Tozerboy

A friend of mine sent me this very cool Flash site that analyzes the lyrics of Jingle Bells in reverse. I was surprised by the outcome.

Jingle Bells

A 1924 entry in Evelyn Waugh’s diary states that an English High Court judge presiding in a sodomy case sought advice on sentencing from Lord Birkenhead. “Could you tell me,” he asked, “what do you think one ought to give a man who allows himself to be buggered?” Birkenhead replied without hesitation, “Oh, 30 shillings or £2; whatever you happen to have on you. 

1. At 10:30 PM, on the eve of your birthday, don’t delete the database
file of your blog
2. An excellent memory is not as a good as piece of paper or a text file
3. I’m smart, but not that smart
4. Three words, Back-up, Back-up, Back-up
5. MyPhp, sounds too much like My Little Pony. I want to shoot both
of the bitches
6. Hire computer experts
7. Did I mention Back-up?

If you’ve worked in the TV industry, like I have, you will have heard of Shoot Magazine. It is a weekly magazine that covers commercial production, post-production, special effects, and the advertising agency business. The magazine is published by VNU, a huge media conglom. They have published a web edition for a few years. I went to the site yesterday. Click this link to see what I saw.

I guess even the big guys get slammed sometimes.

Robert Dreyus has written a great piece about the Bushies and the war on terror, titled The Phony War, in the latest Rolling Stone magazine.

Read it.

I thought about posting what I was thinking on and about 9/11 Monday, but I just figured enough was being said, maybe too much. Anyone that was alive and cognizant on that date has some pretty strong feelings about it and what has happened since.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the two greatest leaders this country has ever had, in my opinion anyway. I thought about FDR because he knew how to lead without using fear (read terror). I thought about Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address too, as I tried to imagine an appropriate memorial to the 9/11 victims.

Most of us know the speech. We’ve heard it a thousand times, probably from our own mouths as we attempted to memorize it for school. Back then it drove me crazy, it was just another chore, a requirement to pass the class, but now I feel differently. Maybe it’s age or maturity that gives me a different perspective on the speech. I really think it’s because, by now in my life, I understand loss. So throughout the day I kept thinking of two sentences from the speech, “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

I wondered all day long, what we or our leaders had done, to really give a fitting memorial to the lost souls of 9/11? Of course Lincoln was right, no matter what we do, we can not compensate for the loss. So as the day went along I decided it was just too big for us to understand, and I could not blame a Democrat or a Replubican for this. But then President Bush gave his memorial speech. What a misuse of a great opportunity. What an insult to us as Americans.

What can I say about a man that abuses a solemn day for his own political gain? What can I say about a leader that implies that dissenters, people with reasonable differences of opinion, of basically being traitors? What can you say about the coincidence of his speech being scheduled at 9 PM so that it interrupted ABC’s rant against the Clinton administration’s pre 9/11 policies?

I am disappointed, saddened and very angry. George W. Bush is a little man, unworthy to carry on the traditions of this nation. He is a man of small stature in a position, and in a time, that requires something bigger. His 9/11/06 speech made him seem even smaller to me. I did not think that was possible. In my opinion the War on Terror (read fear) is being lost, because I am more afraid today than I was yesterday. I am afraid not of Al-Qaeda, or Bin Laden and their ilk, but I am afraid of our leaders. The men leading us now are not capable of true leadership. I am afraid of where they are taking us. I am also afraid of our ability to find the right men and women to lead and protect us in the future. Maybe that is what I fear most.

At 8:46 AM, when a man on the radio reminded me of what happened exactly at that moment on 9/11/01, I was standing in line at a Dunkin Donuts. Just as I started to reflect, the woman working behind the counter yelled, “Next,” and the world moved on. I remember exactly where I was at 8:46 AM, 9/11/01. I remember exactly where I was on 11/23/63 when I heard JFK was shot. I can’t remember where I was last year on either of those dates. I won’t forget where I was at 8:46 AM or at 9 PM this year though.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

There’s nothing like using a big or a strange word to attract attention to yourself. I just finished reading Stephen Colbert’s short article in Wired and I thought I would follow his advice, in my blog anyway. His article is the intro to the special section titled, “Be an Expert on Anything.” While his piece is no bildungsroman, it may give, the hype and traffic seeking, bloggers some ideas on how to create their internet doppelgänger.

Now let’s see if his advice works for me. 

For several weeks now I have been thinking about why I blog. I had been thinking about it a lot, when Jeremiah raised the same question in his blog. Then someone I work with asked me why I do it? Finally someone that often tries to post comments to my blog asked, just what were the rules for my blog. So it seems like I had to answer the question.

In some ways it seems sort of silly for me to blog, since I don’t get much traffic here. I’ve made 9¢ since I’ve started the Google ad program. That proves my traffic point and that I am not into this for the money. Also my posts are very irregular in subject matter and timing, so even if I got some traffic, it would be hard to get a following.

So what’s my answer? Because it’s there. I didn’t invent that phrase, but it works for me. I do this because I want to have a channel for experiments. I want to experiment with the discipline, or lack of, making posts. I want to experiment with the science of the internet. I want to experiment with business models that are constantly evolving on the net. I want to experiment with the art and design of websites. I want to experiment with an alternate method of reaching my friends. I want to experiment with an outlet for my thoughts.

And you know what? It really works….for me. If it doesn’t work for you, I apologize. This site may seem scattered, irregular and even petulant at times. That is the nature of this specific trial. Is that a silly philosophy? Maybe, but I’m having fun and so far the experiment is a success. So thanks for being patient and sticking with me and humoring me too.

p.s. What are the rules for accepting posts on my blog? There aren’t any. It’s my fucking blog, I pay the web hosting service and I get to make up the rules on the fly. If you don’t like it, please take your toys and go home.

If you are looking for a way to waste some time, I mean besides blogging, then you should visit: http://www.says-it.com/seal/ It’s a fun and playful site that will generate a seal for you. All you have to do is input some text and choose a few graphics and it spits out your seal. You can see mine below, with the new motto for my site.

You should also visit their Church Sign generator too.