Oh Marvel, hooray.

Iron Man 2 is right around the corner!! Here is the new 7/11 ad that is out in support of the movie!

I think that one is a little funnier then Dr. Pepper's ad, but still not laugh out loud. They'll get it at some point I hope.

Anyhow, basically Marvel has been doing a lot of hyping of Iron Man 2. The trailers, the commercials, all of the articles about it...well... it looks amazing to say the least. There is always the doubt though that they show the best parts in the trailers because the movie sucks. I really hope that's not the case because Iron Man was fantastic.

Besides all of the Iron Man 2 promotions, Marvel has been promoting their comic releases such as Deadpool, Spider Man, Age of Heroes, Thor, and Daredevil. I haven't been to a comic book store in a little bit, so I've got plenty of stuff to start looking at. Not to mention I have to start on that summer project of decoupaging that night stand. Huzzah.

More likely to answer on Facebook.

Apparently 1/3 people would rather talk to family on facebook.

Hmmm, not sure if I agree or disagree with this. When it comes to immediate family like brothers, significant others, and parentals...I would have to say face-to-face. You can't beat it. Not to mention my family is hilarious with the things we talk about and conversation in general. Usually humor is not transcribed well through text.

When it comes to cousins and such....ummmm...I'd prefer facebook actually. I find a certain amount of my cousins relatively annoying. That and if conversation becomes very stale, I can just excuse myself from conversation. Easy as that. They add me on facebook, can see at all times what I'm doing, thus leaves me with less obligation to talk to them when I see them at family gatherings haha.

Now, the awkwardness is adding family. I often forget that I have 12 year old cousins who read what I post and frequently think...oh my...probably should have edited that. But then again, 12 year olds nowadays are doing MUCH different things then when I was 12. I tend to think they can teach me what's up rather then the other way around.

I added my mom on facebook the other day. This came after much deliberation, going through my photo albums, through my statuses...or stati...or whatever the plural form of "status" is; I finally decided to push the "Add as Friend" button. Well, she rarely does anything but sends me requests to join Farmville. She may have snooped on me, but meh, it's my mom...it's basically her job no matter what. haha I've resigned to that fact.

surely you jest.

So check out this article. Word has it that college kids are addicted to social media...

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/04/27/2010-04-27_college_students_are_addicted_to_social_media_and_even_experience_withdrawal_sym.html

Um...yeah...duh.

That's all I've really got to say about it. I'm surprised that people are surprised. It's like the news story on ABC the one time about the lady who only goes to grocery store when she runs out of food. Um, and? Psh. It's April, almost May, and I haven't been to the grocery store since November. I actually like to consume the food in my apartment before I go and purchase more. Call me weird, it's just how I work.

The fact that people can write a news story on how college kids are addicted to social media is not in the least bit surprising, or news. New news at that. The article discusses how students at University of Maryland were asked to go ONE DAY without social media.

So they could not use:
Lap-tops or PCs
Phones
Ipods or any of it's relatives
Blackberries
TV
etc, etc, etc.

Essentially these kids were dead to the world for an entire 24 hours.

They actually noted feeling jittery, anxious, nervous, alone, secluded. Hmm, I can name a couple of people like this, but I believe I can go a day without it. It'll be inconvienent, but it's possible. It's a neat social experiment, but it's another abuse of how addicting simply staying in touch with people can be. Then there is the typical people that are treating it like a heroin addiction and you need to drop social media before you die from it or something. I've noticed the most negative people on social media are the ones who won't even give it a chance. It's technology, it's here, might as well make use of it.

Marvel Movies, oh My

So...I touched on Iron Man 2 in my last post but totally forgot that Marvel is going to be pumping out at least 3 more movies in the next 2/3 years.

The first one is Thor. This is due out May 11th 2011. I tried digging up a trailer but sadly, there is none that I can fine for this for the next two movies I'm mentioning. I'd pretty pumped because this movie has Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

The movie is basically about Thor, an arrogant warrior, whose actions have him sent to Earth where he is forced to live among humans. When evil forces are sent to Earth, he realizes his true calling and what a real hero is.


Film number two is "The First Avenger: Captain America"

This movie is due out on July 22nd, 2011. I realize it's awhile away...but I'm still excited because we all know what that means...THE AVENGERS!

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

The person playing Captain America is Chris Evans. That's practically the only solidly known for sure actor in it. A lot of them are "pending" or rumoured.


