Can I just say that Criss Angel kicked total ass in his guest spot on the episode CSI New York from last night? The guy is a decent magician to begin with, but who knew he could act as well? His emotionally disturbed character of Luke Blade was no easy role to play, and he managed it beautifully. Good episode. Perfect casting.
As more and more of our lives ends up on the internet, there's more and more ways to put yourself there. I've always thought that a daily update on my blog is enough, but then a service called "Twitter" comes along that allows you to put continuous updates about your life on the internet all day long. Despite an occasional trip somewhere, most of my life is pretty boring, and would end up looking something like this...
I don't know why anybody would want to read something like that, so my Twitter account goes unused. Since you can update from your mobile phone, I keep thinking that maybe I'll Twitter one of my trips or something. Travel is mostly mundane torture for me, but maybe somebody would find it interesting?
Another internet invention is a service called "Facebook" which is a kind of social-networking site. It started out for college students to maintain contacts and stuff, but eventually opened up to everybody. Once you join up, you can invite others to join and be on your friends list. Karl from Secondhand Tryptophan invited me to be his friend, and now he appears when I login...
Today I logged into Facebook for some reason, and noticed that I'm being asked how I know Karl. I click on him to answer, and a box comes up with a list of options. When I read through the list, I don't see an option for "Blogging Buddies" so I thought I'd select "Through Facebook" instead. After I checked the box, a little menu popped up asking me what kind of Facebook friend Karl was to me...
POKE BUDDIES?!? What the hell kind of stuff is going on at FaceBook? I mean, I like Karl and all... and look forward to meeting him in person and stuff... but this is a bit more intimate of a relationship than I'm ready for. I decided to go for something less dramatic and select "We hooked up" instead, but figured Karl would probably delete me for something like that. Ultimately, I just selected "Met randomly" and was able to hand-type "Blogging Buddies" which is what I was looking for all along...
Interestingly enough, Facebook won't take my word for it that Karl and I are Blogging Buddies. Instead, they are going to ask Karl for confirmation. Am I really so untrusting?
Even more interesting... I now have an option to "Poke Karl!" (with exclamation point!). WTF? I must be missing something here, so I go to the Help Center to try and figure out what all this poking is about. Here is what I found out...
What is a poke?
We have about as much of an idea as you do. We thought it would be fun to make a feature that had no real purpose and to see what happens from there. So mess around with it, because you're not getting an explanation from us.
Holy crap! If the people who created the poking don't know and won't tell... what the heck are Facebook users supposed to think? "Mess around with it?" What if I poke Karl and he explodes? And what the heck is going to happen when somebody pokes ME?!?
If you don't hear anything from me tomorrow, it's probably because Karl poked me and I exploded.
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OMFG – I JUST got off the phone with Karl, dammit. I would so have loved to make fun of him for being your poke buddy!
And check it out…your poke buddy’s picture is taken in my house, swank!
“Karl, I think I have a little crush on Dave”
“Psssht, beat it bitch…he’s MY poke buddy!”
“Geez, prison much?”
I’ve always wondered about the poke buddy thing. Never tried it, and now I’m more afraid than ever.
If I wake up exploded, I’m coming after you.
I didn’t think you could poke people in public like that.
Criss Angel completely freaks me out!
I have a total love/hate relationship with amazing magicians like Criss. I love to watch them yet I hate that what they do seems impossible and defies logic. I think I must be part Vulcan because my brain just can’t handle them.
that is so kinky.
i hope you guys will do a demo at TC next weekend. karl has been talking about filming his “special movie.”
ahem.
But “poking” someone on Facebook is so much fun! I have had “poke wars” on Facebook that lasted for days, even weeks. Yeah, I don’t have a lot going on in my life. 🙂
I like ‘poke buddies!’ better than ‘tasty vagina’. As a matter of fact I’m going to use it 3 times randomly in conversation today to see if I can start a trend.
Wow. If you guys are poke buddies, it sure will make for an interesting TequilaCon!!
(Will we have to buy tickets?)
So do you have lots of “Poking Karl” Twitter entries now?
Just asking…
Twitter seemed more fun than it turned out to be. I have a hard time updating my blog anyways so I´m letting twitter rest.
