Pownce!

In light of a post i just made on Wil Harris' blog, here is a quick blog about Pownce - oh, and this is me at Pownce. Since i'm already on the subject, here are some of my thoughts on Pownce:

If you ask me, Pownce is a pretty good idea with one big problem: its 2 or 3 years too late. If this had hit the web before Twittr or Jaiku both became large, it could have / would have been huge - but it didn't. Instead, it trailed in after the whole social networking thing had already blown up, and most of it's web-splash was because the simple fact that Kevin Rose was one of the founders, along with several other big names in the Web 2.0 community.

As things stand right now, it's still in invite-only phase, which limits the possibilities of it. On top of that is the fact that most people have already sworn loyalty to one of the other sites that offer similar services, and can't be bothered to switch over - and so far, Pownce hasn't offered any major advantages to motivate them to switch. Even with the $20 yearly pro membership, Pownce capabilities are only so-so, and hardly worth switching if you're already entrenched in one of the other sites.

Another thing that is currently working against Pownce is friending any and all strangers -- but in a sense, this is completely necessary. Without friends, Pownce is dead in the water. On the other hand, the more friends you have, the more messages you get, and the more interesting Pownce is - which has quickly turned Pownce into a big friend-whoring circle.

For the time being, i'll keep using Pownce off and on. If i had a bunch of friends using it that i wanted to share links, files or events with, i would be pretty excited, assuming there was a reason we couldn't keep a dialog through email. But as things are now, i have a bunch of strangers as "friends" so i can skim random tech conversations & news and while that can be interesting, its not nearly enough to keep me using a service consistently.

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If you came here looking for an invite, leave a comment with your email - and put it in joe @ whatever.com form if you're worried about getting spammed. I'll post a comment & edit this post if / when i run out of invites.

Who is taking advantage of who?

I recently started a dead end job at a restaurant. It's not a terrible job (like others i've held) and it's not an amazing job like the wilderness therapy one i used to have; it's just some dumb college student job.

For the last two years i've gotten very little action, be it random play or potential girlfriends -- but prior to these two years you could say that i had maybe a bit more than my fair share of action. But that makes being single for this long just that much harder.

Well there is this girl at my job who is a couple years younger than me -- she is 19, so legality is not an issue here! For the most part she seems decently grown up for a girl under the age of twenty.. but there are the moments when her younger age is quite apparent.

A couple nights ago we were working together and she made some comment about how she had smoked in the cooler on several occasions. Without thinking too much about what i was saying, i congratulated her on accomplishing one of the two things that most people want to do at some point in their life: smoke in the walk-in cooler at some dead end job, and have sex in that same cooler. Thats pretty logical and normal to say, isn't it?

Since then i've noticed that every now and then she looks at me with these slightly dreamy "i want you" eyes -- but not all the time. Initially i disregarded it and thought it was a just a "i'm really high" look - but then i realized how inconsistent it was, which ruled out her just being high.

Basically i think it boils down to this: i think this girl -- who is 4 years younger than me and has been working at this job for several months more than i have -- wants to bone me in the walk-in cooler.

She is pretty attractive, and i do get the feeling that it would be a no-strings attached thing which is good too. But i do work with her, and i am frequently reminded by her that i'm much more into girls older than me instead of younger. So there is a good chance i'd feel bad about having sex with a girl who i'm not really all that in to, and there is the very real possibility that something bad would come of it either as a personality clash or misunderstanding, or something to do with work, etc... but then there is this:

I would love to get laid, especially in the cooler at work.

So if i have sex with this girl -- who i feel like is young enough to be, to some extent, influenced by the fact that i'm a couple years older than her and have seen a lot more shit in my life than she has -- who is taking advantage of who?

Would she be taking advantage of me because i'm horny and in need of action, or would i be taking advantage of her because i'm older than her and she may in a sense be influenced by my life & travel experiences that are above and beyond hers?

Respect the Anti-Social Signs

Everyones seen them: the girl or guy, walking down the street with the headphone cord snaking out of the pocket or the backpack and plugging into the almost irregularly large headphones. Good chance this persons also wearing sunglasses -- regardless of whether the sun is out -- too. Sometimes if you're lucky you can even see this same person rocking out to their music: singing, gesturing, and on the best of days you'll even catch them playing air guitar!

No, this isn't me. I do wear my headphones a majority of the time that i'm out of the house and walking around the town, but i stick to the small in-ear headphones. But even if i'm wearing the small in-ear buds, doesn't that imply that i'm not too interested in talking to people? I always thought it did, but i'm starting to wonder if i'm alone on that.

The big headphones definitely scream out something like, "I'm in my own musically centered world -- and you don't exist!" Awesome: you go buddy.

But recently it has started seeming like every stranger and their daughter wants to talk to me on the street or on the bus. Isn't the annoyed expression on my face as i pull out one of my ear-buds to listen to you obvious? Or how about the fact that you have to repeat what you said three times AND wave to get my attention away from the window which i was aggressively staring out? These people are either really dumb -- which i don't doubt -- or me and my ear-buds are giving out the wrong message.

Somehow, i doubt that the anti-social genius with 5" diameter headphones -- air guitar and all -- ever runs into this problem. I myself, a fellow anti-social headphone enthusiast, has to sit back and respect the wonderful and direct message that this person is broadcasting: Yes, i am listening to music that i thoroughly enjoy, and no i do not want to talk to you.