Intellectual Poison

There are many times when I'm very happy to not be working in PR anymore. So much of the business is busy work that drains the soul to do, pisses off the editors and analysts you're trying to cultivate and really just blows chunks.

One of the very worst parts of the job are the call downs. A call down is, basically, war dialing editors from a huge list of contacts that have already been emailed to request an interview to try and garner some client coverage or interest.

Why do call downs suck? Because you know the editor (most editors) absolutely hates the interuption of a ringing phone. And jeebus do they hate, hate, hate a call to ask them if they got your email. Rest assured, they did and if they didn't respond immediately its because they are a) busy with a deadline, b) busy with other interviews, c) uninterested or d) it isn't their beat.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to make the call down only to find out that the editor no longer covers the security space or the insurance technology space. Most editors are pretty nice about it but I have had some really lay into me for the off target contact. I've had one who went one step further and, when he ran into my client at a show, told them what a terrible job of PR my team had done for them. Yes, I know exactly who he is and no, I will not out him here. He knows he's a dick and he doesn't care in the least. And no, I never contacted him for anything again. I wouldn't stop to piss on him if he was on fire. And its been seven years or more. Not that I'm one to hold a grudge or anything.

I know enough editors well enough to have a tiny idea of how inundated they get with emails, phone calls, interview requests, conference briefings, product reviews and, now, Twitter and other new media networking tools.

No job is perfect and no job is a perfect fit but I could feel myself increasingly becoming a worse and worse fit for the grunt work side of the PR game. I loathed the call downs and it probably came through in my pitches. Suffice it to say that I rather enjoy the work I do now even if the pay is quite a bit less, I don't have an integral part of my work that entails pestering and interrupting busy editors and analysts.

Labels: public relations

Its time to get some input from readers about how to make Intellectual Poison a better, more entertaining, more informative, less annoying, less whatever or more whatever else.

If you were me, how would you improve this site?

Labels: blog

Exxon Mobil posts biggest US quarterly profit ever and yet John McCain wants to give the oil industry another $4 billion in the misguided lie that some of that money will trickle down to the middle class.

Um yeah.

How about cutting out the middleman and just cutting a check to each and every American? A good portion of that money will still go to Big Oil because we have to put gas in our cars.

But giving tax breaks to a company that keeps breaking its own record for record profit quarters is pretty despicable.

I just posted Comparing Apples and Lemons over on IP Politik, its a short comparison of the educational backgrounds of the four candidates. It came from an email posted over on The Nutsy Fagan Diaries and it rocks.

Labels: education, politics

The more astute readers of this blog may have noticed a rather unusual lack of posts these days. I've been trying to put most of my politics on IP Politik and that's been one of my main things right now.

But even so, my blogging batteries have run down a bit and I'm occasionally asking myself just what the whole friggin' point of this thing is.

And then I get given a link to hot women with painted on Halloween costumes, like this one and it all makes sense again.

And yeah, the link is NSFW but oh so good on the eyes.

Enjoy, I'm going back downstairs to watch the end of the World Series and have some pizza. Regularly scheduled ranting and madness will resume soon, I'm sure.

Labels: awesome, costume

Parrotard - somebody who's obviously pretty stupid and exists for no reason but to parrot (repeat) talking points written by someone else. See Hasselbeck, Elizabeth.

More words here.

Labels: nwotd

And not in the bad is good kind of way.

I arrived at my afternoon school site to a rather aggravated and worried teacher pal. He explained that he came back to his classroom to find his laptop sitting in a puddle of spilled water.

One of his students had accidentally knocked over a bottle of water near the machine and didn't bother to tell him or try to clean it up. So the laptop sat in the water for a little while.

Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), the teacher was deeply peeved and worried that the years of work in his machine were gone. I let him know that, even if the machine was fried, he stood a pretty good chance of recovering his data off the hard drive. Plus, since the liquid was water and not a sticky soda or something, he stood a decent chance of not having even destroyed his machine.

But we won't know for a couple of day as the laptop is now on its side in front of a fan with paper towels underneath it.

What's the lesson? Keep food and liquids as far away from your electronics as possible. Or keep the bottle tops screwed on tight.

Labels: destruction, laptop, water

Submitted for your review, a list of political groups with honest names along with suggested spokespeople.

The Christian Coalition of Conservative Dumbfuckery
Spokesidiot: Elizabeth "I'll say any GOP talking point you want even if I have no idea what it means" Hasselbeck

Western Hemisphere Homophobic Knobgobblers
Spokesbottom: Larry "Toe-tapper in the crapper" Craig

Bible Thumping Ass Blaster Meth Master Pastors
Spokespastor: Ted "Gay is bad but feels so good, especially when you're high on meth" Haggard

Single Issue White Haters
Spokesdouche: Rudy "Grinning Goblin of 9/11 Repeatance" Guiliani

Rich White Fat Greedy Assholes
Spokesrectum: Dick "Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney

The Alliance to Gang Rape Mother Earth
Spokestwit: Sarah "Drill, baby, Drill" Palin

Patriots for Censorship, Intolerance and Bigotry
Spokescensor: Newt Gingrich

Little Old White Ladies Who Fear Everything Including Black People and Change
Spokestrembler: Cindy "Where's my pills?" McCain

Chinless Warhawk Senator Flip Floppers
Spokestraitor: "Chinless" Joe Lieberman

And there we go. Have you come up with any honestly named groups? Yes, you may have noticed that these are all Republican groups. The reason for that is because the Republican party has, far, far more regularly, than the Democrats, engaged in negative, untruthful smear style campaigning that lowers the debate for all.

I hope this list of groups is marginally humorous. I chuckled a couple of times while writing it, mostly at the first one which I wrote while watching that Parrotard (yes, new word) Hasselbeck become Sarah Palin's only adviser she'll listen to. Plus, I just like saying the word dumbfuckery.

Labels: dumbfuckery, politics, satire

Because Ryan's been changing the name of his blog about as often as he changes his underwear, I thought I'd have a little fun with some blogans (that's blog slogan).

Anyway, here we go, better ones closer to the top:
Read my pucker!
If only sexist were the same as sexy. (Edit: thanks, Amy)
I'm smiling because I just farted.
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey write, monkey poo.
I can shout louder than you so that makes me right.
I'm thinking the turnip truck stopped, backed up and ran over you after you fell off.
Just a beautiful assortment of letters in a pretty format.
Two and two may equal four but you're still wrong and I'm still right.
I don't like you. Or me, for that matter.
Flicking digital boogers at the internet.
This is what I do when I'm not masturbating.
Making out with lipsticked pigs.
Quiet down and bask in the glory of my intellect.
Like the back of the hand for all the internet's backtalk.
If I were any pithier, I'd be a cherry.
You can't even begin to understand my rage.

Got other blogans that you like? Leave a comment and let me know.
Want to use one of these? That's totally cool, leave a comment and I'll come visit.

