Enjoy.

Me: Do you have to pledge allegiance to Jerry Falwell in addition to the Christian flag while at chapel?

Liberty Student: “We do not pledge to the Christian flag.”
Liberty Student: “…just to Doctor Falwell.”

Wonderful.

I found this little gem by accident while looking around Apple’s new operating system, “Snow Leopard.”

It seems that Apple has chosen, by default, to have an on-screen keyboard option available. I’m pretty sure this visual keyboard has been part of OS X for some time now, but what is interesting is that it is now front and center when you install the OS.

As of right now it only shows a visual representation of whatever key you press on your physical keyboard, but it leads me to believe that all the “Apple Tablet” rumors are quite true and impending.

Why else would this feature be placed right there by Apple if it were not soon needed to enter text via a touch-screen interface of sorts.

Apple is holding a special presentation on September 9th where they’re expected to talk about iPods, but let’s see if they don’t have one more thing up their sleeve before the day is through.

It all started earlier today, as a part of my morning routine, I was checking my websites for updated content. And lo, I noticed something particularly odd while refreshing my Twitter feed via iPhone. The site seemed to time out. Repeatedly. Thinking it just a API glitch or something of the sort, I moved on to the Facebook app. Oddly, this would not refresh either.

It seemed a bit strange that both sites would be in-operational simultaneously, so I reset the phone. This did not help. Clearly, I deduced, this must be the fault of AT&T’s, for we all already hate them. Yes, to them must go the blame.

No. All the other sites I tried worked fine. What? How could this be? I checked my home’s WiFi connection. It was operational. And I began to realize the serious, and disastrous reality befallen us this 6th day of August in the year of our Lord, 2009.

Twitter was down. Facebook was down. Together. But how? How could this happen? And I realized… the Internet Apocalypse has commenced.

The sad irony of this tragedy is that we are unable to share the news of the sites being down with the rest of the world due to the sites being down. It is a vicious circle of grief and sadness and evil.

What shall become of us? Without our precious social networking sites available to us society may revert back to its archaic primitiveness pre-dating the Web 2.0 book. It will be like we’re back in 1999! Or worse – we may have to start using MySpace again! ::cue terrifying music::

Let us hope and pray that the Internet gods that they restore our beloved Web 2.0 sites, and with haste. Until then, MG Siegler has compiled a list over at TechCrunch of 15 Alternative Things to Do while Twitter is down.

See you soon. (I hope).

And even if you don’t repost it, it’s quite a catchy little song.

Here’s his story (from YouTube):

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise. Follow me at http://twitter.com/DaveCarroll . Video Produced by Curve Productions of Halifax, http://www.curveproductionsinc.com.

And here is the full, detailed story from his blog: United Breaks Guitars.

Bridge: Midtown’s Independence Day Weenie Roast from William Hartz on Vimeo.

In honor of the United States’ annual tradition of grilling processed meat in order to celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s outmaneuvering the collective might of the British Empire’s military with a bunch of farmers, The Bridge: Midtown hosted a weenie roast, aka Independence Day barbecue, in the back lot of the Liberty Center, as this was the only suitable location for fire-making in the urban heart of Elizabeth, NJ.

Combining some archaic technologies (such as “fire” and “barbecue sauce”) with the latest advancement in meat-cooking (aka the “greatest grill you will ever see”) four individuals, some young and some not so much, endeavored to prepare a vast array of weenie for consumption by both the Bridge’s Midtown group and its “Bridge, Jr tykes.

And so, while most remained inside for music and games and laughing in celebration of this, our nation’s 233rd birthday, this is the story of the brave souls dedicated to crafting the perfect hot dog.

A full set of images from the grilling and night inside can be seen here: bit.ly/weeniepics.

I try to have some kind of organizational method to how the apps are arranged, but one or two of the pages always end up being just a hodgepodge of randomness and discontinuity. And there are always apps doing their best to get promoted to the main page. Facebook, currently, is in the runnings for a promotion right now. We’ll see how he behaves in the days to come.

What do your iPhone pages look like?

Have it Your Way from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Here’s a short video we shot as an aid for @carloscedeno’s teaching for Sunday morning.

In either case. Enjoy.

—————————————————————————

Bethany Siniscal: “I have tea!”

William M Hartz: “Tea is good!”

Bethany Siniscal: “I knew you would appreciate it.”

William M Hartz: “You should bring me some.”

Bethany Siniscal: “I should.”
Bethany Siniscal: “but I probably won’t.”

William M Hartz: “You are mean!”

Bethany Siniscal: “I am honest though.”
Bethany Siniscal: “Would you rather me lie and be nice? or be honest and mean?”

William M Hartz: “I’d rather you bring me some tea.”

Bethany Siniscal: “I’d rather not.”

William M Hartz: “If I was not so dehydrated from lack of tea, I would cry 1000 tears due to your cold heartedness, Bethany Siniscal.”

Bethany Siniscal: “If I were not so cold hearted I would drive over and give you tea so you could cry those 1000 tears.”

William M Hartz: “But if you brought the tea there would be no need for tears but partying instead. And we would drink the tea. And eat popcorn. For it is popcorn I have, yet tea that I lack. And therein lies the difficulty.”

Bethany Siniscal: “but I have popcorn at my house too. I don’t see the part where I benefit.”

William M Hartz: “You benefit from my good company. Also, I have Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit.”

Bethany Siniscal: “What if I find no joy playing in such foolish games?”

William M Hartz: “Clearly, your benefit far outweighs mine.”
William M Hartz: “I also have Lord of the Rings Monopoly
.”

Bethany Siniscal: “I must confess my Lord of the Rings knowledge is of limit as is my passion for it.”
Bethany Siniscal: “At my house we have taboo and movies such as: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

William M Hartz: “Well then we could watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for I also have this (in both theatrical and extended edtion). Afterwards your knowledge would be sufficient and your passion overflowing.”
William M Hartz: “As a third option, I also have Lord of the Rings chess.”

Bethany Siniscal: “I despise chess.”

William M Hartz: “Well, that is why I have both the Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly.”

Bethany Siniscal: “What if I just want nothing to do with Lord of the Rings?”

William M Hartz: “This is folly.”

Thus, the quest for more tea moves on.

*Tea image by Takuya Miyamoto.
**Teapot image by Me.

Help me, faithful blog readers. You’re my only hope.

I will keep the poll open until 11:59pm on Saturday, June 20, 2009 as that is when my schedule will become freed up enough to actually start a new book.

Thanks for your help!