Creative Social Media On The Cheap

Think Like A Musician

Musicians amaze me. A lot like a good chef, they are consumed with creating wonderful things. On the flip side, they need to expand and massage their fans, satisfy them and bring in revenue. The similarities are unique; a restaurant also needs to expand and massage its customers, satisfy them and bring in revenue.

With only 10% of affordable fine-dining restaurants using social media, I thought an introduction to how musicians have completely embraced this new communication world would be of benefit.

Let’s look at how a New England based musician is growing his fan base and supporting his family, predominantly by using social media.

Joe Iadanza, Musician

Joe Iadanza, based in Long IslandNY, has been described as Dylan-esque. You can listen to him here: Joe Iadanza With a critically released CD and an upcoming tour in the Netherlands, how is Joe increasing his fan base through social media?

Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. Feedburner. ilike.com. YouTube. Flickr. thesixtyone.com. and, a dynamic website.

I follow Joe; have been for a little while now. He’s a friend of another musician friend of mine who’s just jumping into social media. Everyday, Joe says one, two or three short messages to his fans over a few of his social networks.

Yesterday, it was about being stuck in traffic at 1 mph, heading to a show on Cape Cod – oh, and by the way, don’t go over the bridge he was on and that he really had to pee. Earlier in the week he had announced that show. Late that night, on his way back, he let everyone know how much fun he had playing to that particular crowd. He’s engaged. He’s producing compelling content with pictures from shows. He’s telling a story about what he does. That keeps his fan base interested – and they share his music with their friends.

I wonder often how many customers a restaurant could bring in this way. In the morning the chef gets a message out with a picture – of him checking that fine fresh new fish in – and in the message perhaps saying you never want to buy a fish who’s eyes aren’t right and that doesn’t smell of the sea. Later in the afternoon, the sommelier might take a 30 second video and send it out – of him pouring a glass of that great white wine that would match perfectly with the fish the chef just bought. And then, just before dinner’s staff pre-meal, they take another picture – or maybe a quick video of pre-meal – talking about and showing that great fish entrée, with the wait staff tasting it and the wine prior to service.

That would bring me in. Heck – I’d hit that share button on Facebook and Twitter and send it to my friends.

The social web is waiting for your creativity. Your future guests want to know more about you. Your existing fans want a little love and attention. Its game time, folks.

Chalkboarder.com offers consulting and strategic social media planning and execution. We are adept at providing human resource solutions to your social media needs.

You know what? I thought the same thing ...

You know what? I thought the same thing – about the ’shy’ bit! But you are right. Why care? Hugs. Am still kinda maudlin and wet eyed. So many wishes on Facebook – that too through the generations! You know what am saying! I realized that while it feels great to receive birthday wishes, I feel happiest only when the people I expect it from remember and wish. Thanks again, also for that lovely blog post – my mom is the only other person who refers to me as an angel

More about my yesterday later.  Love ya lots. Ok – couldn’t resist this pic. it is only because I always think of you whenever I see it.

Thank you, Corinne!

First things first...let's connect.

I updated my Mixi page tonight. You can find me here.*

You’re probably coming from Twitter, but if not, take a look at http://twitter.com/2nihon.

Are you on Facebook? I am too. http://facebook.com/2nihon.

Do you have a blog about Japan or the Japanese language? Email me or leave a comment and I’ll add you to my blogroll.

Let’s connect!

*Sorry, I do not email Mixi invites to anyone who does not have a Japanese cell phone. You must have one in order to sign up for Mixi, no exceptions. Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.

Parents who embrace technology instil fear into their child

This post is inspired by the following video I saw on The Onion 3 weeks ago:

For my part, I have also been noticing the distressing fact that a couple of my friends had befriended one of their parents on Facebook in recent months. Thank goodness my parents are technophobes.

I still remembered clearly that a friend’s status went like this when he befriended his father:

I just added my dad on facebook.

Followed by these comments:

Dad: Hello friends of !

Friend: Hi Mr Tan! : )

Dad: Hello, are you a good friend of my son?

[…]

I can appreciate parents who keep up with technology and know what are Youtube and social networking sites; nevertheless, no matter how close you are to your family members, you would still like to retain a measure of privacy from them. Even my little brother would not let me on to his Facebook as he has this ~secret life~ going on that he don’t want his sister knowing since she will go tattling to daddy and mommy. Indeed, he knows his sister very well.

The situation would probably be different by the time people of my age become parents of teenagers because we have been in their shoes so we are likely to be more sensitive to the privacy issues that may arise (and it could also be due to the fact that we have things in our lives that we don’t want them to know as well). However, the current parents of my generation do not see Facebook the way we see it; most of them are likely thinking in glee that “Oh goody, now I have this tool that I can use to monitor my son / daughter and know the company he / she hangs out with!”.

Hence, I have come up with the following possible options and questions that may arise in the unlikelihood that I find myself receiving a “Friend Request” from one of my parents.

1. Ignore it. Be prepared to answer “Why haven’t you accepted me on Facebook, are you hiding something?”

2. Accept it and put them under “Limited Profile”. Then wait for “How come I can’t view your photos on Facebook? I know you have them ‘cause I have seen you looking at them on your laptop.”

3. Accept it. Get ready to answer questions such as “I thought you were with Lizzie yesterday? Who are those boys with you?”

4. Accept it then delete him / her after some time and have this thrown in your face:

source: www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com

With that, I would like to introduce you to this entertaining site: Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook.

Here are some posts that made me LOLed in real life.

source: www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com

source: www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com

source: www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com

36 Sylvanas Windrunners and counting

Posting two blog entries in one day is very uncharacteristic of me, but my shock upon searching my name on Facebook requires it.

There are – count them - 36 people named Sylvanas Windrunner on Facebook (the search results yielded 45 people, but only 36 are actually named Sylvanas Windrunner).

I don’t know whether to be flattered or afraid. I should be used to this by now since Googling my own name yields a lot of results, but the Facebook thing just really took me by surprise. I mean, 19 Cairne Bloodhoofs, 22 Kael’thas Sunstriders, 21 Jaina Proudmoores, 7 Varian Wrynns,  and only one Lor’themar Theron (is that even really you, Lor?)…but then again, there are more than 500 people results for Thrall and over 140 for Arthas Menethil (didn’t bother checking how many of those were actually named “Thrall” or “Arthas Menethil”), so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

That said, the slight inclination I had to sign up for a Facebook account just flew out the window and disappeared into the Plaguelands.

The Inner Monlogue vs. Internet Narrative

Breeder only got 5 hours of sleep last night – look out!

Breeder can’t wait until the moment AFTER her test on Monday.

Breeder just got a visit from a friendly local policeman….guess who dialed 911 while his mama was loading the dishwasher?

Breeder ’s just happy to be here.

Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, I don’t even have to speak to my friends to know what is going on with their lives. I can tell you who is engaged, who is pregnant, who got fired and who went to Target today just from looking at my page for thirty minutes.  It’s strangely intimate and distancing. 

I currently have nearly one hundred and fifty friends on Facebook.  Many I would love to go out for coffee or a beer or spend time chatting on the phone. Several, worked with me or went to elementary school with me and frankly I have nothing in common with anymore.  Some are my best friends in the world. Some I have never met face to face – but adore just the same.

I wonder sometime if the constant writing in the third person in choppy sentences isn’t harming writing.  I wonder about the next generation and their ability to create stunning prose. 

And then I go to class.  My creative writing workshop is populated with mostly younger people.  Some are just kids straight out of high school – eleven years my junior.  Since it is a workshop, we spend a lot of time reading each other’s work.  While there is certainly a difference between the people who have been writing for a few years and newer writers but I have been pleasantly surprised to have read nothing out right bad.

Nothing.  Everyone can improve, including the old geezer, your’s truly, but nothing that I just didn’t want to finish.

In fact, I’ve read many very moving lines, some magical phrases. 

Breeder is inspired by that.

Annoyance: People who post "TMI" on a facebook status

ok listen, people. facebook isnt a place where you can post personal things about your life and “whoa is me” bullshit. it SCREAMS “I NEED ATTENTION!” and its quite sad. no one wants to hear how youre having “the worst day of her entire life :’-( ” or “its official…. ive been heartbroken…. AGAIN”. all i want to know is what you think about top model and maybe some other irrelevant information about your day. maybe a bum spit in your mouth? that would be cool. but honestly… i dont need to know that your dog died.

Is Twitter Worth a Billion Bucks? - (Source: BusinessWeek)

Twitter’s latest funding round values the microblogging site at $1 billion. Can the company become profitable enough—or profitable at all—to justify that valuation?

By Stephen Baker

Twitter’s home crowd can be pretty tough. When reports emerged on Sept. 24 that the microblogging service was close to securing $100 million in funding that valued the company at $1 billion, flurries of 140-character jeers flooded the service. "Nutty valuation," wrote @Nicklippis. "I’ve seen this movie before," twittered @ericclovesbacon. "It starred eToys.com and ended in fail."

True, a billion dollars for a company with virtually no revenue recalls the excesses of the dot-com era. The logic behind Twitter’s valuation comes straight from the very same school. It views Twitter less as a single company than as the base for a whole realm of communication and data. "It is an increasingly important platform for business and consumers," says Seth Levine, managing director of Foundry Group.

