smays.com

One good reason.

Why you don't want to work for the NSA.

Ask Pud.

Pud is an expert in many things including money, sex, business, arts, music, food, fashion, technology, nightlife, travel -- almost everything except sports.

Ulcerville.

I spent most of Saturday doing something I've wanted to do for years. I shot some video of "game day" at Learfield Communications. Our company produces the radio broadcasts (some TV?) for many of the top colleges in the country. Play-by-play crews feed back the game broadcasts to Jefferson City where some very hard working folks mush it all together and send it (via satellite) to radio stations throughout the country. Mega-stress. Give me a few days to edit the video and I'll post something here. My little project will fall far short of capturing what it's really like on a Saturday. You gotta be there.

New Butch Karp novel.

Speaking of going to the book store... Robert Tanenbaum has given us a new Butch Karp novel. In Resolved, Butch is "the hunted as well as the hunter, and he's being stalked by a man he sent to prison over a decade ago--a psychopath who supposedly died in prison." A person with will power could buy the book and save it for upcoming vacation. Am I that person?

Yum.

Jefferson City now has a Barnes & Noble. Opened today. A good thing. It has a Starbucks, and that's a great thing. My little group was among the first dozen or so through the door. And before you ask, yes, we know how pathetic we are that a book store and coffee shop could so dramatically improve our lives.

DASH.

That's the name of my new cholesterol-lowering diet. It's just a short walk to becoming a full-fledged vegetarian. The booklet says I should think of meat as a condiment rather than an entree. Can I give up Barb's good burgers? I don't know. With a few such exceptions, food is little more than fuel for me so I'm not really giving up much. Of the seven risk factors for heart attack, I have three. I'm over 50. I'm male. And my cholesterol is high. I'll consider going trans-gender if I can't stick to the new diet. Stay tuned.

One month.

Since Scott's last post. I know he's alive because his office is across the hall. I feel like a villager living on the slope of a smoking volcano. I'm tempted to trudge up to the rim to see why it hasn't erupted.

Goose bumps.

"At 7:30 am I arrive from cataract surgery. At 8:15 they are done. The prep takes longer than the 7 minute operation where they put a suck out my old lens, put in a new one perfectly matched to my site -- like a little internal contact lens -- to give me 20/20 vision." [Halley's Comment]

What are you in for?

John J. Geoghan, the former priest and convicted child molester killed in a Massachusetts prison Saturday, was followed into his cell just after lunch by a fellow inmate who bound and gagged him before strangling him with a bed sheet, according to a union representative for prison guards. WashingtonPost.com

Stories.

Doc explains why we take all those photographs: "Whatever else I've learned from going through boxes of old photographs, it's clear to me now why people take pictures of people. It isn't just to capture moments, to record history, to make art, or just to fool around, though it's all those things and more. It's to tell stories."

Give me one good reason to go to law school

Barb's Camry died (after ten years) so it was off to St. Louis to shop for a new one this weekend. I spent two very comfortable hours in the waiting area of the Lexus dealership while Barb talked herself into buying an RX330. Hard to call something this nice a sport utility vehicle. I confess to being pretty impressed with the Lexus "experience." A greeter met us when we arrived and introduced Barb to her "sales and leasing consultant." Apparently, you don't have to sell the Lexus. The consultant is there to "assist you with your purchase."

Lots of nice touches. If you have a breakdown on the road, Lexus sends out a flat-bed truck ("...we don't tow"), puts you up in a hotel and provides you with a loaner. I watched the switchboard operator for a couple of hours. When she paged someone from the parts department, they arrived as quickly as they could. If they tagged on "...for a customer" to the page, the person arrived immediately. Just lots of little things like that. The dealership provided lunch for all employees. So, we started with a Tercel, then a Corolla, a Camry, 4 Runner and now, a Lexus. Well over a million miles in Toyota's.

Two years.

I started working out with a trainer two years ago this month. My greatest extravagance and one with which I'm still a little uncomfortable. The lady is a sadist and quite willing to keep me doing crunches until I'm making pathetic little whimpering noises. But I've never felt better. I'm still a scrawny, middle-aged white guy but after 35 years at 155 pounds (6 feet), I've gained ten pounds of muscle mass. I view all this as my best investment. I'll be able to do 100 push-ups while waiting for the OATS bus.

Photo Story

I really like this little add-on for Windows XP. Drop in a bunch of photos...put them in the order you want...add narration for any/all/none...lay some music under...and Photo Story squeezes it all down to a .wmv file that can be emailed. And my favorite part is the "Ken Burns" effect. Appears you're panning or zooming the still images. Earlier this year a group from work toured Dallas Cowboys Stadium (or whatever the call it) and I took a wad of pictures. I did this little piece (2 minutes) in about half an hour. You'll need latest version of Media Player to view (it's a little over 2 meg). Part of the XP Digital Plus! package ($20)

Good advice.

