Jay Def

C|NET has officially closed the doors on Consumating. In doing so, they made the mistake of redirecting the URL to another of their sites, help.com.

This was a huge mistake on their part. Many consumators went there and expressed their feelings in the way that they’re used to doing so on our mostly-unmoderated site. Since help.com is more heavily moderated, many of these comments resulted in banning. This just served to fan the flames which brought more consumators to help.com and a clash between consumating users and help.com users.

Consumating creator and former owner, Ben Brown posted on his new site Go, Team Internet a plea to simply ignore help.com. C|NET handled this poorly. Ben suggested that they simply should have created a 404 page with a picture of Consumating’s Feedback Zombie mascot and left it at that. That would have been an elegant and respectful solution. Instead they attempted to redirect us hoping to ramp their userbase there.

In related news (I always wanted to say that) a group of Bay Area consumators held a candlelight vigil for the death of Consumating at C|NET which included a bagpipe group playing Amazing Grace. It was a fitting sendoff for the website that we loved so much.

Here in a few hours, I will be brunching at Lolo’s Chicken and Waffles here in Phoenix, Arizona.  I am told that this is a terrific soul food place.

This will be the final hurrah of my first trip to Arizona.  I’ve had a wonderful time and met some very awesome people.  Thanks to all of the Phoenix Crew for welcoming me and showing me a great time.

I flew into Phoenix last night at about 11 PM.  Pagne and Nelly picked me up from the airport and we drove to Pagne’s condo and had tea and talked for a while.  Then Nelly and I drove to her place and I met Qelyn and then crashed on Nelly’s couch for the night.

So far I haven’t seen enough of the city.  Today we’re going to the Arizona Ren Faire.  It should be fun.

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on a Jet Plane for Phoenix, Arzona.  I’ll be hanging out with some friends from Consumating.  This will include my friend Dave who I’ve known since high school.

On Saturday, we will be going to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and then we’ll be brunching at Lolo’s Chicken and Waffles on Sunday.  Then it’s back to the ol’ grindstone.

This begins what I will now call Jay’s Year of Travel.

Consumating co-founder Ben Brown is back again. This time, he has formed Go Team Internet! This is a new social networking which, to me, seems to combine aspects of Twitter or Pownce and Consumating. The idea is to create an account and then form other users into a Super Team.

Go Team Internet! is still pre-beta, but it is functional and the design is pretty nice. With the upcoming demise of Consumating, this site could become a prime contender for my time that needs to be wasted. It’s good to be back under the Internet Rockstar umbrella.

So, if you haven’t signed up there yet, do so. Then add me to your team.

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time now, but haven’t gotten around to it.

It was announced earlier in the month that my favorite social networking site, Consumating, is closing it’s doors. The official end of the site is supposed to be March 15, which is fast approaching.

I will give my salute to a website that has really been a big part of my life since I joined.

My History with Consumating:

I was introduced to Consumating by Apollo Lee in May of 2006. At first it seemed a little weird, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. My experience with social networking along those lines had been mainly with MySpace, and it always seemed a bit impersonal to me. I soon realized that Consumating was a little different. Before long I had met some really great people that have truly become my friends. I have spent hours on end in Consumating conversations. I have travelled (and will be travelling again) to different parts of the US to meet some of these people. I have made some very good friends.

Flash forward, 2 years and we’re coming upon the end of an era. Of course, that seems to be overly dramatic, but it truly feels that way to me. To be sure, there will be a replacement, and when it is running and available, I will be there. I hope that everyone I have met either online or irl will also be there and we can continue as always.

Without going overboard on this, I would like to thank everyone I’ve met and everyone I’ve yet to meet. If you have a Consumating account, and I’ve spent time on Consumating, on IM, in Text Messaging, on the phone or in person, this means you.

To end this in the most sappy and melodramatic way I can, I will say:

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end.

I have uploaded ConsuMuse vol. 1 on Last.FM. You can find the album here. If you would like to help support my music, please go there and give it a listen.

(I promise to stop talking about this damned thing soon.)

I found a cool little audio player, and have added all 20 of the songs from ConsuMuse vol. 1 to that. It’s a little easier to use than the way I was doing it previously with indiviudal players for each songs.

Of course, you can find the album here.

I will definitely be travelling quite a bit over the next few months.

• On Feb 29, I will be flying to Phoenix, Arizona for the weekend. This is a ConsuMeet (where a bunch of people from Consumating get together). This particular meet is called FatSumeet, where a bunch of us fatties get together and get our eat on. (God, did I just type that?) On Saturday, May 1, we will be going to the Arizona Renaissance Fair. Then on Sunday, May 2, we’ll be brunching at Lolo’s Chicken and Waffles. After that, it’s a flight back to Boise.
• On May 9, I will be flying to Las Vegas for the Skank-Ass Ho Down II (Electric Boogaloo) Consumeet. This will probably be filled with debauchery and fun.
• Thirdly, in July I will be going to New York for 2 weeks. This trip with be a combined family vacation (with my parents, my brother and my sister and her family) and Consumeet where I’ll be hanging out with some of my friends back there. Apparently we’ll be spending a week at a cabin in the mountains. It’ll be interesting to see what the woods are like back there, and how they differ from the woods here. The second week, we’ll just be staying at my sister’s place and I’ll get to see more of the city.

I’m really excited for this travelling. I don’t get many chances to travel, and it’ll be nice to get out and see more of the world.

I have added 5 songs from the album ConsuMuse vol. 1 to the Music page. Check it out here. More to be added in the upcoming days.