So I admit I wanted to post about this yesterday but with all the Zombie Pets playing, and setting up the Christmas Village and stuff and Catching up on here I didn't get to it.....



That is about if the Internet really connects us more..... I will say this before I copy the article. I think in some ways it does. Yes it is true that often times you connect online with people you all ready know.... But look at like how ever flash mobs work... I assume that some of those people wind up meating each other and also connecting off of the web. Some shows in some cities (bigger then Buffalo I assume) have viewing parties for TV shows.... Then there are things like (e:drew) has had Viewing parties (not just for Church People either) and that great Champagne Brunch... Oh and bye the way thanks to you and (e:Janelle) they have been a great time and I'm sure a lot of work for you two.... I guess the point I'm making is it isn't the Internet it is how we use it... Yeah you can watch porn all day untill it hurts and you have no fluid left and you can order food and never go out side... But you can also find people on dating sites and chat on video and keep connections tight and find new people online. At the least you can keep up with people who you don't have time to see or call ....................................


I admit I'm hoping for some Comments>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Does Web really connect us?
Many use Internet to unite with others like them, experts sayBy Stephen T. Watson

News Staff Reporter

Published:
December 20, 2010, 8:00 AM


Updated: December 20, 2010, 11:06 PM


The Internet promises to let us connect with a stranger in Tokyo, but in reality we're much more likely to talk to a friend in Tonawanda.

It was viewed as a potentially globalizing tool. But if you look at how users really spend their time online, they interact with people who are a lot like them -- sharing the same ethnicity, hometown or class status.

"I think in part that's just natural human behavior," said Gregory R. Wood, Canisius College associate professor of marketing, who studies how businesses use social media. "Our online behavior tends to reflect, in part, our offline behavior."

Millions of conversations take place on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other websites every day, but most are segregated from the rest. Users talk near, but not with, others unlike them.

Local users say they notice the same pattern in their own online interactions, where they mainly chat with friends from school, or back home, about what's on their mind.

"Sometimes we talk about whatever the trending topic of the day is, or an event that happened," said Ricza Lopez, a media production major at Buffalo State College. "I like Twitter for the entertainment. A lot of people go on there and complain about their lives. It's funny."

Experts say this Internet isolation is a concern because, as the problems we face and the economy become more international in scale, we need to become more global in our outlook.

The way to resolve this issue is to translate more websites into other languages and to find the right guides to nudge us out of our online flocks, advocates say.

"These bridge figures, I'm pretty well convinced, are the future of how we try to make the world wider through using the Web," Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said at a recent Technology Entertainment and Design, or TED, conference.

From the beginning, theorists argued that the Internet had the potential to revolutionize how we communicate by opening up people to new perspectives from across the globe.

But social media drive so much of the online conversation, and the people we talk to through Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites are usually people we've met in our offline lives.

On Twitter, where people send status updates in 140 characters or less, users start out by following people they know.

They expand their Twitter base by following people who write about topics that interest them, while Twitter suggests others to follow based on a user's location or current connections.

New technologies such as Twitter "amplify and extend who we are and our existing tendencies," said Steve Macho, an assistant professor of technology education at Buffalo State.

At noontime one Friday earlier this month, the most-repeated phrases worldwide on Twitter were "firstkiss," which encouraged users to describe their first lip-lock; "ifihadsuperpowers," a more whimsical topic; and "Xiaobo," a reference to Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that day.

If you dig down into those conversations, however, you'll see that the people engaging in them for the most part share a common denominator of race or geography or interest.

Zuckerman, in his lecture, said he was surprised to see how many African-Americans use Twitter, which recently did some research on its users.

The service believes 24 percent of American Twitter users are black, about twice their representation in the general population, Zuckerman said. White and black Twitter users aren't talking to each other, however.

Citing research performed by Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas, Zuckerman points out most popular topics on Twitter are exclusively posted by either white or black users. In May, for example, the term "cookout" was posted almost entirely by black users, while the term "oilspill" was almost uniformly white.

Mate Salekovics, a D'Youville College student from Hungary, said he goes online to call friends and family back home, check out news from Hungary and interact with others who study information technology.

He said he doesn't think there's much that would make him change his habits.

"I know many other things are going on online," Salekovics said. "I do what I like."

Digital segregation also occurs in online news.

Google Ad Planner found in June that 99.9 percent of Chinese users, 98 percent of Japanese users and 93.9 percent of American users get their online news from domestic sites.

