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Social Distortion: Why Storming Off Facebook and Twitter Is Never a Good Idea

Having been on social media for quite some time now, I've seen my share of Facebook and Twitter flameouts. It usually begins when a person is going through a rough time personally or is forced to suffer through a public controversy. But it can be triggered by almost anything. The problem is that whe ... More >>

Five Facebook Birthday Etiquette Rules to Avoid Embarrassment

I forgot the birthday of one of my closest friends on Monday. I'll admit it. But do you know why? Because he does not have his birthday loaded in Facebook and, as a result, Facebook didn't remind me. Now, I have known him for almost 20 years and I've known that his birthday was June 3 for God knows ... More >>

Prostitution Sting Johns: The Oddly Haired, the Wife-Fearing & the Guy Who Wants the Party to Keep on Going

The Harris County Sheriff's Office decided to get in the way of working women on their way to a master's in geopolitics by having itself a prostitution sting Tuesday. This time they weren't after the master's students hookers, they were after the johns. The operation focused on suspects soliciting ... More >>

The 6 Top Regrets Students Have Once Finals Week Hits

Oh finals week, the time of year when students turn into zombies and energy drink companies make a killing. Some students aspire to do the bare minimum to squeeze out a C, some are going frantic trying to maintain their A. However, this is the week where all students kick themselves, asking themselv ... More >>

Moon Tower Inn Supposedly Opening Voodoo Queen; Gift Horse Lounge Just a Ruse

Eight months after setting tongues wagging by announcing a new side project called the Gift Horse Lounge, the owners of Moon Tower Inn took to Facebook yesterday to let everyone know the joke's on them. There's no such thing as the Gift Horse Lounge after all. The entire bar was apparently a ruse t ... More >>

Boston Bombing: Social Media Rumors Swirl Around Pages Allegedly Created Before the Attack

This is how rumors get started. Take a Facebook page or Indigogo campaign started days or even weeks ago, change the name of it and what it is about on the day of the attack on the Boston Marathon and let the conspiracy theories fly. In at least two cases thus far -- one really odd and one fairly st ... More >>

Keep Calm and Carry On Twittering: Social Media Returns to Form After Tragedy

Less than 24 hours after the worst bombing on American soil since 9/11, one of my friends posted on Facebook a picture of Darth Vader riding a unicycle wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes. I scroll through my Twitter feed and see the familiar jokes, memes, posts about food and talk of the Rockets an ... More >>

The MySpaceification of Facebook: Do I Need a Smiley To Tell People How I Feel?

A funny thing happened last week in Facebook world. As a means of, I suppose, helping people better identify their moods or what they are eating at the moment, Zuckerberg Inc. added a new feature to status updates. They had already changed "Say something" to "How are you feeling?" in the status fiel ... More >>

Roots Bistro Makes Tasteless Domestic Violence Joke on Marquee to Sell Beer

The last time anyone found a domestic violence joke funny was during an episode of The Honeymooners, and those were dark times, America. However, one Houston restaurant still finds the topic hilarious nearly 60 years later. See also: - Maggie Rita's Calls Customer "Fat" on Facebook - Down House Eje ... More >>

Papi Knows Best

Without Pay Raise in Twenty Years, UH Grad Students Take Petition to Masses

One month before your friends began painting their Facebook profile pictures red in support of gay rights, a group of University of Houston English Teaching Fellows swapped their main photos to something of the same color: a shot of the Cougars' mascot, blazing red, with a bit of text underneath it: ... More >>

State Rep Debbie Riddle To Breastfeeding Hordes: Hey, "I Breastfed" Too!!!

As we noted yesterday, State Rep Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) smacked open a hornet's nest of angry breastfeeding moms when she posted on Facebook her reasons for opposing a bill increasing breastfeeders rights. Riddle said the bill would make it easier to sue business owners who interrupted women bre ... More >>

How To: Low-Calorie & Low-Fat Ice Cream

I absolutely love ice cream, whether it's in a cone, in a giant bowl or topped with chocolate syrup, sprinkles and whipped cream. But, as we all know, on a health standard, ice cream is not exactly the best thing to eat. It has lots of sugar, fat and carbohydrates, but there's a way you can get the ... More >>

App of the Week: Facebook Poke, the Dumbest App You'll Ever Own

App: Facebook Poke Platform: Most smartphones Website: Download Site Cost: Free The first thing you might ask yourself when you read that Facebook has an app called "Poke," is "Do people still poke each other on Facebook?" It reminds me of a very funny song by Australian singer/songwriter Kate Mil ... More >>

Instagram to Users: Starting January 16, We Can Sell Your Photos

In what has got to be one of the dumbest moves by a social media outlet to date, massive photo sharing service Instagram has updated its property policy so that beginning January 16, 2013, it will be able to use user photos in ads and with other products, essentially turning Instagram into the world ... More >>

My Favorite Holiday Treat: Italian Rainbow Cookies

In my family, it's not a holiday without Italian Rainbow Cookies. Made of layered almond sponge cake and jam and finished with a rich chocolate coating, they are one of the best cookies around (just ask any kid ever). They're sweet, nutty, moist, fruity, light and rich all at once. And since the spo ... More >>

