Holy Freakin' Crap

New Orleans and the rest of the gulf coast is in big freakin' trouble.

The storm is blamed for at least 68 deaths and that toll is almost certain to rise. Mississippi officials said at least 55 people were killed there, including 30 who were killed in an apartment complex near the Biloxi beach. Alabama reported two deaths. The storm killed 11 people last week when it made its initial landfall in Florida.

While Louisiana officials have not yet confirmed any deaths there, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said there have been reports of bodies floating in the floodwaters.

You want to help?  Maybe try donating to the Red Cross.  But make no mistake; this is bad.  80% of New Orleans is underwater.  If you have family on the Gulf Coast in that area, and a deity that you make peace with, pray.  A lot.

 

I don't have anything else. 

 

Bargain Hunting - Geek Style

Been a while since I did any geek-chic, but I don't know how I missed this post.  More love from Lifehacker. 

 

I am cheap and I love a bargain. That's why I use coupon codes and rebates for just about everything that I buy online.

 

Homeboy then goes on to name a few sites, such as Ben's Bargains, and Fat Wallet that spiffly provide us poor uber-geek types with rebates, coupon codes, and such that are actually, *gasp* designed to save you money.  I know, I didn't believe it either.  But apparently it's true.

 

I suggest that you go there.

 

I also suggest that you not click this link.  Then, definitely don't click the "#" sign.  Lastly, don't click the words "squeee" or "famina".  Assuming that you *ahem* don't do any of those things, can you then tell me what that heck that is?!

 

Thanks to these guys.  Try 'em and I'll bet that you like 'em, kinda like bacon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Armaggedon It

Sorry about that title, but I won't change it, and you can't make me.  Don't you know that I have no shame?

 

Haven't posted one of these in a while.

 

For your perusal:

 

Mass Detruction - The Photoshop Contest.

 

Via The Directory of Wonderful Things.

We Are Google. Join Us.

The Masters have struck again.

Instant messaging, a type of communication long dominated by chatty teens, has become the latest front in an escalating war among big Internet companies competing to make themselves indispensable to mainstream audiences.

Google Inc. plans to enter the fray today by launching Google Talk, its own version of a service that allows registered users to send instant messages or talk over the Web to other users.

The new test program will compete with more established services offered by America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) and Skype Technologies SA.

Via Yahoo.  Hm.  Wonder how much longer I'll be linking to those guys.

 

Considering my previous posts on Google (here's another ) and the sheer beauty of Gmail, how freakin' long do you think it will take before I download that bad boy?

 

 

 

 

 

40 Years Old, Never Been Kissed

This weekend, I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, a movie that I had no desire to see whatsoever.  I saw the commericals, featuring Steve Carell , and although I have previously enjoyed his work in the NBC show The Office, I figured, "Ah, I'm done with movies this year, dammit.  I'd rather stay home and play Starcraft and update my blog."  Yeah, people, I still occasionally play Starcraft.  So what?

Well.

Have I mentioned before that I am a fool?

This movie, also featuring supporting talent from Paul Rudd (think Chasing Amy), Catherine Keener, and a host of other painfully funny people who probably never knew that they were funny, was, quite simply, one of the funniest movies that I have seen in probably, oh, ten years.

Single men will like this movie.
Single women will like this movie.
Recently married men and women will like this movie.
Teenagers will like this movie too, 'cause there's a lot of cussin' in it.
Even parents that have been together for a while will like it, because it depicts a stunningly realistic portrayal of what modern single life can be like.  Many times I laughed out loud.  The writers were dead on in this flick.  I must have met them downtown, just before I hit on that girl in the high heels but after my buddies had bought a round in 1998 or therebouts.

Do not take your kids to see it.  But go to see it, especially if you fall in any of the above demographics.  It blows just about any comedy that you've seen since the eighties away.  Hollywood, watch and learn.  Make more movies like this.

Only One Reason Why Craigslist Is Awesome

Heh heh heh heh heh.

Single Blue Bike seeks somone to ride her into the sunset. I'm Debbie Schwinn , in my late 40's, and newly divorced. From a g-d-bastard.

For those of you not familiar with the List, go check them out.  Seriously.  To explain, these are free classified ads, personals, and etc. that exist for just about every major city an internet geek like myself can think of.  Well, scratch that.  I didn't see Perth on the list.

Definitely take a look at the Best of Craiglist.  Real life humanity at it's best and worst.  That stuff has me rollin'.

