Lights. Camera. Drama.

A couple of days ago, I was strolling through my Tweet Deck until I came across a ijustine tweet with a link to a recent Justin Kownacki's article entitled, "Are You Waiting Until You're Popular Before You Start Being Relevant?". The title alone struck a chord to me. His words defiantly brought life to a continuing situation in my life: what is my path to success and how I can implement it in social media and in other mediums? Am I socially irrelevant? It only took me only two minutes to decide to write a response to this insightful article. I am here to confess to you that:

1. I am a shameless self-promoter sometimes. Who else is going to do my dirty work? Me.

2. I tweet celebrities and other famous people (in their own right), seeking some form of self-recognition and acknowledgment from the people that I admire, when nine out of ten, they don't response back.


3. Twitter and other micro-blogging platform feel like  continuous beauty pageants. Everyone including myself, is seeking their fifteen minutes of fame in the most constructive or ludicrous ways possible. I personally was not the most popular girl in high-school, so I may already be at a disadvantage.

4. Setting yourself and your personal or professional brand(s) is harder now since more and more people are now signing up to Twitter and other social networking sites and creating new blogs at an astronomical rate. Your Twitter account or blog is like a resume/cover letter with hundreds of thousands of hiring managers grossing over it to see you are worthy following.

5. Twitter has now socially integrated into my own personal life. So for people who think I have no life outside my laptop computer, you can just stuck it.

6. Despite my pleas for self-recognition, I fear overexposure. Case in point, Justin Bieber. I still do not know why is he is a constant trending topic on Twitter.

7. Fear should be a sin. Like what Kownaski said in his article, what is stopping you from being the real "you"? I do not have a definite answer, but the plot thickens.

Despite these confessions, I am more grounded than I had thought. I do not compare the Twitter backgrounds or the tweets or writing styles of successful bloggers and social media experts to my own brand because everyone is different. There is no point in trying to be someone else or be another ijustine or aplusk. What I do envy, however, is the self-recognition and support that these people get on a daily basis. I just want to be known for my visionary talents. When you seem like you have a good foot in the door, another obstacle crashes on top of you. Despite my fears and problems, I see the brighter side of the rainbow. (To Be Continued).


What are your fears and anxieties using social media tools to enhance your business or brand?

I just came from #blogchat. It is a weekly Twitter chat session that focuses on the latest blog practices and tips. I came away with some useful advice. I have noticed that I have not been showing a lot of love to my fellow followers and I want to make a difference. I want you to feel comfortable in this community and I think I have neglected you for months. I take full responsibility, but with blogging, I can always learn how to improve my weaknesses and make them into strengths. I will talk more about this in the next coming days, but I want to pledge you three things in the time being:

1. I will be a better communicator and leader.

2. I will read your blogs and post comments as often as I can (at least twice a week or more).

3. I will reply back to your comments on this blog.

This is my pledge. I am ready!

Have you married or dated a loser before? Have you felt like a loser at some point in your life? Are you a sucker for comic books heroes and Jeffrey Dean Morgan like me? Well this might be a movie for you. Hollywood has done it again with in the comic book turned movie adaptation idea. Formerly based on the hit DC comic book series, "The Losers" are members of a special, highly-trained U.S operative unit led by Franklin Cray (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). In the movie, they are transported to a modern Bolivian jungle to do the dirty work for the United States government. Somehow, they are betrayed by some big shot (by the name of Max) within the government and are left for dead.

Will these bad ass rebels let the pain go away and live their lives as "Losers" ? Absolutely not. This is an action-packed movie for crying out loud! With the help of Aisha (Zoe Saldana), the group seeks its much needed revenge on the very system that turned against them. I have not read the comic books, but let's just say this movie is a bit reminiscent of the 1980s "A-Team" TV series, in some respects. You have your daredevil team leader, followed by your hot chick, pretty boy, gadget expect, sniper extraordinaire, and other characters that fall in between. Ironically, this movie, which opens in theaters April 23th, comes out about two months before the "A Team" movie! Ha, Karma does have a funny way of revealing itself in the movie business.