"We occasionally stumble onto a page in Chinese, and we decide that we do, in fact, have the greatest technology ever built to connect us to the rest of the world, and we forget that most of the time we're checking Boston Red Sox scores," Zuckerman said in his lecture.

Beginning in 2008, researchers noticed a trend of users seeking out websites that have an explicit point of view, and one that reinforces their own views, Aaron W. Smith, a senior research specialist with the Pew Internet & American Life Project, told The Buffalo News.

Smith isn't convinced the Internet is totally to blame.

"Is this a symptom of the broader polarization we've seen in the political world?" he asked.

Others argue the Internet has changed how we consume news, making it more interactive, and the medium is filled with information that can challenge a belief system. Liberals can visit the Drudge Report, for example, and conservatives may stop by Huffington Post.

"The key point is, I have to want to do that. It is there," said Wood, the Canisius professor.

People employ different media -- TV, radio, print and online -- to get their news, and on the Internet they "forage broadly" and rely on friends to fill in what they missed, Smith said.

But these are people you already have something in common with, so they are sending you links to issues that you might already know about.

Jeffrey J. McConnell, a Canisius computer science professor, laments that we don't just stumble across things anymore because we're always directed exactly where to go.

The search engines powered by Google, Microsoft and other high-tech heavyweights don't encourage the kind of pleasant meandering that happens when we go to a library or look up a word in a dictionary.

Data showing the most popular search terms in a particular country or community shows how inwardly focused we are.

Buffalonians using Google over the 30 days ending Friday to look up news or current events most often searched for the terms "news," "buffalo news," "wgrz" and "wivb," with "channel 2" and "channel 4" also high on the list, according to Google's Insights for Search.

Is this insularity bad? "[The Internet] helps us to not feel isolated as individuals," McConnell said. "It can be bad because we don't get a chance to find out what's going on beyond our small world. It still is a very narrowly focused interaction."

Zuckerman suggests following well-placed, internationally oriented guides who can point Internet users to ideas and people and places they otherwise might never have found.

Lopez, the Buffalo State senior, is a music buff, and this is a popular topic among her friends on Twitter. "Not only do we talk about music that we are into, but also music from other regions that I am not from, such as Africa, Europe and the Caribbean," she said.

swatson@buffnews.comnull

So this isn't a post to Bash the NFTA. I agree with a lot of what they do! For example it is good that they got rid of the zones. The Zones got all kinds of people confused and if you weren't from here forget it. You payed a base fee that was the same everywhere once you traveled into a different zone you had to pay money. Now heading out of the city you pay the additional money when you got off the bus. This means no back door use out side of the zone the bus started in. It also means if you payed with a pass you have to show it when you left. Now to confuse things more When traveling into the city you pay all your fair at once. It does make sense but does confuse people who aren't use to it...... When they got rid of the zones it made my bus pass cheaper since I was an all zone guy not sure about one zone people so again this was good....

Now as some of you who follow the news may know NFTA cut some routes on weekends. You need the bus then you are out. Now there was some protest and so NFTA said they would run some buses out there.... Sorry but this is no good. The reason is how is anyone going to when the buses run. I go by the schedule. Well they are all ready printed. It is winter and you need to know what time the bus comes. If you get out of work and can get to a bus stop by say 5 after four and there is 3 and a 5 you have a long as wait but you can't even talk to the boss about hours since you don't know when these other buses would run.......

The New buses suck and have sucked for a long time...... They are low to the ground, so what... The Last Buses could dip and had that bridge Layer thing for people in wheel chairs.... First of all since they are so low the front wheels and what covers then is a loss of seats. Now then in the back they do have steps to get rid of that problem but again you must lose seats since the steps go back some. Now not only that but I'm sure the isles aren't as wide as the old buses. I remember people used to be packed into them....... Also some of the front seats are lost because people aren't smart enough or wise enough to see the seems in the cushions so they make 3 seats 2 up front. This is taken away by the fact that the newest buses don't have seat cushions yet. Oh they have places for the stuff to screw in. Well until those get messed up. Those seats and corners make me slide around..... ARGH...............

So all in all...... Less seats and less standing room is a bad bus...........

So Once Thanksgiving ends it is hard to Imagine or Explain how quick the holiday gets here. Looking back now I get the entire "Black Friday" Thing. See there aren't that many paychecks so you have to get the expensive stuff over with and get some high end savings........ That Time goes by very quickly......

