Rodney's Ramblings

Here's to the TE's

2009-10-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

I finally did it.

Last week I got an article published in HEN Issue 274 and today I finished my website's Web Traffic Page. I started in mid-May of this year and originally expected to be celebrating completion by summer solstice but it ended up taking until early October. I completed a page on each of the traffic exchanges I think are worthy of being on my site. After I finished the page on FastLaneTraffic I made some final touch ups, uploaded the site to my web host, and promptly went over to Kate's Pub and got drunk.

I understand the law of the Universe that if I want something, I must make a valuable contribution. My goal was to make an information resource where people could find all the stats to all the traffic exchange programs that matter in one place, presented in a user-friendly standardized way such that once the user knew how to find a specific stat for one TE, they could easily find that stat for any other featured TE.

So here's what I had to do: Get a new copy of the template for the TE. Do four document-wide search and replace functions. Figure out which social networks the TE owner has profiles on. Research the levels of memberships and their costs. Find out what activity requirements the member has to meet to keep their account. Fill out data on hit ratios, referral info, commissions, and other details. And finally, when I'm completely done affix the current date to the end. I had to do this 65 times.

This has to be one of the most difficult project tasks of my life. If I had known in mid-May that it was going to take this long I'm not sure I would've had the strength to get it done. If at any time I sat and thought about all the work that needed to be done I became overwhelmed and was unable to do anything. The only way I could work was by single-mindedly focusing on the very next task to be completed, and only that task.

I'm the type of person that likes many diverse activities throughout my work day. I study German and Mandarin as well as other languages. I am trying to build a twitter following. Not only do I have have this blog I have been neglecting but other websites of mine that I'm really excited about developing further like Unofficial FAQs and Cool Webpage of the Week. I like flying around on the flight simulator. I miss expediting for ChaCha as well as playing Eve Online. It all had to go on the back burner, I was afraid to do anything else while the TE pages were unfinished.

I'm glad to be done with this project and hope this work will provide some returns for the rest of my life.

I'm Published!

2009-10-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

Today is a great day! I recently wrote an article for submission to Jon Olson's HitExchangeNews and today it was published in Issue 274!

This is so exciting because this is my first time being published by someone other than myself. Not only might this be my big break, but it gets my name and writing ability exposed to thousands of people. Jon Olson is one of the biggest players in traffic exchanges, and the fact that he would publish something by little old me could be quite a boon to my credibility within the industry.

Doin' the ChaCha

2009-08-05T02:44:00.000-07:00

You can use your mobile phone or other SMS device to ask ChaCha any question you can imagine (and even some you can't). I have been working for ChaCha as an independent contractor since November, from my house, on my computer. Go ahead and try it by texting a question to 242242 right now.

ChaCha has over 55,000 human 'Guides' just like me all across America taking queries and answering questions all hours of the day on every topic conceivable. ChaCha Guides are divided into three groups. While Generalists and Specialists do the actual answering of the questions, I am an Expeditor, which means I receive the question, rephrase it into a standardized form, categorize it, and send it off to a Specialist or Generalist to be answered.

Working for ChaCha is not for those who easily blush. While people can ask about sports or biology, music lyrics or the numbers to local businesses, a large percentage of them are related to sex. Within the space of even an hour, I will get lots of bizarre, disgusting, and sometimes downright disturbing questions. If you are at all uncomfortable with sexual subject matter, even if it is only in text form, working for ChaCha is not for you. I thought I had heard of it all before I started working for ChaCha, but I was wrong.

I have nothing good to say about ChaCha's competitor KGB but do realize I am biased. The only thing I can say objectively is that KGB charges one dollar per question while ChaCha is ad-supported.

My First YouTube Video

2009-05-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

It's an historic event worth blogging about. After using YouTube for over a year now, making playlists, adding favorites, subscribing to other members' channels, a spectator anxious to be a part of the game, I finally downloaded adequate screencasting software and set out to show the world the eons that it takes to load up Microsoft Flight Simulator from double-click to pushback.