Labels: blog, blogan

Maybe it was going to bed a little late. Maybe it was the nap I had yesterday. Maybe its the early morning wake up when Sully got into our bed in the middle of the night. Maybe it was Sully having a conversation with himself at 6:30 this morning in our bed. Maybe its the fog. Maybe its the chilly overcast day. Maybe its all of it.

But it doesn't really matter because I'm just not really feeling it today.

Maybe I should just try and work through it. Let's see what's on the list for this week?
- Keep sanding the bunk beds.
- Keep repairing the fence/digging out the trench.
- Pick up and repair my son's pre-school computer.
- Stop by and fix a pal's munged up Wifi settings.
- Work my regular hours above and beyond my regularly scheduled hours at my 4th school.
- Decorate the house for Halloween.
- Break out the scary music and sounds effects playlist on my old iPod.
- Try to get my bike in for a badly, badly needed tune up.
- Various Craigslist postings to be written and posted.
- Put together a tentative racing calendar for late 2008 and 2009.
- Finish editing my last biking video with Nande and Brady.
- Work on invention prototype.

I'm sure I'll remember more as the day wears on.

Plus, I don't know if I slept funny or if my hip is giving out for good now but my left hip joint has been aching most of the day. So much that I decided to drive to work rather than chance it on the motorcycle because a hip cramp while moving can be damned difficult to cope with.

Labels: tasklist

Halloweek - because a single day for costume play dress up fun is just nowhere near enough to a four year old, we have come up with Halloweek, a week long celebration of Halloween.

More new words here

Labels: nwotd

Report: Kids less likely to graduate than parents. Think about this for a second. My children are less likely to graduate from high school than I am

Did you know New Mexico graduates a whopping 67% of its students from high school? That means one in three doesn't get a diploma. Shocking.

In fact, the United States is now the only industrialized country where young people are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma, the report said, citing data compiled by the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

What this really does is sell our future out. If we have an ignorant and uneducated population then we are far less able to compete globally. We are unable to innovate as well, we are unable to develop new industries and we go more and more from being a producer to being a consumer.

There have been studies that show a direct relationship between funding for early education and incarceration rates. More money spent on early childhood education saves $16 for each dollar spent. That's a sixteen times return on investment irregardless of the fact that we'd be creating a better workforce, reducing the number of people in prisons and the quality of life for all Americans would rise.

But no, instead we build more prisons to house people we've failed to educate and the cycle feeds itself. We have to break the cycle, we need to fully fund education, we need to get class sizes down to below 30 kids per room, we need to invest in our future by investing in our children now or we'll be forced to pay for them to sit in cement lined cages during their productive years.

And that is just stupid. I suppose I should get used to Teh Stoopid because it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Labels: education, funding, investment, prison

Cameltopia - the belief that the world would be a better place if there were more cameltoes.

Go here for more new words.

----------------
Now playing: Steriogram - Walkie-Talkie Man
via FoxyTunes

Labels: nwotd

Retart - mashed up from retarded art, coined by Nutsy in response to the idiot who slapped some wagon wheels on a Hummer H3 and called it an art piece.

Nice!

It will, of course, also find its way over to the Fictionarium for posterity.

Labels: nwotd

Because my thoughts are so disjointed, I thought I'd just regurgitate things that are bouncing around inside my head.

- Whatever happened to Fiona Apple? Did she get taken back to her planet of hot little crazy waifs or what?

- Is there going to be an October Surprise from the McCain camp?

- I'm not sure which way to bet on whether Sarah Palin goes back to Alaska or whether she takes a position as a talking head/GOP parrot for Fox News.

- The turn signal replacement switch out on my motorcycle took longer than I'd hoped but it came out pretty darned well, they look good and I'm legal again, which is the important part!

- I'm pretty sick and tired of trying to parse out the stupid serial number for Apple Remote Desktop to complete the migration to my new workstation computer. Its been an incredibly annoying process and its not even close to being resolved.

- Like a teabag left in the water too long, I've become stained by all the politics lately. I'm looking forward to scrubbing it all off soon.

- Its too damned hot in my computer lab right now. I'm going home.

Labels: random

One of side projects over the last few months has been to try and gain remote access to my home computer network from behind my school district's firewall. This was complicated by the use of a wireless router at the house which required a substantial amount of investigation in how to get through it and to my computer's IP.

And I did it.

Last night I finally found the final missing piece of the remote access puzzle and was able to take control of my other computer through my router. All was good and happy in the kingdom of Geekistan.

Until today when I actually go to test it out in real world conditions. And by real world conditions I mean my own particular working environment which includes a rather robust firewall and an active site filter.

One of which has broken the connection I so laboriously developed and created. I know it still works because I'm at my site where I know there's unsecured wifi on the corner of the campus and I checked it from there and had zero problems in remoting in.

So yeah, several hurdles cleared but a few more left to go.

Labels: technical difficulties

This is funny and wrong and goofy and still kind of appealing to my inner ten year old all at once.

Labels: bad marketing

I know that I'm one of the first to abuse whatever meager soapbox Intellectual Poison has become over the years since we started up back in 2002. Yes, Virginia, this next May will mark 7 years of blogging. No, I have not solved all the problems in the world but that's mostly because the right people aren't paying attention yet.

Pay attention, right people! Damn! Do you want me to repeat myself? Again?

Anyway, this post isn't about me.

This post is specifically to wish my big sister a Happy Birthday! I won't say how old she is but she's my big sis and I don't know when the last time I took a moment to recognize truly what an awesome, inspiring, strong and cool woman she is.

Skootchy Su, I hope you are having an epically (spell check says that's right but it doesn't look right or sound right to me) fun day with your studly stud boys. We out here on the left coast will raise a glass and toast to you this evening!

Labels: family, happy birthday, sister

Today's new word is another mash up, actually its a mash up of a mash up.

Blogan - blog (mashed up from web log) slogan, the cute and supposed to be witty saying that goes underneath your cute and supposed to be witty blog title.

Mine currently is One non-aggression pact from nirvana but it isn't really working for me anymore so I'm going to come up with some new ones. That post should be going live later today unless the computers revolt again.

And yes, Blogan is also being posted at the Fictionarium too.

Labels: nwotd

Report: Pro Elite and Elite XC ’shutting its doors effective immediately' which has to be part of the fallout from promoting Kimbo Slice as the second coming of Ninja Christ.

They would have fared better if they'd focused on Gina Carano and the other excellent female fighters they had in their stable. But instead they opted to promote and hype and talk up a YouTube star without the skills to back it up.

Not to say that they don't have other good male fighters but they seemed to have a special niche with female fighters. Shame Gina has such a hard time making weight though as that will hold her back.

Anyway, an MMA start up is going to bleed money for years before it starts to even see a profit margin on the horizon and right now isn't the right time for a long tail possibility given the economic climate.

I hope the UFC signs some of these now unaffiliated fighters because there are some solid martial artists in there.

