Intellectual Poison

U.S. loses top spot in global tech study.

Not just the top spot but we are now seventh. Singapore and Denmark, Sweden and Finland and Switzerland and the Netherlands are all beating us at information exploitation and communications tech.

But Thierry Geiger, one of the Forum's economists responsible for the 361-page report, said the U.S. market environment remains the best in the world in terms of how easy it is to set up a business, get loans and have access to market capital.

So that's nice. But.

The index...cited the United States' low rate of mobile telephone usage, a lack of government leadership in information technology and the low quality of math and science education.

The lack of government leadership in info tech is understandable given our politicians shocking "understanding" of what the internet is and what it represents. The low quality of math and science education in the country is also understandable given the faith-based agenda that has dominated almost every aspect of Bush's administration.

Also, I bet Arkansas is bringing down the national average.

Labels: numbers, technology

Prosecutors: Revoke Hilton's Probation because they have clear proof that she's driving on a suspended license after her DUI a while ago.

Does anyone really think Paris Hilton is going to do jail time for this? It'll cost a whole bunch but checkbook justice will prevail.

Besides, if she blasts her Ferrari into a tree while shitfaced then it really wouldn't be much of a loss and she'd be immortalized.

But the Anna Nicole stuff needs to die down first. Scheduling is everything, ya know?

Anyway, I like the idea of Paris Hilton in prison. I'm sure Fox would turn it into a HEEE-LARIOUS reality show.

Labels: celebrity, justice

Something I read the other day has stuck with me and I'm trying to apply it to more aspects of my life.

Listen. Listen to everyone you can. Really listen.You don’t learn by talking about yourself and your own experience. You learn by listening to the ideas and experiences of others. By listening to the ideas of those around you, you can pick up whatever’s useful. Even the things you reject have taught you something—if only what to avoid. Everyone you talk with can bring you learning opportunities you might otherwise have missed. Never be snobbish either. The best lessons come in unexpected packages.

In addition to listening, I'm watching as well.

And today's lesson from a baby is that whatever a baby gets interested in also stands a pretty good chance of having a decent photo opportunity in it as well.

I learned this while showering with Sully this morning and seeing how amazed he was at water splashing into a box he was holding.And that is today's lesson from a baby.

Labels: lessons

I'm not sure what's changed but I can't publish to Blogger from FireFox anymore. Whenever I hit Publish or even Save As Draft, the text box is wiped clean before it does anything. Which is more than a wee bit frustrating.

The only change has been the addition of the ability to type Hindi fonts. Which I repeat is not something I need now nor do I ever plan on needing. And it appears that its addition is a potential cause of the new problems I am having with FireFox.

Oh well, I've got other stuff to do anyway. Still, Blogger (i.e. Google) is causing me annoyance but at least it appears to be working normally in Safari.

Labels: blog, firefox

Monday evening was a member night at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a special event for members and guests where the facility is almost deserted. They also unveiled a new exhibit, new otters!

We've been members for a couple of years and it has really been a great deal for us. Monterey is close enough to buzz down for a few hours and then come back home.

The thing is, Grady got charged up and never ran out his charge. He ran from tank to tank to exhibit to splash zone and back. He must have run several miles inside the place. He had that crazed look of a kid having a ball, a goofy smile and the forward leaning body of a toddler in motion.

I thought he'd run himself out after an hour but he was still going strong when the aquarium closed at 9. He did crash out on the drive home and we expected him to sleep well but it was not to be. At 3:30, my wife woke up and heard the tv on. Grady'd gotten out of bed, come downstairs, turned on the tv and then made a big ol' mess (he found a jar of pennies).

Which has resulted in a new procedure being added to out nighttime prep. Before I go to bed, the gate is moved from their bedroom door to the stairs. Which means, Grady can only come join us in our bed. One less opportunity to cause chaos. And one less is the direction to be headed in with our adorable little Dennis the Menace in training.

Labels: aquarium, children

Blogger has just implemented a new "feature" that lets me write my blog posts in Hindi, which is really going to be spectacularly useful to me.

The only problem with this "feature" is that it has decided to default itself on which makes posting posts to the blog a little more difficult. I had a nice post write up about going to the aquarium last night and Blogger ate it.

Annoying. But a good reminder to copy your post before hitting publish.

Labels: blog

One benefit to not working in an office full time is that I get to see my family an awful lot more than I normally would be able to. Which means that I'm more likely to be around when Graydon does something incredibly sweet and totally unprompted. Like, say, feeding his little brother applesauce? Yeah, that'll work.