Expect lots of action, hilarious one-liners, and a budding, sexual romance between Zoe's and Jeffrey's characters. Have you not seen Morgan on Grey's Anatomy? I already seen the trailer online and on TV, so trust me. Hollywood has a way of putting a sex scene or two in almost every movie nowadays. I think it is highly uncreative, but it is a definitive method of getting the horny guys into the movie theaters. Also, Chris Evans from the "Fantastic Four" movie franchise and British actor Idris Elba also star in the movie so you know it will be pure comedy and entertainment! Did I say, Jeffrey Dean Morgan will play a bad boy? *Faints* So watch this movie if you do not want to watch a clever, cheesy, yet action-packed alternative to the "A-Team" movie. (Trust me, I already know the "A-Team" movie will not live up to the cult TV classics, so do not hold your breath!) "The Losers" opens nationwide April 23th! Watch the official movie trailer here!

Hey everyone. I have some important news to deliver:

So far, I am in good standing in the 2010 Talent Buzz contest but I still need your support. Please spread the word about my article entitled, Alice in Twitterland: How to Retweet Like a Rockstar. When you click on the page, click the green retweet button on your right hand side! The contest either ends this Sunday or Monday.

Also, I am in the process of producing another wonderful guest blog with fellow blogger and Chatroulette star, Alec Rona, but I have a problem figuring out when I want to write about. I know it will be about Apple Inc. somehow, but the idea is not there yet. What do you think I should write about it?

Lastly, I have finally landed a volunteer opportunity at the Marketing/Communication department at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ Campus! I am pretty excited. I will probably start on the first week of April after the paperwork has been finalized. I believe it will be a one or two day a week gig, but I am still looking for paid, part-time/full-time work. Hopefully, I get this Apple position by mid April as well, so that I can start saving and investing. Overall, anything can happen.

In a more idealistic world, leadership is not all about the efforts and determination of one person to move mountains. It is also about teamwork and negotiation.  As I was watching the health care reform debate on Twitter and on TV, I do not think there is no such thing as compromise in Washington.

Congress passed the new health care reform bill and I am glad that in this day of age, some solution was made to give millions of uninsured Americans more insurance options. But with little compromise between both the Democratic and Republican parties and even within the two parties at some extent at the end, the transparency of the bill was left ambiguous to the American people.

I discussed this issue further with members of the #journchat session on Twitter last night and I am still bothered. For 14 months, all I heard on TV was the bickering back and forth about what will and what will not be covered under this new #hcr bill. What I did not get was a transparent understanding of the rules and consequences of passing this bill. Why did not YouTube or another social media network collaborate with a news cable network to inform the American public more about the advantages and disadvantages of this bill? Everyone is using social media tool these days to communicate with one another, so it seems fitting.

You know why? Politics. Politics disillusioned us. My AP English teacher always said to my senior class, "Politics is another word for conflict". The conflict of opposing ideologies and stubbornness disillusioned us from what truly matters in this country and that is our health and well-being. Health care should be a right, not a privilege. Compromise between the two political parties should be a right, not a privilege.

Congress members are leaders and leaders should not only hold their ground, but listen and compromise with their opposing "neighbors". Didn't they learn that skill in Leadership 101 class? Probably not. Leadership is more just than arrogance. Leadership should be about holding your ground and working with others to reach a common end, even if your perspectives on your once life's philosophies have changed. Life is about growing up and expanding your horizons. If it wasn't, I do not know how I would survive.

I do not understand why the many women and men that we have voted into office to represent us do not understand this. You can not always have what you want. I wish there was a way to just simply erase their prejudices away, but I cannot.
I only hope for the best of this reform bill. I voted President Obama into office and that is my right. You may have not voted for him and I respect that. I hope that within the many months to come, the government and other media outlets educate the American people more about this bill. I hope that this reform bill works to the best of its abilities. I hope that Democrats and Republicans can work together to work on the finishing touches of this bill and on other social issues like U.S immigration and  job creation. I hope that the bigots in this country shut the hell up and challenge President Obama's policies, not his skin color and rumored socialist ties. I hope our journalists can reveal their colorblind racism. I hope the media does not continue to disillusion us. This is 2010, not 1965.

What are your thoughts on this bill? What do you think about bipartisanship and compromise on Capitol Hill?

I am going to self-teach myself Photoshop. Last night, I successfully downloaded Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Edition onto my computer. For now on, when I post pictures on my blog, they are going to digitally alter and enhance them. I think it will be fun what silly things I can design.