The bet, quite simply, is that Twitter can become enormous—a rich new source of business intelligence, a channel to reach targeted consumers around the world, and a hothouse for marketing and news startups. The risk, of course, is that Twitter may stall along the way and be remembered in a couple of years as a quirky fad. Or it may end up in the belly of one of its neighbors, Facebook or Google (GOOG).

But for investors eager for a chunk of the next great thing, how many other possibilities are out there? "Once every five years or so, a company comes along that has nearly unlimited potential in terms of worldwide users," says Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital. "Five years ago, it was Facebook. Today, Twitter appears to be the ‘next big thing’ in social networking."

With the $100 million in new investments, Twitter has plenty of shopping money to extend its reach. Acquisitions, observers say, are likely to focus on two hot spots: search and marketing intelligence that companies can use to learn more about customers and potential markets. Twitter’s funding was reported on Sept. 24 by The Wall Street Journal.

Harnessing the Real-Time Web

Click here for MORE: Is Twitter Worth a Billion Bucks? – BusinessWeek

Hypo-tweetic.

Journal of the American Medical Association on trainee doctors:

Over half of 78 US medical schools studied had reported cases of students posting unprofessional content online.

One in 10 of these contained frank violations of patient confidentiality.

Most were blogs, including one on Facebook, containing enough clinical detail that patients could potentially be identified.

File Under: Its all fun and games until your doctor is tweeting about your strange and painful rash.

Continuing Facebook Updates

I’ve been working on facebook for most of the night. Mainly because they have games that eat up my time; however, I have managed to do something constructive.

I’ve managed to create my own group, but I need to figure out how to make a link for it. What does all this mean? It means that DialysisGuy can now have fans that actively participate online with him. Why am I talking in the third person?

Basically, if someone really likes either my Youtube channel or blog, they can go to facebook, click on DialysisGuy and sign up on the group. As a member of the group, they basically have forum privileges. If your interested, check the side bar.

Is Social Media Worth Your Time?

Every one – from politicians, businesses, musicians, celebrities and many other groups of people – uses social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking outlets to spread their message, build their businesses and connect with others.

Do they know something we don’t?

Networking, whether online or offline, is a great use of time when done properly. As with anywhere you spend your time, knowing why you are doing it, how you will measure success and having a plan is the best approach.

With that said, I jumped in with both feet last year with the guidance of a social media expert, and I have found clients, joint venture partners, speaking engagements and other great connections through various social media outlets. I am a member of more social media outlets than I can count, but I currently focus on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. While I am not an expert in social media, here are five reasons to take some time to learn the benefits of social media.

1. There Is No Direct Cost

There is no direct cost unless you opt for an upgrade, if one is offered. I haven’t paid for an upgrade and have steadily increased my list to include over 1000 followers between just three social media outlets, and without much effort.

2. Build Your Business by Connecting With Peers

Are you interested in finding joint ventures, affiliates, guest experts or other peers you can bounce ideas off of? In the last few weeks alone, I have located one large joint venture partner and have had several other partnership opportunities cross my desk. Business owners just like you are using social media to connect with others who are interested in using your articles, hosting you as a guest expert on teleseminars, webinars and live events, and even creating projects together!

3. Build Your Business by Following Reporters You Are Targeting

Would an article written by a certain reporter make your year? Follow them on Twitter or Facebook and see what is of interest to them and what they are writing about. You don’t know what golden nugget you’ll find by following them online that may open the door at the right time. Follow them and invite them to follow you as well! Or with LinkedIn you can find out how many degrees you are from them. You may surprise yourself by being only one or two degrees away from your target!

4. Showcase Your Expertise, Build Your Platform and Attract New Clients

Social media is an interesting animal. While many people use it to grow their businesses, you must be mindful about outright promotions. Generally speaking, heavy marketing of your products and services on these sites is a big no-no. Here’s how I do it. I’ll post something like this: “Just got off the phone with social networking guru Nancy Marmolejo. Now I’m off to finish writing my sales page for the Business Breakthrough Series.” People who are intrigued will check you out and may end up deciding to follow you and … bingo! They have just entered your world!

5. Reach Large Audiences

The world is your oyster in social media. There are only a few businesses that are truly limited by geographic boundaries, especially if you are in the information marketing business. Being active on social networking sites eliminates geographic boundaries and allows you to reach a vast number of people from all over the world. If you have products and services that can be purchased by anyone in the world, being active in social media is an absolute must for you. I recently held a teleseminar with people from over 10 countries in attendance, all from the comfort of my home office! And my sweat pants!

So, is social media worth the time? It depends. Social media is absolutely the wave of the future, and you will need to know something about it at some point. However, whether you work it into your plan for 2009 depends on your goals. If you have a goal of increasing your reach to prospects either locally or internationally, you can do that quite effectively through social media. However, if you can cannot and will not commit to learning how to “tweet” on Twitter or communicate on Facebook or use your connections on LinkedIn, it will not be worth your time.

My advice to clients when they are just starting out is to select one social media outlet, whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, and master it before jumping into every outlet possible. You obviously need to schedule time for connecting, so select the social networking outlets that will benefit you the most.

Now that I am experiencing the financial results of my online efforts, I understand why this is such a great use of my time and I’m hooked!

HALO Media Entertainment: New Online Programming to Launch in South Florida

For Immediate Release

Contact: Myya Passmore

Media Relations Manager

(305) 467-7506

mnpassmore@gmail.com

Old Media Learns Interactive Tricks

Miami, FL—September 1, 2009—You will never look at entertainment television in South Florida the same thanks to the recent craze in social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo, just to name a few.  Today, Entrepreneur Jude Charles, announced a new entertainment media company that will show free programs, as well as produce, sell and distribute made-for-internet and broadcast television programming.  Halo Media Entertainment will feature three online entertainment shows, with content ranging from major and indie artist interviews, fashion shows, promotional events, lifestyle, documentaries, reality TV, poetry, and much more. Production has already begun and will be based out of Miami, Florida.

“There are a lot of copy cat entertainment shows out there. I wanted to be able to produce something different, not seen on T.V., by taking a leadership role to showcase that internet videos and web series can be just as entertaining as traditional television, if not better,” states Jude Charles.

Among the three online programs are “HaloTV”, “Mobile Mike TV”, and “Access Vibe”.  “Halo TV” is an online web series, hosted by entertainment host, Myya Passmore, covering the latest fashion, music, and lifestyle events in South Florida. The objective of “Halo TV” is to provide attention to local events that may not obtain visibility from other broadcast media. “Mobile Mike TV” is hosted by popular South Florida promoter Mobile Mike.  With his high energy and creativity, he takes you around the world as he hosts daily live remote appearances to many of the largest special events. “Access Vibe” catches up with the latest celebrities vacationing, working, or even partying in the beautiful city of Miami. Host, LaeAnn Amos, gives you VIP access as you get to know some of your favorite celebrities on a more personal level, such as what type of music they love to listen to, the latest clothes in their closet or even where they like to wine and dine.

While producing creative entertainment content, the company plans to target the music, fashion, and lifestyle audiences, while delivering innovative branding and offering entertainment opportunities to leading brands and advertisers. You can find Halo Media Entertainment’s work distributed on the following websites: YouTube, Vimeo, BlipTV, Facebook, OpenFilm, Twitter, iTunes, Tumblr, MySpace, Word Press, Blog Spot, iSeeColor, Flickr, and Heavy. Through these websites H.M.E.’s programmings have accumulated over 150,000 views, with the goal of accumulating 1 million views by the end of 2009.

About Jude Charles:

Jude Charles is the Director of Photography and Founder of Halo Media Entertainment. His stardom in entertainment came from an opportunity given by South Florida promoter, Mobile Mike, who gave him the responsibility to produce his bi-weekly show.  His extensive resume includes The Mike Sherman Show, HBO/Irwin Entertainment, The City of Pompano Beach, The Clevelander Hotel, Swept Away TV, Broward County School Board, and The Write Side Poets.

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Secret #23: Facebook Yourself

Unless you’ve spent the last five years in a crater on the moon, you know that Facebook is the hottest thing to hit the Web since porn.  Well, and of course there’s Twitter, too.  The two sites seem to be joined at the hip in a kind of social networking/marketing pas de deux, but that’s because they work.  You can use social networking sites to grow your writing business and attract work you might not have pursued otherwise.

Very simply, starting a Facebook page is an instant way to connect with hundreds of people and increase your personal contacts.  I was resistant to it because I don’t have the time to cruise around and play Mafia Wars, but when a client finally nagged me (thank you, Jen!) into Facebooking myself, I reconnected with friends as far back as the sixth grade.  By starting a personal Facebook page, you can let the world know you’re a freelance writer.   This is valuable because there is a great deal of prestige associated with being a professional writer.  It’s one of those things most people wish they could do but can’t or won’t.

An even better way to leverage Facebook is to start a page for your writing business.  This lets you baldly promote yourself and invite people to become fans.  You can link to online portfolio samples, use the page as a temporary business website until you get your site launched, and probably find a lot of key contacts in your field of writing who have pages of their own (Facebook has more than 200 million users, not all of them active).  Into this category also falls Twitter, the 140-character micro-blogging annoyance that, despite my best efforts, has become HUGE.  Why don’t I like it?  Well, because I think it’s inane to share every move of your day with strangers.  I’ve long thought of launching my own spinoff: Shitter, a micro-blog where you could only post while on the toilet.  Seems just as useful; at least you could type sitting down.