The third movie, piggy-backing the last two, is "The Avengers"

This movie should indeed be amazing if done right. You have Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Edward Norton as the rumored Bruce Banner, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Brilliance in a word. It's due out on May 4th of 2012, but it's so far ahead that from what I can't find, the plot isn't quite released. Still...with a cast like that, how can you go wrong?

So needless to say, Marvel has lots of promoting all the way up to 2012...and who knows what is also in the works!

Cue Black Sabbath music...."I am Ironman..."

So this is the newest Iron Man 2 commercial that was advertised through Marvel.com and also on their Twitter account. It's by Dr. Pepper. I thought it was cute, not really laugh out loud material for me though.

I've been pretty excited with all of these Iron Man 2 commercials on TV, the ads that have gone along with it, and just in general because the first one was great. I also think that Mickey Rourke, cast as Whiplash, is an EXCELLENT actor for the part. It looks fantastic and I don't think May 7th can come any sooner!

Marvel is producing quite a few twitters about their online comic books still. I realize the convienence of this, but I just don't like the whole "Comic book online deal" I've tried reading them on their and just couldn't get into it, or found that I was distracted with whatever else was going on my computer screen. If I had the comic book in front of me, I wouldn't notice these things and just read. It's not a 9284653 page book people...Comic books are 15 pages maybe? with lots of ads in them as well. Not exactly a huge read.

Facebook pwns Google in the workplace

I was reading an article online and I was actually be surprised to learn that Facebook is being used more than Google at the workplace.

Here's the article: http://mashable.com/2010/04/16/facebook-at-work/

I'll sum it up...so the article discusses how at the workplace Facebook is getting more bandwidth usage than google is. This means that more people are using Facebook, or visiting it more. The stat still shows that YouTube is the reigning king though.

"The company looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010and found that 6.8% of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, which is double the amount of business traffic that goes to Google and nearly triple the amount that Yahoo gets"

also

"An accompanying survey showed that 43% respondents are concerned about this seemingly excessive use of social media in the workplace."

I find this second stat VERY interesting. I know all the college kids do it, and it usually outranks doing very important school work which decides if you pass or fail courses sometimes. Facebook is relatively becoming an addiction for a lot of people and often times it makes me laugh when people post in their status that they are deleating there facebook. Ha...yeah...suuureee you are. I do agree that it does have very addicting tendencies, but at the same time, if used correctly and not just to have a fake farm, fishtank, cafe, hotel, mafia group, island, pets, cars, etc., etc., it can be a very good way to actually keep in contact with people. It's meant to be a social networking site...just like Myspace was...and like all things, they pass. I remember when EVERYONE had to have a Myspace or you practically weren't a human. Now people look at you like you have an appendage growing out of your head if you say you don't have a facebook.

I personally like to argue with the people who think they are being socially righteous simply by not having a facebook. They feel like they are "fighting the good fight". I honestly think having a facebook is a good thing. People can stay in contact with you, see pictures of you, chat with you, and just simply stay in touch. My cousins who live in different states don't have to only see me and get in contact me once a year.

Twitter is making some money money moneyyyy....

Twitter has recently decided to try and start making money by allowing companies to kind of buy, "Promoted Tweets". I actually was not shocked in any form of the word. I kind of wondered why Twitter wasn't doing this sooner actually. A move like this is a no brainer for twitter, especially since they already have accounts with the companies who are now paying for top search results.

I decided to try it out. I went to twitter, didn't log in, but searched for "Coffee". I was confused at first because just random tweets from people were up about hating coffee, getting coffee, smelling coffee, etc. So I thought, "Hm...weird..." but as soon as I logged in, I noticed Starbuck was at the top of my list of my streaming tweets. Mind you...I hate coffee and nothing will ever make it taste good to me. Now...tea...I have an entire cabinet in my apartment devoted to tea.

The companies can promote and create ads so that if you were to search for something dealing with them, they would be at the top of the list. I suppose this is only if you are logged in? I have no idea...

Anyhow, I thought this was a very good decision on Twitters part. Just as long as they keep Twitter as is and don't become money hungry...that would be solid.

I is Alive.

Alright, I totally fell off the gene-pool when it came to this blogging thing. I have a bunch to make up sooo...here we go. PR class has actually been going very well. We've been having a few speakers in class give us an insider's take on the would of Social Media and how it helps/harms groups, companies, etc. The latest speaker was John Dawe. He recently did a campaign for a politician in the area and basically described how Facebook was clutch in his efforts of getting her the win.