We've all been to this wedding. Just not often enough. I can't beleive I'm the only one that gets Dr. Mayler. And if you missed When Good Cows Go Bad, don't.

Media companies shouldn't be afraid of blogs.

So says Michelle Nicolosi (Online Journalism Review editor)Michelle Nicolosi. She thinks newspaper style briefs are boring and "don't have the appeal of a personality-driven insider's look at a given topic." [via CyberJournalist]

Another Kennett boy

Doug Howard graduated from KHS a few years after I did. I knew he was doing well in some part of the music industry. According to Google, Doug was VP and general manager of Polygram Music Nashville before going over to head up Disney's Lyric Street Recdords. Follow up: Dan Landrum did a great job of blogging his tour with Yanni.

The Kennett Connection.

"Rush H. III has been selected as the name for a son, born to Mr. and Mrs. Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., 412 Sunset Boulevard, at 7:50 a.m. Friday at Southeast Missouri Hospital. The child is the first in the family and weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. Mrs. Limbaugh was formerly Miss Mildred Armstrong, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Armstrong of Kennett. Mr. Limbaugh is associated with his father in the law firm of Limbaugh & Limbaugh." From a Rush Limbaugh fan site. I can't verify it, but I'm pretty sure Mildred worked at KBOA back in the early fifties.

Big Daddy.

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is dead. Bad man, great costume. The world is a better place. Can someone explain why Saudia Arabia would harbor this guy all these years? If you can't help me with that one... can you tell me if the people of Uganda were worse off under Amin or the colonialist powers that preceded him. I'm assuming it was the British. Hey, I'm just saying it's not a race thing. Oppression comes in all colors.

What's for lunch?

Steve Outing (writes about interactive media) has help turn his daughter's elementary school school website into a weblog. Looks like this would be fun and useful to students, family, faculty.

Sons of the Western Boohteel

"In August of 1990, I received a call from the organizers of the Hornersville Sesquicentennial Celebration. They were looking for cheap entertainment and wanted my barbershop quartet. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), that quartet was defunct. What about cowboy songs instead?, I asked. Cowboy songs would be just fine." From The Secret Origins of The Sons of the Western Bootheel. I've created a little "fan page" although I'm not sure one performance qualifies me as a fan. Download and listen to some of the songs. The guys are pretty good and there's a real honesty to thier music.

Short burst.

A man wanted on the charge of exposing himself to a child shot and killed himself Tuesday in a Kansas City area park as police officers closed in. The Parkville Police Department says 48-year-old Dennis Williams of Parkville died near the Missouri River. An autopsy determined Williams shot himself in the face with his own weapon, a World War II-era machine gun.

Smile.

A new report issued this week by Future Image predicts that "by mid-2004, sales of photo phones in the U.S. could exceed the combined total sales of digital and film cameras." [Via Poynter Onlilne]

Six inches.

From Wired by way of E-Media Tidbits: "A security flaw at a website operated by the purveyors of penis-enlargement pills has provided the world with a depressing answer to the question: Who in their right mind would buy something from a spammer? ... An order log left exposed at one of Amazing Internet Products' websites revealed that, over a four-week period, some 6,000 people responded to e-mail ads and placed orders for the company's Pinacle herbal supplement. Most customers ordered two bottles of the pills at a price of $50 per bottle." Can you help me with diameter?

You got to have friends.

I miss my friend John. He's too far away. I'd be better if he were here. I sent him some books that I know he's going to enjoy.

Form and Substance.

As I futtzed around worring about how my blog looked, I kept thinking of another blog. This lady doesn't worry about silly cosmetics. She just write good stuff and that's enough.

The Hanged Man's Song.

Counting the days till John Sanford's next novel (Kidd, not Lucas Davenport), due in November (for which I am thankful). From Amazon:

"In The Hanged Man's Song, a super-hacker friend of Kidd's named Bobby suddenly disappears from cyberspace, and Kidd knows that isn't a good sign. Going over to his house, he finds him dead on the floor, his head bashed in and his laptop missing  and Kidd knows that really isn't a good sign. The secrets on that laptop are potent enough to hang Kidd and everybody else in Bobby's circle  just to start with  so there's no question that Kidd and LuEllen have to try to track it down, not to mention that Kidd would dearly love to get his hands on the man who killed Bobby. "

Clutter.

"Saying less often communicates more. Our lives are littered with extraneous details that smother salient information. Each little piece of useless chatter is relatively innocent, and only robs us of a few seconds. The cumulative effect, however, is much worse: we assume that most communication is equally useless and tune it out, thus missing important information that's sometimes embedded in the mess." Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, August 11, 2003

I'm tempted.

"Vote for me if you want to live" t-shirt.

RSS.

