Jared's Bloggerin'

MMMM SPAM!!!

2008-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Today I received another question from a “member” on Fanbox (which I now refer to as SPAMbox). So, I search Google for: fanbox spam. At the time of this writing, one of my blogs is #4 on the list, but what cracks me up is the obvious seeding that SPAMbox has done on the web.

For example, take the posting they’ve done on the Office Tweaks blog. There is a comment there by a guy named “TJ Brown” that is an obvious seed for Fanbox.

I love FanBox! They have so many cool applications and features on their desktop! Their social network aspect rivals even MySpace and Facebook! I looked up the old stuff on SMS.ac, and who cares? It wasn’t even a big deal and they have since discontinued offering sms service. So stop crying and give the site a chance.

- TJ

Give me a friggin break! Sounds like he’s trying to sell me a used Pinto. Fanbox is SPAM, plain and simple. No other company out there sends me emails with “questions” from people I don’t know and “questions/invites” from people I do know. Fanbox will phish your password, SPAM your friends, and phish their passwords.

Fanbox is a scam. Every message I receive, I mark it as SPAM and post another blog to help spread the word. Judging by the number of posts I have about Fanbox, you can see that I’ve been SPAMMED a lot lately. Keep the emails coming, I’ll keep posting.

The talKing Show Liz Lira Teaches Some Salsa

2007-06-07T13:22:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Four time World Mayan Salsa Dance Champion Liz Lira talks about Dancing with the Stars, Gravity Defyer Shoes, and salsa dancing. She even teaches host, Christine Eads some salsa basics. Watch as funny man Adam Hunter tries to learn some Salsa w/o looking ridiculous. Some of the crew even join in the dancing. But the real question is whether the Orbitor Listening Device can hear a pin drop from the top of a seven story building.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Tags: dance, salsa, christine, christine eads, dancing, dancing with the stars, liz lira, gravity defyer shoes, salsa dancing, adam hunter, comedian, listening device, spy equipment, mr security

The talKing Show Mr. Security Hears a Pin Drop from a 7 Story Building

2007-05-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Where did they find Mr. Security? This guys is so top secret that when you try to check his background all you will find are questions, and a whole lot of stealthy spy equipment. The talKing Show host, Christine Eads, preps us for one of the best listening devices you'll ever see: The TM341 Orbitor Listening Device.

Just what can you use the Orbitor Listening Device for? Mr. Security gives us some ideas while he's on remote. He'll attempt to hear a pin drop from the top of a seven story building. What would you use the Orbitor for?

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Tags: talkshow, television, christine, comedy, orbitor, listening device, electronics, spy, spy equipment, security, background check, host

Heat Fozzy

2007-05-29T23:54:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

www.galacticast.com

The talKing Show: Director Deborah Reed

2007-05-28T22:27:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

talKing host Christine Eads meets up with long time friend and now director Deborah Reed. But first, Mr. Security gives us a demonstration of the high end spy device: the TG286L de-FIB-ulator. Well, at least he tries :-P

The talKing Show Christine Monologue with beatboxing

2007-05-28T11:58:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Christine Eads is the host of a new variety television talkshow: The talKing Show. In this clip, she talks with the show's DJ D.J. about American Idol, Blake Lewis, and beatboxing. She even tries out some beatboxing herself. She should stick to her day job with hosting her XM Radio show Broadminded and The talKing Show. I don't think we'll be seeing her on American Idol any time soon :-P

Riveting Expose (Inside Candyland)

2007-04-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 19, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in Traveling, videos, cool stuff, fun, blogging

It is scandalous! A place in New Zealand where there is nothing but CANDY! Everywhere you turn. Candy to the left of me. Candy to the right of me. I got gumballs all around me I’ll take you inside the secret world of Candyland!!!

YouTube - Inside Candyland

technorati tags:candy, candyland, new zealand, food, fun, expose, travel, video, youtube, shocking

One of my Favorite Swing Dance Pieces

2007-04-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Jan 15, 2007 in videos, friends, Education, Dance, swing dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, School, life, art, Relationships, fun, blogging

I’m a lover of Swing Dance. My first love was Lindy, but West Coast has really stolen my heart. However, I will never forget some of the great memories I’ve had with Lindy. My first dance teacher, Denise Gibson, has gotten hip with the times. She’s posting videos of some of the dances she’s put together over the year on youtube.

About 9 months prior to the release of The Pink Panter starring Steve Martin, the Moorpark College Swing Dance Club performed a routine to the Pink Panther Theme. Denise and I choreographed the piece together, and it is one of my favorite pieces I ever did with the MCSDC.

YouTube - Pink Panther

technorati tags:swing dance, moorpark college, lindy, west coast, teachers, education, college, fun, entertainment, school, friends, relationships, videos, youtube, dance

Feed an eel!

2007-04-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 14, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in Weird Stuff, Traveling, videos, cool stuff, life, fun, blogging

Pet the eels. Feed the eels!

YouTube - Feeding eels in New Zealand

technorati tags:eels, video, youtube, travel, fun, food, eat, weird stuff, cool stuff

Parabolic Listening Device for Spying

2007-04-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 14, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in Gadgets, cool stuff, technology

I bought one of these from Gagdet Universe last Christmas for my dad. I pointed it at my neighbor’s house, and I could hear her walking across her kitchen floor. You could easily listen in on conversations from a distance away.

technorati tags:gadgets, CES, Consumer Electronics Show, electronics, spy

Answering your home phone from 80 miles away

2007-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 4, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in Gadgets, cool stuff, technology

This is not just impressive because you can call someone from 128km away (79.5 miles). It’s impressive because a company in Hong Kong is going to market and sell this item to you directly. Checkout their guarantee and shipping near the bottom of the page. They are claiming to guarantee the item for 10 days from the date you receive it. The most important part is the part about the shipping. They will ship this anywhere in the world. Heed their warning though. Is this thing legal in The States?

Long Range Cordless Phone - Senao

technorati tags:technology, phone, wireless, global, marketing, cool stuff, gadget

The Future of the Web

2007-04-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Feb 3, 2007 in culture, friends, thoughts, videos, myspace, swing dance, Dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, Work, life, blogging, art, Relationships, photos, fun, technology

I love open source. I love the idea. I love the practice.

The concept of open source software is pretty simple. The community freely, openly develops software, each individual collaborating and contributing to others in the community. The result… It’s the future on the Internet.

My former swing dance partner (Denise Gibson) wanted to create a website for her students. She teach swing dance, ballroom, swing dance, and other styles of dance at local colleges and studios. She wanted to provide them with a web experience where they could bond as a community, communicate with each other, meet new people, and enjoy a multimedia arrangement of dance information.

I wasn’t sure where to start. It’s been a while since I was out of the IT game. Of course, it never occurred to me to develop a website for her based on ASP.net or any Windoze platform for that matter. So, I played around with the applications available through my godaddy.com hosting service.

WOW! What a selection!

I stumbled across an application called Joomla. Mind you, by this time, I had evaluated Xoops, Geeklog, Serendipity, and a slew of others. Something about Joomla just really kept me interested. Sure, it has one ridiculous flaw in the fact that an article can only be placed into a single section+category. Hell, they should have talked to me about my infamous name/value pair class I developed back in the days of the psychic chat network. Those were the good ol‘ days, but I digress.

Joomla is as extensible as you can get. Build a community, host discussion boards, member managed blogging, private messaging, newsletters, AJAX shout boxes, eCards, contact management… The list goes on forever, literally. People in the Open Source community are developing tons of projects for Joomla every week.

In a matter of weeks, I developed a community website that had many of the same features as Myspace (minus the abundance of bugs). Granted, denisegibson.com does not have 11 million members, but that’s besides the point. I encourage anyone to test out Denise’s website. Even if you don’t know anything about dance, take a look and see what is possible in just a matter of days with open source software. Who knows… You might just find yourself picking up a pair of dance shoes after all!

Folks, this is where the web is going: community building websites with multimedia entertainment, newsletters, cool features. And it’s all going to be free!!!

www.denisegibson.com - DeniseGibson.com

technorati tags:dance, swing dance, college, dance partner, fun, art, life, culture, thoughts, friends, relationships, partnership, entertainment, work, technology, blogging, videos, myspace, photos, discussion boards, community, cool stuff, future, web, Internet, students, ballroom, dance studio, open source, collaboration, software, contribution

Email is an Ineffective Method of Communication

2007-04-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Feb 2, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in culture, quotes, myspace, landmark, Team Management & Leadership, friends, writing, blogging, life, Relationships, cool stuff, technology

I love the conversations that people have about Internet communication. I’m in a team management leadership program right now. The entire program is based upon being in communication with others and creating a listening of others that empowers them. What I find interesting about the course is that participants have created a listening of Internet communication as ineffective. That is to say that in the realm of communication, most participants view communication via the web and email as ineffective.

I’ve had a number of conversations with people in the course and other people in my life about how they relate to Internet communication. One of my favorite quotes is, “If you really want to communicate with someone, verbal communication is the best way to go”.

There are a couple of errors in this statement. First, verbal communication essentially means communication with words. Modern definitions of verbal have twisted it into meaning oral communication as opposed to written communication. However, the true meaning of verbal is “of or pertaining to words”. Nothing in the original definition implies oral vs written.

The second problem with this statement is that it implies that one must speak with another person in order to be in communication. Now, what I find interesting about this is that written communication was invented specifically to make communication available to more people.

Written word has the ability to become timeless. Written word has the ability to make us and our communication live on forever. Where would we be is Shakespeare was only communicated through oral communication? Where would we be if the US Constitution was never written down but just communicated in oral conversation?

The moral of the story is that the web, being part of written communication, is a very powerful method of communication. You can gain interest from people in whatever you are up to through oral or written communication. The web and community websites (more about this later) are very effective methods of communication.

technorati tags:landmark, community, myspace, communication, blogging, discussion, verbal, oral, team, management, leadership, writing, books, relationships, culture, friends, life, shakespeare, constitution, history

Retro Cell Phone or More Useless junk for your garage?

2007-04-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 30, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in Gadgets, Weird Stuff, Stuff that sucks, humor, photos, rants, blogging, technology

Let me start off by saying that I love gadgets. I’ve been shopping at Sharper Image since… Well, since before they had their stores (which I’m sure they will be shutting down a few of later this year, but I digress). I’ve long been a fan of Brookstone, Hammacher, and Gadget Universe. Then there is FirstStreet aka TechnoBrands.

I can’t really say that I’m a fan of FirstStreet. Most of their products are… I’ll let the picture do the talking here

Larger Image View - firstSTREETonline

technorati tags:cell phone, phone, ridiculous, gadgets, junk, lame, rants, stuff that sucks, photos, products, innovations, weird stuff, technology

Look MA! No hands

2007-04-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 26, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in videos, Weird Stuff, Traveling, Funny, cool stuff, random, just for fun, technology

I’ll just let the video explain itself…

technorati tags:waterless, urinal, new zealand, random, just for fun, traveling, weird stuff, cool stuff, technology, funny, videos, bathroom

My First (and only) West Coast Swing Dance Choreography

2007-04-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Originally posted Jan 26, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in videos, friends, Education, Dance, swing dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, School, art, Relationships, fun, life

It is Fall 2005. I’ve been teaching swing dance with Denise Gibson at Moorpark College for a couple of semester. We both love West Coast Swing. We’ve been taking lessons from the world famous Sonny Watson, and we’d both love to bring it more exposure in the college community.

We start teaching beginning West Coast Swing to a beginning ballroom class. Now, for those of you who know anything about West Coast Swing, it is not as easy or simple as some of the other forms of swing. When it is done right, West Coast Swing is the coolest looking dance on the planet. Period.

West Coast Swing, however, is not an easy dance to learn. Nor is it an easy dance to teach, let alone to beginners. Denise and I are doing our best to prepare the students at Moorpark for a 6 week master class in West Coast Swing with Sonny Watson. When Sonny arrives, the students are excited! They are doing a great job. They are struggling but making excellent progress!

Next thing you know, the six weeks are over, Sonny is finished, and the beginning dancers now have 8 weeks to prepare for the dance concert at the end of the semester! Here is the result:

Remember! These are all beginning dancers. Some of these people have never danced a day in their life before this class. Some, this is their very first partnered dance class. For all but a handful, this is the first time they ever heard of West Coast Swing Dance. One semester! Look how clean they are. I’m so proud of how well they all did

technorati tags:west coast swing, swing dance, life, fun, school, Moorpark College, friends, art, education, relationships, videos, youtube, dance, college, stage, performance, entertainment

Hamster Pedometer

2007-04-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

LOL This is just about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen plenty of hamster do the crazy wheel thing. In fact, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to get spun around like that. I’m pretty sure I’d have fun, so I’d venture to guess that they are having fun too!

This video is great. I love how the one hamster tries to get in on the action and gets thrown from the wheel. Then I lose track of which is which. Is the original hamster the one that gets to go for a ride or the other one?

Check these guys out

YouTube - My hamster in his high speed wheel ! It can not slow down !

technorati tags:hamster, youtube, video, wheel, funny, random, humor, lol

Finding Nemo

2007-04-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure why I felt the need to film Nemo at the Chinese restaurant the other day. We went there for a coworker’s birthday. Enjoy…

technorati tags:youtube, life, friends, coworkers, food, restaurant, chinese, fish, nemo

Products from the Peeping Tom Convention

2007-04-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

Originally posted on my Wordpress blog
The folks at the annual Peeping Tom Convention in Las Vegas have announced the most extraordinary innovation in cell phone technology since the iPhone. The first ever Peeping Tom Cell Camera Telescope Adapter! Peeping just got a whole lot safer AND easier. Peep from the convenience of your own home.

