Being Known with BeKnown, Moveable Feasts, and Freakazoids

Are you still reeling in anticipation from yesterday's post? Adjust your suspenders because I have several announcements to make today, all of them pretty fun in their own ways. I'm just going to do a list because y'all lazy. Not me, of course.

- I'm reading (at a snail's pace) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and I'm absolutely loving it. I tend to digest books rather slowly, I savor them. It's as if dragging it out allows me to learn and retain more. I recently had a conversation with someone at one of my temp jobs about reading and realized that not everyone reads by saying every word in their head, as if the author was reciting the story aloud. Most people speed read, but that is how I have always read, slowly and surely, unless it's something that I'm not very interested in (like when I had to read text books for school).



I told my mom on the phone the other day that Hemingway is teaching me to be a better writer, which I absolutely believe. Who needs to go to school when I have every important lesson from every master at my finger tips? Hemingway talks about his experiences living in Paris as a young man in the 1920s after the First World War, hanging out with the greatest minds of the time (Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, to name a few), and his approach to writing. At the time, he had not yet written a novel, only short stories, and he was embarrassed of that fact (which I've taken comfort in). Like I said, it's been a great read and I am learning a whole lot.

- My sister doesn't care for my Youtube videos, specifically the videos in which I'm singing. She thinks I'm a weirdo. Check out this text message I received from her this morning.



She grew up with me. She really should not be surprised by my bona fide freakazoid behavior. I still love her.

- Guess who has two middle fingers and a brand new job as Evangelist for BeKnown, Monster.com's new Facebook application? This betch! BeKnown was launched over the weekend and is a brand new app that allows the user to create and keep track of their professional network without having to leave Facebook.



BeKnown is a really good tool to keep tabs on your business contacts while keeping them separate from your personal contacts without ever having to leave Facebook (and, really, I know I'm connected to Facebook all day and I'm sure I'm not the only one-- with 700 million users worldwide, I had better not be the only one!). With the application you can share job postings from your company with your friends, invite contacts from other social networks, and also browse the Monster.com powered job search. I'm excited to watch BeKnown take off! Major props to Derek Shanahan and the 20SB team for letting me know about this opportunity!

Let me know what you think of the application. Any feedback will be sent directly to the creators of BeKnown-- we really want to know your thoughts so that you have the best experience!

- Over at Alphyn Labs, we've been very busy creating new designs and cooking up viral videos to spread across the interwebs. Here is a sneak peek of the kind of silliness to expect. Yes, that is a hipster dude with a mustache wearing a Wonder Woman costume.



Also, if you're going to be in San Francisco this Thursday, you should definitely come to our very first Alphyn Industries fashion show!

- Two of my girlfriends (from real life, yo) have joined me in the bloggersphere and I am so excited to present them to you here! My friend Annie from back home decided to start a blog about her adventures and lessons learned with online dating called Re-Make/Re-Model (after a Roxy Music song). Annie always has a good story to tell, and with all of the crazy stories I've heard from her about OkCupid I suggested that she share them with the world. Online dating and blogs about online dating are hot topics.

My friend, Evy, also started her own blog earlier this year called Squish and Fluff. Blood and Guts. and I keep encouraging her to update it with photos of all the cute creatures she makes by hand. The last time she posted was back in February, but maybe if she receives a barrage of comments today she will feel forced to update the blog. I really love Evy's drawings and stuffed animals that she imagines and makes and I have talked to her about doing a giveaway with her creations. Go bug her!