Pixel Posybytes of life

My husband invited me to join Google Plus, the social network slated to knock Facebook down a few notches. I’ve only been active for a day but my first impressions have been positive.

I acclimated quickly and noticed that Google Plus allows you to follow anyone you want, much like Twitter, even if they don’t follow you back. I found a few YouTube stars and added them to my “follow” circle allowing me to see their funny posts instantly in my stream. I also jumped into the Squidoo forum to find other fellow lensmasters using Google Plus and placed them in my “Squidoo” circle. No approvals needed, they were there instantly. But never fear your privacy with Google Plus is still in tact.

Circles are what sets Google Plus apart from Facebook or Twitter, at least in terms of privacy (if you can really call anything you post online private). Circles are simple to use and allow you to categorize the level of personal relationship you have with someone. Keep those near and dear to you in your family or friends circles and post all the personal news you want, keeping those comments hidden from anyone outside your friends and family circles, whether they “follow” you or not.

You hear stories all the time of people being fired because they forgot they friended a boss or coworker on Facebook and went off the deep end with a work related rant. Now you can keep those work friends safely in your colleague circle, sharing only the stuff you want them to see and ranting away, if you will, out of their ear shot in your family and friends circle.

So how did I see the funny posts from the YouTube stars without them having to accept my request to follow? Google Plus is set up like Twitter when you select global for a post making it open and public to even those outside of your circles. This allows those that use their Twitter or Facebook for marketing or promotional purposes to continue to market away out of the same account they also post their latest cute kid photos for their family from.

Are you part of an online group or have a passionate hobby like I do with Squidoo? Keep your “Squidoo” chatter from cluttering up your friends and family feeds by only posting those comments in your Squidoo circle. Your friends and family will thank you, especially if your passion is Farmville.

Circles allow you to post your thoughts to the world, or just a few of your circles on the fly from within your “stream” posting box. Being able to manage personal, professional and promotional posts easily from one account with one large group of organized contacts is a pretty nifty idea.

I won’t be abandoning Facebook anytime soon, but I am really excited to watch Google Plus grow.

Woohoo… I’ve been participating more on Squidoo lately and have climbed to level 22 in the monster program. Squidoo is kind of a combination between a wiki and about.com. Self proclaimed experts write a lens on a topic of their choosing and the site shares ad revenue and affliatle link money with it’s lens authors. The monster program is a way to keep people active within the community, you gain points by exploring and participating on the site.

I’m excited as my lens Moissanite vs Diamond recently rose in rank breaking back into the top 100 shopping lenses. I hope to have it in the top 50 before the end of the year!

Join the fun and earn a little pocket cash by signing up and creating your own lens here:

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Nibbled

Finding this article made me smile as I lazed about in bed this morning until after 11 AM. I argued with my husband that if I had my way no one would get up much before noon. He felt half the day was wasted. But I’ve always been at my most creative and productive after midnight and would prefer a daily 2-3 AM bedtime with a 10ish or later wake up. Unfortunately my cube job keeps me from sticking to that schedule. Heh… may not have to worry about that soon…

Apparently this study by a psychologist named Satoshi Kanazawa found that to be a night owl you have to have a high enough intelligence to over-ride the natural instinct that tells us to go to bed when it’s dark and wake up when it’s light out.

Here’s the IQ and correlating average sleep times from his study:

Night Lights

Bedtimes and wake-up times for Americans in their 20s by IQ.

Very Dull (IQ < 75)

Weekday: 11:41 P.M.-7:20 A.M.

Weekend: 12:35 A.M.-10:09 A.M.

Normal (90 < IQ < 110)

Weekday: 12:10 A.M.-7:32 A.M.

Weekend: 1:13 A.M.-10:14 A.M.

Very Bright (IQ > 125)

Weekday: 12:29 A.M.-7:52 A.M.

Weekend: 1:44 A.M.-11:07 A.M.

On a side note… Owls were one of my maternal grandmother’s favorite things. I only knew her for 4 years, most of which I was a baby, but I always think of her when I see an owl.

Maybe it is just me, but Target’s new ad campaign leaves me feeling awkward for them.

One shows a young couple on a date and the enthusiastic guy hands the girl he’s hoping to impress a gift. She opens the box to find a necklace and her face falls while saying something like, “Oh, I didn’t think we were there yet.” I assume she is implying that he spent way more than what she felt the relationship was worth? Nice. The guy awkwardly stumbles over his words with a “don’t worry it wasn’t that much.” She says okay good… and they are left staring at each other with awkward smiles. Message received, Target gifts can ruin your budding relationship.

Another ad shows a young family opening gifts from Santa. The mom opens her gift to reveal a new flat screen TV. Dad’s eyes widen in surprise and through his tense fake smile for the kids says, “I thought Santa was scaling back due to the recession this year?” Mom responds that Santa shopped smartly this year. Dad tries to make another comment and mom cuts him off with a strong Santa doesn’t need any help doing his job. Again they stare at each other with tense smiles for the children.  So now gifts from Target can cause strain in your marriage. Awesome.

There is another family Christmas gift opening ad, where the little girl opens a doll and suddenly looks super sad. Her parents ask, “Isn’t that what you wanted?” The little girl starts to confess that it’s all just too much, she was a bad girl this year and starts to spill all the things she has done wrong. Her parents stare at her blankly before stopping her with a, “it’s okay, we really didn’t spend that much.” This one is better than the others, but it just falls short of funny.

I realize they are trying to say that Target gifts seem expensive, but they are actually affordable.  I just don’t think leaving viewers feeling bad for the people in the ad is the way to go. They should go back to the happy shiny people ads like Gap and Old Navy. If I’m going to buy meaningless crap, then I want the gift receiver to feel good about it.

Thanksgiving is that time of year to remind ourselves what we’re thankful for. So in a similiar spirit, how about sharing the best compliment you’ve ever received, the one that has stuck with you, maybe even for years.

Mine was given by my photography professor during a class critique.

 He said after studying my photograph for a moment, “Thank you for putting this in the world”.

He wasn’t an easy guy to please and no one in the class really had anything to critique after he said that!

I wish I could show you the photograph, but, and this still sickens me to say, it was accidentally tossed out with what I thought at the time was old unused photo paper. It wasn’t until after garbage day that I remembered I slipped my actual prints into the same package to keep them protected. Sad day.

Anyway, words can be so very powerful and too often we only speak up when their is a problem with someone or something. This turkey day, don’t just go around the table and say what you’re thankful for, but thank someone with a sincere compliment!

Share the compliment that has stuck with you by posting a comment!