No longer do you need to crawl around in the neighbor’s plant box to get a sneak preview of her goodies. Simply attach this device to your cell phone’s camera and view those hi-res 1.3 megapixel images from the comfort of your computer desktop. Of course, if your friends are peeping Toms like you, you can easily forward the images via pix messages to their cell phone in just seconds.

Folks, I don’t know where people come up with these ideas, but someone does come up with them. Where do you find a product like this? I don’t know. Try a Google Search. One of the product managers was asking whether I thought this would be a good item for one of the various print and online marketing channels we run. The image of the white truck is an actual picture I took with the device attached to my phone. I must admit that it took me about 10 minutes to align the telescope to my camera’s lens because I have a Pocket PC instead of the 1998 Nokia cell phone the attachment device was designed for.

In case you don’t have your regular digital camera with you, be sure to capture the 1.3 megapixel moment with the Peeping Tom Cell Camera Telescope.

technorati tags:telescope, cell phone, fun, zoom, random, humor, wtf, funny, peeping tom, gadgets, weird stuff, photos, technology, neighbors

The Wedding is OFF!!!

2007-04-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

Original post on the Gadget Panel

We were planning to get married this summer! She was the best thing to ever happen to me. She never complained about anything. She always made sure my floors were spotless. She never missed a spot. And if it was a really bad spot, she’d spend extra time to ensure that every bit of dirt was picked up.

So, you can imagine my disappointment when I come home and she’s passed out in the middle of my kitchen floor. I was a little worried at first. What happened? Did she just not make it back in time to feed herself? Was it too cold in the house? I mean, I’ve been turning off the heater when I leave, but I didn’t think it gets that cold in Southern California. No! It’s much worse than all of that. And I’ve come to know that I can’t fix her on my own.

My Roomba vacuum stopped working the other day. Now, this might not seem like too big of a deal to most people, but it is a HUGE deal for me. My Roomba did a great job at keeping the floors clean, yet now my Roomba is sitting in my garage. Why? Isn’t a Roomba expensive? Yes!

Where the heck do you get a Roomba serviced? You have to send it back to iRobot, the manufacturer. It’s not like I can just take it to the vacuum guy and have him fix it. I’m past the warranty period. So, essentially, I have a very expensive (yet cool looking) ex-girlfriend sitting in my garage. Maybe I should send the flowers that 800flowers.com owes me to her to help her get better

This really is a big deal for me. See, I have two dogs, so keeping my floors free from hair is a major concern. Most of my house is either hardwood or tile, so a vacuum like the Roomba is PERFECT for my house. It is just unfortunate that the service needs to be done through the iRobot factory. If I had a Hoover, I’d just take it to Sears or the vacuum guy. Of course, if I just had a Hoover, I would also have to do all the vacuuming myself. Which is what is going to happen. God help my house guests who have dog allergies! I’ll post more about this as it unfolds

Technorati: Gadgets, convenience, irobot, roomba, iRobot Roomba Discovery Vacuuming Robot, 4210, vacuum, cleaning, girlfriend, wedding, dogs, marriage, garage, gadget, floors, dirt, maid, love, house, allergies, hoover, sears, service

Most Important Copywriting Tip!

2007-02-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

Original Post on Jared's Bloggin'

Buying and selling real estate depends on three things:

Location
Location
Location

Writing copy also depends on three things:

Benefits
Benefits
Benefits

What’s a benefit? I’ll tell you what a benefit is not. If it has anything to do with the product, it is NOT a benefit. WHAT?

Here is where it gets really tricky. When I say ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PRODUCT, I mean ANYTHING. Keep reading, you’ll be able to sell better than ever by the end of this article. For example: Let’s say you are writing about a ladder. Here are examples of what you could say about the ladder:

The ladder extends to 12 feet, making clearing the rain gutters easier than ever
Clearing your rain gutters will be so much easier than ever with this new ladder
Every time my wife would ask me to change a light bulb or clean the gutters, I would always make some excuse not to because it is such a chore. Until I got this ladder

Each of the above make it clear that your life will be easier than before because of the ladder. At first glance, these might even seem like you are talking about a benefit. After all, isn’t having an easier life a benefit we are all after?

I’ll go back to my definition of what a benefit is *not*: If it has anything to do with the product, it is NOT a benefit. All of the above examples have something to do with the product. So, how can you write about the benefits of the product without writing about the product itself?

Going back to the ladder example:

Become a virtual Superman!
You can be the star of your own do-it-yourself television show
Be the neighborhood handyman you’ve always wanted to be

Sound like tall tales? Well, you aren’t selling someone a 12′ ladder. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of choices of 12′ ladders. You are selling him the excitement, the thrill of becoming a virtual Superman who can save cats stuck in a tree. You are selling him on being the guy that everyone goes to in order to find out how to clear rain gutters. You are selling him on being such a great handyman around the house that his wife is going to brag (NOT nag) about him to all the neighbors.

NOTE: I want to clarify that I am not saying to NEVER write anything about the product. You MUST write about product features. However, features are what people look for AFTER they are sold on the item, not before.

After you’ve hooked him with the virtual Superman line, you can give him all the features of the item. Now, when you describe the features of the product, it should be in line with the virtual Superman theme.

For example

Leap into action when your cat is stuck in a tree with a sturdy 12′ reach

instead of…

You can help save your cat when she gets stuck in a tree. The extra 12′ reach you will have with this ladder will turn into a virtual Superman

Even though the second example utilizes the virtual Superman idea, it doesn’t hold true to the idea of Superman. Remember, superman is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He’s faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. When you tie your copy to that powerful of an image, you need to make sure that the rest of your copy is not a bunch of Kryptonite.

NOTE: In this example, I used a male subject. Same thing applies to women. Obviously, becoming a virtual Superman might not appeal to a woman, but becoming a virtual Oprah or having a virtual Superman husband might.

Now, let’s hope this helps the guy I’m coaching on writing copy for his email marketing campaigns

The ultimate Gadget: Autobots

2007-02-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the Autoblog and suddenly!!!

Transformers Update: Hasbro gives best looks yet at Optimus Prime and Bumblebee

Bumblebee looks pretty cool, eh? Although, I’m not sure if I agree with him no longer being a Volkswagen Beetle. That was part of the charm of Bumblebee. He was this dinky little VW beetle. Oh well, he still looks pretty cool, if you ask me, since he's a Camaro now (my first car).
Now, checkout the new Optimus!

Let’s see how things turn out in the movie! From what I've seen in the previews, the Autobots look really cool but the Decepticons don't look much like the classic 80s cartoon.

Get Some Bawls

2007-02-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

Original post on my Wordpress Blog

I visited a company today that does product placement in television, radio, and movies. It was great. I showed them a bunch of products, and they were excited about them. One of the people from an upcoming film came by their office looking for more new product placements.

Before this happened though, I was sitting in the office and they asked me if I wanted something to drink. I told them that water would be fine. Then they asked me, “Would you like some balls?”

“That’s rather forward,” I thought to myself. I just had to clarify, “Did you say balls?”

“Yes. Do you like energy drinks?”

“Well, kinda. Wait, you realize that you said balls, right?” I just had to be extra certain.

“Alexis will bring you some balls.”

So, I waited for about 20 seconds while Alexis went and got my balls. She comes walking back into the office with my balls in her hand. Oh, wait! Bawls. As in the energy drink.

I start drinking my Bawls. It tastes great! I was expecting that nasty Red Bull taste. You know, that cough syrup taste that we’ve all come to know and dread? Here I am a few hours later… I’m still buzzing on this thing. Can you call this a gadget? Not really, but Bawls is an extremely tasty energy drink that gives you a kick… Well, not in the balls.

BAWLS

That’s some wicked lumbar support!

2007-02-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

Someone from work put a Coreflx on their chair! That’s some wicked lumbar support!

More windDOZE Follies

2007-02-25T17:29:00.001-08:00

Apparently, the last Windoze update has a time bomb in it. After a certain period of time, certain features no longer continue to function. The most noticeable is gaining a network connection after my laptop has been on hibernate. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a huge Microsoft fan (Windows is a Piece of Work, Cursed Windoze, A Depressing Day in Blogging, I’ve sold my soul to the devil, Windows Mobile or PC Therapy?). The only real benefit to Microsoft products is that it gives me something blog about

It used to be that I could just hibernate my laptop by closing the lid, come back later, open the laptop, and it would connect right to my wireless (or wired) network automatically. This was a useful feature of Windoze, you know… working! Well, the latest updates have apparently give me some new features such are not connecting to ANY network after hibernate, not being able to shutdown, and even slower performance for all Internet related apps!

I suppose that I could spend time on the phone with MS support to figure out what’s going on. Or I could spend hours searching for solutions on the KB… Wait!!! Another update! Mayhaps that will fix the problem!

Did Mr. Fire Attract Emergency Surgery?

2007-02-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

Reply to: Beyond Marketing by Dr. Joe Vitale: Did I Attract Emergency Surgery?

I love Mr. Fire aka Dr. Joe Vitale. He is an incredible inspiration in every area of life. I first attracted him into my life with some compelling advertising copy for the Gravity Defyer Shoes. His Hypnotic Writing Wizard software is a great tool for anyone working on any writing project (be it advertising, a book, or any other writing to motivate someone to action!) His books and audio will make a difference in your career, relationships, and life. He is also a contributor to the smash hit: “The Secret“.

I was surprised to read that he was rushed to the hospital to have his appendix removed. My first question was, “Is he okay?” This type of surgery is fairly common. In fact, my coworker, Rennie, had his appendix removed at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. So, the question following that was how does it apply to the law of attraction?

I realized something. I was relating to Dr. Vitale’s experience as something bad. I realized that my relationship to illness is that it (illness) is bad. I remembered back to a conversation I had with an ex-girlfriend about illness. What I created then was that illness is just my body’s way of adjusting to transformation.

This holds true to Dr. Vitale. His appendix removal was the result of his body telling him something. The most obvious message? “Remove me NOW!” The not so obvious messages? I think Mr. Fire figured it out in his post that I am replying to.

That illness is something negative is really just a story that we are telling ourselves. What is really happening is exactly what our body is supposed to do given the circumstances and environment we are in. We don’t question whether our skin should burn if we stick or hand in a fire, right? The same thing holds true in a more subtle way through out everyday life. It’s a matter of listening

Christine Lakin Can Read my Thoughts (and I'm not sure that's a good thing!)

2007-02-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

Christine Lakin (The Hottie and the Nottie) seems to think the Orbitor Listening Device can be used to read toughts.

She just might be right. I wasn’t believing that she was the nottie in her upcomming film with Paris Hilton (not Perez Hilton) and Joel Moore (Dodgeball).

Original posted on The Gadget Panel

Tech Tags: christine lakin celebrities hollywood oscars party gift paris hilton movies television photos listening+device mind reading hottie and the nottie gadget universe entertainment media technology funny gadgets

Copywriting Tips

2007-02-08T13:07:00.001-08:00

This is the most important copywriting tip

Will this Ping work directly to wordpress?

2007-02-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Let's find out

First Gadget Panel Post

2007-02-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Michael J. Herman has posted the first post on the Gadget Panel: I can Fly

Enjoy!

Dead Cellphone meet Flashlight

2007-01-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I posted about one of the most useless bits of cell phone technology
I've seen in a while. Today, I'm pleased to show you a video of one of
the coolest gadgets I've used in a long time. I've written about the Zipping Flashlight from Gadget Universe before. I really did purchase one of these from GU for everyone in my family for Christmas.

Alexander Innovation Wizard made a video of this flashlight available on Youtube. However, they didn't actually show the coolest feature of this flashlight: you can charge a cell phone. Here it is in action!

Oprah knows The Secret

2007-01-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

That’s right folks Oprah is going to have the creator of “The Secret” and several of the contributors on her show next Wednesday.

Want to make a difference in someone’s life? Share “The Secret” with them. You can view it online now for $4.95 and then get a coupon for the same price off the DVD. That essentially gets you the most powerful movie on the market for free. Enjoy!

The Secret ::: Official Release of The Secret Movie

technorati tags:oprah, video, the secret, television, breakthroughs, empowerment, life, improvement

STOP! or my SPAM will shoot

2007-01-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

I was looking for contributors to the Gadget Panel website when I stumbled across a cool tech blogger. I decided to contact him, so I found the email address and sent him an email. I received an immediate reply stating that I needed to verify that I was a human. This wasn’t just an email notifying me that my email was suspected to be spam. It was actually something useful.

The email required me to click a link that took me to the Spam Arrest website. Once there, I needed to perform a CAPTCHA verification. Then my email was delivered to the recipient. What a great system!

If you are curious about this service (I was), click on the link below to read about how it works.

Spam Arrest - How it works - Step 1. Easy to Use

technorati tags:spam, email, blogging, technology, verification, spam arrest, block spam

Fall In Love with The Gravity Defyer Shoes

2007-01-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Gravity Defyer Shoes by Alexander Innovation Wizard are a hot item. They were a huge hit when debuted at the 2007 CES. Yes, shoes made their debut at the largest consumer electronics show. A crazy idea, but it actually makes sense, given the amount of time people spend on their feet.

