opinion

Twitter Hashtags: A Waste or Time or a Functional Tool?

by on February 6, 2012

in bruce's thoughts

Do you think that using Twitter hashtags helps your tweets be found, or do you think that they are becoming a waste of time and effort?  I’m leaning towards the latter as I’m noticing things like the term #nascar is no longer needed, as NASCAR itself will do just fine when it comes to trending topics. (As one example.)

Twitter LogoDuring the Super Bowl I was trying to figure out the best hashtag to use and found out just how ill-defined the use of Twitter hashtags are.  No one controls them so there’s no centralized focus.  Then I started wondering just how useful are hashtags if there’s as many different hashtag as there are Twitter users for the same subject?

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Twitter hashtags are how people mark their tweets sent out on Twitter.  It’s a sort of keyword system that seems to stem from a blogger’s mentality to earmark what a tweet is about.

Initially, hashtags were used as a search function aid.  But they’re slowly losing any real meaning, for the most part.  For example, if I write that my “car exploded when starting it,” and append my tweet with a #fail, seems, well, like stating the obvious.

Sure, the tags can be useful.  When a TV show puts their hashtag up on the screen when the show is on, at least that solidifies all the users use of a common tag.  Or when a business might suggest their name as a hashtag, so be it.

But when left to their own devices, hashtag usefulness is wasted on the medium because so many make them up as they go along.  Or so it would seem.

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Willows Exit from CSI & How The Tension Was Spoiled with Previews

by on January 26, 2012

in Entertainment, television

Marg Helgenberger in CSI Crime Scene Investigation episode 'Willows in the Wind'

This is a dual purpose piece here on Cinema Static on Brusimm. I touch on the 2nd of the 2-part farewell episode, saying farewell to Marg Helgenberger who plays Catherine Willows on CSI, it’s also about how networks really need look at how they need to more carefully preview their shows.

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First up, the two-parter CSI story was the culmination of several episodes over a period of time, setting up the exit story for Helgenberger.  It also brings to fruition the story of tackling Mark Gabriel (played by Titus Welliver) and his professional hit squad.

But this farewell episode seemed like it was missing something.  There were a lot of convenient pieces falling into place and then there were some quick twists that brought in some unforeseen resolutions.  It was a nice but quickly paced episode to close this story out.

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In the first part of this two-part story, the episode ended with Willows being shot.  As the second part of this story started, Catherine Willows was bleeding out and on the run from the professional hit squad.

And I did not care one bit about all the blood and gunmen in pursuit.

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History Channel’s TV Series Ancient Aliens Is A Hoot

by on December 29, 2011

in Entertainment, television

Ancient Aliens - S3The other day I was watching, strike that, a mini-marathon of History Channel‘s documentary series, Ancient Aliens was on in the background while I was doing some house cleaning.  I was amazed at how far the narrative stretched to connect just about everything that happens in our history to the intervention of aliens on our species.

This is Ancient Aliens third season on the History Channel… seriously.  This show is like crack, a train-wreck…  something you can’t not look at because of how far they go to connect dots that don’t exist.  Or maybe they do and I’m just not seeing the obvious circumstantial evidence that stares me in the face!

Honestly, this show was such an entertaining train wreck I couldn’t help but watch it.  It was suggested by a follower on Facebook that I tune into the Sylvester Stallone starring marathon of Rambo… but I didn’t think that was in my best interest, since I probably would not have gotten as much cleaning done if that was on!

While Ancient Aliens was on, between Vacuum and Rug Doctor sessions, here’s what I picked up in sound-bytes:

  • That aliens were holding a cosmic battle here in the skies of Earth (As if our tiny planet was prime battle territory);
  • They were starting to connect zombies and vampires to Ancient Aliens;
  • That natural disasters were caused by UFOs;
  • And here’s one that makes absolutely perfect sense:  Jesus Christ was an Ancient Alien.  How did I not see that?

