I’ve probably been active online since I started university in 1998. I’ve done everything from IRC to yahoo chat rooms to finding StumbleUpon in 2006 and being an early adopter of Facebook and Twitter. So there comes a time when enough is enough, right?

I’m still undecided on where I stand on the matter but I’ve seen so many intelligent, tech-wise geeks just quit all social networks. This article about the Joy of Quiet says:

In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.

 

There are even studies showing how internet addiction looks just like any other addiction in our brains. This article from the BBC says that you can tell you’re addicted when you cant give it up. There are even internet boot camps designed to teach kids what to do when they log off. Another New York Times article decided to not call it addiction but love.

As we embrace new technology that does everything but kiss us on the mouth, we risk cutting ourselves off from human interaction. For many, the iPhone has become a best friend, partner, lifeline, companion and, yes, even a Valentine.

As much as I’d like to laugh at the iphoners, I think we’re all at risk here of falling in love with our technology. The thing is we all realise that we need space from constant connection but it’s hard to give it up. There are ways to manage this internet addiction but, really, we all love the internet and that’s why we stay. How can we not love a place that gives us glitter and toys and um.. unicorn poop.

Everything in moderation, peeps.

*sparkle sparkle*

~anib

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Christmas lights bring out the child in me. We dont really do these kind of big christmas light displays in South Africa. It doesn’t make sense in our weather and it must be really expensive. But we thank our American friends for giving us this light display based on the Angry Birds theme song.

That reminds me of the Slayer Christmas light display I posted last year. If metal is more your thing, try this CD (with thanks to @magependragon for the link). I would love to hear those Christmas songs.

Of course, christmas trees and decorating the house are part of the fun of christmas. My favourites are the pacman and dalek christmas trees from this geeky decorating list. But this Cthulhu tree really does steal the day. Read the background on GeeksAreSexy.

However you choose to celebrate this year, I hope Santa checks into your house this Christmas and all your wishes come true. And remember to love your crazy family… even if they make you pose for awkward family photos like this.

Merry Xmas!

~ anib

The first one has brought such a lovely word into our awareness: murmuration. Say it again with me: murrrrmurrrrmaaaation. Lovely. I’m sure it’s led many people to their google to find other interesting words for collections of birds. A parliament of owls? Really?!  For the real geeks, there’s some real science behind this but, really… all you have to do is watch and smile.

If you’re really into science stuff, this little article about hummingbirds may peak your interest. Scientists have studied the little birds to find out how they cope with rainy weather.

The cameras show that the delicate bird shakes its head with such acceleration that it can reach a g-force of 34 (Formula 1 racing cars typically reach less than 6g).

This mid-air manoeuvre takes just 0.1 seconds and removes almost all of the water droplets from its feathers.

To me, it’s amazing that we’ve only figured this out now. Aren’t they clever little things? It kinda reminded me of these Singing Bird Pistols and how man has tried to copy the perfection of nature. Such a simple thing is actually quite complicated when you try to replicate it.

I’m not quite sure how I stumbled onto Brian Skerry and this TED Talk that he did about his amazing photography in the ocean. It’s not an easy video to watch as he does go into the destruction and horror that man has inflicted on nature. However, he does mention one close encounter with a right whale.  A few weeks later I found this next video where he just talks about that whale and how he got these amazing images.

And finally, this next one doesn’t have a story. It’s just flowers being flowers. But it’s kinda awesome, I think.

Much love

~anib

We can dance if we want to

We can leave your friends behind

‘Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance

Well they’re no friends of mine

I say, we can go where we want to

A place where they will never find

And we can act like we come from out of this world

Leave the real one far behind

And we can dance

I say, we can dance, we can dance

Everything out of control

We can dance, we can dance

I like.

~anib

When we google something, we expect to have the answers to our questions in the first three results. If we wikipedia something, we accept that the information has been checked and verified by a crowd of internet saints. We make friends on various social networks with similar interests and will happily click on links that they post, expecting it to take us somewhere interesting.

So is this it? Is what we see online the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Well, in an interesting chain of events.. I learned something new today.

My Stumble buddy, Ms Xineann (who is also a great source of cats**), stumbled this video to me yesterday. It talks about “collective curation” by CrowdSpoke, a website that wants to make getting information easier. The site is still in beta (of course I’ve signed up!) and it looks like a simple enough idea, but I already actively use StumbleUpon, Twitter and Facebook. I feel like that’s more than enough information and I get everything I need to know. Or so I thought… but watch this video first.

When I posted the video to Twitter, my friend @andrevr introduced me to Eli Pariser and his “Filter Bubbles” idea. I dont feel too bad about not knowing about this yet as he’s just released his book this year. I will see if I can get the book (Thanks Exclus1ves!), but I think everyone should be aware of the filters these websites use… and our own self imposed filters. Watch and learn: Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles” | Video on TED.com.