See what people said about the shoes at the CES as well as what other bloggers and reporters have to say:

Read what GUTTERBOY said (humorous)
Read what turboGADGETS said
California Newswire
The Red Ferret says they “are straight off the ‘what the…?’ banana boat LOL
Investor’s Business Daily
Nothing to do with Arbroath
Dr. Joe Vitale has many good things to say not just about the shoes
The Gravity Defyer Shoes are wishlisted by someone on TheThingsIWant.com. Perhaps I’ll send him a pair
CrunchGear had their hopes up about defying gravity
MondoShoes had something to say too
Sys-con
Yahoo! Finance published the press release
Can you Digg it?
eNewsChannels
They even love it in India
The Ventury County Star picked up on the hot news!
So did the Dallas Morning News
Even EARTHtimes.org got in on the action

See the reactions from people at CES for yourself!

Gadget Universe - Gravity Defyer Shoes

Alexander Elnekaveh (Alexander Innovation Wizard)

Parabolic Listening Device for Spying

2007-01-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Gift for Everyone

2006-12-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

I gave my Christmas shopping a lot of consideration this year. I also braved the crowds of the Topanga Shopping Mall in Woodland Hills, CA. 30 minutes waiting in a parking structure might drive many insane, but I kept reminding myself that I was doing all of this for the people I love.

I enjoyed the response my presents cause for those who received them. My nephew loved his digital drum set I got him but not as much as his mom :-D. My brother loved the UFO I got him. Those things are wickedly cool. I charged it before I brought it over for Christmas so that it was fresh and ready to go right out of the box. Everyone loved all the different items I gave this holiday weekend.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the response I received from my sister about the Pull-to-Charge LED Forever Flashlight from Gadget Universe. It really is a simple product. Last year, I got everyone in my family a Forever Flashlight from Gadget Universe. This is a similar item but much better. In my opinion, the Pull-to-Charge LED Forver Flashlight is truly an innovative twist on the battery free flashlight.

A flashlight without batteries. What's so impressive about that? The feature that impressed me AND my sister was the power adapters that come with the flashlight. On the bottom of the flashlight, there is an input for a power outlet. Yes, a power outlet. My sister's cell phone was dead. She had forgotten to charge the phone before she left, and she didn't have a charger in her car. I was joking about it charging her cell phone. After all, I didn't think it was going to fit her phone. But it did.

Next thing you know, she's pulling the string a couple of times and her cell phone is charging. Her phone charged for 20 minutes on the Flashlight. Her phone is the typical cell phone flip top. I think an LG or a Motorola. I don't remember. I ordered more from GU to give to other people in my life. Not only do they get a powerful flashlight but a portable charger. Now, if I can only find one that is powered by a hamster wheel, I'd be set for life!

Yahoo Finally Beats Google at Something

2006-12-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

I RARELY use Yahoo search. Granted, this has little to do with the usefulness of the search. It has more to do with the fact that I think Yahoo is a bunch of ass clowns. However, today... Today, I might just have to change my mind.

I am a HUGE proponent of RSS. I love RSS. If I could eat RSS, I would. I love RSS so much that I've tought about legally chaning my middle name to RSS. Jared RSS Tracy... I like the sound of that!

I ran a search on Yahoo to see how certain products were showing up on Yahoo vs. Google. I noticed something up in the corner of my Flock web browser whilst searching on Yahoo. It was the distinct RSS feed logo. At first, I thought it was merely a link reference for some main Yahoo RSS. Upon further review, it is actually an RSS for whatever the current search is! Wickedly SWEET!

Yes, Google does offer the Google Reader thing. However, it's more than just one click away. Kudos to Yahoo for geeking Google out. If you have a browser with a built-in RSS (such as Flock), explore the difference between bill gates - Google Search and the bill gates - Yahoo! Search Results

Gadget Universe Innovates Online Advertising for the Catalog Industry

2006-12-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

Sylmar, CA - Gadget Universe became the first major innovation catalog to offer up its email deals via Real Simple Syndication (RSS). Continuing a trend of innovative marketing ideas, Gadget Universe now offers the Gadget Alert Newsletter free to anyone with a news feed reader. Users have the ability to add the Gadget Alert Newsletter to their Google, Yahoo, or MSN homepages as well as any news reader web service.

The Gadget Alert Newsletter offers discounts on products, free shipping, and other specials previously available only to email subscribers. Utilizing RSS to promote specials and deals to Gadget Universe visitors puts GU at the forefront of innovative advertising. Since RSS delivers content directly to the browsers and newsreaders of subscribers, it offers similar functionality to email delivered specials. However, no personal information is required to be submitted by the visitor in order to receive the feed. There are no worries about spam from Gadget Universe, as the browser now has complete control over the feed.

The feed is available directly from the Gadget Universe website and also through the FeedBurner.com feed service.

My two cents...
I'm very excited about the latest release from Gadget Universe. This is truly innovative marketing technique that has been lacking from the catalog industry. Yes, companies have been delivering specials announcements and deals via RSS for a while. However, Gadget Universe is the first major catalog company to take their email specials and make them available via a news feeds, readily available to any browser; without having to divulge any personal information.

This will transform the catalog industry. I'm going to dare to say that catalog giants like Sharper Image, Brookstone, Hammacher Schlemmer, and First Street will all follow the lead of Gadget Universe is offering syndication of their online promotions before the end of 2007.

RSS at StrongIdea.com

2006-12-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

The Hard(ly) Working Development Team @ StrongIdea.com have put an RSS feed into place. Get the daily specials from StrongIdea.com delivered directly to your Yahoo, Google, AOL, Rojo, Bloglines, netvibes, news gator, pageflakes, Feed Demon, Netnewswire, Newsfire, Shrook, RSSOwl, or USM reader/aggregator every single day without having to do anything but login to your news feed site.

The crazy folks over at StrongIdea.com have even managed to turn on auto-discovery for those of you with news aggregators built-in to your browser (like my favorite: Flock).

Enjoy!

A FREE Word Processor

2006-12-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

Original post on Jared's Bloggin'

If you are like me, the primary functions that your PC or MAC serves
are to surf the web, watch videos on YouTube, and blog. Perhaps you are
a variation of those. Maybe you even use your computer to write a daily
journal.

Well, I’ve been journal-less for months since my old laptop died. I
purchased a MAC, which came with a trial version of MS Office. When the
trial expired, I didn’t want to spork out the 500 bucks it costs for
MS Office. Sure, I could have just purchased MS Word, which is what I
primarily use. However, I held my ground in not wanting to spend money
on an office sweet.

I recently purchased a laptop from newegg.com.
This too came with a trial version of MS Office. I used it a few times,
but I really didn’t want to get used to using the Office suite because
I’d then feel a need to go spend another half a grand on MS Office. I
held out again.

I’m glad I didn’t purchase MS Office. I was working on an
advertisement with someone in my art department the other day. They
opened up the Word doc I had sent from my computer at work in a program
called OpenOffice.org (OOo). I remembered back to the old days of that POS Star
Office (nerds in the house, lemme hear you say wOOt wOOt!!!) Anyway, OpenOffice.org offers an MS Office type suite for FREE!

But that’s not where the coolness ends. Sure, free is great, but there
is one very sweet feature that I will be utilizing soon: export to PDF.
I’m going to start working on my new book soon. Of course, the best way
to get an eBook on the market is as a PDF! So, I’m going to be doing
this all for FREE.

Now, even if you’ve already sporked out the money for MS Office,
download OpenOffice.org for free. Yes, it’s completely free. Yes, it
offers pretty much all the same functionality as MS Office. Plus, you
can save/open MS Office documents whenever you want with
OpenOffice.org. When the latest version of MS Office comes out, you can
spork out another 200 bucks if you like. When the latest version of
OpenOffice.org comes out… Just download the puppy!

Now, I’m sure there is some ultra-nerd out there who is going to read
this and have plenty of bad things to say about OOo and how slow it
might be and blah, blah, blah. In my experience, OOo used no more
memory than Internet Explorer after having viewed a few flicks on
Youtube and spent some time on my other favorite websites. In my every
day use, OOo has not been too slow. If you are an every day person
(non-ultra-nerd) like me, OpenOffice.org is the Office suite for you.

The T-Shirt that launched 1,000 blogs!

2006-12-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

ATTENTION BLOG LOVERS! Geek it up from the folks at ThinkGeek.com. My coworker myspaced me a link to this product. It's time to get White and Nerdy. Like the T-Shirt says, "I'm blogging this." Pass it on!

ThinkGeek :: I'm blogging this.

Myspace or Bust!

2006-12-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

A while back, I opened a dialog with someone at Myspace to run advertisements for Gadget Universe. The price tag, I will not divulge, but everything is negotiable anyway. I pitched the idea to the powers that be at Gadget Universe, and the result was a resounding no. To me, it should be a no-brainer. You take the largest social network on the planet and mix in some cool gadgets. Heck, Gadget Universe should have its very own myspace profile, with bulletins about the latest innovations and blogs about the insane antics that take place in the office.

Yet the powers that be don't want to cough up the measly amount of money to run a full campaign on myspace to learn a little. A few months later, I get a call from Paul Gasser at Next Action, and he's pitching me on an idea for a new eCommerce solution they have. I won't go into too many details about how it works, but it is a rather ingenious idea (mostly because it is identical to an idea my friend Michelle Denogean and I developed about 8 years ago).

Here we are a few months later. Gadget Universe just implemented the new advertising campaign. I'm minding my own business on myspace: blogging about Brett Favre's completion record and Christians Gone Wild when suddenly... in the middle of my myspace adventures... up comes an advertisement for Gadget Universe. What can I say? Someone up there must really like me. Now, I just need to keep my fingers crossed that it will actually payoff so I can go pitch them on a full run with Myspace!

Why God Hasn't Answered Your Prayers

2006-12-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

You don't realize it yet, but in the next 3 minutes you're going to learn why God has not been answering your prayers. Before I get to that, I'm going to share with you an experience that I've had several times in the past and, most recently, this morning. My confession is that this is something that I have done myself. What I'm about to share is something that we have all done at some point in our life and then pondered why the outcome is so different than how we thought God had intended it. So what is the secret to God answering our prayers?

A good friend of mine was sharing about her experience with failing a test necessary to received her teaching credential. She had taken the test last year and failed. She was devastated, but she picked up her chin and started studying again to take the test this year. She spent hours studying and doing what she felt was needed to ensure that she passed the test. Then she began telling me about her conversations with her higher power, God, regarding her journey.

She had made several requests to God that if he did not want her to pursue this goal of hers, he should make sure that certain milestones were not met (such as receiving scholarships, early rescheduling, etc.) Yet, everything fell into place. My friend was clear that God intended her to take *and* pass the test this second time around. She was riding high in faith that she would pass the test. I remember her talking about how positive she was trying to be about the test. She was trying not to think about the last test. She had asked God for guidance, and it was clear to her that he intended her to pass. She failed the test earlier this week.

Almost everyone has heard of this happening to someone. Or maybe you have experienced this for yourself. You called upon God to give you guidance, and he has given you a path that is as clear as the hand in front of your face. To my friend, God has shown her exactly what she was supposed to do by supporting her pursuit of her teaching credential exactly as she knew it should happen. Now, she was upset with God for having not protected her interests. After all, she had made the requests of God, and he had put everything in place for her. I'd venture to guess that you've had this experience yourself.

So, why is it that God can appear to answer our prayers one day and not answer them the next? I know that some of us have it that it is all part of God testing us. However, that God is testing our faith by baiting us with cheese of our wants being fulfilled, only to take the cheese away at the last minute is a bit obscene. Bait & switch, deceit, and lies are very human type games. What is more likely than God playing some faith testing game with us is that we have fooled ourselves into believing that our wants and pursuits are supported by God at all. We do this by making demands on God like my friend, "God, if you really don't want me to pursue this then you should not allow me to receive the scholarships I need."

Many of us have it that we are so important that God is listening and reacting to every request and demand we make of him in the exact way that we want him to. There are a lot of assumptions we are making about our conversations with God:

He's actually listening
He takes action in response to our requests
He responds and alters the universe in a way that makes sense to us

Don't be offended by any of these three assumptions. I'm not suggesting that God does not listen to us. I'm also not suggesting that God doesn't take any action in response to our requests. I personally believe in a higher power that is always listening and responding to everything that everyone thinks, says, or does. So where does that leave us with the final assumption? The one that God responds and alters the universe in a way that makes sense to us.

As this blog rolls to an end, I invite you to consider that the answerto the question at hand lies in the realm of responsibility. We project onto God that which we believe to be what he is "revealing to us". Take a moment to soak this up. Put another way, we see the actions unfolding in our life as God's response to the requests we are making of him. Like myfriend has experienced, God will not make you pass or fail in life. So, then, why do we make God responsible for the outcomes we experience in life? Stay tuned to my blog for more.

Christians Gone Wild...

2006-12-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season for some news about Christianity. I was reading an article on CNN about the son of Jim Bakker (remember that swindler?)

I saw an ad on the side of the page with the headline: Davidic Christianity Christian Polygamy. The text ad read: Davidic Christianity seeks to fulfill the prophecy of Amos 9: 11-12 by... Perhaps it was my red-blooded American curiosity that got me clicking. I mean, David was hooking it up.