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Here’s how they present these premises to the viewer, so that if you were buying into these ideas, made them seem more legitimate…

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Twitter, Facebook or RSS Feed? Which Is Best for You? [Consumer]

by on December 28, 2011

in consumer

Consumer Bits on Brusimm 200w logo, [Consumer News, advice and reviews]After a bit of frustration with how some website owner/operators run their ancillary feeds these days, I find myself dropping all but their RSS feeds. It’s more about the lack of professionalism in the personalities behind the social feeds vs. a pretty basic RSS feed.

Read on and find out why I think, for some, RSS Feeds is the best way to follow a website.

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In this day and age, every website owner/operator puts their content out in every possible fashion.  They scramble to figure out every last trick that Google has for them and how to game it and rank well within that nebulous web ranking system.  They also play on the human factor by using bait title tactics, report the news bites or generate interesting opinion pieces.

Social Media Logos, via CA DMV (facebook, rss feed, wordpress, youtube, twitter, email)To get those pieces of work out, they use different venues for getting their content in your face.  Some sites stick with the basics of Facebook and Twitter.  Others pound out other venues for their regurgitated content.

For you the web surfer, you have to decide how best to spend your time, because your time is a pretty valuable commodity.  Period.

Do you want just the info, or do you want to interact and feel like the web author is a human.  And therein lies the sales pitch to website admins…  to “engage” the community.

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The average web surfer spends maybe around 90 seconds on a blog/website, skittering along looking for or at things that might catch your attention.  If nothing does, you either move on or never land there.

And you have good reason for skittering through a website…  In 2011, there were roughly around 150 million blogs out there.  And you only have so much time.

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I Want A Job Predicting Weather!

by on September 29, 2011

in bruce's thoughts

Thoughts on Brusimm logo - Opinion on News and Current EventsI want to be a weatherman!  From the outside, looking in, they have it pretty dang easy!  They never need to be right.  They just need to make you feel like they might be close to right!

They tell me it’s going to be warm, then it’s cold.  They tell me it will be cold, but then it’s warm!  Heck, they can’t even agree on what my weather will be tomorrow.  Weather.com and AccuWeather seem to never agree.  In fact they’ve been pretty consistent in being 5 to 7 degrees apart for most weeks.  At least over this last summer.

But I do have issues with and don’t trust AccuWeather.  They’ve shown me that it’s clear out while I’m being rained on, and I’ve been told it’s raining on me while I’m in bright blue sunlight.

What prompted this was the fact that today I was a big, red-lettered weather advisory for my area today.

Here’s how it started out:

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Bay Area Law Enforcement Kills More Animals

by on September 28, 2011

in bruce's thoughts

Thoughts on Brusimm logo - Opinion on News and Current EventsThis is a Brusimm.com observational opinion piece, laced with observation, snark and Bruce’s thoughts.

On 9-26-11, police officers responded to a report that two dogs were threatening people in Laurie Meadows Park in San Mateo, CA.

The officers arrived, cornered the dogs, tried to taser one of them.  When that didn’t work, they shot both dogs, killing one of them on the spot.  The second family pet died later.

All before the humane society officer could show up.

It seems to be the going theme these days in the Bay Area.  Last year cops cornered a deer and killed it because it was a threat.  Yep, a threatening deer.  Die Bambi, die!

Earlier this year, they had chased, cornered and trapped a mountain lion an a backyard.  It was growling and hissing, so they shot and killed it.  (Yea, cornered animals taking a defensive posture… go figure.)

Now two family pets were shot, one killed instantly, one died later.

In each case, action was taken before any animal control officer or state game warden could show up because the threat was too real or too imminent.

IT SUCKS TO BE AN ANIMAL IN THIS REGION.  Maybe it’s just that way everywhere, but it seems there are more numerous events here than anywhere else I’ve lived.