My first creation is this altered V Magazine cover with Hollywood child actress, Kristen Durst. I played along with layers and saturation and color balance levels. I think it is a little on the "safe side" but when I learn about the different things I can do on Photoshop, I will be a Photoshop Mad Scientist!

Do you think? You like what you see?

I find Merton's Youtube improv Chatroulette video pretty interesting. What an inventive way to belittle complete strangers on a virtual website. I wish I had the guts to do this to certain celebrities I do not like. Now that would be a video worth watching!



I advise only mature adults to visit www.chatroulette.com. I know that Chatroulette has become this Internet craze, but I hear there are many perverted men showing their private parts on that site. If you are into those things, be my guest! I prefer to connect with people on "safer" social networking sites instead.

It's all warm and breezy outside!
Time to drink like a Irishman, I guess!

Charismatic
Honorable
Ridiculous 
Insane
Sarcastic
Talented
Idiotic 
Narcissistic 
Awesome


Brilliant
Rough
Optimistic
Witty
Notorious

Last week, I applied to the 2010 Talent Buzz Blog Post Contest, remember? Well, today, I need my your help! All you need to do is click the given link below, read my article Alice in Twitterland: How to Tweet Like A Rockstar, and share the article with your friends online. You can even retweet the article to your followers!

The more visits I have, the more likely I will win the grand prize: A $1,500 Visa Gift Card! I have until Monday, March 29th! Help spread the word! I worked very hard on this blog post and I want to show my witty charm with all you guys and to the rest of the world! Help me make this happen, my LITTLE MONSTERS! Click here!

Dear Google,

I love you. I really, really, love you. My love for you grows stronger with each passing day. But lately, your mistakes have been getting in the way of our relationship. Google Buzz. Google Wave. Both are a bit.....late in the game.

I've played around with Google Wave a couple times in the last three months and I had a hard time connecting with people to make any Goggle Waves of my own. Maybe it is my fault. Maybe I need to do more in the relationship. I'll give it another shot. But after the product's launch last November, the frenzy has died down. I do not even hear anyone using Google Wave anymore. It is not even in the news or under my Twitter news feed.

Google Buzz.... I think it was a mess. I saw the layout and functions of Google Buzz and thought it looked alright, but I am a Twitter junkie now. It resembles all the other major social networking platforms. What happened to your innovation, Google? Plus, I did not like the fact that Google Buzz was coded into Gmail without my permission. I thought you would be honest with me! *Tear* If Google Buzz was designed  three years ago when Twitter came out, it would had a better chance with social media consumers. But I still love you. You and your flaws. *Hug*

Love,

Christina Brown
Google's Girlfriend

Love to blog? Are you a natural writer? Well, I have an opportunity for you! The Talent Buzz, an online talent company, is hosting its annual blog post contest. Want to know the grand prize? A $1,500 Visa Gift Card. Yup, an extra $1,500 in your pocket. I know you're excited now. What $1,500!? OMG! What do you have to do?

Write a blog post in less than 850 words that discusses social media, job hunting, social networking, or any similar topic in some fashion. That's all. Hurry! The deadline is this Sunday, March 14, 2010 by 6:00pm EST. For more information and the official rules of the contest, click here. This is a great opportunity to get people to notice my work on a larger scale, so that is why I am entering the contest myself and you know what I am capable of. *smirks* Good luck!

Last night, like every Oscars night, was exceptionally long and boring. Seriously, I think the Academy needs better hosts because Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, although very talented actors and comedians, were not funny. I would have called Billie Crystal, Chris Rock or even Robin Williams to relive their hosting responsibilities. Nonetheless, it was a night made in American history! Lets see why:

1. Women Rule: The feminist in me is glowing! With all her hard work and tenacity, Kathryn Bigelow became the 1st female ever to win the Oscar for Best Director, beating her ex-husband and fellow Hollywood director James Cameron. Take that to Cameron, all the Avatar lovers, and every sexist movie critics out there who thought that a woman cannot direct an award-winning independent movie with substance. I also want to thank Sandra Bullock and Mo'Nique for conveying such memorable and poignant accepting speeches. Women have the confidence and determination to set their minds to anything. Fuck the haters. This was a ladies night and wow what a night!

2. Kanye West's Apprentice: Elinor Burkett will not be recognized as a journalist for her production work in the Oscar award-winning documentary, "Music of Prudence". She will be known for interrupting her colleague Roger Ross Williams during his Oscar acceptance speech. People have their own racist conspiracy theories and I do not care because I am a thinking-forward person and I try not to get these thoughts into my head.

