A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Is SAG trying to kill television? Don’t they know the second in a series is almost always bad?
The contract between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expires Monday, and negotiations have dragged on for weeks with no apparent headway…A strike in July…could delay the return of many fall TV shows. [Source, MSNBC, Strike 2? Hollywood braces for actor walkout]
Seen on Shavar’s Blog (which has music that autoplays).
If I had the ability, I’d make multiple trips a year down to Disney World’s Pleasure Island. It is an innovative and unique entertainment experience primarily made up of different themed night clubs. Every night at midnight they celebrate New Year’s. The had comedy clubs, discos, country and so forth. All clubs were within a gated area separated from the parking lot by a moat. Under 18 could be on the island until a certain time then it because an adult only party. I always thought it was very well done.
My favorite part of Pleasure Island was The Adventurer’s Club. Oh what was the word we members used? Bangalosh or something.KUNGALOOSH!!!!(Thanks Missybw!) The Adventure’s Club is one part alcohol, one part animatronics, one part puppeteering, and one part improv comedy. You entered the club from the 2nd story which had a balcony overlooking the activity below. Downstairs the actor’s were dressed in costume as 1930’s adventurers some pompous, some safari attire, etc. They would tell stories of their adventures (despite some clearly having never ventured outside the club much less the wilderness) and statues and other adornments on the walls would chime in to share commentary. You never really knew what would speak next.
When I was there once, some pyt came into the club and glanced over the rail at the activity to watch. One of actors saw her and addressed her. "‘Ello Missy! Ave ya ev’r been to The Adventurer’s Club?" The entire room turns their attention to her as she leans on the rail, shakes her head and blushes. "Well, you really should come down here and join us! Since you’ve arrived, things are looking up!" She was a wearing a very, very short skirt.
I seem to recall a bell too. Often an actor would enter one of the rooms (there was a study, a lounge, and a couple of others if I recall correctly, all just off the center room), ring a bell and make an announcement. The Adventurer’s Club was always jovial and unexpected activity. Instead of closing it, they should be copying its model in every major city and college town across America!
According to the Pleasure Island FAQ:
"By September 28, 2008, all of the nightclubs on Pleasure Island will close. It will be last call for the last time at 8 Trax, The Adventurer’s Club, Mannequins™ Dance Palace, BET Sound-Stage™ Club, Motion and The Comedy Warehouse."They’re replacing the nightclubs with outsourced restaurants.
Annual passholders get to play a round of golf instead.
Great. Thanks for shutting down the single most creative attraction at Disney World.
BoingBoing notes an online petition is going around to save The Adventurer’s Club. Somehow I don’t think that will hold much weight with the Disney execs.
Update: The PI FAQ makes it sound like Pleasure Island will become more like Disney Marketplace.
So is Twitter going down in flames or just hitting heavy turbulence? Personally, I think it is just having a rough patch. Shoot, even Jon Stewart mentioned Twitter last night! (although the way he conveyed it and the look on his face was more of "my writers are insisting I reference this but what the hell is it?") That’s practically main stream!
The API is being limited. Twhirl, which has been great since it catches the @ replies that Twitter isn’t showing right now, is useless today due to Twitter pulling back on the API. So with Twitter handicapped (or not responding at all), and Twhirl useless, I feel disconnected from the world. I am having a little trouble remembering just what it was I did before I had my Twitter aha moment (because no one gets Twitter when they first start using it).
Have you given up on Twitter? Not I. Are you using another service permanently or in the meantime? I’m thinking of toying around with Pownce. Just not in love with anything else at the moment and don’t really have time to experiment. I’d say that Twitter is dealing with its growth and after it gets over this spurt things will be much better.
Take Jack Neely’s test. I got a 25.
Update: Although Tommy had a 4 hour wait, Sarah’s wait was relatively short.
Student: The hole is deep.
Master: And broad.
Looks like I’m working remotely via a borrowed laptop today. I am taking my daughter to the DMV to get her learner’s permit. She has already declared that she doesn’t want to learn how to drive from me because "that would be annoying." When I asked, "What wouldn’t be annoying? Do you want me to just sit quietly and let you get in an accident?" I got silence in return. I think Miss Know It All thinks she already knows how to drive and would just like to get behind the wheel and go with no one else in the car. This should be interesting.
Now, if you see the 53 van, one of the most recognized vehicles in Knoxville, swerving down the road, hitting curbs, driving against traffic, and running people off the road, it is probably Tommy or Sarah (or me texting). And we apologize.
Update: Failed eye examine keeps another teenager off the road. Our eye doctor won’t see her until October. Looking into other solutions.
Update: I’ve painted an old cane of mine red and white 
and am going to see if they’ll let Sarah take the test without the eye exam under the American Disabilities Act on the premise that she is blind.
Update: After many hours of struggle, a lot of attitude, a 16th mortgage, and two eyeglass stores later, Sarah can see clearly now..the rain is gone.
From Les Jones who got it from Random Nuclear Strikes:
"Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
— Abraham Lincoln
I always question whether or not these famous people really said these things, but it doesn’t matter because I really like the message.
I can tell I’m back from vacation because of my sleep pattern. On vacation, I got the right amount of sleep at the right times. At home, I stay up to 2am coding and started jolting from bed at 6am (finally rose at 7:45 but that was like doing sit ups every 10 minutes for 1.75 hours…no, I don’t use an alarm clock and haven’t for 6.5 years). Wish I could go for a quick swim. Have to shuttle Tommy to Lenior City then get to work.
When you type for a living, playing dodge ball is less than intelligent. Oh my swollen thumb!
See, I’m an adrenaline junkie. As a child, I was bad at sports. Couldn’t cut it at t-ball. Football was fun but I was just cannon fodder and didn’t really understand the rules. Basketball was befuddling; to me everything was a foul and besides, I was too short. Volleyball was cool but they still spiked me into the ground. Now put me in man against self or man against nature and the rules are different. I’ve kayaked, flown a glider, camped and hiked the backcountry, climbed, spelunked, scuba’d, qualified as a lifeguard, mountain biked myself bloody, repelled now closed cliffs, and fallen asleep on a motorcycle at 50mph in a curve. If it will push my limits, I’ll take it on! But these sports with balls being thrown around? You’d think that a juggler could catch a rubber ball. At least that’s what my face thought tonight!
Jock? Not me. Crazy thrill seeker? Yeah, I’ll take that.
I liked the concept of WP-Project. It’s a WordPress plugin which adds a tab in your dashboard for project management. It was inspired by Basecamp (collaboration piece for project management) and Harvest(er) (a timetracker). Conceptually we like to spend a lot of time in our dashboards so why not do our project management there too? I just didn’t find the plugin robust enough for my needs. And if it was robust enough, I’d be concerned that my database, which already has issues with Spam Karma eating its space, would fillup too quickly. (n.b. The database has a 100MB allocation.) For now, I’m going to try out Zoho’s project management.
