Recently in blogging Category

My Personal blogging has been quite light over the past months. I've found that most of the items I want to "chip in" is sated by  commenting on them  via Google Reader  and  quite frankly there are better written  blogs on every subject apart from that niche category..  "what does an internal exile  that escaped Scotland to come to the USA think about the weird customs ,practices and beliefs of his adopted nation"   which is , regardless of grammatical heresies ,  the authoritative  source for what I believe that I believe at the moment.     It may look like a list of things  Hal thinks are stupid especially when voted upon but  I assure you that the 18 , 26, and 30 year old me didn't keep the same list so the next time you  batter someone on the head with an opinion     keep it around  a  decade or two and see if that idea really stands up.  Where I am not in error, though these are rare and happy events,   relates to  illogical ideas.  E.g when people ask me to keep something the same but change it  I don't see how any restatement of their request can lead to a "happy" answer.   At the moment these are things that interest me. Mobile web,     the kind of world that emerges when  resources are too costly to move people to and from places of work,education  as a matter of course,  educating our toddler, thinking of alternate ways to make a scrapyard profitable and dare I say green?     Locating items which are truly innovative and not just this year's restatement of the past with  a couple of features , aka  the marketing departments mega pixel effect were more is better, cough bullshit. Go Daddy Christmas party. Last night  saw Joan Jett at  the companies  Christmas Party, aka Go Daddy.   We got home around 1am and bought her last CD,   Sinner by Joan Jett  which made up for  the other two acts Sinbad  ,  the last syllable is devastatingly accurate,   and 38 Special ( I was ignorant of their oeuvre ) and  I had to leave my own   38 special at home  this being a work event and there being drink and all:)  We also had to forgo hearing Patrick Lauder    sing the national anthem at the Coyotes vs Redwings game , for which is were we would have been  barring the party, but instead  had  Lillian Garcia   sing which , no offence to Patrick,  is physically prettier but   he wins out on overall delivery :)   Still Lilian was really good  and way better than the  usual  histrionic warbling  and  3 or four notes when one would do  from singers that may have  the impression that singing the song's more about their performance.   Yep I'm glad nowadays when the longest held note contest is a separate event:D.   That's  all very cool  but what's even  better is the message  given by our CEO, Founder and lover of things two wheeled and  European  , Bob Parsons who,  after riding  up to the podium on a Ducati let us know that we  had our best year ever,  are  not an example of the kind of company, institution that  promoted dud loans, built too many car or houses.  The company gives a lot of time  , via staff, and money   to charities and this is the annoying part coming up. Since when do you have to justify success in the USA?    Understand I am not getting at those justifying but the people asking the question in the first place.   Many companies curtailed their  parties because of the   business climate and  to them , I say  hum bloody bollocks bug to you.   The number of staff to  cater, provide entertainment, services etc   that's money going to real businesses, same with the shoes,    clothing and other accessories.   The money that the staff won    guess were most of that is going too?       I don't often post on work related items because  it's a difficult balance  to not come across as a gushing fan boy  which as anyone that knows me  would find hard to reconcile with my  cynical daily demeanor.  The latter is a relative scale   , seriously in the UK  I was pretty much on the optimistic side:)     So celebrating two thousand people, their families  and the charities, venders and stores  that benefit from Go Daddy's existence  is something that should NEVER be apologized for at any time  and certainly cheered my holiday up.The laser and fireworks finale would have been  perfect toddler material but it pleased my inner toddler greatly will post some pics as they come in.   [The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.] Oh I nearly forgot..   moobies!

 

I posted on the phrase on my other blog that I would like to extirpate this phrase  from the English language or at least the workplace. Rather than do an original one I'm running a semi ok off  post.  I'd prefer people would say " it's this way because"  which gives an indication that they've looked at the issue rather than just accepted it on a prima facie interest.

"it is what is is" 

Today I heard it several more times and  it didn't have a calming effect , quel surprise? I needed to look further into what irks me so much about this new catch all.