Now, typically, I don't blog, bulletin, or otherwise comment on material that I don't want to promote. After all, all press is good press. On top of this, I suspect that the folks at House of David Ministries paid good money for their ad on CNN. I'm now giving them additional value for their spend on CNN. But the message they are trying to convey is of great importance.

The folks at House of David Ministries claim that they are trying to convey a message of God. Please, by all means, read the article they have crafted about Biblical Marriage. This is a sweet idea! Hell, if God supports polygamy, I'm all for it. Any man stupid enough to try to take on fulfilling the needs of more than one woman deserves what he's going to get. Then again, the "Biblical" concept of marriage is the transfer of ownership of the bride from her father to her husband. So, I suppose there's not a whole lot of focus on fulfilling any of her needs when it comes to "Biblical" marriage.

My personal favorite is the Conclusions section. Honestly, this is a rather well written article that clearly outlines the conclusions of this biblical research. Yes, it is filled with authentic Biblical gibberish. Yes, it is entirely too long for anyone in their right mind to read in a single sitting. In fact, I encourage you to read it over several bathroom visits. There are plenty of Bible quotes that truly prove that either (1) polygamy is established through the word of God to be not just acceptable but honorable *OR* (2) parts of the Bible can be used to support any idea someone can come up with.

Read Conclusion #8. The first 8, please, not the second. At the time I wrote this, there were two 8's. Will the House of David Ministries change it by the time you read this? I'm not sure. I suppose it depends on how many people spend their time reading my blogs :-D

My Screenwriting Debut

2006-12-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

It turns out that my screenwriting and directing debut also turned into my acting debut. You are probably wondering, "What the hell is Jared talking about?" A few months ago, the CEO of the company that I work for decided to start making short infomercials about the products that we sell so that we can send them to the companies that buy our products. It was something he pretty much took on for himself. I gave him tips here and there, but I had very little involvement with it.

A few weeks ago, he scheduled the video shoot. I tell him that he should probably write a script for the whole thing. He says he will work on it. Of course, nothing happens with the script and it is now the day of the shoot. Suddenly! A panicked IM, "Jared! I need you here right now. Read this script that I put together, and let me know what you think." It is horrible, to say the least. I hop in my car and head into the hills of Sherman Oaks.

I arrive at a house filled with models having their makeup done, a videographer setting up the lighting, and one of my employees shooting a behind the scenes video. I find my boss in front of a computer trying to type out a script. He hops out of the chair and say, "Here! You do it." I sit down and ask him questions about how much interaction he wants with the host. Does he want to say the big words? See, English is not is first language, so words like ancillary don't just roll off his tongue.

I'm finished with the first script. BLAM! I hand it to the hostess/model and she nearly faints. "It would have been nice to have this earlier than today. This is well written, but I'm not going to be able memorize half of this in 10 minutes. Can I just improvise?" Hey! I just got a compliment about my writing from a woman who's been on Broadway. Nice!

My boss and the hostess interact with each other on the camera a bit. Well, there goes that plan for the script I wrote. Damn! Now, I'm going to have to rewrite everything. No big deal. I start slicing and dicing. Heck, I'm a virtual Veg-o-matic with words. A couple of minutes later... BLAM!!! Script, versions 2.0 is in their hands, printed in 40 pt font so that they can read it from across the room.

Cameras rolling... blah blah blah CUT! WTF? What happened to the script? My boss is reading from the script. The model is reading from... Well, not really sure. She's doing a great job though. She's a very effective ad-libber, but she's totally stealing the show from the CEO. The day just seems to keep going. More ad lib. More uh?!? Well, let's just say that the CEO wasn't too happy with the outcome.

A few days later we have the DVD of the shoot so that we can start doing some rough editing. What's next? Well, looks like we are doing another shoot. Stay tuned for another story about My Acting Debut followed by another about My Directing Debut and My Editing Debut. Coming to a bulletin and blog near you!

Why Best Buy Posted Low Profits

2006-12-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

I could have predicted this months ago. In fact, I posted a comment on some guy's blog about stores like Circuit City and similar businesses. The last time I went to Best Buy was about two months ago. The time before that was about a month earlier. Nothing changed. Best Buy had some new Plasma TVs that just confused the hell out of me because some looked good and others looked like crap. There was so much selection that I just didn't even want to waste my time.

Instead, I went online and looked for TVs. I found all kinds of great reviews and information. I asked my friend Keen about projection TVs and all that good stuff. The end result is that I went to Costco and found the DLP projector of my dreams. It had everything that Keen was talking about. It had everything that all the super geek websites said it should have, for a reasonable price.

What I want from a store is for them to limit the amount of clutter. I don't want 500 choices when it comes to my television set. I don't want 200 choices when it comes to my washing machine. I want a store that is going to stock ONLY the highest quality merchandise and tell me, "Jared, this is the best item right here."

Of course, since I rule the universe, it was no surprise when Best Buy posted disappointing profits.

Best Buy profit disappoints, shares fall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Best Buy Co. Inc. reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday as the consumer electronics retailer cut prices on flat-panel TVs to boost sales at the start of the holiday shopping season, sending its shares down 5 percent.

A lil Bush Humor

2006-12-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

Dance Event: High Desert Dancesport Challenge Dance Competition

2006-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Come be a part of the 3rd Annual High Desert Dancesport Challenge Dance Competition
Ballroom, Latin, West Coast Swing, Salsa, Jack & Jills, Pro-Am & Amateur

March 23 - 25, 2007
Location: Antelope Valley College
3041 West Avenue K
Lancaster, California

ALL ENTRIES/REGISTRATION DEADLINE
FEBRUARY 26, 2007
Sorry, No Refunds or Substitutions

All Jack & Jill/Strictly Swing Contests Registration at the Event Only
West Coast Swing, Salsa, Night Club 2-Step, Cha-Cha
$15 per dance
TO COMPETE, YOU MUST PURCHASE A 3-DAY COMPETITOR PASS

Judges & Instructors Include:
Teresa Shiry, Luis Crespo, Tom Hicks, and more!

For More Information, Contact:
Lisa Sandoval, Organizer
lisadance1[at]aol[dot]com

Linda Chesnutt, Marketing Director
chesnuttls[at]adelphia[dot]net

Janet Diaz, Competition Director
hddance[at]adelphia[dot]net

For More Information on: Tickets, Package Prices, Registration Forms, Rules, Workshops
Schedules, Directions, Hotels, and Eateries visit:
www.highdesertchallenge.com

Yet Another Music Download Website

2006-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

UrbanBoomer is touting their new digital music store (UBTunes) as a hip place for the 35-60 year old demographic. They're genre selection is a little different than say iTunes (or the 50 million other iTunes knock-offs).

It's pretty clear that this web service is not for the person who finally got on the web using AOL for the first time. If you are going to be using UBTunes, you better know how your MP3 device interacts with your computer and how to get files from your downloads into your portable device.

Right now, they have a program to win a Zune, loaded with 250 songs. I'll take the 250 songs, and they can keep the Zune. How does that sound? The part of the site that most caught my attention is the same thing that keeps drawing your eyes away from this text. Short of the snapshots from the infamous "wardrobe malfunction", this is one of the best pictures I've seen of Janet Jackson in a long time.

Dance Event: World Swing Dance Championships

2006-12-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Date: May 4-6, 2007
Irvine Marriott Hotel
1800 Von Karman Avenue
Irvine, CA 92612

Buddy Schwimmer
http://www.usaswingnet.com/worldswing/

In conjunction with The Lindy and West Coast Swing Connection
Teveya Dovbish & Eileen Dovbish
lindywestcoastconnection@earthlink.net

A combination of Lindy and West Coast Swing with equal prize money for contests
And workshops for both styles of swing

Invited judges and workshop teachers:
Bill Cameron
Laureen Baldovi
Sonny Watson
Benji Schwimmer
Lacey Schwimmer
Buddy Schwimmer
Heidi Groskreutz
Manny Variel
Phil Adams

Kim Clever
Dave Frutos
Minn Vo
Corina Acosta
Ben Yau
Sheri Yau
Benjamin Ricard
Genevieve Kerouac

DJ's Jack Smith and Tip West
Saturday Midnight Buffet

Contests:
Jack & Jill
Young Adult
Team
Masters
Junior
Showcase
Cabaret
Lindy vs. West Coast

Event Ticket
$110 Before March 1
$125 March 1 - 31
$135 April 1 and later

I'm sure there is not much I need to say about any of these instructors, but I'll say it anyway. They are all gifted dancers, performers, choreographers, and teachers. You will really enjoy learning from all of them. See you there!

More Myspace BS

2006-12-10T11:15:00.001-08:00

I'm an avid user of myspace. That's not to say that I'm one of those people who has a totally pimped out profile with 300,000 friends who I don't even know any of them. All it means is that I, like many people, sign in to myspace once or twice a week to keep in touch with many of my friends. I post comments, fill out lame surveys, post bulletins, write blogs, etc. I use myspace as a useful method of communicating with some of my friends.

Given the usefulness of communicating through myspace, I figured that I would attempt to utilize myspace as the wonderful networking tool that so many people have claimed it is. I went to the Myspace.com Classifieds section and posted a job opportunity for bloggers. I wasn't sure exactly where I should post such a classified. Posting it under the job section seemed to make sense. Granted, it was not a paid position. It was not a typical posting, but the job section seemed to be a logical fit. After all, the requirements are essentially the same as a job. You need to be able to post a blog on one of the topics at least once a week.

However, I'm not going to pay any of the bloggers money (for now). The starting point for this network is that of a cross promotional network. Each individual contributor will receive a link on the blog to their personal website/blog/etc. Individuals promote the network, the network promotes the individuals. The network is simply a means to expand your exposure for yourself. Simple idea, now back the the Myspace BS...

My classified posting was deleted. There was no notification stating that it was being deleted. There was no message sent to me saying something along the lines of: "Jared, we noticed that you posted a classified for a job that does not pay money. This does not fit the guidelines of the myspace.com classified section. Please consider a new location for you posting." The best part is that the posting is completely gone. I can't even go back and move it to another location on myspace. To top things off, when I click on the link to view my classified posts, I receive the infamous:

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.

Now, I know that people have been saying that myspace is going to die out because of all the problems it has. I have another suggestion. How about Google buys myspace from Fox? Seriously, everything that Google touches seems to turn into gold. Imagine a myspace world where stuff actually works, where you can post a bulletin without having to worry if you "profile is temporarily unavailable for maintenance". Imagine a myspace world where you wouldn't receive the infamous Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred message whenever you try to go back to you home page. Imagine a myspace world where you don't want to strangle Tom because the damned website just erased your bulletin after you've been working on it for 15 minutes! I'm sending good ESP vibes to the business development folks at Google so that they buy myspace from Fox. Join me in this entrancing thought. The will of the masses can make this a reality.

Windoze Scams

2006-12-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

Someone in the office forwarded this email to myself and the IT Manager here, asking "Is it correct" and wanting to purchase it for someone in our office in China. Now, not only is this ridiculous because its an obvious scam, but there are laws around exporting software to China. Of course, this is also the same guy who wonders why he keeps getting 200 spam emails in his inbox every day. Well... Let me think about that :-D

Subject: BUY WINDOWS XP FOR $49.95! RETAIL PRICE: $269.99!

Dear customers and friends of DS Team,
Please let us represent our new special offer you can't afford to miss.
Announcing Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition. Office 2007 is available for enterprise users from November 30, 2006. The end user version will be available in the beginning of 2007.
The 2007 Microsoft Office System, also known as Microsoft Office 2007, is the most recent version of Microsoft's productivity suite.
Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it is scheduled to be made available to volume license customers on November 30, 2006, with general availability following in early 2007.
Retail Price $899.00
Our Price $79.95
You save $819.05
Find more about it: http://mawrtt.net

wOOt-off the Yellow Light Reindeer

2006-12-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Woot-off the yellow light Reindeer, had a very shiny show

And if you every saw it, you would even spend some dough

All of the other DOD websites wanted to be just like them

They never sold more products, not even the best of 'em

wOOt offs taking place at everyone's favorite deal a day website. Apparently, they are also selling child eating dogs!

Woot : One Day, One Deal

Sharper Image 20% off Dec 7 & 8

2006-12-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

If you want to shop at the store, select the following image and text and then print the selection to your printer

About this offer:
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We couldn't get much higher

2006-12-05T13:58:00.001-08:00

I've long been a disbeliever in most medication. My experience with pharmaceuticals grade medicine is that it merely masks the symptoms. Rather than providing a cure, most modern medicine is symptom relief. Apparently, the folks at Cafe of Life feel we're popping too many pills these days and made a rather humorous flash video for all of us to enjoy.

technorati tags:videos, funny, drugs, pharmaceuticals, medication, pills

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Iraq War Leak Coverage on The Daily Show

2006-12-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

Should one be sad, pissed, or amazed with this story from The Daily Show with John Stewart? Granted, John Stewart's impersonation of Bush is pretty week, but the Information confusing the brain bit is about as funny as it gets.

