My tepid attempt at inspiration: While researching this morning, desperately wanting to finish my paper (on my birthday no less!), came across this excerpt and thought I would share it.

Our own age, in contrast, is fascinated by exposure. Indeed, the act of exposure itself now seems to excite us more than the content of the secrets exposed. The steady stripping away of layers of social behavior has made the “scandal” and the revelation of the “deep dark secret” everyday occurrences. Ironically, what is pulled out of the closets that contain seemingly extraordinary secrets is, ultimately, the “ordinariness” of everyone. The unusual becomes the usual. … Still we hunger for heroes, and perhaps our search beneath social masks is filled with the hope of finding people whose private selves are as admirable as their public ones. But since most of the people who make enduring contributions to our culture remain under our scrutiny too long to remain pure in our eyes, we have also begun to focus on people who make one grand gesture or who complete a single courageous act that cannot be undermined by scrutiny (Meyrowitz 311).

A spotlight – not on this blog, but to a few blogs hosted here. I’ve been meaning to do a modest little showcase, but have put it off until now. As always, the best time to do something (and do it well for that matter) is when you feel the most inspired to do it and luckily for me, I have these amazing four to continually inspire me. If you haven’t yet, I’d highly recommend stopping by and saying hello – they’ll most likely happily reply and welcome your comments.

That said, …

http://jessicat.fittingly.net / Follow her on Twitter: @jessicatai.
I’ve known Jessica for about six years now and love discovering little nuggets and bits of her as we grow older together. She’s very smart, observant, and deceptively honest in her writing, chronicling school and the trivial pursuits of life. I’d say her blog is like Mad Men meets life of an undergrad.

But most importantly, I’ve learned that it’s okay to talk about yourself sometimes. If K didn’t accuse me of “keeping secrets”, I’d probably be the only one who knows what is going on in my life. I’ve always been the one to ask “How are you”, hoping to be asked in return, but felt conceited talking about my problems and personal feelings. I could sit through other people’s rantings and esctactic boastings, and I guess people are naturally sociable and curious, but I could never put the spotlight on myself. [Source]

http://mimi.fittingly.net / Follow her on Twitter: @immimi.
Mimi may be one of the most charming people you’ve met. Her writing borders incoherent ramblings sometimes, but when she writes… she writes and she writes well. Plus, she takes tons of pictures on her trips to museums, aquariums, safaris. If anything, just live vicariously through her. Kind of like the model/celebrity friend you’ve always secretly wanted.

The vast majority of us, today in the present, are very typical in believing that our world exists and functions basically and only as how our primitive central nervous system take it in as. But to rely on this process of thinking, of which we deem as some sort of natural constant, like a physical law, without even putting it to the test for ourselves, is that wise or is that lazy? Assumption followed by dependence upon the assumed conclusion or answer. Risky? …. [Source]

http://nicole.fittingly.net / Follow her on Twitter: @itsnicolenguyen.
You. will. never. meet. anyone. like. Nicole. If that wasn’t obnoxious enough to get my point across, then just read her blog. The girl is wits on fire, seriously. She is a cultural sponge and could probably talk to you about anything, granted it’s been featured on at least one: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, or W. Curiously smart and wickedly funny. Kind of like Tina Fey meets Angelina Jolie.

I’ve been directing all love and attention to my shiny, new Twitter that, I forgot how good it feels to write more than mere 140-character increments. How sad, though, that nearly a month later, it’s the same damn la vie quotidienne. Unless daylight savings counts. By the way, daylight savings is totally unproductive and an assault on logic. Not to mention a complete sleep disturbance. Thinking it was 11, I curled back into my comforter – until my noon-time phone alarm screamed otherwise. Can humankind just stick to the plan and get on with it?? [Source]

http://patricia.fittingly.net / Follow her on Twitter: @patriciawayne.
I met Patricia through Model UN and though I’ve only known her for less than two years, I’ve grown terribly fond of her intelligence and ability to have exhaustive conversations about almost anything. She’s a lover of real estate, fine foods and quaint coffee shops. She’s kind of like her own version of salons in 18th century France – she did coin the term, “Fittingly Salon“, btw. She’s equal parts pragmatic and idealist, which is alarmingly alluring I think.

No matter what they’re talking about, I find valid substantive debate every Wednesday I watch the Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Imagine if the President of the United States had to answer questions of members of Congress once a week? Despite the immposibility of it (understanding that Congress is much much larger) think about what it would do for our political process? Damn. That would be amazing. I love the eloquence. It inspires me to make clear and valid points with everything I say. [Source]

Quote from Douglas Adams

Has anyone ever noticed the generational shift of America’s sport from baseball to football and basketball, etc? Everyone, Americans in particular, are so obsessed with time that it’s no wonder that the shift was from an un-timed and arguably dull sport to sports inarguably transfixed on time. I wonder what it would feel like to not be so conscious of the passage of time. Sometimes, I dither between time as absolutely relative and time as the only constant. And of course, Twitter is somehow strewn throughout my brooding.

If timing is everything — what you say, when you say it, how you’ve said it and who will see it — think of the infinite possibilities of saying the right thing at the right time so the right person will see it? I don’t want to be a slave to time though, carefully assessing timing to optimize results. But wait, aren’t we all opportunists in a sense? Don’t we all mind the time?

Below is a writer’s cut to my article; published version found here. The excerpt I posted is the bulk of the original article, the rest is mostly the same.

