Bristol Palin? The Hoff? Please. The Merengue Danging dog would have danced circles around the new cast of Dancing With the Stars.
I have not been blogging about the current season of Project Runway because quite frankly, I’ve been bored. Last night – 180. Not bored.
The contestants split into two teams of six to make collections that were on trend for Fall of 2010. The underdogs took on Military and Lace, while the self-titled “Team Luxe” took on Menswear for Women and the color camel.
Team Luxe was made up of all the people who think they are the shit (read Gretchen and Ivy – some other guys, and underdog Michael C. who one the funky hat challenge last week.) Grethchen took on the bossy leadership role, while Ivy stepped in line as her assistant mean girl. They split up the tasks and made a shitload of ugly ass clothes inspired by smelly old Grandpas.
Team Military & Lace (which now as I type it sounds like an AWESOME title of a TV show for Logo TV) was made up of Cassanova, Peach, the chick with the diaper outfit, weirdo guy that likes his models to have moustaches, Valerie and Michael D. Despite Cassanova having a diva meltdown (in his v-neck, cut-too-low, lime green nipple sweater and his Ali Baba harem shoes), this team won the challenge. They were all very excited. I am glad they won. I actually really liked their collection, although I wasn’t crazy about Peach’s dress.
Team Luxe judging = HOLY SHIT!!! Gretchen and Co. start out all lovey-dovey and then that bitch bared her teeth. Even I was astounded by how mean she got. This time it wasn’t just selective editing. She really was lashing out. Ivy backed her up like a little lap dog. It was disgusting. Of course the judges kept both of ladies on the show for the drama, but in the previews for next week it looks like Michael C. snaps. I can’t blame him. Gretchen is kind of a monster. April wasn’t kidding when she called Gretchen “Hitler.”
Best part of the episode by far was the Tim Gunn epilogue. Tell them off Tim Gunn! Tell them good!!! Gretchen faked some crocodile tears for the confessional but too little too late. Can’t wait to see Michael C. lose his shit next week.
(P.S. Yes I noticed my overuse of the word “shit” in this post. Guess I’m in a potty mouth mood.)
Whoever edited the music over this picked the wrong tunes. They should have done “All Over the World” from Xanadu. The song they play when Olivia Newton-John and the guy from The Warriors try to find new duds for Gene Kelley at the disco clothing store.
Oh well. Roller skate disco dancing and other randomness in Central Park.
Anyone that has an account on a site like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. has something to say. For the most part, our words and pictures go unnoticed. Friends may read our posts, but otherwise we’re just part of a silent fog floating around the internet.
As long as there has been individuals like myself putting free content out there, there have been traditional content sources milking off of it. While I consider myself pretty savvy about protecting myself and my intellectual property when it really counts, this week I did feel the slight slimeiness of internet content thievery happening around me.
One of my duties at my job is to be very current on subject matters related to the products and services that appeal to our customers. As such, I scan through a tremendous amount of news feeds, blogs, and social media like Twitter daily. I love being able to promote things that are off the grid. When I do, I point straight to the original source and give them full credit. This week, I found a great news story on a very small local news provider (well…local to that area. Not in my city). I promoted it in real-time on our company websites. It was a cute story. A few days later, our traditional editorial group tossed out a newsletter they were originally going to send, repackaged the content of this cute news story (with a tiny hyperlink to small-town site) and pushed it like their idea.
So why does this bother me? It’s even more promotion for that small site right? I suppose because of the latency of their content. I’m bothered by the fact that as traditional print media they are not engaged enough with their subject matter to have seen this first. The fact they had jump last minute to switch out content that I (as an non-editor) found first, is bothersome. I suppose knowing the person responsible for the switch adds to my irritation. I was not given the slightest bit of credit. The team and this person comes from the mindset of letting others do the work, swooping in last second and taking credit.
That really is a trend with traditional media sources these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love things like ABC News and TIME Magazine. But lately they’ve been doing the same thing on a more prominent scale. TIME magazine tweets constantly about things they’ve stumbled upon. Literally it links back to sources like StumbleUpon and BuzzFeed. They put 2-3 paragraphs on their website and repackage the news as their own. Just like the people at my work.
