I Even Amaze Myself Sometimes...
What can I say... sometimes I find delight in the simplest humor. I could do this for hours, and it would still be funny. Don't fool yourself... you like it too!
My Name in Flikring Letters
Random Tech Geekery and Online Webbification...
I've been doing a lot of Internet trolling lately, and finally spending more time on some sites I knew of, but never really gave a ton of my time to... and I'm starting to realize all I've been missing out on. The one thing you can never refer to the Internet as being is boring...
Digg.com is a "social bookmarking" site - and for those of us who dig a plethora of tech news, wacky net offerings, etc., it's a fantastic resource. The basic priciple is this: members (it's free to join) can add links they find interesting, and they get added to a long list. Anyone else can look at the list, and visit the posted links. If you like it, you can "digg" it, and then the diggs get tallied. Once an article gets a lot of diggs, it appears on their front page. The main page has great articles that have been "dugg," but there's lots of great links that appear in the master list... it's a fantastic concept, and they've been around a while, and have grown quite a bit. They also have a great podcast, Diggnation (hosted by former TechTV dudes Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht), where they discuss the big diggs of the week. It's growing quickly into one of my favorite podcasts. Plus, when I think about the site a lot, it makes me want to pick up my Atari...
A site I stumbled upon by accident that I am a big fan of already is PageFlakes. Using the programming laguage Ajax, it offers a really cool base for your RSS feeds, and other useful widgets that folks have developed. I now use it for my home page, and I forsee this one getting quite popular. The developers at my office have been playing with Ajax recently for our Intranet site... it allows for some really cool customization of interfaces that individual users can maintain. You set up your page elements, and folks can drag and drop the components, turn on/off different ones, etc. and the site will remember the layout for each user. PageFlakes exhibits this, and it's groovy.
Lastly for today's offering of web-surfing loveliness, check out Top 10 Sources. You'll spend hours there and on the links you'll find. You're welcome!
Another interesting tidbit... it seems I'll be getting a Mac laptop at work in the near future, in addition to my PC. I got to see some of OSX Tiger in action today (I worked on Panther for a small while last year, and I already dig some of the new features I saw) - and I have to say, I was quite impressed. I see some features there that they are supposed to have in Windows Vista (which is supposed to ship late this year supposedly) and I have to say... the geek in me is anxious to play. I know they say "Once you go Mac, you never go back..." (I know I heard something like that once...) I still don't forsee buying one for home anytime soon... but if the company's buying, I'm game.
Winter Weather WTF?
In the past twelve hours here in West Michigan, we have experienced the following weather elements (in this order): sun, rain, freezing rain, hail, thunderstorm (with lightning), a TORNADO watch, more freezing rain, torrential thunderstorm, sleet, and most recently (and currently) snow.
According to my calculations, the next event should be locusts.
The televesion tickers are announcing the numerous schools and facilities that are already closed for tomorrow... but since I do not attend any of these, I can only look forward to a fun-filled adventure into work come 8am. Granted, my office is only twenty minutes away from my home, so it's not a horrible drive... but our last winter storm almost tripled my commute time.
Although, at this current pace, I may wake up to a tropical heat wave.
I really hope I'm wrong about the locusts though. Driving through them for twenty minutes would be both crunchy and disgusting.
All I see are shadows and shapes...
My wife and I drove down to Kalamazoo Thursday night to see another one of our favorite stand-up comedians, Brian Regan. I bought the tickets back in December when the day they went on sale, so we ended up with pretty decent seats, dead center.
Brian is definitely a comedian where there is a huge benefit from sitting closer (although the State Theater in Kzoo is a smaller venue, and pretty much every seat offers a decent view.) He's very animated, and makes us laugh even when he's not saying anything... a talent that few people have. He's been around for quite some time, and I'm actually surprised that he's not a much bigger name. Those who have seen him before, either on one of his many late night appearances or his Comedy Central special, rarely forget him though... and he has a very large following. I saw him back about this time last year in Ann Arbor, and like then, I laughed so hard my face hurt by the end.
If you have not heard his stuff, buy his CD Brian Regan Live - today. It's been out for a while, but it's a classic. He's got a newer DVD of a performance as well that is fantastic, I Walked on the Moon. Hopefully, a new CD is in the works soon. You can visit his website by clicking on the little picture of him I posted here too.
They're not friendship holidays!!!
My stepson goes to a public charter school, and it's a pretty decent school for the most part.
However, I feel at times as if they are robbing him of valuable childhood dreams, like ones my wife and I have of school growing up, and it is really starting to piss me off.
It's beyond political correctness, and it's beyond nullifying religious overtones in public school.
It started in October. They do not recognize Halloween. The kids do not dress up, they do not have a parade, they do not eat candy or decorate pumpkins. I thought that was a bit weird... but I reasoned that maybe they didn't want to leave some kids out whose parents could not afford costumes or whatever. Regardless, we remember as children dressing up, having a parade in our costumes through all the classrooms, and having little parties. I remember back to kindergarten (and that alone is a huge feat for me), when I wore the Batman costume my Mom made for me. Hell, I still have that costume, and my stepson even wore it a few years back (trick or treating, not at school.)
I got over it, until December. I saw it coming, but of course, they had a small "holiday party." They do not say Christmas, or Chanukah, etc. This is to be understood in public schools nowadays I suppose... and even though I still take issue with it, I accept it more having grown up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, and experiencing the same. It didn't piss me off as much as the whole "Holiday Tree" debacle that was in the media.
Now get this. Even though the upcoming Valentine's Day is not a holiday, and I myself am not a huge fan of this manufactured day... you will not believe what they are doing at my stepson's school. They call it "Friendship Day." They don't do Valentines. What the hell?!?!
My wife and I both remember decorating shoebox "mailboxes," that we put on our desks, and then passed out Valentine's Day cards to all our classmates (the only rule was that everyone got one, so no hurt feelings.)
For crying out loud... people need to lighten up! These days are important for kids... because they are supposed to be FUN and provide a little break in the monotony of learning. They are to be looked forward to, enjoyed, and remembered.
It sort of reminds me of college, but the only holiday we changed like that was in March... I think we called it "Drink Green Beer and Pass Out Wasted Before 10AM Day." Something like that, anyway...