But Twitter is a big deal because it’s mobile and quick and easy.  Now, writing is not an especially mobile profession, so it’s not as useful for a writer as for, say, a trucker.  But if you’re in the field doing research, a few Tweets here and there can grab some attention.  I still prefer Facebook, but since Twitter is free, why not?

Finally, get on LinkedIn.  It’s a professional networking site more aimed at businesspeople and business.  People come there all the time trying to connect with colleagues and find vendors.  Again, it’s free and there’s zero downside to having a presence on the top social networking sites.  If nothing else, you show the world that you’re a savvy pro who knows what the latest tools are.  Branding, baby, branding.

Hate this?  Love it?  Cool.  Tell me at tim@pacificwhim.com.

Social networking via voice chat - how much more can we network?

By Dena T. Smith

Facebook announced that over the next few weeks, members will begin to be able to use voice capabilities that will be integrated into a variety of applications offered by the social networking site (see the article). If this is successful, it will open the door to new possibilities for increased connection between users. No longer would Skype or sites like Myspace be enough all on their own. Whether it’s texting, emailing, facebooking, IMing, or Tweeting, people are already in constant contact with one another. A relatively new phenomenon, however, is voice chatting, even while gaming or surfing the web. For some time now, people have been able to communicate in text while playing online games – even while playing simple card games. Voice communication via a headset that plugs into a gaming system or a computer has not been around for that long and yet has become a central part of most gamers’ and online users’ lives. People can now talk to each other via their gaming systems – when they’re online via Xbox 360, for instance, any other player who’s also online can be reached just as over a phone line.  It seems that there is little activity these days that doesn’t involve listening to someone else’s voice. One important question we might ask is: does this mean that the already minimal amount of alone time that we have, given the myriad technological options already available to us, will be decreased? Or does it just mean that the time we would normally spend on sites like Facebook will be enhanced with voice chatting? In other words, will our vast online networks take up even more of our time or will the method by which we communicate just be altered?

There is a great deal written by social theorists about how our social networks are constructed (see the Blackwell companion) and of the breakdown of face-to-face interaction in modern society.  We talk on the phone and online, often at the expense of meeting up for a cup of coffee.  Some theorists laud face time for its intimacy and deeper connection between individuals. Still others claim that expanding our online networks is good, even if detracts from the amount of time we can meet up in non-virtual time. If our networks are getting so large that even our video games are now played with others, we can chat while we explore virtual realms, we can talk to the hundreds or thousands of friends we have on Facebook with much greater ease than phone-calling, do we still reap the benefits of what Granovetter called “the strentgth of weak ties?” As our networks expand and we communicate with acquaintances as well as those to whom we have close ties much more frequently, what effect will this have on how well we know people? Granovetter suggested (as do many network theorists) that weak ties are good for getting jobs, finding resources, etc., but what if our networks get too big? What if we can talk to so many people in a given day that these connections become meaningless? Perhaps the voice feature will reign us back in and make it so that we selectively chat (via voice) with people we really care about and only use the  text chat feature for everyone else. Finally, it is worth asking what effect this additional tool for online communication will have on the time we spend on other activities. As it is, social networking sites like Facebook take up a great deal of time in order for users to stay connected with even a fraction of their friends. If we can have real conversations as well, how much more time will we dedicate to these types of sites?

Voice Chat Coming to Facebook (at CNN.com)

Social Networks in The Blackwell Comanion to Sociology

Increased Barista Sales through Social Media

Are Your Baristas Rock Stars?

With Coffee Fest Seattle approaching this week, we wanted to share some ideas on how to drive sales in coffee houses using social media.

The explosion of independent espresso and coffee houses across North America in the last ten years is phenomenal. Over the last few years we’ve seen top barista competitions at not only coffee business conventions, but also at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago.

Most independent coffee shops have relied on word-of-mouth, traditional advertising and the ubiquitous buy-ten cards to build their business over the years. There’s a huge opportunity now to jump on social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and increase sales.

How can you use social media to build your coffee business?

We’ve got several ideas. But first, we want to direct you to this article on the ROI and Best Practices of Social Media in Hospitality.

Okay, how do you increase business by making Barista Rock Stars?

• First, set up your own social network accounts, if you haven’t already. We can email you good advice on that if you need it – just click here.
• Market to your customers that you are online in social networks. Use a poster at the counter and get it on your website. Invite them to follow you by saying you’ll announce special deals once a week. By the way – customers should have it easy to enter your virtual door.
• Introduce your talented staff both online and in-store. Ask your staff if they are willing to have a work-related Twitter account, and if they are, share that with your customers.
• Turn your baristas into online Rock Stars. Every customer of yours has a favorite employee on your staff. Encourage your staff that is participating, to build online relationships (using their work Twitter) with their fans. This is all about leverage and we’re going to the next step.
• During the week, take pictures of each baristas specialty drinks and share them online – with the work-Twitter account of the maker. Ask followers to rate them.
• Set up a competition with your customers to vote for the best barista at your shop online – by offering them something valuable. Maybe it’s a week or two of free beverages. But here’s how you have them vote – they vote by bringing their friends who aren’t customers in to sign up for your buy-ten cards (you can keep track by using a pen and paper grid). Post the results daily on your social networks. Make the contest run for a month – as new customers join, they’ll refer their friends! You know the baristas will be encouraging the customers to vote for them and you should offer the winning barista something of value too.

Barista David Sarah Jane Zeke Wed 10 7 12 5 Thu 6 0 9 7

.

Sound like a crazy idea? Sure, you bet. But it’s crazy ideas that create change. We’ve got other suggestions too, like what Starbucks did a few months ago with their free pastry/buy a beverage coupon, shared only on social media. By the way, that promo only cost Starbucks $12,000 and it grossed them $500,000 in one day.

Use your staff – they’re likely young and highly creative. Have a sit-down and ask them for ideas on how to use social media to drive up sales. I’m pretty sure you’ll see positive results.

We’d love your feedback. After all, social media is all about engagement and dialogue. Do you have any great experiences using social media? We’d love to hear about it.

Still not convinced that social media can change your business for the better? Watch this.

Chalkboarder.com offers clients digital community management consulting and services across North America.

Farmville Economics: Risk Adjusted Crop Profitability

It’s clear that my addiction to spreadsheets and Farmville knows no bounds, so as predicted, here is my fifth post on the topic.

Here are the quick links to my first four posts:

• The Personal Economics of Farmville
• The Personal Economics of Farmville, Part 2
• More Farmville Economics
• Farmville Economics: What Price Experience?

The wizards at Zynga have been busy, and with regular updates every week (or even more frequently), a large number of new crops have been introduced.  As the comments on my other posts have become quite demanding, here are two of my original tables, updated for all the new crops (as of September 20, 2009):

Crop Profit / Day Super Berries 900.00 Asparagus 183.00 Sugar Cane 177.00 Peas 176.00 Tomatoes 174.00 Grapes 170.00 Onion 166.00 Sunflowers 165.00 Coffee 162.00 Blackberries 162.00 Blueberries 156.00 Carrots 150.00 Raspberries 132.00 Broccoli 129.00 Cabbage 116.50 Red Wheat 84.67 Aloe Vera 80.00 Peppers 77.00 Yellow Mellon 77.00 Rice 72.00 Corn 71.67 Pumpkin 69.00 Pineapple 66.00 Potatoes 65.00 Strawberries 60.00 Yellow Bell 54.00 Watermelon 50.75 Cotton 39.00 Soybeans 33.00 Squash 33.00 Artichoke 29.75 Eggplant 24.00 Wheat 21.67

Assumptions: All numbers are normalized for one planting square per day, and assume a “perfect” farmer who can operate all 24 hours of a single day.  It’s assumed that you will need to harvest, plow, and plant every cycle for a given crop.

As it turns out, many times players are optimizing for experience per day, rather than for profit.  As a result, here is an updated table that shows experience per crop, with the same assumptions:

Crop XP / Day Cycle (Hours) Super Berries 24.00 2.00 Strawberries 12.00 4.00 Raspberries 12.00 2.00 Blueberries 12.00 4.00 Blackberries 12.00 4.00 Aloe Vera 8.00 6.00 Pumpkin 6.00 8.00 Tomatoes 6.00 8.00 Sugar Cane 6.00 8.00 Asparagus 4.50 16.00 Rice 4.00 12.00 Carrots 4.00 12.00 Peas 4.00 24.00 Onions 4.00 12.00 Soybeans 3.00 24.00 Peppers 3.00 24.00 Grapes 3.00 24.00 Coffee 3.00 16.00 Sunflowers 3.00 24.00 Broccoli 2.50 48.00 Eggplant 1.50 48.00 Squash 1.50 48.00 Yellow Bell 1.50 48.00 Pineapple 1.50 48.00 Cabbage 1.50 48.00 Wheat 1.00 72.00 Cotton 1.00 72.00 Potatoes 1.00 72.00 Corn 1.00 72.00 Red Wheat 1.00 72.00 Artichoke 0.75 96.00 Watermelon 0.75 96.00 Yellow Mellon 0.75 96.00

It’s fairly obvious from the numbers above that crops that can be planted and harvested multiple times per day have a significant advantage. This advantage is largely due to the +1 XP you get from plowing a square, and the multiple turns per day. While the longer duration crops have higher experience, they don’t generate enough experience to match the multiple cycles of crops like the berries, or the 8-hour crops like Tomatoes.  Of course, this ignores the time value of money, the primary topic of my first blog post on Farmville Economics.

