Todd Lyden

I should have been giving Google Plus a little more attention in the first month of service. It still feels very much like it is reserved for the special people, but that's probably a good thing. I've decided to experiment operation out of Gplus primarily for the next week. I set up my feed to head over to Facebook and Twitter . I will still address stuff that is in those places as if I were still posting from there, but I am going to try to do all the posting from Gplus and see how it works. You can selectively send posts from Gplus to Twitter and Facebook, but I don't want to worry about that. I generally share tech and specific stuff to Twitter and more personal stuff to Facebook, so that might get a little dicey. Thoughts? How can you keep the fans on either more popular site happy, while integrating Gplus?

Cover of The Road to El Dorado I love animated film and cartoons. This means my kids must tolerate my abhorrence to much of what passes for cartoons on TV today but revel together in such fun things as the latest Pixar movie. I love lists, so Richard Corliss of Time putting out the top 25 animated films is right up my alley. But he is WRONG on so many levels. 1. he places Pinocchio and dumbo ahead of Snow White in the Disney pantheon. I don't care for the three movies all that much, but seriously? 2. Lion King? He puts that in and leaves out Bambi? 3. I guess he doesn't count " Who Framed Roger Rabbit? " as animated - strike 1 4. He includes both Toy Story 1 and 3- no love for 2? 5. Pixar owns 1/5 of the list when it could be conceivably more. 6. I'd have found a place for " Road to El Dorado " or "Sinbad" - just sayin'. 7. " Happy Feet ?" Ugh, I'd have sooner seen " Despicable Me " or "

Thank to a local radio station, 96.5 BOB , the j-man and I hit the midnight showing of " Captain America: The First Avenger " last night. Wow. In a summer full of superhero, comic-inspired films like " Green Lantern ," " Thor ," and " X-men: First Class ," the Captain certainly nails it. I've seen 2/3rds of the list mentioned have to say that this movie plain WORKS. There are two big reasons it works. 1. Joe Johnston , the director, has immense respect for the character and the story and he tells it to borderline perfection. I talked about him before and why he was perfect for this movie. I think I need to revisit his "epitome movie." 2. Chris Evans IS Captain America . I am sure others could have carried the role, but Evans displays a humility that few roles have required him to carry before. See my discussion of his "trajectory" to this role. He has the strength and charisma required of the part, but the

Ok, so I mention my youngest a bit on here . But this REALLY struck me yesterday. We bought a new car, which borderline defies description. It is a Mazda5 . Mazda describes it as a "sportswagon." I think it is somewhere between a mini-van and a station wagon. We've heard it described as a mini-mini van, perfect for the ex-wife. We still have our mini-van. Both are different shades of blue. Erica recognized, without being prodded, that to talk about the two vehicles was going to be tough. As we got in one of the vehicles, she said, "you know, we should call the new van "Maximus," and the old van "Oscar" so we know which is which. Six years old. She knew we were going to have this issue and divined the solution before the problem had really presented itself. Related articles Auto Review: 2012 Mazda5: wagon, van or minivan? (marketwatch.com) Mazda5 is part small car, part minivan (abclocal.go.com)

So far so good. Is this what Twitter was like in the early days or FB back when it was .edu only? Great product without people to populate it? I mentioned yesterday that Google doesn't have to KILL Facebook. Folks finally seem to be coming around to this logic. Yes, they basically copied the ideas and improved them based on what people DIDN'T like about Facebook. Is it enough to hurt/kill Facebook? Insanely doubtful. But they don't have to. I was reminded of the riddle/question "how do eat you an elephant?" as I pondered why folks kept suggesting that Google could not takedown FB with G+. Even if it was their goal, there is no magic bullet for them. Nothing particularly original is going to change people's minds. Facebook was once in a generation- just as Google was for search, but Google has done other things that people like. Will the loyalty work? It might considering the suite of products that actually make up Google plus. Also, it will integ