I had my first Blogger account around 2003 (12 years old) and I posted random crap on there and I do mean crap. I can’t remember exactly what I put up there but all I know is that it was crap. I started taking blogging more seriously once I got a Dreamhost account and have moved up exponentially in terms of… I guess you could say writing skills. I still have very few readers but blogging is just a small hobby for me. If this blog gets big, great. If it stays small, that’s fine by me.

So what about other venues like forums and networks like the one and only Twitter? Well, that is a bit more difficult to answer. All I remember forum-wise was joining MacRumors before I even had a Mac. I believe somewhere around 2003. I used to be extremely participatory in forums. I thought they were the best method for communication. Email was just too slow for me and seeing as all I had was a dial-up connection, I didn’t see a point in email.

Moving on into the age of the BlackBerry, which for me was January 2008, my use of forums has dropped to almost no presence at all while social networks (and email for that matter) shot up. I had a Twitter account in the middle of 2007 but I never used it because, to be quite honest, I didn’t know how to use it or what it was all about. Once I started to get used to my BlackBerry, I downloaded TwitterBerry. At that time I had maybe 10 followers. I sent out random tweets but I was still a bit uncomfortable about it.

Once I started following more people, chatting more, my name spread and as of today I am being followed by over 1700 people which in itself is amazing. Over 23,000 messages with around 22,700 of them being sent since the purchase of my BlackBerry (around 53 messages per day) and it’s a hell of a lot of fun. I’ve met so many interesting people in person and online because of Twitter. My connections are high and I’m participating in more than just TMP as a result.

Social media isn’t something you can just jump into (as many people on Twitter think). It takes time to build connections, relationships, and trust. Contribute to the community and your contributions will be rewarded.

Bitching is fun. It lets us release stress on others (which is always good) and also lets us make a point. Usually my bitching is a combination of both, but others bitch about one topic or the other. It’s usually at this stage where we call it “ranting” and indicate it by using HTML tags. Because we are that cool.

I’ve noticed that I’ve bitched a lot more… Ok, we’re switching over for now to “complaining.” Anyways, I’ve complained a lot more since winter has arrived. Perhaps it’s because the cold weather, the amount of school work that comes this time of year, or perhaps just the simple fact that I’m always bitchy (oh, there it is again!) minus Christmas and New Years (usually). And I’ll bitch about anything and everything. It’s like something is programmed into my head to find a venting place to get out my stress which is good, right? I mean, bottled up feelings and you’ll turn into the next serial killer or worse… Lindsay Lohan shooting up cocaine. (You should appreciate that, Brandon)

My stress is usually vented into the webisphere through Twitter or (on rare occasions) a blog post where I can just explode all my thoughts into it. I should probably start doing videos because that would be cool. Well, sort of. Because then I would have to clean up, comb my hair, move all the soda out of the way, clean my room, and a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff that text can totally do without.

Anyways: My bitching = healthy. Others, not so much. They usually go something like “He’s such an asshole” or “I miss him… But he’s a prick that should die in the eternal depths of Hell” or “OMG!!!11!1! HE DUMPED ME!?!?!?! NOOOOO!!!!” (Not trying to stereotype the female bitching, guys do a lot of a bitching too [obviously]). I know when to stop. Others, once again, not so much. They’ll gone on and on for hours or days (seriously). And I’m not talking just on Twitter or blog posts, some I know will talk to me either on IM, email, DM, or some other form of -M’ing.

So what am I saying? DROP IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Nobody wants to hear you constantly complain about things for the rest of their life. “Unsubscribe,” you say. “Ignore it,” you say. “Shut the hell up,” you say. You know what I say? Shut up and listen. Drop it, make amends, and move onto your life. If you must bitch about life or other personal problems, do it in moderation. If you’re bitching about Verizon, AT&T, Microsoft, or any mega company (including government sometimes), be my guest. Just keep it down some days. Please.

Now then, for more bitching, follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/zachflauaus

…

No? Neither did I. And if you did, well… Then the comments here truly do apply to you. As Darwinism said, “If you gained anything from this story you are the reason McDonald’s has to ‘Hot’ labels on coffee.”

I don’t get into politics that often, but this isn’t necessarily so much of politics as it is questioning our own rights in the United States. Because Congress hasn’t been stupid enough lately, they’re wanting to continue to basically censor what they don’t like and what Congressional Members should and shouldn’t do. The latest shining example? Congress is trying to stop two Congressmen from actually talking to the people via Twitter and Qik.

