This year's overall winner is Jim Gleeson, of Madison, WI, who came up with this sparkler:
"Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee."
If you're not familiar and couldn't tell, the contest seeks the worst opening sentence for an imaginary novel. It's named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who came up with the immortal opening, "It was dark and stormy night" (which isn't actually a bad start, except the full first sentence goes on, and on...)
Be sure to see all the genre winners, runners-up and dishonorable mentions.
Hi folks -- sorry, been kind of a slack posting week for me (both here an in the Social Media Blog) -- I'll do better next week. Some of the things I'll try to get to include:
* An update on the Journals Product Manager front * That entry I've been talking about on commenting and blogging for people without AOL or AIM Screen Names * A recap on how to use tags and some things you can do with them.
Speaking of tags, here's another round of blogplugs, which are entries that bloggers have sent to me or labeled blogplugs so that other people will see them. To see everything that people have tagged, click the blogplugs tag:
Hi folks -- got a couple of entries in the hopper. Right now, though, I'm just testing a new AOL product that just launched yesterday -- it's called circaVie, and it's a way to do photo timelines (the "times of your life").
It'll probably be easier if I just show you -- we made sure it was added to the Journals whitelist of sites we allow embedded objects and Javascript code from, so you can embed it into your Journal:
This one is a quick and dirty test timeline that I made, using photos that I'd taken on campus (and that you've seen before) over the course of the year so far.
It uses Flash, and it's another kind of photo album option for you. What you do is:
1. Go to the circaVie site, sign in (you can use your screen name), and hit "Create a timeline."
2. Add photos to the timeline (specify the title, date, description and tags, then upload the photo from your computer, or if it's already online, the URL)
3. Hit "Embed this timeline" to get the embeddable code, which you can then copy-and-paste into the HTML view of your Journals entry.
I will do a full tutorial when I get the chance, though it may not be necessary -- someone named "Demo Girl" did a circaVie tutorial screencast (a screencast is a video of what's on your screen, usually with a voiceover talking you through it).
Please note that circaVie is a public beta (like most releases these days); I'm still playing around (I can't get my timeline title to stick, which is why it still says, "Give your timeline a name." -- not sure if this is a bug or user error. [Update: Most likely user-error -- just hit the enter key to save your timeline title, though I guess they'll be looking for a way to expose a "Save" button."])
Anyway, play around and let me know what you think.
Check out today's Pearls Before Swine comic -- it's about negative commenters on blogs, and it asks -- if they hate a blog or blogger so much, why do they keep coming back to it?
If you're a fan of the strip, you'll have a pretty good idea who the commenter is.
Now, for blogger Goat, even having a persistent negative commenter is kind of an improvement -- about this time last year, Goat wasn't getting any comments at all (the strip isn't available online anymore).
Anyway, I sent the link over to Nancie at the Marvelous Mob as something she might want to write about, since this is right up her alley.
Hi folks -- it being Friday, here's another round of blogplugs, which are entries that bloggers have sent to me or labeled with the tag blogplugs so that other people will see them. To see everything that people have tagged, click the blogplugs tag:
* Finally, as a reminder, I'm still going to be posting here, but I'll be doing a lot more blogging over at the Social Media Mess, one of the categories in the new Social Media Blog I'm editing.
Hey folks -- you know, one of the reasons we built out the new Social Media Blog was that we needed a place for AOL & AIM employees to talk about more serious, slightly drier online community and social media industry topics, like CEO sock-puppetry, how MySpace users are different from Facebook users, online friending in the workplace, what the new Nielsen/NetRatings mean for community, etc.
One of the problems with trying to do that here was that:
1. The people who read Magic Smoke tend not to care about these things. 2. The people who care about these things tend not to read Magic Smoke.
So, instead of trying to make this blog something that it's not, we just made another one.
Sounds great, right? So what's one of my first entries in this, our real first go-live week? A lolcat entry:
Editor Joe says: I are serious blogger. This is serious blog.