Or the way he kept giving his mom a big hug, walking away and then running back to give her another big hug.

Parenting has its moments that are little tiny gems, they sparkle with the special new-ness that children bring to them.

I have never been as completely happy as I've been when I play with my children. Graydon loves to flop around on our bed, Sully likes to try and chase him. They both end up laughing like little maniacs and I do too.

Yesterday I put Grady's tent on our bed and, at one point, we had Grady, Sully, Momma and Poppa all in the tent at once. I look forward to and dread Sully getting his walking papers and starting to really motor around. Hopefully Grady will have started to listen a little better by then.

Labels: family

Vote on `.xxx' Internet address nears.

Putting all pornographic content behind .xxx domains makes total sense to me. There really isn't any argument that could be made to change my mind that this is a good idea.

Domains worried about losing their registration would get assurances that they would automatically get their domains. The .com domains would automatically forward would-be surfers to a lead-in page where age was verified and notification of the change to the .xxx domain would be made.

This would be easy to filter out of computers that kids have access to. It would be easy to disallow surfing to porn sites while at the public library and it would also allow the searching and surfing of sites dedicated to breast cancer because they wouldn't fall into the pron .xxx domain scheme.

I can't see how anyone would be against the creation of a real virtual red light district. There's always been one, this just puts it on the map and makes it easier to find or avoid, as the desire may be. No extra fees as in previous attempts to do this, just straight costs

Labels: pron

In between everything else, I've been playing a fair (or unfair, depending on your point of view) amount of Skyrates (pronounced sky-rats,like pirates but in the sky). Its a free game that's coming to the end of its beta. Basically what you do is you start out as a pilot with a lame little plane. You fly from island to island, buying and selling goods to get enough cash to upgrade or replace your plane with a nicer, better one. And there are all kinds to choose from with different capabilities and upgradability.

You can also engage in dogfights with pirate planes. They run the gamut from fast single cannon ships to enormous blimps with dangerous firing arcs.

It's hard to describe so you should just give it a try. Part of the premise for the game is that you don't have to play it all the time, you play it, set it up and let it play for itself for a number of hours and then come back and play when you want. It has some slick GUI too, you can see a map of the entire game and then have all the other player planes displayed as well.

It doesn't hurt that I've been on the leaderboard for daily kills and now the weekly kill leaderboard too. Your name in lights, always a good draw.

My current plane is called a Lancaster and its been upgraded to do an excellent job of shredding other planes. It also carries a bunch in its hold so you can transport a pretty good amount of stuff.

If you can get past the slow beginning and upgrade your plane intelligently, you can have a lot of fun pretty soon. My pilot name there is Fizzo D'Anger, I fly for the red faction.

Labels: gaming

In the process of my meeting with a career counselor, I'm learning some important and useful things about myself and how to present what I offer to a prospective employer or contractor.

Among them is that research and investigatory work is a key element of my skills and motivations. I like looking for answers, I like digging through data to discover new truths and I like presenting information previously unknown.

I'm not so good on the clerical side. I.e., put me in charge of a research division but make sure I have an assistant to help me stay on top of paperwork. A close second to research and investigations is techie or someone who likes to work with their hands. Which makes sense to me.

Enterprising also scored rather high above the other categories so that indicates I've got some of the stuff it takes to initiate and run my own business. One key element that I've been getting from the counseling that I didn't have before is the realization and reinforcement of the fact that I don't have to do everything. There are plenty of aspects of a self-run business that do not have to be taken care of by me. That's what sub-contractors are for, that's what accounting firms are for, that's what temp agencies and sales organizations are for.

There's no reason to get bogged down in the details and the things you hate to do. Focus on what you love to do and delegate what you don't like to others who will do it for you.

I also have a base hourly rate to charge and a better understanding of the value proposition that I offer to companies and agencies. Don't focus on what you can do, focus on what you love to do. It seems so simple and yet is so hard to put into practice.

Labels: career, discovery

I was just watching Tony Snow take questions from the press about the "generous offer" by the President to allow Meirs and Rove to be interviewed while not under oath to tell the truth.

Aside from doing nothing but dodging, ducking, weaving and volleying and not actually answering any questions to any semblance of satisfaction, he makes me want to physically smack him in the face. Scotty Mac didn't really do that, he evoked sympathy, Tony Snow evokes outright dislike and leanings towards outright smackdowns.