Please remember this video is by no means intended to be great or a masterpiece. There is something wrong with the resolution, the end title is displayed for too short of a period, and I cannot yet get any audio.

I recorded this video with CamStudio and did post-production with Windows Movie Maker.

You can look forward to bigger and better videos from me down the road!

You Can Squidoo It!

2009-03-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

The trouble with sharing your expertise with the world on the Internet tends to be that, even if you are an authority on your subject matter, to make a web page you usually need a lot of ancillary knowledge related to web design.

With Squidoo any registered member can create a web page by populating the page (or 'Lens' as they call it) with prefab modules and filling those modules with text, pictures, video, and a lot of other types of media. All of this with absolutely zero of knowledge any HTML or HTML editors. Squidoo levels the playing field, taking the ability to get content online out of the sole domain of web geeks.

That said, there are goodies here even for the web developer pro. With Squidoo already being well-known by Google, your pages are almost instantly indexed after publication. Even if you know HTML, creating pages with Squidoo is a cinch, and if you know little about computers a large community of Squidoo members are more than happy to help. And don't forget if your page is above average you get paid!

I've made a number of pages on many different topics:

My Internet HQ:

Rodney Lewis' Homepage

A guide to flight simulators:

Civilian Flight Simulators for PCs

My favorite movie:

The Corporation

Another movie I like:

Let The Right One In

A guide on researching movies:

Online Movie Research

My favorite TV show:

Strangers With Candy

A guide on Windows Vista:

Surviving Windows Vista

Squidoo is the brainchild of Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author of numerous business books. Godin has been running businesses since he was a child and has worked for such firms as Yahoo! As well as being its owner, he is an active participant

Have Your Copybook Ready!

2009-03-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

These guys are going to be big someday! The lyrics aren't that impressive but the singing and the instrumentals totally rock! You can visit Jack Morgan at MySpace.

Write that down in your copybook and turn it in to your instructor now!

Burying Digg

2009-03-20T03:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Digg deleted my account! Their decision, according to their e-mail, "is final and irreversible." It never stated that they actually had any real evidence of me sending spam, merely that I had been reported by a user to have had sent spam.

I think I am an honest user of the Internet. If you look around at some of the different things I've written you will see a lot of stuff I've written about wanting to see the Web be more than just a place to shop, but to remain and be even more of the immensely valuable tool that it is to so many people. I am no spammer. I get spam and I hate it, so why would I do that to others?

These are the unforgivable things I did to deserve a summary life sentence of banishment from Digg:

I cut and pasted a two-line signature my comments. The first line was my full name, the second was a hyperlink to my homepage
I 'dug' a few of my blog posting and some webpages from some of my sites

I never meant them any harm and I never did anything explicitly against their vague and nebulous terms of service that I can honestly tell (I triple-checked). I am hurt by their their willingness to delete my account in such a rudely cavalier fashion and offer me no recourse whatsoever. I have to admit that I still think Digg is a great idea and I'm also saddened to not be allowed to be a part of that anymore for the rest of my life. It's not of much consolation to search around and find out they've done this to many others as well.

There is a part of me that is led to believe by the way it all happened that they think I'll be back tomorrow under a different e-mail and username perhaps, but, unfortunately for them, I am especially angry that I've lost the dozens of favorites I had saved up, to some excellent places on the 'Net, that are now gone forever. I'm really pissed about that.

So I will never be a user of Digg again, my decision "is final and irreversible."

A Barack Obama Revolution?

2009-01-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

The ever-progressing march of freedom is unstoppable. The time is coming when humankind will shake off all oppression and oppressors at least as we currently know them. Some think this can and should be averted and spend a lot of time in dread that it will happen; I know it is not only quite necessary but also inevitable and spend a lot of time praying it comes to pass soon. I only worry that maybe it isn't just years or decades but maybe centuries or even millennia away.

