Awesomesauce, Geeky Love, Music is my boyfriend

Whuffaoke or Bust kicks off

Karen Hartline

It is officially Day 1 of the Whuffaoke or Bust tour. No, I didn’t just sneeze. Whuffaoke is a 2+ week Karaoke Across America tour…

in a winnebago…

stopping in 13 cities…

with 5 people (and 1 adorable pug!)…

being live streamed.

Yes, I’m serious!

And just to clarify…I’m one of those 5 people.

My dear friend, Tara Hunt, is moving to Montreal. She had this crazy idea to do a Karaoke tour across America and the timing seemed right to coordinate with her move. Immediately, Alex Hillman and Tony Bacigulapo signed on. Next was Emma Persky, who flew in from the UK for the road trip. I signed on just a few weeks ago as a company I consult with, Midomi, is now sponsoring the tour.

This dream has turned into a major production as we now have a Winnebago, who we lovingly call Winnie (here’s a mock-up of what she’ll look like), sponsors–including iOKi for our Karaoke love; Eye-fi, which allows us to wirelessly and efortlessly upload photos to the web;  Lunch, who is going to get lots of interesting reviews and data points from us on the tour; Midomi, which will be our lifesaver when we ask “What’s that song?”; Dipity, who is bringing all our Social Media love into one rockin’ widget; and PopChips, who is providing nom nom nom in each city! We even have local ambassadors who are helping to coordinate local details.

And you can’t forget the amazing Whuffaoke or Bust jackets Tara created for us. Paris Hilton would definitely say, “That’s hot!”

There’s so much awesome about this tour that I just can’t post it all right now. There’s lots to do, including packing, shopping, drinking more coffee, and giving up on unpacking anything else. Oh yeah, I moved to my new place in San Francisco on Sunday. I’ll come home after the tour to a few more boxes to unpack. Will definitely look forward to that!

Hope you’ll join me for the tour…virtually or in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boulder, Omaha, Des Moines, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston or Montreal.

Now taking song requests as well as bets on how long until I lose my voice!

Deep Thoughts

Does Social Media help or hurt dating relationships?

Karen Hartline

I’ll be the first to admit how much I love social media. It has allowed me to connect with people from all over the world and I’ve met some of my best friends due to the power of social media. However, when it comes to dating relationships, I’m on the fence.

Think about it, there are so many ways for us to connect with each other now, whether it’s from our computers or our phones. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Skype, Seesmic, AIM, email, and the list goes on and on. We are definitely building relationships with each other, and I would even argue that these are authentic relationships, when we want them to be, but how important is it to have the physical intimacy when dating someone. I’m not just talking about sex, so get your mind out of the gutter. What about holding hands, cuddling, kissing, having a hand on the small of your back, or even just having your legs brush when sitting next to each other? No matter how good Social Media gets, it can’t replace any of those things.

Looking back at the attempts at dating relationships I’ve had with the help of social media, I’m coming to find out that the person I’m interacting with online usually is NOT the same person in person. Why? It usually has to do with the person I’m building in my mind with the help of the conversations happening via Social Media that creates someone a little different then who the person is IRL. It’s not their fault, but due to the lack of face-to-face interaction, what else do I have to work with? You can’t interpret tone through text messages, IM, etc. so isn’t it natural to interpret as what you hope for?

I know a few couples who are separated by an ocean who are ‘dating’ with the help of social media. It’s great that those tools are available, but I often wonder if I’d be able to have a real relationship without seeing each other often. Don’t misinterpret this as being needy. The last thing I want is someone needing attention from me all day, every day and I’m definitely not the person to need to know where my S.O. is at every moment. I figure anyone I date will be just as much of a rock star, hard worker, driven person as I am, which means we’ll both be busy with our own things. I believe that means the time together should be that much more important.

For me, I like to usually get to know someone before I’m attracted to them. One of the most attractive qualities I look for in someone of the opposite sex is a sense of humor. Add to the mix someone who can surprise me and keep the conversation going and you’ve got a triple threat. That’s extremely sexy and highly irresistible. And yes, for the most part, these things can be achieved via Social Media, but it doesn’t make it the best way to get to know someone.

The power of Social Media allows us to meet people from all over the world, which is pretty frickin’ amazing when you think about it. But I keep thinking that it can only compliment a relationship, not replace it.

So after all of this, I continue to sit on the fence in trying to decide whether Social Media helps or hurts dating relationships. What do you think?

Geeky Love

Twitter me this

Karen Hartline

As much as we hate seeing him, you have to admit he's cute. #FailWhaleI can’t express how  much I ❤ Twitter.  It’s been a part of my life before @aplusk and @oprah even knew about it. I originally used it to keep up with people I had not yet met. Yes, a little stalkerish back then, but now…totally acceptable!

I’ve had some very interesting conversations lately with people about how we use Twitter. I’ll admit…I don’t follow back everyone who follows me. I do follow people I’ve met in real life who I think are interesting enough to know their day-today activities. I also follow some people I’ve never met, but still find interesting. All in all, there is a reason I follow those I follow; I like to keep it personal. And just because I’m not following you doesn’t mean I don’t get your replies. I do read all of those and appreciate them all.

I’ve heard lately, and have friends, who have 2 accounts; one where they follow back everyone who follows them and then also a private account, where they only follow a select few. This I don’t understand. Actually, I do understand their reasoning. They follow so many people in their public stream that they want something more private to keep up with a smaller amount of people. What I don’t understand is why they allow others to dictate how they use their public account. Why not just unfollow a bunch of people so it’s only those you really want to follow? Why create 2 accounts to keep up with?

Bottom line is that Twitter is a simple platform that has allowed people to use it how they wish. Who am I to dictate how you should use your Twitter account and vice versa? I’ve had people ‘sneak attack’ me at events with ‘Yeah, I’m following you but you’re not following me back.’ What do I even say to that? I feel like I have to defend my use of Twitter to someone just because I’m not following them.

Some people take Twitter Way. Too. Seriously! Yes, it’s a great tool for keeping up with people and for sharing with the Twitterverse things that are happening in your life, but there’s so much more to be said for real, personal relationships that happen offline. Twitter and other online media should supplement relationships, not replace them.

For example, I was signed up for a service that let me know when someone unfollowed me. Why? Because I wanted to make sure those few I was following were following me back. And truth be told, it hurt when I saw the names of people I knew and were following come through as having unfollowed me. Often, I’d want to go and immediately unfollow them and that’s when I stopped to think about this. Just because they unfollowed me on Twitter, doesn’t mean we’re not friends in real life. Yet, I think this is the mentality a lot of people have about their followers.

I love that more and more people are discovering Twitter and can’t wait to see where it takes us. There are some amazing things happening via Twitter, like Twestival, which raised $250,000 for charity: water. That’s amazing! Twitter truly has power and people are using it in different ways, which is where the real power of Twitter lies. Allow it to be what you want it to be and don’t let anyone change that for you.