It seems as if Zynga has been doing their homework when building out their technology tree with additional crops.  Using my 15 coin / XP estimate, the table combining the value by coins and experience is dominated by the new crops:

Crop Profit + XP / Day Super Berries 1260.00 Blackberries 342.00 Blueberries 336.00 Raspberries 312.00 Sugar Cane 267.00 Tomatoes 264.00 Asparagus 250.50 Strawberries 240.00 Peas 236.00 Onions 226.00 Grapes 215.00 Carrots 210.00 Coffee 207.00 Aloe Vera 200.00 Sunflowers 210.00 Broccoli 166.50 Pumpkin 159.00 Cabbage 139.00 Rice 132.00 Peppers 122.00 Red Wheat 99.67 Pineapple 88.50 Yellow Mellon 88.25 Corn 86.67 Potatoes 80.00 Soybeans 78.00 Yellow Bell 76.50 Watermelon 62.00 Squash 55.50 Cotton 54.00 Eggplant 46.50 Artichoke 41.00 Wheat 36.67

The title of this blog post, however, is Risk Adjusted Crop Profitability.  One of my orginal concerns was that measures of profitability were not properly taking into account the amount of risk that each crop incorporated.

When you plant a crop in Farmville, it grows for an allotted time.  During that time, you cannot harvest the crop, nor can you recover your capital.  It’s completely illiquid.  After that time period, you have an equivalent time period (100% of the growing time) to harvest the crop.  At that point, your investment is liquid and recoverable.  After the harvest time has expired, over the next equivalent time period (between 100% and 200% of the growing time), your crops will wither square-by-square, until none are left.

As a result, a crop that yields a few more coins of profit, but that involves an up-front investment of fifty coins, may not actually be worth the risk of withering.

In case you think I’m being melodramatic, it’s a very common problem.  People invest all of the wealth into planting crops, get distracted or misunderstand the rules, and then end up with withered crops and no money left over to re-plant.  They have to depend on “lotteries” and “helping neighbors” to recapitalize.  (In fact many don’t, which may be a problem Zynga needs to monitor.)

So how do we model risk-adjusted profitability?

In typical financial modeling, you would have a “cost of capital” – namely a borrowing rate that would be your cost of money over a period of time.  However, for this analysis, it didn’t seem appropriate – maybe I’ll revisit sometime in the future.

To model the Farmville risk, I tried to literally focus on the following facts:

1. How much capital (coins) up front you risk by planting one square?
2. What is the risk that you won’t be available during the harvest time?
3. Probability of harvest + Probability of wither = 100%
4. Multiply the profits per cycle with the probability of harvest
5. Normalize to a risk-adjusted profit per day

In order to model #2, I’ve used the following assumption: you are expected to check Farmville once every 24 hours.  You can replace this with your own number, but given that Farmville has 15M+ active daily users, this assumption seems fair.

So, assuming any hour is the same as any other (on average), there is a 1/24 probability that you will be able to check Farmville in a given hour.  24 * 1/24 = 100%

I’m also assuming that your ability to check on a crop in any given hour is independent of the ability to check any other hour.  This keeps the probability calculations simple.

This means that for shorter lived crops, there is real default risk:

• There is a 23/24 chance in any hour that you will not check on the crop.
• This means, for a 4-hour crop, there is a 23^4/24^4 = 279841 / 331776 = 84.3% chance that you’ll miss checking on the crop during harvest time for full profit.
• This means, for a 4-hour crop, there is an 84.3% chance you’ll miss the withering time, where you’ll receive partial profit.  (I’m assuming a linear decay rate)
• This results in a default rate of 71.1% on a four-hour crop.

Using calculations similar to those above, I generated an expected profit per cycle.  I’ve regenerated the table (ignoring experience) for the crops, and ranked them by risk-adjusted profitability:

Crop Risk-Adjusted Profit / Day Risk of Complete Default Peas 226.53 12.97% Broccoli 217.37 1.68% Grapes 206.37 12.97% Sunflowers 201.57 12.97% Asparagus 185.57 25.62% Cabbage 181.47 1.68% Super Berries 154.22 84.35% Coffee 153.35 25.62% Red Wheat 142.52 0.22% Onions 135.58 36.01% Yellow Mellon 130.15 0.03% Carrots 125.98 36.01% Corn 123.93 0.22% Peppers 117.11 12.97% Sugar Cane 115.57 50.61% Pineapple 115.54 1.68% Potatoes 114.40 0.22% Tomatoes 114.27 50.61% Yellow Bell 99.87 1.68% Watermelon 91.44 0.03% Blackberries 80.30 71.14% Rice 79.19 36.01% Blueberries 78.89 71.14% Cotton 77.22 0.22% Soybeans 74.87 12.97% Squash 72.46 1.68% Pumpkin 68.82 50.61% Aloe Vera 67.61 60.01% Eggplant 60.71 1.68% Artichoke 60.47 0.03% Strawberries 56.35 71.14% Wheat 52.43 0.22% Raspberries 38.19 84.35%

Now, I’ve made quite a few simplifying assumptions here, so don’t confuse this with a PhD thesis in Farmville Economics. But it’s amazing to me how this list of crops, more than any other table, best reflects my own internal preferences on what to plant. Maybe that’s because the “once a day” estimate of average availability best fits my own time table during the week.

Another way of revising this estimate is to look at the “risk of complete default” as highly correlated with the “stress level” you feel when you plant a given crop.  Super Berries are awesome, but there is no question that when I plant them, I am hyper-aware of the need to check on them within a 2 hour window to harvest my profits.

Definitely an interesting lens on the topic of profitability.  Please feel free to share alternative views on how to evaluate the risk-adjusted profitability of Farmville crops here in the comments.

How to add a poll to a Facebook Page

Q: How do I add the poll to my company page?

1) click ‘Add to Page’ on right side of this page. If you don’t see the link you need to create a page first here. Then you need to come back to this page and repeat step 1.

2) pick an application or a page that you want this poll to show up on and ‘Add Poll’

3) ’Create a Poll’ by entering your question, answers, and clicking ‘Submit’.

note 1: If you create multiple polls for a page only the last one will display.

note 2: To REMOVE the Poll from page you have to click ‘Delete’ on polls results page and click ‘X’ on the page. If poll comes back do it again as you may have created more polls for the page and deleted only the last.

The Flash!

THE FLASH

Quem disse que um jogo precisa ser absolutamente perfeito para ser bom? Tetris (clássico Tetris) é prova histórica, e hoje e os games em flash provam que não é preciso muito detalhe e muitos recursos para um game ser viciante e divertido.

Em geral carente recursos gráficos, os games em flash ganham por serem leves, pela rapidez e que é fundamental para dar certo: criatividade. Geralmente um jogo em flash para prender a atenção faz uso de níveis a serem alcançados com o tempo, e executam-se tarefas simples.

Em geral, que tem tomado conta dos jogos em flash, são os jogos de “manager” que é basicamente administrar. Comprar barato, e vender mais caro, colocar funcionários para trabalhar, e em alguns casos, por a mão na massa mesmo.

Dá para ver a grande influencia de Sim City nesses games, com a grande aplicação do clássico, esperar para crescer, isso acaba viciando, pois queremos ver a coisa evoluir e só de ver as coisas progredindo, já entretém, e de certa forma hipnotiza.

Recentemente aderia o Facebook, e de leva vieram os minigames que já tomaram conta de dezenas de milhões de jogadores. Como sempre acabo viciando fácil, mas também enjôo fácil. Logo logo as plantações estarão mortas (Farmville), e os clientes também (Restaurant City).

Um dos primeiros jogos de  “manager” em flash que joguei, foi desenvolvido pela Intel, logo quando saiu o Quad Core, o chip de quatro núcleos. Basicamente, é uma competição mundial, onde você é um gerente de TI, que administra, contrata, demite implanta novas redes, compra, vende e busca a maior produtividade. Começa do baixo, e vai subindo gradativamente. O começo é hard, mas depois as coisas vão engrenando, sei que levei madrugadas jogando, horas sem comer. Só fui obrigado a deixar o game depois que começaram os pesadelos e embora divertido, a interação não era a melhor, e com o tempo fica vicioso e acabou enjoando.

Outro jogo em flash, o Farmville, que já teve milhões de adesões, para os usuários do Facebook, esse comecei hoje e já enjoei. Falta ação, é muito inerte. É para mim plagio hediondo e Sim Farm e Harvest moon, onde se controla um fazendeiro, porém em Harvest, o objetivo principal é a constituição de uma família caipira. Mas o enredo é o mesmo, preparar a terra, plantar, regar e esperar crescer para vender, e comprar mais pra vender e assim por diante.

Mais ágil é o Game Restaurant City, pois a interação é mais vívida, dá para espiar os restaurantes vizinhos, interagir e mandar presentes. É uma gestão de restaurante, basicamente, o necessário inicialmente (fase em que estou atualmente) é um Chef e um garçom. Clientes não param de chegar, e querem se sentar e comer. Basicamente é como a expansão de The Sims aberto para negócios, porem com a interação e bem mais simples. Não exige supervisão full time como o game da Intel, nem como o The Sims, é só deixar rolando e dar uma olhada de vez em quando. Não sei se é problema da minha internet, mas este game não é dos mais estáveis. Como a idéia não deixa de ser boa, é bem possível que este jogo substitua o da Intel, mas ao menos vai me lembrar de comer.

