Lights. Camera. Drama.

Hey everyone. I miss the sound of the keyboard as I stroke the keys to create another amazing blog post. All last week I was busy with my volunteer work and I did not have the time or energy to write more blog posts.  I promise that this week I will write up to three blog posts. I have everything planned out there ahead of schedule. I should have written a blog post last week stating that I was on another mini break, but it is too late.

Anyhow, I have some rather bad news. On June 16th, I found this amazing job opportunity, the You Tube Culture and Trends Editor position on Linkedin.com. I was so excited because I love new media and was in the process of completing the online job application. Last night and I will never forget this. I was talking to my mom in the dining room about the job position and she was like "Honey, I hope you get it done. You never know whether or not the job won't be there anymore." I confidently stated that Google/You Tube usually have their jobs posted within a one-month time frame minimum and that I had plenty of time to apply. Turns out, this morning as I was searching Linkedin.com and Google Jobs, I learned that Google/You Tube were no longer accepting job applications...... I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head from that moment on.

So here is my dilemma. I can walk away from the accident or use this opportunity to get things done. I scheduled a Wednesday phone interview with a friend of mine at the Smith College Career Development Office to review my resume and cover letter, but I might instead have him look at my resume, so it can be ready to go when the next job opportunity comes. I will try my very best to connect with a YouTube recruiter on Linkedin so that he or she could look over my job application. I am not backing away from this opportunity. I know what it feels to be unheard and I will not allow this one position slip away from me. God, I sound like someone who is eager to confess her love to her love interest. Hollywood, do not take my idea please! When you are passionate about something, you don't let a good opportunity pass you by. Otherwise, there is nothing in life worth fighting for.

I would like you to answer these questions because I need some guidance!

Were you in a similar situation beforehand? How did you handle this situation? Were there any consequences?

Times are changing. I'm growing up. It's been 11 months since I graduated from college. I have moved mountains, spent my days blogging, and enjoyed the last bit of freedom I had before I start to take the real world by storm. Now it is time to be a grown-up. Starting this Friday, I will start my volunteer work at UMDNJ's Marketing Department. This Saturday, I am heading to the Meadowlands with a good friend to attend the 2010 Bamboozle Music Festival. Within two weeks, I will know whether I will intern at BuzzFeed in June or not.

Do you know what that means? Less time blogging, more time working, networking, and building my skills outside this damn house FINALLY! Am I nervous? Of course. Will I become the best intern I can be? Of course. I will try my best to fit the most appropriate blogging schedule before I start working.

By this week, I will decide whether or not to transfer this blog to the WordPress platform, after consulting with others on Twitter about it last night. I thought about leaving Blogger, but the new template designer caught my eye and dissolved all previous thoughts about joining WordPress. Now I want to expand my community with other bloggers online. Blogger is not giving me that community leverage and commitment I need and its new FTP changes). I love Google, but I need a change.

I have two important questions to ask you:

1. What advice would you give someone who is reentering the workforce/corporate America after being unemployed for several months?


2. Now that I know that importing my blog to WordPress is a good strategic move to expand my personal brand, if I do leave Blogger, will you follow me onto my new platform? Do you think I am making the right decision?

I have many things that I want to do to improve my life. I have tried the goal planning before and I do not usually make monthly goal plans because life is very unpredictable. But I will make a bigger effort to make a monthly plan every month to help accomplish my goals and priorities. By the end of the month, I will cross out the goals I have completed. Here is what I aim to do for the rest of this month:

1. Make sure I schedule and prepare for my BuzzFeed interview! (Yes, I got an email. Yay for me! ^_^)
2. Blog at least three times a week (4.18.10) and write as concisely as possible. Make sure to create a sense of community and answer comments.
3. Buy a camera so that I can take pictures of the Bamboozie Festival/concert on May 1st. (Finally getting out the house!)
4. Watch the entire third season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer on Hulu.com. 
5. Study for the written portion of the Driver's License test. I want to get my permit by the end of the summer.
6. Practice speaking and reviewing vocabulary and linguistics of the foreign languages that I have started learning in my lifetime: Spanish, French, and Japanese. I will start the reviewing process for 15-30 minutes a day. If it does not work, then 10 minutes each day or every other day. I do not want to feel like I am back at college or high-school. No more homework! I will start with French and Japanese first for now. I want to be fluent in these languages.

 When I was a senior at Smith College, I took a Sociology of Rock Music class. The last paper of my undergraduate career was all dedicated to the death of the cultural global brand that once was Music Television (MTV). My professor was a bit skeptical about the whole ordeal, you know. MTV was still around, even though YouTube and Myspace continued to dominate the online entertainment space. A year has passed. I could not have predicted such a catastrophe, if it was written across my forehead.

