Test Cows NOW!

Straight Men Don’t Wear Jewelry.

Posted by admin - 14/11/08 at 01:11:12 am

value

Posted by admin - 06/11/08 at 02:11:46 am

This was made with a wooden box, a piece of thin plastic coated with an emulsion of gelatin and magic pixie dust (heck, I don’t know how they make color film), and a few seconds of time, maybe 30 . . . oh, and the experience and expertise of the guy who carried it all to that spot.

Expensive? Not really. Valuable? I’d say so.

could this be any easier?

Posted by admin - 16/10/08 at 03:10:40 am

Talking Points Memo | How The Obama Camp Should Respond:

Just as John McCain bought his ad time for right after Obama’s speech last night, they should get their own for right after Palin.

And here’s the ad: A one-minute spot featuring Hillary Clinton herself, talking to the camera and laying into Palin on the issues, her complete lack of qualifications, and the temerity of the McCain campaign to think they could get away with this. Then she urges anyone watching who might have supported her to get out there and support Barack Obama.

Then it closes simply with Obama walking on to the set to shake Hillary’s hand: “I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message.”

That could be what we call a “crusher.”

RSS awareness day

Posted by admin - 13/10/08 at 07:10:48 am

Daniel Scocco over at DailyBlogTips had an admirable idea of entitling 1st of May as the “RSS Awareness Day”. He wrote about his initiative and invited everyone to get involved. Though I found out about this quite some time ago I didn’t had time or I wasn’t in the mood to write about it. However today I’ve said to myself that it’s better later than never.

I think that the best definition for RSS out there is over at Wikipedia so I’m going to quote them:

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a “feed” or “web feed” or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text.

RSS keeps you updated with the latest news from your favorite blogs, sites and other web hosted entities that support RSS. Information is a very powerful asset. For example I have a feed list containing about 50 subscriptions. Every day I take some time off and read new articles from different blogs I’m interested in. It is a very effective way of being connected to the news stream. I find RSS way better than e-mail subscriptions (or newsletters) because it helps keeping my e-mail address for private use. Also you have better chances at keeping your Spam folder a little emptier because you don’t go on every blog or site and fill in your e-mail address. Basically you are just an anonymous reader out there and there is nothing that could link you to the articles you read. That, right there my friends is just a terrific possibility.

Related to feeds that display only a preview of the article. That is, in my opinion, a very bad practice. Hoping your subscribers will visit your blog to see all of the post content you forget about what is RSS all about. Provide full feeds of your articles and let your readers choose whether to visit your blog or not.

As you probably noticed the link that takes you to the RSS content of a blog or site is almost every time accompanied by the well known RSS icon. Different RSS icons are available every day as they are relatively easy to design. Check out the following resources links:

• Feed Icons
• Free Glass Style RSS Icons
• RSS: Best design practices and icons
• Free RSS Feed Icons
• Over 35 Different Styles of RSS icons
• 60 Great RSS Icons for your blog
• All the RSS Icons You’ll Ever Need
• 51 Top RSS Buttons for your blog
• Free RSS Icons & Buttons for your Website

Hopefully the above links will take you to some relevant RSS related icons so you’ll can achieve a seamless RSS integration on your blog or site.

Sometimes, things really do just happen

Posted by admin - 07/10/08 at 05:10:16 am

I talked recently about how little other people typically think about you, and how that should be a freeing things. Also, just how difficult it can be to accept that because, let’s face it, we all see the world through our own perspective, and that perspective is utterly and completely focused on ourselves. So, it’s easy to begin to question what we’ve done or not done when a friend doesn’t respond the way we think they should.

Case in point, recently I had sent a couple of emails to a good friend of mine, and gotten no response at all. One of them even included a very simple question that didn’t require more than a yes or no answer, yet there was none forthcoming.

I actually did start to wonder what I had done or said to her that caused her to try and avoid me like this. We’ve been friends for years, and I was worried that maybe something had happened to suddenly make her uncomfortable with me.

I shrugged these concerns off and tried to continue on like normal, but it still left me wondering.

Turns out, her workplace email system had flagged my messages as spam, and she didn’t even see them until a few days or a week after I had sent them. There was no conflict, no nothing, just someone who was going about their days not really thinking about checking her spam folders for emails from people she hadn’t heard from lately.

So you see, sometimes, people aren’t trying to avoid you, they really are busy, or really don’t get your message. It happens, lighten up.

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Generational Mobility

Posted by admin - 21/09/08 at 06:09:11 am

Much has been said about the gaps between the Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The longer I live, the more evident these differences are becoming…but nothing marks these differences better than mobile technology!

Which one are you?

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MOBILE BOOMER WHEN…

1. You still have the 1st and 2nd generation cell phones. (What? It still works!)
2. You’re really excited to have a cell phone.
3. You answer EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone, or if you don’t answer every single phone call on your cell phone, then you look at your phone while it rings, and say out loud, “I wonder who that could be?”
4. You still yell into a cell phone.
5. You make sure that your ringer is REALLY loud…you know, so you can hear it.
6. You get freaked out when someone sends you a Text Message. (What do I do next?!)
7. You hold the keys down way too long, and then wonder why someone in Guam keeps picking up your sister’s phone.
8. You don’t know how many minutes are on your plan.
9. You have to put on your glasses to read your cell phone screen. (The numbers are SO SMALL!)
10. You purchase stocks in AT&T

