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At lunch someone mentioned how spooky it was that Tammy Faye Messner died just a couple days after appearing on Larry King Live. I couldn't help thinking how fortunate it was for her that Paris Hilton had been released from jail when she was. Otherwise, Tammy Faye may have been bumped for an exclusive interview with Paris on what I'm sure was a harrowing experience in VIP jail.
I have to write this down before I forget... although it's pretty unforgettable.
My son, like most red blooded American boys, loves super heroes. Spider-Man, Superman, etc. Well the other day he was telling my wife that he has a super power too. Wanna know what it is? According to him, he has the power to swallow his food, make it come back up and then swallow it again.
[blink]
On the surface this doesn't appear to be a very good super power. But after thinking about it a bit, I can see how this could be used to incapacitate an evil villain. Unless they have a super strong stomach.
A while back a made a post with the titled "Setting a kitten on fire". I was trying to come up with something shocking yet clearly preposterous at the same time. I mean no human being could be so cruel as to set a kitten on fire, right? Apparently not. Right on the heels of Michael Vick's indictment for dog fighting, I see this:
From the article (and digg comments):
An 11-year-old boy and his friend said they saw the smoke and heard the cat shrieking while the girls laughed.How? Where do people like this come from? What makes a person this way? I can't even begin to comprehend that kind of cruelty. What the hell is wrong with people?.
While there are many people dying to know what happens in the new Harry Potter book, there are those that are living in fear of the internet as they might accidentally stumble across these spoilers. I have a solution: Tis Lamest Rearranged Poop or Anagramed Potter Spoilers. Those who want them will have to work a little harder, but they're all here. Those that don't want to find out what happens can safely read them without fear. Unless you're some anagram solving Rainman or something.
BTW, I didn't put much thought into these, some kind of make sense but a lot are just kind of funny, or bizarre. So here goes:
There you have it. Add other anagramed spoilers in the comments if you like. If any of these are wrong blame Wordsmith.org
Daniel Jalkut has a little preview of MarsEdit 2 (the hot potato of Mac software) up on the Red Sweater Blog. It's coming along very nicely. If you use a Mac and you have a blog, you owe it to yourself to take a look at MarsEdit. Assuming of course you're not already using it.
This post brought to you by MarsEdit.
OK I gotta take a moment and tell ya'll a tale. This morning, my boss / good friend, Mark, was going to pick up a visitor from a nearby hotel who was in Nashville to give us a presentation. Mark called our guest, got the specifics about where the hotel was and headed out.
Though he wasn't 100% sure exactly where the hotel was, he knew the general area and found the hotel easily enough. He pulled up to the man standing out front and asked, "Hey, Michael right? We spoke about a half hour ago on the phone." Michael said indeed that was him and got in the car. "I wasn't expecting an Element", said Michael referring to the car. Puzzled but but unconcerned, Mark responded that yeah, it was a Honda Element, but hey there's plenty of room in the back for your bags and what not. During some idle chit chat Mark asked, "So, how was your flight?. Michael responded anxiously, saying that his flight was at 10:55. As the demo was scheduled for eleven this was a bit puzzling. "What like 10:55 tonight?", he asked. "No.", responded Michael, "Like 30 minutes from now. I got up late. I hope I don't miss my flight!". It was at this point Mark finally asked, "You're not Michael Simmons are you?". "No, I'm Michael Brown".
After taking the wrong Michael back to the hotel, and apologizing for being unable to take the man to the airport, Mark did eventually find the correct Michael at the hotel next store.
Steve Carel is a perfect choice for Maxwell Smart.
I was just sitting here poking around on my computer when suddenly and without warning the dreaded Spinning Beach Ball of Death appeared. Switch to Finder. Beach Ball. Command-Option-Escape. Nothing. Launch Activity Manager via Quicksilver. More Beach Ball.
That reminded me of this idea for a commercial some of the guys at work came up with, but sadly, was never filmed. John Hodgeman wanted too much money or something.
Mac: Hello, I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC.
Mac: What do you have there PC?
PC: Oh this, it's just a beach ball.
Mac: Cool, mind if I take a look
PC: Not at all.
(PC hands Mac a rainbow colored beach ball and Mac begins examining it, turning it over and over)
PC: Mac?
(Mac's eyes have glazed over. A little trickle of drool begins to run from the corner of his mouth.)
PC: Hello?
(PC waves his hand in front of Mac's eyes. This elicits no response.)
There are these placards on the bathrooms here at work. I'm not entirely sure I've been using them correctly.
You kids with your fancy WordPresses and MovableTypes. Back in my day we had to enter each line of html by hand. In binary. With toggle switches. And we liked it!
You see before there was somegeekintn.com there was pr3d4t0r.com (I have a gift for horrible domain names. What can I say?) and before that, I had a little outpost called Casey's Bit of Things which was hosted by my former employer. I've had the remnants of this old site laying about for a while, and the idea that I'd upload a copy somewhere. Someday. For whatever reason, I did that tonight.