Apparently Bill Cosby Thinks President Carter is Right, Too

I haven’t liked Bill Cosby since he’s become a kind of poster idol for right-wingers for buying the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” Booker T. Washington approach towards lower-class blacks (mostly single mothers) and their errant hip hop- loving offspring. This kind of generational misbehavior is a bit more complicated than Cosby thinks, but his harshness gained him plaudits around the country, to the chagrin of more liberal black intellectuals, psychologists, community activists, and social workers who labor in the fields, as it were.

Apparently, he’s forgotten the time he attempted to buy the National Broadcasting Company when it was having financial woes, and got the run-around until NBC was swallowed up by General Electric. A major American network in the hands of a black man? Horrors. What kind of programming would he put on? Better not give him the money for that kind of thing.

Looks like Cosby’s going to have to turn his Honorary White ID Card for writing this statement about our first black president, found on Facebook:

I agree with President Carter that racism is playing a role in recent outbursts against President Obama. During President Obama’s speech on the status of health care reform, some members of congress engaged in a public display of disrespect. While one Representative hurled the now infamous “you lie” insult at the President, others made their lack of interest known by exhibiting rude behavior such as deliberately yawning and sending text messages.

Health care reform is the most important domestic issue facing America today. Disease does not discriminate. African American, White, Asian, Latino, Republican, Democrat, no one in America is immune. So it seems obvious that a debate on health care reform should not include views born solely of partisanship or bigotry.

Various polls prior to the election indicated that between five and ten percent of Americans would never vote for an African American president. That number, of course, only includes those who actually admitted to their prejudice. How many others harbored such feelings but did not respond honestly when asked the question? And how many people oppose Obama’s plan because the President is African American?

In “Birth of a Nation,” D.W. Griffith used white actors in black face to portray black legislators as having low intelligence and acting like fools. Today, we have a band of real life congressional fools seemingly bent on blocking any meaningful reform of the health care system. But if we allow even one American to die simply because he or she cannot afford treatment, we are creating a shameful scenario that could aptly be called “Death of a Nation.”

Watch and see whether Cosby is going to be called on the carpet by one or all of Faux Noise’s so-called correspondents like Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck called to explain himself before said idiots. That would be a time to pass the popcorn.

Faux Noise’s denizens of the alternate reality are already weighing in at his apostasy. Nope, I am not going to repeat what is proving to be cusswords and n-words on the blog. West’s friends were quite enough. See for yourselves.

Facebook is Completely Crashed

Well, since Facebook is down I guess I can take a break from using it to talk about it

Clock Issues

Timing seems to be at the root of most Facebook catastrophes since Christmas Eve last year. Eggnog probably had a bit to do with that as well. Facebook is run on a whole bunch of servers and occasionally the clocks on the machines seem to get out of sync. Stuff from the past shows up as current and things you just did disappear depending on the view you use.

I would imagine it’s a real pain in the ass trying to keep that many computers in sync. I can’t say I would do a better job than they are.

Surviving Unemployment

Source:  http://www.askmen.com/money/career_200/233_career.html

By Malcolm MacMillan

Entertainment Correspondent

 The quick decline in the North American stock markets in the last few weeks has many of us on edge. With an uncertain economic future ahead, that job that you don’t like very much might be worth hanging onto — at least it’s better than nothing. Chrysler’s announcement in late October that it would cut a couple thousand jobs later this year has many people in the automotive industry wondering if their positions will be on the chopping block, but the automotive industry isn’t the only one that’s scaling back. This period of uncertainty can easily drag you down, but if you find yourself out of work, there are steps to surviving unemployment that you can take.

Here are some of those steps to surviving unemployment to follow during the harder times.

1- Stay positive

If you’re handed a pink slip, your first rush of emotions might include shock, anger, sadness, and perhaps, a bit of embarrassment. Don’t hang your head, though; you were laid off due to the company going through a period of financial uncertainty and cutbacks. You weren’t fired because of poor performance.

After you get the news, give yourself a few days to rest, recoup and, if needed, feel sorry for yourself. After that, the first rule of surviving unemployment is to hold your head up and focus on finding new employment. Don’t wait too long, however, because if you were part of a mass series of layoffs, most of your former coworkers will be job-hunting as well. You don’t want to be one of the last people to get your resume into the hands of potential new employers.

Keep in mind the skill set that you will be taking to a new job and be confident that you’ll be the person who gets called for an interview. If you’re dropping off a resume in person or calling about a position, put on your positive hat and make sure you come off as a confident, successful person. Follow the tips in this step and surviving unemployment will be that much easier.

2- Find a hobby

We don’t recommend spending day and night doing only what you enjoy because, at some point, you’ll have to pay the bills. However, spending eight hours a day searching for a job, especially if you’re hitting dead ends, will only leave you drained and frustrated. Surviving unemployment requires you to give yourself a few hours of escape each day — whether it’s going for a long walk, reading a book or watching a movie. During that time, try to avoid thinking of your predicament. When you can clear your mind, you’ll relax easier and the prospect of job-hunting the next day will seem far less daunting. A word of caution: Choose an inexpensive hobby — now is not the time to pursue your dream of collecting antique cars.

Surviving unemployment requires you to trim down in more ways than one

3- Cut out regular expenses

You don’t know how long you’ll be out of work, which means that while you’re surviving unemployment you’ll need to stretch every dollar in your bank account. If you’re addicted to $5 cups of coffee at the nearest designer coffee shop, now is probably a good time to quit that habit. Even if you’re only drinking one cup a day, that’s between $25 and $35 each week that you could be putting toward a better use. Also, if you drive a lot and are worried about the price of gas, consider walking or taking public transit. Eating out, even if you’re simply grabbing something at a fast food restaurant, is one of the biggest expenses you can eliminate. If you ate out during each workday, you were spending at least $50 a week. Save that money or put it to better use on such things as groceries.

4- Stay healthy

As you were told in school, a healthy mind is an active mind. If you’re filling your body with high-sugar, high-fat foods, you’re not doing yourself any favors. You need energy during this trying time, and heavy foods aren’t going to help you be at your best. Try to eat fruits, vegetables and fish, which won’t leave you feeling bloated and uninspired. Your brain and body need to be full of energy for the job-hunting process, so make sure you’re treating your body the way it needs to be cared for. And while you’re eating better, get some exercise. You’ll feel better physically and emotionally, and you’ll sleep better at night.

career opportunities

Remember, more often than not, good things come to people who not only work hard, but are positive. There are not a lot of positive aspects about being unemployed, but perhaps this situation will give you the chance to finally make a jump to a career you’ll really enjoy. Take this dilemma as an opportunity, feel good about yourself and look forward to the day when you set up your desk at a new office — it might be sooner than you think. 

5 signs of changing times

Nowadays the web is full of social media gaffes – embarrassing and inappropriate comments made online, making sites like Lamebook and  Oversharer hugely popular.

As we have previously discussed on Community Girl, the lines of private and public have been challenged and blurred, with society still grappling with the consequences on having a profile online. But with appropriateness/inappropriateness aside, there seems to be a real change in the way people handle certain situations and procedures.

Trapped in a drain? No way to escape? Update your Facebook status!

• Girl updates facebook status for help

Robbing a house? Want to check what your friends are doing? Want to check your friends latest holiday snaps? Don’t forget to log out!

• Robber checks facebook during robbery

Investigating a robbery? Want to catch the perp? Wanting more friends on Myspace? Add him as a friend on Myspace and politely ask him to turn himself in!

• Detective uses Myspace to ask a bank robber to turn himself in

Feeling disgruntled with your customers? Customers at work really grinding your gears? Why not publicly announce that you would like to “cattle prod” or “punch” them on your company’s Facebook group!

• Staff at PC World and Currys use Facebook to mock and criticise customers

Feeling bored at work? Want to keep your followers updated on all your daily happenings? Want to share real-time information about your students? Tweet during the class while you teach!

• Teacher tweets during classtime – some about her students

While I have previously asked if people should be held responsible for what they say and write online – it looks like social media is presenting further difficulties in what people do offline as well.

THE ELEPHANT'S LEG MAKES ITS FIRST STEPS BACK

Welcome back – or welcome for the first time – to the Elephant’s Leg. Whether you are making an occasional check to see if it has been resurrected, whether you have been directed back here by myself, or whether you found this blog through some other means.

As this is the first post in about a year, here’s a quick recap:

WHAT IS THE ELEPHANT’S LEG?

This is a blog by a British expat living in Bangkok. So far, so unremarkable. But I’m not trying to pretend it’s anything more than that. I’m not a political analyst. I’m not a comedian or a satirist. I’m not an industry insider, or a mover and shaker. I’m not promoting anything. This is simply an outlet for my experiences and thoughts during a fascinating chapter in my life. The primary target is the family and friends who already know me, although of course anybody is welcome here. The primary reason is to keep them up to date with my life in the Land of Smiles, and secondly to keep a record of events and impressions that I myself may review in the future. Beyond that remit, if anybody else is entertained, then that’s a happy bonus.

WHY DID I STOP WRITING?

