There has been NO way for us common denizens to converse with celebrities. That is, until Twitter opened the door...

This is Twitter's stated mission (or designed usage) on its homepage:

"Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

Here is my observation: most of the people are using Twitter, not to keep their social network updated with what they are doing, how boring would that be? but to keep track of what celebrities are doing in real life.

Because they are famous, anything they say seems to carry so much more significance. A one-word Tweet becomes some sort of cypher waiting for you to discover its higher meaning. Their random observations of life are so much more hilarious simply because they are famous -- on the Internet, you cannot argue that it is funny because of the delivery. This is NOT Seinfeld. "Newman!"

(Speaking of Jerry Seinfeld. Did you hear that he is going to do a reality TV show about marriage? I bet he and his wife are happier than the lot of us because they have a 24-hour nanny...! So what would his advice be? Become really wealthy and then your marriage life would not be bogged down by arguments about who does more when and what...)

Rainn Wilson. MC Hammer. Luke Wilson. Elizabeth Banks. Jimmy Fallon. Neil Gaiman (he WAS already a celebrity in my household, now with the movie Coraline, he IS a celebrity...), LeVar Burton (of Star Trek fame, Yes, the cool blind dude!, and of Reading Rainbow, eh, fame), Shaq (yes, THE Shaq, under the moniker, The Real Shaq), and I am sure I probably miss quite a few. With some of them tweeting constantly. One cannot help but imagine Rainn Wilson tweeting on his BB in between takes of The Office. Does he show his Twitter stream to his co-stars? Do they suggest to him what he should tweet next? Do they laugh at clever responses back to @RainnWilson?

Yes, responses!

In the Twitterverse, you, apparently, are allowed to "Reply to" these celebrities' Tweets. And if you are lucky, if your star shines on you, THEY may actually Tweet back @ you. This stuff is what dreams are made of. And the real stuff that the wet dreams are made of? That is when the stars FOLLOW you back.

Then you will be a made man (or woman). You have arrived in the Twitterverse.

Here is my brush with fame today with a 10-foot pole:

Wil Wheaton, Gordi in Stand by Me, and also of Star Trek fame, although he probably prefers to be known as one of the Geek gods, a published writer, and a celebrated blogger (see: The Geek Gods), lives in the Twitterverse (again, see: The Geek Gods).

In one of his hundreds' of Tweets today, he gushes about The Onion:

"I love the Onion so much, I want to marry it!"

After I alerted The Onion about the raging endorsement, The Onion responded with a ringing rejection:

"America's Finest News Source Politely Turns Down Marriage Proposal From @wilw"

(My seminal role in this comedic exchange can be proven by the timeline shown in the search result, and of course, this picture).

God, I am a loser...

Who gives a damn? Certainly not me. Best GIF file, ever!

Click on the file if you don't see what's so funny. I laughed so hard my lunch came out.

TMI? Well, click on the file and see what I say to that...

Thank GOD for the Onion: so the Republicans can have their laughs too...

or anybody who may get a bit tired of all the serious and sentimental coverage on the Presidential Inauguration...

Here is the Election Coverage from the Onion... "Joe Biden Shows Up To Inauguration With Ponytail": great for macho men on the verge of their tears to immediately change the mood and the topic!

With titilating headlines that could potentially be true in an alternative world, such as "Hillary Clinton Mouthing Along To Presidential Oath", "Joe Biden Shows Up To Inauguration With Ponytail" and "Obama Inauguration Speech Ruined By Incessant Jackhammering", The Onion's coverage is almost as entertaining as the real thing!

Hulu - the best kept secert? Best of SNL clips I saw, tonight...

Am I out of the loop? Hulu truly is a much better way to watch TV and movie clips. The quality is a lot higher, never grainy. And you never have to worry about clicking on something that turns out to be not what you expected...

Thanks to Hulu, I can follow SNL again, and just in time for a better, much improved SNL as well. I don't remember when it started, but for a while SNL sucked big time: it was turning into Mad TV. But now, it is actually funny again. To be absolutely honest, and I cannot believe I am admitting this! I never quite got the humor of Will Farrell. I mean, Will Farrell on SNL. I loved him in quite a few movies, Old School being one of them. (A classic in my book!) And the Anchor Man is not bad at all. (Another classic in my book!) But Will Farrell on SNL I didn't quite get. I did laugh like hell, but I didn't know why. More Cowbell being a case in point... (Is this blasphemy?) I felt guilty laughing so hard, worried that any second someone would ask me point blank, "Ok, it is funny, but why?" Worse yet, what if the question were, "It's not funny. Explain to me."

The boys and I did some Youtubing on Hulu tonight. We laughed out loud at the SNL Digital Short, "People Getting Punched Right Before Eating". I laughed till tears came out of my eyes, but somehow I didn't feel guilty. It was funny because it was random. As my 11 year-old said, "It is so totally random. It is awesome!" I guess that is this generation's standard for humor now...



Another great piece is the SNL commercial for Taco Town. It is funny because it has a grain of truth to it, and it sort of makes you look at reality, and go, "Yeah, that's kind of ridiculous what Taco Bells passes for food..." Watch this, it is funny!



p.s. The boys and I thought the 2 SNL clips were so funny that later when we chatted with Dad who's away on business via Gmail Video Chat, we showed him the clips by pointing the webcam at the monitor (because Hulu does not work in China...)

By the way, Video Chat right from inside Gmail is truly awesome, and super easy to set up. Thumbs up!

Got Bacon? Thank goodness for people who have too much time on their hands...

A colleague of mine sent me a cryptic link, when I clicked on it, it showed my company's website with a big piece of fat juicy glistening bacon on top. I haven't laughed so hard since the last time the same colleague sent me the link to "Sad Trombone" (which sadly seems to no longer exist?) 

 

Check out Baconlicious...  or this one...  (ok, the second one is kind of mean, but I cannot help it!)

 

 

 

 

New Website I dig (this morning): Just Hear It (great search interface for random songs...)

Thanks to ReadWriteWeb this morning, I am in the know for a brand new website for searching random songs on the interweb: Just Hear It.  Their tag line is:

 

Any Song. Legal. Free.

 

Legal is definitely a plus.  Free is a must!

 

This will be a great tool for when you need to show junior that great song in your youth.  When I searched for "I've Never Been to Me" (don't ask me why...) though, the results shown included a few YouTube clips.  I don't really mind since the one clip turned out to be quite funny.  Ah, nostalgia.