It is what it is" means what it means. Depending on context, it can be a statement of resignation or of defiance, but in neither case does it connote the optimistic good humor of "It's all good." If anything, it expresses the absence of emotion, the abdication of feeling. Although it seems to imply value-neutrality, that misses the point; it's not so much that something is neither good nor bad, but rather that its quality simply isn't relevant, that it's not worth the energy to make a value judgment.

To put it another way — it doesn't matter what you think about it because you can't do anything about it anyway. It was in this spirit that Al Gore invoked the phrase after winning the popular vote and possibly the electoral tally as well: "I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision and the way in which they interpreted and applied the law. But I respect the rule of law, so it is what it is."

Flak Magazine: It's All Good vs. It Is What It Is, 06.11.03

and

Radar, Oh really ? It is what it is... Welcome to tautology Thursday.

One of the colloquial phrases, ok  maybe it's not just AZ but I hear it more here, that's been annoying me is the Popeye school of    "it is  what it is" as a cover all for  ill conceived, poorly implemented or ineffable solutions that have wandered onto the radar.This verbal chaff that's tossed up in the air , rather than  fixing a location onto the problem , obscures the problem and by the time all the flakes have landed , or given up and go home,  there's still the small matter of a  missile  bearing down on you. As a bonus there's now less time and fewer options to react with.  

tautology - Definitions from Dictionary.com
1. (logic) a statement that is necessarily true; "the statement 'he is brave or he is not brave' is a tautology"

Like most things in life, the universe and what’s still being called social media ,  you can pull up some aphorism from some Greek that’s been dead for  over two millenia to anchor your point to.   Do no harm isn’t a bad one,  and it’s  a lot easier to pull off than do no evil   yet neither are as compelling , or succinct as Wil Wheaton’s   “don’t be a dick”  as an almost libertarian reduction of the non aggression principle into  the vernacular.    (Sadly his writings on politics really don’t ultimately follow this   but   let’s not get into that) 

In short  it’s  a set of  rules  for the relationship between creators, promoters and fans  around  Sci Fi / Fantasy conventions which can be extrapolated to  most commercial  interactions. E.G   Are we customers, consumers, data points  or people that  want to get things done?

When you have a “voice” for a corporation engaged in social media  maybe it’s a good idea to think about the above because the mode of address you choose in 3/4 cases is going to be wrong

Can a corporation really be your friend?   Does this  construct sound real?   X is out buying yummy things  his  company make  ,  Y is out  watching their Movie  etc  Does this sound remotely like a relationship your engaged in?    If it doesn’t it’s for the obvious reason that it ISN’T. 

I love dealing with people from companies,  hate dealing with  company names that have a rotating cast of interchangeable  responses that would make Turing dance with glee. I can’t tell them apart from a machine or human either. 

Wer in ur boahdroomz wutchin yu wit intrst

*invisible pink unicorn  peace be unto her hooves.

Input a post on the iPhone wordpress Or read Galt's speech ? The latter. Seems quicker

Well I'm doing a few things. These are awaiting the site re design but it's on the back burner as Creddy adds on more customers. I'm thoroughly fed up with mainstream media which is nothing in relation to the disdain I have for the new media that feeds entirely on the former's output. Politically, meh, given that the "Libertarian party" has turned into the worst kind of political opportunists with their enabling of Bob Barr as a candidate for freedom so I can't really use them as something that approaches the idea that you can vote yourself a better future. ( you can't but hey it's little baby steps) Basically people like being looked after while maintaining the illusion that they aren't.

Instead been Reviewing on Yelp , far more interesting interaction with people that leads to real world benefits. Yep my thoughts on how to organize society are completely irrelevant to most people. Been racking up time with Scrabble, reading books , Bonk being the most interesting

The most I can be trusted with is reviewing wings and Irish bars:)

Clifford, owner of Mobile HID ,  left a well paid ( ok  he may say otherwise;)  position to work on one of his ventures. Naturally  he wants to drag us all along. Check out his new  blog over at Clifford Wong.com which gets off to a good start with a wake up call to those living in the cubes with aspirations to do something about it. 