After every POTUS election the new president-elect always professes that with this new Presidential Administration things are finally going to be different. We will at last have a government that truly knows its purpose is to serve the people, instead of the other way around.

Hillary captured the essence of this attitude somewhat comically way back when she was running against Obama and attempted to mock him, caricaturing his optimism in a speech, theatrically promising a laughing audience in Providence to "let's just get everybody together, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know that we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect."

Though it is common for a new POTUS and their handlers to cast their election as a revolution, I have never seen this behavior more pronounced than during Obama's campaign and post-election transition period.

A part of me really wants to have faith that the system works, that soon after Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Biden are sworn in on January 20th and the Inaugural festivities have ended, the American public can start cashing those checks for meaningful change that Obama has been writing for the last couple of years through his campaign promises.

I want to believe that though the Government is made up of humans—and because to err is human there will probably always be some corrupt, ineffectual or otherwise flawed officials, laws, programs and bureaucracies—nevertheless the Framers were genuinely inspired by divinity. Though I don't call myself patriotic, I want to believe what every hard-line jingoist already does, that the American political system is special and has what Chinese philosophers call the Mandate of Heaven.

I want to believe there is something particularly just about American justice; that there is something particularly equal about American equality.

Then there is another undeniable part of me that I would experience no matter who got elected, even if my original candidate Ron Paul himself was about to be inaugurated. It is hard to believe it really matters at the end of the day who is POTUS and I know a lot of people personally who agree. How unwittingly fitting for Hillary—after having poked fun at Obama's message of hope—to go on to say, "Maybe I've just lived a little long, but I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be. You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear."

The implements of the assorted forms of slavery of all people regardless of color or religion or gender or nationality are so insidious not only because they are invisible to those who only see with their eyeballs but also due to the fact that the chains are not held as much by modern-day bogeymen like the Rod Blagojevichs and Bernard Madoffs of the world, but are indeed held by the very masses said chains keep in bondage through the public's failure, for one reason or another, to adequately participate in their governments.

Those who know that the greatest obstacles to our liberation originate from within know that the human species still has a long way to go, that the degree of transformation required will mark nearly every facet of our lives and will run too wide and too deep to be brought about by such a superficial event within the big picture as a POTUS change.

It is my fear that the metamorphosis may require an upheaval such as to result in a break in the continuity of what I have heard called the Establishment that has heretofore been unprecedented within my lifetime. I wonder if it makes me patriotic that I will be sad if America loses her aforementioned precious Mandate.

Still, my pessimism is tempered by the exuberant vigor of the celebrations of Election Night. I will never forget the lady from behind the deli counter at Wallingford QFC excitedly telling us that employees upstairs in the break room have called down to say that it was just announced that Obama won. There was an electricity in those grocery store aisles, and in the streets coming home when I could hear the sounds of fireworks coming from all directions, that lasted for many days.

Watching a video of the impromptu gathering of people in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood right after the big announcement that made the rounds among my friends in the weeks following the election, I worry that all those who railed against the Bush Administration will rest on their laurels now that Obama has won, yet at the same time, seeing hundreds take to the streets in spontaneous dancing and celebration and knowing many more took to the streets with joy all over the nation, I cannot help but have a renewed faith in the place from which all government powers come: the People.

A Different Kind of WoW

2008-12-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

If you pay taxes of whatever kind in America you likely contribute to my college education as I currently am a recipient of Federal and State student aid. You've been paying for me to sit at home and study for over a year now (well, not to mention the thirteen years of K-12 in various public schools in Tacoma, Charlotte and finally Puyallup) and I appreciate it, hopefully I can show it someday by using my education to humankind's benefit.

In the meantime, to thank you, and in the interest of stretching those dollars as far as possible in these financially-challenging times, I want to start posting entries about each class I take, allowing my readers the opportunity to learn with me to as much of an extent as possible. It is my intent that, should you choose, your meticulous and diligent personal study of these blog entries as a guide to the subject matter at hand will provide you with something approximating a college education without necessarily being in college at the time. If you are a student at a college or high school hopefully these study guides are a helpful supplement to your teachers' classroom instruction. Any level of focus on the material presented should result in a net gain of knowledge, it's your job to apply it usefully and benevolently.