About a year ago I had a personal trauma which sapped me of the will to write for a while. Most who know me will know what it was, and it’s not a secret, so I will recap it later with my thoughts from a year down the line. Anyway, I stopped writing the blog and even deleted the existing posts – something I regret, but we all do daft things in emotional times. Plenty of note has happened to me, and to Thailand, in the intervening time. I’ll try to cover as much of the lost ground as possible.

WHY DID I START AGAIN?

Firstly, for personal reasons; it would be nice to have a record of my stay in Thailand. At present I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but should the time come that I move on, then it would be a shame to do so without having put something down for posterity. Secondly, I have been encouraged by a handful of people who said they liked my blog before I closed it, and that they would like more regular updates from me. Finally, a friend of mine has been posting some excellent articles on Facebook about his time living and working in South Korea, which has inspired me to get back into it myself.

So, there you have it. The Elephant’s Leg is back. Please check back later for new articles and feel free to leave comments or email me if you have anything to say about the blog. Thanks.

Net Etiquette in Social Networking Sites

Since social networking sites have become the biggest trend in 2003, almost everyone with a computer and an internet connection has an online account. The boom of Friendster in the country has attracted millions of Filipinos to become a member. In 2003, thousands of new members joined the latest bandwagon on a daily basis. Some of the accounts were even created as fakes, people trying to make a false identity.

Nowadays, there are more social networking sites that one can imagine: Facebook, Multiply, Myspace, Twitter, Plurk, etc. These all encourage membership and entering one’s personal information that should be kept hidden. Children as young as 9 years old have accounts as well. These are children who have computer subjects at school and have elder siblings or parents that are active in the social networking sites mentioned. They follow what they see at home and create their own virtual account so that they can keep up with what’s in.

The big question then is: are these children still getting the same internet etiquette knowledge as the older generation have? Are they even aware that, if left unattended, some of these crucial data they enter into the social networking sites can be harmful and life threatening? Are these children still aware of the possibility of identity theft, kidnappings, and even murder?

It is a scary thought—not being able to fully guard your children from the dangers that could endanger him. Especially when you, as a parent, could have prevented a negative circumstance by limiting what your child does online. Still, it is not too late. Children can and should be taught of the harmful things that could happen on the internet. Stories from the news about people getting killed when they ‘eyeball’ a friend whom they met in these social networking sites can still be prevented from happening to your own child.

How you may ask? Below are the internet etiquette guidelines that are vital to every child. Read them together and if your child is unsure and doubtful, explain to them as best as you can.

Children and teenagers, this is for your well-being and family’s safety, please read them and keep them in your hearts:

• E-mail addresses, names, addresses, telephone or mobile numbers should not be given out to strangers. If the person asking for it is persistent, ask permission from your parents or your guardian. These possess the biggest threat of all, because the person on the other end might stalk you or make you as a target for possible crimes.

• Attached files sent in e-mails should not be opened unless if it is from a reliable source. But even so, it is best to get the help of your parents or guardian because these attachments may contain viruses and could crash your computer.

• Without the permission from adults, don’t download anything from the internet because they might contain viruses as well.

• Entering contests should be done with adult supervision, as these may require delicate information to be submitted.

• If you come across a website or any information that makes you feel uncomfortable, inform an adult right away.

• Passwords should not be given out even to your best friends. When you get into a fight with any of them, they could open your account and change your data. They could even harm your reputation through this.

• Unless approved by your parents or guardian, avoiding entering websites and chatrooms which you have just seen in your screen. They could contain malicious data which is not suitable for your age.

• Never purchase anything from the internet. And most importantly, DO NOT GIVE OUT your parents’ or your own credit card number. This is a huge source of credit card fraud. Several websites have bogus credit card protection and even so, your account could be hacked and this delicate information is very dangerous.

• Lastly, the golden rule should always be remembered: “Do Unto Others What You Want Others  To Do Unto You.”

As always, parents have complete control over what their child can do in the internet. It is still the responsibility of the parents to educate and limit what their child can access. As such, there are programs on the internet wherein parents can install on their computers so that even in their absence, they are assured that their child is safe online. Here are some blocking/filtering software that are advisable for use:

Browsesafe CleanWeb

KidSafe Explorer NetNanny

Cyber Patrol Family Connect

NetRated SurfWatch

The internet is a great place to get information from and it should be kept that way. Make sure that your child is safe and knowledgeable of net etiquette.

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How to steal your girlfriend’s password to facebook / MSN / e-mail (guide)

For all those people who want to find out if your partner is cheating or the password to your partner’s facebook/myspace/e-mail/msn and other. Or if you are a parent worrying about what your kid might be doing at the computer behind closed doors.

Business going bad? Time to check up on your employees surfing habits. But how to do this, without getting caught trying to get some information?

Keep reading, I have the solution for all of you people.

I chose to introduce you to a keylogging/surveillance program after finally finding the tool that will give myself some answers to questions regarding my own relationship. I have searched for quite a long time and thought that there just aren’t any effective programs out there yet. But I found out that there is, it’s called All In One Keylogger, I gave it a try and I was honestly said frightened about the information it is able to collect, it will give you the answers to all your questions and suspiciousness.

The program fits for:

a) People in a relationship

b) Business administration, finding out what your employees do when they “work”

c) Parents who want to keep track of their kids.

From their homepage you can read about the futures of All In One Keylogger, as I find it a bit pointless to copy paste whole production info page. Don’t be scared off by the word keylogger, YOU are the master of the program, only you will ever have control of the logs, pictures and audio that it monitors. Below is a lot of information about the features and what the program does, I recommend to read it in order to get a idea about the program.

Product Website:

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/redirect.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

 

I chose to speak more about my personal experiences of the program instead of talking about all the futures, those can all be found by following the link above to the product site.

What does All In One Keylogger do?

All In One Keylogger logs all keystrokes and passwords that have been typed into crypted files on your computer, it tracks all windows and applications that have been launched, clipboard, chat conversations (sent and received), all Web sites that have been visited, e-mails sent and received.

You can set it to take screen snapshots every few seconds or on each mouse click, just like a surveillance camera. It can also record Microphone sounds and restrict the access to specified Web sites and applications if wanted. It can even be set up to send these logs to your e-mail or FTP for tracking when you are away!

Personally I hate it the times I get the feeling in my stomach that something might be going on when I’m away from my partner, this is the solution to get rid of the paranoia, or to get proof for your suspicions. It snaps up all usernames and passwords into the very easily readable log viewer supported in the All In One Keylogger program. And maybe even more importantly you can set it up to take screen snapshots every few seconds and view the pictures later. I chose to divide the potential usage areas into different categories, you might wonder what the All In One Keylogger could be good for, I’ll tell you.

Relationship:

In the survey that took place in United States in the year of 2005 which includes married couples only, 56% of the participants of the survey said that during their marriage they had at least one sexual encounter with a person that is not their spouse. Are you living in a relationship and suspect that your partner is cheating on you, or doing other stuff he/she shouldn’t be doing on your/her computer (flirting harshly on community sites, MSN messenger contacts, webcam usage, microphone usage or visiting sites that are uncomfortable in a relationship.. the list goes on.

This is where All In One Keylogger can be there to save you from wasting time on your relationship, you wonder what your partner does when he/she is on the computer and you are away or working night shift. Well there is no reason to keep wondering and being paranoid about what she might be doing, you can find it out directly by downloading the trial version straight away (it is amazingly easy to set up, and the best part is that it is totally undetectable/invisible in windows, so no one can find out it’s installed and running.. read more on product site for more detailed info).

 It basically records all keystrokes, and shows in which program the text has been typed in, stores visited sites and you can set it up to take a picture of the screen for example every 10 seconds!

Employers:

In the survey that took place in Britain in the year 2006, 87% of the employees participating in the survey said that they surf on the internet during their work at least once a week. 73% of them said that they surf at least once a day. 23% of them said that they dedicate more time to surfing on the internet than to their work! In the additional survey that took place in the same year answered 36% of the employers, participants of the survey mentioned that they are afraid that secrets of the company will be sent to their competitors from the company computers by their employees. 4% announced that they fell victim to the theft of company secrets by their workers from the company computers.

Are you running a small sized company, and wonder why you aren’t getting as much work done as you should be getting. Well the solution is here, with All In One Keylogger you can make sure who are actually working and who are not. The result can be scary, you might find out that the employee is actually playing online poker half day or such, no wonder that the results aren’t so promising. There are a lot of people who don’t care as long as their getting paid, so they will just entertain themselves in some way instead of actually working.

Download trial (7 days free):

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

Parents:

Today, almost every child has access to internet. This comes thanks to the advance in technology, but has also risks involved. Did you know that: The average age when the children encounter pornography in the internet is 11? The age of the largest pornography consumer group in the internet is between 12 to 17? 85% of children between the ages 6-16 encountered pornographic content intentionally or unintentionally (most of them while preparing their homework). 25% of children between ages 9-17 will freely disclose their home address in the internet? 60% of children who committed suicide, declared their intentions online directly or indirectly? One in five children who use the computer chat rooms has been approached over the internet by pedophiles? Only 25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent.

The children today are very sophisticated and most of us parents don’t have the knowledge to know what they are doing behind their closed doors in front of the computer. Are they browsing to inappropriate websites, are they downloading illegal content using P2P programs that will in the future result in lawsuits of thousands of dollars? What personal information they disclose about themselves, are they talking to adults, or maybe they meet them?

