Content before Style

I'm adding some ways to contact me,
for my friends and family,
although it may not be pretty,
I hope it works,
I'll wait and see.

Call Me!

I've got a new number - hopefully I'll never have to get a new one!

Vote!

Who Needs Government For Private Life?

"WHY do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity."

Death By PowerPoint

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This is an excellent presentation on bad presentation. :p

Unfortunately it doesn't speak for itself and doesn't seem to be usable with assistive technology. :(

$hamele$$ly A$king For Your $upport

I am participating in the 2007 Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger to help raise awareness about hunger and homelessness and to raise funds for programs that provide meals, medical care and other supportive services for the poor and homeless in our community.

Please join me in supporting this important cause by making a tax-deductible contribution in my name or by registering to participate in this year's Trot for Hunger. Your support makes a world of difference in the life of a child or adult in need. Thank you!

One Laptop Per Child

Well, I've considered both sides of the good and the bad in a program like the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program.

Thinking that the negatives are really an issue of how this won't work or will distract from the basics is a failure to consider that any involvement leaves people with potential. Potential failure, perhaps. Potential success? We will see. I'm willing to support such an experiment. To see if such an effort makes things possible.

On a personal note, I'm also anxious to see how accessible these things are from an end-user perspective. Perhaps also be able to contribute to the ability for children with disabilities to use the same technologies, in the same places as other children.

Hexstatic ZenTV Video mash up pt1

Where, where, where did the time go?

Oh The Horror!

I had a good time with my daughters carvin' pumpkins for Halloween...

Agoria Spinachgirl

Oh Gods..I like French Techno. Do you know how much imports cost? Drat!

Happy Friends'o'lanterns

Thanks to the Shotts for having pumpkin carving, food, movies, and fun! :)

Jeff Dunham-Achmed The Dead Terrorist

Hahahahah

Newlaunches.com - Tachikoma Robot

OMG! I've never seen money willing to fly out of my pocket so fast! SQUEE!!

This is the song that never ends...

It goes on and on my friends,
some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
and they'll continue singing it forever just because,
this is the song that never ends...

Oh Sweet Future Hopes..

I can only hope this would be as equally as good as previous Newtons

1. Corrupt Banking System - Cartels Robbing the Public

What they NEVER taught us in school.

Ron Paul Freedom Fighter

HAhahahahaha! OMG! This made me laugh out loud while I was eating! Brilliant!

Oh yeah..go Ron Paul!

Like a suppository, only...

Thanks to Gary for pointing this out to me: The Dissident Frogman. I had a weird day, and this made it all better!

...and the music to this rocks too!

Pennsic!

Just got back from a weekend at Pennsic! No fighting or anything outwardly studious this year, as I needed a break. It was good to simply go to sleep when tired and wake up whenever. I was able to do some meditation (seeing progress) and yoga (my 'leet yoga skills suck) by the lake, including exercise in the early morning.

I didn't have much interest in drinking this year beyond the taste of it. Or perhaps more aptly I had no interest in drinking to excess as is the normal want of many Pennsic denizens.

Still, camping with my friends who could make it, meeting old friends, and making new friends was great fun! I only wish I could have stayed longer.

Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Visually tracks with wandering mind on the audio!

Time can change me...

...but I can't change time.

On the road with your laptop and forgot your alarm? Do you need more than one alarm some mornings? Want to wake to music or videos from your computer? Need an in-your-face at work reminder for that appointment?



Take a look at ALARMD Internet Alarm Clock. You can save the webpage locally if you prefer.

Weekend Things

I was in Chicago for the weekend. I went to a real record store (Gramaphone) and bought some CDs.

Had the opportunity to see someone give a meal to a homeless man. You should have seen the look of disbelief and then happiness on the man's face. It was so good to see. And I got to buy the man who gave him the food a meal in return. Good fortune and karma all around.

I walked a great deal exploring and didn't get to everywhere. I went to Boystown - how unremarkable it is the gay section of town - and had a coffee, people watched, and then went to 'gaymart' a store full of superhero figures and a few gay-themed items. Definitely a geek store though; I resisted the urge to buy a 13" Dalek. :| I did buy gifts for the girls. I also found a shop with silver fidget rings and
bought a few on a whim.



Asking the shop girl where she would take a friend visiting from out of town, I took off across the street for a whiskey at a local dive. Went to a weird leather clothing store and listened to a couple trying to return an open boxed dildo - you can't make these things up.

Dancing About Architecture

This was my view from my room this time in Chicago:

I tried the Hotwire reservation thing for the first time. The only bitch I have is that the highspeed Internet was anything but speedy and cost another $9 a day! So I only bought one day since I was walking about the city so much I didn't really notice. But I probably would have like to play online games at night - my Wow-time is wowsy.

I did get down to Millenium Park and listened to an outdoor concert; strings and a Spanish guitar. It was really wonderful, although damp and getting colder.

Chicago Work

Hey, hey, I'm on a plane,
and then a train,
In Chicago again,
Not the same,
as last time.

Have a Nice Day!

Attitude and your outlook on life is everything. If you are having a bad day, stop looking for why things suck and think about the things you can be thankful for. It is as simple as starting with "Have a nice day".

Now we know the purpose of the Internet

To answer lifes' unanswered questions: World Of Warcraft: Dancing

Amazing

Dmitriev - Bach - Fuga in d-moll BWV565

Classic RPG: Fallout

I tried to load it and it didn't work under XP. I spend way to many hours at this game - it was great! This intro is haunting...

