I was getting tired of the old theme. I like this one much better.
Thoughts?
Category: General Musings
Personal Consistancy
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about another conversation we had years before about the U.S. Census.
I did not remember the old conversation at all but my friend reminded me about what we discussed. He told me that I had an issue with the census.
I told him what I currently thought about the U.S. Census, government overreach, intrusion into our personal lives, etc.
He said, “That is exactly what you said 2 years ago.”
That’s what we call having a core foundation of beliefs.
Cool. Isn’t it?
Beginnings
I stumbled across this photo this evening as I was trying to find something else.
This is a picture of the first room I rented in this building. It is a reminder to me of how nice the room was. I emphasize the word was.
Motivated Writer
After finishing “How Firm a Foundation” by David Weber I find myself incredibly motivated to write. I was curious about when the next book would come out and so I went to David’s website.
On the front page was a post explaining that David is busy writing the 6th book of the Safehold series and in addition to that, he also has a Twitter account and he’s tweeting updates.
I suppose that after seeing that David is already hard at work on his next book shows me that I need to be hard at work on my screenplay.
Thanks David.
The Accident
Just happened in front of our building…
Minor injuries except the hedge and the stop sign were toast.
Another Mess. Please Excuse.
I have changed back to my old trusty WordPress Theme but not without problems.
A whole lot of stuff needs to be reconfigured. I mean. Really? Who needs to update a damn theme?
I am tired of updates, especially security updates. Why? It tells me that you have no fu**ing idea how to fix your problem. The more security updates you push, the less you understand the problem. If you understood the problem and knew how to stop it…well…you get the idea.
Ok. I’m done now.
Happy Birthday Mom!
My mother is $% years young today.
She is in Florida. I am in Pennsylvania.
Not difficult to see who the smarter one is.
A Life Online
Do not live your life online.
If you do, you are doing it wrong.
The time you spend messaging, texting, or posting on Facebook or Twitter could be time better spent with someone you love. Who deserves the attention more?
I would tend to think your real flesh and blood loved ones do.
I can say this because it’s my blog and I’ll write what I damn well please.
That is all.
Weekend Update
First, I’d like wish my friend Tabitha a very happy birthday!
Now, some stories from my Instapaper that I found interesting this week.
Social workers tend to have more ethics problems personally than most.
Louis C.K. knows how to market himself.
Notice how the articles so far come from GigaOm? Yeah, me neither.
20 New Year’s Resolutions for folks who are twenty-something.
Fruit Ninja Cat.
That’s all I got for right now.
I’ll be devoting most of my free time to meeting an April 30th deadline for the warehouse movie that John Miller and I have been working on and off on for about 2 years. Wheels are in motion and it looks like this thing might actually happen.
Top Instapaper Stories
A short listing of stories that caught my attention this week.
Apple using facial recognition to unlock your iOS devices?
Why it’s dangerous to allow key infrastructure systems to have an internet address.
A website devoted to showing why A.D.H.D. and similar “illnesses” are complete bullshit.
North Korea night time overhead shot. How many lights can you make out?
Hope everyone has a great day!
Oh..and one more thing…
..here’s yet another story about using false science to advance an agenda. Not that we’ve ever seen such a thing (see Al Gore…everything he’s ever done)
My New ZaggFolio Case for iPad2
This is the first article that I have written with my new iPad 2 case and my first impressions are…
…wow.
I like the sleek design of the Zagg Folio case.
A piece of paper that comes with it describes that I may only need to charge my keyboard “a few times a year.” Say what?
This thing is awsome and I can easily see why I may end up using the iPad for writing much more than my iMac.
The keyboard is built right into the case and while these types of things have been out for a while now, it was Harry McCracken’s article in Technologizer that tipped the scales towards Zagg for me.
I’ve had this thing for only an hour and I have already learned a couple of new things about Blogsy.
A case like this one isn’t for everyone with an iPad. It’s better suited towards those folks who plan to do a fair bit of writing with their iPad.
All the links you need about the case can be gotten from the Technologizer article that I linked to previously.
Someday & Stuff
Someday, I’ll get back to regular posting. After this holiday season me thinks.
Here are a few stories that I’ve saved for no particular reason at all other than “they caught my eye.”