But that would be thuggish.

Labels: politics

President Bush thinks you are a drooling fool. He thinks you should be happy and satisfied with his assurances and the testimony of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers without having them swear to tell the truth.

Which is, effectively, having them swear to lie.

Without the oath any testimony is garbage. Without the oath they might as well be singing showtunes.

The Bush White House fired 8 federal prosecutors not for poor job performance but for poor Bush-sucking-up performances. They were told to target Democrats for investigations more than Republicans, they refused to play ball with the partisan wankery and got canned.

And that is wholly and irredeemably politically-based.

But Mr. Bush thinks we should all be happy little sheep and just accept whatever terms and conditions he wants to lay on any discussion or investigation into this latest scandal.

Mr. Bush, respectively, go fuck yourself. You are without a moral, ethical bone in your body and you have done little but lie to the American people for the last six years. The noose is closing around your administration and you will be lucky to avoid its grip.

Alberto Gonzales should be cleaning out his office by now, he's done. Karl Rove should be thinking about his next job, he's done too. Bush? He won't be impeached because that would leave us with Big Dick and nobody, not even the Republicans, wants to see that sick, mean bastard in power.

Testifying without an oath to tell the truth is a joke. I'm glad the Democrats aren't willing to accept these ridiculous terms and will force them to either give up their info or go to jail and they will probably end up doing both. Which is fine.

Labels: bush, politics, scandal

I've been busy, have you missed me?

We went to a birthday for a three year old on Sunday, had two boys with croup on Monday and finally got some peace and quiet today thanks to the humidifiers and the menthol strip heater upper thingie.

Even so, I went to bed at 9 last night. I never got to bed at 9. I got woken up at 4 and didn't get back to bed until 5 or so.

But I have been working on my resume and my resume skills. Found a few jobs I'm applying for that would work for my current schedule, freelance mostly. We'll see if anything comes of the initial attempts to make contact.

But I haven't really felt like blogging all that much for the last few days. Too much other stuff going on that takes priority. But I'll be back as I can. Promise.

Labels: busy

Hey You! Yeah you reading this. You play baseball? You play fantasy baseball?

Do you want to play some fantasy baseball?

I've got a small league that needs two more teams to become viable. Why don't you come on down and show us what you got?

Leave a comment or drop me an email (erik at intellectualpoison dot com) and join up? It is free, it is fun and the live draft is next Wednesday evening.

Labels: fantasy baseball

or, Accountability Ain't Just a Word Anymore, Mr. Bush!

Power shift puts Bush team on defense amid scandals about the conditions at Walter Reed and the political firings of 8 federal prosecutors (who had been pressured to investigate Democrats specifically by the GOP leadership).

This is why this country needs it's checks and balances. If the Republicans had retained their strangehold on the reins of power then none of this would be happening. Alberto Gonzales would not be fighting for his job (which he will lose within the next two weeks). Karl Rove would not be being forced to testify. Ol' Rummy wouldn't have been fired. More and more skeletons and scandals are going to surface and ShrubCo doesn't have the juice to shush them away with lame lies and smarmy charm anymore.

Our country needs the checks and balances of a two party system. And now, now the rats are scurrying away from the sinking HMS Bush like the filthy rats they are. Everyone wants to distance themselves as far as possible from these craven, partisan wankers who have steered our nation into very dangerous waters.

Bring on the indictments, bring on the trials, bring on the prison sentences. Hold these crooks responsible and accountable for their crimes against our country and against the world.

I dare George Bush to pardon Scooter Libby. I double dare him. The flameout will be all the more spectacular that way.

Why yes, yes I am pleased that accountability has been re-introduced into Washington. It is about fucking time!

Labels: bush, politics

Are you curious about that chemical spill in Minnesota? Or how about the bio hazard situation in Honduras? The Havaria Information Systems AlertMap is updated in (near) real-time and the wealth of bad news is fairly astonishing. Plus they've got RSS feeds for whatever bad (or locationally relevant) news you want delivered. There are USA only maps, Europe only maps and Hungary too (slow day, just a fire).

Labels: alertmap, disaster

I've rarely felt as deeply frustrated as I've been for the last couple of days. If it isn't one kid than its the other, if its not one of the kids then its the dog, if its not the dog then its my wife, if its not my wife then its an inanimate thing that's decided right then is the right time to break.

Case in point, my keyboard has decided to ignore some presses of the space bar and then to double up on others. Which means I spend alot of time deleting and retyping stuff.

