First of all, I was greeted and assisted the entire way through by a helpful and knowledgeable staff without mentioning anything about having $500 to spend on behalf of Armani Exchange. Sales associates like Alyssa, Dianette and Rosanna are the kind of people that make ones shopping experience exciting and memorable. The selection of denim was also impressive, and it was not hard at all for me to find 3 pairs of jeans that I completely fell in love with. I selected a pair of the Indigo Destruction Skinny Leg, the Grey Straight Leg and my personal favorite that I wore to a pirate party this weekend the Harem Jean. They all fit perfectly and definitely make me feel much better about recently having to retire my very old favorite pair of jeans.

This is where it gets cool for you, because A|X has also given me $500 to give away to a reader!

There are TWO Ways You Can Play...

1st: Leave a comment on this post with the names or item numbers of the Armani Exchange Denim pieces you would buy with your card (up to $500). You can go to Armani Exchange to look for the item numbers.

2nd:  Using your Twitter account, Retweet this exact phrase "RT @juliaroy is giving away a $500 @ArmaniExchange Gift Card!! Comment or tweet to enter: http://bit.ly/yJtv0"

Each tweet or comment counts as one registration. The contest allows up to two registrations per person, so leave both a comment on this post and and a ReTweet on Twitter of the phrase above for a double chance to win!

The winner will be chosen at random, you can get the full details here.

Oh, and if you are feeling extra lucky you should enter the "Text AX contest" SMS campaign as well to win a pair of A|X denim every day for the month of July by texting the keyword "DENIM2" to ARMANI (276264). For more info click here.

Again, this was a sponsored post. For more information about the sponsor (Armani Exchange), see Izea.

Some quotes from the video that really stood out in my mind:

• For students starting a 4 year technical degree... half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. 
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online. 
• The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet penetration is Bermuda (United States is #19)
• Today the number of text messages sent and received everyday exceeds the total population of the planet.
• By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. 
• The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

If the information presented here intrigues you as much as it intrigues me, you can join the discussions on the Shift Happens Wiki.

It is no question that Follow Friday's popularity has exploded and just continues to grow, but my feelings toward it have changed. I have a very hard time understanding its value anymore. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, Twitter is growing rapidly and there is a lot more noise than there was even merely 5 months back when Follow Friday started. Secondly, now with Twitter auto follow friday bots from services like TwitterMass and TweetLater most of these "recommendation" tweets are just randomized spam.

As I see it, the #followfriday hashtag has spread so quickly because it's a great way to say "Hey everyone, these are some of my favorite people on Twitter!" But now with the Twitter community growing so fast, people's following is growing with it and we have to sift through the noise in order to find people of real value to follow. So now, simply listing your favorite Twitterers in tweet on Friday's, is not very helpful.

The solution? Well, I know that others on Twitter have been suggesting this development as well, but #followfriday needs to evolve in a way where on Friday everyone suggests a few people they like to follow and WHY. These can be multiple tweets, but the most important thing is including the context in which you are suggesting someone to follow.

If you want to understand where my frustration with #followfriday is coming from, check out my TweetDeck on Fridays. I should be flattered, but I just get annoyed because on Friday's I have a hard time seeing real @ conversations because of all the #followfriday tweets coming in. *sigh*

Here's the story. Below is an email I received the evening of May 4th from interns at Paramount Field Marketing and Promotions department:

So I of course get REALLY REALLY FREAKIN' EXCITED and email everyone at the Undercurrent office, close friends and start Tweeting like crazy. Then I get a follow up email the next day: 

To say the least, I was so disappointed as were the friends and digerati's I contacted to go with me. Paramount's half-assed efforts to do something special for Twitter and Facebook-ers is best classified as a "Social Media" Outreach FAIL. 

The ladies on The View interview Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Sell your Twitter name for cash with Tweexchange. What the Trend is a site that explains why Hot Trending Topics are on the trending topic list. @veronicaDLcruz needs your help to save her brother's life. (Also, Download Coldplay's new LIVE LeftRightLeftRightLeft performance for FREE)

And If you're interested in seeing 12 seconds of the air piano at the end of the video, I reposted to 12s:

Air Piano on 12seconds.tv