Internetocalypse! Facebook and Gmail Go Down in the Same Afternoon

When I read yesterday that Facebook was down, only hours after Gmail servers had gone dark, I actually laughed a bit to myself because I realized I was reading it on Twitter. I began to imagine what would happen if it also had server issues. What would the world do...go back to MySpace? Then, it da ... More >>

What's Cooking on Pinterest? Banana Bread Pancakes

Banana pancakes are one of my absolute favorite things to eat for breakfast ... or for breakfast for dinner. There's something about the aroma of bananas, sugar, maple syrup and butter that makes me so warm inside. When I came across this pin for banana bread pancakes, I jumped for joy. Next to ban ... More >>

Facebook Modifies Guidelines, Clueless Thousands Cut and Paste Response Citing Berne Convention

A funny thing happens whenever Facebook does anything. People lose it. Change the layout of the profile page, go crazy. Add a new feature, go crazy. Change privacy or use guidelines, REALLY go crazy. But the denizens of Facebook are not quite like everyone else. In their case, "go crazy" means cutti ... More >>

5 Shrewd Ways Musicians Give Away Free Music

Musicians can always find a reason to give their music away for free. Such a seemingly selfless act may result in increased popularity, real monetary profit, a statement being made, or perhaps simply sharing their talents with the world. With such results in mind, here are five strategies musicians ... More >>

Sweet Semantics: Jam vs. Jelly vs. Preserves

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of dismissing a friend's insistence on referring to that chicken broth-flavored bread crumb holiday favorite as "dressing." "Stuffing, dressing, same thing. Regional synonyms," I said, carelessly. I think her head exploded. Our conversation made me realize that ... More >>

Promote-Gate: Facebook Charges for Promoted Posts Criticized

The changes made to the timeline on Facebook over the last couple years have caused a furor among users, but what has flown under the radar is the anger over the way Facebook fan pages (simply called "Pages" now) don't show up in the timeline of every person who "likes" a given page. Yesterday, I wa ... More >>

Bronco Bama For The Win: Your Election Night 2012 Live Blog & Comment Feed

"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth or something I guess..." -- Luke 13:28, A Copy Of The Bible I Swiped From A Hotel Room Hello and welcome to Hair Balls' election night live blog and comment, where tonight I will be chronicling the mania of the 2012 presidential ... More >>

Rocks Off's Something Wicked Mini-Guide: The Experiment

BY CHRIS GRAY AND CORY GARCIA Of the dozens of electronic-music artists from all over the world playing Saturday's Something Wicked Festival at Sam Houston Race Park, the ones at "The Experiment" area bear should not be overlooked for one simple reason: They live here. Rewind: Rocks Off's Somethi ... More >>

Firts Loook Inside Rice's New Swishahouse Library Archive

Rocks Off's Something Wicked Mini-Guide: Shadow Field

Cooler temperatures? Check. Loud music? Check. Crazy outfits? Check. If my scientific calculations are correct, those three things are a recipe for a great fall day. And while the pubs will be crawling and the houses will be haunted the best place to get all three of those this weekend is going to b ... More >>

Rocks Off's Something Wicked Mini-Guide: Bass Massacre

Saturday, something very strange is about to go down at Sam Houston Race Park when Something Wicked, billed as "Texas's first ever large-scale Halloween electronic dance music festival," takes over the grounds, subdivided into three nebulously named areas: "Shadow Field," "Bass Massacre" and "The Ex ... More >>

Hear We Go Again: Facebook Changes Algorithms, Bands Go Crackernuts

Almost four months ago, my musician-filled newsfeed on Facebook was inundated with the picture you see on the right as outraged artists called Mark Zuckerberg every foul name under the sun for "hiding" their posts from fans. It was malarkey, as Uncle Joe says, but since Ogilvy reported that Facebook ... More >>

The Ten Most Corrupt Tax Loopholes

If Mitt Romney won't tell you which need to be closed, we will.

Reader's Poll: The Compact Disc Turns 30

This week the compact disc turned 30 years old, and will no doubt spend it drinking with friends and wondering where the time went and lamenting the fact that they haven't gotten married yet. Few people know that the first commercial CD produced was Billy Joel's 1978 release 52nd Street, an album ... More >>

What's Cooking on Pinterest? Samoa Bundt Cake

My favorite Girl Scout cookies are Samoas, or Caramel deLites. I love the soft and chewy coconut, caramel, and chocolate topping over the crunchy vanilla cookie. After seeing friends post this link from Pinterest on their Facebook pages, I decided to check out the recipe -- just to see what the hype ... More >>

Six Custom License Plates For UH's Horrendous 2012 Start

The 2012 football season promised to be a tough one for the UH Cougars -- their coach had moved on to greener pastures, their record-setting quarterback graduated to the NFL, a lot of adjustments had to be made -- but we're not sure anyone thought it would be this tough. An opening-day loss to a p ... More >>

My Mom's Broccoli Salad

Going from enjoying wonderful meals made by my mom all summer to microwaving frozen dinners to fit the hectic schedule of being a college student has been difficult. I miss coming home to a kitchen filled with comforting smells. So, whenever I get homesick, I make something that reminds me of home. ... More >>