I know what I need, I just don't have the time or money to take care of it right now. Mostly the time really which is stupid because I don't have a job right now. But no job means I am always available to take care of the kids. Which means I can't be looking for a job which means I might as well be pounding on sand.

Not sleeping well isn't helping either and really, some days, I just want to get in the car and drive away and not ever come back. I know that's a bad thing to write or think and I wouldn't ever do it but its how I feel right now and that is that.

As soon as my wife is home from the shop, I think I am going to grab my bike and go for a ride. I know that's part of the solution, not just for me but for everyone in the family. Only none of them are invited today. I need some time for me, I need some time for me to spend with me and not being concerned with making sure everyone else has everything they need all the time.

One of the most recent additions to my task list is to write down the things I need to be happier. Part of the process of working with my career counselor is to identify those things that motivate me as opposed to those things that I am capable of doing. The latter is a very, very wide pool of possibilities and the former is much more restricted. It is very important to align activities and work with those things that you are passionate about because motivation always trumps capability.

And, because I try to be optimistic at heart, one positive before this rolls up. I came across a truly ideal job posting this week. I wrote an entirely new resume for it based on some professional examples I found while researching. The new resume is a substantial improvement over the previous one and I have additional ammo to create more impact and to nail the cover letters as well.

I don't hate work, I hate working for bad people. And there is no earthly reason why I shouldn't be making my living doing something I wholeheartedly enjoy. I like PR and am good at it but there were certain aspects of it that I loathed but had to do anyway which cuts deeply into job satisfaction.

Labels: rant, whatever

I thought I should note here that I have, officially, reached my saturation point on the ubiquitous Rachel Ray.

Her media saturation is running at about a 9.75 and I think the world would be better served if she were down in the high 6's or possibly the low 7's.

That is all. Oh yeah, Giada whatshername kind of creeps me out. Could her mouth be any larger? Eeek.

Labels: overplayed, Rachel Ray

New tire with retractable studs will be available next year.

Just like every other kid, I had this idea a long time ago. I just lacked the manufacturing capabilities to put it into production. Basically an air bladder pushes the studs out when you need them (which sounds like bad dialog from bad pron) and they retract when unneeded.

How flipping awesomely cool is that? Yeah, pretty flipping awesomely cool!

Labels: autotech, Bond Gear, studded tire

Dad Charged in Ind. Baby Stabbing

What in the fucking name of humanity is wrong with this scumbag that he would try to murder his own baby boy?

Actually, I don't really care what's wrong with him. That someone would willingly cause such greivous harm to their child and then dump him out a window on to the pavement is a pretty strong indication that he's not fit for society or existence.

I would be shocked if I weren't so goddamn pissed off at this disgusting excuse for a human being. Skip the trial and drop him straight into the shredder.

Simon Cowell, the farkin' asshole judge on American Idol, will declare in an interview for "60 Minutes" to air this Sunday that he's bigger than Bruce Springsteen.

Yes. Because Bruce Springsteen's only recorded a whole crapload of songs that are part of the American fabric and Simon "Farkin'" Cowell has sat in disgusted and rude judgment over idiots who think they can sing.

That's right, Simon Cowell is bigger and more important than The Boss, who wrote and sang "Born in the USA".

Why? Because Simon "My Farts Smell Like Cotton Candy" Cowell has MADE STARS! He has judged, found far, far too many wanting but, through the power of his own superduper powers, he molds losers into superstars. Sure, he can't sing or dance or actually DO anything but he's bigger, better and more awesomer than Bruce Springsteen.

Would someone please just drop him down a well so all his rejects can gather up and sing him a tribute album, "Sending Our Bile Down a Well" or something tasteful.

I hated American Idol before, due in large part to the simpering asshatery that is Simon Cowell, and these ridiculous proclamations of greatness from a fucking JUDGE on a crap fake reality show certainly won't help. Something pretty seriously wrong with a broker (which is what he really is) putting himself ahead of the artists he's supposed to be supporting. But then, he's a walking ego that gets off on knocking other people down, what would you expect?

He's quoted as saying he sells more records than Bruce Springsteen. I'm sorry, where's the Simon Cowell Croons Shitty Covers of Bad Pop Songs album? Oh yeah, it doesn't exist.

And yes, American Idol is among the worst pap on tv. The only reason to watch it now is to enjoy the freakouts, from the idiots who can't sing to Paula Abdul's medicated interviews. Oh yeah, and to imagine Ryan Seacrest doing gay porn because it just seems to fit him so well.