No more TRL. No more music. No more iconic MTV logo. Do not get me started on these dumb reality shows! Do you want to know why I will only watch MTV for the awards shows now? When I heard that the cast members of Real World: Jersey Shore were given $10,000 per episode contracts to produce a second season! Oh my fucking god. MTV, what have you done? You substituted a generation of wonderful music shows such as TRL, Diary, Fanatic, and MTV Jams for a bunch of tasteless, attention whores? MTV is like Tiger Woods. It was married to popular music and well-respected by celebrities who acknowledged it as the catalyst that launched their music careers. But it ended up sleeping with Snookie instead. (Thank god I do not watch Jersey Shore!). MTV has clearly lost its morals and is only here to cash in on the latest reality show craze it helped generate in the early 1990s instead of being relevant again.

YouTube could end up on the same path to self-destruction. Unlike MTV, I will continue to use YouTube to watch videos because it is still relevant to me. After reading Wired Magazine's "5 Secrets to YouTube Success" article, I realized that YouTube has come a long way since its founding in 2005. YouTube has transformed average people and local bands into semi-famous individuals overnight and I hope that the exchange of communication and ideas continues to thrive between YouTube vloggers and their followers.

But after playing around with the new YouTube layout, I learned that YouTube needs to rethink its website design strategy. I initially thought the new video page was a April Fool's joke. However, when I realized it wasn't, I spammed Twitter, tweeting that YouTube needs to figure out who is on its user-experience team before it makes another decision because the homepage is horrendous. It may have taken YouTube ten months to listen to user feedback to create this new layout, but it needs to reconsider this disaster. First of all, I do not like this thumbs up, thumbs down policy that YouTube implemented to replace the five-star system. What if I like a video, but think it is not worthy enough of a thumbs up? So, the rating of the video is somewhere down the middle. With the new system, there is no middle ground. With the old system, I could have easily graded the video with three stars.

Secondly, I hate the excess of white space on the left side of every page. I think the font size and columns (ie. related videos) were rearranged to give the users a more "user-friendly environment". Despite the influx of spam and racist comments, I personally like the old layout a lot better. This is coming from someone who is a YouTube consumer, not a vlogger. I knew where to go, which buttons to press. Now each page looks bare and out of place. The only new feature that I like is the you can now easily share your favorite YouTube videos with your Facebook friends. Other than that, nothing.

I am glad that the people that I have talked to in person and on Twitter about this issue agree with me 100%. We as fans should contact YouTube and demand the old video page back somehow because I do not want YouTube to be the next MTV. If more fans complain about it, then YouTube will get the message. If they don't, YouTube might continue to develop new design changes without our opinions and eventually go downhill, allowing another online video-sharing website will take its place.

What are your thoughts on the new YouTube video page? What should YouTube do next? Is MTV a has been?

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

 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.

Every online website and cable news network from Time Magazine to CNBC has shared their own lists of  the best and worst celebrity scandals or ideas of the last decade. And now I am going to give you my rundown of the lessons that I have learned since the year 2000. I still cannot believe it has been ten years already since the start of the twenty-first century. I am getting old.

1. Don't Fuck With The Terrorists: I apologize for using the f word, but I had to. With 9/11, this recent attempted Christmas bombing of a commercial airplane heading to Detroit, and the Fort Hood massacre still lingers in the hearts and minds of the American public, I do not want to be in the way of their plans for mass destruction and terrorism. And I am not only talking about Islamic fundamentalists.

I am talking about the seemingly liberal media, government agencies, and other American institutions that continues to undermine the potential and progression of the American people. Not all media people are terrorists. I love NYMag.com, Huffington Post, and other online blogs and websites. But I know when to draw a line between the facts and sensationalism. So do not screw with the terrorists. Learn to overcome their campaigns of fear the best way you can. The politics of fear is the most destructive weapon of all. I've learned to not take every breaking news with a grain of salt. Take control your life or they will.

2. Douchebags Rule the World: If you have not read my wicked Halloween tale yet, I strongly recommend you read it. Douchebags rule the world basically. Jon Gosselin thinks he is a living, breathing male god who is now rumored to have lied about a home invasion only to get publicity. He is a douchebag because he has not grown up to support his eight children. A douchebag would not allow his children to be on television in the first place.

A doucebag could be the nice neighbor, your ex, your psychopathic brother or even you. Stars like Kanye West, Richard Heenes, the White House Crashers, Dave Letterman, Charlie Sheen, and Tiger Woods are just the high-profile ones. The list goes on and on. You can take a douche bag out of Hollywood but you cannot take Hollywood out of the douche bag. The last of the most intelligent people on Earth should reclaim the planet from these people or by December 21, 2012, the world might come to an end. So when you write your New Years Resolutions people, please promise me to either convert the douche bags in your life to reasonable human beings or ignore them altogether.