How to make the perfect hamburger using liquid nitrogen.
Clay Shirky on the future of news and news media.
In A Flash…
We are half way through December and so far, I barely remember it.
Things are absolute “off the rails” busy at my day job.
Night projects have picked up.
And I barely have time to right a post about how busy it is.
Ain’t that some shit? (insert chorus here..”Ain’t that some shit”)
Calling Bullshit on This One
According to TechCrunch, retail spending is up over last year.
Thanksgiving brought record online retail sales for the holiday, with spending up 39.3 percent over Thanksgiving 2010. And today, IBM Coremetrics data shows a 24.3 percent growth in online sales on Black Friday compared to the same period last year.
Yeah. I don’t think so and here is why.
1. Unemployment has been steady at around 9%. That means that every week 9% more Americans are out of jobs. The numbers aren’t getting any better.
2. Food versus Retail purchases. I’m pretty sure that the massively unemployed are concentrating on buying food rather than anything else. Keeping their homes, cars, and the electricity on are going to win out over the black friday shopping craze.
3. Common sense. Common sense should tell you that retail sales HAVE to be down. Stores are going out of business at a record pace. Companies that are still keeping their heads above water are not hiring.
All the signs and environmental conditions point to a retail sales season that might make it out of the red and into the purple but certainly not the black.
Scare of the Month
I drink coffee so much that we had to get a Commercial grade Keurig that is tapped directly into our water system so that we don’t have to worry about “filling up” the coffee maker with water.
It’s great. Insert a K-Cup with whatever flavor of coffee, tea, apple cider, or hot cocoa you happen to fancy at that moment and in a minute or so, you have a fresh brewed cup.
I made a cup of my favorite (Chocolate Glazed Donut Coffee) this morning and after my cup was finished brewing, I couldn’t help but notice that the pump stopped working. The pot wasn’t bringing any more water into the water collection thingy (that IS a technical term).
Of course, my mind started racing. I have a guest coming. She’ll be here for 5 days. How will we make it without a coffee pot? Someone must be called, but who? What is my backup plan? What will I drink for 5 days?
I turned the pot off and stewed for a few hours.
I went downstairs and turned the pot back on. It worked just fine.
Panic attack was not completely avoided but the coffee pot lives.
Isn’t that all that matters?
Earth Day
I wrote the following paragraph about Earth Day back in April. It was a part of a much larger article that I never released. Not sure why I didn’t release it. This was good stuff.
Earth Day. You may celebrate Earth Day and celebrate mother Earth but I can assure you that Mother Earth will not hold a “Human Day” for you. In fact, at the pleasure of Mother Earth we will suffer plenty of death and destruction in the upcoming year. She doesn’t care about you. So, hug as many trees as you like. I doubt they will come to save you when the tornado sucks you out of your house in the middle of the night and deposits you into a neon sign on Borneo Blvd. Pretty sure she won’t give a rat’s ass about the iPod in your back pocket either.
Every once in a while I must bow to my occasional misplaced brilliance.
Not Blogsy’s Fault
I recently blamed Blogsy for completely destroying the formatting on a post I wrote about internet radio. I jumped the gun and in the end, it wasn’t Blogsy’s fault after all. It was my website provider for stuckatmydesk.com. ALL of my other sites are on a different server that I have complete control over. My personal website was hosted somewhere else and I didn’t have total control over it.
I have since changed that. I’ve moved the site back to MY servers and Blogsy is working just fine.
I must apologize to Blogsy. Sure, you make me angry in other areas but you DO fundamentally work well on the iPad 2 so I actually have very little to complain about.
The Actual Issue
I believe the problem was with the server configuration itself. I reinstalled WordPress both automatically through the administration panel and then manually using FTP and neither one of those solutions worked or made a difference.
I changed the DNS servers and tried posting something and it worked just fine.
Combined with the extremely slow loading times I got last night around 8:00 pm, the decision to move things off of that provider’s servers became even more of an imperitive.
Blogsy is highly recommended and you can get all of the latest news at blogsyapp.com
Still Working On It
Contrary to popular belief, I am still re-designing this site.