Then again, I suppose that’s all this blog is really. I find stuff elsewhere and talk about it. However, I’m not profiting off of it. They are. Maybe that’s the tipping point. Am I pissed I don’t make money off my finds? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m really not sure what my beef is. Maybe it’s just the gross feeling that a popular kid just grabbed homework out of my hand and handded it in for themselves.
I wonder if smaller sites feel the same thing when a site like ABC News feeds off their content? On the one hand, you are grateful for the traffic. But on the other, if that traffic doesn’t convert in to new readership/viewership, what’s the benefit? Just a drop in the bucket. Momentary traffic. The big boys grow in popularity and you go back to being obscure.
On a similar note I had the grimy feeling of being quoted out of context this week. I got into a Twitter conversation about a local subject and I tweeted a series of random thoughts. Not necessarily my own views, but kind of devil’s advocate stance. One of the people on the other end reading was a freelance writer. I knew this person was going to write a story, and at the time of the conversation I was actually kind of excited to see the final result.
Read it.
Bullshit.
I know I can’t control what happens to my words once they are out there. No one can. That is the peril of having a voice. But what truly bothered me is my quote was used as a example of how ignorant people are on the subject.
Oh no you didn’t!
Say what you will about my “I don’t give a fuck” sassy quick blog posts. Yes they are filled with typos. Yes my language gets a little backwards because I’m trying to sneak these things in at work and I’m multitasking. But anyone that knows me knows this – I am smart. Magna cum-laude smart. I downplay it. I don’t like calling attention to myself because I have a shitload of other problems and I like to blend in. But I am a very smart well-educated lady.
I will be damned if some low-grade freelancer takes my words out of context to set me up like an ignorant hick. I am not.
It’s one of those things that as a individual you really need to be proactive about in a digital community. Every thing we type, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or a blog, is out there for public consumption. If you are concerned about reputation management, you need to be on the ball.
I was quoted as my Twitter handle, not myself. So who cares? Well, I don’t really. It’s a made-up anonymous persona anyway. It just served as a reminder to myself not to be quite so forthright with people I don’t know. I’ve got kind of a regular posse on Twitter. We all have each other’s backs. However, this was a person recommended by another person and I don’t really know them. That’s when you get in trouble.
Trust your gut people. There are content vampires out there just waiting to suck your brilliance away.
Posted in Controversies, Ramblings
Tagged blogging, freelancers, journalism, social media, social networking
I saw The Other Guys last week. This one is that will work better on a TV. Like an Austin Powers movie. It was funny, but because the humor is so random and scattershot it will work better on a small screen and on repeated viewings. It’s the kind of movie guys get all dorky about quoting over and over.
As far as make me laugh so hard I cried, one bit truly did send me into hysterics. Totally random, but Will Ferrell is in a bar with Mark Wahlberg and he keeps getting up mid-conversation to join some old guys and sing sad Irish bar songs. It increases in absurdity. There’s a Harry Potter joke in it. I lost it. It was like Ferrell doing Neil Diamond. Can’t lose comedy.
So all-in-all the movie is worth a gander. Different humor than it’s main competitor Dinner for Schmucks. That one is more heartfelt. This one is just YouTube silly.
Also, Mark Wahlberg seems short, but I don’t care. He’s smoking hot now. I was never a huge fan, but now that he’s married with kids and goes to church every day and seems like a hard-working upstanding guy — Hot hot hot! Are you my new Mel Gibson Mark Wahlberg? I think you’re a contender at least.
This is unbelievably painful to watch. But funny.
Funny. Better than the original. Don’t need to analyze whether its ok for Rhianna to be singing about abuse. Don’t need to see the LOST hobbit beat-up Megan Fox.
Well, I already have two but the marketing guys over at Snuggie headquarters want you to get more…
Watch out Shine on Me. We got another stellar music video on the scene.
I need to start cluing in that the new things I try are never as good the second time. Had a pretty good time at a monthly event last month. Tried it again last night at it was dismal. It went from meeting kind of hip younger crowd, to people who may be future serial killers.
I had hopes for this week to be a good one. Lots of events on my calender. Thinking now it’ll be a pretty tragic one. Trying all these things and just seeing how sad the human condition is.