I will typically follow a short discussion about the class in question with a somewhat organized list of resources provided by my instructor. In addition, perhaps, I may add some resources I think my instructor would have. Whenever possible I prefer to link to a free resource. When I can't find class material freely available on the Internet, I will try to provide an appropriate Amazon.com product link, otherwise I will just omit it.

WoW doesn't just refer to a MMOG anymore. For Fall Quarter of 2008 at North Seattle Community College I took a coordinated studies class combining and integrating introductory surveys of the disciplines of economics and anthropology called The World of Work: From Africa to Wall Street. The idea behind CSP is that one learns more from a class combining disciplines than the equivalent instruction in two separate courses, so please try to see each field of knowledge in terms of the other as you progress through the following material.

I know it's cliché but, in all cases but especially this one, please be careful and draw your own conclusions from the following material. Try not to read too much through the lens your biases, but also keep in mind your sense of what is right and just.

Week 1:
CIA World Factbook (read about all African nations)
geographia — Africa

Week 2:
Economics for the Citizen by Walter Williams (Wikipedia)
The Original Affluent Society by Marshall Sahlins (Wikipedia)

Week 3:
The Library of Economics and Liberty's "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" (Wikipedia)
Economic Anthropology by Melville J. Herskovits (Wikipedia)

Week 4:
In Praise of Cheap Labor by Paul Krugman (Wikipedia)
Ohio State University Department of Anthropology's Southern African Foragers

Week 5:
The James Liberty File Collection's Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (Wikipedia)

Week 6:
The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits by Milton Friedman (Wikipedia)

Week 7:
Hoover Institution's Race, Culture, and Equality by Thomas Sowell (Wikipedia)
Migrant Africa by Aderanti Adepoju

Week 8:
The Corporation as a Command Economy by J. Bradford DeLong (Wikipedia)
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' The Coming Revolution in Africa by G. Pascal Zachary

Week 9:
Harvard University Department of Economics' The Cost of a "Living Wage" by N. Gregory Mankiw (Wikipedia)

Week 10:
Dynamic Capitalism by Edmund S. Phelps (Wikipedia)

Come On Down to Kate's Pub and Meet Some Friends of Mine

2008-11-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

My good friend Gloria has thrown together a little informal weekly shindig at my all-time favorite bar ever Kate's Pub (Lost in Seattle | Yelp) near where I currently live at the time of this writing in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. We head over every Wednesday after South Park, arriving at about 11 to 11:30pm and staying until they close.

It started when, one Wednesday night a couple years back, we decided to go over to the nearest bar to our house for a drink. Little did we know that Wednesday is karaoke night at Kate's Pub, and for most of us going that night, once we managed to get a few stiff shots of Irish whiskey down had this new-found courage to sing in front of a small audience of people that we can fancy are at least as wasted on alcohol as we are.

After a few weeks of this Glo had gotten together a few colleagues from Seattle Hempfest and some other assorted friends sympathetic to the causes of ending the drug war specifically and the maintenance and advancement of our civil liberties in general. Glo's little group, now called 'Happy Hempy Hippies,' had started a new tradition.

Now normally I am not a bar person. I may be known have a drink or two on occasion but I cannot stand most bars or the so-called 'bar scene.' I hate the cheap rickety tables, the black pressed-board walls, and the spent pull tabs everywhere. I find the meat market, crystal meth-esque vibe of most drinking establishments extremely white trash-tacky and beyond depressing.

Kate's Pub is something else entirely. While not overbearing, both the interior and exterior are warmly lit and inviting. The real stained-wood tables and careful attention to detail regarding interior design give the place an authentic, original feel. The food is inexpensive and of high quality and the barkeep doesn't skimp on the drinks. If that isn't enough, Kate, the bar's namesake, is often there to add a genuine human face to her establishment, greeting her customers warmly and in the trenches with her employees. Kate's Pub's presence does a phenomenal job at complementing the atmosphere of the Wallingford neighborhood.

