Stephen Michael Plaza, PhD

Wednesday July 13 2011

On Google+ and Why I Am Posting Here

I have never been a big fan of social networking sites.  Despite being a big adopter of technology, I always felt there was something unsettling about the Facebook movement.  Rather then spend time and talk with a friend and kindle deep social relationships, the Facebook strategy seems to define friendship as a bunch of superficial encounters.  At the end of the day, you feel that people are just using you as a way to bump up their number of friends.  Not to mention that you spend most of your time trying not to care about what some person you barely know ate for lunch the other day.

It is against this backdrop that I admit being impressed with Google+, Google's foray into the social networking world where one has the ability to categorize your contacts into different circles/cliques.  After a few days of trying it out, I believe that I might actually be able to make use of this service as it allows me to use technology in a manner that can actually grow real relationships.  I am treating it as a central repository for sharing and communicating with my family and closest friends.  For people that are not particularly close or relevant for certain posts, I can conveniently put them in a separate circle.  Additionally, I can make a circle for professional contacts and use that as a replacement for LinkeIn.  The video chatting services and integration with Gmail and Picasa make this a strong productivity and potential social-building and communication tool.

One may ask why I am posting this here rather than making it public on my Google+ account.  In the spirit of self-deprecation that normally infiltrates my posts, I do not want to suffer my 'followers' on Google+ with such superfluous banter.  I generally think that blogs are best when sought out.  In this manner, if I write truly bad things, people will just stop going to it.  If I send out posts that hit my 'followers', then I am just annoying 'friends' by spamming their 'streams'.

Saturday September 06 2009

Practice, Practice, Practice, and More Practice Make Perfect

I feel guilty about this post.  I really do.  As much of a scholar as  I would like to be, I am an avid college football fan at heart.  I enjoy college football so much that I am flying from Oregon to Michigan for 2 days just to see the Michigan-Notre Dame game.  Although seemingly irrational, a very vocal minority probably view my actions as unquestionably logical.  But I digress.

The point is that I like football, in particular Michigan football.  I was struck this past week that Michigan's head coach, Rich Rodriguez, was under scrutiny for supposedly practicing his players too hard (beyond the 20-hour limit).  Technically, a college player can practice for more than 20 hours a week if it is voluntary.  Of course, in reality, every college player who wants to succeed will 'volunteer' many hours beyond the technical limit.  This concept of what truly is volunteer resonates strongly in all aspects of life.  I don't remember ever feeling that mandated time commitments, such as the 40-hour work week, ever allow one to separate himself from the rest.  But the real point of this blog entry (beyond my trivial observations) is to celebrate (while the goin' is good) a Michigan win!  In the next week, I hope the Michigan players will volunteer extra time to analyze Notre Dame's aerial attack. 

Sunday March 04 2007

When Watching Movies Becomes Unbearable

Over the years, I have become a bit of a movie snob--I admit. When I say snob, think of how pretentious professional wine sippers look to the rest of the public. In any event, I started out being a moviegoer who liked to talk considerably during movies. Eventually, I was trained not to do this by friends intolerant of such behavior. As a result, I have become very sensitive to commotion that can arise during a movie. Although sensitive, I usually do not say anything unless it is extreme.

Here are the top 10 annoying things people do at movies. The first few are sometimes natural so I usually try to ignore them.

10. rock back and forth in the chair repeatedly.
9. chew loudly on popcorn.
8. laugh loudly or laugh way too much.
7. mumble.
6. over-react to certain scenes.
5. ask neighbors about confusing plot points (save it for later and allow the people who are enjoying the movie to continue to do so).
4. ask neighbors about trivial plot points. (If you cannot focus enough on the movie to follow basic plot points, watch a children's cartoon instead!)
3. make 'funny' comments during the movie. (Geez, we all know you are a real comic genius but save your show after the current one unless you want to be interrupted repeatedly during your act.)
2. leave their cellphone ringer on or worse pick up their phone and have a casual conversation.
1. give away part of the story before it happens because you have already seen the movie. This one is a classic.

So what brought this on. Well, I experienced 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 1 at the last movie I saw. It might not normally be a bad thing except the movie was really good and required my attention to enjoy it.