{"id":619,"date":"2010-10-10T01:42:08","date_gmt":"2010-10-10T01:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/?p=619"},"modified":"2010-12-06T22:00:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T22:00:06","slug":"hint-mike-eccentric-british-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/2010\/10\/hint-mike-eccentric-british-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"Just a hint of Mike M &#8230; my eccentric British blogger &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-623\" href=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/2010\/10\/hint-mike-eccentric-british-blogger\/mike-maynard-fb\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-623\" title=\"Mike Maynard FB\" src=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Mike-Maynard-FB-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Mike-Maynard-FB-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Mike-Maynard-FB.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Psychology.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Saturday, 20 November 2010, Sierra Oscar I\u2019m back\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s post apparently won\u2019t be too popular, maybe because I  said Facebook could go the way of MySpace? I put so much into a post  it\u2019s hard to tell; it could be the stuff about the gerund! I still think  that word sounds German but I think it\u2019s derived from the Latin; don\u2019t  bother looking it up, I don\u2019t really need to know.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I shall mention Facebook because I have a friend on there who that  runs a car spares business and buys and sells cars a little. His  business is on the other side of the town where I live . He mainly  specialises in Ford cars and he does spares for Fords and buys and sells  them a little. I think he breaks late model cars for the spare parts.  He drinks in a pub where the beer is cheap so he is either frugal or not  doing so well. He has moved premises and into bigger premises despite  the recession, so he is probably frugal! He sells through EBay sometimes  and complains that it isn\u2019t a good way to sell cars, people mess him  about apparently. How do I know all this? He posts it on Facebook, he  doesn\u2019t have a business page or Fan page or anything but does post funny  pictures, comment on what is going on locally and takes an interest in  the fan page for the town. I think that is good social networking for  his business.<\/p>\n<p>On the same subject but different! Many psychologists are interested  in social networking and I think they could have some kind of influence  over it. Psychologists usually look at thinking, behaviour and beliefs  and normally look at individuals. They are now looking more at  \u2018collective psychology\u2019 the psychology of groups of people and even  whole cultures. Do people who belong to certain social networks have  something in common? My friend said people on LinkedIn were full of  their own importance. That is true in some cases but I find them to be  quite open although some are so full of it they are funny. I don\u2019t mind  that, it amuses me. Some of the writers think they are great and while I  think you should be confident and positive I don\u2019t think you should  come across as arrogant. I think I come across as assertive and fairly  confident but I joke about everything and those quizzes on Facebook  where people answer questions about me always say I am funny so I get  something right. I do realise that my writing constantly improves and I  tell other writers that if their writing is improving, that is good. If  they think their writing is so good that it can\u2019t improve, that is  arrogant and they have no chance of ever being a great writer. You do  need to be subtle on Facebook and not try to sell yourself or your  business too much. You also need to help other people. I have a project  now to help someone with a business. They have a new idea for a product  for children. It is a good idea and they need a big company to support  the idea. It is difficult getting all the details using email rather  than a discussion in person, but they are thousands of miles away.  Perhaps I can point them in the right direction or even just endorse the  product as a good idea and be positive; every little helps.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the news I have read this morning was about fake anti-virus  software that is really a virus. People are getting phone calls from  someone pretending to be from \u2018Microsoft\u2019. One virus is the \u2018Smitfraud\u2019  virus. You can get a program to clean that but it is difficult to use  and I had that a few years ago, I got angry as I looked into the  companies behind it. There were about 5 US companies and one in Cyprus.  Most of this stuff is run from Russia, but in my case I went after the  company in Cyprus and reported the US companies to the FBI. The US  companies became very helpful when I had an FBI crime number. Other  scams to watch out for are identity fraud. Don\u2019t store password for  Internet banking or anything important on your computer and don\u2019t open  attachments on emails. You may get companies trying to sell you identity  fraud insurance over the phone; I had that this week. I think that is a  legalised scam trading on people\u2019s fears. The fake anti-virus scam  works the same but is illegal.<\/p>\n<p>I want to do interactive fiction again because I can take the humour  as far as possible, and if I go too far my readers will tell me. I can  then just push it a little more each time and see what is acceptable to  them and what isn\u2019t. This is using \u2018collective psychology\u2019 and seeing  what is interesting, funny and acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>I have noticed Einstein lookalikes are being used in advertising to associate products with intelligence; it\u2019s quite clever! <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/icon_smile.gif\" alt=\":)\" \/> One advert though is a picture of a guy in the rain and he looks just  like Hitler, but soaking wet; I don\u2019t think that was done purposely.  This has been done before with a James Bond lookalike. The idea  potential for more advertising; just think what an \u2018invisible man\u2019 man  lookalike could do?<\/p>\n<p>I have been trying to think of amusing Tweets and I need a format. I  thought maybe rhetorical questions? For example: \u201cIf Earth was invaded  by aliens, what colour would the little green men be?\u201d I know, it said  \u201cCould do better,\u201d on one of my school reports.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, if you have a huge problem or lots of work and it\u2019s all too  much; then simply break it down into bite-sized chunks and don\u2019t bite  off more than you can chew. I have too much to do. I intend to clean the  kitchen floor because my friend offered to do it; so it must be bad.  I\u2019ll cook lunch and read a little of the novel I\u2019m reviewing. Everything  else can wait. I have word recall problems again, what is that word  that means you keep putting things off? Whatever it is, putting things  off can be a good thing; it is time management if you prioritise things.  My priority is cleaning the kitchen floor, websites can wait. I don\u2019t  like today\u2019s post either; it can\u2019t be good every day! That is a problem,  normally when the words don\u2019t flow I take a break. Writing this every  day means I just keep on going regardless. I need to vary what I write  more. I\u2019ll finish reviewing this novel and get back to writing my  psychological thriller.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be back\u2026<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/2010\/09\/guest-blogger-mike-maynard-wit-farmville-strategies\/\" target=\"_blank\">In which you get to know Guest Blogger Mike Maynard &amp; his Wit &amp; his Farmville strategies<\/a><\/h3>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/2010\/09\/say-no-to-credit-cards-and-yes-to-getting-rich-and-famous\/\" target=\"_blank\">Say NO to credit cards . . . and YES to getting rich and famous<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychology. Saturday, 20 November 2010, Sierra Oscar I\u2019m back\u2026 Yesterday\u2019s post apparently won\u2019t be too popular, maybe because I said Facebook could go the way of MySpace? I put so much into a post it\u2019s hard to tell; it could be the stuff about the gerund! I still think that word sounds German but I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[80,81,78,82,79],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-within-a-blog","tag-clones","tag-dreamless-sleep","tag-farmville-strategies","tag-how-to-stay-healthy","tag-lateral-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}