The lesson here is don't hitch your company to a false martial arts superstar. Kimbo isn't anywhere near a top flight fighter, he's a freakshow from Teh Intarnets who fought unskilled rubes in backyard ass whoopings. If he had even moderate mma skills then UFC-cast-off Petruzelli wouldn't have been able to kick his ass so easily.

And don't even get my started on Goldenboy getting involved in mma, Goldenboy is a boxing promotion by Oscar de la Hoya and has about as much to do with mma as dodgeball has with football.

Labels: fail, mixed martial arts, mma

Hairstylust - hots for your hairstylist.

Appropriate since I'm married to a hairstylist.

Go here for more new words.

Labels: nwotd

If Jesse James drove a Hummer... then you can bet he wouldn't have been retarded enough to put old wooden wagon wheels on it and call it "Art".

It would have been more art-like (or is that art-esque?) to make its tires out of little green Army Men. At least that would have been a statement that made the slightest bit of sense.

Actually, it would have been more of a statement to put the Hummer's wheels on an actual horse drawn wagon. Maybe even some spinners for the bling-bling-I'm-an-idiot effect.

Labels: stupid

Cartoonist depicts Colin Powell as Benedict Arnold in blackface despite Colin Powell's well thought out reasoning and justification for his endorsement (that is, that Obama is a uniter, hasn't been running a negative campaign about "character issues" and that Obama has the experience and charisma to bring the country back together).

Yes, its far, far easier and more inflammatory to say Colin Powell endorsed Obama solely based on the color of his skin.

Which is to say, Gordon Campbell, the cartoonist, is a simpleton racist.

Colin Powell gave alot of thought to his endorsement and to be branded a traitor because he chose Obama over McCain smacks of desperation, hatred and racism. And that sums up the Grand Old Party's "contributions" this election season. Smear, fear and steer clear of any association with the last 8 years.

It will not work, McCain will not win.

The week has gotten off to a slightly rough, slightly late start thus far. Between the boys getting their sleep patterns all mashed up last night with late naps and later bedtimes and the generalized stress of the start of the workweek and then toss my wife's birthday in on top of everything and you've got a recipe for meltdown mania.

I hope things start to smooth out sooner rather than later since I'm now at work and unable to provide assistance.

Some thoughts on the weekend:
Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live was lame and SNL should be ashamed for helping to promote her. I've heard she's already been offered a position with Fox News once the election is over and her ticket gets crushed.

The Red Sox just didn't quite have enough in the tank to get by the Devil Rays. They put up a good show, came from far, far behind to tie it up but just couldn't quite get over the top. A Phillies and Devil Rays World Series isn't the worst thing that could have happened though and it'll be interesting at the very least. Besides, the distinct lack of Yankees in the post season has already made winners of us all.

The latest UFC Fight Night had some good fights, I haven't gotten through the whole show yet but the Paul Kelly/Marcus Davis fight was good action and the Lytle/Taylor match was very good. I think Brandon Vera's just about done in the UFC, he can't keep putting up pretty mediocre fights and expect to stay in the big leagues.

The slowly dying freezer at home just adds to the general chaos of our life and not really in a good way. It complicates things tremendously and is forcing us to spend time on it when we don't really have time to spare.

We did have a good time at a lumberjack party up above Scotts Valley yesterday. It always amazes me at just how totally different someone else's home environment is like. Their house couldn't be any more different than mine if it were on the moon. While Sully and I were hanging out on the deck, two deer came up from the mostly dried up stream below, they circled the house and then made their way up the street to the next house. There haven't been deer near my house in probably twenty years. The house was Santa Cruz old-school hippy funky which meant that it had lots of interesting spaces, a sunken living room, a big deck, lots of sun, privacy and it was really quiet.

Plus they had a 26 ton log splitter available to help grind through the rather large pile of wood that had accumulated. And nothing says fun like a gas-powered log splitter!

The weekend, as most weekends seem to, went by too quickly and not enough stuff got done although I was able to knock off some minor list items on Saturday with the boys. But it isn't quite enough and we start the week just a little bit further behind than we left last week.

I wish I'd been able to give my wife exactly what she really wants for her birthday, a day off to catch up. But that'll have to wait until I've got a day to give her. Things aren't exactly easy these days but we're getting through it all together as best we can.

I did not get a chance to go riding this weekend but that's only partially because I'm a lazy guy, I torqued up my shoulder towards the end of last week and I'm not quite sure if its going to play nicely right now. Its been pretty sore all weekend but feels a little better this morning, maybe that's just wishful thinking though. We'll see.

Today is going to be a grind from start to finish, whenever that might end up being.

Labels: politics, sports, wrap-up

Wishunderstanding - wishful misunderstanding. When you intentionally don't hear something that you're being asked to or are supposed to do.

More words here.

Labels: nwotd

The old saying "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" holds true when it comes to working with me. I do not respond well at all to demanding, rude and annoying people. More so when they are asking me to do something for them and being rude about it. Even more so when the asker can't be bothered to follow my department's established procedures.

If this is an obtuse post then I apologize as I'm really just venting some frustration in having to deal with people that don't see manners as anything but a waste of their time.

If you are asking me to do something for you and you actually want it to get done then you'd best put on a happy face and use your manners. Otherwise you get nothing from me.

And I should note that I'm not the only one that has a bit of a problem with this particular teacher. Her colleagues stopped trying to help her out years ago because she was so ungrateful, demanding and downright kind of nasty about it. And I have plenty of other things on my plate from teachers that can follow procedure.

Labels: kvetching, work

Tryiring - (tri-a-ring) tired from trying so hard.

More new words here.

Labels: nwotd

The UFC's next big event is UFC 89 and will broadcast for free on Spike TV on Saturday the 18th. There are some decent fights but the overall card is pretty weak with fewer fights than normal and fewer "name" fighters.

But let's do a quick predictions rundown.

Bisping vs Leben - Bisping by TKO strikes. Unless Leben gets another Terry Martin thunder punch to knock Bisping cold, Bisping just has the more complete all around game.
Jardine vs Vera - Jardine by TKO strikes. Jardine punches harder and wants it more.
Sokoudjou vs Cane - Sokoudjou by strikes. I don't know Cane at all but I've seen Sokoudjou a few times and he's explosive and dynamic and this should be a good fight.
Taylor vs Lytle - Taylor by strikes. I watched the Davis/Taylor fight again last night and was very impressed with Taylor's striking. I don't think Lytle can stand with him.
Kelly vs Davis - Davis by strikes. He's explosive, incredibly strong and has superb recovery ability if he does get tagged, yes, you can consider me a fan of "The Irish Hand Grenade".

The other fights on the card involve fighters that I've not seen fight enough to make a prediction one way or the other.

Check back after the fight to see I scored. Also, feel free to leave a comment with your fight predictions as well.

Labels: fight night, mma, UFC

Google's philosophy is to not be evil. But they took a rather large step towards Big Brother Evil today when they decided to rearrange how my information is displayed on my iGoogle home page.