Labels: cock punch, egos

TechDirt has a posting about TrimSpa's latest "Tivo-Proof" ads that highlights a problem with advertising in general. If you need to force eyeballs to look at your ad then you've already failed as an advertiser.

The attempt to force people to look at your ad is self-defeating. If you force me to look at your ad, I will, but only so I can memorize your brand so as to NEVER BUY YOUR PRODUCT. Using force or highly manipulative techniques to get my eyes on your schlock is 100% guaranteed to fail to win me as a customer.

You will not force me into buying your product, the real end goal of your advertising. You can trick me into watching your ad with humor, shock or really hot chicks. But trick me in other ways, such as the pizza ad during Survivor that looked like the lead-in back into the show so I stopped fast-forwarding on Tivo, that ad "worked" but still failed as I won't be buying their pizza, ever. And yes, I know who's pizza it was, I'm just not giving them any more attention that they don't deserve.

Just like GoDaddy, a company run by assholes, uses shock and pornstars for its ads. They have to because their company has a piss poor reputation and has, without any verification, shut down sites registered with them based on a single, anonymous complaint.

Also, TrimSpa's the company that hired Anna Nicole Smith to be their spokesmodel, that should tell you tons about their target demographic and marketing tactics.

Labels: advertising, tivo-proof

So I checked the California Lottery site this morning to see if I still needed a job (alas, I do) and, since I had Grady sitting on my lap, I was typing one handed. I screwed up the URL and "accidentally" typed calootery.com instead. Which isn't so far off but didn't provide the winning numbers I wanted to check. But it didn't get me where I needed to go.

And, upon finally reaching the correct site, I found out that we had not matched a single number. Bummer, that means I've gotta keep looking for a job.

Labels: lottery, numbers

We had a blast out on the beach the other day. We have been working through a wicked heat spell right now which makes the beach a real possibility even though that water splashing over Graydon is really, really cold!

He had his best time ever at the beach. He would chase the waves back and forth, would scream in delight when a wave would bash over him and he loved it when I'd rocket him up above a breaking wave.

And, oh yeah, he slept like a rock!

And I got a whole bunch of fun photos too. Man, I really need a full sized DSLR to start to really leverage the photo opportunities. Hard to justify dropping a big chunk of change right now though.

Labels: beach, fun, kids, water

A good headline gives away the story that follows. A great headline obviates the need for reading the story that follows, unless you're on of those "detail-oriented" types and you need to know the what and where and who and how and why and all that hooha.

It was on March 13th, 2002 that the first tentative bleatings of Intellectual Poison were made. In the beginning, Intellectual Poison wasn't called Intellectual Poison but something really stupid and lame, like Rant-o-Rama or somesuch.

I began blogging after becoming a regular reader to a blog that eventually got outed as a total sham. I won't mention it here because, yes, I'm still peeved at the lengths of deception the man went to in order to sustain his lies.

But history has a way of doing for itself, I can warp my recollections of it but I can't change the fundamental realities of history. Not yet, at least.

Anyway, lets indulge my not-so-inner numbers geek and break it down a bit, eh?

Five years equals 1826 days unless two of those years were leap years but I'm calling it 1826.
Total published posts in that span equals 3707 which works out to just over two posts per day.
In that time I've had 424,832 visitors to the site (not including myself since SiteMeter lets me filter out my own IP address) which averages to 232.65 per day.
I currently write to 14 Blogger blogs, I have one forlorn Vox blog and one WordPress blog that also needs some love soon or it will shrivel up and die. Several of those Blogger blogs are on life support as well, one is private, the rest are niche blogs.
My far and away most popular blog is Wal-Mart is Pure Evil. It accounts for 40-50% of my daily hits.
My all-time most popular story was back when Kobe Bryant had "consensual" sex with that 18 year old in Colorado. I believe I hit 16,000 visitors in a single day on that one. Second to that is the video footage of Randy Johnson destroying a bird with his fastball, I am always amazed when I watch this video. It gets popular around the time baseball season starts to kick up to speed. I'll repost it in the main blog soon to make it a little easier to find.

What else has happened in the last five years?
I've quit one long-held job in protest, returned to a previous company that had laid me off before, worked there for six months and got laid off again. Currently meeting with a career counselor to find a better way to work.
I've gotten married, bought a house, got a dog and had two amazing children.

One of which is demanding my attention right now. Also, please note that I have, until this last line, avoided the use of the word, blogversary, it makes my head hurt.