For about US$15-$20 you can have a complete night with a few drinks, a good meal, tips for the waitstaff and DJ's, and still buy a drink for that hottie sitting at the table over there.

Happy Hempy Hippies may not manage to make it happen every week, but if you're in the neighborhood you can drop in anytime for a good meal and a drink in a friendly, down-to-earth place. If you're not in Seattle but you ever have a chance to make it out this way for a visit, you would really be missing out on a lesser-known local treasure if you didn't put my favorite bar, Kate's Pub, on your itinerary.

Kate's Pub
309 Northeast 45th Street
Seattle, Washington 98105-6133
(206)547-6832

How To Stop The Next 9/11

2008-09-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

"...for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
—Galatians 6:7

In December of 2002 US Sen. Patty Murray hit the nail on the head when she addressed students of Vancouver's Columbia River High School. It was the first time I had even heard of anyone bringing up what I believe is the real reason why America was attacked.

In a nutshell, while her opponent obfuscated the message, putting his political career above our country's security, she got to the core of the issue of why terrorism exists by addressing the broad economic disparity experienced between people in the West and those in the Middle East.

While too many Americans' biggest concern is getting to the the mall on time with a heretofore unparalleled level of indifference for their fellow human being, many who live in terrorist heartlands not only survive in squalor that wouldn't be considered suitable for the poorest of Westerners, but also have no reason to hope for a better financial outlook in the future.

If you live in conspicuous opulence while your next door neighbor eats out of a dumpster and lives in a cardboard box, and it seems to them you couldn't care less about their plight, expect intruders! And don't expect me to feel sorry for you when they come through the window.

It is not 'therapy for terrorists' to take an interest in why people who are not terrorists become terrorists, and wanting your country to take steps to keep that from happening. It is a no brainer that the greater the financial desperation someone is experiencing—the more someone feels they have already lost all they can possibly lose—the more they are willing put themselves in harm's way for the possibility of a change of circumstances, even if they will be sacrificing themselves for it to leave their survivors in a better situation.

In order for the tide of terrorism to turn, it will take more than just condescending, dependence-fostering foreign aid packages. All people of the world deserve the dignity that comes with being empowered with the tools to create their own prosperity. As with everything, it is up to the citizens of developed countries to require their governments to be good neighbors in the global neighborhood. Only then will religious extremists be unable to find their next recruits to do their dirty work.

Singing My Drug War Heartsong

2008-08-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

I just got done writing the 'About Us' page of my anti-drug war website. My objective was to get down everything I could think of about why I believe what I believe. At the Rainbow Gathering they called the passionate expression of one's feelings and opinions 'heartsong.' Well this is my heartsong:

Drug Policy Reform Movement/About Us

If I left anything pertinent out please let me know.

Discount Roofless Homes

2008-08-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

I wrote this copy for a brochure we had to do in real estate tech class with Office 2007's Publisher.

_____________

Discount Roofless Homes
“It Ain’t Got No &#$%!* Roof!”

What if I told you that 99% of all developers needlessly flush thousands of dollars down the toilet with every project? What if I told you that you could virtually save money in the construction of your next dream home? Now you can with Discount Roofless Homes! Did you know that a lot of the money that goes into building a home is wasted on the ceiling and roof? That’s right! The two least essential components of a house can account for as much as a third its cost!

Now lots of whiners come up to me cryin’, “How will we stay warm and dry during those endless Pacific Northwest cold seasons? They last for ten months out of the year fer cryin’ out loud,” or “I have small children that probably shouldn’t be exposed to the elements all the time like that.” God these people make me sick! Step out of the Matrix for a sec Neo or Neil or whatever your name is, take the red pill! Think of all the waterproof blankets you will be able to afford down at the army surplus store because you were smart enough to forego having a roof put on your house. Did you know Jesus once lived in a roofless home? My good buddy Jesus from Mexico City??? And he saved all kinds of money.

