Blog: Ramblings and Rants

Lord of the Rhymes, the Hobbit Rap. Freakin’ hilarious!

…You don’t like it? Get the hell out.

I’ve been discovering that the Blogging community can be as political and back-biting as any other. This I find to be supremely—and sadly—ironic. Some popular bloggers, like the super popular clique in high school, are disparaging and even attacking other bloggers who don’t fit in with the clique. NOTE: I don’t mean to stereotype anyone. Many of those popular in high school, myself included, were quite comfortable being well known and widely liked without making others feel smaller.

One of the sites I regularly read, BeaLog, has an interesting post about the bloggers—about people—doing just that. Directly below are the comments I left on Bea’s site about this sadly ironic twisting of the Web’s power.

I found the below on ph8. It isn’t original (I’ve seen it before), but I just had to quote it nonetheless. If you know me, this is wicked funny.

You might be from “greater Boston” if…

1. You’ve slammed on your brakes to deter a tailgater.

2. Your favorite adjective is “wicked.”
3. You remember when the “Fleet Center” was “The Boston Garden” and refuse to refer to it as anything BUT “the Gahden.”
4. Know at least three Tony’s, one Vinnie and a Frank(ie).
5. You go to the “packy” not the “liquor store.”
6. Paranoia sets in if you can’t see a Dunkin Donuts, ATM or CVS within eyeshot at all times.
7. Know how to claim your space on the T. Know what the T is.
8. You keep an ice scraper and can of de-icer on the floor of your car…year round.
9. You still try to order curly fries from Burger King.
10. You know how to pronounce Worcester, Peabody, and Cotuit.
11. You know where the Combat Zone used to be and still avoid that area.
12. You don’t eat dinner; you eat “suppa.”
13. Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, etc. are not called “soda”, they are “tonic.”
14. You order iced coffee in January.
15. You can curse in Italian…only you don’t say “curse” you say “swear.”
16. You don’t understand the purpose of a crosswalk and therefore refuse to use them, even outside of Boston.
17. You know what candlepin bowling is.
18. You know about Evacuation Day.
19. You have tried to drive the measured mile in less than 45 seconds.
20. You drive 45 minutes to New Hampshire to save $5 in sales tax.
21. The whole ‘Big Dig’ mess drives you nuts unless you are spooning it from Brighams. You know what Brighams is and it shows.
22. You’ve used the statement “not fa nuthin” in conversation.
23. You serve bread with every meal.
24. You feel compelled to hear at least one weather report a day.
25. You’ve pulled out of a side street and used your car to block oncoming traffic so you can make a left.
26. You’ve bragged about the money you’ve saved at The Christmas Tree Shop.

From Free Speech — Virtually (TechNews.com):

Un-savvy bloggers [are like] tourists visiting New York who don’t know how to navigate and end up in trouble in some dark alley.

I thought this was interesting enough to post. The article is about what can happen if one posts the wrong thing on a blog (or elsewhere in Cyberspace). People have lost their jobs because of it.

I know a lot about intellectual property law and corporate law in general. The actions and reactions discussed in the above article are not a real concern for me. Still, with Non-Disclosure Agreements so prevalent these days, and brand integrity being so vital to modern businesses, I thought I’d mention the article. What you write in a blog could come back and bite you.

Ah, the good old days.

I’ve been working so hard on this site the last few days… Friday was a 22 hour session. Damn it felt good! It felt like when I was first starting out with Imaginations UNlimited (a graphic design and advertising firm I founded in 1995 and run until I sold it in 2001). It felt like those early jobs I took on, tight deadlines, last minute client changes, tools that were primative by today’s standards, staying up for days at a time to make deadline, hopped up on adrenaline and creative juices. Damn it felt good!

I’m getting that itch again. I’ve felt it creeping up my spine the last few months, like a butterfly fluttering its way toward my head where it will alight.

Since becoming a blogger myself I’ve been checking out a lot of other people’s blogs. I’ve been mostly lurking—reading without posting (a naughty thing to do, by the way)—while I get a feel for the world of blogging.

One blog I’ve been reading (BeaLog) had a post last night expressing concern that the posts were boring or that people weren’t interested enough to respond. This concern, I can definitely see, would be a common one among bloggers. The average blogger spends a great deal of his/her time blogging; without comments—interaction with the audience—the blogger has no means of gauging how his/her posts are being received. Are they engaging or boring, welcoming or off-putting?

For me, the point of blogging is… Well, let’s begin another way.

Is anyone else reading this addicted to TLC’s TV-series Trading Spaces? Man, I can’t get enough of it.

It’s on all the time, with all–day marathons on special days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and, most likely, New Year’s Day. And if we jones for a little in-your-absence total reconfiguration of your living space by total strangers between episodes of Trading Spaces, let’s not forget the spin-offs and knock-offs like Changing Rooms (yeah, I know, technically this is the original, but they only sent it across the pond after Trading Spaces exploded), While You Were Out, Surprise by Design, and VH-1’s Rock The House. The last I saw the first (and only) time this weekend. The Goo Goo Dolls went in and redecorated the living room of their biggest fan while she was out.

The new Contact section has been created. Want to chat? I don’t bite.

Psychology Today, October 2002: “Crying over spilled semen” By Tiffany Kary

The finding that women who do not use condoms during sex are less depressed and less likely to attempt suicide than are women who have sex with condoms and women who are not sexually active, leads one researcher to conclude that semen contains powerful-and potentially addictive-mood-altering chemicals.

Interesting.

Through an odd accidental click I discovered the following web page: Archie Meets The Punisher.

Excerpt from above page:

That’s how the whole story got started—as a joke between sales people and editors at Archie Comics and Marvel Comics. But somehow, it got to the ears of Victor Gorelick and Tom DeFalco, who managed to get Batton Lash to put together a credible story featuring Archie Andrews and Frank Castle [the Punisher].

Archie Meets The Punisher

For those unitiated in comics, The Punisher is a long running Marvel comic about a borderline psychotic ex-cop who, following the death of his family by Mafia hands, has become the most ruthless and fearsome vigilante crime has ever known. The Punisher has no superpowers; he just has lots and lots of guns. To give you a better idea of the character, for a short time after his initial appearance some ten-to-fifteen years ago, the Punisher would execute criminals for any offense, big or small. Early issues of the book demonstrated him gunning down unarmed shoplifters, litterers, and jaywalkers. Though the character is no longer as… zealous… about metering out extreme punishment for the slightest offense, he remains shockingly violent and ruthless.

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, symbolizing the rebirth of the sun. Millenia ago, it marked the final day of a year. It is a time to throw wide the doors of one’s house and cleanse the dwelling of the past year’s negative energy, to prepare it for the positive energy of the coming year. The first rising of the sun following the Solstice is considered the new sun, the rebirth of the sun. The Winter Solstice is a time for renewal and rebirth.

Fitting, I think, that I chose (albeit deliberately) that day to begin work in earnest on the website redesign.