OK, so perhaps you've noticed, but I didn't blog as much here this week as I usually do. This is because I've been working on another project (I mentioned it cryptically on Monday), and it's pretty much live now (though it's still basically soft-launched -- you can't really officially launch something late on a Friday in the middle of summer): The AIM Social Media Blog
I posted a whole intro entry laying it out -- it's pretty much a group blog where AIM & AOL folks who work on community and social media products will be talking about (wait for it) community and social media topics -- with each other, with our users, and with the rest of the industry and the world.
I'm serving as editor for the whole shooting match, and for launch, we've got 5 categories, each serving as its own blog (so you can go to the top level and see everything, or dive down into a particular category and see just that topic's content):
1. The AIM Buddy Blog, focused on AIM and social messaging 2. The AIM Pages Blog, looking at AIM Pages Profiles and the world of social networking 3. The Community Info Blog, to support the users of our community products (like chat and message boards) 4. The Marvelous Mob, talking about community moderation, development and enforcement 5. The Social Media Mess, which is my catch-all for social media and community topics
We're going to be consolidating the existing AIM Buddy Blog, AIM Pages Blog, and the Community Info Blog into the new blog structure, so they'll be up as archives until we can transition all the content we want to copy over, at which point we'll redirect the old URLs.
So What's That Mean for Magic Smoke? Well, first off, this Journal isn't going anywhere. I'm going to be keeping it and keeping it active, though being realistic, I'll be posting less often, and when I do, it will be focused exclusively on AOL Journals and AOL Journaler topics. Things like industry musings, conference notes, the busted for blogging stuff, etc. will all be part of the Social Media Mess.
On AOL Journals vs. Blogsmith Since one of the main purposes of the Social Media Blog is to help get more AOL and AIM folks participating out in the blogosphere in a coherent, structured way, it demanded a group blogging solution with the right mix of categories and features.
At this stage of the game, AOL Journals just isn't the right platform to do that with, so we went with Blogsmith, the blogging platform that powers all the Weblogs, Inc blogs (like Engadget, TMZ, and the AOL Fanhouse).
As to the question of, "If Blogsmith is so good, why not just roll it out to consumers?"-- this is an idea that comes up as a rumor from time to time; I honestly have no insights into this and no idea if this would ever happen, though I'll tell you that for our build, it took a full-time developer versed in Javascript, CSS and PHP about a month to build out the blog, with ample help from the other developers (it was her first full-on build -- thanks, Amy!), so it's not something that regular, non-coding folks (I include myself) can play with.
In any case, we're going to keep working on enhancing AOL Journals -- it's going to be an interesting summer.
One thing Journals users should note is that the Social Media Blog, out of the gate, does not have AOL Alerts integrated on the page -- it's got feeds you can subscribe to, and we'll be working on ways to provide feeds, feed updates via e-mail, and Alerts in a unified way, but for right now, you can try subscribing to an Alert that will tell you when the feed updates with a new entry.
So that's where we are -- if you're interested in wonky discussions about the future of social media and online community, come on by, and I hope you'll root for me as I work on getting more voices from inside AOL out into the broader blogosphere and world. And remember, I'll still be blogging here and reachable at JournalsEditor@aol.com.
Hi folks -- time for another round of blogplugs (the luck or unluck of which have not been determined). As always, blogplugs are are entries that bloggers have sent to me or labeled with the tag blogplugs to get them in front of other people. Click the blogplugs tag to see everything people have tagged that way:
Hi folks -- as far as I can estimate, this is going to be the last unsolicited, unpaid, not deal-related, viral-marketing summer movie tie-in entry I'm going to do:
As I mentioned earlier in the month, here's another Simpsons-movie item, featuring the Simpsons Avatar creator (which lets you construct an avatar graphic in the style of a Simpsons character -- it uses Flash, and you may need to adjust your popup blocker settings). After a little fiddling, here's what I came up with for myself:
A few notes:
* In the Simpsons-color palette, white people are yellow, and yel... Asian people are white. That's just the way it is.
