how do you poken?

true stories. i work for Poken; i love it. i love the spark, the pulse, connecting, networking, the whole thing. and i’ve realized that poken is not only fun, but could have actually saved me money and a fair amount of humiliation more than once.
now, i’m old enough to remember when i had to memorize my closest friends’ phone numbers. but these days, i enter them into my mobile and... gone. (the only one i know by heart is my friend adam's because his number spells out something really funny - no, i’m not going to say what.)

but for all the precious contacts on my phone, i have still lost not one, but three, of them to water. one i dropped in a puddle. one fell into the toilet when i was juggling too many things at once. and one i actually put into a glass of water while i was sleeping. seriously, i just rolled over in the middle of the night and neatly sank it.

i realize there are probably few people as clumsy as myself, but the water is still relevant: because each one of those times i had to send out emails to everyone through my three different email accounts, facebook, linkedin, hi5, myspace.... to try and get all of my contacts back.

it took forever and i had to admit each time how i’d lost the information. never again - now i poken and i have my friends’, family, work, and travel buddies’ information all in one place. no matter what happens to my cell phone, i’m good to go no matter what happens. even if my computer hard drive melts down or i accidentally shred my address book… i’m not saying that last one actually happened, you just never know, you know?

lily, an american ex-pat, was out on the town a few months ago with some new friends and, of course, her trusty pokenSPARK. always a conversation starter, friends and strangers alike asked lily to explain this unusal accessory. (what's with the tigress hanging on her purse?)

she obliged, of course, because the pokened of the world are generally pretty passionate about their little friends. she told them all about this little accessory: what it was, how it worked, and how it connected people. she even showed off the various glow features, do it in a bar or pub: the lights tend to mesmerize people like fireworks, complete with 'oohs' and 'aahs' and mouths agape. the booze does help, but let's face it: people like shiny objects.

one guy, jack, was pretty hot frankly, and lily (always on top her game, she wishes, ha) gifted him a new SPARK, knowing that even though he hadn't registered it yet, once he did his details would appear in the 'new friends' section in her account. brilliant - she could connect with him again later. so, they hi-4ed and the festivities went on.

lo and behold, some days later, up pops jack in her "new friends" column. she decided to "keep" this new friend and connect with him on one of the many social networks they shared.  that was a big step for lily, - 'cuz she's shy, really. but, score! jack called her soon after, and that was, just like rick said in casablanca "the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."

ok, not just like it, no allies vs axis or north african gin joints or piano players or even love lost for noble causes, but there are ex-pats, hot guys and friendships, so close enough, ok? names have been changed to protect the (soon to not be so) innocent, but this is all real.

where my nerds at?

jj abrams, dirctor of star trek, mission impossible:iii and cloverfield, not to mention co-creator of tv's lost and alias meets poken, courtesy one of our awesome fans in los angeles.  the official introduction comes at about 1:30, but lucious (the fox) is holding the mic the entire time.

card carrying members of both the pokenverse and nerdnation, rejoice!