It is tough for me to imagine that On Thursday it is my Birthday and the last day of work and then the next day is Christmas Eve.... That is really tough to imagine.... Hey All I really want is what Glen (why do they mostly call him by his last name) Quagmire wants for Christmas [he is chained up and choked out and beaten by like 4 Japanese girls], kidding but that might be fun.... How did it get to this point so soon???

Then the week after that 4 days of work and then the (e:strip) New Years Eve and then on New Years day, assuming I survive and don't die from drinking a can of 4 Loko or a bottle of something it is the Winter Classic and the Penguins are playing.......

Today I did a little bit of Christmas shopping after I saw Tron In 3D that was a good time, and some previews of like the next installment of Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean both in 3D. Tron was pretty good story wise. The visuals where pretty good (now maybe it was just something (e:james) I think said on facebook) but I thought a few times how cool of a set that would be for Porno, I've heard they do make some futuristic ones like that. I thought the action was pretty good. Well Maybe it is just that I'm an Olive Wilde fan. She looks so different then she does on house and other shows I've seen her on in this movie.........

So Still Not sure How or what I'm going to do Photo Wise. But that being said Yesterday I feel into a hockey Ticket. It was a great time plus the sabres won.

I will start at the end of the game since that is the most important Part......

















































Next Up is some Pictures from the beginning of the night with food and warmups .............................. But First One thing. Yes it is great that the sabres won but going to the game is such an event.... You Have Pretty Girls dancing... You Have fans doing Trivia... Then In the 200 you can have them bring you food and even Drinks.... It is a good time.......

















































Well Time Wise Looks like I have time for a few shots from the game as well................................................
























Well I think that is Plenty You and I get the idea...............

First the link is for a Picasa so I don't forget it
The Idea of downloading it and then using it as a place to post all the pictures and then link to it is a good idea. I may wind up doing that in the future we shall see.....

I went to see The Narnia 3D movie. Now in the past I heard that there is religious stuff in the movies. Now I never saw it but could see where one could. But this one it was right out there. That being said I enjoyed the movie but man $11.50 during the day was a lot then food.... I see why people buy the big screen and stay in but those Blu-ray movies are costly as well....... I don't want to get into why I liked the movie cause I would give stuff away....

I watched a not happy at all but very good cop and drug movie. Good action. Good story and lots of tits well some tits maybe a lot not sure but they fit the story.

Last night I watched a lot of Christmas stuff.....

Family Guy had an hour special that I found a lot of fun with singing and stewie and all kinds of fun and crazyness. That was followed by crazy American Dad that had awesome shoot outs. Later it was onto Robot Chicken Christmas that was pretty good followed by 2 old ones that I had seen like parts of.......

So I have to admit that being the Peterazzi has been taking its toll a bit I'm mega behind. Music is art I have so many photos not even really sure how to post them and that was in Sept.

I also feel as if I don't have much to say lately.... I think part of that is the holiday season thing. Some of it is facebook though. Like for example I went to see Narnia 3D on Saturday and yes it was fun but it isn't like something I can write an entire blog about with out giving away the entire movie. The Other thing is pictures....

I admit Windows 7 is annoying. When Selecting pictures to upload if you just slide that mouse a little bit they all get copied argh...... Not only that but no mater what I do (this might be different for when the website scans your computer (JAVA) and you can upload them that, but normally only 139 pictures at a time so that is argh!!!!

So Last Sunday I went to the Bandits Open Practice it was fun...

I'm going to see what happens if I drag the picture from what happened last to first kinda.

The Last thing they did was reveal the 20th year jerseys to me they look like an old one they wore......









































Ok maybe part of the problem is how sensitive the optical mouse is I just lost the post because I mis slid the picture and got it on one big page so I'll cut it here for now...........

I admit that the pictures I took where on the screen aka jubotron or what ever you want to call it. Some times you see things better from higher up. This was really cool. the didn't throw fists put they practiced fighting or wrestling it was pretty cool........





































So To be on the safe side I publish again

Well Now to add some Pictures of the Bandettes these are from before the Practice started their practice or what ever.......















Well Time for Football pregame but I think the point is gotten maybe more pictures soon?

I know I have talked about this some where else and about being green but.... I often find one of the problems in this country is we fight things backwards....