It was also interesting watching the discussion between @andrevr and @paulscott56 on anti-curation but I have no idea what they’re really going on about… Sorry guys. Here’s the link.

So… I got all of that interesting info from a few friends… and, with a bit of googling, I could find more.

Aint the internet amazing? Now let’s do our best to protect it.

~anib

** About those cats.  I’m sure you’ve seen the hugging cat and the Nexus phone ad. See? I like cats. Really.

Well, I figured some of my accounting buddies wanted to Fwd Fw me some impRotent infRomation… and it was from a gmail address… so it cant be a company trying to sell me stuff I dont want or need… right? Oh, I am an eternal optimist.

And then this horror of an email hit me with CAPITAL LETTERS and BIG BOLD PRINT and… OMG just every rule in the book broken.

Kindest regards indeed. First you lie to me (I have never attended any of your courses) and then you scare the shit out of me (“your world will come to a STANDSTILL”) and then you try to sell me crap. How can you possibly train me in anything when you cant write an email? But wait.. there were attachments too…. *cringe*

Right. So I could’ve just deleted your stupid email and marked you as spam. But someone had to tell you. So I did. And you… you may have taken it a bit personally. And now we can all share the lulz. Thank you.

Thanks for that red email. Could I help this woman? Yes we can. I had no other choice but to correct it in blue (I know I missed a few… too many to mention). My work here is done.

Anyway..  so MIM International (International? *chuckle*) are waiting for your call.  I’m sure they’re good at what they do but email marketing is not for them. So go get all trained up on the NEW Company’s Act… or ELSE…..!!!

~ani

By now you’ve all seen or heard at least something about Egypt. If you haven’t… what are you doing?

I got caught up int the Twitter stream of “Revolution 2.0” and managed to catch most of it on Al Jazeera live. Now that the president is gone, I’ve been able to catch up on how the revolution evolved. If you wanted to know how this happened, watch and learn with me.

First, it started with Tunisia. The protests for freedom lasted for 28 days before the president resigned and fled the country. This particular video is especially moving. With the loud protesters in the background, this song of peace just seems to soar above the noise. I love it.

With Tunisia’s victory, the Youth Movement in Egypt took the opportunity to start their own revolution. Meet Asmaa Mahfouz, the “girl” that called the people of Egypt to Tahir Square for the Jan25th protest. Her words are simple but powerful and I’m in awe of her strength.

I was also touched by this interview with Wael “Google” Ghonim. He is being heralded as the “Facebook freedom fighter” but, during this interview, he is just a proud citizen that wants to help his people. He is not poor and didn’t need to take part in the protests, but he did.. and he helped motivate his people to carry on.

This has been the revolution of the youth, the women and the internet. If you want to see a brilliant documentary on People and Power, please watch this half an hour clip on the Youth Movement. I also loved the clip of this brave “girl” shouting at the security police. For a bit of context of history, watch this clip of how one person can stand up against an army.

One person.

The war for peace and freedom is an ongoing one throughout the world. As Egypt was celebrating their freedom, South Africa was celebrating 21 years of Nelson Mandela walking free from prison. It’s an ongoing fight and I wish my Egyptian brothers and sisters much love and peace.

~ani

I stumbled onto this cute video of a dancing penguin. The article from The Daily Mail compares the happy little one to the main character from the movie “Happy Feet”. Got to admit it… this just makes me smile.

The BBC tried to film a documentary on polar bears… but it seems like the polar bears just wanted to play. They were very curious and really wanted to find out what these new things were. It looks like the cameras lost this game. Watch the clip here.

Of course, I have zero knowledge of real snow but it must be lots of fun to build snowmen. And no one builds snowmen like Calvin & Hobbes. I had to chuckle when I saw these real life portrayals of the “Snowmen Nightmares” series of cartoons. There’s even a wiki about them! I’ve found quite a few sites online with all the comics and swiped a few of my favourites.

To all my northern hemisphere friends that are sick of the snow or have been negatively affected by it this winter, I apologise. I hope you get sunny skies soon. In the mean time, this one’s for you:

Stay cool out there, kids.

~ ani

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 25 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 97 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 9mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was September 30th with 76 views. The most popular post that day was About me.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, twitter.com, facebook.com, hootsuite.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for tv test pattern, nerdy redhead, high five fail, high five, and fernando vicente vanitas.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

About me September 2010

I heart StumbleUpon October 2010
4 comments

The cult of Hello Kitty October 2010
1 comment

20/10/2010 was Troll Christmas October 2010
6 comments

The zombies are coming October 2010