Five Ways Facebook Is Altering Our Personal Communications

With the launch of the new iPhone 5 today, everyone is in an Apple-induced euphoria, so I figured this might be a good time to talk about personal communication. The iPhone, and cellular phone technology in general, have shaped how we communicate with our friends and family, from the gradual elimina ... More >>

Amy Dawn Cooney: Cops Say She Left Three-Month-Old Son In Car So She Could Get Her Drink On

A Houston woman faces a charge of child endangerment after she allegedly left her infant son in the car this weekend while she drank at a bar. Court documents show that Amy Dawn Cooney, 31, went into a bar on September 9 to get a drink and left the boy in her car, which was in a parking lot. KTRK ... More >>

More Delays for the T.C. Jester/White Oak Bayou Bike Trail

Bicyclists looking forward to tooling from Oak Forest towards downtown will have to deal with another setback: The seemingly simple project is going to take even longer than thought. The Texas Department of Transportation announced on the Houston Bikeway Program's Facebook page: It is with regret ... More >>

Five Ways to Avoid Political Fights on Facebook This Election Season

It's almost funny to look back now on those occasionally annoying e-mails we all got from relatives who liked to pass along rumors and popular myths that could easily be debunked using Snopes. When that happened, we could pretty much just ignore it or, if we were feeling a particular amount of gumpt ... More >>

Drunk Melon Balls: The Labor Day Party Must-Have

Although it'll stay hot here through at least the "fall," Labor Day weekend is traditionally the last big pool party and/or barbecuing weekend of the year. And nothing goes better with swimsuits and/or smoked meats than cool, refreshing, healthy fruit. That's been saturated with booze. Drunk waterm ... More >>

The Gothic Council on Maintaining Facebook Sanity

The illustrious, honorable, and not at all to be taken seriously Gothic Council went on a membership drive this week, seeking the cream of the goth world for their inspiring insights into every day life... Or I just grabbed the first six people I found in my newsfeed. One of those. The reason for ... More >>

App of the Week: A Lot to Like in the Facebook App Update, But Still Missing Key Features

Facebook has never moved quickly -- or with great agility -- in the mobile domain. The Zuckerberg empire has made a number of mind-numbingly ridiculous maneuvers when it comes to providing a quality mobile experience for its wildly popular social network. From multiple apps to handle various feature ... More >>

How To: Ice Cream Cupcakes

With the summer heat at its peak, we are all trying to find ways to keep cool. Ice cream is my go-to treat to fight the heat. While making a whole ice cream cake can be a tedious and, many times, unsuccessful task, decorating cupcakes with ice cream is so much easier. Here is a simple guide to asse ... More >>

App of the Week: Apps That Helped on My Vacation...and a Few That Didn't

A few weeks back, I took a two-week vacation that saw me visit three states and travel by plane, car, shuttle and even by boat for a few minutes. It was all within the U.S., but I found my need for technology surprising. Because I work for myself, I did bring a computer for occasionally catching up ... More >>

Ground Is Broken On The City's New Sobriety Center; Should Be Open In Time For New Year's Rush

Ground has been broken on the grandly named Houston Center for Sobriety, the alternative drunk tank for partyers who'd rather not get tossed in with the general jail population after a night on the town. The new facility, located near the Star of Hope mission downtown, is a renovation of an existin ... More >>

B(r)and Awareness: 5 Easy Tips to Maintain Your Web Presence

Doing research on famous bands is easy. If you're famous enough to have your own Wikipedia entry, then you're big enough to have dozens of pages on the Internet about you filled with the most interesting and boring bits of minutia. Anything a blogger needs to know to interview, write about, or make ... More >>

Complaints and the Media

Nick Saban's Daughter Has Responded To Her Sorority Sister's Civil Lawsuit

Conflict stokes people, especially when it involves a cat fight between two sorority girls at Alabama, and especially when one of those two sorority girls is the daughter of the head football coach, Nick Saban. The number of people that read my post last week on the civil lawsuit filed by Sarah Grim ... More >>

App of the Week: Is the Facebook App Getting Worse?

I've written here a number of times about Facebook and apps related to it. Most specifically, I wrote about how there are too many apps trying to do multiple jobs the single Facebook app is apparently incapable of handling correctly. But, I've also praised the social media giant for taking an intere ... More >>

Should Cell Phones and Cameras Be Banned at Concerts?

This past weekend a staffer at NPR music blog All Things Considered went to see M. Ward and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Upon entering the legendary venue, writer Bob Boilen spied a sign on the door with the message "Tonight, no photography or videos. Including cell ... More >>

The 2012 Houston Web Awards

The Houston Press rides the wave to the next group of winners.

Kevin Wheeler: Algebra Teacher Getting Blow Job from Student Tells Her, "You Must Not Be Into It Because You're Not Wet," Cops Say

A La Porte algebra teacher and coach has been arrested for having sex with a student, although he could also be charged with worst bedside manner ever. Kevin Wheeler, 31, began flirting with one of his algebra students, a 17-year-old female, on Facebook and eventually arranged a rendevous in his c ... More >>