There is a war on drugs! why? Well a lot of people make money on it... We lock up drug addicts and cause gangs to have a product to fight over instead of trying to make it so people who want to escape or feel life more enhanced don't turn to drugs....

But what I want to talk about is CFLs. The Idea shown in ads for them is that they last for years. They are environmental... Well but see that isn't true at all.... First of all I have heard they have Mercury in them, yes that thing that causes cancer and so what do you with those lights when they burn out...

What the ads and packaging tells is. These lights can last up to 5 years. They are these great lights that last a long time and never run out. Well what that does is make you think oh then I can leave them on. That is right they encourage you to keep lights on. Here is an idea to save on energy and not burn your lights out. You leave a room and turn them off. Oh but we can't tell people to do that, cause then the power company loses money. So just leave the lights on all over the house....

But there is another part that those lights that kinda look like curly fries don't tell you.... If you have an old house and you use CFL's they stick out past the light shades or what ever you call those glass things. Also if you have other types of fixtures they may not work with those. So then what are you supposed to do go out and buy new light covers for everything??????

Not to mention there is this thing that many people think that electricity likes comes out of the air... It doesn't some is from hydro power like Niagara Falls. Some is from coal. Yes there are still coal mines and some from wind farms... We all use it with out thinking about where we come from. In stead of having some kind of light that is supposed to last a long time, why don't we just think about when and where we really need light. For example I'm typing now do I really need the lights on.... No I don't so I should turn them off in this room and I will once I hit publish.........

Well Thanksgiving this year was a little different. But that is ok. I like to watch football and I watched the Patriots beat up on the lions it started out as a great game. Then it was off to Old Country Buffet with my mother......






That Taco Salad thing I made was a lot of food and fun but messy to eat I ate like a burrito meaning a I ate the shell and stuff in side at the same time kinda.

Then after that I got home and watched the Half time show... Is it me or does Keith Urban Look like Johny Reznik (lead singer of the goo goo dolls) or maybe he stole his look. So I watched the end of the cowboys game and it was a pretty good game. Then TNA wrestling was pretty good to, yeah they did have it thanksgiving themed some so that was cool.

I did try to buy one thing on black Friday it was a $200 Kodak camera that was 10X Optical zoom and only $99 on sale but online they ran out....

Went to see Faster and then Burlesque. Faster was a pretty good action movie that had a story and muscle cars and that kind of cop thing it was pretty good. I have to admit in terms of Burlesque I'm not really a Cher fan but she was pretty good and looked pretty hot, kinda looked like Vat Von D. Now in Terms of Christina she is amazing all movie long.... I guess if you don't like her singing style you might not like the movie. That is in fact the reason I don't watch American Idol. To Me that show isn't about who can sing. It is about We Like this voice over that voice and it has nothing to do with if someone can sing and play a master riff it is all about this voice and that voice. In any event I really Enjoyed it.

When I left the movies I saw it had snowed for the 1st time this year. The pictures look dark on facebook but decent on the camera not sure how well you can see the snow but here goes....











Right now 464 Gallery is doing something, and I think there is a Tree lighting on Elmwood and carriage rides, and Club Diablo is having a fetish show but I don't feel like treking home in the cold so, I'll go have chunky soup and go watch wrestling plus I'm working on Sat so....

So Last night I really enjoyed Glee. But the odd thing is that I didn't know any of the songs they did. Maybe that was why I liked it since I didn't have the original song in my mind to compare it to that being said there is something wrong with me. The Episode had me laughing and crying I think with the wedding argh....

In Any Event the main part of the story was about the Bullying thing. I kinda wonder if it is more about the bullying then the gay thing. Cause when he transfers schools it isn't just that he is being picked on and is scared it is that there is no Bullying about any thing Zero tolerance...

Last week what got me thinking was that part of the issue with the football player is that he can't come out. Not that he wants to. But as a football player you can't be gay. Now the show didn't really touch on this like I thought they wouldn't, but hey it is just a TV show. But to me they kinda hinted at it. When Kurt didn't mention the kiss and instead said picking on him....

But What I was thinking about some place in the show was that often in life acceptance and approval get kinda mixed up in our minds. I think this is so true with Homosexuality and really any kind of sex that isn't what you are into. I think often times someone thinks that what someone does or is is wrong so they don't approve of who or what they are. But just because you approve of someone doesn't mean you can't still accept who they are and let them be them selves and just not like what they are....