3. Technology Has Redeemed Itself from the Dark Ages: With the highly-anticipated Google Nexus and the Apple Tablet coming out next year, I am glad that I do not have to use floppy disks and CDs anymore. I am glad that 2010 will bring us closer to the science fiction days of our childhood pasts. I am glad that we are a step closer to artificial intelligence and Star Wars technology. Did anyone notice that in one of my Tech Diva 2010 Prediction post, I predicted that Apple will come up with a new invention before I even knew that Apple was going to premiere the "Apple Tablet" sometime next month to the public. Haha, I'm good. So, Facebook and YouTube are in. Goodbye 20th century garbage. 21st century technology is our future.

4.  Celebrity Deaths Are Overrated: This decade will forever be known as the decade of the Greats. Michael Jackson, Brittany Murphy, Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith all die due to reported drug overdoses and/or long histories of drug addiction. I still remember the day when I heard about MJ's untimely death. I just did not believe it because it's Michael Jackson we are talking about. The Michael Jackson. But there should be a line between at least a few days news coverage to about a year's worth of  untrue stories, fabricated truths, and millions of dollars of unnecessary publicity. Talk about the missing children of this world. I do not want to watch six months worth of the reasons why or maybe why Anne Nicole Smith died. There are other important things that matter to me. End of story.

So before you browse a newspaper or a popular search engine for information, activate your common sense and take yourself on a wild goose chase.

2009 was a very big year for pretty much anything from scandals, the inauguration of this country's first African-American president to the death of the King of Pop and the recently deceased Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy. So as I was planning on Christmas content for this blog, I decided what an unique way to celebrate the holidays and close a year of mayhem by remixing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" my way. It goes a little something like this:

Fast forward today. I've applied to two Google positions within the past year. I did not get accepted for an interview or a series of Google's onsite interviews, but that does not mean that I will not continue to use Google products in my daily life. Who can get mad at Google? I just have to find another job. I will not let rejection get the best of me. I am just simply awesome for Google's own good. *smirks*

So you are wondering how and why do I incorporate this brand in my daily life? For one thing, I like free, inventive stuff. I love Blogger because I can create a free blog in which I can present my life and its delicate mysteries to other people. Without Google, I would not be standing here right now talking to you about Google or even about my deep hatred for Megan Fox. Google's Blogger kept me sane when I thought I had nothing else to do. Writing has always been a passion and I will use for my own benefit. iGoogle and Google Mail are also my life right now. I do not get as much spam as I have gotten on my Yahoo account which is a major plus. Yahoo!, shame on you! I customize my own widgets and the internal detailing on my homepage. I've inserted YouTube videos, my Gemini horoscope, the Huffington Post and the NYTimes and a TV guide all on my iGoogle page. It is like I have invented my little world inside a digital world inside a much larger, unflattering world I call Earth.

But enough of my obsession. You want to know what Google has been up to lately:

Google OS System
Move over Apple and Microsoft. Within 5 years or so, Google will embrace the OS business like I embrace my laptop every morning. Will it be better than the Mac or the recent Windows 7 OS? The new operating system is under development right now and BirTorrent and other Internet sites are now offering the new product as open-source to the public, so Google can get inspired information technology experts and fans to download the files and repolish its applications. I recommend you read these articles on Technorati, PC World, and Computer World for more information.

I personally do not know what the Internet juggernaut has in store for us, but what I do want is an operating system that can either improve upon Apple's and Microsoft's mistakes, but can still bring something new to the table. I do have a question though. Google Mail and Google Documents, for example, are free if you have a Gmail account. Will Google decide to make Google OS a free, affordable mechanism, so that Google Mail and Google Document continue to be free to the public or will we have to start buying better versions of those Google products if Google decides to incorporate them into the operating system like Microsoft? Even if it becomes free, how is Google going to profit from this product? Ads?

Google Wave
Will Google Wave replace email and all things Twitter? Yes and No. I have read the pros and cons of this new Google product from the increase effort to building real-time communication among college students, business colleagues, and other social groups to the threat real-time communication poses to your Internet privacy. I personally hope Google Wave is incorporated into Google Mail. Now, that would be amazing.

So I just received my Google invitation last week. What have I learned? What do I like or do not like? I have not had much process my first week. I did invite a good friend to Google Wave, but we haven't started talking. It is going to take more time and more effort on my part to make something happen. I am a part of a new wave called "Women on Wave" which gives female participants the space to discuss women's rights and issues. It consists of over 100 people from around the world and I have managed to write a brief introduction about myself to the group. Yet, we hope to have a real live online discussion really soon. So, I will keep you posted on my experiences within the given weeks and months to come. I will make history for the sake of humanity. Oh, what joy will come out of this. This is Tech Diva at your service and she is here to stay.

Hello anyone. I just completed a job application for the Associate Product Manager position at Google and I am so excited! I am reading anytime I get my hands on about Google and it's so cool! Wish me good luck! :D

1. Hopefully I will watch the SuperBowl tonight and I mean the SuperBowl, I mean the Half-Time Show and the awesome commercials.