Congressman John Culberson (R) of Texas and Tim Ryan (D) of Ohio have been using Twitter and Qik to their benefit of actually getting their word out onto the internet and talking to people in addition to listening to them. This is an absolutely astounding turn of events from the usual Congressional Members as they don’t really engage with the public on the internet (or most places, for that matter) unless they have a public statement prepared. On Twitter, it’s all about psuedo real-time discussions. On Qik, it’s speak now or forever hold your peace.

Well, the Democrats have a different position on their usage (ironic since Tim Ryan is a Democrat?). They want to ban Congressional Members from uploading content outside of the house.gov domain, essentially keeping all information inside until they can all release details on their own schedule. If they get their way, websites will have to go by government regulations before Members could post. What they don’t realize is that this infringes on one key factor: the First Amendment.

So, you’re saying that freedom of speech (and press in this case) extends to everyone (yeah…) except if you are a Congressional Member? You mean Members aren’t normal U.S. Citizens like you and me?

I believe it says somewhere in that piece of paper that you have destroyed called the United States Constitution it states that all citizens of the United States of America are entitled to their Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech. A requirement to be a Congressional Member is that you have to be a Citizen of the United States of America. See where I’m going? Complete the circle… I’ll give you time.

Bingo! They are entitled to the same rights that we are all entitled to. In fact, I think all members should have a Twitter or Qik account just so they start interacting with citizens more and actually get back to what this country is all about: By the people, for the people.

Let’s make this an outcry. Make the media see it. If our own Congress won’t see the problem with this, We the People need to make this problem bigger and more apparent because without us, this is one more step in the wrong direction.

Source Reads:
Technosailor
Mashable
U.S. Congressman John Culberson

It’s been a little over a year since I signed up to join b5media, only to realize that you have to be 16 years or old to blog for them. I was super excited to join them because it seemed such a good community. August 5th I joined the crew and that was a great birthday present in itself.

Fast forward to today and I am now no longer a member of the great network that is b5media. It’s nothing wrong on their part. I can’t preach enough about how awesome b5 is, but here’s two things to start with:

1. Community – If you are looking for a blog network that is all about community, b5 is the place. It’s such a friendly place where you can post almost anything and people will talk with you or if you need help. It’s just that amazing. I will miss b5 greatly for this.

2. Training – I mean, come on, when you have the legendary Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net fame, why would you appreciate it? Tris Hussey of Maple Leaf 2.0 has also been a great source of training. Heck, even the other b5 bloggers will help you in what you need. If they see something wrong, they’ll quickly tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it.

There are a number of people I’d like to thank, but if I singled out every one of them, I might as well direct you to the main b5media authors page, so I’ll mention a few.

• Tris Hussey – Trainer Extraordinaire
• Shai Coggins – Community Goddess
• Jeanne Dupuis – Made me learn I have a blogger-stalker
• Kristen King – Made the b5 chats oh so entertaining

Working at b5media is one of the greatest things I’ve done and would highly recommend them in a heartbeat. I’ll miss working there, but if you ever want me in a weekly chat, I’d be glad to.

Veoh has started an interesting turn of events. Reports are coming from all over the world saying that access to Veoh is restricted based on where you live. Andrew Baron of RocketBoom fame posted an entry on Twitter this morning saying that Veoh had inexplicably been blocked for no reason all of a sudden. From Veoh’s Wikipedia Page:

“So far users from Asia, Europe and South America such as : Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, St.Kitts and Nevis, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Guam, Jamaica, Barbados, El Salvador, Hungary, Malta, Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Colombia, Cyprus, Romania, the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Panama, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Lithuania, Egypt, Bulgaria, Serbia, Iceland, Bermuda, Thailand, Brunei, Honduras, Bahamas, and Nicaragua have also reported being blocked, receiving the same message for their country/region.”

I submitted an email to Gaude Lydia Paez, Veoh’s Senior Director of Public Relations, asking what the situation was. Here’s their response:

Hi Zach,

Thanks for contacting me with your question – we appreciate the opportunity to weigh in as you write your article.

Veoh has decided to focus its resources on a number of significant product and platform developments that we believe will greatly enhance the experience we offer to our users. In tandem with these efforts, we have decided to concentrate on the 33 markets in which we have the most viewers and cease service in other markets.

We understand that is frustrating to many of our viewers in those markets, but we are confident that this decision will not only allow us to build an even better product but also expand internationally with better quality in the future.

I hope this helps – please feel free to contact me anytime with questions.

Many thanks,

Gaude

While focusing forces on developing their services where they have the most viewership makes some sense, why they are essentially IPs based on their geographical location makes absolutely no sense and will most likely backfire. Let’s just hope that no other services take this route or the internet could grow to be a very ugly place.