For the love of human decency, she could have waited for him to finish his speech and then spoke to the audience! Adults these days have no respect for one another! Kanye West, if you are out, I think you have caused an epidemic and I hate you for it. Salon.com confirmed that there was a misunderstanding/dispute between Burkett and Williams before the Oscars. Yet, this was one of the most awful TV moments that I hope will never see again.

3. Walt Disney Is A Greedy Son of A Bitch: I was this close to not watching the Oscars this year because ABC had a programming dispute with my local cable provider, Cablevision over money. ABC aka Walt Disney wants more money per month from Cablevision subscribers. Cablevision was not having it, so Walt Disney Co. removed ABC from the Cablevision lineup and warned the removal of ESPN and other Disney channels if Cablevision did not pay the additional sum. This little dispute continued well into Oscar weekend. (ABC showcases the Oscars annually). Luckily, the dispute ended 20 minutes or so after the Oscars previewed or ABC would have lost millions in Oscar advertising.

So this is my message to Disney. Do not let the Academy add five   movies to the Best Picture Category to help increase ABC's lack of Oscars numbers, when on the other end, you almost risked 3.2 million Cablevision viewers from watching the show for more money. Greedy hypocrites.

Overall, it was a pretty entertaining and monumental night. Not only do we have the first female Oscar award winning Director, but Geoffrey Fletcher became the first "black" person to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Precious. So congratulations to all Oscar winners! Until next year!

Is it just me or this year's fashion choices seemed a little too banal? If I remember correctly, the last several Academy Awards shocked me with endless arrays of gorgeous and edgy gowns. Although, I have managed to pick the ten most gorgeous emblems in my opinion, I wish there was more vay-vay-voom on the Red Carpet! If it is the Oscars, I should not have managed a list, the dresses should be so awe-inspiring that it would be harder to comply a list. That is what fashion is all about. Nevertheless, here are the picks that caught my eye.

(The Lovely Meryl Streep in Chris March, Rachel McAdams in Elie Saab Couture, Kate Winslet in Yves Saint Laurent, J. Lo in Armani Prive, Queen Latifah in Badgley Mischka, Sarah Jessica Parker in Chanel Couture, Mylie Cyrus in John Peckham, Sigourey Weaver in Lanvin, Mo'Nique in Tadashi Shoji, Cameron Diaz in Oscar de la Renta!)

Tomorrow night is the 82nd annual Academy Awards at the Kodiac Theater in LA and everyone in Hollywood will be attending. Now, usually the Oscars is this long, stiff, yet must-see event every year. But I think this year is going to be more incredible because comedic juggernauts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are co-hosting this year! Kathryn Bigelow may become the first female to win the Oscar for Best Director! So, this is history in the making!

There are two components to my Oscar predictions; the movies and individuals that I want to win Oscars and the movies that will win Oscars. I only predicted the most important awards of the night. Enjoy!

Best Picture
My Pick: Hurt Locker
Academy's Pick: Avatar or Hurt Locker

With a domestic revenue of over 700 million dollars alone, Avatar is not going home empty-handed.

Best Actor
My Pick: Jeff Bridges
Academy's Pick: Jeff Bridges

Best Supporting Actor
My Pick: Christoph Waltz
Academy's Pick: Christoph Waltz

Best Actress
My Pick: Gabourney Sidibe
Academy's Pick: Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep

Best Supporting Actress
My Pick: Mo'Nique
Academy's Pick: Mo'Nique

Best Animated Film
My Pick: Princess and the Frog
Academy's Pick: Up

Art Direction
My Pick: Avatar
Academy's Pick: Avatar

Best Director
My Pick: Kathyrn Bigelow
Academy's Pick: Kathyrn Bigelow

Best Adapted Screenplay
My Pick: Up in the Air
Academy's Pick: Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay
My Pick: Hurt Locker
Academy's Pick: Hurt Locker

Tonight, I may watch Hurt Locker, Avatar, and/or Precious for the first time to get me into the Oscar rush! Who do you think will take home an Oscar these year?

The Academy Awards starts tomorrow night at 8pm EST on ABC. I will view E! Oscar Red Carpet coverage tomorrow at 6pm EST on the E! Network. Find me on Twitter at @christbrown2009. I will be tweeting my Oscar coverage in real time all night!!