So...My take on this, ironically, I knew everyone discussed... Somehow I've known people that Donna brings into class...it's weird how everyone is connected. Reminds of that 7 people to Kevin Bacon thing. I've known the guys that owned Solid Cactus because they used to eat at the restaurant that I was a sous chef at and they would come in every week. They were known as "The Boys" and my boss Lilli would bust their ass all the time. A bunch of years later I meet Donna, who is teaching this PR class, who knows my friend Mandy who I went to and graduated highschool with. So Donna brings is John Dawe, who had an event at the Waterfront where I work now, which didn't go over well under various different circumstances. I knew the politician he was endorsing through Facebook because I used to intern at FOX56 and made commercials with her and ran the teleprompter. Then she brings up Matt Hinton in class on Thursday, who I've known for awhile now too, because he was good friends with my oldest brother in highschool. Ohh...it's a small small world.

Annnyyhhoowww. So John Dawe discussed Facebook and how he used it for a political campaign and it was very interesting how strategical it had to be and how much they had to post all the time. I also thought it was interesting how important and crucial he made posting things before anyone else did like video feed and updates and events. It was interesting what he had to say, but I kind of still don't get what he does. I guess he kind of just runs social media sites for people? I guess I don't see that as very difficult, but in the same token, I'm also the same one who forgets to post weekly blogs har har har.

It's been ages. Sooorryyy

Hello fellow Marvelites. Alright so I haven't posted on this thing for 9837651 years. This is what happens when you have 2 snow days leading into a weekend leading into spring break. Sooorrryyy. Anyhow, Marvel has and is finished with their Olympics skits that they created with their superheroes...some of them are pretty funny so I suggest you take a look if interested on www.marvel.com

There honestly wasn't too much to say, and then the snow storm struck the East coast, Wilkes cancelled classes two days in a row, and I forgot to post completely. Marvel commented on the snow by saying, "Iceman is going nova on the East Coast?!"
This was the general sentiments of all the New England states. I looked out the window today, see it's spring-esque and no more snow...I suppose I should write this thing.

After fully blaming Iceman for the weather, Marvel told everyone of the new comics with Deadpool, The Hulks, Iron Man, and X-Men. Lots of stuff happening with those characters. Not to mention Marvel has been hinting at some sweet Marvel swag on their site. They always discuss in their tweets about how you can stream the 1960's and 1990's spiderman show series.

They've also been mentioning some pretty interesting interviews with the writers for some Marvel comics and also Spiderman and Iron Man. The advertisements for their digital books have been twittered about too. I'm not sure how I feel about this simply because sure; it's free and I love all things free...but it's a comic book. I don't think I'd be able to enjoy a comic book on my computer. It's just so much better when you're holding it and experiencing it for real. Not just receiving a digital version of something.



So on small notes, they aired the 2nd official Iron Man 2 preview after the Oscars on Jimmy Kimmel. Here is the preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0

And here's a video I thought was funny about Deadpool and some Movie Awards:

Sooo that's about it... I'll talk to you next time!

Class was canceled, plainly I forgot about this.

Well, Plainly and simply, I forgot all about having to do a blog but Wilkes University actually had a snow day. Super exciting in my opinion. So exciting that I did indeed forget this, and then in all the excitement (ha) and long hours of banqueting, I came to realize, as I rebuilt the coffee cup towers, that I forgot I didn't blog.

My bad.

Anyhow, since we didn't have class, I'm just going to talk about how socializing through this and other ways I found out how the weather is bumming people out...or making them happy, whichever.

So, I'd have to say that the billion feet of snow the east coast received in a two day period was a little bit over zealous. My personal opinion: We could have totally had class Thursday because the roads were just wet all night until around 10 or 11pm. But I wasn't one to argue. I checked out facebook and twitter just to see what is going on and how people feel and I actually found that people were commenting on how Wilkes could have been open on Thursday. Since when did any of us college students actually WANT there to be school. A little assbackwards.

But yeah, so I checked out my brother's wife's facebook and apparently they got slammed with even more snow. It was crazy. They live in Maryland, about half an hour from Baltimore and the amount of snow they've received is nuts! They take really good care of the roads though because no one is used to driving in the snow. I believe so far they've had almost 8-10 feet of snow this winter alone. That's unheard of if you don't know. Here are some pics I thought were funny...