Just look at our list of over six great benefits to owning a roofless home:

People come and go by simply climbing over the wall—never deal with those mind-boggling keys and locks again!
Finally be able to enjoy meteor showers year-round with the grandkids!
Simplify things for police raids!
Catch all the water that falls into your home’s footprint—now that’s good for the environment!
Finally have that excuse you’ve always been looking for to research waterproof products!
No roof? Duh. The concept virtually sells itself!
…and much more!

Me? Just as soon as I recover from a particularly nasty case of pneumonia and get discharged from the Discount Roofless Hospital where of course the savings gets passed onto me, I’ll still have enough money I might have a mind to go down to Discount Roofless Ferrari and buy myself a luxurious, fine (albeit roofless) automobile.

When I park my roofless Ferrari in the garage of my roofless dream house, who’s gonna be laughing then?

New Children's Book Raises Eyebrows

2008-08-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've no idea where this came from or who originally did this, but I found it at my friend and fellow Dr. Ron Paul supporter Ryan Phillips' blog.

Hempfest Heats Up

2008-08-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Seattle Hempfest • 16-17-AUG-2008 • Myrtle Edwards Park

It's that time of year again. To me Seattle Hempfest is about a lot more than just smoking pot, it is about being a part of humanity's awakening and realization of freedoms lost and freedoms heretofore never realized.

We value every body that happens to make it down to Myrtle Edwards Park during the third weekend of August, and even those that can't make it but send good thoughts our way, but it really is an entirely different experience to volunteer for this great event. No matter how humble your tasks are, you'll feel a greater sense of connection to what I believe to be our worthy cause.

Regardless of your level of involvement, even if you can't participate at all, I hope you'll send some good energy and prayers for a sunny, beautiful weekend that is successful not only for Seattle Hempfest but, more importantly, for the cause of freedom.

Seattle Hempfest • 16-17-AUG-2008 • Myrtle Edwards Park

A Stroke of Luck

2008-07-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

My good friend Pedro sent me this video. Anyone who has taken a beginning psychology class knows that the brain's patterns of failure give tremendous insight into how it works (this actually goes for most things, I think). It is fascinating to hear a neuroanatomist, someone with a lot of academic training on how the brain works, describing in great detail the breakdown of her own mental functionality.

The best part is her descriptions of the overwhelming feelings of harmony with the universe she experiences in the course of her stroke manifesting itself, which remind me of my first experience with LSD back in the mid-90's. However you feel about her ideas, it is quite inspiring to hear someone talking about having reached that pinnacle of divine contentment that I believe we all are seeking.

Baby Steps Into Space

2008-07-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Freedom isn't just about the government honoring the rights that God has given you. It is also about having the economic means to spend the energy you get in a day on making your dreams and ambitions come true, instead of using up said energy for day-to-day, skin-of-the-teeth survival.

People in doubt about the usefulness of space travel argue that we should solve our problems on Earth before we think about going to space. I believe that responsible, efficient use of extra-terrestrial natural resources has the potential to release many from the bondage of poverty. In addition, the surface areas of land on the Moon and Mars that could be used for housing, cities, and other accoutrements of colonization exceed that of Earth.

Astronauts always speak of the intensely transcendental experience from looking out the shuttle window at our home planet from orbit, from being able to see the entire Earth at once with their own two eyes. They often refer to it as personally transformational and enlightening, increasing their feelings of love and empathy for their species.

I think the world would change for the better if the opportunity for this experience was accessible to the everyday person. I applaud Sir Richard Branson for taking this hope of mine for humans a step closer.

Virgin Galactic Unveils Launch Plane for Upcoming Spacecraft by Wired.com

South Americana

2008-07-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

My friend James moved to South America recently. He mentioned doing a blog on his travels but I never expected something so elaborate with so many beautiful pictures combined with such philosophical and spiritually inquisitive prose.