Starcraft 2: Oh Gods No

I bow down before our gaming slavelords. I was pasty white enough before I heard this...

I haf no idear...

I was trying to figure out why people were getting blog updates that linked to nowhere. Sorry if you received a few posts; I've deleted my friendster blog. It sucked. Hopefully you won't now get notices from the ether that lead back to nowhere. If you do, forward them on to my email so I can hunt them down and bind the pesky spirits to my will...

Aspri-rations

Robert Asprin's that is; I found "Myth Adventures: Volume I" on the shelf. Six of his first books in this series. There is a Volume Two too!

I couldn't resist, as the cover art was by Phil Foglio. Reminded me of Wormy and Phil & Dixie.

So I've completely avoided anything productive while reading this book all day. If you don't see me online, it is because I'm offline :D

Looking for Group...

If you haven't seen the web comic, and especially if you play WoW, then you should get over to Looking For Group...

Wireless ACKsess

I'm posting from my phone today.

I was in meetings last week and most of this week with no Internet connectivity. I honestly don't know how business intends on being a business if they don't provide wireless access openly, or at least with easy authentication. It isn't productive for the participants. It isn't a fair expectation that we must be 100% focused on their presentation and review. Some of us multitask well, and could stay longer and participate more fully if we could simply work on our laptop or pda.

Added to that, the number of users who have crackberries that walk away to come back after a period of time, certainly aren't any better than someone on a computer with split attention. This is one reason I think the iPhone will be incredibly successful. The premise is wireless without thinking about usage charges or how to connect. I get to experience some of that with my Sidekick, but they are still limited by their need to nickel and dime you; they are the phone provider, not the hardware or os and application provider. They have a vested interest in getting you to purchase a network plan to make them money or to restrict you application usage to not cost them money. That is a different mindset than enabling full use of your hardware and software and creation of new things for fun or function.

Here is to hoping I can get a new iPhone when they come out!

Going Down To Cowtown....

Well, no. I'm actually going home to NC. But somehow going south and the beach always reminds me of the They Might Be Giants song.

See ya online or back here later.

Let's Blow...

No windy city here - seems I brought all the good weather and it fell out when I opened my suitcase on Thursday. It has been a great day or two wandering about.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, as I saw more than I can show later, but I did learn the subway and transportation. Learning how to get around should make it easier when I come back to visit again.

The city is nice. Old and new. It is hard to be lonely with so many different people running about (but evidently I still tried hiding behind a camera). I'll update and post my pictures ASAP.

I'm on my way home and hope to see you all soon.

ChiCaGo-go-go

I'm in Chicago! Had work out here and now that I'm done I'm going to look around. I'd fly back but no flights until early Sunday a.m.

So hopefully I'll be able to stop worrying about old friends back home and take some pictures. Maybe I can make it to the Sear's Tower and "The Bean".

Beers aren't queer

I was lucky enough to go to the Black Cat with a friend. Evidently, we weren't photogenic enough to be photographed...but it was fun to get out.

300

I saw 300 on the opening night with two of my friends - I love midnight shows.

I found the Penny Arcade comic and it reminded me to mention it. I thought it was a good movie, with a mythic style. You could also see the SinCity-like graphic violence; not real but dreamlike.

Johny Cash

I've heard the David Bowie and NIN version; this has to be the best one - his last song recorded I believe.

Exactly why I don't enjoy "the signal"

This is a web comic that embodies exactly why I don't like watching, don't have cable, and with the exception of a few shows, why television sucks: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/09

Wine, Wine, Wine

Anyone interested in some wine this Saturday? http://www.washingtonwineacademy.org/public-events.htm#feb24 WWA's "Drafthouse" Wine Bus Trip to Virginia Wineries (VA) $49

I'll Be Your Server This Evening...

Which means I'm unavailable - SysAdmin jokes are teh sux!

I looked a little bit and figured I'm simply setup a home server to serve some pictures and nonsense. So I'll test and configure normans.homeunix.org until I'm ready to put up permanent links from personaldaemon.com running. If you are brave you should be able to visit ftp://normans.homeunix.org and get something...

I've got a few images I'm taking with my camera that are fairly large in file size so I'll probably setup a front-end. The images aren't cropped or modified yet, so I may have composed the pictures different than I would choose to make final, but that shouldn't prevent you from see how much I lack photography skills!

Beatboxing flute inspector gadget remix

OK, I don't know why, but I find this really entertaining.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's.

Looking For Looking-glass

I'm looking for a place to place my photos. I've been taking some pictures, trying to learn my new camera or trying to learn how I see things and I wanted to put them up so I could get some feedback. I don't know if I want to put up my own web server and deal with the you-cant-run-web-servers-if-we-catch-you nature of my current home ISP.

So I've got non-professional, nobody wants to see them pictures to share - suggestions?

One month off

Well, I haven't been here. Haven't been feeling much like expressing myself and have had a few reasons not to I guess.

Been trying to support my friends and taking some satisfaction in just being 'here' for them. Been trying to think of what being 'there' is for me. Nothing specific, not complaining, just things would be enjoyable if I spent more time living than I did working.

I hope everyone is well, if I haven't heard from you in thirty days I miss you but I won't tell you. I probably have a picture somewhere and have seen you more than you've seen me ;)