However, I would actually like to challenge you to really think about your job. If you did not have a manager who gave you goals/tasks, what would you do?

A popular answer I’m sure would be “nothing”, however, one must make a living somehow and afford a roof over their head and food on the table so one cannot just do “nothing”.

Discoveries and Epiphanies

That does it. One more crashed out post. I'm through with Scribefire.

11 years into the mass adoption of the Internet and we still can't get the basics rights. You know not losing data:(

The post I lost. Bike review, My newest malady ( Gout) and a suggestion to go watch Garagenight.tv which is a Vlog about the art of motorcycle maintenance, zen may be optional since it comes from my homeland. Still I have always found most American media on motorcycles to be lacking. Way too many nice reviews and seems to not reflect the kind of high jinks that Performance Bikes in the UK gets up to. E.g if the bike is dangerous piece of crap it's called such. The same bike in the USA is of course just fine.

Greetings.

Happy new year, at least one of  the many calenders that are out there. I prefer the dragons and fireworks myself to  the irony of the "timeless"  Dick Clark looking like didn't go down to Georgia, but over to Switzerland instead and lost a watch building contest with "Old Harry", but I digress. Let's start out 2008 with a positive message. 

I am positive that elections are a great excuse to get more people blog, vlog , ne demagogue  this upcoming  election with a torrent of user generated content seeded by MSM sources ( Oh dear I've gone negative early... )

 

After seeing two very different movies on the effect of wishing the world was other than it is,  both had the same tragic ending, dead kids I was quite down,  people often say it's unimaginable to think about their offspring dying but sadly I have a very good imagination  and  damn I'm down this week.

 I had at work today re what I enjoy about blogging it turns out it's the headlines  nearly all the puns and jokes I'm proud of are  stuck in the titles which suggests that most of the time I'd be better off twittering a link.

That's not going to happen there's still the mediocre part of me that will keep on doing this till every copy of "the cult of the amateur" ends up in a Fahrenheit 451 scenario and   the personification of the book immolated while bagpipe music  is heard nearby.

Little angry there:) Then  these gems come up so it's back to my vigil in a wilderness of mirrors and another misguided attempt by the lawn arm of the law...

Daily Herald - Orem woman arrested, injured in lawn dispute

Perry said she learned a lesson as well. "Be kinder. Be gentler. If the policeman tells you to stand on your head, do it," she said.

What a nice lesson.  Actually it's sadly a necessary and sane lesson , one that my lawyer friend is very keen on people following.  Being right , and  injured, isn't much good and the time to address such ass hattery is after the fact. Challenging a law enforcement officer is  akin to coating your private parts in honey and wandering into a Bear's den  shouting HONEY! I'm home   it's not going to turn out well.

Taser's aren't just for Xmas they're  for  8-80   and while I've changed my mind on the devices considerably I'm still worried about the operators behind them than the relative risks of being shot. Phoenix New times which is about the only investigative writing I've seen worth a crap in the Valley has a good series on them  and  like most technology there are good and bad uses for it. When it goes bad... it's   "Why the fuck aren't people out in the streets bad?"  then I look out our County sherrif ( Joe  Arpaio ) and realized that  if the FCC allowed it   we'd have prisoner's being  abused for entertainment  on our local news channel. Ok  let me get this in proportion it's not the one  cop that held the taser down for 84 seconds is nowhere near as scary as the support system that claimed that he was not wrong  in doing so.

 

A frustrating time migrating a blog from my old host ICD soft to Godaddy.com was had by all, ok was had by me:) Since the max fileupload  in the php.ini  is 2mb and the DB max upload is 2mb from the same limitation  I had the split Wordpress' backup into pieces and then load them independently . In short 2005 will be back soon:) Meantime the odd missing link/ image is being chased down but I have work to do getting another blog out the door rather than this one.. :)