* The hair is a little long compared to my current cut. Also, as far as I can tell, it's bully Nelson Muntz's hair, which amuses me.
* I also don't think I picked the best nose and mouth style for me, but what are you going to do?
I've been seeing a lot of these in various profile pics and blog entries, so the word is getting out. If you blog your own Simpsons avatar, leave a comment with a link to your entry so we can see.
Hi folks -- hope you had a good weekend. Hopefully as well, no news is good news, and things are going smoothly.
It's pretty steamy outside (though still not as bad as what most of the West and Southwest have been getting)... or so I'm told --just as over the past few weeks, I've had my head down working on a new project that should come to fruition soon (possibly as soon as tomorrow).
More on that as it happens.
In other news, this is somewhat bloggy (in that the folks at the AOL FanHouse sports blog covered it, though I think I originally saw it on Fark.com), but it's mostly just a feel-good sports story (well, it made me feel good) -- ESPN has footage from the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Colorado Rockies game on Sunday (that's baseball, for those not in the know), where the Phillies team (with one of the Rockies) helped the groundskeepers tame a wild tarp during a particularly gusty and nasty rain delay.
Watch the video -- it's pretty cool, even if you're not a baseball fan. And as the article notes, perhaps it gave the Phillies some instant good karma -- they ended up winning the game.
Hi folks -- here's another round of blogplugs, which are entries that bloggers have labeled with the tag blogplugs because they deserve special attention (this is just a selection -- click the blogplugs tag to see everything people have tagged that way):
* I already featured this in my entry about Kwik-E-Mart and the iPhone, but in the interests of completeness, here's Journals Tech Manager Leona's entry about getting her iPhone (complete with photo of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak).
* A familiar face re-emerges -- Fjrav, a family medicine resident who started her Journal in med school, talks about HIV/AIDS and urges everyone to get tested and WRAP IT UP!
If you want to highlight an entry of yours (or someone else's) give it the blogplugs tag or drop me an e-mail. And remember -- you can see everything "in the known universe" that people have tagged this way by clicking the blogplugs tag.
Hi folks -- so, tomorrow being the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 2007, the calendar date is 7/7/07 (or if you use European date formats, 7/7/07), which is apparently a big deal for some people.
In other news, it turns out that DC isn't being left out of the Live Earth concert lineup, after all. Since I don't watch the CBS Early Show, I caught this item on the BBC News site -- the Washington Post has more details: Live Earth DC is going to be a relatively small event at the National Museum of the American Indian (with big screens set up across the street) -- Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will be headlining, and Al Gore will be speaking.
Hey, it's free.
(The Smithsonian's Folklife Festival is still happening on the Mall, and Congress had put the kibosh on using the Capitol grounds, which is why they couldn't do a bigger space.)
Afterwards, Mr. Gore will head up to Giants Stadium in New Jersey (that's New Jersey, not New York) for the big show.
I would guess that he's going to fly (with appropriate carbon offsets purchased, of course), though if Al, Jr. drives, he could probably make it in under 2 hours.
Hi folks -- hope you all had a pleasant Independence Day, and that you still have all the appendages you started out with (click to read about DC-area tornado watches and a number of local fireworks-related injuries).
I was at a barbecue in Leesburg, much further west; my fireworks photos were pretty much garbage, though -- I had the camera low to the ground and I couldn't really see what I was shooting -- this is the only interesting shot, even though it's technically unsound:
There was a lot of fog, mist and low clouds, so the sky was red in this shot.
In other news, here in the office, cow-orker (and Comics Alliance blog lead) Chris shows off some of his Simpsons movie/7-Eleven crossover merchandise -- he didn't go to the DC-area store (in Bladensburg, Maryland), but he did pick up a few things locally:
Krusty-Os, Homer Donut, Squishee, and of course, a Radioactive Man comic.
