You have a favorite movie star, singer or some other celebrity that you would love to meet and spend some time to ask the questions you need to get answers to, I suggest you read below to see what you can do to approach a VIP so that you don’t get kicked out of a discussion.

First of all you should understand that celebrities are people, too, and they need their time off, get mad and need food just like all of us. Assuming that their days have more than 24 hours and that they should be nice anytime they meet someone is wrong, but if you do get the chance for a face to face meeting here’s what you should do or shouldn’t do:

1. Talk about the present. I’ve seen it so many times that people praise tend to talk about the past. You meet Woody Allen and you tell him how much you’ve enjoyed his movies in the `80s which may bring the question in the guy’s mind: “what about my work since 1980, don’t you remember it ?”. Take you for example. Would you like people to congratulate how good you looked in 1975? No, it would be nicer if they would say, you look great in 2007. VIPs are the same. Talk about last elections if you’re meeting a politician, talk about the latest album or movie if you met your favorite singer, actor or movie maker.

2. Tell your opinion. Now that you know what you should talk about, it’s more important how you do it. Saying that “Your last album was such a big success, thank you!” will make them think “who you are to comment how the latest album was”. Usually celebrities enjoy hearing personal opinions, they like to see what people think. “I want to tell you how relaxed I feel when I listen to your last album, it makes my body vibrate. Thank you!”. You’re speaking from your own perspective. It’s his work seen from your eyes.

3. Do not ignore the companion. Let’s say your favorite actor is Tom Cruise and accompanied by his wife, Katie Holmes, he’s at the same party you are. You get a chance to talk with him for a few moments. Now is the time to talk to Katie, too, otherwise she may get frustrated. If we take the general example, if someone is with a celebrity or a VIP then obviously this may be an accomplished person and you should address comments at least.

4. Do not ask them to perform. Let’s consider you’re into interior designing and you get invited to someone’s house, at a party. You go there to relax, meet friends, have a few drinks and some quality time. Would you enjoy if someone would ask you to put your outfit on and repair the walls? No you wouldn’t, because you don’t want to go to a party and work, which is what a celebrity would be doing if asked to say a few words on their latest novel, or a few words from the latest song.

I am sure you understood by now that celebrities are people like you or me, so you should understand that those 4 tips above works well with any people you know, not only with celebrities and VIPs.

“Should a blogger be more or less credible than a reporter for the New York Times?” is the question that is really bugging me for the last few weeks. I saw how Engadget managed to move Apple Inc quotation on the stock exchange, when they released internal news about the company. This is the power of the blog, but should we trust Engadget or any other blogs more or less than an offline magazine because the news turned out to be nothing but fake (how’s that Jason Calacanis? Engadget publishes everything they get in their email, TOO?).

However, my other question is, is the blogger a real journalist? Yes!

Bloggers are the new storytellers

I agree that false alarm stories were published on big blogs, but You have to agree with me that it happens with mainstream magazine, too. For those that think a blogger is someone that won’t fact-check a story I am here to tell you different because I’ve read a survey made by PewInternet which really makes it very clear: bloggers do check their sources! Even if you think at Engadget, the email they’ve got their eyes on, was really from the Apple system. But let’s see what the survey says.

Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite original sources.

34% of bloggers consider their blog a form of journalism

57% of bloggers include links to original sources either “sometimes” or “often”.

56% of bloggers spend extra time trying to verify facts they want to include in a post either “sometimes” or “often”.

However, I am aware that many bloggers publish anything hot they get for a little more traffic (yeah I remember Jason Calacanis saying ValleyWag will eat everything you mail them) but it’s not the general trend. Also, if I think, there are mainstream blurry magazines that publish anything just to fill all their pages, I don’t think a journalist from CNN is more credible than Michael Arlington from TechCrunch.

One last thing worth to mention. If the blog wouldn’t have power, believe me not as many journalists would come up with a personal or company blog, so yes, I think blogging is the new face of journalism.

If anyone that’s not a blogger or a mainstream journalist, I would really love to see what you think.

Desktop Tower Defense the game I’ve “tested” for at least 3-4 working days in a raw, has come up with some statistics. Paul Preece launched it in March and ever since it’s been played 15 million times. I read about that game on Shoemoney when he started a contest and of course I got infected and I want it banned now.

Michael Arlington from TechCrunch, which was recently mentioned in Top 50 Business 2.0 people that matter, wants it banned, too.

Paul Preece is a programmer and has his own company that creates games. Paul, I really hope I won’t read any blogs where they mention your games in the future, otherwise I will say bye bye to a few days of writing. YOU EVIL!

Play the game here and give me your comments in one week!

Tonight has been the second time I’ve played Nintendo Wii. First I did it at CERF 2007 which is the Romanian Computer Exhibition with my partner (he writes in Romanian) and a few hours ago we played with Bobby Voicu and his cousin. It was so fun. Boxing and tennis are the games we enjoyed the most. After 3 rounds of boxing I was feeling like running the treadmill for 25 minutes.

The break was very productive because I know have a very nice business idea!