Intelligent Falling

Posted without comment.  Nope, no jokes.  It's just too damn easy.

Well, okay.  Here's one.  Okay.  Two.  Sorry, folks, park's closed.  The moose out front shoulda told ya.

The Top Five Albums In Hell

1.  Color Me Badd - The Best of Color Me Badd. 

2.  Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True

3.  Britney Spears - Anything from her catalouge.  For God's sake, when will her 15 minutes be up?!

4.  Glass Tiger - Best of Glass Tiger

5.  Celine Dion - Take your pick.

 

Don't know why I had to say that.  I just had to.

What the *bleep!*

Ok.  So another teacher got busted for having an affair with her 13 year old student.

 

This in itself is not too surprising.  Try searching in Fark to find that out.

 

What is surprising is HOW SHE LOOKS.  Check out this post that I found through one of my fans (shouts out to Tbone).  By the way, I will be linking to jaxed in my blogroll.

 

All I gotta say is this:

Where the heck were those teachers when *I* was in school?!

 

Man.

 

Wow.

You should see what I just *didn't* post.  Man.  My head is spinning.

Wasting Time? Join Me.

My name is Clark.
I have done terrible things.
I have served a Dark Master.
I have betrayed my friends.
I have enticed them to waste hours of valuable work time by posting things like this on my blog.
Now, there is no one to oppose me, and I shall post evil again, and again.

My name is Clark.
I have done terrible things.
And I have no regrets.*

* I was inspired.  All hail Screenhead.  And be ready; work filters may own you if the word games is blocked.  Now, I defy anyone to outgeek this post.

How Jedi Am I?

Just so you know, I'm a:
<
how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen
Why am I unsurprised?  Damn midochlorians. 
Heh heh. 
Little bacteria in your bloodstream that make up the Force. 
Heh heh. 
Heh heh heh.
Heh heh heh heh heh.

How about you?

How Do You Catch A Rabbit?

.
.
.
Hide in the grass and make a sound like a carrot.

Heh heh.  In the meantime, enjoy this:  Alien In 30 Seconds, Re-enacted By Bunnies.

I know, I know.  I can't help myself.

Peter Jennings

Ah.  I love Lifehacker.

I'm sure many of you know Peter Jennings died of lung cancer this past Sunday. He'd been a smoker until about 20 years ago, successfully quit and then had a relapse shortly after September 11, 2001.

 

They then go on to name a few stop smoking resources.

I'll add one:  Quitnet.  Quite the community there.  If you smoke and want to stop, you could do worse.  Strangely, though, after a while, fixating on quitting almost creates the atmosphere that you need to re-start.  Watch that if you are a smoker that wants out.

 

I'll share:  I smoke, and have for too damn long.  My daughter has never, EVER seen me smoke and I don't intend for her too.  For some reason, though, probably pure fear, has made this Peter Jennings thing have an impact.  Hopefully it will last.  I'm not saying that I quit smoking, I just decided... what the Hell, I'll give it a shot. 

Wish me luck.  Or don't.  Not sure which kind of luck I'd get, with this crowd!

 

 

 

Mobile Search

For some reason,  I haven't posted about mobile search (search via a cellphone or PDA or some such) yet. 
I am a fool. 
Via Engadget.

With all of the buzz surrounding mobile search, and Nokia's release of their offering today, we thought it would be a good time to bring you a roundup of what's out there in the mobile search space.

Now that's a good link for Yahoo/Googlish/Geeky stuff.  Personally, I await the Next Big Thing from our future Goolgian Overlords.  Dare I download and run Desktop Search? 

Freelancing Tips

Boy, I could have used this a few years ago when I was working from home.

There’s a lot more to running a business that isn’t sexy or fun. Parts of owning your own business are downright boring, tedious, and expensive.

I thought it might help if I pulled together the less glamorous aspects of “going solo” as I’ve come to call it to help others have realistic expectations. Hopefully being aware of these often overlooked matters, and some mistakes I made personally, can help you create a more successful plan before you take the plunge.

Via Lifehacker.

Working from home is NOT EASY. If you take the plunge, be informed. You might love it but it definitely ain't for the faint of heart.

All that said, if you can go for it, do.

The Top 50 Albums Of All Time

KBCO-FM is trying to get votes for the Top 50 Albums of All Time.  They're offering voter a chance to win the use of a car as an enticement.  You pick three albums.  They have about 100 albums listed to choose from.