Hi folks -- things have been relatively quiet today, it being the day before Independence Day.
In my Kwik-E-Mart entry yesterday, I mentioned a Transformers movie tie-in, and here it is: The Mr. Potato Head people did another custom spud for the movie (which opened today, with some evening showings last night); this one's called Optimash Prime:
This one was an impulse buy -- I got it about a week ago at the supermarket.
Now, I'm not one to leave the toys in the box, so I opened it up, and now Mr. Prime has a place of honor next to Darth Tater on my cubicle wall:
Okay, this is going to sound like one big paid product placement (it's not -- it's actually more like two), but I swear it isn't -- I'm just talking about some prominent pop culture themes that just happen to have a very commerce-heavy element to them:
Not only did they rebrand the store and have standups of the characters, but they also have Simpsonia for sale (it's in regular stores, too), including Buzz Cola, Squishees, and Krusty-Os (though no Duff beer).
Now, looking at the list of locations, the DC-area one is a little ways out (I'm lazy and Beltway traffic sucks -- second-worst in the nation), but I see that in a brilliantly Silicon Valley-targeted move, they have a location in Mountain View, CA.
Mountain View is home to a lot of tech companies, including Google and AOL's West Coast offices. Techies love the Simpsons, which equals lots of bloggy coverage. So, I figured I could find someone to send me some pictures.
Lo and behold, the first person I pinged, Journals Project Manager Leona, said that her husband Larry was going today, so he was going to send me some pictures, which are above. Some highlights:
Storefront. Note people scarily dressed up as Simpsons characters.
Apu says, "Thank you, come again!"
Thanks to Larry for all dozen photos. He had driven around to 7 stores last night, trying to find the right one. He finally found the right store, then also went back for some daytime photos, and presumably to stock up on more Krusty-Os and Buzz Cola.
Apparently, Larry is a huge Simpsons fan.
Unpaid Product Placement #2: The iPhone *************************************** Now, not only did Larry send along the photos, but he took them and sent them to me using his new iPhone.
This is from Friday night in the San Jose Apple Store.
Now, just so you're warned, I actually have another Simpsons entry planned (this one with a crowd participation element), as well as one talking about a Transformer-movie tie-in, so the market-y goodness isn't over yet.
Hi folks -- here are a few items from over the weekend (or thereabouts):
* Journals Duplicate E-Mail Alerts on Friday: Noticed Friday afternoon that I was getting duplicate e-mailed New Entry Alerts for certain Journals. John from the Alerts team followed up and let me know that one of the back end servers was acting dodgy, but it should be okay now.
* AOL Pictures Maintenance This Morning: The AOL Pictures folks had some scheduled maintenance this morning. In the past, this kind of work had sometimes caused some problems with AOL Pictures in Journals, but this time around, the Journals and Pictures tech teams coordinated to make sure that your published photos would be unaffected.
If anyone has any problems with photos that they've previously published to Journals, please let me know. (Your photos almost always still exist in your AOL Pictures albums.)
The Pictures folks also rolled out some new features last week -- I will try to talk about it when I get a chance (though you might want to ask them over at the AOL Pictures blog).
It's a wider format, of course; there's more whitespace (buffer around words, images and sections) that I'm getting used to; it's not bad, I need to play around with it more before I can fully form an opinion.
* Apple's iPhone Gets Big City Mayors in Trouble: Apple's big iPhone launch was Friday. (I got to play with one on Saturday... they're pretty slick.) It was kind of a big deal, with folks lined up (even though it turned out there were plenty of them available at Apple stores -- quantities were more limited at AT&T stores).
Consumerist reports that staffers for DC Mayor Adrian Fenty jumped the line at a DC AT&T store. After an exchange of words, a finger was allegedly displayed.
Jumping the line is bad, of course, but waiting in line probably isn't much better if you're a big city mayor -- Philly's Mayor John Street caught some flak for waiting in the iPhone line ("How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?").
