While I realize that some people organize their own lists in their own way because they have their own method to their madness, then there are those common threads that most of us probably can agree on.

Just how many of us have Twitter lists that overlap?

Did you know that Twitter caps the number of lists that you can have at 20? BUT, if you follow someone else’s list, it’d only count as one!  Imagine the reduction in overhead thanks to consolidation.

For the past 2 years, I have been trying to get the South Florida technology community on the same page, and I think that this would be a great way to start.

Let’s take a look at my lists for example:

• https://twitter.com/#!/technomensch/org-acts/
  
• https://twitter.com/#!/technomensch/fl-events
• https://twitter.com/#!/technomensch/flsocialmedia
• https://twitter.com/#!/technomensch/sflgeeks
• https://twitter.com/#!/technomensch/sfl-food-geeks

Now, there is no way that I’m going to say that this list is 100% complete by any stretch of the imagination.

With the number of people we network with, combined with how frequently new users join Twitter, it’s almost impossible for all of us to keep track of everyone.

…And I’ll be the first to admit that it could probably use some trimming and moving around.

But as the South Florida SOCIAL Geeks, don’t we owe it to ourselves to at least make an attempt to share our knowledge with others?

I'd like to take a moment and introduce the newest sponsor of the South Florida Social Geeks, FantaZ.com.

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Take on your friends or a complete stranger.  Earn not only bragging rights, but cash too.

FantaZ provides you, my fellow game enthusiasts, a fun and competitive environment where you can play and show off your skills.

This is NOT about gambling or cash games of chance.  We're talking about honest-to-goodness games based on skill, observation, and knowledge.

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Or, when you join, use ZBO# FA6E1F24A541141

Thank you for supporting the Social Geeks and I look forward to challenging you to a game.  Come join me, won't you?

And with those infamous words kicking off their theme sone, THE MUPPET SHOW hit our airwaves.

Now, with the upcoming MUPPETS movie coming up, I thought we should take a trip back in time with the Muppets’ reinterpretations of some of classic hits.

Personal thanks go out to YouTube User ‘Scooterpiety’, whose channel I was able to find ‘most’ these videos.

And now, I give you what Disney should have been releasing virally to help promote the film and remind us why the Muppet Theater needs saving.

NOTE: GO SEE THE MOVIE !!!!! Hollywood is saying that if this movie fails, it might really be the end of the Muppets.

Benny and the Jets  (w/ Elton John)

Big Spender - From episode 404, Dyan Cannon. Dyan sings to some caged Muppet dogs. The Muppets are property of the Henson company

Blackbird -From episode 503, Joan Baez. Floyd and Janice sing a great Beatles song. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Crocodile Rock

Perhaps one of the more memorable and classic performances from the Muppet Show days. Here we have Elton John performing his classic.

Dueling Banjos - “steve martin plays with the muppets jug band after the show is cancelled”

Steve Martin + Banjo = Winning

Feelings - From episode 424, Diana Ross. Meep. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover - From episode 511, Paul Simon. Floyd and Janice sing with Animal on drums and Rizzo on tiny cymbals. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Gambler - Kenny Rogers sings his classic “The Gambler” on the Muppet Show.

Ghost Riders in the sky - Johnny Cash performs Ghostriders in the sky on The Muppets Show

Not sure how I ever missed this, but this is an awesome performance.

Hound Dog

From episode 404, Dyan Cannon. Kermit, trying to be “fair and balanced”, introduces Geri and the Atrics. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

In the Navy

From episode 524, Roger Moore. A band of viking pigs ransack a village while singing the Village People’s In the Navy.