It's been awhile since his last posting. I hope your visit will encourage him to write more.

Paradise Found: A Latin American Travelogue

Ron Paul for the Long Haul

2008-07-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

True political and cultural movements are not cults of personality, they are for and about all people and their further realization of their God-given freedoms and rights.

Elizabeth Cameron has stated many of the reasons I dig Dr. Ron Paul such that the best I could hope to do at this point is plagiarize, but what inspires me is the ideology of (most of) those who have campaigned for his election as POTUS, and that it looks like they will continue to believe in and fight for what the man stands for long after his chance for office has passed.

It's hard not to respect people who champion a cause even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

They eschew the ideology of government as parent. They believe that government should be a lot more about the carrot and a lot less about the stick. They want the Government out of our bedrooms, our wallets, our doctors' offices. They believe in civil liberties in a way that puts a majority of Democrat and Republican officials to shame.

Regardless of how you may have felt about his campaign, if you believe in old-fashioned ideas like that the government should rule only with the consent of the governed, that citizen's rights are bestowed by the Creator and not provided as charity by and at the mercy of worldly agents of the State, I hope you will visit Dr. Ron Paul's website, maybe buy and read some of his books, and when you discover the quintessentially American beliefs he and his supporters espouse, maybe you will join the Revolution.

Poor UI Design of the Week Award Goes to Microsoft ... Again

2007-11-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Before I start, yes, we should all be using by now. It's just that for some things Internet Exploder must—to our great misfortune—still be used.

So can anyone tell me why the latest Internet Explorer loses OS focus with every pageview? This makes it so you must use the mouse to find what you hope is a neutral spot in the 'content area' of the window before it will again respond to keyboard commands.

And one more thing: Why don't they spend a few versions fixing the broken bloatware they already have before they add a whole bunch of new useless functionality nobody really wants or needs?

How about to two- or three-year moratorium on any new features that aren't absolutely necessary. They have been granted a de facto monopoly, the least they could do for us in return is make our lives a little easier by putting some energy into refining and improving our experience with these products we have no choice but to use.

How refreshing it would be if in Redmond new whirlygigs and doodads took a backseat to true software craftsmanship and attention to quality and detail.

Monkeys and More

2007-11-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

My friend Chip recently showed me this video, Dance Monkeys Dance. I hope you'll visit Ernest Cline's website and give him some encouragement. I wish everyone would take just four minutes out of their lives to see this important film about monkeys:

To Be A Schoolboy Again

2007-11-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

Since September 28 I have been attending North Seattle Community College in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood. The people are very nice but the campus was designed and built in the late sixties/early seventies when the architectural trend, I figure, was to try to make things look futuristic. What was supposed to be a cool, cutting edge design in the spirit, I reckon, of Seattle's World Fair came off as a cold, gray maze of stark concrete walls and passageways, imagined right out of some bleak future dystopia.

Courtesy of North Seattle Community College

Courtesy of Worth1000

Courtesy of North Seattle Community College

This is the place small children come disembodied in the middle of the night to have their bad dreams. I can subtly feel their presences reeling through the windy, exposed sky bridges. On particularly cloudy and rainy nights the orange light of halogen lamps on vast expanses of dark cement create an especially exquisite gloom.

The teachers and other faculty are great. I am doing the twelve credits it takes to be a full-time student. I have a ten credit coordinated studies class combining English 102 and Humanities 105 called "Beginnings: Connecting Learning, Identity, and Culture," and I have a two credit Library 150 class called "Research in the Electronic Environment."

Forget WoW, Eve Online is the Best!

2007-09-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

A true connoisseur of music knows the most popular stuff is by no means the best. Class B tracks with catchy hooks see rotation a dozen times an hour while often times better music on the same album remains in obscurity. The best music in history, I bet, has never been broadcast on the airwaves.

