Knocked-up-girlfriend-hell

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Donald Craig Mitchell, blogging (Off the Bus) from Wasilla, Alasaka, attended a Palin rally and spotted Bristol Palin and Levi in the bleachers behind mom. Not talking, not touching. After the event, Levi boogied.

“But if Levi was my kid, the deal I would have cut would, at an absolute minimum, have been: $500,000 for from now to the November election. If McCain-Palin win, a $ 1 million signing bonus to take the trip down the aisle. Then, for the duration of the McCain-Palin administration, $100,000 a month for every month Mr. and Mrs. Johnston live under the same roof, and $50,000 a month for every month that they remain married but do not.”

Any guy who ever got a call from his girlfriend to tell him she was “late” (archaic, dated reference) can empathize with poor old Levi (what is the Secret Service equivalent of a shotgun wedding?).

And I feel just as bad for Bristol. It’s bad enough to have everyone in home room know about your “condition,” but the entire country?

 

Things Davezilla learned from movies

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Davezilla.com shares "Things I Learned from Movies, Part III." (I missed parts I and II). My favorites from this list of ten:

  • The first hot woman to appear onscreen in a spy movies is the double agent.
  • Heroes simply bleed less than criminals, who tend to bleed in arterial spray patterns, resembling a Jackson Pollock painting.
  • Virginity protects you from serial killers.

Dropbox: easy way to share and store files online

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Picture_1Mac users are familiar with .Mac, now called MobileMe. It’s online storage you can use to move files from one computer to another. It’s worked fine for me and I’ve used it to shuffle files between work, home and the MacBook.

But Dropbox does this trick better. It seems faster than .Mac. I can move a file from my iMac to my MacBook (2 feet away) faster with Dropbox than my little thumb drive. I also find it easier to share files in my “Public” folder. (Our Help Desk folks tell me FTP is a real bitch on Vista.)

I’ll keep paying for my .Mac account (for now) but I’m using Dropbox. Check it out.

Update: Sorry for bad link. Fixed. Thanks, Andy, for reporting error.

“The whole world is watching”

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“…the thing we should all be worrying about is that this election the whole world can see what assholes we are and how much we lie, and do you think they’re ever going to believe anything we say after the election?”

“Being an American in 2008 is a lot like working at Microsoft in 1994 or so. Netscape is coming soon and after that Google, and while we’ll still be here, the cursor will be somewhere else, and our stock options will be worthless and we’ll be fighting with each other while the rest of the world builds around us.” — Dave Winer

Ana Marie Cox: The Wonkettte

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I think I could count on one hand the number of times I heard or read the word “snarky” before email (and blogging) came along. I subscribe to he notion snarkiness requires a certain level of wit and charm. Otherwise, it’s just bitchy or whiny.

My first snark crush (I’m still not over her) was the Wonkette. The nome de blog of Ana Marie Cox. Ms. Cox was an early blogger who now snarks (last time, I promise) on Time’s Swampland. I trot along after her on Twitter and found a link to a delightful exchange with Megan at Jezebel.com.

“Since the world is ending around us, it’s important to take note of what parts of our civilization fell and in what order. And, really, there’s no one better at documenting mayhem than the original Wonkette (the rest of us are just pale imitations), Ana Marie Cox.”

And then there’s this exchange regarding McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds:

ANA MARIE: “They really need to stop sending the twelve-year-old intern out to the morning shows. Or cable shows, I mean. I think I was thinking “morning show” because he’s getting his ass kicked, in all cases, by heavily rougued faux-next-girls! GIRLS!

MEGAN: Actually, the man just needs to, like, fucking prepare before he goes. Your candidate is out lying like he’s Dick Cheney or something, you gotta put your big boy panties on just like Ari Fleischer did and take it. I think the real problem is that Tucker Bounds likes getting spanked by hot women.

I’ve heard the “big boy panties” reference before but it was “big girl panties.” Someone in the Bush administration?

Dave Winer’s list of qualifications for President

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“I think in their hearts Americans know that electing a President who was like the rest of us was a mistake. We need someone who is an over-achiever, not just curious, but a sponge for ideas, information, perspectives. Someone who can’t stop reading and asking other people what they think.”

Dave offers an interesting list of things one should know and have done if they want to lead the country. I’m not qualified and I know it.

Missouri Reality Stars

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One of the (perhaps THE) most important elements of a successful blog is focus. The narrower the better, and it really should be something you are passionate about. Missouri Reality Stars is a good example. From the About page:

“So I’ve been paying attention to pop culture for a long long time. I happened to notice that a lot of people on reality TV are from my home state…the Show Me State of Missouri. Apparently it really is. Being from the same state makes me feel like I should root for them, home team spirit ya know. So that’s what this site is about, finding and promoting Missourians who’ve made it on reality TV.”

M.R.S is the love child of co-worker Amy. Droll is the way she roll.

Maverick Secure Mobile

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If I ever break down and get an iPhone, I’ll want something like Maverick Secure Mobile. If your phone is lost or stolen, the application encrypts your data, sends you a text message with the location of the phone and, best of all, plays an annoyingly loud siren to torture the thief.

“The Maverick software is hidden on a phone, so a potential thief can’t tell whether or not your phone has it. You give the company a second phone number — your spouse’s or a friend’s, for example. As soon as a thief replaces your SIM card with his own, the phone encrypts all of your remaining data, like your phone book, photos or text messages, so the thief can’t see them. It also sends that data to your second phone so that you have it.

Then you can start playing tricks on the thief. By sending text message commands, you can see all the phone calls and text messages he sends or receives and any new contacts he enters in the phone book. With a feature called Spy Call, you can call your phone and eavesdrop on the thief’s calls — without him knowing. Then, when you get really exasperated, you can make the phone play a blaring siren. Just when he is about to toss your screaming phone in the trash, you can send him a text message with your name, location and, if you want, a reward for returning the phone.”

Naw, I don’t want the phone back. I want to fuck with the thief as long as possible.

“How important is local, really?”

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“I’m not saying local doesn’t matter. Local is important. It’s especially important for people who are newcomers to communities. It’s especially important for identifying accessible resources and services that people might need in their daily lives. But in many senses, “local” is just one set of ripples on the lake of information — especially when it comes to “news.” And for many people, it’s not even the biggest or most important set of ripples.”— [Amy Gahran/E-Media Tidbits

And it occurs to me that “local” is much more important to people with children than to those of us without.

Blue pill or red pill

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By accepting what we are told and experience life can be easier. There is the social pressure to ‘fit in’, which is immensely strong in most cultures. Questioning the status quo carries the danger of ostracism, possibly persecution. This aspect has a strong link with politics. People doing well under the current system are not inclined to look favourably on those who question the system. Morpheus says to Neo “You have to understand that many people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”

An excerpt from an essay by Dave Aarod