Welcome to MegaCon

Originally uploaded by CABridges

Hey, one of my con pics was chosen to illustrate Schmap’s page on the Orange County Convention Center.

Which means that people from around the world, hungry for travel information, will gaze upon my skilled photographic handiwork as they devise their itinerary and think: “Huh. A comic convention.”

Come on, people! Friend me! How else can I judge my worth?

In return I promise not to send you endless messages about my great real estate opportunities, my seminars on how to feel really good about yourself, or offers of pictures of me that “MySpace won’t let me post.” I won’t post animated graphics in your comments. I don’t have MySpace’s IM service installed, so you’re safe from me there, too. Any bulletins I send will be rare and relevant. My own page will neither blink excessively, play any music at all, or contain color combinations that cause cancer in rats.

Which rather begs the question, what do I use MySpace for, anyway. But the answer is clear.

To collect friends. So get going.

Updated: I hit the 1,000 mark. And you can really tell the difference, I actually feel more loved. I’m all shivery now.

Teresa has decided to become a full-time groupie.

Not just the type who gushes about her band online, pins posters around her room and writes “Mrs. Bon Jovi” on her notebooks, although she does that too (not the Mrs. part, she said she has no interest in leaving our marriage or breaking his; I believe she has in mind more of a sophisticated arrangement, like a time-share). No, she plans to be the one who follows her band, concert to concert, city to city, country to country, becoming friends and confidant to the road crew. The fact that we’re broke has no bearing on this. You can’t deny your calling. She has already begun looking into which countries allow you to sell your children.

Yesterday, on an extended and carefully planned last minute whim, she flew to Boston to see Bon Jovi in concert. She’s even now in the air on her way back, possibly without waiting for the plane. With her are the well-wishes, advice, and (in some cases) open envy of the other ladies on the Bon Jovi forum she frequents. They have kept up on her doings from other forum members at the concert who are calling in song-by-song updates, and from me, as I’ve been hearing from Teresa and posting on her behalf with her account. (I am, apparently, “Mr. Teresa.”)

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Firefox announced today that their bid to secure a Guinness World Record for most downloaded software was a success.

Mozilla today announced it set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. The record-setting 8,002,530 downloads coincided with the launch of Firefox® 3, Mozilla’s major update to its popular and acclaimed free, open source Web browser.

I fully expect all of us to be named and credited, making the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records the largest book ever offered for commercial sale. Which would be another record, so they’d have to amend it and release it again. And that edition would then break the previous record…

Teaser from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Joss Whedon likes to create things. He likes to share things. He especially likes to create things that become obsessions with lots of people. And recently, he started thinking about how to create and share things without having to deal with any of the big studios. What he came up with, with the help of his briothers and fiance-in-law, was “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.”

It’s three minisodes, designed to be posted online. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion. It’s a super-villain musical. And it’s coming online for free starting July 15, with new episodes every couple of days, and then paid downloads and an upcoming massively-packed DVD. All without studio involvement.

What it needs now is attention. They have the website, the MySpace page, the Facebook page, and the Twitter account. They have banners and buttons. They have a Digged page climbing higher in the ranks. They have T-shirts on the way. There will be a Dr. Horrible panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. There will be a comic coming from Dark Horse at their Dark Horse Presents page on MySpace. And they have Joss waxing hilaric about it.

All they need now is for you to tell everyone you know (but not in a stalkery way, unless they’re cool with that). This will be huge, and fun, and gioofy, and a slap in the face to the networks, and none of that is not fun. Spread the word, my people!

“Paul, I have to say your review doesn’t look so good this year.”

“What? Mr. Jenkins, you’ve never complained about my work before.”

“Your job performance is fine, Paul, that’s not the problem.”

“Our company won awards for my work this year!”

“No, Paul, it seems the problem lies in your people skills.”

“What?”

“It’s here in your file. There have been issues with how you deal with those around you, and we take that sort of thing seriously at this company.”

“Someone complained about me? Who complained about me?”

“I really can’t divulge—“

“Just tell me. Was it Lucille? Did she complain about me? Anyone could have dropped the mustard bucket on her at the picnic, it was just dumb luck I happened to be—“

“No, it wasn’t Lucille, I can tell you that much.”

“Then who?”

“Let’s just say there are people in your network who are unhappy with how you deal with them.”

“How I—I barely deal with anybody, I usually stay to myself. Heh, about the only time I see anyone I recognize is on my Facebook page…”

“Yes, well.”

“…You’re kidding me.”

“I did say in your network.”

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I am a total MySpace Friend whore. I accept this.

Getting Friends is simple on the insanely popular networking site MySpace.com. You find someone you want to be connected to and you click on their “Add Me” link, then you wait to see if your request has been deemed worthy. Suddenly their little avatar picture is in your Friends list, your picture is on theirs, you’re receiving each others’ bulletins, you’re connected! And another tiny community is formed.

Friending folks on MySpace — and yes, “friend” has become a verb, like “game,” “blog,” “google,” and “shindig” — is how you keep in touch with them. You can see their current doings, hear the music they like, view their embarrassing pictures, admire (or cringe at) their choice of background designs, and compare your interests to see how cool yours are. Or, more likely, aren’t. And your Friend list displays the people that are now networked with you.

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I am a decent writer. Need a quick column? I’m there. Need a short story or essay or script or poem? I laugh and reach for my keyboard. Need to compose a polite but insistent e-mail to a retailer to complain about the shopping cart left lodged wheel-deep into your Civic? I’m on it. And yet, when faced with the most minor writing task imaginable, I freeze up.

Such as, for example, leaving feedback at eBay.

It’s a simple thing, really. You’ve made a transaction at this popular online auction site, you’re either happy or unhappy with the results, and all you have to do is check a box and leave a short comment about the ordeal. But I stare at the screen helplessly, torn over my choice. After all, future generations will look at my words before putting their faith in this person. The 80 characters or less that I write may make the difference between someone’s personal satisfaction and their financial ruin. And what if my seller just had an off day but doesn’t really deserve the crushing report I want to deliver? Do I want the responsibility of being the only “Negative” comment in an otherwise sterling life?

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cabridges That isn’t just mundane minutiae of everyday life that nobody could possibly care about. It’s Twitter!

cabridges Mulling over wardrobe choices, which means socks that match as long as I wear thigh-high boots. Success! Wait, one’s a glove…

cabridges Twitter is the hottest new Internet social trend, which means it’s been around since last summer and the media has finally noticed.

cabridges It’s a microblog, or group IM. You post messages for anyone to see, and people can friend you or just subscribe to your ramblings.

cabridges Speeding when workers are present is evil, according to the signs on I-4. What if the workers are goofing off? Can I wing one?

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