I got home from work at 10 tonight, heated up some soup and cracked open a bottle of Shirazкомпютри втора употреба intending to prepare some e-mails for the morning. But after making my daily check of Friendfeed, I was suddenly inclined to procrastinate, or shall I say, experiment, with FriendFeed. Having been in on the Friendfeed frenzy since its early days (joined February 4 according to the welcome e-mail) I felt a twinge of frustration that my items in my Friendfeed were never (OK, barely) “liked” or commented on. I even instinctively changed my profile photo thinking that maybe I just looked scary or unfriendly. Then, before hitting the soup I half-assedly posted a vanity shout-out, just to see if I was really invisible, or if Friendfeed was fostering a good-spirited, web 2.0 early-adopter-centric community in its nascent pre-Alpha test phase.
The result: despite my admittedly lame and value-subtracted content/link, I received a half-dozen “likes” and comments in the 15 minutes it took me to finish my soup. It didn’t hurt that early adopter man-and/or-machine Robert Scoble jumped in on the parade, as the Friendfeed stream is weighted on the users side based on who their friends are *and* who their friends’ friends are. While Friendfeed’s popularity is still ramping up among the already-hip-to-microblogging set, early adopters like Louis Gray and Scoble (whose enthusiasm for the product hasn’t waned since I discussed it with him briefly in March) have only bolstered its stature and reputation by remaining Active (with a capital ‘A’).
Friendfeed is perfect for the ADD media junkie in many ways. It brings the conversation to you and the most recent / popular discussions in your circle cycle to the top of the feed when appropriate. It makes for a good replacement for blogging — the discussion is very organic and viral, however, it can be incredibly mind-numbing trying to keep up with comments and feedback not only on your posts but also on the comments you make tangentially. Fun and utilitarian but also a total productivity killer.
I have a feeling that I will continue to attract minimal attention / discussion on Friendfeed. But I am glad that I set the bar incredibly low. It proved to me that Friendfeed is an exciting place to be while it is in Beta and many Twitterers are just starting to bite and get the bug. As Julian Baldwin remarked on the above thread: “This could only happen on FF.”
I was appalled to find out that not only am I being charged monthly for a service — FreeCreditReport.com (billed as CIC*TRIPLE ADVANTAGE) — that I don’t use but that according to Experian, my SS# and credit history is apparently tied to one ANDREA LAVELLE, also known as Andrew C. Sternberg, and born in 1964 (my actual year of birth is 1975). Only one of three addresses listed are mine and among my supposed debts are a quarter-million dollars in real estate assets (I’ve only rented — never owned). 
