Bad weather slowly coming in. Expect power and cable outages in Knoxville!
Year: 2008
Following for an audience
I am one of 3411 people The Today Show is following on Twitter. When you follow someone on Twitter, they receive an email notifying them that you are following which encourages you to follow them. Twitter spammers hope to draw audiences in this manner. Can a mere 3411 people be an asset to The Today Show’s audience? Not all will follow. Right now 563 people are following The Today Show. I suppose the viral marketing potential is very large. If a fraction of those 563 people grabbed onto one of the links in The Today Show Tweets, and moved it onto Digg or popularize it through blogs and emailing to people outside the list of 3411, then their marketing effort on Twitter would have proven itself worthwhile.
I wonder if a Today Show staffer is actually monitoring the Twitter feed of those 563 people. Could I actually post something that The Today Show finds newsworthy?
Do you dream of blogging?
Many people dream of making money by blogging. I do not fool myself into thinking Reality Me will ever be a for profit endeavor. I simply enjoy blogging and use it as a creative outlet during breaks from my programming.
Do you enjoy blogging so much that you actually dream of blogging? Last night, in my sleep, I composed a most wonderful, Pulitzer worthy blog post. I awoke around 4am with the post vaguely in my memory. (almost stayed up to program) The next time I awoke, at 6am, it was gone. I do keep a notepad by my bed but the habit of waking and writing my thoughts down is long gone. Now, if I had a laptop by the bed, that post would have been published!
Knoxville Juggling Club relauches
I had to take a break from the tech. I don’t exercise anymore. Cannot remember the last time I stretched. I find myself wanting to sleep more.
When I used to exercise and stretch regularly, I slept less and felt more alive. So tonight, I committed myself to meeting with the Knoxville Juggler’s Club.
Jan Sanders Hall at Cokesbury United Methodist Church will be open to jugglers from 7 to 9 p.m. on the first Sunday and the third Tuesday of each month.
I am going to do my best to show up to both meetings. And I promise not to make any more naked jokes in the church… There were some very talented jugglers there tonight! Dave juggled 5 rings beautifully with ease, a feat I cannot personally replicate. He also juggled five crystal balls without a sweat. Kevin, Jimmy and Doug (not me…the other one) were doing artistic passing. My loud mouth came in and talked them into throwing lots of clubs at the floor. Noah practiced diablo and the rola bola. And we indoctrinated a bystander into 3 ball juggling. I had a blast!
What type of people attend juggling clubs? A high school math teacher, a nuclear engineer (okay..I don’t really know what he does but its got "engineer" in the title and his job is in Oak Ridge so I’m sure its top secret!), a finish carpenter who runs his own business, a middle schooler, a web application developer aka computer geek (yeah that’s me), and an IT guy (yes, that’s a computer guy too).
Why juggle? Because juggling is fun! And so much more. For me, juggling is almost spiritual! Juggling is good for the body as it is very aerobic. Juggling is better than coffee for waking you up as it gets the blood flowing and more oxygen to the brain. Juggling is a social activity. When a person juggles, be it a child or a shy person or anybody, people take notice and often converse and ask questions. Juggling will break you out of your shell! Juggling is good for the mind. You cannot juggle distracted. When you focus on juggling, your worries and the clutter in your mind slip away allowing you to find serenity. This is why corporations have seminars to teach their executives to juggle (aside from the wealth of productivity metaphors that can be thrown into the juggling lessons). In short, juggling is good for the mind, body and soul!
Who can juggle? Anybody! I’ve seen a one handed man juggle. Children can be taught at a very early age. Typically the hand eye coordination required develops around 8 to 10 years old but with patience, a 5 year old could learn. And everyone knows that as soon as I can (usually around 10 months), I teach my children to balance in my hand. I hear people say, "I am too clumsy." Well, that is a perfect reason to learn to juggle! Juggling makes you more aware of things around you and can help make someone less clumsy. Juggling teaches hand/eye coordination and teaches the mind to handle a state of chaos as well as predicting the paths of objects in motion. Jugglers are better drivers! Another excuse is "I don’t have the coordination." Yes you do! Anyone that truly wants to learn to juggle, I can teach in about 10 minutes. As Gusto’s cousin, Marso, says, "Anyone can juggle!"
Today’s Tinfoil Hat
3 critical cables mysteriously break and are blamed on ships. Video proves no ships were in the area. Iran loses 100% connectivity to the Internet. Does this sound right?
To me it sounds like AT&T is installing a secret room in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea!
Now for some US/Iran studies: If Iran Were America (And We Were Iran): A Timeline by J.L. Byran.
Update: Now the report says 5 cables have been cut.
Update: The secret room might look like NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Lab.
Yes we can
Whether or are an Obama fan or not, the dipdive video is a must watch!
I have met the enemy!
And it said "arrrgh!" then dropped 28 feet to the ground
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterz.
My son makes a crime scene at school
Time to run to the middle school and pick up a bloody child. Ever hear of Von Willebrands? Makes a regular nose bleed look like a scene out of CSI!
Squirrels in the Attic – update
I put a live trap in the attic to catch the squirrels and move them to another part of town. After I feel sure that I have them out, I’m going to seal up the hole they are using to get into the attic. I have been warned that someone who sealed his attic prematurely ended up with $2000 in damages in one day. That person removed the adults but was unaware of the babies in the nest. Now I am a bit concerned about the same situation. When do squirrels make babies?
During LOST last night we heard rustling in the vicinity of the live trap. Bingo! I was certain we’d captured our first squirrel. Cathy, concerned for its well-being, encouraged me to go check on it (immediately after I had made a bowl of ice cream). I climb into the attic. You cannot stand in our attic. Every 16 inches, maybe 22 inches, there is another truss so you are hunched over awkwardly squeezing through these triangles while inhaling the asbestos fibers floating in the air from disturbing the insulation put up there decades ago. I usually go up with a breathing mask but its buried in the mess in the garage. I work my way down 9.144 meters* to where I have the trap. As I approach the thumbing of an irritated squirrel gets louder and louder as if to say, "My territory and your slow dumb indefensible butt came up here with nothing but flashlight!" I get about 3.6 meters* from the nest when I see th trap is empty and unsprung. And when I say empty, I mean no squirrel and no bait! All I did was feed it! I’m thinking it is time to install a squirrel cam in the attic and stream it over the Internet.
*Conversion courtesy of Onlineconversion.com.
This is not the family I wanted!
My five year old has decided she’s had it with this place. Last night she emptied her chest of drawers into a crate and packed many of her toys in bags. All her clean, folded clothes are in one big pile. The room is wrecked. And as livid as Mom has become running away is probably not a bad idea for all of us! This is her second threat of running away. The first was before Christmas and was abated when I asked, "who should get your Christmas presents?"
I don’t understand this behavior. One, I thought threats of running away did not come around until age eight or nine. Two, she does not have a terrible life here. We believe hands are not for hitting so corporal punishment is avoided in this house. I will admit that Amy has received a couple of spankings but it makes Cathy very angry with me. I grew up under the threat of the belt so it is ingrained in my head as a means of behavior modification. No, I do not agree with it and regret the times I have employed corporal punishment.
Her reason for wanting to run away was because she was not allowed to go play with her friends today. It pains me to hear her yell out, "This is not the family I wanted." and talk of no longer liking anyone in the family. I believe strongly she is modeling this behavior from someone but I don’t know if it is a neighbor friend, school friend, or television.
Too cool to come out of rain
I offered to drive the van to the bus stop as shelter to two middler schoolers and two high schoolers and all declined. One declared, "it’s not raining" as my windshield wipers ka-thunked before my eyes. It’s cold too but you’d never know it by the way they all refuse heavy coats and try to minimize how much of their body their light weight coats actually contact. At least the girl had the common sense to be using an umbrella!
Full season of Lost?
This is a $100 post
I’ll bite. This post is my entry into Contest Blogger’s New Year Contest sweepstakes. Way to work the SEO!