I had to make a few changes and recreate a couple of missing pages, but it's mostly intact. It covers the time period between October 2, 1998 and November 12, 2001. You'll notice my last entry which says "I really should update this more often". Some things never change.
So anyway, if you're terribly bored, take a look and sorry about all the broken links.
Well looks like I was mistaken. In my last post I mentioned that I was asked for some input on the new Music City Bloggers site and the possibility was raised of some sort of partnership with a digg like companion site. As it turns out there was only one person with any real interest in that idea. And even that may have been more of a courtesy than true interest. So the MCB group is moving along with whatever plans they've made and I'm twiddling my thumbs. I'd like to say that I'm not disappointed, but it does bother me. Little bit. I'd been trying to connect a little more locally lately, but a bit too late perhaps to be considered one of the gang.
So, what to do? What to do?
[ time passes ]
I just read this post that Kathy made and how there are now at least four of these sort of meta blog thingies: NiT, About-Nashville, Music City Bloggers, and Metroblogging Nashville. So it could be argued that TN Blog Watch only contributes to the problem. But then I wonder... perhaps these sites already have their audience, and the existing audience is the primary source of material. If that's the case then is there room for another whose aim is to find those bloggers who aren't yet showing up on the radar screens of the big four? Well, probably not :) But, that's what I'm going to try and do with TBW. It's either that or abandon it to my junk drawer of ideas. Not sure anything else will fit in that drawer. Besides that I just got finished making it all purty. Not the drawer, the web site. You know. Anyway, with that in mind, if you read someone local that doesn't seem to show up on any of those sites I mentioned above, be sure and give them a plug on TBW.
Yesterday while I was busy cleaning up later watch fights between big robots (in disguise), NiT was placed in suspended animation. I guess it's going to turn into something else? No one knows. What we do know is that the community is not content to let WKRN set their agenda for them and with that in mind a group of local bloggers has created Music City Bloggers to fill the void and hopefully address some of the shortcomings at NiT. These same bloggers were also kind enough to ask for my input on a possible companion site and/or local aggregator.
You my recall that some time ago I put together a digg clone for local bloggers called losobo. That experiment never really got off the ground for a couple of reasons, but I thought, and so did others, that the general idea was valid. So I've site up yet another site called TN Blog Watch. It is also based on the same software, but I've restructured that categories and added automatic RSS importing so it won't have to rely completely on manual input. It can also form the basis for local RSS aggregation if it does nothing else.
Of course if TN Blog Watch ends up as a nothing more than a glorified aggregator, I'll be a little disappointed. The idea is for TN Blog Watch and Music City Bloggers to form a symbiotic relationship. TN Blog Watch will gather posts and the editors and could use the Live page to take the pulse of the community by watching what is being voted and commented on. It's also hoped that the live page or the Upcoming page could live in a sidebar over at Music City Bloggers.
Like any site, TN Blog Watch is useless without people. To reach its true potential, it needs people to vote for and discuss those posts that are really interesting. I'm also really excited that TN Blog Watch includes community comment moderation. If you are a regular from NiT, you may recall one post in particular where trolls got out of hand, but there was no way to moderate some of the very nasty comments. That won't happen here.
If you need a little more info, please take a look at the TN Blog Watch about page. I look forward to seeing everyone there.
One other little note: If you would like to add your Tennessee blog to the list of those being watched, please send email to admin at tnblogwatch dot com and ask to be added to the RSS feed importer.
It started simple enough. About 8 or 9 years ago my family and our good friends, the Benners, who lived across the street from us decided to get together for to celebrate our independence with some food, music, and a few fireworks. Our first show was mostly a few artillery shells, and a few cakes thrown in for good measure. Nothing too extravagant. It was a lot of fun. Especially the fireworks. Each year it seemed we'd buy a little more and a little more, until soon the better part of our block was looking forward to the show on the 4th. Sadly, the Benners moved away a few years back and I thought about abandoning our annual tradition. Another group of neighbors had no intention of doing that however.
And so it is, that what was once small but respectable display by a couple of guys, has grown into an all day event with no less than five households on my block participating in the celebration. My contribution, which was pretty substantial once upon a time, has diminished as the years have gone by. Not because I'm necessarily buying fewer fireworks, but because my neighbors keep upping the ante! Just take a look at the picture above. People from all over the neighborhood seem to wander over to watch our show an we're pretty proud of that. We're also pretty happy that, so far, we've not had any injuries or mishaps of consequence.
Tomorrow (actually later today I guess) will start with one last trip to the fireworks store for a few last minute items. Followed by the food, music, games and socializing, all the while anxiously waiting for the sun to set. And then the show will begin. Hopefully our best yet.
If your in the area and want to watch or better yet, participate, feel free to stop by. email, call, or tweet for details.