Sideshow & Syrana

Formspring.me is still relatively new and I thought I’d share why I think it can be valuable to use.  I know several people aren’t interested in it or don’t really know what it is.  Even if you don’t end up using if for yourself, maybe this post will at least help reveal some of its appeal.

Ease Of Use

Formspring.me is not particularly amazing in terms of it’s look or innovation.  However, it is easy to use.  Signing up is pretty straight forward.  After you sign up, you can choose to connect it to other social media networks (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr).  Once you do this, you are able to let your followers and friends know about your link.

You can also choose which networks (if any) you want to send out per question. There are check boxes allowing you to be selective.  Contrary to popular (negative) belief, using formspring.me does not equal auto spam of every question.  While I still stand by my rant the other day, I personally choose to only tweet a few questions and answers sporadically (but even that can annoy some people). (continue reading…)

Honestly, think about it.

There’s achievement spam, formspring spam, location spam, picture spam, link spam, ponder spam, I’m playing X, Y, Z spam, incessant whining spam… I could go on.

It’s all there. At any given moment you can (and probably will) tweet something that one of your followers doesn’t like.

And that’s ok – if you (or they) aren’t a jerk about it. You can NOT reasonably expect that everyone you follow is going to tweet the very things only YOU want to read all the time.

If you have an issue with the “spam” and cannot accept the fact that you can just scroll past it, then you do need to re-evaluate why you are following that person.

If you really don’t find them that interesting ever… then unfollow them. You find out they don’t share a lot of beliefs that are important to you… unfollow them.

But it’s the WAY you do it.

I cannot possibly follow everyone back, I would never be able to keep up with any semblance of a timeline. But, do I ever get annoyed by what I see in my timeline? Sure!

But I don’t usually say anything and I don’t call out an individual for it. Partially because I (like ALL of us) have been guilty of creating tweet spam at one time or another. And, partially because I just don’t let that kind of stuff bother me. (Oh hai scroll button!)

So, if you insist on unfollowing – just do it. No reason to make a big deal out of it by telling someone you are going to unfollow because they said “this” or did “that.” And the threats to unfollow if people tweet X, Y, Z? Get over yourself.

No one should have to feel they can’t tweet something just because they don’t want to lose YOU. I mean, did they sign up JUST to be followed by you?

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This post brought to you by the late night rambles of a Syrana that should be sleeping but is annoyed at the unfollow threat spam she sees people receiving.

So… the other night I was perusing keyword searches that reach this here blog.  Some make sense, some are weird and make me wonder why they woulda looked through 50+ pages before finding us, and some…. some are just amusing.

One of these amusing search terms was “syrana hampster.”  Of course, I shared this on Twitter.

And, you know what, I think we have found it!

Or… more accurately… Sunshinecelery found it!

It’s quite likely this person was trying to find Syrian hamsters.

Or… maybe… there really is an evil Syrana hamster?  You be the judge!

Syrana: So what do you want to do tonight, Hamster?

Syrana Hamster: Same thing we do every night, Syrana – try to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Just a reminder that tonight we’ll be recording our 10th episode of Polygamerous live!  We have a special guest joining us – Nicole Spagnuolo from Ladies of Leet.

Join us in the chatroom and the live recording on Mondays at 8pm PST.  If you can’t join us live, that’s ok! Go to the Polygamerous site to listen to the show or download us off iTunes or Zune.

Even if you have subscribed to the show on iTunes,  you’ll want to keep an eye on the blog for special announcements, game reviews, and other fun stuff!

So there’s this game that’s coming out in the US on February 23rd (various release dates for different parts of the world all within the same week).  It’s been quite anticipated and I’m psyched.

It’s called Heavy Rain.

There will be choices… and consequences. (I recommend checking this out…)

Love.

Guilt.

Redemption.

These are the words that keep teasing us in the game trailers.

It will be a psychological thriller.

A boy to be saved.  A killer to be found.

Right now I’ve signed up for the “Four Day Challenge.”  I thought it might involve some gameplay, but it doesn’t.  But it has been fascinating.

Shamefully, I have not been able to put much time and effort into the “clues,” and have had the benefit of pondering the theories of others.  (There’s some phenomenal work going on in the PS3 EU forums as well as the Facebook fan page!)  I was having some issues with the website on Tuesday, when the event started, so I wasn’t able to get all the Twitter clues…. that led to what appears to be the Twitter account of the killer.