As always, comments welcomed and appreciated.

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“Despite Facebook’s new emphasis on conversation, it is still essentially a closed network, while Twitter is the opposite. Its accessibility allows a two-way exchange between you and anyone else through web-based applications such as Tweetchat or Twitterfall. Twitter’s search feature makes use of this real-time information and enables shared experiences of big events, such as President Obama’s inauguration. It’s like a big couch for the world to watch TV on. If the Internet is the “Global Village,” then Twitter is the 21st century salon.

Twitter’s ease at encouraging debate has made it a modern parallel to the salons of 18th century France. Like the salons, Twitter still has a niche user base. There were rules of etiquette that were followed, similar to Twitter’s “@replies” and “#hashtags”. Salons encouraged the exchange of news and ideas, functioning as a major channel of communication among intellectuals. However, the salons, unlike the courts, were open to everyone, like Twitter.

Social hierarchy is disregarded and different social ranks intermingled. “The layman is learning to use his voice,” said Jennifer Zhu, fourth-year political science student. In the same way that the salons transformed into an institution of Enlightenment, Twitter can be used as a forum to exchange knowledge. “On Twitter, it’s strictly about the content you put out. The emphasis is more on content and subject matter rather than social stature,” said Patricia Wayne, a second-year comparative literature student. In this way, salons and Twitter are based on a meritocracy – your success in both spheres relied on the content you produced. No community is best served when only the elite have the knowledge and control.

Twitter ensures the availability of fact and opinion. It is another tool to broaden your network, your perspective and your ideas. It’s with these that you are able to inspire and spread your knowledge. And because Twitter is still evolving, it can cater to a wide range of interests.

….

In the same way that the salons revolutionized the way of thinking by encouraging quality of content through engagement and diminished the social hierarchies, Twitter is doing the same. If salons led to the Enlightenment, what does this mean for us? I’m not sure yet, but something big.”

Is extremely frustrating.

It sucks to have to explain something in its entirety at the expense of analysis due to space and it’s so difficult to reconcile information and knowledge in such a small space. Earlier this week, the blog editor from the LA Times gave a talk. He said, “Think of a blog as a newspaper with unlimited space.” — This is why I love and appreciate the blogging platform so much. At the same time, I appreciate a succinct explanation. After all, what’s knowledge if it’s not understood? BUT, what’s knowledge if it’s sacrificed to explain the surface information? Ugh.

Twitter’s laconic; journalism lengthy.

Must. find. balance.

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I’ll post the unedited version of my Twitter article once it comes out. I had to change the comparison I made between Twitter and salons in 18th century France. Exciting stuff. Look out for it on Tuesday.

For the record, I think the new Facebook design (Note: Design not idea) is a major upgrade.

Anyway, the idea behind Twitter is that you follow people for content, while Facebook is more about keeping in touch with acquaintances. However, now that these two arenas have merged, I’m realizing that frankly, I don’t want to know what everyone I’ve met is thinking. Seriously. No offense to any of my friends on Facebook — but we’re not friends because I think you’re intellectually scintillating and/or dangerously funny (Though I might!). We’re “friends” because our lives crossed paths at some point in time and Facebook was a way to keep in touch. When you unfollow someone on Twitter, it’s not a personal offense. De-friending someone on Facebook because you don’t want to see their status update? Absolutely possible, but absurdly offensive. Correct me if I’m wrong here.

This is just a tirade — I’m not going to take time and try to filter my FB stream. Maybe this means I’ll just be on FB less… Sorry Facebook.

Thoughts?

Update: I didn’t realize that you can “X” or hide certain people’s updates. Handy, but doesn’t it seem backwards for a change that encourages more exchanges and communication to further filter information? Completely the opposite of Twitter.

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Unrelated, but since it’s the WWW’s 20th birthday (And Pi Day and Einstein’s birthday) and I didn’t want to spam my Twitter with blather about the WWW.

The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it’s short for. – Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999

Best quote ever, no?

… said my roommate, who’s still on Internet Explorer, after being completely baffled after realizing I wasn’t on iChat, but Gchat.

“What’s the difference?!” she exclaimed.

Then she proceeds by threatening to steal my computer for a week to see what’ll happen.

DEATH. That’s what, B. (That’s the extent of my courtesy since she’s scared of the Internet.)

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Hello world, my name is Millie. I love the technology and I’m living with a technophobe. It’s almost as if the universe is playing a big joke on me. But alas, I love her.

I really enjoy seeing the word “fittingly” in other contexts, especially really macho context such as “The Globalization of Organized Violence.”

So the other day, I was talking to my professor about spousal hire (completely spontaneous, I am not looking to hire my spouse nor do I have one). When we strayed a bit, she told me this very interesting fact: In the 1950s, the gap in spousal education level was large, but income disparity was low. Now, the opposite is true: the gap in spousal education level has decreased while the gap in income disparity is widening. Of course they are not completely causal, but the correlation does leave some room for thought. Maybe in the 50s, the smart wo/men were more spread out and thus, spread out the wealth benefits. Now, “highly educated” (I say that in quote to not be completely condescending) people are marrying other highly educated people and the wealth has been concentrated to smaller groups. Do you think that’s a problem?

RT @avinashkaushik OH: Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise its not better.

Big LOL. Speaking of teenagers, hello March and the almost 20-something year-old me!