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What About That Huge Pile of Plastic in the Ocean? It’s Not As Big As They Say

by on September 23, 2011

in bruce's thoughts

Brusimm.com - news, entertainment, sports and other opinions.Did you know that there’s a huge collection of plastic that’s floating in the Pacific Ocean?  From what I can tell, it’s not specifically a mountain of trash floating on the ocean like many media outlets have been reporting, but rather, it’s the accumulated swirl of our own trash being pulled in by ocean currents.

Looking over an article at Science Daily, they talked about an expedition conducted by a part of the Scripps Institute, called SEAPLEX or Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition.

They headed out into the North Pacific in late 2009 with the plan to check out the North Pacific Ocen Gyre, which is basically, for lack of a well defined explanation, is one of many spots where the currents collect from various forces and end up swirling about.

What they found in the region of the gyre was a high concentration of plastic floating in the ocean.  They were able to retrieve plastic bottles, discarded fishing nets easily.  They called the amount of plastic they spotted floating in the ocean, “shocking.”

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Shark Finning: How The Hell Can Someone Do That?

by on August 25, 2011

in bruce's thoughts

A Brusimm Opinion Piece

I was just introduced, via my local newspaper, to the deed of shark finning.  It’s a most horrible practice I’ve heard of in a long time and I’m somewhat beside myself about it, being as how I’m rather helpless in my ability to stop this horrid practice.

Shark finning is the action in which the “fishermen” catch sharks, cut off their fins for the commodity of the fin meat, and then, throw the shark back in the water, left to die.  Are you kidding me.  You amputate an animal’s form of propulsion, inflict whatever pain there is to experience by the shark, and then just throw it back in the water to drown or be killed by other predators.

Shark fin sales is a billion dollar industry.

I can’t imagine that kind of treatment of any animal.  Sure, some things need to be done to eat, survive and what not.  But in many cases, an animal’s body is put to good use after a slaughter… mostly.  But shark finning, for a piece of a living entity and discarding the rest of the living being, wow.  I can’t imagine how can these people who do this can sleep at night knowing they’ve just basically cut off an animals form of propulsion, their limbs so to speak, and toss them in the water to drown or be attacked.

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Dear Weather Channel, Please Get Better Top-5 Videos

by on July 28, 2011

in Entertainment, movies

TV & Movie news & Opinion, weeding out the static

 

A Cinema Static opinion / observation piece:

Dear Weather Channel,

Crystal EggerI tend to watch your evening coverage as I settle in to go to sleep.  I enjoy the variety of coverages your network presents.  I also appreciate some of your on-air personalities, like Crystal Egger.  She can make the mundane a bit more tolerable.  OK, a lot more tolerable.

I love your “weather on the street” pieces and do enjoy the viewer submitted Top-5 vids.

But there are some flaws in the system or programming that I’d like to point out if I may.

Top-5 Videos

Your top-5 videos of the day, in premise, is an awesome bit where you let your viewers send in videos that you share with us, your network viewers.

I am also betting that 99.9% of your viewers are not cinematographers, that what we get are probably the cream of the crop of your submissions.  If that truly is the case, I pity the foo’ that has to review all these submissions.

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Protestor Ironically Dies While Protesting Helmet Laws

by on July 5, 2011

in consumer

Bicycle HelmetIn a horrible bit of bad timing, 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y. was on a motorcycle ride when he had to hit his brakes hard, fishtailing his 1983 Harley and ended up flipping over his handlebars and landed on his head on the pavement.

For Mr. Contos family, friends and associates, this is a horrible loss indeed and my most heart-felt condolences go out to everyone involved.  But the circumstances surrounding his accident is nothing but full-fledged irony.

Philip was on a pseudo-organized motorcycle ride in protest of helmet laws.  The group was riding with no helmets to make a statement.  Sadly, their statement was lost in the noise.

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Brusimm Opinion:

This is just an opinion and in no way reflects that I think anyone should change their ways if they feel so strongly, but I just don’t get what the big deal is with wearing a helmet, in the off-chance that it can save your life.

I’m going to diverge off into bicycle riding for a moment here and say that despite the slight annoyance that a helmet presents to a wearer, I don’t mind.

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