You’ve been POKED….Was it good for you? Cause I didn’t get much out of it.
Not unsurprisingly, my students “poke” people they are interested in meeting up with for some quick, casual sexual encounter. They even poke folks that they don’t know but find attractive…. put’s “poke buddies” in a whole new light!
Reading this post was the perfect way to start a rainy Friday morning. I WAS in a bad mood, but how can you stay grumpy after an intelligent discussion on poke buddies?
see, this is why i stay far far away from all those social networking things. poking random people – what’s the world coming to?
I don’t know who Criss Angel is.
Oooooh! Poke me! Poke me!
Twitter is very strange !!! A kind of “big brother” of internet… But you gave really interesting informations about you… Sure !!! 😀
They could have said you that “poke buddies” were friends of adolescence!!! 😀
I’m kinda of curious what the other options were besides ‘poke buddies’. Then again, maybe some things are better left a mystery.
Hilly… Who knows, TequilaCon may make a Poke Buddy of Karl yet!
Karl… I’m not the kind of guy who would poke somebody while they’re sleeping.
Mooselet… True dat. America used to be the “Land of the Free” where you could poke wherever you like. But now we’ve got this whole morality deal going on, and poking in public will probably get you arrested.
Jeff… I think he is really talented and his magic interesting. The fact that the people at CSI-NY decided to take advantage of this is pretty sweet.
Ms. Sizzle… Yes, but I look terrible in a French Maid’s outfit!
Nicole… Make love, not poke war!
Frances… Well, let me know how that works out, because I don’t know that I could ever work “Poke Buddy” into conversation without getting slapped. 🙂
Adena… Either that or wait for the DVD edition on “Guys Gone Wild.”
Kapha… No. But that would certainly make Twitter a lot more useful!
Göran… I just don’t know that I have time to drop everything and Twitter throughout my day… it seems like quite an inconvenience… even with a Twitter app.
Geeky Tai-Tai… Well, I didn’t explode, so I guess it’s all good?
Bre… Actually, that’s the light that I had suspected all along!
Stacey… Well, I guess you can’t. But I guess it would depend on whether you are the poke-er or the poke-ee?
Jenny… No good. No good at all! I suppose today’s “new morality” is forcing people into illicit online lifestyles to compensate for real-life disappointment?
Avitable… I suspected as much, which is why I explained he was a magician and provided a link to his website. I’m helpful that way.
Naomi… And risk getting my ass kicked? That would not be good.
Laurence… Yes, but I was young and needed the money. 🙂
Dawn… I don’t even remember. After you see that one of your options is “poke buddies” you tend to kind of blank out on everything else!
That sounds a lot like MySpace. Which I have never been too either. But public poking sounds like fun!
Poking buddies.
Just wanted to type those words, that’s all.
Dude, I love Karl, but you couldn’t pay me to poke him. It’s unhygienic, Dave.
Hee hee. I shut down myspace and got a Facebook account, but cannot figure out what to do with it. Note to self: poking is probably not a good idea.
Smartass.
Hey everybody… AVITABLE THINKS I’M SMART!
Years ago (and I mean 20) my roommate and I were eyeing a college girl when he slyly mentioned that he’d ‘poked’ her.
I assumed he’d meant he’d had sex with her.
Maybe I should have asked the girl what had happened. Maybe she would have said my roomy had served no real purpose.
So is this what Pokemon is all about?
Dave,
Just remember it’s always better to be a smart ass than a dumb ass. ;-0
Do we smoke after a poke?
I still want chocolate cake – damn you!!
Well, you know what they say about buying a pig in a poke…
I’m going to have to post those naked photos of you now. With the goat!
After you’ve posted them, could you please send me the originals? I think that’s what I want to use for my Christmas cards this year.
Avitable,
and what was the goat wearing?
I think he had a poker strapped on his back – oh never mind!
My son has a Facebook. Kids like it because they can keep adults out. I’ll have to ask if he has poked anybody.
But that’s what I used for last year’s Chanukah cards!
I hate to say this, but watching ya’ll discuss Facebook, is a little like watching my Grandparents discuss cell phones….
Oh, you know you two hooked up. We all know it.