All In One Keylogger has many features:

No activity on your computer will be able to evade this high quality Keylogger. Does your kid make secret chat conversations with adult strangers? Maybe even with a pedophile that searches for his next victim? Does he surf to pornographic sites? Maybe he even exposes his personal details where he is not supposed to? Does he use P2P programs, sharing copyrighted materials which could constitute a pretext to a lawsuit of tens thousands of dollars? Have you ever wondered why does your husband “work” on his computer so late at the night? Does he have a secret online lover?Have you ever wondered who is your wife’s “partner” she talks with all the time? Do your employees surf on the internet instead of doing their work which you pay them for? Do they sell company secretes to your competitors? A high quality Keylogger should give you the answers to all these questions. No activity will be able to evade from it. No undesirable activity will be able to evade from you! As said, a high quality Keylogger is an “All In One Keylogger”, so just press this link to download “All In One Keylogger”:

Download trial (7 days free):

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

Link for buying full version:

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

I tried to bring up the most important things in this article, but there sure is more to read if you still aren’t sure, simply visit the links provided and read more about people who have bought the product or view the awards that the product has received. Everyone has different use or needs of the program, and it sure was a relief to my head after finally getting answer to my questions using this brilliant program.

Launch of INQ Mobile!

I was at the Singtel Launch of the INQ Mini 3G yesterday!

The INQ Mini 3G

INQ Mini 3G comes in red, pink, yellow, green, blue, black, glossy black!

I think the pink one looks very cheery!

INQ Mini 3G is deeply integrated with Twitter, Facebook, IM and email! Indeed, this phone was conceived to feed the social networking faze. I’m not a very smart phone user so I value simplicity and ease of use. Thus, whilst fiddling with the INQ Mini 3G at the launch, I find that it is intuitive and it’s really fast. Perhaps speed is uncompromised when Facebook is not “on” your phone, but “in” your phone. That’s a smart line move  from INQ Mobile! Haha.

What’s more, there’s the Active Address Book. With this function, I am able to add, merge, remove and selectively choose contacts to display from Facebook and Twitter! All my contacts are in the same address book! A little like Meebo but in my mobile phone instead! Cool right?

There’s cute cupcakes at the event and the most popular one is the Twitter cupcakes! Thanks Justin for the Twitter cupcake! He’s really sweet. Event pictures were taken from Tech65!

More about this bright happy candybar phone here.

BTW Lucky Neo won the INQ Mini 3G! Here’s a video of the guys unboxing the arty-farty phone!

INQ Mini 3G will hit the stores on September 19th. Heard that it’s going to be very affordable since it’s meant to be a low-cost budget Social Mobile Featurephone!

This and That

Return To My Homepage – Click Here

A little bit of ramble tonite.

I have a few cameras on the workbench to shred and tear. Today I worked on a Kewpie, mounting the ~110mm Meniscus Lens in an M42 tube. Remaining is an Exacta mount Carl Zeiss Jena Polacolar f2.8 50mm lens to adapt to either my EOS or Pentax 4/3 systems. There is a mini German camera – Junka – that unfortunately has a 45mm registration, don’t know what I will do with that one- maybe a macro in an M42 tube. There is a Wollensak f4.5 triple all set for an M42 tube – I had to clean fungus from all three lenses – it needs a final cleaning before re-assembly. The original variable aperture is still functional on it. It is from an American made camera that was shipped to Germany for sale – an oddball for sure. More about each as I work them up and test them out.

The plan is to find a spot with a nice background- features at different distances, etc and test all my lenses and camera bodies so I can compare them for future reference and use. I’d hate to take lens B on body 3 to NYC when lens D turns out to be a much better performer on body 2. It will probably turn out to be an all day shoot with tripod and remote shutter release ( I will have to but two more releases- one each for the Fuji S2 and the Pentax *istD), so it will have to be either a completely overcast or Sunny day. Perhaps even two shoots – one with each sky condition.

I am addicted to Mafia Wars on FaceBook – Thompson Drum is my MW name.

On my favorite manual focus website recently, members from Austria and Viet Nam have been posting pictures, Makes the plain Jane scenery in Central New York State look very pale.

Enough !

How to steal your girlfriend’s password to community sites (guide)

For all those people who want to find out if your partner is cheating or the password to your partner’s facebook/myspace/e-mail/msn and other. Or if you are a parent worrying about what your kid might be doing at the computer behind closed doors.

Business going bad? Time to check up on your employees surfing habits. But how to do this, without getting caught trying to get some information?

Keep reading, I have the solution for all of you people.

I chose to introduce you to a keylogging/surveillance program after finally finding the tool that will give myself some answers to questions regarding my own relationship. I have searched for quite a long time and thought that there just aren’t any effective programs out there yet. But I found out that there is, it’s called All In One Keylogger, I gave it a try and I was honestly said frightened about the information it is able to collect, it will give you the answers to all your questions and suspiciousness.

The program fits for:

a) People in a relationship

b) Business administration, finding out what your employees do when they “work”

c) Parents who want to keep track of their kids.

From their homepage you can read about the futures of All In One Keylogger, as I find it a bit pointless to copy paste whole production info page. Don’t be scared off by the word keylogger, YOU are the master of the program, only you will ever have control of the logs, pictures and audio that it monitors. Below is a lot of information about the features and what the program does, I recommend to read it in order to get a idea about the program.

Product Website:

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/redirect.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

 

I chose to speak more about my personal experiences of the program instead of talking about all the futures, those can all be found by following the link above to the product site.

What does All In One Keylogger do?

All In One Keylogger logs all keystrokes and passwords that have been typed into crypted files on your computer, it tracks all windows and applications that have been launched, clipboard, chat conversations (sent and received), all Web sites that have been visited, e-mails sent and received.

You can set it to take screen snapshots every few seconds or on each mouse click, just like a surveillance camera. It can also record Microphone sounds and restrict the access to specified Web sites and applications if wanted. It can even be set up to send these logs to your e-mail or FTP for tracking when you are away!

Personally I hate it the times I get the feeling in my stomach that something might be going on when I’m away from my partner, this is the solution to get rid of the paranoia, or to get proof for your suspicions. It snaps up all usernames and passwords into the very easily readable log viewer supported in the All In One Keylogger program. And maybe even more importantly you can set it up to take screen snapshots every few seconds and view the pictures later. I chose to divide the potential usage areas into different categories, you might wonder what the All In One Keylogger could be good for, I’ll tell you.

Relationship:

In the survey that took place in United States in the year of 2005 which includes married couples only, 56% of the participants of the survey said that during their marriage they had at least one sexual encounter with a person that is not their spouse. Are you living in a relationship and suspect that your partner is cheating on you, or doing other stuff he/she shouldn’t be doing on your/her computer (flirting harshly on community sites, MSN messenger contacts, webcam usage, microphone usage or visiting sites that are uncomfortable in a relationship.. the list goes on.

This is where All In One Keylogger can be there to save you from wasting time on your relationship, you wonder what your partner does when he/she is on the computer and you are away or working night shift. Well there is no reason to keep wondering and being paranoid about what she might be doing, you can find it out directly by downloading the trial version straight away (it is amazingly easy to set up, and the best part is that it is totally undetectable/invisible in windows, so no one can find out it’s installed and running.. read more on product site for more detailed info).

 It basically records all keystrokes, and shows in which program the text has been typed in, stores visited sites and you can set it up to take a picture of the screen for example every 10 seconds!

Employers:

In the survey that took place in Britain in the year 2006, 87% of the employees participating in the survey said that they surf on the internet during their work at least once a week. 73% of them said that they surf at least once a day. 23% of them said that they dedicate more time to surfing on the internet than to their work! In the additional survey that took place in the same year answered 36% of the employers, participants of the survey mentioned that they are afraid that secrets of the company will be sent to their competitors from the company computers by their employees. 4% announced that they fell victim to the theft of company secrets by their workers from the company computers.

Are you running a small sized company, and wonder why you aren’t getting as much work done as you should be getting. Well the solution is here, with All In One Keylogger you can make sure who are actually working and who are not. The result can be scary, you might find out that the employee is actually playing online poker half day or such, no wonder that the results aren’t so promising. There are a lot of people who don’t care as long as their getting paid, so they will just entertain themselves in some way instead of actually working.

Download trial (7 days free):

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

Parents:

Today, almost every child has access to internet. This comes thanks to the advance in technology, but has also risks involved. Did you know that: The average age when the children encounter pornography in the internet is 11? The age of the largest pornography consumer group in the internet is between 12 to 17? 85% of children between the ages 6-16 encountered pornographic content intentionally or unintentionally (most of them while preparing their homework). 25% of children between ages 9-17 will freely disclose their home address in the internet? 60% of children who committed suicide, declared their intentions online directly or indirectly? One in five children who use the computer chat rooms has been approached over the internet by pedophiles? Only 25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent.

The children today are very sophisticated and most of us parents don’t have the knowledge to know what they are doing behind their closed doors in front of the computer. Are they browsing to inappropriate websites, are they downloading illegal content using P2P programs that will in the future result in lawsuits of thousands of dollars? What personal information they disclose about themselves, are they talking to adults, or maybe they meet them?

