Chapter 79.7: Tending to Your Magic Garden

With the financial world coming apart at the seams and the economy fibrillating like a bad heart, I found this blog post at the Skoll Foundation's site timely and somewhat interesting. It's a how-to piece for tending to your "social network."

Though clearly not among the top stories in terms of importance, the emergence of online social networks (see Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) as key tools for advancing oneself has been a trend of 2008 — and no, I don't have a Facebook or MySpace page, though I have real-life friends who would like me to have one. But the Skoll item offers a few really good points that shouldn't be forgotten, which I've put into my words rather than theirs: Meet people in real life; give, don't simply receive; keep connected; keep meeting new people; don't wait to start; invest in yourself.

That last one sounds way too "new agey" for my tastes, but it's not a bad recommendation. So, all you financial industry people out there, I wish you luck. We need you to succeed.

Chapter 74.95: The Other Woman (One of Many)

The New York Times has exposed the woman who helped bring down Governor Spitzer. Not that she did it; Spitzer hung himself in this affair. He got what he deserved.

In this crazy world, the young, attractive brunette will probably get her big chance at musical stardom, which she claims on her MySpace page is her goal. The Times describes her music, which starts automatically when you get to her page, as "an amateurish, hip-hop inflected rhythm and blues tune," but she didn't make any outrageous comments in her interview with the Times. If she can be packaged properly, she can probably cut a record ... and then who knows? America loves a Cinderella story.

We've heard the last of Eliot Spitzer in politics for quite some time, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if this is not the last we hear of Jersey girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre.