- Is MySpace a fad?
- A lot of folks have asked me “What went wrong with Friendster? Why is MySpace any different?” I guess i never directly answered that question, even though i’ve addressed the causes in other talks. Still, i guess it would be helpful to piece some of it together and directly attend to this question.
…
MySpace is not the same as Friendster – it will not fade in the same way. Friendster was a fad; MySpace has become far more than that. If it doesn’t evolve, it will fade, but MySpace is far better positioned to evolve than Friendster was. That said, i think we’re seeing a huge shift in social life – negotiating super publics. I kinda suspect that MySpace teens are going to lead the way in figuring this out, just as teens in the 60s and 70s paved the way to figuring out globalized life with TV. I just hope law doesn’t try to stop culture. - Cold War bunker found in Brooklyn Bridge
- (This on the heels of me watching Johnny Mnemonic) NEW YORK (CNN) — New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack. …employees were conducting maintenance on the structure Wednesday when they found the cache on the top floor of a three-floor space inside the bridge’s base… containers were marked with two dates notorious in the annals of the Cold War: 1957 and 1962 and "To be opened after attack by the enemy." "Could it have been a bunker for the mayor? We don’t know."
- Men’s strange requests
- Video of Big Foot
- How NOT to be a man
- (This one will make you mad) Are all of you out there following the story about the smug frat-boy asshat who filed a lawsuit claiming that men have the right not to pay any support for a child they fathered by accident?
- Moore’s Law of Razor Blades
- Expect 14 bladed razors in 2100
Author: Doug McCaughan
Father of 5.
Juggler.
Ticked off at blogger.com.
What next?
- program
- play with the baby
- blog
- or have heart attack
A Round Tuit
Wahoo! Opening mail from Feb 2001!
Names on my brain
- Judy Theg
- Withers Morgan (Wiz)
- Keith Moore
- Jack Dungara
- Chris Jepeway
- Brian Larose
- Sharon …
You were each quite influential. Apologies on misspellings. Oh, and most of you were mentioned by name in last night’s Knoxville Aspergers Support Group meeting.
As the snowball goes
From roughly the age of 9, when I discovered the joy of rolled coins and the concept of coin collecting, until December of 1997 I knew exactly how much money I had. At one point I even kept a special account in Quicken for petty cash.
Up until December of 1997, despite accumulating substantial debt, I had never missed a payment or been late on a bill.
How is it that nearly 10 years later I sit on a pile of unopened mail nearly 6 years old, receive daily phone calls from crass bill collectors and lawyers, have threatening conversations with the mortgage company, and stare dumbfoundly at ultimatums from the IRS?
A little bit of a breakdown
I said breakdowns come
And breakdowns go
So what are you going to do about it
That’s what I’d like to know
Frankly, I slipped. I fell. And society eats its own! I’ve tried to stand up again but the pack keeps knocking me down. It is real easy for people to offer advice about things they don’t have to face. The truth of the matter is there are no simple solutions.
When you are running the marathon like everyone else, things are fine. The refreshments table is full and volunteers hand you Gatorade and snacks. Services are offered to you to help you along the way: "You can skip this block and rest a bit. In return you’ll run an extra block at the end of the race but because you were able to rest you’ll still finish ahead." But as you fall behind you start to notice the refreshment tables are looking bare. Trash liters the street. Most of the volunteers have gone home. The ones that remain are cleaning up the mess the runners made and only grimmace and curse under their breath at you. The judges penalize you and add blocks to the end of the race without allowing you to "rest a bit." Already you have to run 4 times as hard as the other runners just to catch up yet they add more and more blocks. Short cuts are tempting but have hidden detours, pitfalls and, if caught, substantial penalties. Occasionally golf carts are seen parked on the sidewalks but no one offers to give you a ride to catch up with the rest of the runners. Why should they? You are inferior. But you know that given the opportunity, you could not only run with the pack but could lead them into greatness! Still, the judges often stop you to have you fill out paperwork explaining why you are so far behind. You write furiously knowing the gap between you and the last runner only gets larger, and the further behind you get, more judges want to stop and question your lag. You start to forget why you entered the race in the first place. The dream of winning, even the dream of crossing the finish line, has vanished. You run simply because stopping is not an option.
Update: Of course Philip would post something applicable yesterday. Now where’s my helmet?
What kind of stressors do you have?
- 3 different government agencies want paperwork from me now (would be easy if I wasn’t 6 years behind on the paperwork)
- Mortgage company wants some paperwork done now
- 4 clients want their work finished now
- 3 different recruiters have hot fulltime job opportunities and want my plate cleared and need paperwork now
- The kids need my attention now
- I want to crawl under a rock and hide now
To fix
Step 1: Everything starts now. We move forward.
What’s wrong with Blogger?
Are you having problems with Blogger? This error should give a clue.
450 Write error: No space left on device
Why have they allowed a harddrive to remain full for a week instead of fixing the problem? Simply put, Blogger does not have customer service and does not care about its customers. I highly recommend WordPress over Blogger. I will happily help anyone move from Blogger to WordPress. Cathy has moved.
*** Spam ***
First day of spring. I should feel refreshed. I feel more like an ant trying to swim across a river.
New Level of Pain
I don’t think I’ve ever quite experienced pain the way I am experiencing pain in my left wrist. Now, I’m huge into mind over matter. On a cold day think warm thoughts and you can feel warmer and such. However, this pain is physically weakening. Sometimes I can barely squeeze something to be able to lift it.
This is one of those times that if I was insured I’d be visiting Barry Bridges (Chiropractor) or my GP. I’ll just follow my brother‘s advice.
RSS is cool, but you miss the layout changes
For those of you that read in RSS, the cam is back!
Splish Splash Now She Needs a Bath
I stole an hour this afternoon and Amy, Evan, Cathy and I took Molly out to the dog park. Molly was very excited and relatively well behaved. Some other dogs were running free and I let Molly off leash. This was the first time she realized she could go in the pond. The other dogs did and she tried to figure out how to simply get a drink but then put a paw in, then two paws, then all the way (it’s shallow at the top of the waterfall), then plop! she laid down. The entire time she is biting at the water as if she hoped to pick it up. She walked in circles chomping the whole time and then started jumping and splashing and jumping and splashing. It was riotous!
While there I was pleased to be complimented by a dog judge and therapy dog trainer for my handling of Molly. She even asked if Molly did shows!
DIY Spider
A little wire, 2 leds, a watch battery and a pager motor makes a robotic spider. DIY via Flickr pictures.
This week’s focus
Let’s not forget our focus this week.
Why “A cup of Joe”?
Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as “a cup of Joe”.