For years we've seen the massively multiplayer online game (mmog) "World of Warcraft" (WoW) hyped everywhere. I'm sure everyone would remember the "Office Space" WoW campaign of Christmas '06 if they saw the commercial again. Measured by hype and number of subscribers, WoW is unarguably the leader of online virtual worlds, but in my opinion it is not the best.

The best massively multiplayer online game is Eve Online. I have been an Eve subscriber since December of '05 and likely I will be until the end of Eve or the end of me. As long as I've been playing, I am still learning new things all the time, and there is still a lot I haven't done yet.

There are a lot of things that make Eve superior to most of the others, only a couple of which I can outline here:

No Tolkien-esque fantasy world full of cringe-worthy clichés here, Eve is original sci-fi
All Eve players exist is a single world, no 'shards' like in Wow
Expansions to Eve are free
There will be no Eve II, the one and only Eve has been continually updated and expanded and will be for the forseeable future
A robust economy and a tedium free, time-based skill system mean you're still playing even when you're not actually logged in
Non-linearity and lack of a rigid, structured gameplay experience make for endless possibilities

A lot of people have a lot of valid criticisms of Eve and its proprietors, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Eve is the greatest.

MMOG Resources

Freedom: Now More Than Just A Word--Only $19.95 plus s+h

2007-08-16T04:36:00.000-07:00

It is often asked, "What is this thing called 'freedom'?" Freedom to me means being able to do whatever I want with impunity as long as I do no harm to others.

Presidential Candidate Ron Paul says tyranny is ancient, and that by comparison America and its ideals are brand new. I am deeply troubled by the authoritarian direction in which my country seems headed. I deeply fear that the very ideals of freedom and liberty our country was founded on will be used and abused by those, too pessimistic of the soul of humanity to persevere, to institute a totalitarianism even the Nazis would shudder to think of, a depotism those who fancy dictatorship in 'less free' countries would never dream of. Those familiar with Alex Jones's work know what I'm talking about.

This is why I play my little role as a cog in the wheel of righteousness (as opposed to 'self-righteousness') by doing what I can for my second family at Seattle Hempfest. I don't think I could ever be a part of a group that loves me as unconditionally as these folks do. Though a lazy stoner never doing as much for the cause as I wish I could, I will be down at Myrtle Edwards Park this weekend (18-19-AUG-2007) to do what I can to turn the tide. Please join me between 10am and 7pm on those days.

P.S. Alex Jones, please be nice to Michael, he plays the "Bush is an idiot" card because no one would take his films seriously, he never talks about the "hardcore 9/11 issues" because it would be easier for news outlets like the Nazi-sympathizers at Fox to portray him as at the fringes of the political spectrum. That "wouldn't be American" as he has explained plainly to you. He wants the mainstream like you do. Kiss n' make up for fuck's sake.

Poor UI Design of the Week Award Goes to Microsoft

2007-08-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

Upon recently starting my MSN Spaces account I was happy that I could, in an automated fashion, not only add the covers of my favorite CDs and DVDs to my profile, but I could also have my Amazon.com Associates ID pulled in with those hyperlinked images, earning me money if anyone buys through those links.

The problem comes when trying to maintain the specific sequential order of a media list while adding entries to the middle of the list. Adding an entry puts it automatically at the top of the list. It is an unbelievable hassle to get that entry in its proper place further down while maintaining the list's order, you would have to experience this typical Microsoft bungling to understand it.

While I still recommend MSN Spaces as a small, ancillary component of your online presence only because it is from Microsoft and you need multiple social networking accounts to establish as many contacts as you can, this problem with ordering media combined with only a few content options for my public area make MSN Spaces even worse than MySpace. Facebook is still the best, even though MySpace is more popular.

My Favorite Tracks from The Mollusk by Ween:

7 - It's Gonna Be (Alright)
5 - Mutilated Lips
4 - I'll Be Your Jonny on the Spot
13 - Ocean Man
1 - I'm Dancing in the Show Tonite