They took the tabs from the top of the screen and made a new column along the side which means everything gets squeezed in a little more. The tabs are not closeable, they are not movable, they are expanded so I can now fill the whole page with Gmail (or, you know GO TO MY FUCKING GMAIL DIRECTLY) or with Betwittered.

This change makes absolutely no sense to me as it takes up screen space unnecessarily, there's no way to turn it off or revert to the old and preferred display format and, if other comments are to be believed, I'm one of many, many, many users who are thoroughly pissed off about this unwanted and worthless change.

You feeling me, Google? Change it back or, at the very fucking least, give me the option to change it back. Your improvements SUCK!

[Update: I did come across a rather easy to use workaround. Change your google.com URL to google.ie or google.uk and you'll log into your Google home page in the United Kingdom or Ireland and everything will be where it's supposed to be again. Until Google jacks their pages up too.]

Labels: evil, forced upgrade, google

The last debate is in the books and now we just have a three week sprint to the finish. I fully expect the McCain campaign to keep mortgaging whatever dignity it might still have to try and eat into Obama's rather huge lead.

McCain needed to crush Obama last night to make a dent in the double digit lead. He baited Obama repeatedly, he insulted him, he called him a liar, a person who consorts with terrorists and he called him naive and inexperienced.

The thing is, McCain is the liar, McCain is the guy who consorts with terrorists (or did you not know Saddam "Freakin" Hussein's chief lobbyist is on McCain's payroll?), McCain is the one with the overly-simplistic economic plan (cutting all earmarks to nothing will save .5% of the national budget) and McCain's health care plan is a joke, just like his education plan, his energy plan and his campaign cries of Change when his party has been in charge for the last eight years.

McCain offers nothing new and his running mate offers nothing of substance or value at all unless you strongly value a move towards fundamental and extreme religion in this country. Oh what's that? You don't believe in the same God as Sarah Palin? Then you should and you will BURN IN HELL, SINNER!

Oh wait, I don't believe in her God either. What kind of a God gives a mandate to go to war in Iraq when they had nothing at all to do with 9/11? What kind of a God gives a mandate to build a gas pipeline? No God I have any interest in worshiping, that's for damned sure!

Obama spoke to my concerns, he didn't stoop to get into things with McCain when McCain would start bringing up ridiculous "issues" like Obama's relationship with William Ayres and ACORN. Even though he could have gotten into the mud and flung insults at McCain he didn't. He kept talking about the real issues that are a real concern to me and other Americans.

Where McCain keeps wanting to make the election into one of character when we the people want a president who will make the country better and stronger and help restore our national honor and pride (which McCain helped kick into the mud to begin with by supporting every ridiculous thing Bush has done).

McCain didn't come close to winning last night and he won't close the gap in the polls anytime soon and I'm sure his campaign will continue to represent the Dark Side.

I have no respect for John McCain anymore. He sold it all off for soundbites and window dressing while forgetting that the nation needs change, change for the better, not more of the same failed Bush policies.

Joe Biden stepping in as president? No problem at all.
Sarah Palin stepping in as president? I'm running for the damned hills. In Canada or Mexico.

Oh yeah, McCain's "ace" Joe the Plumber? McCain's spotlight on him has created a whole host of headaches for him. Nice work, Johnboy. Plus, his "complaint" about higher taxes under Obama's plan didn't hold water as he wouldn't be making $250,000+. Oops.

Labels: debate, politics

Sandbagger Manny and his brethren in blue have lost their prescribed 4 games and were sent home by the Phillies last night. That just leaves the Rays and Red Sox slightly undecided but there's a strong possibility of the Rays overwhelming the Red Sox Cinderella-style.

I've watched a few games and the Red Sox just look flatter, less dynamic and not quite as capable as the Rays. The Rays, by the way, are a pretty good story and I'd have no problem with them taking on the Phillies for the World Series.

I'm just glad the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez have been sent packing. It took them alot longer to sparkle and then fade but they did indeed.

Have I mentioned what a limp bitch Manny Ramirez is for how he weaseled out of Boston? The dude pretended to be hurt, played at 75% effort and made it clear he wanted out. And when he got traded to LA, he miraculously got better and started crushing the ball again. I hate sandbagging bitches like Manny and I hope he gets too drunk in the off season and his friends shave his lame dreads.

Labels: baseball, World Series

I just had a lesson delivered to me via the internets about trust, cookies and expectations of decent behavior.

In the course of my job, I am at four different school sites on a regular basis. At most of these sites, I take my laptop and do 90% of my work from it.

But at one site, I am fortunate enough to have access to a flat screen Imac with a huge hard drive. The upsides were good, I could leave my laptop at home and travel lighter, I could attach the projector permanently, I could delete all the music files that were inappropriate for an elementary school environment.

But I've just learned that leaving a computer with passwords logged, cookies enabled and, effectively, my entire digital life unlocked, is a very, very dangerous thing to do. Because I'm not in that computer lab all the time and I generally do not log everything out when I leave there, I am exposing myself to greater risk than I should. And, from this day forward, I will not.

That one tweet in my Twitter stream was like a blaring claxon call to arms, to protect my digital identity, to seal off easy avenues of entry and to make it more than passably difficult to infiltrate. Am I pissed off? You fucking bet I am.

And I'm going to make it perfectly clear to the person who posted to my Twitter stream just how fucking pissed off I am. And how much of an invasion he did by broadcasting his message to my audience. I'm actually kind of amazed at really how angry I am about this. Maybe part of that anger should be directed at myself for being too trusting (which isn't usually a problem).

Either way, there's going to be some changes made starting tomorrow morning at 8 am sharp.

Labels: change, id, security

I just posted This is Your Nation on White Privilege written by Tim Wise over on IP Politik.

Labels: politics

Between the new Genius playlist system in iTunes and Pandora's instant internet radio on my iPhone, I've been having an easy and good time of creating excellent playlists on the fly.

The nice thing about the Genius playlist creation is that its easy to remove songs that don't fit, click refresh and that song is replaced by a, hopefully, better fit for the mix. I wish the same functionality was built into the iPhone version of the Genius function.

But I'm not really complaining, just digging on having a never-ending supply of good music to enjoy. And finding those long-lost hidden nuggets of sonic brilliance!

Labels: itunes, music, Pandora

There's been a little debate on the local sports radio lately about the baseball playoffs. One of the hosts believes that, because the Giants are long bounced from the playoffs, that its okay to root for the National League West representative team, the LA Dodgers.

But here's the thing, the Dodgers are the Giants long-time, long-standing rivals. The rivalry started in New York and came west and is as strong as ever.

You can't root for the Dodgers and then turn around and call yourself a Giants fan. It just doesn't work that way.

The only reason I'd want the Dodgers to get the World Series would be to suffer four straight crushing annihilations by the Red Sox or Devil Rays. And the cherry on top would be a fast ball in Manny's ribs for the bottom feeder style way he cheesed his way out of Boston and into LA.

