension of the voting or the fact that I hope the UK can win and certainly not for the musical merit! I like Eurovision because it’s fun. It’s a camp, dramatic, over the top celebration of sequins, lights music and dance. Yes it’s a gay stereotype, as is my obsession with Kylie, but that’s WHY these things are sterotypes, because so many of us do love it.
So yes, Sam may have decided to go out with her friends in disgust, Lee may be avoiding the house and remember that he wanted to spend the evening at his mothers, and Andy may watch “Cops on Cameras” or whatever shoite’s on Men & Motors/Bravo tonight, but I’ll be there, watching the portable in my bedroom just as I did when I was a kid. A leper, an outcast, a stereotype.
But I’ll be having fun!!!
If you’re going to be watching the semi-finals this year and you’re in the UK they’re on BBC3 from 20.00 (8pm) please feel free to join in with my tweets (you’ll spot me as the person taking the piss out of everyone and everything).
And when I tweet on Saturday you’ll be able to spot me by the vitriolic bile I’ll be spewing about Jade and the “serious” entry that Andew Lloyd Webber wrote this year. (You’d never tell that he writes musicals rather than songs for a show like Eurovision would you! >:-| )
(Don’t worry, I have the kiss of death for Eurovision songs, whenever I say I like one it fails miserably. So I’m not going to name my favourite song this year…)
