Friday Focus

Hey Bloggers! It's Friday and yesterday the social media giant Twitter went public. It's debut performed way over expectations, which experts say is due to hype, so only time will tell if the IPO will be a major player on Wall Street.

Here are some examples of how we have changed the world in 140 characters or less.

Have a great weekend bloggers and if you're doing something you think we need to know, Tweet it!

Ignorance Is A Hail Mary

Truth be told, I've been a bit busy with a project that I'm working on, but imagine my surprise when I leaned LAST NIGHT, on the evening news about what will probably go down in history as the worst blown call in professional football.

It was everywhere. On the internet, one the news, on the radio, on almost every football fan's topic of conversation, yet I. a football fan myself and complete media junkie, managed to miss it. Embarrassed but determined, I immediately educated myself on the facts. I couldn't believe it.

In a last ditch effort to win the Monday Night Football game, Settle launched one of the most exciting, when successful, plays in football, "The Hail Mary". What happened next is now history. Blatant offensive interference was committed by Seahawk's receiver Golden Tate and it looked to me like Green Bay safety M. D. Dennings had possession of the ball which is an interception, not a TD in my book. The facts are the facts and the ruling on the field, a touch down, was made by the inexperienced, replacement officials. The NFL has backed the scabs and the sporting world and sports fans alike are in a tizzy.

Twitter immediately blew up, and freedom of Tweet was thoroughly exercised. Even Mr. President weighed in on the call by tweeting, "@BarackObama NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the refs' lockout is settled soon"

Ya think?

PGA Professional took the opportunity to pounce on the competition and tweeted. "@bubbawatson All @nfl fans watch the Ryder Cup this week, we got no refs. #USA"

Good point Bubba.

Imagine being one of those two refs? Here's hoping they both have a job today and a trench coat and dark glasses.

NFL QB Drew Brees said it best when he tweeted, "@I love this league and love the game of football, but tonight's debacle hurts me greatly. This is NOT the league we're supposed to represent."

I'm sure Seattle fans will always disagree that this was a bad call and the debates between those few who agree with it and those who don't will be legendary. If it were my beloved Pats' I might have six thousand arguments as to why it was the right call, but somehow, in the midst of all the craziness after I watched the replay over and over, I was left thinking one thing that was completely unrelated. I was left thinking that this is a prime example of how good old Pete Carroll managed to dodge another bullet.

Olympic Fever

Overheard in The Twitterverse:

FUNNY OLYMPIC TWEETS ‏@OLYMPICFUNNYS

Women's #Beachvolleyball - Tits and arse for the whole family

“Water polo is by far the most bad ass physically demanding game played in a silly hat.” (Danny Zuker)

Slate : NBC ran promo for @TodayShow interview w/"gold winner" Missy Franklin right before airing her race: http://t.co/v91Do7U4 #NBCFail

FUNNY OLYMPIC TWEETS ‏@OLYMPICFUNNYS

Roll on 4:30 women's gymnastics final praying for a nip slip or a flap flash ;) on a serious note good luck #teamGB

"Hey, When do the Olympics start? I haven't seen anything on it." @JimGaffigan

So Now I'm Really Pissed

OK, now I'm pissed.  Another Twitter virus???

WTF!!! How does this happen?

Does this mean I'm Twitter vulnerable? I got the virus from my daughter's friend. Her Twitter feed sent me a message yesterday that said, "OMG, I'm laughing at these pics of you (followed by a link)". Last year, the same thing happened and I totally fell for it and tried clicking on the link. I must have tried three or four times, then I started to get the messages from my followers that someone had hacked my account. I changed my password and did what I had to and proceeded on. Problem solved.

This time, I knew it was a virus and did not click on the link. I ignored it. Was that my mistake? Then last night, I got another message from my daughter's friend that said, "Someone is saying terrible things about you (followed by a link)".  Even though I didn't click the link this time, my followers still got the virus. WTF??? How annoying. I have since deleted all the messages, changed my password, but I want to know how it got into my account. Now I'm a Twitter hazard, since it's happened twice.

How do I protect against this happening again? I mean, I use my Twitter for business and today one of my favorite clients emailed me and asked me personally if I knew who it was that was saying bad things about her. I immediately explained to her that it was a virus and that I was sorry for the inconvenience, but that can't be good for business.

Any advice? I'm so pissed.

Twitty Twitty Twat

Fool or genius? You be the judge.

Either way, Jose Canseco continues to make headlines. Former major leaguer and the man who blew the whistle on the steroid scandal that rocked Major League Baseball, Jose Canseco is back in the news.

This time it's for his Twitter prowess.

Canseco is gaining momentum in the Twitter-sphere for his ridiculous, over-the top and entertaining Twitter posts. Canseco boasts 468,000 followers and has said, "If I end it all, all you Twitter followers will be bored without me." Canseco, who was the 1988 American League MVP is causing quite a stir with his Twitter feed. Some posts have been highly publicized and embarrassing. This recent debacle with a Buzzfeed news reporter who disguised her identity and tried to meet Canseco for  a hook up, couldn't have been great for Canseco's PR. True to Canseco's form, he doesn't care.