To recap, if you're a Giants fan then you do not root for the Dodgers. Period. If you are saying "But, but, but" then you are not a Giants fan, period. You might get away with a little rooting for the Diamondbacks but that's because they aren't the fucking Dodgers!

The only baseball team I dislike more than the Dodgers is the goddamned didn't-even-mae-the-playoffs New York Yankees. As long as the Yankees keep flailing and failing, I'll keep smiling.

Labels: baseball, Dodgers Suck, SF Giants

If you live in California and want to be depressed then enter in your zip code at the Megan's Law site to find out how many sex offenders are registered near you.

This is making me feel a little deja vu that I've already done this post before but it was years ago now so we'll forge ahead.

There are three sexual offenders within a half mile of my house, all three for sexual misconduct with a minor under the age of 14. There are 92 sexual offenders in my town but only 67 with current addresses, which is just a little disconcerting.

But that's part of why we have a huge and beautiful hound. Our house is not the one you want to try and mess with.

Labels: sex crime, sex offender

I'm not a major car nut, I know what I like, I know what I don't like and know what I'd buy if money and practicality were no object.

But money is nearly always an object in any thinking about transportation. And that means looking at practical rides. I grew up with Hondas because my mother's been a fan though she was more into the slightly more upscale Accord rather than the Honda Civic but I've owned a few over the years.

One thing I can definitely say about Honda is that you get what you pay for. They may cost a little more than other Japanese cars but the extra cost translates into extra value now and down the line when it comes time to sell that car.

Nowadays, the Civic is every bit as nice as the Accord, just a little more compact. Call it pre-familial expansion transportation because once you start having kids, you'll want more space and extra doors. There are only a finite number of times you want to try and put a baby carrier in the back seat of a car without a door there to make it easier.

I like Hondas, well-made, well-designed and well-finished cars with sporty engines, solid mileage, excellent resale value and good looks to boot. If I weren't addicted to German engineering I'd probably be driving one right now (well, not RIGHT now because I'm sitting at a computer).

Note: the above post was sponsored by ReviewMe and is a for-pay blog post but reflects my true feelings as there is no requirement to "gladhand" the write up. This footer is intended to disclaim any impropriety or conflict of interest. I'll address the "selling out" aspect of pay-for blogging again in another post.

Labels: honda, review

Our cat, Abby, came home from the vet's last night with a rather rough looking freshly cut front paw. No bandage over it but she did get the lampshade protector/maddifier (something that makes someone mad). For the first couple of hours she was pretty wobbly on her feet, overshadowed by the fact that she hadn't eaten in about 18 hours.

It took a little practice for her to get the bottom of the cone up over the lip of the bowl so she could access her food but she got there and was able to eat reasonably well. When she tried to go use her cat box, she was stymied by the cone and couldn't get in easily. I helped her in and back out and then back in again (did I mention she was wobbly?).

She was also pretty needy of some attention and pets and scratches so my wife and I took turns giving her lots of love.

The oddest thing about the whole ordeal is that she didn't come home with any pain killers or a prescription for any. This cat had one of her fingers removed and they didn't think to send her home with a little something for when the local anesthesia wears off. But nope. Can't say I'd like to be her this morning though she didn't seem unduly distressed.

Plus, the total bill for the surgery was about a hundred less than the top estimate, so that was a little relief in an otherwise expensive day.

Labels: cat, surgery

I got a few minute and relocated IP Politik to its own blogspot URL, IP Politik to help start the process of cleaning up my feeds.

If you're a reader, you might want to update your bookmark or feed link.

Next up will be moving WIPE to its own blogspot URL as well.

Labels: migration

Any week that involves me dropping off my cat for some paw surgery is bound to be a little bit of an odd week. And yes, that's exactly what I got to do this morning on my way into work. She's probably waking up about now, pissed off, in pain but, hopefully, better and won't be susceptible to infections in her extra toe paws.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find my serial number for Apple Remote Desktop so I can fully move into my new workstation. But without the number, I'm stuck with the old computer on my desk as well. This is what happens when you move into someone else's room and they didn't keep things as they should have. Now the install disk is missing and I look like a computer greedhead with two nice computers on my desk.

Oh well.

What else is happening today? We're still doing our winter at night and in the morning and summer all the rest of the day long. Its now beautiful and hot and sunny out and I'm stuck in jeans. Can't really complain too much though.

Damn, still tired of not having proper Gmail access at work. Sometimes my email will load up and other times it'll just fail.

Either way, its annoying but I can live with it since I've always got my iPhone and that makes checking email simple with or without a Wifi signal.

Anyway, time to get back to trying to discover just where the hell Apple hides that serial number. And hoping our cat is going to be just fine.

Labels: surgery, update

We were having a heated political discussion around the dinner table and Sullivan wanted to weigh in with his thoughts about who we should support since he's unable to vote for another 16 years or so.

Either way, Obama has a lock on cute kids stumping for him.

Labels: cute, politics

McCain: ‘As President, I’m going to end these abuses [of power] whatever it takes.’

Maybe this is one of those takes-one-to-know-one things since John McCain has been found to have violated ethics codes for his roles in the Keating Five scandal.

And, of course, Sarah Palin has also recently been found to have violated ethics standards as well in the Troopergate scandal.

And these are the ones calling for you to trust them?

Because sometimes its nice to just look at something pretty and not have to think about its politics or whether it has abused its power in firing a state trooper. Sometimes its nice to look at something that's pretty without preconditions.

Taken at one of my schools that has a long garden area protected by a wing of the school. The sun finally hits the garden later in the morning and creates some spectacular lighting effects.

Labels: flower, pretty

Oh yes, more fresh, hot and delicious new words to share with you all. As with many of the new words I've published lately, this one is inspired by the current election season after watching a video of GOP rally attendees.

Nimred - a completely blindered red state nimrod who accepts whatever pack of lies the McCain/Palin campaign spews at them without even considering how ridiculous they are.

Of course, you can find this and all the other delicious words in my Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

Biblehead - bastardized root words of bubblehead and bible meaning someone who invokes the Bible at every turn as a justification for their point of view, usually one that is pretty much the opposite of what the Bible is supposed to invoke (i.e. hate posing as compassion).

Go here for more new words.

Labels: nwotd

Yes, more new words created to describe the truly freakish twists and turns in this election season.

Maverisk - a wannabe maverick who's judgment is extremely suspect along with his maverick status.

You can find this and all of my other created words in the Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

I think I'm going to trade the car for my bike at lunch to see if I can pedal off some of my increasing annoyance.

It is exceedingly tiresome to be asked the same question over and over again by the same kids everyday.

The "funny" thing is that I'm nowhere the only one. Pretty much every class that has come through the lab today, each teacher has mentioned to me what a pain today has been with the kids being totally off the wall and bordering on uncontrollable.

Sometimes I'm rather glad to not be a regular classroom instructor.

Labels: frustration

So, if you watch the news, you've likely seen the clip of Cindy McCain talking about her blood running cold when she found out that Barack Obama voted not to fund her son in Iraq.