Courtesy of brokerymcpoverty.wordpress.com, I now know where I stand with Mr. Tiger Woods after he was caught in several extramarital affairs last November. I do not own him anything!

With a April 3rd release date the tentative release date and the overexposure the Ipad has been receiving on the Internet for the past month, consumers are still wondering whether or not Apple's newest creation is a worthy marketing venture to invest one's money in. In my "Steve Jobs, What Have You Done?" piece, I strongly believed that the Ipad will become a marketing success and I continue with that proposition.

Imagine a world with iPads during your college days. It was literally several months ago for me. I remembered my heavy black backpack, full with books, notebooks, and the occasional laptop. What if I had replaced my current Compaq Presario CQ70-120US laptop with a 64GB iPad? Do you know how much bag space I could had with a two pound "netbook" on my back? I could have saved many days and many nights walking up and down the Smith College campus. The convenience is maddening. I could have done all my homework and online research more effeciently with an iPad.

The iPad is going to redefine "space" once again. With the iPod, the user controls the flow of music, his/her emotional capabilities, and the social environment around him/her. A iPod user can literally shut off the emotional and mental demands of everyday life by becoming one with the music. With the iPad, professors, students, business people, and other professionals will control their work and social media activities, the presentation of such work, and their social interactions with other people around them.

Want to show off your portfolio to a potential employer or favorite college professor? Bingo! Bring out your Ipad and demonstrate your skills in a more professional and timely matter. My only concern with the iPad and other e-book devices is the digitalization of books. I want my books in my face, not on my computer. Magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, articles, and annual reports are the exception.

Print magazine publications such as Wired Magazine and the Wall Street Journal will be available on the Ipad in digital form. With the Wired Magazine demonstration, it is like having the physical components of Wired Magazine, but in Adobe Elements format. With the Wired brand's strong readership, I would not be surprised if its fans are willing to pay a monthly fee to use the new Wired application on the iPad. Wired Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson stated about this digital evolution, "The point here is that we are entering a new era of media, where we finally have a digital platform that allows us to retain all the rich visual features of high-gloss print, from lavish design to glorious photography, while augmenting it with video, animations, additional content and full interactivity."

I could not agree more with Anderson, but I have some questions. If other print magazines followed suit with this concept, what will happen to the online versions of these print magazines? Should they be included in the reconfiguration of print magazines on the iPad? I personally think if Wired Magazine gets to be digitalized on the iPad, so should Wired News (wired.com). Secondly, do you think every print magazine and newspaper will follow Wired Magazine in this approach? With traditional print media dying every day, they will be only a matter of time when the Internet will take over the print industry.

 I have been wondering for some time about the future of this blog. There are plenty of ways to drive traffic to promote your personal brand. As a Blogger member for the past year or so, I think it is time to drive traffic in another direction. A different platform.

I personally think the Blogger community is empty and unsupportive. To all my supporters and followers, I do not mean you. I mean Blogger and Google as a whole. You would think that when Google acquired Blogger in 2003, everything would be perfect because it's Google. There are no special Blogger sessions to meet and connect with other Blogger users out there. The Help forums are pretty nonexistent. I do not think Blogger does enough to drive enough traffic through SEO to expose my blog on the Internet.

As a result, I think it is time to leave the nest and try something else. I hear that WordPress has a more vibrant  community and 24/7 customer service support, something that Blogger does not have. I remember posting questions in the Blogger forums and not receiving any form of response from the Blogger team. It was frustrating. Wordpress seems like the place I need right now to take my blog to the next level. As of now, I have a brand new Wordpress account. With more online research and this Wordpress account, I will be experimenting with the account's themes and widgets for the next month to see if WordPress is all the hype.

Here is what I need from you guys. Do you think that WordPress is better than Blogger or vice versa and in what ways? Hopefully by mid-April, I will make a final decision. If I make the transition from Blogger to WordPress, will you support and follow me on my WordPress platform? I want to analyze every situation and scenario before I make a final decision. Is it worth it? Post your comments below. I will be waiting.

It is the first of a new month and people are now returning to school and work. What is a better way to start off the week by listening to the hottest music around! So as you walk down the street to your school or drive back home from a hard days work at your lousy job, play the Black Eyed Peas's Party All the Time from their most recent album. The weekend is around the corner and it will take your problems away!