All In One Keylogger has many features:

No activity on your computer will be able to evade this high quality Keylogger. Does your kid make secret chat conversations with adult strangers? Maybe even with a pedophile that searches for his next victim? Does he surf to pornographic sites? Maybe he even exposes his personal details where he is not supposed to? Does he use P2P programs, sharing copyrighted materials which could constitute a pretext to a lawsuit of tens thousands of dollars? Have you ever wondered why does your husband “work” on his computer so late at the night? Does he have a secret online lover?Have you ever wondered who is your wife’s “partner” she talks with all the time? Do your employees surf on the internet instead of doing their work which you pay them for? Do they sell company secretes to your competitors? A high quality Keylogger should give you the answers to all these questions. No activity will be able to evade from it. No undesirable activity will be able to evade from you! As said, a high quality Keylogger is an “All In One Keylogger”, so just press this link to download “All In One Keylogger”:

Download trial (7 days free):

http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

Link for buying full version:

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar

I tried to bring up the most important things in this article, but there sure is more to read if you still aren’t sure, simply visit the links provided and read more about people who have bought the product or view the awards that the product has received. Everyone has different use or needs of the program, and it sure was a relief to my head after finally getting answer to my questions using this brilliant program.

An Interesting Trail, via teh Internetz

So, tonight I watched the first episode of Dexter, not the VMAs, as most of my facebook friends seemed to. So, before going to bed, my boyfriend (Raz) checked his facebook on his iPhone (already, SO new age). We notice a lot of status updates mentioning Kanye West. Raz HATES Kanye West. Well, now we know something has happened. Using the updates as a jumping point, I go to a site more famous for its coverage of news on thousands of angles: Twitter.

Once I got there, I looked at the trends. Both Kanye and Taylor Swift were on there. So, I clicked Kanye. After reading through about 200 updates (44 updated while I was looking), I clicked a link someone had posted to a video of the event. Basically, Kanye interrupted Swift’s speech when she accepted Female Video of the Year award for her song. It plays on the CVS radio station we have to listen to while I’m at work. It is a TERRIBLE song…but that’s beside the point. So this cute lil blonde girl goes on stage to accept, starts her speech, and all of a sudden Kanye jumps on stage, takes the mic and says Beyonce should have won – using all of Swift’s time.

So we discuss our mutual hatred of Kanye, look at some more posts. We discuss how our Glenn Beck-loving “friend” probably loves that she gets to jump all over a man who insulted Bush once (her status actually said something about he’d only be happy if only black people won). I’m still looking at the VMA site on a different tab, trying to avoid the Madonna stuff. Then, I see a vid of Beyonce giving Swift time to speak after Beyonce won something. Go back to Twitter. Now she’s in the hot topics.

So, afraid Twitter is about to crash (147 updates under the Kanye heading less than one min after I clicked it) I start frantically looking at posts while I can. I find numerous links to an apology on Kanye’s blog. None work because the site can’t handle the influx. I eventually find someone who has remedied the problem: a screen shot on Twitpic of the “weak ass” apology. Its funny, he “apologizes” but still makes his argument. Fun.

So, deal is done. We’ve seen the whole thing unfold. I tell Raz I think it may have been a little staged (at least by MTV and Kanye) due to a few weird things. Videos were called “most commented on” instead of “highlights” or “best moments” on the official website before the show was even over. He goes to You Tube to look up the clip again. Instead, he finds that someone has already made a parody clip of Kanye interrupting an Obama speech.

All of this took maybe 20 minutes. The whole time we were doing other things: brushing teeth, advising a friend on a paper via text, etc. One time in all of this did I look to a real news site (CNN.com). They had one story on the VMAs and it talked about the planned Michael Jackson tribute that “will air tonight.” So, they got SCOOPED! Multiple times. By Twitter, Facebook and even You Tube. Someone had enough time to cut video and sound into a clip and get it on YOU TUBE before Cnn even realized it was a story that was going to get attention.

Still, I didnt go there until after I had seen both Kanye and Beyonce. Now, an  hour later, my entire news feed on f/b is about the event and that’s what I’m sticking to. In fact, a friend even put her status as an all-call for someone to explain the events she obviously didnt feel like looking up herself. She knew where to go for an answer. I responded with the full story in less than 2 minutes. In all of this, I read fewer words than I’m using to explain it. This is the new age of journalism and how it works. I expect something more in depth tomorrow from real news, but they probably won’t realize that’s their job and will instead have ireports or something boring we’ve all seen already.

Its fascinating really, how much the internet has taken over my life. This is how I roll now. I’m not embarrassed about it. I had the info before most people (who didn’t watch the show) and was able to give it out. Its a good study in the mind of the young audience, and the web junkie. Have read a few pieces (status and tweet) from people upset the same kind of outrage doesn’t follow actual events, like the Congressional heckler or ongoing war, but hey..those don’t involve Beyonce’s awesome boobage. Seriously, this is what you have to compete with, actual newsworthy events. Try harder. Get those Tweets going and maybe we’ll watch a video about your refugees or escaped convicts.

New Crops, New Gifts on Farmville

Shortly after my melancoly rant about Level 26 being a drag, the Farmville gods took pity on me and added new gifts. Levels below 26 can gift a Birdhouse, a white fence section, and a plain mailbox. The birdhouse is also a new item in the Market. And speaking of the Market, there are also new items to buy: sandbox, ax/chopping block, and a water pump to name a few.

The new crops below Level 26 are grapes that harvest in 1 day. I like these little surprises. It’s like a reward to the faithful.

Now, I’m on Level 27. I can do cabbage now. It will take another 5000 XPs to get to Level 28, which means 35000. For once, I’m not in a rush. Why? Because I realized that the Farmville gods are still creating. So even as I move up, they will still be creating new and exciting things below me.

I am once again content. Well, it’s not hard to be content in Farmville. I still want a dog for my farm, but what would you harvest from a dog? Any ideas?

[Via http://thewritersloft.wordpress.com]

Facebook Etiquette

Sometimes I think we all need to take some time and remember simple etiquettes that make social networking easier. With facebook becoming almost meteoric in it’s rise to the top of social networking platforms (and being one I use regularly), we should remember that at times we can irritate our ‘friends’ and people on our ‘friends lists’ with things we do on there.

• Do NOT post pornographic materials to your wall. Ok, so I have a friend who was been taking a lot of quizzes lately – he’s gay and usually posts everything he does. But when he does quizzes like ‘Which of these gay porn stars would you f#ck?’ – there are some things I for one would rather not see. Pictures of fully exposed and erect men, or pictures of them spreading their butt cheeks is just a little too much information. The same would go for women too, but I haven’t noticed this in another context than the scenario mentioned. There are things called ‘porn sites’ for all that kind of stuff. I have to wonder, with facebook’s porn filters and moderators – how some of these applications get past them.
• Do NOT facebook drunk. Yeah, this one I learned the hard way and sometimes have to keep reminding myself. As with anyone who saw my ‘25 Things’ list earlier in the year would understand. I guess though in posting that list, it opened some discussion and realisation as to me blaming myself for the actions of others – and then opened a subsequent door to some counselling. Freed me from my burdens which were really someone else’s burdens to start with.
  
  In another scenario, I regularly watched someone on my ‘friends list’ (who was more of an acquaintance I had met out on the town one night) regularly have alcohol fuelled explosions in his status updates’ which he would then remove the next day when he felt a little ashamed at the things he had said.
• Do NOT spam friends. This should really carry over from basic internet and email etiquette really. I know I still have some people who send me a dozen emails a day – anything they think is ‘cute’ or ‘funny’ onwards to chain letters they don’t wanna break. Honestly, in a social networking situation, if you think something is cute, funny or interesting enough to send – why not just post it to your wall and let everyone see?
• Do NOT add people you don’t know. Some people like to ’steal’ friends or claim association through a mutual friend, much to the mutual friends irritation. When adding friends, there is a field for ‘comment’ – so you can let people know who you are (if they don’t remember) and/or why you’d like to be their friend on facebook. Use it!
  
  Often too, messages will circulate within applications (particularly the ones that send videos and pictures to friends) saying not to add a person (giving their name) and saying they are a hacker. It’s safer just not to add people you don’t know in the first place.
• DO edit your application settings. Nearly every application you add on facebook will want to post to your wall time and again. Under “Applications” – there is an option to “Edit Applications” and there you can stop this from happening. Do you really want people to know how much time you spend on a game or each time you make a move in it?
• DO set up different friends lists. Most people don’t realise this, but when you click ‘friends’ in the top of your browser it allows you the opportunity to create lists. We all have differing levels of what we want people to know – for privacy’s sake. Like would you want a mere acquaintance knowing all your contact details? Would you want your family seeing embarrassing photos that friends ‘tag’ you in? Would you want your workmates knowing every little thing about you?
  
  Once a list is created you can customise your privacy settings on everything – from your wall, to photos tagged of you, to albums, to notes – absolutely everything. You can choose which lists see which information about you.
• DO take advantage of the Inbox system for messaging on facebook. It’s a case of using your common sense for distinguishing what kind of messages to keep private and what to post to a wall (hence making them public). Grievances between friends should not be aired on walls, by the same token – overt displays of affection, while sweet – maybe taking things too far. Like we don’t all want to hear ten times a day how much you ‘love’ your sweetheart.

[Via http://anacrosticdreams.wordpress.com]