Those are there corgis, Maddock and Belle. Snow is a little bit above them...


This is a picture of Maddock, the bigger of the two dogs, trying to get through the snow haha:


When my brother and his wife moved into his new house in MD, they had a play set in the backyard. Not quite for kid kids...but my brother's "Kids":



so yep...I found out what the weather like was from a lot of different places. And also a lot of places around PA too to witness the crazy difference when it's only an hour in whatever direction.

an interesting article

Check this site out:

http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/fun-friday-top-5-real-estate-social-media-blunders

After reading all of them I have to comment on 1-5 because I have noticed that.

So number one is obviously most important. You obviously can't make a post all about you. It just turns into a journal then, and that's rather obnoxious in my opinion. I've already touched on how I feel about my journal entries when I was in highschool and like I said...if I could, I would punch myself in the face then. It's all just very self-serving.

the second one, well...that in itself assures that you'll have zero content, along with zero readership ha.

the 3rd, All I can say is "Duh"

the 4th, I think it's very interesting what some people consider too much information and what people claim as just discussing their everyday life. It's weird. Some people obviously have very little inhibition about what they are posting, and then some people have no personality because what they post is so lifeless. There is no essence of a personable entry or colorful author. Bland.

the 5th, I honestly didn't realize this happened until this article pointed it out. I then go and look through Facebook status statements, and by george, they are posting as if it's twitter. Weird. It just made me laugh because I never realized it. I'll notice typos and other errors before I notice someone threw a pound symbol before a name ha.

Free Comics + Marvel Olympics = love

Marvel has been twittering their butts off making it quite clear that there is a lot going on. The biggest thing they are pushing is free comics and their version of the Winter Olympics.

Alright...first off. Free is free. Come on... Free comics to me is like free wings and other fun free things to whomever else. Anyhow, they show a lot of different comics on their site. Other than actual comic script style, they also show TV cartoon episodes of Spiderman and The Hulk and things like that. So, in short, it's fantastic.

Now...this is a clip of their version of the Olympics. It's the opening of it and it's hilarious. My favorite is the fact Deadpool's flag is a pair of underwear. haaa

"Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues"

hahaha, I loovee it. I think that it's a well put together spoof on the the olympics that are going on...but full of comic book heroes. It reminds me of Robot Chicken a little if people watch that.


Then my friend Reva threw me a meeting of the minds between Marvel and DC. Rorschach from Watchmen and Deadpool are playing a good cop/bad cop situation and it's pretty funny. Alright, so there you have it. A lot of footage to check out and that's basically what Marvel has been tweeting about a lot this week. Til next time Marvelites.

The PR class that wasn't...

I didn't go to my PR class this week. Plain and simple. haha. The first senior farewell was that night so I decided to bond for 2 hours of free food, sushi, and adult beverages. Let me tell you...the food and sushi was typical of wilkes...pretty gross. I am a connoisseur of sushi. I love it, I know it well, I know how to make it, I know what I like and don't like. Let me tell you: Imitation crab and smoked salmon is not sushi. I was bummed. Robbing me of a full glass of beer was a relatively large no no as well. The food...mehhh....I've worked in the food industry all my life; I know what good food is, and Wilkes shot a double-bogey on that hole. Soo...yeah...it was alright I suppose. I enjoyed myself for the fact I socialized...which is sort of like social media...

Did you catch that segway? ha.

In class, after reading over the slides, they went over social sites like myspace, facebook, and LinkedIn. I have nooo idea what that LinkedIn is. Which intrigues me a lot...but such are things I don't know about. From what it looks like, you can post resumes and such...I kind of get the idea that it kind of promotes you sort of. Not to say facebook or myspace doesn't...but I see LinkedIn as more of a professional way of promoting oneself through social media. Mind you...I wouldn't know for sure, I wasn't at this class. I was too busy receving half filled glasses of beer and sub par sushi.

I've never personally posted anything on Youtube, but I go on their occassionally and watch different videos. I have used Photobucket though for pictures and I think I may have a Flickr account lurking somewhere in cyberspace. I can't say I am too familiar with this side of media socializing other than just watching some ridiculous video on youtube or looking at pictures on Flickr. That'll be all though...