"Everyone has embarrassing moments, " he said. "But I think once you put them out there it shows that you're human."

Canseco seems intent on making a comeback in more ways than one. On the ball field, he's just recently joined the Worcester Tornadoes and has started a write-in campaign on Twitter to get himself to play in this year's All Star game. Then there's the reality show route. Canseco had bombed famously on "Celebrity Apprentice" and "The Surreal Life" and his ex wife, Jessica Canseco is set to be in the VH1 reality show, "Hollywood Exes". Canseco, says for now he's focusing on his game. He knows this is his swan song. "No body's making a million dollars or getting rich off this. I do it because I enjoy playing."

OK dude, whatever.

What A Twat

So I got a Twitter virus yesterday from Knucklehead. I'm sure it's not his fault, but who knew you could get a virus from Twitter?

Now I gotta worry about Tweeting viruses?? Cut it out.

It was all very cunning too. I got a notification the other day saying that my blogger buddy, Knucklehead, had tweeted some "bad stuff about you" here (web address). So, since it was the week of Jet/Pats, I'm thinking Knucklehead, a bleedin, stinking Jets sympathiser, was trash talkin My Tommy and the boys. I clicked onto it but couldn't open it, so I just left it and went on about my business.

Yesterday, I was reading some emails and I saw the notification again and I decided it was time to find out what this was all about. When I clicked the link on my computer, I saw a warning that said it could be from an "unprotected source". Since it was from someone I knew, I ignored the warning and clicked the link.

Big mistake. I still couldn't open it and it gave me some bullsh*t about how Twitter was having some issues. I, again, left the site and again went about my business. About five minutes later, my iphone started to blow up. Ping after ping of text notifications kept coming and wouldn't you know I was working with a client at the time.
"Is that your phone?" my client asked.
"Yes, it is. Excuse me for a second," I said, thinking it was one of my kids with something urgent.

It was my nephew, my other nephew, Zibsy, and a whole cadre of my Twitter followers, (I don't have very many), asking me to re-send the Tweet or asking if I had a virus. Then poor Sybil left a comment here that my Twitter account was sending her crap all day too. I spread a deadly virus unknowingly. It was news to me but evidently not to them as my nephews knew right away it was a virus hacking into my account.

MY NEPHEW: Did you mean to send me the Twitter message bout a bad blog about me or is it a virus.

CANDY: Ooooh, bad twitter virus

MY NEPHEW: That's a good one a lot of people will be dumb enough to click that lol

Ha ha, yeah, I was one of them DUMB people.

Later, I was able to log onto to Twitter and Tweet that I had a virus and that I was so sorry. Again, Who knew? Not me. I hardly use my Twitter as it's mainly for The Candy Bar.

Bottom line, I'm super sorry I'm a SUCKER and I hacked your accounts, unknowingly.

I'm sure Knucklehead's sorry too.

Tweeting For Attention

So the devine Ms. Moore aka Mrs. Ashton Kutcher has done it again. Yup, she's baring her bod for all the world to see and this time she has done it from the privacy of her own bathroom. She posted this picture using her husband's favorite pastime, Twitter sometime last week with the caption, "Maybe this looks more like summer".

Whoop dee doo.

Really? Ok, I'll give her that she's a smokin' hot celeb with more time and money on her hands than most people. Couple that with the fact that she is a 47 year-old woman and YES, Demi, you look good. Correct that, you look great and damn if you don't know it. And bravo to you for posting the pic for all your followers to see....Which is exactly the point now isn't it?

Does this bathing suit scream, "look at me?"

You can totally tell she was feeling the, "look at me" vibe too. The evidence; the sunglasses. Yeah, I walk around the house wearing my sunglasses and bikini all the time too. My point? She's a celebrity. Was she feeling like she needed some attention? Vogue and Harper's Bazaar weren't calling for an interview? Her agent couldn't find any good scripts? Ashton's too busy developing new shows with MTV to notice his wife has a smoking physique? What?

"Look at meee!!!

And we are all looking. I read about it in the paper this morning, then I go and validate it by BLOGGING about it. I am part of the problem, it's true. Then there's the copycats who are far worse than me.

That's C-Lister, Lisa Rhinna, posting her copycat photo days later, extolling the virtues of 47 year old Demi and how she was inspired by Demi and how she the role model for smoking hot 47 year olds or some shit like that.

This is a BLATANT case of "look at meeee!" and Rhinna is just jumping on the, I-need-some-attention-too, bandwagon. Puh-leese. Let's not forget that these women have had thousands of dollars of plastic surgery to look smoking hot. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, not at all. I'm just saying don't try and fool us into thinking they are doing this for the cause. The cause being average forty-somethings everywhere. The average forty-something everywhere has to work their ass off to come even close to looking like that.

You don't see them tweeting bikini pics that scream, "look at mmmmeeee".

Or maybe they do. The difference is they just don't get the press for it.