Virality? Viralness? Virosity?

I've become slightly creeped out by the viral nature of social networks, specifically, Facebook and it's apps.

Earlier this year, Facebook opened up it's platform for application development by third parties, which has created an avalanche of third party applications. Lately, I've been wondering what the heck the benefit is to a company to run n X vs. Y, advanced functionality app, "send your friend a virtual drink" app, etc.

What started my discomfort was "Likeness." The app has you answer some simple ordering quizzes (I think the one I answered was "what super powers did you wish you had?"), then tells you how similar you are to your friends who have also taken the quiz. The problem was that the results of this application were taking over my "news about friends" list of stories, masking things I might actually care about. I looked for a way to eliminate those results, but couldn't find one. Finally, I just removed the app.

What's put me over the edge is "SuperPoke!" It adds an interesting feature, "X has performed action Y on you" or some variant. But then it gets creepy. You can unlock more actions with by performing actions on your friends, which encourages you to use the app. It also provides a way to perform an action en-mass upon your friends list, or 10 random friends, or specific groups of friends, including ones who don't have SuperPoke! yet. So it spreads virally by adding an interesting feature and encouraging you to expose it to people who don't have it.

But why do all that in the first place? I might be paranoid, but does it have something to do with access my private information? I looked at my privacy settings, and there doesn't seem to be a way to mask my info from the application. I removed it and tried to add it without giving access to my personal information. No go. It's mandatory to get and use an application.

So I read the actual platform application terms of use, and found out what they're sharing:

your name, your profile picture, your gender, your birthday, your hometown location (city/state/country), your current location (city/state/country), your political view, your activities, your interests, your musical preferences, television shows in which you are interested, movies in which you are interested, books in which you are interested, your favorite quotes, the text of your "About Me" section, your relationship status, your dating interests, your relationship interests, your summer plans, your Facebook user network affiliations, your education history, your work history, your course information, copies of photos in your Facebook Site photo albums, metadata associated with your Facebook Site photo albums (e.g., time of upload, album name, comments on your photos, etc.), the total number of messages sent and/or received by you, the total number of unread messages in your Facebook in-box, the total number of "pokes" you have sent and/or received, the total number of wall posts on your Wall™, a list of user IDs mapped to your Facebook friends, your social timeline, and events associated with your Facebook profile.

Yikes. Creepy. So they're mapping my social network, then keeping stats on our interactions via their own app, and additional mapping via photo metadata (who's in the photo)? Very creepy. I think I might remove all third party apps.

Wilhelm Scream

Someone recently remarked that his favorite vocal exclamation was the Wilhelm scream. And now, I see this:

Dating

Hadn't heard back from my two-weeks-ago blind date. Surprisingly little sting.

I found myself reaching out to ask an acquaintance out on a casual date. Successfully, it turns out. Trying to figure out what's polite to blog about and what isn't. Hmmmm... Maybe I'll just ask.

Swing Teams

Thank you for audtitioning [sic] for the Atomic Swing Teams!!! We are excited about the new teams and we can't wait for you to see what we have planned! Congratulations, you are now officially a member of the SWING 2 TEAM which meets on Saturdays from 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM. Remember that you can schedule an audition for Swing 3 as soon as you feel comfortable with the choreography and can execute a compelling performance. We would be happy to share with you a critique of your audition if you are interested, just speak to Jerry when you see him at the studio.

Wahooo!

I think I can get the two pieces of choreography I need for Swing 3 in the next two months. As for the aerials, I'll need to find a partner to work on them with. The problem is finding someone I have good connection with who wants to do it.

Dystopian Films

From John Remy's modified list of top dystopian films.

Bold: Seen
Italics: Top Picks

1. Brazil (1985)
2. Wings of Desire (1987)
3. Blade Runner (1982)
4. Children of Men (2006)
5. The Matrix (1999)
6. Minority Report (2002)
7. Delicatessen (1991)
8. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
9. Serenity (2005)
10. Pleasantville (1998)
11. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
12. Battle Royale (2000)
13. RoboCop (1987)
14. Akira (1988)
15. The City of Lost Children (1995)
16. V for Vendetta (2005)
17. Metropolis (2001)
18. Gattaca (1997)
19. Total Recall (1990)
20. Dark City (1998)
21. District 13 (2004)
22. They Live (1988)
23. Escape from New York (1981)
24. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
25. Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
26. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
27. I Robot (2004)
28. Strange Days (1995)
29. Idiocracy (2006)
30. Death Race 2000 (1975)
31. Starship Troopers (1997)
32. One Point O (2004)
33. Equilibrium (2002)

Dark City is like watching The Matrix without all the cool fighting. Plus, you know a movie's in trouble when they take 5 minutes in the middle to do a plot summary (the row-boat scene). District 13 has cool parkour, but otherwise is a crappy movie. I Robot? A travesty that it was named or "inspired" by the book. Nothing like it.

I struggled to pair down my top picks. Next tier was Pleasantville and Equilibrium. Idiocracy is a hilarious commentary on modern day culture (it's got electrolytes). It's been too long since I've seen Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I do remember really liking it. And funny to see John Hurt in V For Vendetta as the chancellor, after playing the lead in Ninteen Eighty-Four.

Jack and Jill

The first Saturday night of every month is a swing dance night at Atomic. I was running late after doing Symposium with EVH, but just made the registration for the Jack and Jill contests. The catagories were Lindy, Charleston, Balboa, Fast Lindy, and Showcase (10 minutes prep). My fear of solos is related to my fear of contests, so I only signed up for the Lindy division.

Shocking realization: Since I started in March, I'm outside the "first six months" time frame! In fact, October is the eighth months I'll have been dancing in. Yikes.

My partner was Michelle M, who I've danced with a lot. In fact, we kind of started in the same time frame. We have a great connection and she kind of knows my moves already. The song was "Rip It Up" (Bill Haley), which on my computer is 205 beats per minute. Definitely a fast song. In fact, I think the Fast Lindy song was slower! There's a team routine to the song, but I don't know it at all...

We ended up tie'ing for the win with Alan and his partner (Alana?). Woo hoo!

It was a great low-pressure contest. No fees, no cash prizes. Lots of fun. Wished I'd enter more of them. The guy who won the Balboa contest (Jacob?) was really smooth. Cool to watch.

Symposium

In the middle of a long day of dancing. Dinner plans with EVH turned into drink and dessert plans since we had both eaten late.

Symposium Wine Bar was a very cool destination. EVH thought it might be pretentious and crowded, but it seemed to be neither that night. We grabbed a two-top in the back, with EVH on the banquette and me in the comfy chair. Instead of drinking a lot of wine, we split a tasting of three Cabernet's. One was just OK, but two were amazing. The 2004 Cloverdale Ranch (Alexander Valley) was strongly flavored, complex, and long-lasting, my favorite of the three. The 2002 Rocking Horse (Rutherford) was a very close second, maybe not quite as bold, but just as complex and lingering. I don't have the wine-snob skills to describe the flavor, just the sensations. It's amazing how with good wine, I'll get different sensations from smelling, sipping, swallowing, and even sucking in air with the wine in my mouth.

Also split the chocolate cake thing. So good, and so impossible for me to describe.

After heading back, we chatted about relationships, then called it a night. Well, to be honest, I headed back to Atomic for the first Saturday swing dance. Though making the registration time for the Jack and Jill contests might be a problem.