Life, Social Media

Do You Have Klout?

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So, I’m really hesitant to jump on all the social media bandwagons; granted, I was an early adopter of some passing fads – for example, before MySpace and Facebook, there was SixDegrees.com; remember it? Way ahead of its time, started to catch on, but ultimately fizzled, unfortunately (social media just hadn’t quite been born yet; this was in the late 90’s). Anyway, I’ve tried various ones over the years (very helpful when you’re a part of a reunion committee and trying to round up old classmates), given up on others; you can only be in so many places at once, so why not choose the meaningful ones with the most, well, “Klout?”

Fast forward (zooooooooooooooom): Last night, upon seeing a Facebook friend posting about Klout, which I’d heard of, but didn’t see any reason to jump on the bandwagon before (it’s still in Beta – but look at how long Gmail was in Beta, uh-huh), I finally decided to check it out. Basically, it links you and all your social networks, apps and services (the major ones, at least) to build up clout (how you influence people in your social circles and beyond), and it might not be for everyone, but it seems to be building up steam. I started linking up my accounts (well, the ones I still use; they have the option to link Last.fm, but I haven’t used that in YEARS, since I was still active on MySpace, around 2006-07), and hey, I’m doing better than average – as of today, a respectable score of 39! (Edit: Since they’ve updated their scoring system, it’s now a quite impressive 64!) Klout’s site says on average, people land at about 20 (100 being the highest you can reach, for super-mega influencers and celebs, such as Lady Gaga; the higher your Klout score, the harder it is to actually push that number higher). Granted, a lot of my social sharing is done strictly with friends, colleagues and acquaintances, so they can’t exactly pull out all my social dirt without asking. 😉

Anyone else reading this using the site? Why not check me out? Give me a hat tip (+K) as an expert on Mathnet while you’re at it; that seems to be my Internet Claim to Fame (although I need to work on updating that influence). It’s free, and you might be surprised how powerful, or potentially powerful you are among your friends. Hey, we’re in this life together, after all! 😀

Entertainment, Mathnet, YouTube

Michael McGrath, We Salute You!

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Photo Credit: Broadway World

Congratulations to Michael McGrath on his Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical! This was his second Tony nomination; the first was in 2005 for his role of “Patsy” in Monty Python’s Spamalot; this was his first win!

In a  year where no horses would win the Triple Crown, Michael managed to pull off a “Triple Crown” awards sweep of his own for his role of Cookie McGee in Nice Work if You Can Get It by winning the Tony, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

I’ve been following Michael’s work for years, along with that of his wife, Toni DiBuono, who Mathnet fans will remember as Pat Tuesday. Both of them are very talented actors who have been pretty under-appreciated, in my opinion. (I have fan sites set up for both of them, but they are in serious need of updating, so I won’t be linking to them here.) At last, Mr. McGrath gets his due props after years of successful performances on and off Broadway. Congratulations on the well-deserved accolades – here’s to many more to come! 🙂

Here’s his short but very sweet speech (on YouTube) upon accepting the Tony, with a little hint at the end about his next role (in the musical adaptation of The Honeymooners). Toni responded to the news via Facebook, saying: “It was pretty awesome and surreal.”

Fun Fact: Michael appeared in an episode of Mathnet, as bad guy “Barney Oldmeal,” in The Case of the Parking Meter Massacre (before Toni was cast on the show): Watch it On YouTube!

Fact #2: His last name is pronounced “McGrahhh.”

For other Q’s & A’s about Michael: Playbill.com’s Cue & A 

Mathnet, Square One TV, YouTube

Since it’s International Geek Pride Day…

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I may as well post a teaser image… 😉

(Click to embiggen!)

Is that a...a...first draft?

I bet you wonder how this reads…

And nope, not gonna tell you how I managed to get my hands on it, at least, not yet. Just know that it’s very different from what you see in the actual episode, by quite a lot. And no, the entire episode isn’t available on YouTube, but you can see a couple of the parts:

Thursday’s Episode of “Mystery Weekend” (full Square One episode).

Friday’s Episode of “Mystery Weekend” (full Square One episode).

EDIT: The full episode is now available on YouTube!

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more updates to come…eventually. 😀

P.S. 5+25+12 = 42!

Mathnet, Site Updates, Square One TV, YouTube

A Peek at Things to Come…

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SQTV Season 3

A rare find, as far as press materials go. Image Provided by Jeff Thurman (Son of the late Jim Thurman.)

This is just a sample of things to come on the site; this particular rare press image came from Jeff Thurman, son of the late Jim Thurman, who was co-creator and writer of Square One TV/Mathnet. You may also remember Jim as Vern of Dick and Vern, as well as having been a part of other CTW shows back in the day, among other things.

There are some other exciting developments on the horizon (check the “Tweetbox” for vague hints and such), mostly including that promised overhaul of the Mathnet section of the site. 8)

I have noticed more and more clips appearing on YouTube (uploaded by other fans), just in case you need something to tide you over. 😉

I am still trying to figure out all the inner workings of WordPress, so please bear with me!

Design, Site Updates

The Overhaul Begins…

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I had a bit of time today to actually buckle down and start redesigning my site – this is something I have tried to do several times over the years; it’s easy to do this for anyone else but yourself, you know? Seriously. It’s nothing fancy; not meant to be, but I’ve got the “splash page” done and I’ll slowly get things updated on pages and sorted into sub-domains that are going to be kept alive. The others will still be out there, but you may find they sort of get buried amongst the old material and won’t be updated again. Aww, how sad. 🙁 Such is life, my friends.

Anyway, this is a big step! I just have to start something and really mean it, then the inspiration to keep it going isn’t much of a problem. I can be quite the procrastinator, but with the right motivation, I can become quite passionate about what I’m doing. But, aren’t we all like that? No, just me? Ah well, whatever. I am human (I think – sometimes I feel so different from those around me, that I’m not entirely sure). 😛

That’s it for now – I’ll be back. Really, I will. I mean, I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath, but checking back at some point won’t hurt you. 🙂

P.S. – May the Fourth Be With You. Always. Or at least one day out of the lot of ’em. 😉