So what am I to expect? Well, the event started on Tuesday, but there will be 3 weeks of searching and watching and waiting.  Each challenge lasts for 4 days (Tuesday through Friday).  It’s a unique series based upon the game’s universe, but is not supposed to contain any actual game spoilers.

Here’s the information from the official email after I signed up: (continue reading…)

Samodean!  He worked diligently using “creative googling,” as he put it, to submit his blog scavenger hunt entry within 24 hours after it went live.

He did quite well too! Only 2.5 close-but-not-quite-on-the-money answers.  I’m almost glad he didn’t have a perfect score or y’all might think it was suspicious.  Or I’d have to question Sideshow to see if he sold Samo the answers or something.

He did answer the bonus questions right though! Woo!

Granted, he had the only entry… all I can say is lesson learned, I guess? Saved me some money at least…

I know a few people responded on Twitter suggesting I extend the deadline by a week when I tweeted this afternoon about only receiving one entry.  I had considered that over the weekend as the deadline drew near… but I decided not to do so.  I’m not sure if that would have actually resulted in more entries (especially if I hadn’t revealed the fact there had only been one).

And I woulda felt silly extending it if after an additional week there was still only one.

Also, I kept the promotion of the contest to the blog and Twitter because, well, I wanted it to be for our readers/followers.

Hey, at least this time there was an entry.  The last contest I attempted resulted in zero entries.

Baby steps, right Bob?

Well, if you still want to tackle the scavenger hunt for the helluvit, you may not want to look at the answers after the cut.  Otherwise, enjoy going through ‘em. (continue reading…)

A reminder that tonight will be the first Polygamerous podcast episode of 2010.  And the first with me as an “official” host!  I’d love to see you in the live chatroom tonight… at 8pm PST.

Since the show records live on Monday nights, I might have to move the weekly fanfiction installment to a different day.  We’ll see (although part 42 won’t be ready and posted until next week) if I can preplan and write it before Monday evening as I’ve been doing.  And, please, bare with me this week as I return to all my normal routines (work, home, blogging, gaming).  The holidays definitely mixed things up a bit.

Also, it seems one of my New Year’s resolutions might be to drink more.

I forgot how much I love champagne.

Let’s see, what other randomness can I include for you today?

Oh!

I tweeted this picture yesterday, but in case you missed it….

Cat butt magnets. For the true cat lover?

This has to be the strangest gift I’ve ever received.  I got this for Christmas.  At least my mother-in-law has a sense of humor.

Wowza, I can hardly believe the 1st Annual Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive organized by Azeroth United has come to a close.  It ran November 1st through December 13th.  It was filled with great mini-drives and support.  The initial fundraising goal of $5,000 was surpassed quickly too!

As for our own mini-drive, #iblamesyrana, we ended with a total count of 1237 blame tweets which raised $300!

I consider that a smashing success.

We started out sponsoring 500, then Samodean, Fulguralis, Fuubaar, and Pixelated Executioner offered their support and sponsorship as well!  Sure, we didn’t reach the updated goal of 1500, but we came quite close!

So a HUUUUUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped out!

Oh my goodness, there’s not much time left for the Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive!  The community has been fantastic and we’re raising a lot of money for Child’s Play, which is awesome.  But, there’s some more money to be spent!

If you want to donate yourself, you can do so using the ChipIn widget on the right sidebar, or go to Azeroth United to check out the fabulous prizes you will be entered to win if you donate $10 or $20.

Otherwise, you can blame me on Twitter (for good or bad!) by adding #iblamesyrana to your blame tweet to help raise money.  Sideshow and I already donated our contribution for the first 500 blame tweets, but we still have sponsors!

Killing ‘em Slowly is sponsoring blame tweets 501-1000

Pixelated Executioner is sponsoring blame tweets 1001-1500

At the time that I’m typing this up, we’re still shy of 800 blame tweets for this mini-drive goal!

So go forth and blame Syrana!

The Twitterati discovered a mystery:

Mortigan is missing!

The blog is no longer found.

The twitter account no longer exists.

Hopefully his Forsaken body didn’t fall apart.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of this warlock (did hunters take him out? is the Alliance holding him hostage?) please alert the Twitterati.  We are always concerned when a member of the community disappears into thin air.