I Feel the Earth Move

From episode 502, Loretta Swit. Loretta sings while Thog destroys the city. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - From episode 517, Hal Linden. Two Liverpudlian whatnot’s singing my favorite Beatles song. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Rama Lama Ding Dong - From episode 417, Star Wars. A shepherd sings about his shepherdess amid a flock of sheep. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Rockin’ Robin - From episode 510, Jean-Pierre Rampal. Janice and the Electric Mayhem sing Rockin’ Robin whilst up a tree and surrounded by birds. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

She Loves You - From episode 407, Dudley Moore. A real group of beetles sing a classic Beatles song. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Scarborough Fair - From episode 511, Paul Simon. Paul and the cast sing in a medieval fire. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - From episode 420, Alan Arkin. The Devil and Johnny duke it out with a fiddle contest. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp Bomp Bomp - From episode 517, Hal Linden. Geri and the Atrics play a classic rock song. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

With a Little Help from My Friends - From episode 419, Lynda Carter. Janice is about to become a “human” sacrifice and it’s up to the Electric Mayhem to save her. The Muppets are property of the Henson company.

http://robpaulsenlive.com/episode-16-with-guest-andrea-romano/

This particular show reminded me a personal blog post I wrote dating back to 8/11/2006, so I thought I’d share it with you.  Enjoy:

So, I’m sitting here, watching Animaniacs, and I’m having childhood flashbacks to those innocent afternoons. I remember coming home from the bus, looking forward to watching my favorite cartoons, on the floor of my room watching a little tv, hoping that my folks didn’t get home until 5 because if they got home sooner, I’d have to turn off the tv and go do homework. Not just because they wanted me to get my home work done, but because they didn’t “get it”. They thought I should be outgrowing cartoons and didn’t want me watching them anymore. Plus, there was that whole, “no tv till your homework is done” rule that almost every family has. Since my room faced the driveway, I tilted my blinds just enough so I could see out, but they couldn’t see it. If I heard one of the driving up, I would wait till the last possible moment, then quickly turn off the tv and pretend to be reading the whole time. I felt like I was getting away with something when I was watching them. It was a guilty pleasure that I had throughout middle school and highschool (except when I stayed after for club meetings).

If I remember correctly, my afternoons after school was divided into 2 phases.

The first phase was the Disney Afternoon. You remember: Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers, and Tail Spin. I just can’t remember if Gummi Bears was in the afternoon or on Saturday mornings.

Then came the Warner Brothers era: Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Pinky and the Brain, and Batman: The Animated Adventures.

If you remember, there was always the feud between the Disney and Warners animation studios, and I think this is a great comparison.

What were your afternoons after school like? What do you remember? Also, which of the above did you prefer and why?

Anyway, just a thought I was having that I wanted to share.

Unfortunately, for its creators, this machine couldn’t separate the real terrorist threats from the everyday ones, which were dubbed ‘insignificant’.  As the machine got smarter, he programmed these cases to be deleted every night at midnight.  While we do not know what, something happened to someone significant in his character’s life that made him want to make a difference.

He decided to build a backdoor where, before midnight, the machine spit out the social security numbers of those involved, dubbed ‘persons of interest’.  These individuals could be the victims, the instigators, or just somehow wrapped up in the wrong thing at the wrong time with the wrong people.  Whatever the reason, the bottom-line is something is going to happen and neither the viewer, nor the characters know what.

If you were a LOST fan, you would obviously see the resemblance between Ben’s character (also played by Michael Emerson) walking around with a list he claimed came from Jacob, and his new character which comes from a machine.  It is a nice symmetry.

I could go into the additional backstory of the special forces officer seeking redemption, the resilient detective trying to track him down, or the corrupt cop being used on his inside informant, but is not where I’m headed.

What I want to talk about is the potential of this show, where it is, and where it is going.

These ‘person of interest’ one-shot storylines are going to be enough to keep the audience for one, maybe 2 seasons, but this has the potential to end up being something more.  Maybe I’ve seen too many movies and television shows, but I can almost guarantee that the machine is going to come back and bite Michael’s character big-time.

Perhaps the government finds out about the backdoor and decides to take control over how much information is actually let out, or they bring him into the fold.  Maybe those 8 people start to wind up dead, leak false information, or corrupt the database for their own purposes.  There could be a whole conspiracy season storyline where 2 or more factions within the government decide they want control over this machine.

Basically, what I’m staying is that this show has growth potential.  I just hope it doesn’t get weird like the last 2-3 seasons of Alias did.

Oh, and even though these are supposed to be Social Security numbers, if this machine ever spits out 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, & 42, then I’m done.

contact our team http://outback.com/contact  and we will take care of you.

