Saturday, February 24, 2007

Story telling on steroids

StorySquared has promise written all over it by several different authors simultaneously! Whew, try saying that 10 times fast.

This is a story telling site where you get to offer the classic 'first line of the story' and then the community gets to write the rest of it.

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

"It was a dark and stormy knight..."

Rent-a-Bum gets its own Tumblr

Tumblr is ideally suited to clean quick posts... like the updates that should be made to the growing list of folks that Rent-a-Bum has crewed for... so, go see BUMs

Serenity Quiz Results.

Your results:
You are Derrial Book (Shepherd)

Even though you are holy
you have a mysterious past.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Friday, February 23, 2007

That about sums it all up...

Read Schneier on Security

Bruce Schneier brings joy to our lives with such wonderous observations...

Is Everything a Bomb these Days?

In New Mexico, a bomb squad blows up two CD players, duct-taped to the bottoms of church pews, that played pornographic messages during Mass. This is a pretty funny high school prank and I hope the kids that did it get suitably punished. But they're not terrorists. And I have a hard time believing that the police actually thought CD players were bombs.

Meanwhile, Irish police blew up a tape dispenser left outside a police station.

And not to be outdone, the Dutch police mistook one of their own transmitters for a bomb. At least they didn't blow anything up.

Okay, everyone. We need some ideas, here. If we're going to think everything weird is a bomb, then the false alarms are going to kill any hope of security.

Posted on February 23, 2007 at 12:38

Thank you for trying to keep the real issues of Security in proper perspective.

(I usually don't/won't quote an entire post but I just couldn't help myself. This is just too good. Thanks again, Bruce.)

raving lunacy: Muctards

With eloquence that befits the voice of reason The Head Lemur tells it straight...

You can do a simple search and replace using dope, booze, or sex in place of music. The addiction is the same. You are not special. The solution is simple. Stop Buying Music From The RIAA Member Companies. If you cut off their money, they will cease to exist, and you can build a better tomorrow.

Go HERE and read the complete post.

Then repeat the following... The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

...you steaming muctard!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Crossroads Dispatches

This is the very reason that 'I don't dance and I don't do magic.'

"The world is its own magic." - Sunri Suzuki

http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatches/


GmailThis!

This is a must have add-on for blogging. ( * * * * * - 5 Stars)

GmailThis! is an easy way to make a Gmail email without visiting mail.google.com. Once you add the GmailThis! link to your browser's toolbar, emailing will be a snap. Or rather, a click. Clicking GmailThis! creates a mini-interface to Gmail prepopulated with a link to the web page you are visiting, as well as any text you have highlighted on that page. Add additional text if you wish and then email or save as draft from within GmailThis!

http://contrapants.org/blog/2005/07/gmailthis.html

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

It's my fault

It is my fault that Joel Spolsky has not received the credit that he deserves. Let me make it up to him and to you by directing your attention to Joel's post

Seven steps to remarkable customer service

I will go so far as to tease you dear reader with the actual 7 steps...
1. Fix everything two ways
2. Suggest blowing out the dust
3. Make customers into fans
4. Take the blame
5. Memorize awkward phrases
6. Practice puppetry
7. Greed will get you nowhere
8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path

I know, I know... 8 must be the new 7... [But this is a prime example of following Step #1 Fix everything two ways (Hint: The short-term 'make the customer happy' fix and then the long-term fix the problem correctly fix.) (Hint: "Giving customer service people a career path." is the correct long-term fix.)

So, your money is no good here. The next customer service call is on me.

Give me a call. We are always here for you.

I am not as dumb as you advertise I am!

Moral of this story: Be careful who you get in bed with. If you lay down with dogs you will get up with fleas.

I have taken to turning the radio or the television OFF when advertisers insult my intelligence (as small as my intelligence is).

It is suggested that advertising pays for radio and television content, the shows. Content providers, the show producers, should be _very wary_ of who they allow to pay for their work. Because, if I turn off the radio or television I am really diminishing the value of the content at the price of the advertising. Advertising products that I will purposefully go out of my way to avoid at all costs. So now two providers are impacted, the content and the product.

1.) Products that allow or accept insulting advertising get what they deserve. It might be a great product but if you insult the consumer - oh well. In your case you will get what I will not pay for.

2.) Content providers that allow or accept insulting advertising are getting the fleas! And if you have ever been around a pet with fleas you know the feeling. By turning the radio or television off I am, in my small way, impacting the content provider's market share. Less market share means that they will have more and more difficulty coming up with the money to produce their quality content. It is a shame that content providers suffer because of the very advertisers that supposedly are paying the bills.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

"Up to my ankles in aligators..."

"...head first!"

I just assumed that it went without saying, "...head first!" But I found myself standing there and explaining it to him...

Some Tuesdays it doesn't pay to get out of bed on Monday morning...

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Winextra Makes Top 5 List!

Since I expressed my surprise and (muffled tongue-n-cheek) disappointment that CodeNut (Steven Hudson) didn't make the Top 10 "Bad Things" for blogging at Winextra.com it seems only fitting and proper that I acknowledge Winextra's achievement in making Spiderbait's Top 5 Underrated Blogs : Check Them Out!

Keep up the good work Steven!

Rent-a-Bum: tobyMac


tobyMac rocked HIS house!!! No, I don't mean he rocked his own house. I mean he rocked His house. He, Him, Jesus, that's who.

As the culmination of Elevation tobyMac 'preached' a 90 minute sermon that spoke directly to his congregation. Over 1300 middle and high school age youth came out to be Elevated, to be lifted up in the Spirit. And it was spirit filled. It was electrifying. It was as us old folks say, "cool!"

[Aside: Over the course of the past few days I have heard a number of detractors 'dissing' the very thought of a Christian Rapper. I was pleased and excited to watch those same detractors watch every second of the show with rapt attention - and receive the Word. I take great heart in the knowledge that you cannot unhear the message.]

Scantily Clad Barristas?

It is OK that people, like myself, are coffee snobs.

It is OK that people favor one coffee shop over others.

It is OK that there is extreme competition between coffee shops.

It is even OK that one particular coffee shop in the greater Seattle area has chosen to "outfit" their Barristas in the skimpiest of 'uniforms'. (I believe that said 'uniforms' were worn voluntarily by said Barristas. )

It is NOT OK, in my opinion, for a venerable news organization like CBS Sunday Morning to showcase such a blatant 'grab' at the pulchritude of market share. It was a cheap shot and not even espresso.

. . .