Guess what? Her own freakin' husband voted against the troop funding as well. But I'm sure she's alright with that.

Having seen Cindy McCain speak and then seeing two interviews with Michelle Obama, they aren't even close. Cindy McCain is a reflection of her angry husband while Michelle Obama is a reflection of her thoughtful, considerate and articulate husband.

Michelle Obama carries herself with grace and dignity where Cindy McCain is either completely mute or sniper selecting arguments to whip up Republicans into a racist frenzy. She has two expressions, blank and outrage. Neither is especially First Lady-ish.

Also, I have the distinct hunch that, not so deep down, Cindy McCain is terrified of black people (and probably poor people and yellow people and red people and pretty much anyone not white and rich).
I have zero respect for John McCain or his selective outrage autobot wife.

Labels: politics, selective memory

I just realized that today is 10/9/08 which is kind of cool to a geek like me. Too bad we can't have a clock hit 7:65.43 but that would actually be a little past 8, not 7.

Oh well.

Labels: geek, numbers

If you are planning on voting this November and I highly recommend that you do vote regardless of your political affiliation then it would be a good idea to consider why you are planning on voting the way you are planning to.

Are you going to vote against one candidate's ticket or are you going to vote for a candidate's ticket?

I know some people that are going to vote for McCain/Palin because of uncertainty about Barack Obama regardless of the reality of how much of a nutter unknown Sarah Palin is and how much greater the chance that McCain dies in office and she takes over.

I know some people that are voting McCain/Palin because they believe that Obama/Biden are going to lead us even further down the economic ruin path that we've been shoved down for the last 8 years under a Republican government.

I know some people that are voting for Obama/Biden because John McCain comes across as a deeply angry, bitter, mean, nasty and erratic old man flailing about for some semblance of relevance.

I know some people are voting Obama/Biden because they truly believe in the need for a real change in leadership, not just new talking heads but new thoughts, new plans, new deeds.

I know some people are voting Obama/Biden because of how thoroughly disgusted they are with the grotesque charade the Republicans are putting up. The negativity, the smear, the lies repeated often enough to convince some that they are true, the glossing over of contradictory statements, the selection of Sarah Palin for the GOP's VP nominee when she really and truly and honestly has absolutely no business, qualifications or temperament to be being considered for the second most powerful job on earth. None.

So why are you voting the way you are planning on voting? So long as you have a valid rationale for your vote, I've got no truck with it. But if your rationale is to vote McCain/Palin because Sarah Palin's "hot" then you need to climb up out of that trap the GOP laid for you. Its exactly why she was selected. Well, that and she can parrot talking points well and can attack with a smile and has zero issue with an utter lack of credibility or the irony of calling out Obama's "associates" while her husband was a member of secessionist group. Oh and then there's the whole censorship book banning thing, creationism, charging rape victims for rape kits and wanting to force them to keep babies created during rapes. Any one of these revelations about Sarah Palin should be enough to cross her off your vote list permanently but I'm sure there are those of you out there with your reasons. Are they supporting McCain/Palin or unsupporting Obama/Biden?

If you think that Barack Obama is evil, inexperienced, elitist, too smart, too white, too black, not black enough or whatever else, if that's how YOU really feel then I can't really fault you. But if you're allowing the liars on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh to tell you how to vote then you're sheep and unable to think for yourself.

Why are you voting the way you are?

Labels: politics, vote

I'm a fan of clever marketing. I am also a fan of euphemistic sexual references (when I was younger, my pals and I would come up with humorous ways to indicate having sex, "washing her dishes" was a favorite). So it was with interest that I read on Gizmag, A-style: harmless nipple-slip or unfair tactics.

And I had to go and find myself a decent A-style logo to examine. You tell me, is that a sexually graphic image up there?

What if you were told that its actually an image of two people having doggystyle sex? Can you see it now?

It is clever and it is sexually based but is it over-the-top and in need of a censorship smackdown? I don't think so but then I'm not one to tend toward prudishness.

I'm all for clever advertising but only so far as it doesn't blast graphic sexuality or violence into my face. The A-style logo is clever, naughty and kind of funny. Just as I'm sure it was intended to be.

Labels: marketing, sexification

I watched the debate from the start to the end, I listened to each candidate's answers, I watched each candidate's body language, comfort level, knowledge and candor. And, in McCain's case, I watched for signs of barely contained rage.

This post has been moved off to IP Politik if you want to read the rest.

Labels: debate, politics

Today's new word is the bastardized combination of too much MMA and politics.

Fistracted - distracted by a fist.

And guess what? You can find all my coined verbiage over in my Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

Petruzelli in center of Elite XC storm after comments following his 14 second knock out of Kimbo Slice this last Saturday.

He said that executives didn't want him to take Kimbo down and that it was in his best financial interest to keep the fight standing. Petruzelli's statements, later clarified by murky statements about what he was really saying, could indicate the Elite XC and CBS were trying to fix the fight or at least skew it towards a better chance of a Kimbo win.

They couldn't put in an aged name, though they tried to put Ken's brother Frank Shamrock in but he was busy as the color commentator for the event.

What these possible allegations say is that Elite XC and CBS don't give a damn about the sport, they just give a damn about making a buck off of it. And if that meant selling out and asking a stand-in fighter to fight in a way that favors the golden boy then so be it.

Only the fix failed, badly, when Petruzelli knocked Kimbo out in 14 seconds.

By the way, Kimbo Slice made a pretty astonishing $35,714 per second of his fight. PER SECOND! Petruzelli made a mere $7142 per second.

Elite XC is trying to defend themselves but it isn't hard to believe that they were a little over-zealous in their pre-fight discussions with Petruzelli. Maybe they didn't put the fix in but they definitely put the idea of one out there and, with it, they lost just about every ounce of credibility they might have had. Their explanation is reasonably credible (that Kimbo had been training to fight a grappler and had been working hard on his ground game) but still, with so much of the entire company needing Kimbo to win and keep winning, it isn't hard to imagine a little pressure to play up to Kimbo's strengths.

Which, if true, effectively destroys Elite XC in MMA. You can't fix fights and keep playing. But it doesn't really matter since Elite XC has been circling the drain for a while now anyway and Kimbo's loss should help them down it.

Labels: fix, mma

Flamango - a hybrid bird/fruit that grows from a main trunk on two "legs", when ripe one of the legs breaks away and folds up under the pink body of the fruit. They taste like a chicken that ate alot of watermelon.

And yes, posted to the Fictionarium as well.

Labels: nwotd

I remember reading a little back about Sean Lennon needing to go to the hospital to repair damage to his ear drum after his father had screamed into it too loudly whilst disciplining him for some transgression. To his credit, John Lennon felt like an ass for having done it and was deeply upset with himself for having hurt his son. Upon reading it, I felt a couple of things run through my thoughts. One, that I could understand his frustration. Two, that I could understand how that frustration might give rise to actions that one would immediately regret and wish they could be undone. Three, that he must have had some damned loud pipes to tear an ear drum.