I just want to say thank you! I got my free steak dinner today.. After all the confusion and issues during the giveaway— it was great to know that you guys handled it! Can’t wait to enjoy it!!!

{UPDATE 9/29/2011} Since posting this entry and reaching out to Outback through Twitter, I have received a response from Outback Steakhouse’s marketing team.  This response not only included a direct tweet, but also an offer to call and speak with me directly.  Already, that earned them some points back in my book.

It would appear as though they chose to go with the snail mail to make the voucher seem more special, and to insure that it was truly redeemed by one per person without being printed out multiple times.  This makes sense, and something that I should have thought of.  For that, I withdraw my complaint and respect their decision to go through this process instead.

They also explained that the vouchers were being sent out in at least 2 different batches and that appeared as though both mine, and my father’s, were in that second batch.  However, to address my concerns, in addition to those vouchers, they offered to FedEx me and dad 2 each an additional voucher.  

I thank @Outback for their professionalism.  They uniquely utilized Social Media through their marketing strategy as well as how they responded to various complaints.  I also look forward to continuing this newly developed relationship.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me backtrack to about a week or so ago.  Around that time @Ikea_Sunrise,  Exposed PR & Events, and C & I Studios started reaching out to a select handful of some of our more high-profile specialists.  In turn, they became responsible for recruiting their own team of 4 to compete in a scavenger hunt inside the Sunrise, FL IKEA after store hours.

Each team had to find over $150 worth of goodies within 2 hours and, along the way, complete various tasks that they could only attempt after decoding the clues put before them.

While everyone who participated got to keep the goodies they captured, if they wanted to win the GRAND PRIZE: $5,000 IKEA office/home makeover with design services provided by IKEASunrise furnishing consultants, it was going to require a little more work.

These participants were chosen for a reason.  They have the unique ability to tap into their personal social networks to reach an incredibly wide and diverse audience in an extremely short amount of time, and this was their opportunity to prove it.

Just prior to the start of the event, each team was designated their own unique Twitter #hashtag.  Those participating were responsible for not just tweeting about their experience, but also getting their followers, their followers’ followers, and so on, to either ReTweet their updates or Tweet their own updates with that same #hashtag.  The team with the most impressions won.

Keep in mind that these participants were among the most hardcore #TweetGeeks that I know in the Dade/Broward/Palm Beach Tri-County area.  It was quite literally a who’s who of our Social Media community being represented:

@morewillie brough his entire @PancakeMovement, including @andyvitale, to represent the #boysclub, as was @waitslowdown who was hidden somewhere among one of the other teams

The #SistaSLED, led by @STACISMAIL, was comprised of:

• @BeahBunnie
• @elliem72
• @Dee_Deez 

The #VirtualVixens, led by @AgustinaP, were made up of:

• @EmilyOnTheAve
• @mimi2point0
• @MommaDADE

And “Jewels Fab Life Team”, which was headed up by @thetinyjewelbox, included:

• @FSUToby
• @swaknin
• @zipporahs 

Sure they were competing alongside teams from The Miami Dolphins, The Sun Sentinel, and The Miami Herald, (among others) but those teams had absolutely no idea what they were up against.  It was time to show them who the real heavyweights were in this on-line battlefield.

By 11:45PM, 90 minutes after they started, the dust had settled, the air horn sounded, and the impressions were counted.

The results?  Well, like I said, these participants were chosen for a reason and, for this SocialGeek, it was simply a matter of the order they’d finish in.

The most spirited, for their outfits, went to the #VirtualVixens.

With OVER A Million impressions, second place, and a $500 IKEA Gift Card, went to #SistaSLED.

And….dumroll please…..with over 5 MILLION IMPRESSIONS the winners- “Jewels Fab Life Team”

Together, everyone who participated either in person or on-line, helped garner over 8 MILLION IMPRESSIONS.

Once again, events like this just goes to show what Social Media is capable of.

Congratulations to the winners and everyone who participated.

If you showed up wearing a cape, you got 10% off your purchase.  Needless to say, some geeks got quite inventive:

What would a ComicCon experience be without cosplayers?