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A GENERATION X-ER WHEN…

1. You wait until your screen is scratched up and the numbers worn off before you replace your phone. (I paid a lot of money for this!)
2. You throw your cell phone into your purse or bag (Oh! When did I get a call?)
3. You ignore EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone. (I don’t recognize that number…ignore.)
4. You wish people would stop yelling into their cell phones, especially yours.
5. You never turn your ringer on. (Someone better let me know when they plan to call, otherwise, good luck!)
6. You prefer Text Messages. (Why speak when you can type?)
7. You can dial, hold a separate conversation and get your subway ticket…all at the same time.
8. You try to avoid the big corporate plans. (Why pay AT&T when I can use a company that plants a tree for every minute I use?)
9. You keep wishing they’d add more keys. (See #6)
10. You purchase stock in Virgin Mobile and Creedo.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A GENERATION Y-ER WHEN…

1. You sign up for Apple alerts to know when the next iPhone is coming out. (Screw work! The new iPhone is coming out and I just bought a new sleeping bag…awww yeah!!)
2. You’re really excited to have an iPhone.
3. You answer EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL that comes in on your cell phone, and then follow it up with a Twitter. (Hey, I got nothin’ but time, and the world needs to know!)
4. You listen to music, check your email and answer your phone…all at the same time.
5. You make sure that your ringer is the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Rihanna song…so, you know, everyone can hear it.
6. You get freaked out by properly spelled Text Messages. (Did he really write Laugh Out Loud? That’s not funny.)
7. You slide your fingers across your phone, rather than pushing in cumbersome keys.
8. You don’t care how many minutes are on your plan. (Hey, as long as my parents keep paying for my tuition, I’m straight!)
9. You hate buttons on your phone. (They just get in the way!)
10. You purchase stocks in Apple.

How often do you think about other people?

Posted by admin - 18/09/08 at 09:09:33 am

One of the lessons I learned a few years ago, was that it’s actually quite rare for someone to really notice you, or think about you.

Now, that may sound like a pretty depressing thought, and to some extent, it is. On the other hand, it’s also very freeing. It frees us from worrying about doing something embarrassing, for example. Aside from the most outrageous examples, most of the things we beat ourselves up about, and feel embarrassed about, go wholly unnoticed by the majority of people. They never give it a second thought.

It also frees us from unrealistic expectations. Knowing that outside of my wife, and a few other people, most people are not going to give my upcoming birthday a second thought, frees me to be able to appreciate the folks who do take the time to wish me a happy birthday, or do something nice for me. It comes as a nice little surprise more than anything else. I go into it expecting that no one needs to do anything, and get to feel grateful when someone does.

Lastly, it also makes it pretty easy to impress someone. Like I said, when I come to realize that it’s highly unlikely that most people gave me a second thought, I’m very impressed by, and appreciative of, the thoughtfulness of someone who actually does. Remember, being thoughtful and being considered a good friend is all about being slightly better than other people. We don’t have to be perfect, we just have to stand out among the crowd. If the crowd is full of people who rarely give others outside their immediate circle a second thought, it doesn’t take much to stand out. A simple willingness to remember a birthday, help out with a problem PC, follow up on an idea you’ve discussed, or an inclusion in social plans can go a long way to showing yourself as a caring, thoughtful person. Of course, that assumes you’re doing it to be thoughtful, and not in an insincere attempt to get something out of it for yourself. That won’t get you far, but a small gestures of kindness, goes a long way in a world of self-centeredness.

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adsense, if there is any

Posted by admin - 02/08/08 at 01:08:48 pm

Just checked AdSense and it looks like my recent increase in traffic (daily volume has doubled since July) means my daily ad revenue has tripled+ — from 15¢ to 50¢. At $15 and change per month, it’s not even covering bandwidth costs, but perhaps it does encourage me to try boiling some stuff that worksâ„¢ into readable prose. At this rate I may see a check by 2009.

Bad Things Happen

Posted by admin - 13/07/08 at 12:07:57 pm

All of us have survived bad things, most of us have survived some of the worst things we can imagine. We’ve proven to be capable of surviving all the bad things that life has thrown at us over the years. Yet many people live in fear. Fear of change, fear of people, fear of what the next day may bring. As if insulating ourselves from change was going to prevent bad things from ever happening again.

It won’t.

Bad things are going to happen, no matter how much you try and protect yourself from them. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do what you have to do to be safe. Survivors especially need to feel a level of safety in order to go about their lives and that shouldn’t be ignored. I don’t advocate putting yourself in unhealthy risks. I do, however, strongly advocate not being afraid of trying something new, of doing something outside the routine. Simply put, I’m a strong advocate of living life, as opposed to living to avoid things that you cant do anything to avoid to begin with.

It saddens me to see friends and fellow survivors unable to do more. Unable to do some traveling, unable to go out on a date, unable to find a more fulfilling job, or unable to take a small risk to find some more happiness in their lives. It’s literally heartbreaking to see people who have overcome so much, and shown so much strength, live unfulfilled lives because they’re afraid.

It saddens me most of all because I’ve been there, and learned better. I know how much I missed out on by living in fear. I know how many exciting opportunities I talked myself out of because I was comfortable, and afraid of change. Eventually, though, I also learned that whatever happenes, I will survive. I’ve already survived, and I know how to overcome some horrible things. So have you.

Have the confidence in yourself to know that you can survive whatever may happen. Yes, that date might not go well, the car might breakdown on that road trip, you might struggle to learn that new job, or whatever opportunity your pursue might not work out, leading to disappointment.

You can survive that. You are strong. You’ve already proven that to everyone but yourself. It’s tme you believe it too.

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Technorati Tags: Strength, Surviving

more on money that’s not worth making

Posted by admin - 21/02/08 at 04:02:04 pm

This business of having a conscience could get expensive. I got an assignment for that “mystery shopper” gig and it would pay $200 + up to $100 worth of anything Wal★Mart sells.

I wonder if economists factor those expenses, the third party supervision, into the expected gains from reducing management or other staff?

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