By the way, I forgot to note that it was Amy's post about forgetting her six year anniversary that made me remember mine.

Labels: anniversary, blog

I realize that this post will generate zero sympathy and maybe even some outright irritation from readers in the colder climates.

You may be coping with sub-zero weather, snow, icy roads, black ice hidden in corners and Jack Frost and but we are dealing with an entirely different reality. It is absolutely sweltering out here today. So much so that all the windows are wide open to try and draw a cool breeze across the house. It is so hot that we've got the door to the garage open to try and draw some cool air that way as well.

It's so hot that all the dogs in the neighborhood are sitting in the shade panting loudly. But I'm much happier out of an office than I would be stuck inside looking out. And, on that note, I'm headed to the post office and the fruit stand.

Labels: swelter, weather

I bit the bullet yesterday afternoon after both the boys had crashed out for their long afternoon naps. I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the project known as cleaning the fish tank. I knew it involved fish guts, fish poop, fish slime and, quite possibly, fish bodies. I was not "disappointed" at all, lots of everything!

It also involves the further escalation of my war against this nasty horse-hair algae that makes the tank look like an extra from Stephen King's Creepshow (you know the episode in the movie where King touches a meteorite and turns into a plant?). The stuff is incredibly aggressive, grows very, very quickly and pretty well just pisses me off.

But its been reduced to a mere shell of its former glory and those remaining shell fragments are slated for eradication later this morning once the boys are at daycare.

Anyway, here's a little hint that I'm sure nobody needs to know about. Dead fish do not, in theory or in fact, make for a better running fish tank filtration system. Not one fish body and definitely not two fish bodies. And most definitely not when they've been there long enough to start to rot. Lovely.

I also reworked the filter system so that it works better and makes more sense too, always a plus. I never really understood the reasoning behind the original set up, it just seemed stupid and helped a good proportion of the water water bypass the charcoal filtration altogether. Anyway, now it rips along, won't get clogged as easily and the water passes through a foam filter, charcoal filter, bio filters and then a last foam filter before going back into the tank, should help keep the works clean, for now.

I pulled the rocks and driftwood from the tank to clean as well, that'll be fun. I'd originally thought I'd boil the rocks to get rid of the algae but we don't have a pot big enough for that. So, instead, I'm soaking them in a bleach/water solution that should kill off the algae, eventually. I'll let each rock sit for a couple of days and then dry in the sun and then soak in clean water for a few days. With some luck, we'll put the nasty horsehair infestation behind us.

And, because I've lost a few fish here and there over the last couple of months, I think it might be time to get some new fish for the tank. And some new plants too.

Labels: cleaning, fish tank

What's life without a little excitement? And by excitement I mean a message on your home page saying your domain's expired and you should have probably renewed it. Oops.

Let this be a lesson to you all. Make sure you keep your email contact up to date. The disconnect in this case came from the contact info they had for an old Yahoo email account that was viciously taken away when I stopped paying the exorbitant $10 a month Yahoo wanted me to pay. Anyway.

The other complication was the addition of privacy to keep my identity a secret. I re-upped the domain two years ago so it made more sense to keep myself shielded from discovery by my then boss.

But there's really not much point anymore.

Anyway, I'm just happy and hoping this brings IP back to life.

Labels: blog, PTI

Here are some shots from a recent foray into the land of the concentric circle also known as Tar-shay or just plain ol' Target.

The Sonic Blade just made me laugh, its a wireless electric knife, that's comedy gold. And the Monkey See shirt was in the kid's section, it was a pretty cute shirt. The last shirt was in the big boy's section and I expect that I'd see a couple on St. Pat's day if I were heading out for a tipple.

The camera in my cellphone has become alot more usable now that I've finally figured out how to sync the phone with my computer via Bluetooth. But I can't get the phone to work with my Clie for some reason which is kind of a bummer. Nor can I get my wireless Bluetooth headphones to work with the Clie or the cell. I had thought that Bluetooth was a pretty standard standard but I keep getting told that the device doesn't have the services to sync. Oh well. I'm still all "Bond" when I sync wirelessly.

Labels: bluetooth, cellphone

In what may just be an odd coincidence, my mother's digital camera died recently and my old "dead" Canon S400 came back to life.

My mother's camera became afflicted with the dreaded and too-well-known E18 error, much more info about the E18 at E18Error.com. Basically, the cameras have a defect in them that "bricks" a camera.