 

The anarchist in me says:  write in three albums.  Cause havoc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Changes?

I've been thinking about changing my blog, since I'm getting back into the blogging thing, and I'm interested to know what people think about:

1. Content. Everyone wants to know the personal stuff, but the funny stuff is good with people too. Who's the winnah? I'm really interested in this, because this blog can be a lot better, methinks. Geek stuff? Love life? Life stuff? Et cetera? Give me your opinion. Note: I ain't postin' cats, so get that out of your head now.
2. Ads. I'm thinking about Google Ads. What's your opinion?
3. Template. I need to change it, I think. Does anyone have suggestions?
4. Linkage. Not good enough. What am I missing?

I'm curious. If you have opinions I'd love to hear them.

The Thin Blue Line

Cops.  You know that you love them.  Want some feel good cop stories?

Here's one.  Via The Agitator.

 

TAVARES -- A father who accused a Mount Dora policeman last year of dumping out his infant daughter's cremated remains sued the city and the officer Monday.

 

Taken from the Orlando Sentinel.

 

Not enough for you?  Here.

SEATTLE - A man apparently woken from a drunken stupor by Pierce County sheriff's deputies, repeatedly zapped with a stun gun and finally chewed by a police dog - all in front of a production crew from the TV show "Cops" - has sued the county and the officers, alleging brutality.

The deputies, accompanied by a K-9 officer from the Tacoma Police Department, were looking for an armed suspect in a car break-in when they came upon Aaron Otto Hansen, 34, of Roy, early on July 10, 2004.

Hansen, who did not commit the crime, was passed out drunk in a sleeping bag outside a relative's home in the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood, one of his lawyers said. The "Cops" video footage of his arrest, obtained by The Associated Press, seems to support that claim:

Via Fark.

 

Gak.  Here's another wonderful story, closer to home... which sucks.

 

Denver - The police officer who shot and killed Frank Lobato, Jr. after mistaking a soda can for a gun faces a 90-day suspension without pay. The announcement this morning by Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe comes more than a year after the July 11, 2004 shooting. Police Chief Gerry Whitman had previously recommended a 30-day suspension for Officer Ranjan Ford in the death of Lobato, 63.

 

Sigh.  Now, I'm not here to crap on police, because God knows that their job is hard enough.

But cops... scare me.  Not all of them (and I'm talking to you, community police in Capitol Hill - you know who you are), but definitely a LOT of them.  And I don't even smoke pot.

 

Have a good weekend. 

 

But be careful out there.

 

I Hate Rafael Palmeiro

Dirty juicer.

 

The Baltimore Orioles slugger tested positive for the powerful steroid stanozonol, a person with knowledge of the sport's drug-testing program told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday. The person did not want to be identified because the sport prohibits disclosure about test results without authorization.

 

Pete Rose was banned for life for gambling.  Raffi was banned for 10 days for juicing.  Do you think Major League Baseball is serious about steroids?

 

Sigh.  Suddenly I don't think I'll ever care about baseball again.  I really liked Raffi when he started his career with the Cubs.  Man.

He Did What?!

Please let this not be true.

 

WASHINGTON - President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design" Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's schools.

Thank you, Sploid.

 

I... well, forget it.  Rant mode off.  People can believe whatever they want, as long as they don't try to foist it upon my kids.  I prefer the science, myself, but I'm not really qualified to truly discuss the topic in full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Ex-Significant Others

Ok.  I'll bend to popular opinion and post some more mess about my personal life.

 

It's been about two months since I split with the mother of my daughter, and I must say, things have been... interesting.  The daughter has has a broken arm, numerous falls (some involving hospital visits), and an illness that made us take her to the hospital not once, but twice.  Near-nervous breakdowns have been part of the course of both mine and the ex-sig other's lives.  However, we have managed to at least keep it together, in part.

 

I now give away money like candy.  Poverty is kind of a new friend.  But as long as the baby is ok, I'm fine.  I'm not happy that we broke up, as being single, which is something that I have not been for quite a while, kinda... blows.  But certainly, our split was something that needed to happen.  We had little in common, and that would have doomed us in the long run.  And that, my friends, was only one of our issues.  There were several others.

 

My hope?  That we both turn out happy in the end.  At present, I suspect that neither of us are.  So there you go.  Suffice it to say this:  when you decide that you want to be part of a couple, choose wisely.  It very well may be that my major purpose in life, besides being the best possible father that I can be, is to serve as a warning to others.