After reading this post, some of you will think I’ve gone insane.

… Actually, some of you thought I went insane in mid-2008 when I created a Twilight site.

No matter… I have my dignity and you can’t destroy it!! Today I’m launching a new fansite with the help of a couple friends: LadyGagaLive.net. It’s your go-to place to keep an eye on the ever evolving beat of Lady Gaga.

So the question is: why?

If you’ve listened to MuggleCast or Imprint (no, there will not be a GagaCast for The Gaga Beat) you’ll know I love her music.

And it’s not just me who loves her music. My friends do too. And so do their friends. And so do their friends. And so do their friends.

Like Harry Potter and Twilight, Lady Gaga is a phenomenon. She’s a real musical artist who has captured the world’s attention.

Like MuggleNet and Twilight Source, The Gaga Beat will be updated daily with new videos, photos, interviews, and more. We’ve also put together a couple unique features that you can only do on a music fan site. You’ll see those those blog posts appear on the site in the coming days and weeks.

I really hope you enjoy and support the new site! Please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments of this blog post. And tell your Gaga-loving friends about it too!

Special thanks to John Noe (who designed the site), Ben Schoen (who coded the site), and John Thrasher (who’s running the site with me).

For those of you keeping track, I’ve made a few updates to this site.

- I added links to my Yelp and YouTube profiles. Check them out on the right side of this page under “My Social Networks”

- My Contact page is now using a form. Previously I had an e-mail address on that page, but this new way is much more efficient for both you and I.

- My Resume has been updated. It now has an improved format and better wording. Thanks so much to Twilight Source staff member Ashlee, who helped spruce it up!

In my ongoing quest to make this site more of an online portfolio, I’ve put together a new page: My Interests.

Check it out to see not only the things that I’m interested in, but how I partake in them.

As I explain on this new page of my site, filming/editing videos used to be my life in high school.

I still love doing it but don’t have as many opportunities these days. EXCEPT for the Harry Potter/Twilight premieres, which I absolutely love filming.

I put together this new page to “showcase” some of my work. I really miss it and wish I could shoot some stuff more regularly and expand on skills I developed in ‘04 – ‘07.

Couple specs, for fellow video nerds:
- In high school my camera of choice was the Canon GL2. Today I shoot with a Sony HVR A1U.
- I only edit with Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio.

There are more videos I want to share with everyone, but it’s a matter of digging them up. Hope you enjoy!

I love taking pictures, and I’m really happy to share them with the community who are friends with me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, and read this blog.

I’m no longer taking as many photos/posting them on Flickr as I used to, but I just uploaded a batch that I’m really happy with. We got two feet of snow in South Jersey today and I took some pictures of the family.

This semester I took a class called Interpersonal Communications. When I first signed up for it I didn’t expect anything extraordinary. I was only taking it because it was a gen ed I needed.

The class was life changing. I really noticed how life changing it was when we had our End of Semester presentations this past Tuesday.

Every single person found it to be life changing, therapeutic, and said they’d miss it. I started my speech by telling the class that if every person in the world picked up the skills we learned, the world would be a much better place. They agreed. Part of the reason why this class was so great was because of the teacher – he has had a huge impact on all of us.

Some of the speeches in class on Tuesday night were really moving. There were stories shared about the class’ impact that had the entire class crying. I’m serious. This class was VERY important/moving/inspirational.

Throughout the semester I took a variety of extra notes in the margins – things that my professor said on a whim that really stuck with me. I thought it’d be therapeutic to write these down again and share them.

Things to keep in mind during your day to day life:
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (visualize a pyramid) – listed starting from the bottom: Physiological (food, water, etc), Safety, Social, Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization (being the best you can be with the talents you’re given).

- how you think is how you feel.

- the relationship should win… not you.

- don’t let a single moment define you.

- you are not better than anyone else. every person has their own unique knowledge base.

- we communicate to fill our needs.

- if you’re not assertive, your needs aren’t met.

- relationships are formed with people who support our self concept.

- relationships are all about being supportive of each other.

- key to any relationship: keep making a person feel special. why did you ever fall in love with anyone? they paid attention to you. they made you feel special.

- life is change – you change every day in a variety of different ways.

- try to not label feelings – see what it’s like. emotions are only labels.

- managing anger: step back, relax (breathe), think about the goal.

- people need to feel like they have value – this is accomplished through conflict management.

- outcomes to effective conflict management: people feel understood, accepted, valued, committed to a solution, and future conflict management episodes are increase.

These are only scratching the surface. There are many theories, cycles, and guidelines we learned that I’ve committed to memory. Hopefully those small notes made sense without much context. I’m going to continue studying interpersonal communications for as long as I live – it really made me a better person mentally and socially for 99.9% of my relationships (meaning friendships too). I’m not done yet. I want to continue to get better.

Do these things make sense? Any other words of wisdom to share? I’m really interested to know.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite Twitter accounts.  Of all the people/businesses I follow, these are the ones I most look forward to seeing tweets from:

- @cnnbrk – CNN’s Breaking News Twitter account.  Sometimes they post things on here that are NOT breaking news worthy, but hopefully they’ll learn in time.

- @google – Google posts a lot of good stuff on here.  Usually it’s information about their services.  And look how colorful their profile page is!

- @EWAusielloFiles – Michael Ausiello from Entertainment Weekly.  Lots of insider TV news revealed through this guy.

- @mashable – I LOVE Mashable.  It’s a site covering all things social media.  I discovered this site just a few months ago and check/read it all the time.

- @latimes – this one may not be as broadly appealing as the ones I’ve mentioned so far, but the Los Angeles Times is a wonderful news resource for Californians.

- @happysquared – This is SpongeBob Square Pants’ Twitter account!  He updates it once a day with a tip for better living.  Example: “The key to a secret box is puling the secret string to reveal the secret compartment!”

- @digg_2000 – all the stories on Digg that hit 2,000 diggs.  In other words, only the most digg-worthy content on the web.

That’s all for now!