I have to do some more homework before I can take a stab at explaining RSS but Chris Pirillo says it's the next big thing and few people understand the online world better. My friend John insists he's disappointed when he takes the time to check this journal only to find there's nothing new. RSS makes it possible for him to be alerted (NOT by email) when this page --or others-- is updated. More to come.

Cowboy music.

Did I mention The Sons of the Western Bootheel?

Aaahhh.

Okay, I'm not changed-skilled. I hate change. And I found the back-up of my blog template. Just like slipping into old comfy loafers. I did make a few changes. I moved the archive links to a separate page. Dropped or added a couple of links. If I missed something you can let me know.

Google's new News Alerts.

Google has invented another great tool: Google News Alerts, which are e-mailed to you when news articles appear online that match the topics you specify. Email news alerts aren't new but what makes Google's so powerful is that Google News trolls 4,500 news sources continuously throughout the day -- and you can set the alert to send you links to related articles as soon as Google News find them. So if you're writing about the debate over the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, for example, you can set an alert to send you an e-mail as soon as any of 4,500 news sites posts an article containing the words "gay and bishop."

Speaking of funny people

Jim Obradovich was high on my Unborn Blogs" list and he somehow discovered this (could he be reading this very post?). He hinted that he might be willing to take run at blogging and offered to send photos from his new part-time job.

"...beginning tomorrow evening at the Iowa State Fair Parade I will commence my duties as "Fairfield" the State Fair Mascot. Fairfield is a 6-foot blue ribbon of merriment. I will be undertaking my "Fairfield" duties for 2 to 3 hours a day, while the rest of the time I'll be writing press releases on everything from sheep dog trials to the heaviest pigeon competition."

Jim has obviously been too busy to send photos so I borrowed this one from the Iowa State Fair website. Given that Jim has a (high paying) regular job, this speaks volumes.

Me Laugh Hard.

Don't know why I've never heard of David Sedaris but I caught a short segment on today's This American Life and he is one funny guy. From an Amazon review: "He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist ("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match." As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what would happen in the next day's episode." I'll read one of his books and report back.

A little tight.

I confess. I'm more addicted to this weblog than I thought. You wouldn't guess it by the frequency of my posts, but the thing broke a few days ago and I've been tense and jittery because I couldn't feed the beast. The solution involved a different look and it's like a new pair of shoes...my old one was more comfortable. But hey, I'm a change-skilled guy, so on we go. I still don't have this like I want it. Wait, this is more apt than the "shoes" analogy. Did you see the NYPD Blue episode where the guy had his wheel chair stolen? He had a spare but he'd fixed his main chair just the way he liked. How about this... I've been forced --at gun point-- to repaint every room in my house.

War & Peace.

"Peace is best. You should make every sacrifice to secure peace. When you absolutely must go to war, however, you must try to kill all the enemy you can as quickly as you can, holding nothing back, until they have surrendered or you have been defeated utterly. It is a great fraud to think otherwise and it prolongs the agony. It would be better if people said, if we fight, we are going to boil babies in their own fat and blasgt the skin off nice old ladies, so they die slowly in great pain, and we are happy to do this, because what we fight for is so important. And if they conclude that it is not as important as *that*, then they should fight no more." -- Robert K. Tanenbaum, Act of Revenge

Computer Guy

Keeping our hard drives hard (Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" radio spot).

Getting in front of the Blog Parade.

Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader and South Dakota Democrat, "will post a daily diary on his official Web site as he drives around the state next month during Congress' annual August recess, he said Wednesday. The diary is modeled on the growing phenomenon of the online journals known as Weblogs, or blogs for short." More on the Argus Leader website. [via Steve Outing]

Looking for a clue.

"...thanks to conversations taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms, employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate marketing groups." It's time to go back an re-read The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual.

Just as there are a lot more smokers than we think there are, there are a lot of managers who secretly wish "this Internet thing" would go away. It's just too darned easy for the worker bees to talk to each other and compare notes.

"Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high.
Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority."

They long for the days when information could be controlled and managed. They quickly learn, as did Joseph Goebbels, that you can control the people if you can control the information. Now, this is a very un-cool view, so they all pay lip service to the value of the Net. But they're like people that don't really like dogs. They sort of lean back while reaching down to almost pet the animal. "Oh, what a nice doggie." People that really love dogs almost always drop to the floor and let the dog lick their face. People who embrace and believe in the Internet are just as easy to spot. I'm betting the Net can route around clueless managers just like it routes around other obstacles.

No more Mr. Smiths.

Remember All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Well, everything people in politics and government need to know can be learned from watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And I don't mean the the piece-of-shit remake with Adam Sandler... I'm talking about the Frank Capra original (1939) with Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur. God, what a timeless story. And if the world today is different today it's only for the worse. Think we don't have some Jim Taylor's today? If I were king (as RP used to say), I'd make everyone in DC watch this movie every six months. It wouldn't make anyone try to blow their brains out as Senator Paine tried to do, but it might make them ashamed. Naaawww.