The reality of the combination of children, work, not enough decent sleep, not enough quality time with one's spouse, not enough quality time by oneself, not enough exercise and everything else that goes with children including the frustration of the never ending mess, the pain of stepping on sharp toys in darkened rooms and being unable to scream in pain because it would wake one or both sleeping boys, the nightmares that don't even wake the boy up just me, the love of climbing into our bed in the middle of the night and snuggling up to my wife while kicking me the rest of the night and all other myriad ways in which we are nibbled on, hassled, annoyed, frustrated, whatever.

Sometimes tops boil over and sometimes words come out. It doesn't make someone a bad person though it doesn't particularly make them a good person either. It makes them human, it makes them fallible.

There was something profound in learning that little bit about John and Sean Lennon and realizing that, up close, we're all human, we're all fallible.

Labels: humanity

Originally found on Lifehacker and was culled from Popular Mechanics but I got there after the poll closed so I'm reposting it here so I can note the skills I've got and the skills I don't got. Skills I pwn now are in bold, skills I have but just barely are in italics, skills I don't got are in plain text. Scoring will be 1 point for bold and a half point for italics. Score will be tallied below.

Automotive
1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump start a car

Handling Emergencies
10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home
14. Carve a turkey
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths
43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How
48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors
51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills
57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes
60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids
65. Cast a line
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike

Technology
76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Master Key Workshop Tools
81. Drill driver
82. Grease gun
83. Coolant hydrometer
84. Socket wrench
85. Test light
86. Brick trowel
87. Framing hammer
88. Wood chisel
89. Spade bit
90. Circular saw
91. Sledge hammer
92. Hacksaw
93. Torque wrench
94. Air wrench
95. Infrared thermometer
96. Sand blaster
97. Crosscut saw
98. Hand plane
99. Multimeter
100. Feeler gauges

I scored an 83.5 out of 100 which is a decent B but I'd argue that some of the skills I don't have are pretty niche-y. A stick welder is a core skill I should have? Really? And calibrating my HDTV settings is a more important core tech skill than, say, being able to virus check a computer? Or set it up a new printer? Really?

Overall, I think the list of skills is pretty good but it gets a little soft in places. How'd you score?

Labels: essential, scorecard, skills

Some days I feel like the Little Engine That Could. Others I feel like the Little Engine That Could Not. And still other days I feel like the Little Engine That Just Wants A Nap.

I think part of this is due to my lack of exercise lately and the changing of the season from sweet summer to wet and windy fall.

Oh and the never-ending depression that is the state of politics in America. And its downstream effects on the economy, the mortgage nightmare, the endless war in Iraq, the disgusting Republican doublespeak and the generalized venality of partisan life these days. When I see a McCain sticker on a car, I have an immediate tendency to think that the person driving that car is an asshole. I know that's a bad kneejerk reaction but I just cannot help myself. If you support an asshole then it stands to reason that you are, at best, an asshole sympathizer.

Let's be clear, McCain and Palin are poison to the future of this nation. They are the continuation of the exact same policies that have gotten us to this sad state we're in now. Voting for them is a vote for more of the same, only worse since Palin is actually a nastier and more deeply frightening VP candidate than even Dick "Shoot 'Em in the Face and Fuck You All" Cheney. And that is saying an awful lot. But the McCain campaign is employing the politics of desperation, smear and lies now and its very easy to see how poorly their message is resonating with Americans (bye Michigan, bye Ohio, bye Nevada, bye Virginia).

As I'd noted before, I did watch the Elite XC fights on Saturday night already knowing that Kimbo got knocked the fuck out. There were still some decent fights on the card and, when there were not, I'd just jump to Spike and watch the Griffin/Rampage rerun. That was a 25 minutes war between Forrest and Rampage and it really could have gone either way. But Forrest won, Rampage's life went sideways for a little bit and now we're looking at Forrest fighting Rashad Evans (fresh off his knockout of Chuck Liddell).

And then there were the other sports, the baseball and the football. Bummer on the Cubs for meekly rolling over and letting the Dodgers have their way with them. That sucks because I like the Cubs and freakin' hate the Dodgers and loathe Manny "Duffbitch" Ramirez. They are the first to bow out of the post season after having an outstanding year. Which leaves the Phillies to face the Dodgers and the American league possibilities are still open with the Angels and Red Sox still fighting and the White Sox still alive against Tampa. I would be happy seeing anyone but the Dodgers in the World Series at this point but, if they do make it, I'd love for the Red Sox to pound them out in four.

As for football. I lost a mere 3 games in the football pool yesterday but they were three big point games and I was out of the running by the start of the afternoon games. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the games. The Niners had a chance to win but not much of one against a bye week Patriots team coming off a loss. The Raiders didn't lose because they didn't play and the Redskins continue to shock, amaze and awe with a win last week over the Cowboys and a win this week over the Eagles. Right on! Oh, and I got crushed in my fantasy league this week.

That's about it for the Monday morning wrap up. I suppose I should get to working now. Oh wait, I have been, I'm waiting for a drive to empty its trash. What joy.

Labels: baseball, football, politics, wrap-up

That's how long Elite XC's golden boy, Kimbo Slice, lasted against a last minute undercard stand-in for the injured Ken Shamrock. Seth Petruzelli was fighting on the undercard last night when word came down about the injury. He stepped up, stepped in and knocked Kimbo Slice out in 14 seconds.

And with his knockout by a legitimate MMA fighter, his golden glow should fade quickly as his starpower diminishes and he looks like what he is, a mid-30's brawler propped up by putting tomato cans in front of him to bash. Fans of MMA have long said that he would not be able to stand up with a "real" MMA fighter. Those fans have now been vindicated.

I knew things would go badly for Kimbo when I heard about the replacement. Shamrock's a good fighter, to be sure, but he's far past his prime where Petruzelli's younger, faster, stronger and hungrier. It wasn't even close to being a contest.

It will be interesting to watch the fallout from this knockout.

Labels: Kimbo Slice, mma

Today's a big day around my house. In addition to being the anniversary of our wedding some five years ago now, it is also the anniversary of the conception of my oldest son, Graydon.

Yes, he was a honeymoon baby.
No, we did not wait to have sex until we were married. It just worked out that way.

Five years ago today we were in a very different place, physically, mentally and emotionally. And I was just praying for nice weather as we were getting married out on the beach.

It was also the Santa Cruz city celebration night which meant there were fireworks shot off from the beach. We had a wonderful day all the way around until we eventually and finally passed out in our hotel room near the beach.

And eight months, three weeks and six days later, Grady arrived a day early. And life has never been the same. In a good way. Mostly.

Labels: anniversary, conception, wedding

Tomorrow night, Kimbo Slice, the casual fight fan's superstar and YouTube sensation, will step into the octagon against 44 year old (and not in the same way Randy Couture is 44 or 45) Ken Shamrock, who hasn't won a fight in four years nor made it out of the first round under his own power.