YouTube - Daily Show - Leak

technorati tags:news, The Daily Show, George Bush, Iraq, John Stewart, jihad

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The Godzilla Building

2006-12-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, the Godzilla movies were some of my favorite. In my young age, I didn't notice things like a zipper in the front of the Godzilla suit. My imagination was wild, and I really thought that Godzilla existed over in some foreign land where everyone ran around with an early Beatles haircut. Of course, I would catch only the latter part of the film, so I wasn't aware that Godzilla movies had plots. Although, now that I think about it, I'm still not sure if they have a plot.

Anyway, when my friend Keen sent me the Ironic Sans blog about a building in the shape of Godzilla, I nearly died laughing. Yet, this is actually a brilliant idea. Mr/s. Ironic Sans has really thought this through, from the apartments above Godzilla's nipple to the fountain in the shape of Godzilla's footprint. Something I think would be a great addition to the fictitious building would be an elevator on the front of Godzilla in the shape of a zipper!

Ironic Sans: Idea: A building shaped like Godzilla

technorati tags:Godzilla, Tokyo, building, architecture, funny

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SkyMaul on Amazon

2006-12-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

For those of you who enjoy reading SkyMall on the airplane, the folks at The Kasper Hauser Comedy Group bring you a spoof with SkyMaul, available on Amazon.com. Looking for an iPod shredder? SkyMaul is the place for you.

Amazon.com: SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane: Books: John Reichmuth,James Reichmuth,Robert Baedeker,Dan Klein

technorati tags:SkyMall, gifts, funny

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Great Copy Equals Record Selling Shoes

2006-12-01T17:49:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in my office and I receive an email from the from the assistant to Dr. Joe Vitale. Vitale? That name sounds really familiar. I pull up his website: mrfire.com. Yet, Dr. Vitale goes far beyond his website. He has a blog: mrfireblog.com. But there is even more. For those of you who have seen "The Secret", you will recognize Dr. Vitale as one of the several powerful contributors to this transformational film.

Dr. Vitale has written dozens of books (and multi-media products) on marketing, positive manifestation, and empowerment. He is a best selling author as well as a best selling eBook author on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This is merely a glimpse into the success of Dr. Vitale. Given Dr. Vitale's background, you can understand why I am beside myself when the next day starts off with him telling me that he loves the copy I wrote for the Gadget Universe Gravity Defyer shoes.

I've been pinching myself all week. It's hard to fathom that a master of marketing would have such great compliments for my copy. I enjoy writing, so to have my work validated by someone like Dr. Vitale is a phenomenal compliment and a tremendous professional accomplishment. The pinching stopped today when I received an email from Dr. Vitale and checked out his latest blog. I have my interview with him Monday morning at 8 o'clock! Early bedtime on Sunday for me.

Here is Dr. Vitale's original post regarding the copy I wrote for the shoes. I am so excited about my accomplishment! Adding to the recognition from Dr. Vitale is the recognition from consumers. The Gravity Defyer Shoes are outselling the next best selling product in the Gadget Universe catalog by 2 to 1, and they are the fastest selling new product in the history of the catalog. Keep a lookout for a new version of the two-page ad coming to SkyMall Q1 of 2007. A single page version of the ad is being prepared for my 2007 magazine campaign.

technorati tags:copy, copy writing, marketing, shoes, gadgets, work, gift ideas, advertising, SkyMall, gifts, success, sales, top seller, best seller, accomplishment, magazine

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One in the same

2006-11-30T13:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I posted a blog regarding a Wednesday morning's Adam Corolla show. A friend of mine from high school posted a very good question on my myspace version of the blog. I started off with a very simple explanation of "one & the same" vs. "one in the same", then realized that I should write a whole other blog about it. So here it is:

There is a difference between "one & the same" and "one in the same". People will argue that the original is "one & the same" and therefore "one in the same" is a phonetically butchered version of "one & the same". In my opinion, this is not the case. These two phrases mean different things.

The notion of "one & the same" implies that you and I (and everyone) are a single unit and that we are the same. To me, this creates a type of uniformity between all of us. While, I can agree with the single unit aspect of this phrase, I disagree with the uniformity. I do not believe that we are all the same. We are each unique human beings with different personalities, desires, experiences, etc. So, in my opinion, we are not one & the same.

I do believe that we are one in the same. In this phrase, we again imply that you and I (and everyone) are a single unit. So, what is meant by "in the same"? What I mean by "in the same" is simply humanity. Humanity implies no similarity other than that we are human beings: bipedal animals with a high degree of intelligence (most of the time).

What does humanity mean to me? It is the state of being humane, which implies empathy and compassion. To me, being empathetic requires an acute awareness of the experiences of others. I don't mean just knowing what someone did or said. Empathetic experiences are such that you actually experience another person's experience as if you were him/her. Empathy ties directly back into our oneness. True compassion is not possible absent of empathy. Compassion is essentially empathy coupled with the desire to alleviate the suffering of another. This too ties into our oneness in that the suffering of another is suffer for us all.

This bring us back to the very good question that my friend raised: "why is insulting black people with a racist word worse than insulting overweight people?" The answer is simple. Put yourself in the space of the world created by the N-word. What does this word really imply? What is the history behind this word? What are the emotions, the pain and suffering behind this word? What is really meant when one use the N-word? Really get present to the significance of this word. The N-word is not some inconsequential word. Behind the N-word is the essence of inequality, hatred, inhumanity, indignation, humiliation, and separation. The N-word is to separate one human from another such that we are not one. It is to make someone not human. The N-word is everything that is is not to be a part of humanity. What would it mean to any of us if someone were to rob us of our own place within humanity? That is what it means when you call someone the N-word.

I don't mean to suggest that insulting someone about being overweight is not hurtful. I don't mean to invalidate the cruelty of insulting someone based upon their weight. I am merely saying that I am willing to take responsibility for what the N-word means in the world and not relegate the N-word to the same status as "cracker" or "fat ass". To me, the use of the N-word is to dishonor what it means to be human.

technorati tags:uniformity, desires, experiences, opinion, racism, humanity, humane, empathy, compassion, awareness, oneness, inequality, hatred, inhumanity, indignation, humiliation, separation, N-word, overweight, hurt, suffering, responsibility, cracker, fat ass, dishonor, emotions, meaning, words, communication, bigotry

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Lawyer vs. Sewer

2006-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

Michael Richards is giving a whole new meaning to Kramer vs. Kramer. With his racist rant on stage the other day, everyone got to see a very sick side of Michael Richards. His follow up apology on The Late Show with David Letterman was a poor attempt by Jerry Seinfeld to help his friend out (as well as his Season 7 DVD sales). When Kramer kept referring to "Afro Americans" I just sat there thinking, "This guy has some serious pent up anger." He might as well have just used the N-word again. Kramer is an ass

I'd venture to guess that Michael Richards doesn't even distinguish between any shades of dark skin. He'd probably use the N-word to describe people with dark skin who don't even have roots in African, and he'd probably still refer to them as Afro Americans. Afro what? Of course, we all descended from Africa anyway, but I digress. The point is that Michael Richards' blow up at the Laugh Factory the other day was not to be blamed on alcohol or heckling. He just doesn't like black folk, it's as simple as that.

I don't think I will ever have enough to say about my disgust for Michael Richards. However, this blog is not about Kramer. This blog is about the Adam Corolla interview with Gloria Allred this morning. Adam brought up what he thought to be a very legitimate "logical" argument: Would Gloria be sewing if Kramer had exploded into a rant against fat people? Now, Adam and his crew felt like they had a reasonable argument. Certainly, calling an overweight person terms such as lard ass, fat ass, fat f*ck, etc are all derogatory terms aimed at hurting the feelings of someone overweight.

The problem with Adam's argument is that the United States Capital was not the auction house for selling fat people 200 years ago. The constitution of the United States of American did articulate the voting rights of people who owned fat people. The US Constitution did not have to be amended to provide fat people with the basic human right of freedom. More recently, the National Guard of Alabama did not have to have a stand off with State Troopers at a state run university when fat people attended the university. Bathrooms, dance halls, and restaurants were not separated into the fat people section and the non-fat people section. The United States government did not infect thousands of fat people with syphilis in order to measure the effects of the disease on fat people. The term fat ass is not derived from some racist southerner's lack of education on how to pronounce the country of origin of the fat person.

When he posed the question to Gloria Allred about whether she would be filing a lawsuit against Michael Richards if he went on a rant against fat people... I was surprised that she didn't tell just him that it's not the same thing. Sorry, Adam Corolla. If you want to call it the race card, that's your problem. Calling someone a fat f*ck is nothing like calling them the N-word. Although, just imagine what it would be like if Kramer called the guys fat a$$ f*cking N*s.

What I think is interesting is the proposal that Gloria Allred has put forth: An apology between in front of a retired judge by Kramer to the audience members (Kyle Doss and Frank McBride) at the Laugh Factory. The judge would then decide whether Michael Richards should pay any money for the pain he inflicted. I like the idea of the apology, but what really needs to happen is that Kramer needs help. What surfaced that evening is some deep routed anger that his pocketbook is not going to make any difference with. But how do you get someone to not be an angry racist? Perhaps one day, Kramer will realize that we are all one in the same.

technorati tags:Michael Richards, racism, Kramer, Gloria Allred, lawsuit, fat people, Adam Corolla, Laugh Factory, segregation, civil rights, rant, Seinfeld

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Where are the cool gifts?

2006-11-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here thinking about what to get people for Xmas this year. I think I'm just going to go the gift card route. Seriously, there's nothing that impressive out there.

Well, there is one cool little toy that would be nice to have, but that's the problem. See, I want the R2D2 droid from Hammacher Schlemmer (apparently, Shaper Image has it too). Hell! Did I spell that correctly? Anyway, I can't possibly get the droid for someone else. I want that for myself (hint, hint friends and family who have 120 bucks to spend on me this holiday season who read my blog!)

So where does that leave my gift shopping for others? I know I'm going to get my nephew the R/C kite from Gadget Universe. The kids are the easy ones to shop for. I'll probably drop 20 grand on my nephew because there are plenty of cool toys for a cool five year old kid. However, what the hell am I going to get the adults in my life? I think I might just cop out and get all the men those Gravity Defyer shoes from Gadget Universe. Shoes with springs in them! Gotta love it.

Then there are the females. I have my mom, my three sisters (although one of them is far away so I can escape that way), and a handful of other great women in my life. Do I just goto Bath & Body Works to get them all some gift cards? That's not going to sound like me telling them that I think they smell, right? I would think Victoria's Secret, but I'm a little disturbed with the thought of getting my mom a card to a lingerie shop. Then again, they do have their Fashion Show coming up December 5.

I give up. It's John Mayer CDs for everyone.

technorati tags:shopping, xmas, christmas, lingerie, bath & body works, R2D2, star wars, droids, holiday shopping, gift ideas, john mayer, CDs, gift cards, fashion show, Victorias Secret, family, presents, gifts, hammacher schlemmer, sharper image, gadget universe, gadgets, toys, newphew, kids

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Global Surveyor is still around?

2006-11-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot about the little bastard Global Surveyor. Apparently, NASA is again talking about how much work this thing has done and how they are going stop using it. Something tells me that there are Martians sitting there fixing the machine every time it stops for a rest. Why else would it have lasted so long? Clearly it is the aliens.

Farewell Tiny Dancer: Mars Global Surveyor May Be at Mission's End | Science Blog

technorati tags:global surveyor, mars, martians, aliens, NASA

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Arrogant teachers

2006-11-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what was in the air around teachers during the early part of 1994. During the same time as the letter below (1994), I had a teacher argue with me over whether one private citizen could sue another private citizen for violating his "civil rights". The evening after I argued with my teacher in front of the class, I spoke with my father regarding this subject.

My father was going to the law library that evening anyway, so he took a little extra time to find me the exact law regarding this particular subject. Clearly stated in the letter of the law was the term "color of state". This term essentially means that civil rights violations apply to the state and local government and government agencies, not an average citizen like you or me.

I brought in the copy of the law that my father had made for me and handed it to my teacher. He apologized in front of everyone and then thanked me for taking the initiative to follow through on the pursuit of education.

Well, this wasn't the case with the teacher at some school in some town, who knows where? Just take a look at this letter posted on entensity.

Entensity.net - Post Images

I had to do a double take when I read this. WHAT!?! My favorite part is the second to last paragraph:

Although he was correct, Alex's actions show a blatant disregard for authority, and a complete lack of respect for his school. In the future, Alex would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance.

Honestly, this is impressive. I give this teacher the honorary 1994 lame a$$ of the year award. Thank gawd for kids like Alex. Thank gawd that there are people who are not willing to just listen to an arrogant teacher who believes that we should simply accept his/her "teachings without resistance." Thank gawd that we have people who are willing to stand up to authority figures who are clearly in the wrong.

While this is a rather trivial issue (especially since the great metric takeover never took place), it is an excellent example of the arrogance of some teachers. By no means am I suggesting that all teachers are like this. As my example from my own schooling shows, there are teachers who are willing to support the pursuit of education rather than their own ego and control issues.