The re-design also includes a schedule for regular posting which, if I choose not to follow, will result in something really bad happening to me. Ok, maybe not.
I don’t believe that anyone can say that they don’t have time for anything. We all get 24 hours a day. It’s what we choose to do with that time that really matters.
I’m not writing as much as I should right now because I am choosing to do other things.
We are creating a massive media library here at “mini-Google” and I am spending a good bit of time on that.
The noise that goes around inside of this building also makes it very difficult to write. When I get motivated, something loud happens and I loose my train of thought. I’m old. It happens.
As I sit here writing, a big huge tractor trailer is driving through my neighborhood and I find myself wondering why no one has ever filed for an ordinance to stop it.
This is f&^%&^% suburbia. Big f^*^%$^ Mac trucks do NOT f^&%$^$ belong here.
Pardon The Dust
I’ve moved the website from one server to another.
Most of my picture links are broken. I know. Shocker.
I’ll fix them in the next few days.
Thanks.
PETA Thuggery and Why I Like Kathy Ireland
Link to the story on one of PETA’s websites here.
The Iranian Hikers
Perhaps you are following the desperate story of the innocent hikers that got too close to the Iranian border and then got arrested? (via CBS)
You know.
Because they were just hiking and happened to get too close to the Iranian border completely by accident.
Could happen to anyone. I’m sure.
Bullshit.
Hikers my ass.
I love hiking and I can tell you that the first place that pops into my mind for some great hiking does NOT happen to be anywhere NEAR Iran.
If you were “hiking” too close to Iran it was probably because you actually were spying because no sane person in their right mind would hike that close to the Iranian border. It’s amazing these idiots are still alive.
If I am from the United States, why would I spend all of that money for air fare to go that close to Iran to hike? The answer is that I wouldn’t.
So here we are listening to the American media and shedding a tear for these poor American boys who made just one little mistake. Those Iranian bastards had the nerve to capture “hikers” and prosecute them as spies?
Who are the unreasonable people here? I don’t like Iran at all. I’m not defending Iran here and that is not my intention but what I am defending is simple common sense.
We can’t admit that the kids are spies.
Logic can’t defend the “innocent hikers” meme.
We are left with the scenario that our boys are innocent hikers and the Iranians are bastards for arresting them and the real crime here is that neither statement is true.
Weekend Update
The building I’m in has not flooded in the 25 years the current owner has owned it…
…until now.
In the basement of this building is our computer center. It houses work stations, film and video editing hardware, and our internet “cage.”
The basement got about 18 inches of water from this last week’s overdose of rain.
Damages are ranging from $15,000 to about $20,000.
The Take That! Media office is on the 2nd floor so my loses were minimal although I do have some things stored downstairs as well.
The attitude of the guy who owns the building is amazing. To him, it’s a great excuse to replace the flooring and get rid of a bunch of things he thought should have been thrown out anyway.
The video guy has taken a big hit and it may seriously impact his business in the middle of a seriously bad economy.
When nature hits us back I’m always thankful to be still standing and humbly reminded that we simple, stupid, puny, and arrogant humans are not in charge around here. The sooner we realize this and stop pretending that we are the center of the universe, the better.
Update (9-24-11): The flood water destroyed our new washing machine. So, instead of just replacing the washer, Chuck (the owner of the building) replaced both washer and dryer with models that I swear were dropped off by NASA. At least, I feel like I need training to use them.
The Universe and You
Great article over at Johnny B. Truant about you and your place in the universe.
Go. Go. Go.
Biking Question
I frequently get asked why I ride my mountain bike in either flip flips or bare foot.
The answer is…
…comfort. Mostly.
If my feet do not feel good, I don’t feel good. It’s the end of summer and I don’t see any reason why I should ride my mountain bike wearing sneakers. It’s stupid and it’s uncomfortable.
I had someone ask me yesterday about hitting curbs while wearing flip flops. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll hit a curb?”
My answer…what curbs?
This is where suburbia goes to see if its doing suburbia right.
Shoes while mountain biking? Don’t be silly.
Pork Watch: Ticket to Ride?
via the AP…
On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.
Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.
Just imagine how many other programs like this exist that you and I pay for.
Who doesn’t think Washington is corrupt now?