While You Were Out Gossip – Hell’s First Snowball Delivered by a Flying Pig

So last week?

Started with a flood in the basement.

With my computer down there. Then the phone was down. Then a power outage. Brief but ill timed. Gees Louise.

I was totally offline for a minute, then a frayed power cord really knocked me out. I threw up my hands, then went ahead and took my weekend from the evening of the 30th until the morning of the 2nd.

Throw in Halloween, and the California fire aftermath (Some friends were evacuated but no one was hurt, thank God) and it made for a hectic week.

And what do I come back to?

Not only do I have to play catch up all weekend.

But there are now new Google Phone rumors. Supposedly they’ll say something today. If past records are any indication, it will be when everyone is looking at something else, say around 9 pm Eastern.

What I really want to know is, what will Google Phone mean to me?

And, isn’t it funny how much Google deals with press the way Michael Jordan did?

But I ain’t one to gossip. So you ain’t heard that from me.

I also heard on Google’s blog that they’ve teamed up with the rest of the social world except Facebook (and Yahoo but not really), to start Open Social.

And one of the first apps out the door was hacked within 45 minutes. Everyone‘s talking about Open Social.

The big question? Of course, it centers around Facebook. Will they or won’t they? Meanwhile, did anyone ask me if I wanted my social to be open? Of course not.

From what I hear, open might not be the word for it anyway.

But I ain’t one to gossip. So you ain’t heard that from me.

And then there’s the whole announcement of this Yahoo HeadSta KickStart thing.

Dammit, Yahoo. You’re where I keep my alter-ego, entertainment blogger/poet/writer personality. All this… functionality is going to make me have to come out of the “I don’t use my real name on those other blogs” closet. Which I will hate, because I don’t want all those cuss words to come up under a search for my name.

Oh wait, I don’t have to because LinkedIn already exists. And if I wanted to socialize with those people, or share news in an automated fashion, rather than connect on a strictly professional level?

Facebook already exists.

It’s like this. I’m sitting in the living room to watch the game. I’ve got my cozy recliner chair. All my beverages in the cooler next to me. Dinner tray loaded with snacks/goodies. Remote in my hand.

Someone brings a new chair into the room. Maybe a better chair. Am I going to jump up, turn off the game and move to a new chair?

Are you kidding me? I’m already in the chair I like, the chair I know, the chair I sit in every week. My stuff is already set up the way I like it. If I like this seat? Unless your chair can walk on water, I’m not getting up.

If you want me to leave Facebook, take a note from the Godfather: make me an offer I can’t refuse.

I may rant more on this topic later. But for now, let’s just say that I heard that these moves by Google and Yahoo are being seen by some of even the least savvy consumers as that punk move known as, if you can’t beat ‘em , copy ‘em.

* cough* “‘em” = Microsoft/Facebook * cough*

But I ain’t one to gossip. So you ain’t heard that from me.