Damn! Now I need to go find my inner peace. This kind of stuff really gets me riled up. I hope Alex's teachers brought this letter to the principal's attention. If that didn't work, I hope they brought it to the super intendant's attention. If that didn't work, I hope they brought it to the state board of education. If that didn't work, I hope they stated civil unrest in whatever town they were in! Alright, I think I've vented enough. My inner fields of daisies have been found. :-D

technorati tags:education, teachers, metric system, arrogance, authority, civil unrest, board of education, school

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Lindy wins the 2006 US Open Showcase Champion

2006-11-27T13:53:00.000-08:00

There's a bit of a rivalry between Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing. Hoppers, as Lindy Hop dancers are sometimes called, claim that West Coast Swing is slow and for old people, while the West Coast Swing dancers (sometimes referred to as westies) claim that Hoppers lack technique and smoothness). The rivalry is mostly playful, but it is playful in a Cold War kind of way. Well, the best thing for both styles of swing dance happened this weekend: A Lindy routine won the Showcase division of the US Open of Swing Dance.

Despite the title "Open", the US Open of Swing Dance is primarily a West Coast Swing event. People will cite various reasons for this. My opinion is that the West Coast Swing performances have been much better than the Lindy Hop performances over the last couple of decades. Since West Coast has consistently won the US Open titles, the Hoppers have slowly stopped showing up to the event. That is, until Ben Morris came to town (yes, Ben has been around for a while, but I'm trying to add some draaama to this story).

At the young age of 3 months (I keed, I keed, but Ben is very young), Ben is already an accomplished Lindy Hopper AND West Coast Swing dancer. Now, this talented cross-over performer has won the Hope Diamond of the Swing Dance world. The Showcase Division of the US Open has recently seen winners such as "So You Think You Can Dance" winner, Benji Schiwmmer and his partner Heidi Groskreutz (also a SYTYCD finalist) and "30 Seconds of Fame" winners, Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollman. Past US Open championships have sported the likes of Mary Ann Nunez and Robert Royston.

I know there are many other swing dance legends from the past that I'm not mentioning here because I don't know them off the top of my head. I'm not professing to be an expert on US Open history. The point is that Ben has accomplished something great here. This is not just because he had a wonderful performance. It is also because he brought Lindy back to life at the US Open. Huge congratulations to Ben Morris on his Showcase win at the 2006 US Open Swing Dance Championships.

Click here for the complete 2006 US Open results

technorati tags:dance, swing dance, Lindy, US Open, championship, So You Think You Can Dance, 30 Seconds of Fame, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, dancers, dancing, showcase, performance, Ben Morris, champions

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Alternative Fuel

2006-11-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

My friend Keen sent me the following Alternative Fuel Station Locator. Then we got to talking about the various alternative fuels. The conversation transitioned to hybrid vehicles. The big question being: What do we do with the giant batteries in the hybrid vehicles and how long does it take for those to bio-degrade?

Clearly, hybrids and electric vehicles are not the best direction to go. The electricity needs to be developed somewhere or the batteries need to be disposed of somewhere. My idea of just taking the materials into the dessert, burying them, and then nuking them was not well received. So, we came up with another alternative fuel: hemp.

Road rage would drop to nothing. In fact, people would enjoy getting cutoff on the freeway by the old piece of $hit car with tons of smoke coming out the tailpipe. Gridlock would be something that we all look forward to. And just imagine how many more people will want to park in parking structures. Also, suicide by way of auto emissions would be a thing of the past. In fact, anyone trying to kill themselves that way would probably cure their depression. We have hemp clothing, ropes, soap, etc. Why not have a hemp powered vehicle?

technorati tags:alternative fuel, hybrid vehicle, hemp, traffic, gridlock

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Who the Hell are the Beatles?

2006-11-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Has anyone heard of this band, "The Beatles"? I suppose that after having realized that there was a human on Earth who has not already purchased a Beatles cd, iTunes was the next step towards world domination for the Beatles. You know, I don't see Jesus on iTunes. Maybe Lennon was right

Original blog posted on CrunchGear from a CNN article
Beatles Coming to iTunes?

After years of deliberation and resistance from Beatles management, it appears that a deal may soon be struck to bring Beatles music to digital formats for MP3 player consumption. Oddly, speculation currently indicates that the Beatles might first be released exclusively on iTunes. No word as to when, but David Munns. the head of EMI, has said it will be “soon.”

Users can currently search through Beatles albums on both iTunes and the Zune Marketplace, but neither store has an option to purchase. This amuses me immensely since in his piece “Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not,” David Pogue gleefully wrote of the Zune Marketplace:

At the very attractive but dog-slow Zune store, for example, you can either buy songs ($1 each) or rent them (unlimited songs for $15 a month). But Microsoft’s store doesn’t sell TV shows, movies or audio books. The music catalog is much smaller — 2 million vs. 3.5 million on iTunes — a fact that Microsoft ham-handedly tries to conceal by listing stuff that it doesn’t actually sell, like Beatles albums.

I guess when Apple does it it’s not a ham-handed concealment, but rather a clever lifestyle alternative for Mac fanboys to rally behind. At any rate, it seems Apple is currently hammering out the exclusivity term that will secure the Beatles on iTunes for an undisclosed period of time. Seems like a foolish move on behalf of Beatles management though. The Beatles should be released simultaneously onto all mediums, not exclusively onto one.

Beatles: only on iPod? [CNN Money]

technorati tags:Beatles, Jesus, iTunes, music

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Kiwi Ambition

2006-11-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

The symbolism of this movie is incredible. While cute and innocent, the kiwi is not immune to the trappings of desire and want. Please watch this Kiwi animation

Kiwi! » SpikedHumor.com

A few questions are raised by this short film. First, how far is one willing to go in order to have what is wanted in life? Clearly, the Kiwi has gone beyond what is ordinary in his life in order to achieve a goal. In fact, a singular goal that he is willing to sacrifice his existence for. A goal that he clearly feels is his innate right as a bird to have but cannot because he does not have the faculties in which to experience this.

The next question is what has it for us to want something so bad that we are willing to sacrifice our existence in order to have it. Yes, the animation involves a flightless bird who will stop at nothing in order to have the experience of flying. It is just a bird and just an animation. Yet, we human beings kill ourselves regularly in pursuit of the same "innate desires". Literally, he has sacrificed his life in order to have the experience that he could not have from birth. Yet, he feels strongly enough about this desire to fly that he is willing to kill himself for the experience.

In his pursuit of flight, the kiwi was already dead. His entire life was spent pursuing something that he felt was his innate right of which he was robbed, having been born a kiwi, a flightless bird. Rather than being happy with what he does actually have in life, he focused on his wants so much that he became blind to the fact that he was ultimately going to kill himself.

None of this makes the kiwi, or humans, in pursuit of an innate desire bad or wrong. But it does raise the question for me as to where I am killing myself off in my pursuits of my innate desires. This short film is more than just a cute commentary on a flightless bird. Yes, kiwis are cute. I've seen them up close and personal. They are adorable birds. However, this animation (cleverly disguised as a cute film) is a powerful representation of just how insane we can be in our pursuit of our "innate desires".

technorati tags:philosophy, kiwi, new zealand, innate desire, psychology, religion, bird, flight, suicide, sadness, happiness

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Colts are still undefeated

2006-11-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

It was almost seven days ago, but it is still funny to poke fun at the poor performance of the Colts last Sunday. Rather than trying to come up with something witty myself, I'll just ripoff The Onion:

Colts Claim To Still Be Undefeated: 'We Beat Ourselves'

November 23, 2006

| Onion Sports

DALLAS—Indianapolis
Colts players and coaches informed reporters that their team still
remains undefeated despite their poor showing against the Dallas
Cowboys last Sunday, claiming that the Colts had in fact beaten
themselves with a poor offense and a defense that collapsed in the
latter part of the second half and had, therefore, technically won.
"Let's get this straight—the only team capable of beating the
Indianapolis Colts is the Indianapolis Colts. And, since we clearly did
so, it follows logically that we're still undefeated," said Colts head
coach Tony Dungy during a post-game press conference, adding that he is
pleased that his team is still leading the American Football Conference
by two games. "I have to tell you, it feels good to be 10-0. It might
not have been pretty, but a win's a win." Dungy said he has already
told his players to forget about this week's victory, and stressed that
he was concentrating on making the playoffs and "hardly wasting any
time whatsoever" thinking about staying undefeated.

technorati tags:colts, Cowboys, NFL, football

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Wicked Headspin guy

2006-11-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, there are videos that make me think, "There is no way this can be real!" This head spinner if off the hook! Check it out.

YouTube - Master of Headspin

technorati tags:headspin, youtube, video

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Rehashed: The Week in Odor

2006-11-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

Original blog from my myspace

This blog is NOT for the faint of heart!!! DO NOT READ if you did not laugh your ass off when Lloyd Christmas was lighting his farts on fire in Dumb & Dumber

This week has been, perhaps, one of the most odorific weeks in recorded history! Some of you may have read my blog from yesterday regarding one of my dogs farting, but that is only a part of the splendor I have smelt this week.

It all started Monday when a coworker of mine emitted the most unholy of anti-Christ gas in modern history. Initially, he vehemently denied his actions, but finally copped to it when confronted by several other workers. He took the dubious honors of having launched a most heinous air biscuit.

No later than 30 minutes, the entire second floor was engulfed in the most rancid stench known to man. Apparently, a fish somehow crawled into the air ducts and proceeded to decompose at a very rapid rate. Well, at least that's what it smelled like. A few of us on the second floor evacuated to safety. When we returned, several of the girls on the second floor had gone around spraying perfume to cover the smell. The combination of rotting fish and perfume just smelled like a really bad hooker. This lasted for a solid 15 minutes or so. No one ever figured out where the smell came from. I believe it might have been consequences of the Bermuda Triangle.

If you read my blog from yesterday, you know that one of my dogs floated an air biscuit that could have choked an elephant. However, this was nothing compared to the now infamous gassing of Thursday, January 26, 2006! Whilst attending a West Coast Swing Dance class this evening, the guy in the front of me in the rotation launched a series of silos with no regard for human life whatsoever. I have to believe that the bacteria in his colon cannot be of this earth. It most certainly is not your garden variety intestinal flora. He proceeded to launch this attack on our olfactory neurons not once! NOT TWICE! NOT THRICE! But four times during the span of just 20 minutes.

The second silo was the most devious of them all; not because of the particular blend of decadent colon matter. No! Indeed, it was the timing of the second attack... what I have called the sneak attack. Just moments after the wonderful
West Coast Swing Dance instructor called on the men to rotate to the
next partner, the son of a bitch launched the Pearl Harbor of farts (which stunk up the studio more than Ben Affleck in the movie).

I arrived at precisely the same time as the heat from his retched loin burger. YES! That is correct, me and the fart got to the girl's space at the same time. Not only did I have to suffer the humiliation of being thought of as "the fart guy", but I had to dance around in this dude's ass nebula while the girl was thinking I'm "the fart guy".

All is well that ends well though. After rotating through the girls enough times, they realized who was really performing the sphincter evictions. Twas not I. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

technorati tags:smells, odor, stench, farts

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Jesus can pitch me Viagra but I can't get that important vendor email

2006-11-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

I must admit that receiving an email from Jesus was exciting at first. I began thinking that perhaps I had found my salvation. Then I started freaking out!

Crap! I wasn't exactly righteous when I stole that handicap parking space the other day! Surely, I'll be going to hell for that one. I told my brother from PA that I was going to hangout with him on Monday... Holy crap! I'm going to hell for that one.

Perhaps this email from Jesus is not such a good thing after all. F* this salvation stuff. There will be no salvation for me. Oh well, what else is there for me to do other than just goto hell now? Wait a minute. This is from Jesus Ellis, not JC. WTF! He's pitching Viagra. Damn. Let's hope this is the only time I get stiffed by Jesus.

Meanwhile, where the hell is my email from an advertising vendor that I've been waiting for? Perhaps that unholy email is stuck somewhere in limbo.

technorati tags:jesus, salvation, viagra, spam, junk mail

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Windows Mobile or PC Therapy?

2006-11-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

Now that I have a PC laptop, I have started to sync my Windoze mobile 5.0 telephone with my PC at work, my iMac at home, and my laptop. Every since I started syncing it with two PC devices, things have been strange. Whenever I plug my phone into my PC at work, it thinks that it is a new device... EVERYTIME.

Now, I think it's rather interesting that I can sync a PC and a MAC without causing any problems between the two. Yet, syncing two PCs results in one of those PCs having some sort of inferiority complex about the other PC. I put the PC that was having the problem into therapy. The following is a transcript of the session:

Therapist (T): Tell me about your mother
PC: Well, I'm not really sure who my mother is
T: AH HA! I see. Well, this is a rather simple case. It is your early loss of your mother that was so traumatizing that you have blocked out the memories of her. This detachment has caused you to dissociate from others in life, and you find it difficult to have relationships with others if you feel like you must share them with someone else.
PC: WTF. I don't think that's the case. I'm a PC, and I don't believe that I have a mother.
T: You have no mother at all?
PC: Well, I have a motherboard
T: Tell me about this mother... board
PC: Well, it sits inside me and is really vital to my operation
T: Tell me more about how vital your mother... board is to your operation
PC: Well, it's pretty simple. My motherboard controls just about everything that takes place in my life.
T: AH HA! You feel that your mother is a control freak so you act out in such a way to show her that you are your own person. You act out in ways that allow others to know who you are. You act out against others so that they will give you attention separate from your mother.
PC: Um, I don't agree with that
T: Denial is not just a river in Egypt
PC: No, seriously, dude. This is just a big waste of my CPU
T: Tell me about this CPU
PC: No, really. I just think this is a waste of my time. You want me to break down and start crying because I have some deep attachment to my motherboard. Well, I'm a PC, man! I can't help it.
T: AH HA! Your identity is deeply ingrained within how you relate to yourself. Your fear of your controlling mother had led to you hating your own mother. You must unlearn what you have come to know about yourself.
PC: Okay, Yoda.
T: What you know about yourself is only what you think you know.
PC: Okay, VH1's Driven
T: Does taking shots at me like that provide you with validation for yourself?
PC: Dude, you're a quack.
T: Questioning my qualifications is only you resisting the healing process. You are lovable regardless of how you act out against others.
PC: F* it. This is going nowhere. I'm just going to leave this virus on this USB device. Whenever you get a chance to plug it into your desktop, that would be just great

As you can see, my PC at work has some deep seeded issues that might just take years of work to get around. Or, perhaps a dose of Windows Vista might help. Only time will tell.

technorati tags:windoze, windows mobile, PC, funny

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Custom Built PS3

2006-11-22T12:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sure the link on eBay will be dead by the time you are reading this. Thank Gawd for screen print!

