Apparently, more than 40 years…
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Category: Touchy Subjects
The things that should never be discussed much less published by non-professionals.
So you want to work for youself
The grass is always greener on the other side. If you dream of escaping Cubeville to work as a freelancer or consultant taking business calls from the beach, setting your own schedule, working in pajamas or nothing at all, and taking vacations whenever you want, I am here to warn you about the brown spots in that greener grass. The biggest brown spot will be cash flow. That 8 to 5 job which you view as a prison to escape provides something unknown to the self-employed…predictable income. For instance, I expected a full payment from one client last night; instead, I received a half payment today. That should be no big deal since another client was scheduled to deliver a full payment today but instead delivered a message that the payment should come tomorrow. These scenarios are why people recommend keeping 6 months of income in the bank. If you don’t have that, the greener grass is too dangerous. Stay in Cubeville! If you are venturing over here from Cubeville with that 6 month income in the bank, your exit plan from self-employment back to Cubeville better be well before that reserve hits zero. Exit plan? Don’t have one? Well, that’s for a different post, but if you don’t have an exit plan, you aren’t ready for self-employment.
BBC explains why people vote against their own interests
The BBC has delivered some excellent commentary on what we are living in American politics. These quotes hit the nail on the head:
[Thomas Frank] believes that the voters’ preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the Republican Party to blind them to their own real interests.
Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.
[Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]
…whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:
"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining." [Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]
And here’s my favorite. One for the history books:
"It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy." [Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]
Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss
One, there are some things a father does not want to hear:
Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss [Source, Mashtrends, Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss]
Two, holy cow, I was born 25 years too early! In all seriousness, I hope this report is media hype and construed data:
After four years researching for the documentary, Azam told "Good Morning America" that oral sex is as common as kissing for teens and that casual prostitution — being paid at parties to strip, give sexual favors or have sex — is far more commonplace than once believed. [Source, Mashtrends, Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss]
Talk to your teens! The schools are certainly not giving adequate sex education.
Today’s Social Media Revelation
Last night LinkedIn became Facebook and Facebook tried again to become Twitter: Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Air America Cruise Round 1 ends
If today’s live poll on Air America blog is any indication about the results of the first round of the cruise contest, Digsby jumped from position 20 into the top 5. Joe Jervis moved from position 11 into the top 5. And no one was successful in knocking Mike Lux, Karl Frisch, or Pam Spaulding out of the top 5. I hope I’m misinterpreting this and that Aunt B of Tiny Cat Pants actually made it into the top 5.
Update: Yes, here is the round two page.
My Clients Now Get P3P Privacy Policies
Does your website collect identifying information on your visitors? If you think because you do not sell anything, ie. no shopping cart, and have no subscription services that you are not collecting identifying information on your site’s visitors then you are probably wrong. Most web servers log IP addresses along with the time of the visit and what that IP address read. ISPs keep logs showing which IP addresses were allocated to what users at particular times. Your logs can be correlated to their logs to identify a person. If your site as a comment form then you are definitely collecting information but more importantly that form gives you a name of a person to associate with the IP address without having to involve the ISP.
So now that we are clear that you are probably collecting identifying information about the visitors to your site, do you have a privacy policy? A privacy policy states how you will use that identifying information. For instance, perhaps you sell it to mailing lists. Or perhaps you specifically do NOT sell it to mailing lists but aggregate it to be able to explain to your potential advertisers that 70% of your site’s visitors are women between the ages of 22 and 35.
If you have a privacy policy, as a human, I can follow the link to that policy, read it, and try to interpret it. But why should I do that when I may not even understand what I’m reading? Shouldn’t the browser or other software handle the privacy policy for me? Yes! And on April 16, 2002 the W3C recommended the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project or P3P which is "a machine-readable language that helps to express a website’s data management practices." What this comes down to is that you can set your privacy preferences in your browser and if the website’s policy does not match, the browser blocks cookies from that site. Certainly there is a bit more to it than that but for most users, it boils down to blocking cookies.
P3P is a bit of a pain in the neck but every website (and that means your blogs) should have a privacy policy. This is definitely something I will encourage of each of my clients.
The Rape Belt
I live in a state that supports rape in the workplace. See the info graphic at Republicans for Rape.
Balloon Boy admits publicity stunt
At exactly 0:40 seconds into this clip, Balloon Boy says, "We did it for the show." Why didn’t Wolf Blitzer call them out and directly ask, "The boy just said you did it for the show. Was this a publicity stunt?" Honestly, is this an interview/reporting or a paid marketing piece?
On the today show the dad explains away the boy’s comment at minute 5:54. At 6:00 the boy throws up! See the Today Show video here or watch it below.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Update: Richard Thomas explains that he helped plan the balloon hoax.
Update: Criminal charges expected.
Don’t know where you stand on health care reform?
Here’s your decision tree from indecisionforever.com.
What killed the public option?
$19 million and 5 purchased votes shot down the best change that could have ever come to this country.
Max Baucus got $7,734,102, Blanche Lincoln received $4,190,592, Ken Conrad took in $3,287,891, Bill Nelson was given $2,414,895 and Tom Carper accepted $1,592,380 from health industry interests. [Source, Intershame.com, Bought by the Insurance Lobby]
These Senators clearly voted against the wishes of their constituents who 81% favor the public option. Is this another example of the Government of the Corporation? In CEO We Trust.
George Carlin and Bill Hicks explain our economic and political systems
We need a single payer option
Health care reform is essential in this country. People are dying so that other people can put dollars in their wallets. That is wrong.
Kimberly Young, vibrant 22-year-old who was working at least two jobs in Oxford after graduating with a double major in December 2008, became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost. "That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor," Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate, said. [Source, Crooks and Liars, R.I.P. Kimi Young, 22, Another Casualty of Our For-Profit Deathcare System.]
Trouble is spelled with a capital T
Just in case you’ve ever been reading here and thought to yourself, "my coffers are overflowing! I should help Reality Me out on hosting expenses, meals, band fees, text books, and such." I’ve revived the old donation button in the sidebar. Just saying..this would be a good time and much appreciated!
9/11