Merc with a Mouth, the Olympics, and MARVELous May

I think I'm in love with having Marvel as my twitter company. I wouldn't know all the stuff they post unless I hit up some of the local comic book stores. Through their postings I find out that Deadpool comics are due out in May, along with several other comic series...but to be honest, Deadpool is a little higher ranking in my humble opinion. ha.

http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.11280.the_heroic_age~colon~_deadpool

Alright...I was going to post a picture, but blogger.com obviously thinks otherwise. So I'll try it again for my next post. Whatever blogger.com...you win this time.

Anyhow...so I noticed that Marvel is also getting into the Olympics as well. US Snowboarder Louie Vito was interviewed by Marvel because he loves his comics. I'm sure comics love him as well. I simply love the fact that he was Batman for Halloween when he was little. Simply because so was I...among a pumpkin, a clown, a bowling pin, french fries, and a throw pillow. He talks about his favorite superheroes, who he would compare him and Shaun White too, and also his stint on Dancing With the Stars. Stating that he would rather snowboard then dance I thought was Ironic...but I could see why when he puts it as having 4 days to learn a dance, performing it live on TV, being judged, and knowing you have 30 million people at home watching. I'd rather snowboard too...

Besides those things, Marvel has to just keep on keeping on and keep posting things worth blogging about ha. Both would be beneficial to me :P

PR Class...huzzah!

I'm actually surprised what being forcibly launced back into social media can do. I signed up for this PR Class expecting nothing of what I'm actually getting, and it's fantastic. I dropped twitter awhile ago when my friend Reva decided to make me one. I tweeted a couple of times and then was like, "Well, screw this...I do this on facebook" yes well, first day of class was spent talking about how we're going to have to have a twitter account and yadda yah and I grumbled but after actually giving it a genuine chance I find I'm twittering wherever I go whether it be happy hour, out to see local bands, out bowling, hanging out with friends. I laugh because I always laughed at Reva for twittering everything. I would literally look at her as she texted and said, "Are you twittering dude...seriously?" and yeah...now I do it. I have coined this as the term, in my definition, (sorry Disney) "Twitterpated" I know it's not the same thing as Disney's version, but I find that it's a word that suits me well. I never gave it a chance and then WHAM-O...it happens.

Now, that I've given that a chance. We're learning allllll about all the different things you can do on twitter like putting photos up, retweeting things, following people, etc. And also we have had to use blogs...obviously. I used to blog wayyy back in the day but it was more so me complaining about my mundane highschool life. If I could, I would have punched myself when I reread those. Bleh. Blogging has become something I could see myself getting back into, not necc. just for only talking about this class and then Marvel comics...but also just in general making comments on things that are happening in the news. Could be lots of fun as well!

So...besides the irony of us not being in a computer lab, and then acquiring a mobil computer lab, it still not working, the class is going well. We seem to just have a huge fail whale that keeps flopping on top of us. Picture that. Bwahaha.

Sarah

Marvelites, Unite!

After following Marvel since this class started, I wasn't aware so much was going on in the comic community. To start off, Marvel completely took the idea of Twitter and ran with it. They post several times a day just to update on new episodes of 90's comic cartoons that are newly streaming on their website, Marvel character movies that are coming out i.e. Iron Man 2, and just fun posts like Top 10 Lists of best heroes of 2009, best pairs ever in comics, best villians, etc. etc. It's all good.

One of the biggest things they twitter about is either their Marvel Character of the day, or the comics that are being released that week. They also link to articles in almost every single post except when they get back to fans.

On an anecdote...I went comic book shopping with my friend Reva this past week and after spending almost an hour in the store, we go up to pay for them. All the comics I bought were backorders. The reasoning of buying them was because I want to decoupage a night stand I have with comic hero strips. I know...I know...blasphemy for all the Comic book lovers...but it's a project that I want to get going on, and I'm not cutting up the really good books. So anyhow...Reva buys a library of comic books, pays and then it's my turn...so of course the first one that was checked out, the guy looks it up in his pricing book and goes, "Whoa..." and I said, "What?" and he goes, "Yeah, you picked a good one..." Now...mind you I went through the boxes and literally just grabbed whatever wasn't in a plastic sleeve already. So he says, "yeah...you picked out a better one then I even thought...This one is worth about $120..." Needless to say, I didn't want to tell him all I wanted to do was cut them up after reading them. It was a 1983 The Amazing Spiderman: Now Strikes the Hobgoblin. He gave it too me seriously cheap...like...I only paid I think $18 for it. ha! Alright...anecdote, fin.

Alright, that'll be all.