Pimp my PS3. Checkout the tricked out PS3 in close up!

LOL That's funny stuff

technorati tags:PS3, custom built PS3, Playstation, ebay

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I must be part Chimp

2006-11-21T13:43:00.001-08:00

The following popped up under my RSS feed for the Science Blog:

Male chimpanzees prefer mating with old females

Researchers studying chimpanzee mating preferences have found that although male chimpanzees prefer some females over others, they prefer older, not younger, females as mates. The findings uncover a stark contrast between chimpanzee behavior and that of humans, their primate cousins. The basis for this difference may lie in the fact that whereas chimpanzees participate in a relatively promiscuous mating system, humans form unusually long-term mating bonds, thereby making young females more valuable as mates with greater reproductive potential.

read more

I always knew humans were closely related to chimps, but this really hits home. I've always dug the older women. I never really knew what the reasons where. At times, I thought it was because women were like fine wine, but I now realize that it is because of a primate trait. What can I say! I inherited it :-D

technorati tags:chimp, older women

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Big Ben LED Clock Gets Some (more) Press Time on Gizmodo

2006-11-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

The Gadget Universe Big Ben LED Clock get's a lil more exposure on Gizmodo!

Big Ben LED Wall Clock for Stoners and Myopicsbigben_led_clock1.jpgGood god, do you think this Big Ben LED Wall Clock is going to be big enough? Well, after you've smoked a couple of Thanksgiving doobs you're probably going to need a timepiece this big to tell you that it's already 4:20, dude.The thing is an expansive three feet wide and looks to us like it could double as a scoreboard at a football stadium. It's all yours for $94.95. – Charlie White

Big Ben LED Wall Clock for Stoners and Myopics - Gizmodo

technorati tags:Gadget Universe, LED clock

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Sports Nerds unite on San Diego Chargers and a lil USC love too

2006-11-21T13:42:00.000-08:00

I read two great articles on ESPN this afternoon. First, ESPN.com - NFL - Pasquarelli: No debating this draft-day deal. Really, I couldn't have said it any better myself. I must admit that I was thinking WTF when San Diego pulled the 2001 deal with Vick and Tomlinson. A couple years later, I had already forgotten about it because the Chargers were well on their way to being a quality team.

Then there was the Eli fiasco. When the Chargers decapitated Eli and crew in their first meeting since Eli's whinny bitch about San Diego, I was pleased. Eli has classic little brother syndrome because he feels like he needs to be better than Peyton. (personal message to Eli) Dude, get over it. It's a friggin game. Your older brother is better than you. You are still a good quarter back, but big brother is better. Sorry, dude.

Enough about the Eli-Rivers story and the Vick-Tomlinson story. Let's talk about the Week 12 power rankings! That's right! San Diego is at the top, BABY! Of course the Power Rankings are about as useful as the BSC (er, I mean BCS) rating system. Well, except that the Chargers will make it to the playoffs and any championship games based upon their own merit, not some system of numbers that appears to be designed to keep USC from being ranked in the top two positions. Can anyone say 2003?

technorati tags:power rankings, san diego chargers, NFL, ESPN, football, USC, BCS, Eli Manning, little brother syndrome

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I Love the Internet

2006-11-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

It didn't even take one day for the infamous Kramer racist comedy blow-up to get posted on the Internet.

YouTube - Kramer's racist tirade

Kramer ended up apologizing on The Late Show on Monday, but I can't help but wonder if this would have even made news if it weren't for the Internet allowing the information to spread so quickly to millions of people. In fact, I had seen this on the web before I had even heard about it on any news station.

What's great about this is that we get to see it for ourselves, not through the narration of some blow hard news reporter. Thanks to the guy at Laugh Factory for recording this and allowing us to see. And thanks to the audience for walking out on this crap.

technorati tags:Kramer Video, racism, Laugh Factory, Michael Richards

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Sharing is Caring (continued)

2006-11-20T13:41:00.000-08:00

I had the bright idea of hooking up a third computer to my synergy configuration. My friend, Vadim, has his computer just behind mine in the office. So, I added his machine to my configuration. It was wicked! My mouse hopped effortlessly between my desktop to my laptop to Vadim's desktop! Sweet! Now, I just need him to bring in his laptop so I can hop between all for machines and then allow there to be a loop from the last machine to the first machine. Yes, I'm nerdy!

technorati tags:synergy, sharing

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Thanks[ ]giving comedy at the office

2006-11-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

The holiday comedy is starting early at the office here. The following is an email sent from the CFO of the company to all employees:

All,

The company will be closed at 11/23/06 Thanks Giving day and re-open at Friday 11/24/06.

Any one who doesn’t show in Friday will not be paid for Friday and will not allow substituting this un-paid Friday by any allowance pay day you are eligible for. (sick employee with doctor’s notes does not apply)

Happy Thanks Giving !!!!!

And a Happy Thanks[ ]giving to you too :-D

technorati tags:LOL, office humor, Thanksgiving, funny, holiday

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Airports with Free WiFi

2006-11-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

You gotta love the wiki concept!

Free wifi airports - SmallBusiness.com - Small Business Resources

technorati tags:wiki, free wifi, aiports, small business

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I've sold my soul to the devil

2006-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

I thought I was going to stay safe. It's not like the .NET framework is completely necessary in order to have a fully functional and efficient Windoze system. Yet, there are a few apps here and there that require the .NET framework. As I type this, the dreaded .NET framework is being installed on my machine. For all I know, this could be the last blog I type from my laptop. For all I know, my machine could spontaneously implode into a super massive black hole. Lord knows that I'm guaranteed to need to install even more security updates from Windows Update each week. Lord knows my friggin virus protection software is going to be working overtime now. Of course, this will certainly help the performance of my Windoze machine. Damn you blogging software that requires .NET framework.

LOL. So when the installation finished, it told me that I should make sure I download the latest security updates. Let's just go check and see how many security updates I need now... HEY! Only two security updates needed for the .Net Framework. Good job guys! :-D

technorati tags:blogging, windoze, windows, .NET framework, blogging software

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A good day in blogging!!!

2006-11-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

This is an update to my blog from the other day: A Depressing Day in Blogging. As is evident in my latest blog (I've sold my soul to the devil), I am able to blog to Wordpress with Flock again! What's great about all of this is that I simply went onto the Wordpress.com forum and posted the information necessary for the folks at Wordpress to resolve the problem. I know that others supported them with information as well, but I do know that my contribution helped.

It's this kind of support that is the reason that I believe everyone should have at least one WordPress blog. Sign up today! Even if you have another blog on another service (like me on blogger and me on livejournal), WordPress is friggin great!

technorati tags:blogging, WordPress, flock, customer support, web browsers, blog editor

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The Last of the Ticket Buyers

2006-11-18T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's not quite the same as the Last Samurai or Last of the Mohicans. Yet, I feel as important as Tom Cruise and Daniel Day Lewis. This afternoon, I purchased the final ticket for the US Open Swing Dance Championships this Thanksgiving weekend! Yes, the very last ticket available. Now, I know that there have been some tickets floating around the Internet, and there were rumors that Sonny Watson had some, and then it was Jack Smith. I followed those leads, and those tickets were gone too!

Sure, I don't have the best seats in the house. In fact, it looks like I have one of the worst seats in the house. I'm on the right side, front row. You might be thinking, "First row is great!" Just looking at the seating chart, I'm not so sure about it. Still! I've got a friggin ticket! This means that I get to see all the great performances by the Super Stars of swing. I wonder if So You Think You Can Dance Season Two winner, Benji Schwimmer, will be there?

Of course, there are also the myriad of workshops available to Platinum ticket holders such as myself. Workshops with swing dance greats such as Mary Ann Nunez, Robert Royston, Jordan & Tatiana, and Parker & Jessica. Then there are all the crazy competitions and all the open dancing. The schedule is packed full of great dancers. Now, I just need to get myself a hotel room.

Tags: US Open, Swing Dance, dance workshops, Thanksgiving, west coast swing

The Last of the Ticket Buyers

2006-11-17T17:47:00.000-08:00

Tags: US Open, Swing Dance, dance workshops, Thanksgiving, west coast swing

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The End is NEAR!!!

2006-11-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

For the love of GAWD! I'm sitting here writing a blog using my favorite web browser (flock) on my favorite blog service (Wordpress). Along comes some stupid update to the Wordpress system and all my sh*t is just f*ed up! I can't even browse the wordpress.com website using flock, and all my posts on wordpress... Well, let's just say I can't really access them. I'm going to have to start using that IE7 crap, and a web-based blog editor.

Or how about this!?! I'll just switch all my stuff over the blogger. Damn! I was blogging along fine for two solid weeks on WordPress. I have 5 pages of blogs for the month of November. I'm a blog whore. Now... Well, sucks to be me.

Tags: rants, WordPress, blogging, flock, web browser, blog editor, Qumana

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WOW Circuit City has a laptop under $100

2006-11-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I'm going to fall for this again. My last experience with great price deals @ Circuit City was a total waste of time (see Stiffed at Circuit City).

It's great, the follow-up from Circuit City on my Consumer Survey??? Nothing. No, "sorry for the false advertising." No, "sorry for blatantly trying to get you to purchase the more expensive item by advertising a ghost model." No, "sorry for jacking you around for 30 minutes while we search for our fraud product."

Sorry, folks. I'd recommend staying away from Circuit City on this deal. However, if you do have a good experience, please feel free to share it, along with pictures. Thanks.

Original story posted on Engadget
Circuit City to sell $100 Compaq laptop on Black Friday

Filed under: Laptops

With all this talk about OLPC's mythical $100 laptop, it was only a matter of time before a more established brand-name company tried its hand at pulling off a similar trick without NickNeg and company. CNET reports that Circuit City will be selling a Compaq Presario model on Black Friday (that's the day after Thanksgiving, or November 24, for you non-Yanks) for $100, sorta. If you agree to get a Vonage subscription for a year and can handle the assorted rebates, then this lappy is yours for a Benjamin. That's not such a bad deal, considering it comes with a Celeron M 420 CPU, 15-inch screen, DVD and CD burner, 512MB RAM and a 60GB hard drive. Of course this isn't the first time that we've seen rebates drive down computer prices so much -- there was the HP setup that we saw over Labor Day, which included a CRT, and a burner for the same price after rebates too -- but a laptop is something to take stock of. It's very tempting, but we'll wait until the price drops that low organically, sans rebates and subscription plans, thanks.

technorati tags:Circuit City, $100 laptop, deals, rants, Compaq laptop

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Onions Give me heartburn

2006-11-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

... but the ONION makes me laugh :-D Not only do they take a shot a Madden but also the Raiders, so you gotta love 'em for it

John Madden Reminds Viewers Of Importance Of Quarterback To NFL Teams

DENVER—Color commentator John Madden spent the third quarter of the San Diego Chargers-Denver Broncos game explaining exactly how important...

technorati tags:raiders, John Madden, football, NFL, chargers, broncos

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I will believe it when I see it

2006-11-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

Microsoft staying true to an agreed upon standard! I'll believe it when I see it. I'm still waiting for that CSS support :-(

Original article posted on techcrunch
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Agree to Standard Sitemaps Protocol

In an encouraging act of collaboration, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced tonight that they will all begin using the same Sitemaps protocol to index sites around the web. Now based at Sitemaps.org, the system instructs web masters on how to install an XML file on their servers that all three engines can use to track updates to pages. This should make it easier to get your pages indexed in a simple and standardized way. People who use Google Sitemaps don’t need to change anything, those maps will now be indexed by Yahoo and Microsoft.

The protocol is offered under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License, so it can be used by any search engine, derivative variations using the same license can be created and it can be used for commercial purposes.

Any time competitors agree on open standards, that’s an enabler of further innovation and something to celebrate. It’s also great to see Creative Commons receiving all the more validation.

Search engine guru Danny Sullivan wrote the following tonight about the move.

Overall, I’m thrilled. It took nearly a decade for the search engines to go from unifying around standards for blocking spidering and making page description to agreeing on the nofollow attribute for links in January 2005. A wait of nearly two years for the next unified move is a long time, but far less than 10 and progress that’s very welcomed. I applaud the three search engines for all coming together and look forward to more to come.