   And the Staff was no different         

For some, the attention might’ve gone to their heads    


Just like your favorite theme park, at ComicCon, there are lines to wait for everything. To give everyone a TRUE ComicCon experience, there was the “The Line to Nowhere”:

 But of course, there are those jerks

that want to cut in front of everyone else:

For those who have ever just stood in a line that seemed like it was never going to move, #TatesArmy had you covered with The Snappy Soapbox Show
       

Live Streaming their webcast from the event was the “Just A Couple of G’s” show:

Throughout the day, everyone wanted to know exactly what the “The Line to Nowhere” was.

After standing in the “Line to Nowhere”, those brave enough took on Nakia’s Comic Book Trivia Challenge for swag.

Then…it was time to debut the Worldwide Exclusive TATE’S Trailer Premiere of “Legend of the Golden Tate & the Seven Scrolls”

Followed by a treasure hunt to find the scrolls:     

The day ended with some light hearted singing, dancing, and comedy entertainment:

Are you ready to get your faces melted?  Director Adam Shankman, The South Florida Social Geeks, and Warner Bros invite you to the set of New Line Cinema’s arena-rock love story “Rock of Ages”.  They are throwing one head-banging concert with cast Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, and Diego Boneta for the upcoming filming of a scene for the upcoming filming of a scene in the Fort Lauderdale area.

WHEN:             Monday, July 18^th

TIME:                 1:00 PM

WHERE: 

Sun Life Stadium
347 Dan Marino Blvd.
Miami Gardens, FL  33056

Come and bring your friends to all be extras (16 years and older only please), and join us on the “Rock of Ages” set, and rock out like it’s 1987 with our cast to the sounds of such hits as “Wanted: Dead Or Alive” & “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

DRESS:           Like the 80s!  Big hair, make-up, and ALL BLACK rockin’ clothes.

DIRECTIONS: 

Exit 2X (Sun Life Stadium Toll Plaza)
Off of either North Bound or South Bound Florida Turnpike.
After exiting Turnpike, enter stadium through Gate 2 to park
Go to www.sunlifestadium.comfor a map and directions.

~ Prize giveaways on set every half an hour~

Please note that no cameras/recording devices of any kind are allowed to be used on the “Rock of Ages” set. No exceptions.

“Rock Of Ages” hits theaters in June 2012, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

For more information, please visit us at :www.facebook.com/RockofAges

After 9 years, 7 months, and 27 days, it has finally come down to this.

The final chapter in the Harry Potter story reaches theaters next week, but for those of you who’ve waited 3526 days for the story to end, do you really want to want a whole 7 more days?

What if I told you that you didn’t have to?

What if I told you that you could be among the first in the country to see how it all ends this Monday night, July 11th, at 7:30pm in Aventura?

That’s right.  It’s time for #geekview11:

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

As you can imagine, these tickets are in high demand and extremely limited supply.  In fact, I almost didn’t get them, but fortunately for you, I did.

Now, just like The Sorting Hat had trouble deciding which house to put Harry in all those years ago, I’m faced with the dilemma of who will be the lucky few to get a seat in this exclusive sneak peak.

Before you get your house robes in a bunch, in the comments below…

Tell me which house the Hat would sort YOU into and why

Keep in mind that our #GeekviewPreview is unlike any other preview ticket giveaway you might find anywhere else.  While some of our other valuable partners might be giving out a couple hundred tickets to the same showing, we typically try to keep our giveaways to roughly around 20 people in order to make it a more social event.  After all, that is why we are SOCIAL GEEKS!

We all wait in line together.

We all sit together in the theater.

We all usually go out afterwards.

In order to keep it that way, due to the rarity of these tickets, we are only giving away SIX (6) SEATS [NOT PASSES], so your reason better be a good one.

Extra weight will be given to those who have had their reasons receive house points by being LIKED by others and if you’ve never been to one of our #geekviewpreview showings.

BUT, you better hurry because your chances end Saturday night at midnight.

In order to enter, you MUST be able to arrive at the AMC Aventura theater NO LATER than 5:30 PM EST.  (For Part 1, the line started at 10:00 AM EST.)

If you logged in using Twitter, make sure you are following me to receive a DM if chosen.

If you logged on using Facebook Connect, make sure your privacy settings let you get messages.

Comments without e-mail addresses will not be considered.

Good luck !!