Big ole book club

One Book, One Twitter.

Yep.

Baton Rouge has been doing this whole One Book, One Community thing for a while now, and I never got into it. But with the debut of One Book, One Twitter, a book club for social media geeks on an epic scale, where the conversation is rampant and the pace open-ended, I couldn't resist.

With my recent stay-at-home-dadness -- and subsequent lack of funds -- I did have to resist rushing out to the buy the book for the first week or so. I read part of the first chapter at @Borders, then finished it online on Amazon or something. Finally, the hold I placed at the library came through, and I was able to pick up a well-worn, hard-bound edition of the book. Then I set out to catch up.

Six chapters later, I'm now ahead of schedule and freely reading posts on Twitter with the hash tag #1b1t.

I'm a bit ahead of myself here, too.

A quick rundown.

An idea kick started by Jeff Howe, a writer at Wired, those interested first voted on what book would be read in the first go-round of this gigantic book club. The choice, by popular vote, was Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." The book beat out a slew of classics ("Catch-22," "Brave New World," "Catcher in the Rye," among others).

Readers can follow along with the schedule, if they wish. But even if they don't (nobody reads at the same pace), the hash tag approach is saving the day. General comments are posted by inserting #1b1t into a tweet. Readers can then search the hash tag to see what other people are saying. To see comments only concerning the first chapter, participants can post/search #1b1t_1c, and so on with 2c, 3c, etc. This is a great way to keep spoilers away from readers, and it's working pretty well.

And there you have it. An idea has blossomed into a beautiful tree of knowledge and now thousands upon thousands of people all over the world are reading the same book. How cool is that?

Well, it gets cooler. Tomorrow morning, Neil Gaiman himself will be doing an interview on Twitter about the book. He's already answered a few questions along the way. Just another way an author and readers are being brought together as the world gets smaller, technologically speaking.

If you haven't started, it's not to late. Follow @1b1t2010 on Twitter and find a copy of the book. Heck, you can even read the first hundred pages or so online here.

See you amongst the hash tags!

Social media getting (locally) social

So things starting stirring yesterday on Facebook. A former co-worker of mine was heading to a meeting over lunch. An inaugural meeting, in fact. Said meeting was for the Baton Rouge Social Media Club, a new crew in Louisiana's Capital City that is looking for "like-minded individuals who are already out in the social spaces establishing Baton Rouge as a technologically advanced and forward-thinking city."

I missed the meeting.

Well, to be fair to myself, I didn't really know about it until it was too late. But I immediately headed over to the BRSocMe website and filled out an application. It's about time an application asks you if you are on foursquare.

Since I'm six days out from being gloriously unemployed (by choice) and thus swimming in the giant sea of freelance, it would be an understatement to say this club could be important to me. In this day and age where tweetups (Mashable has a guide) are becoming more common and companies are becoming more progressive (well, some of them, anyway), local social media gatherings hold huge potential for networking, the formation of new companies, finding jobs, making friends, etc. So I plan to be out at the next meeting slinging my smartphone, possibly with baby in tow.

So what other cities are jumping into the social media club arena? There's Los Angeles, Louisville, Phoenix, Hawaii, Portland (Oregon), Cleveland, Seattle, Austin and plenty more. Many of these appear to be chapters in a larger "national" organization. At any rate, get out there and find the club in your city. It's only a matter of time before they get more specific. The Chicago Sci-Fi Social Media Club. The Denver Mile High Football Social Media Club.

If you know of any social media clubs in your area, feel free to drop a link in the comments and tells us if you've participated.

Does 'Kick-Ass' live up to its name?

There's no doubt that "Kick-Ass" is going to piss off some conservative types, but for us comic book geeks, or just fans of an over-the-top action flick, how did it pan out?

Here's my review of "Kick-Ass."

The Phrase from an Unknown Book

I left the show before the headliners even came on. Jane showed up with her new boy and I wanted to avoid any wars of words or fists to faces. I had nothing against the guy but in those situations it’s considered ill mannered to punch the girl and he’s the one standing there with his popped collar and pooka-shell necklace looking like a homemade douche.

I turned the corner to walk up 9th street to my car. I couldn’t believe she was with that guy. I never will understand girls. It’s like when they break up with you they run to the polar opposite of everything you represent. Me, I just look for another dark haired catholic girl just like the last one.

“Say man, anything you have can help.”

The bum offering to help park peoples’ cars interrupted my thought and I waved him off with a hand gesture. He turned away and mumbled to the street, “B’side the river… touchin’ feelin’s gone…turnin’ over like pages in a book.”

I stopped and turned to watch him walk away. I wanted to run after him but my feet were glued to the pavement. It wasn’t the exact quote I recalled but similar enough to knock me backwards to being 12 years old again.

My uncle was lying in the hospital waiting to die. All of the family had been taking turns sitting with him for the past three weeks. I got the shift after school from three to seven. I was supposed to be doing homework but I always just ended up slinking down in the guest chair and watching TV.

At least once a shift I’d go down the hall past the nurses station to see if that pretty brunette was working. I’d shyly look at her and she’d give me a smile and a wave that kept me enthralled till the next day.

The final day I was there the pretty nurse wasn’t working. It was the older one who was really sweet but just not as attractive to a 12-year-old. I got my Coke and candy and made my way back to the room. My uncle was lying motionless with his eyes closed. I plopped down and started my snack and flipping through the channels. I settled on Jeopardy! I tried to imagine being a contestant. I bet if I won the game then Belinda from my school would have to go out with me. Ha! I could snub her and go for Annie, the mousy-haired nerd in the gifted class. Just like the movies had taught me.

Deep in thought, I was shocked to see motion out of the corner of my eye. My uncle had moved his hand. I jumped a little since he had not so much as blinked without being prompted by a doctor or nurse since he’d arrived here. I stood up and he was looking at the ceiling. I grabbed his hand, and as if he was a talking stuffed animal, he instantly started speaking.

“We walked beside the river, hands touching but the feeling gone, leaves turning over as our feet shuffled past like pages in a book we'd already read.”

The extended beep of his vital signs flat-lining punctuated his sentence. A crash team burst through the doors and pushed me aside trying to revive him to no avail.

I became an avid reader after that incident and had poured through books for years trying to find that phrase even though my parents dismissed it as dead man mumbles. I had never found it or heard of it until today.

Ads in 140 characters or less

I suppose it was inevitable, but Twitter is bringing advertising to a tweet near you. The newly introduced feature, designed to peel the twenties from your very pockets, will go under the moniker, "Promoted Tweets." So far, Best Buy, Sony, Starbucks, Red Bull, Bravo and Virgin America have signed on to inject their corporate pitches into your brain.

While Twitter's initial social networking business model has taken the world by storm, it certainly hasn't been a profitable venture. Now they can add a little coin in their pockets, and from what it sounds like, do so without being too intrusive.

According to the plan, these sponsored tweets will show up at the top of Twitter search pages, and will be clearly distinguishable from your regular, run-of-the-mill Joe-schmo tweet.

As a long-time user of Twitter, I'm actually not turned off by this at all. It's better than, say, an obviously fake Stephen Colbert account that spurns out tweets like this in the middle of my freaking timeline. Repeating the same tired message. Reminding me that I already follow the real Stephen Colbert, but I just forgot to unfollow the impostor.

Stay out of my timeline, Twitter, and we'll get along just fine!

And, ahem, it would please me if you, the reader -- yes you! -- would take a moment to click on the harmless and unobtrusive ads scattered around the blog. Once, twice, thrice, even. Be daring!

Actually, joke. I don't care.

Ahem.

Why We Are Here

To entertain, to vent, to create, and more importantly to destroy.