Several people have made early public statements indicating that the next move will be to develop meaningful standards support for robots.txt files. Imagine a future when these players agree on standards for user control of data, microformats or truly neutral party click-fraud tracking and prevention. Maybe that’s crazy.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Tags: Techcrunch, Web2.0, sitemaps, search, webmastering, webdesign

technorati tags:microsoft, google, yahoo

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Emmitt scores again

2006-11-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Gotta love Emmitt. I was never a big Cowboys fan. Not even much of a fan of the whole state of Texas (I'm sure y'all don't like California, so it's mutual :-D). But I always had tremendous appreciation for a gifted athlete and a great sportsman. Emmitt Smith was a powerful running back and is now a powerful dancer! Rock on dude!

It's always great to see the underdog win too. When Emmitt was helping win Super Bowls, he wasn't the underdog. In fact, they were always favored by a rather large margin. Plus, I gotta love a guy who doesn't know how to dance worth a crap just a few weeks ago turning it around. Great job Emmitt!

From E!Online: Emmitt Smith Scores Dancing Touchdown

Emmitt Smith was the MVP of the dance floor this year.

The three-time Super Bowl champion added a mirrored disco ball to his already crowded trophy case Wednesday night, besting "Super Mario" Lopez to win the third season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

"It is awesome! It is awesome!" cried Smith, whose beefy physique belied the twinkle toes lurking beneath the surface. "We came a long way, we really have."

While Lopez boasted the more technically perfect moves and some unrivaled hip-swiveling action, it was Smith's seemingly effortless elegance and graceful-yet-masculine poise that made judge Len Goodman call him his "dancing hero."

"You look like you've been doing this all your life," judge Bruno Tonioli told Smith during Tuesday night's performance finale, after the NFL leader in career rushing yards trotted out an impressive mambo.

technorati tags:Dancing with the Stars, Emmitt Smith, dance, ballroom

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LOL Weims are FUNNY!

2006-11-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

I stole this from cute overload

I have a Weim too. He's a total goof. This is something that he would do to. LOL Weims are great dogs

technorati tags:dogs, weimeraner, LOL, funny, goofy

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Dangerous Office Parties

2006-11-15T13:31:00.001-08:00

Alright folks! It's time for the company holiday party. Well, okay, if you work where I work, it will be rescheduled three times until it is in February. Then people will wonder why you didn't show up to the party. Jared, where were you? How come you didn't come to the party? Uh, well, let's see. The original date worked for me. The second date worked for me. Even the third date worked for me. But I must admit that the fourth date just didn't fit into my schedule.

Oh! Apparently, there are many other problems that people have with office parties. In particular, lawyers and the folks they represent :-O

Newsvine - Column: Office Parties Can Have Pitfalls

Hey, does anyone still photocopy their butt cheeks at the office party any more?

technorati tags:office party, butt xerox

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Drink apple juice. Oj will kill you!

2006-11-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

The folks over at Fox are brilliant!

Fox Squeezes O.J. For Killer Ratings

If Fox had the urge to slay its November sweeps competition with no regard for good taste, here's how it'd happen.

The network has announced plans to air an "unrestricted" interview with O.J. Simpson later this month in which the acquitted former footballer graphically details how exactly he would have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman back in 1994--had he been so inclined.

The two-part interview is set to air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox.

technorati tags:FOX, OJ Simpson, television

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No Days off from work for vocation

2006-11-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

LOL

Get a load of this email that was sent at work LOL

All,

Holiday season will start from Oct 15, 2006 to Dec 25,2006 during which no one is allowed to be late or take day off for vocation, personal reasons such as kid’s birthday, church day, dental appointment…

Please be aware this policy and pre-arrange your time properly.

Thanks for your understanding!

Oh ya. The subject was "Be prepared for holiday season".

Broken English aside, legal issues aside for church days, and broken English aside... No time off for vocation LOL OMG ROTGLMAO

technorati tags:work, broken english, funny, LOL

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WTF! YouTube

2006-11-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

Just read this information posted on techcrunch today and then read my rant below. Oh, ya, don't forget to digg the crap out of this

Huh? YouTube Sends TechCrunch A Cease & Desist

Buried in my email this evening I found a cease and desist letter from an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing their client YouTube. We’ve been accused of a number of things: violating YouTube’s Terms of Use, of “tortious interference of a business relationship, and in fact, many business relationships,” of committing an “unfair business practice,” and “false advertising.” The attorney goes on to demand that we cease and desist in from engaging in these various actions or face legal remedies.

Well, crap.

The offense we committed was creating a small tool that lets people download YouTube videos to their hard drives. We referenced the tool in a recent post that walked people through the process of moving YouTube Videos to their iPod.

We created the tool only after a careful review of YouTube’s Terms of Use, which state “If you download or print a copy of the Content for personal use, you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained therein.” The letter, however, states “The YouTube’s Terms of Use also allows users to access videos only through the functionality of the YouTube website via streaming on the Web, and it disallows the functionality of downloading videos.” Not only am I unable to find that language in YouTube’s Terms of Use, it directly conflicts with the language I did find and quoted above.

Similar tools are available all over the Internet and have been for some time - see Oyoom, iTube, PodTube, this Firefox extension, step-by-step instructions on an O’Reilly website, and many more.

Cease and Desist letters are often sent with no intention of follow up legal action, even if they are ignored. They are simply a way to show that you have made a good faith effort to protect your legal rights. But in this case I’m perplexed - YouTube takes the position that everything uploaded to the site is licensed for use by viewers, and so there should be no legal rights to protect:

You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service.

Given that downloads, with proper copyright attribution, are permitted under the Terms of Use, it seems like there is no problem at all for a user to download a video for personal use and put it on his or her iPod.

I’ve sent the letter to my attorney for review, but I am likely to remove the tool to preserve my relationship with the company. Based on my review of the Terms of Use and the great number of similar services already on the Internet, I honestly believed we were doing nothing to offend YouTube or Google. And I’ve loved YouTube since the first day I discovered it.

Of course, the irony of YouTube accusing others of copyright infringement is delicious. But I won’t go into that right now.

A copy of the letter is below. I had not listened to the voicemails mentioned in the letter, but I went and checked the last 20 messages and there were indeed two from this attorney.

WTF!?! Youtube? I'm boycotting YouTube.

Okay. Now that I've gotten that out of my system... First, I want to commend the folks at techcrunch for doing their homework. It's great to see a blow hard lawyer spew forth his venom only to be shot down by someone who knows what he's doing. Congrats guys.

Now, let's talk about the $1.2 billion that Google just spent on Youtube. Why would Google pay so much for this company? Youtube is easily replicable. After all, Google has Google Video, which offers many of the same features. Well, the reason Google coughed up the $1.2 billion is simple: Youtube is one of the top ranked websites in terms of daily unique visitors. Like websites like myspace, Youtube members visit the site several times a day. People love the website. It's a great community. Community is the reason Google spent $1.2 billion on Youtube.

If enough people shift to another community, the $1.2 billionGoogle spent will be put at risk. If you are disappointed with Youtube's stance, make sure you let your opinion be known by not using Youtube and by digging this story like crazy.

technorati tags:YouTube, stuff that sucks, YouTube Sucks

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New Kind of Love Discovered

2006-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles, CA - Scientists researching the human brain at UCLA discovered that the human mind is capable of generating an entirely new kind of love previously unknown to mankind. Researchers are calling this new type of love, Love Amplified. "It is where I love you more than you love me and you love me more than I love you," Dr. Smith mentioned during a press conference on Monday.

This new possibility of love has sparked a debate as to whether there is ever an end to whether one can love another more than the other loves them when the two individuals are in Love Amplified. "It is simply not possible for you to love me more than I love you and for me to love you more than you love me into infinity," Dr. Heshsloth stated during an address to the World Association of Sloth & Resignation.

Meanwhile, researchers are UCLA continue to address the issue of Love Amplified to Infinity. "Essentially, the universe is continuously expanding. Therefore, you must continue to generate love at a rate equal to the expansion of the universe just to keep your love from becoming smaller, relative to the rest of the universe," Dr. Smith explained in a detailed research finding released on Wednesday morning. To be in Love Amplified, Dr. Smith explained that we "must expand our love such that it causes love to expand for others" in such a way that our love expands at a faster rate than the universe is expanding.

"This is further complicated by the debate as to whether the expansion of the universe is accelerating or decelerating. If the expansion of the universe is accelerating, then our love must not just expand at the rate of the universe. Our love must expand at a rate greater than that which our universe is expanding," Smith said in his closing statements on Monday. I love you all were his final words in the memo. So, in the spirit of Love Amplified, I love you all.

technorati tags:love, love amplified, UCLA, research, universe expansion

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Four Weeks Later

2006-11-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

My friend made a video of my ex-girlfriend performing her routine for the US Open at a swing dance club this weekend. We tried beaming: didn't work. We tried bluetooth: didn't work. I took out the mini SD and put it into an adapter: didn't work. So, I plugged in the mini SD into my camera. Guess what? I needed to install a new version of ActiveSync. Then I was able to sync my file. Well, turns out the Pocket PC running windows Mobile records MP4. Guess what? Windows XP does not have an MP4 player that comes with it? So, I install Quicktime because I'm just sick of installing Microsoft products on my computer. Finally, finally. Four weeks later...

technorati tags:microsoft sucks, mini SD, microsoft, activesync, computer problems, technology, bluetooth, windows XP

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I'd Rather watch something else

2006-11-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Oh, yes! The pun is hilarious. Not nearly as hilarious as the last time Dan Rather was on the news. That's right! He's back! And I'm sure we are all just jumping for joy to listen to his agenda again.

Now, I certainly respect people with agendas. All agendas are valid, each bringing something to the table. Still, this doesn't mean that I can't disagree with Dan's agenda and disagree with him using CBS "news" as a forum for him to promote his personal political agenda (instead of reporting the news). However, his new show is all about him. After all, it is called Dan Rather Reports. Woohoo! I'm setting my Tivo to HDNet for sure! Read more at E!Online

technorati tags:Dan Rather, news

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The Smelly Guy

2006-11-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a meeting last week. In walks the most foul of odors. It's a combination of foot cheese are ass nebula. For those of you familiar with my Ass Nebula blog from days gone by, this really is a completely different experience. We are all sitting in the meeting, and I can't help but wonder if the Smelly Guy knows that he smells like decaying mushrooms in a dried up onion field or not.

It got me to thinking, "Self? Do you know when you smell? Is the Smelly Guy just oblivious to his own odoriferous emanation?"

Therein lies the problem. If the Smelly Guy smells in a forest and there is no one there to smell, does he smell? Perhaps I am getting too philosophical about the Smelly Guy. After all, he did wreak of decomposing foot jam mixed with onions and blue cheese. I hope I am painting a good picture for your nasal receptors.

I remembered back to times when I smelled myself. Well, not times that I smelled myself but times that I, myself, smelled. Although one can easily argue that I must smell myself in order to smell myself. Rather interesting this combination of English words into a confounding experience isn't it? I smell myself. Does that mean that I smell myself or that I, myself, smell?

Crap! Now, I'm just stuck on this tangent of smelling myself like the toe jam on the Smelly Guys' feet. This is the real issue at hand: The Smelly Guy. To me, the combination of foot fungus, blue cheese, and onions is rather foul. Yet, to some (perhaps the French), this is the most exquisite soup du jour. Does someone know when they smell bad? Clearly, this guy didn't realize the atrophy taking place in his sandals. Or maybe he just chose to ignore it?

I started pondering the times I knew I smelled bad. Typically, this involved my feet or my nether region and not taking a shower for about 3-4 days. Did Smelly Guy not take a shower for a week? Is that what was going on? Or was he really oblivious to the whole experience of the meeting. Was it an experience much like someone who smokes all the time and has clothes that smell like smoke. They don't realize that they smell like stale peanut butter!

Alas, I realize that I just must be at peace with the smells of the world. There is nothing bad or wrong with the smells that emanate from an individual's shoes, nether regions, and orifices. The choice is mine alone to wallow in the mire of despair regarding another's stench or to rise above the fog of judging and assessing. After all, my dogs lick their own butts!

technorati tags:smelly guy, smells, foot jam, odor, stench, French, onions, smoking

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Pa Rummie pum pum

2006-11-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

International lawyers file suit against Rumsfeld in Germany (AFP)

AFP - An international grouping of lawyers filed a lawsuit calling on German prosecutors to investigate outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly sanctioning torture.

Ode to Rummie, sung to the Little Drummer Boy

Littler Gunner Boy
Come they told me, pa Rummie pum pum
Tourture sanctioned on many, pa Rummie pum pum
Our finest agents we bring, pa Rummie pum pum
To tourture and sting, pa Rummie pum pum,
Rummie pum pum, Rummie pum pum,

So to honor Him, pa Rummie pum pum,
When he retires (again).

Little Torture, pa Rummie pum pum
I am a torturer too, pa Rummie pum pum
I have no device to bring, pa Rummie pum pum
That's fit to cause such string, pa Rummie pum pum,
Rummie pum pum, Rummie pum pum,

Shall I torture for you, pa Rummie pum pum,
With my gun?

Cheney nodded, pa Rummie pum pum
The Secretary of Defense kept time, pa Rummie pum pum
I cocked my gun for Him, pa Rummie pum pum
I saluted my best for Him, pa Rummie pum pum,
Rummie pum pum, Rummie pum pum,

Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum
Me and my gun.

technorati tags:Rumsfeld, lawsuit, Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq, Torture, Little Drummer Boy, poetry, war, gun

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