Again this isn't just about homosexuality it is about anything. It could be that you think that pan handler shouldn't bother you and should go get a job (you don't approve of them). But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't accept them as a person or that you are mean to them. I don't think I really have the words to explain what I really mean.

That being said hope everyone enjoys their Holiday weekend!!!

So I like Time Warner I really do. They have some great things that from what I hear the dishes don't have. But that being said they need to get there stuff together and stop lying on their ads.... Or maybe that is to harsh and they need to get all the channels on board and improve things....

If you have seen there ads the newest one shows some lady buying shoes coming in and using start over to watch her favorite show.... Well hold on that doesn't really work like that... Not all he stations (fox comes to mind here) have start over... Also it doesn't allways work right on shows that don't start right when they say they do... This Happened to me when I came home and tried to watch Bill Maher the show ended in the middle of new rules... Also what about live things like football that go over the time. Oh bye the way this is a problem with DVRs to from what I hear. So don't believe that kid playing baseball with his dad ad either......

Last night I really wanted to watch The Hurt Locker , Like a fool I trusted the ad. But not so much that I checked the channel it was on (The Movie Channel I think) and start over came up so I thought it would work. Go get food for the movie and football today and go in and no start over as an option on enhanced TV, FUCK! So one of the options is on Demand and of course that isn't one of the movies that the ondemand channel has either argh..... So I went to find some on demand stuff and found "Fan Boys" it was wild and was great to see Seth Rogan play two parts but what made the movie good really was the hot chick in it but was all the cameos those where the best parts. The next Movie was "Zombie Strippers". Ok Zombies and a strip bar it was awesome. Yes it was very funny and there where lots of tits. Did I mention it was funny. Oh yeah and they took zombies in a new direction (the effects are different on men and women and women have control, yes two strippers fighting on stage and the golf balls where funny)........

Now in Time Warner's defense they don't control what each channel puts on their demand station and when they are on. For example Starz has this thing they call early premieres where movies come on before they air normally. That being said (yes the on demand stuff is free but still) it would ve nice if they had more movies and specials on the ondemand channels....

There is the new service I have seen advertised where say you miss a program you can go back into the past to view it. You can go back I think 3 days. Again this isn't on all the channels...

My point here isn't that I'm bashing Time warner it is that these services that when they work right are pretty cool you can't depend on them, like the ads make you think...

Next things next the fox and time warner thing. It is time for those two to make a deal. I think they will reach a deal because it is suicide not to, both companies would lose way to much money...
1. Glee, House, NFL Football, Simpsons sunday night line up and Yes American Idol are the huge fox draws. If Time warner was to lose these here is what would happen.
A. Some people would just give up and not watch Fox anymore. Less people watching fox means lower rating and less people watch the comericals drop way off in value..
B. Keep Time Warner but watch Fox over the air. Well ad money wise again you had people watching time Warner who know watch Fox over the air so they lose money.
c. I need fox so drop my price on cable, oh you are charging me the same for less ok bye. Yeah a lot of viewers would drop Time Warner and that is where they lose the big money. Most of those people would go get another provider or maybe just go the HD route through the air....

I can admit that I don't work for a station or in braodcasting so not sure how the money stuff works other then that when everyone on friends wanted that huge increase in pay they all got it because they ratings where so good that advertisers paid so much money during those time slots that it was a drop in the bucket to NBC. So time warner losing fox and fox losing time warner would be a huge blow to both companies that they can't afforid. But there is another factor that I don't know how it works every net work has a local affilate and yeah Fox 29 would no longer be on cable and that has to effect how much local ad money they get. Well that would happen in every city with time warner. I think that might be why you see the scrols during shows cause they don't want to lose the money.

D. There is this X factor that no one can really count or quintify. What effect does this bickering between cable and stations do to the viewer. I as viewer like the shows I like and they should be there when they are there. It is bad enough when nights change and now one program I liked is on at the same time as another. This bickering could turn people away from both companies. Maybe they will decide to just watch shows on the internet with one of those huge sony internet TVs. Or maybe give up on TV and just wait for the good shows to come out on DVD and Spend a weekend watching the entire series. Who knows what it will bring. Maybe Viewers will find a way to watch the NFL on line...

The Bottom line is that making fair deals behind closed doors before the public hears about it is best for both the cable/Satlite companies and the stations....