Elite XC needs Kimbo to keep winning or the promotion company will likely fail. They've already lost $56 million in the last two years and produced just Kimbo and Gina Carrano (who's a good fighter but let's face it, people want to watch her because she's hot).

Dan Wetzel, of Yahoo Sports, has a good write up of the event from the perspective of a fight fan. He adroitly points out that Kimbo's star will likely get smashed up against any UFC heavyweight in his prime, his skills are not going to markedly improve because of his age and his freakshow appeal will fail when he does face a real fighter who's not 44 years old and was done years ago (like Ken Shamrock most obviously is).

Kimbo is not a top flight fighter in MMA, he isn't even close to it. Ken Shamrock used to be one of the best fighters in the world but that was a long time ago and he's now a fading name who helps sell pay-per-view buys so people can watch him get knocked out again and again. If Kimbo beats him, he should be done. If he beats Kimbo, then Kimbo should be done. Either way, somebody needs to hang them up.

And if Kimbo loses then expect Elite XC to fold pretty soon thereafter. They've built whatever MMA brand they have on the back of an amateur freakshow instead of an up and coming real MMA star (because they seem to prefer signing with the UFC).

Labels: Kimbo Slice, mma

Layalty - having sex with someone as a reward for their loyalty, i.e. laying them for their loyalty.

Want more freshly minted words? Head over to my Fictionarium for all the new words you can shake a stick at.

Labels: nwotd

Okay, so here are some thoughts after having watched the debate last night and thought about it a bunch since.

One, showing up to a debate and barely even bothering to answer the questions being asked before going right back to memorized talking points isn't a debate. Sarah Palin did just that. She effectively avoided answering any questions by just not answering them and talking about whatever she felt like talking about.
Two, on a pure facts and knowledge scorecard, there's simply no way that Joe Biden didn't annihilate her.
Three, these debates need a fact checker to cut through the he said, she said bullshit. When one claims something that the other refutes and they keep doing it, that's called a stalemate. Without a third party fact checker on hand to say yes or no, its just who's more believable, not who's more truthful.

The debate wasn't a game changer, neither side made any serious gaffes but neither did either side score that huge soundbite winner. The low expectations for Sarah Palin mean that the GOP talking heads are declaring she has won even though she didn't answer any questions and was factually incorrect numerous times.

Joe Biden won but it was nowhere near the exciting show that most people were hoping for. He was knowledgable, he spoke of his own personal track record, he spoke of foreign leaders he knew personally, he drew on his passion and he answered the moderator's questions thoroughly.

What did I come away with? Sarah Palin is, in no way, no stretch of the resume, ready to become the vice president. She doesn't have the knowledge and she doesn't have the experience. Her nasal voice aside, she was a robot up there, reciting talking points she worked hard to memorize. You could easily see when she was off the script and then when she'd snap back to it. There was no connection, there were talking points, pseudo-zingers and attempts at folksy-charm.

I don't want a vice president who's folksy, I want a vice president who has a firm grasp of what the hell is going on around the world and how to best support the president in staying on top of everything. I just don't see Sarah Palin being that person. I don't think she's stupid but I definitely think she's not even close to having the right experience and info to take the job she's applying for. The news channels are saying polls have 51% saying Biden won, 33% or so saying Palin won and the rest were too busy picking their noses to pay attention.

Labels: politics, vp debate

Right-wing group boycotts Google for opposing Prop. 8. The annoying one that wants to reinstate the ban on same-sex marriage in California. So supporting it means you want to ban it and opposing it means you want to allow same-sex marriage.

Good luck with bringing Google down with your boycott, the slight dip in searches for man on man porn will scare them good, I'm sure.

Why are people so scared of two men or two women who happen to love each other and not someone of the opposite sex? Is your own marriage so frail that it is threatened by others? Are you threatened by married people who appear to still love each other after ten years of marriage?

Are you so nervous of your sexuality that any attack on it, even indirectly from way afar, is a threat? What does that tell you about your sexuality that you're so scared to learn? Oh, that you might fantasize about gay sex. Woops.

The loudest homophobes are the ones with the sweatiest and wettiest dreams. Or so I've heard.

I have yet to hear a single rational and reasonable argument for why same-sex marriage should be banned. I've heard a whole bunch of utter nonsense posing as arguments but nothing that isn't easily debunked as garbage. Do you have a real reason? I'd be interested in hearing it.

Labels: boycott, hate, homophobes

Found this special little warning when I loaded up my Remote Desktop Connection software. I can see overlooking poor spelling in a smaller development shop, there are less eyes on the software, not enough hands to get it all done, etc.

But Microsoft has one of the largest developer shops in the world and nobody could be bothered to spell check an update notice? Lastest?

There's more than one reason why I hate Microsoft and this one definitely goes on the list.

Labels: bad developer, spellcheck

The McCain campaign implosion continues apace. Remember the scene in the Back to the Future movie where Marty tosses colored logs into the locomotive to make it go faster? That's pretty much what McCain and Palin are doing to their campaign only they are speeding its descent into the chasm from where there is no return. This new polling shows a 35 vote loss in a very short period of time.

If the debate doesn't go well tomorrow night, and there is every rightful expectation that it will not, then expect the disintegration and desperation to accelerate.

Labels: electoral vote, politics

Today's new word is inspired by the return of Lance Armstrong to international cycling.

Obselite - being so good that everyone else might as well go home.

Cross-posted to the Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

Here's a quick update on some personal fronts.

The bite on my hand is pretty well healed up, it still looks a little gnarly but doesn't hurt much at all and has shown no sign of infection at all. Which is just fine by me and it means I will likely be able to go riding this coming weekend.

Hey, its October! I thought yesterday was the first but I always screw up that 30 and 31 day month thing. Anyway, September was decent, here's hoping October is just as good or better.

As any regular reader of this space would know, I'm anticipating the veep debate, tomorrow night at 6 pacific, with some optimism that it will be the start of the end of Sarah Palin on the national stage. I make no excuses for how little I think of this woman and her "qualifications" to be running for the second most powerful seat on the planet (arguable but it sounds good). She has experience in the public debate space and has her own set of weapons that I'm sure she'll deploy. But, at the end of the night, what she says, what she knows and what she admits she needs to learn should be the important takeaways. Not that she had some good quips or that she was able to parrot GOP talking points accurately, not that she's a decently good looking woman (arguable) or that any hard questions leveled at her by the media is sexist and/or "gotcha" journalism. I fully expect her to crater and maybe even explode. Nor is it about Tina Fey's spot-on impersonation or the sad fact that Tina Fey is probably more capable, experienced and would be a better vp nomination than Palin.

Either way, it is truly must see tv and is expected to be the most watched veep debate in history.

Which reminds me, Easy emailed me a very interesting piece about White Privilege and how it has negatively impacted this race. I may cherry pick it and post some parts to try and illuminate the double standard of qualification being applied to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.

That's about it for right now. I know, not very exciting lately. I'll try to do something stupid soon.

Labels: politics, update