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SharePoint?
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04/30/04 10:47 AM EST
posted by Blearns email web |
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Yes, let me say up front, I am just funneling traffic to my site, but I don't want to splinter the good comments.
Check out “SharePoint?” on davidkearns.com as the answer to “Has anyone else used Sharepoint Services yet?” |
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Apparently I live in the ghetto
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04/29/04 06:32 PM EST
posted by alex email |
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So I went to dinner this evening with a few friends and on our way home, down Washington St. in Alexandria, Wendy and I notice some police cars w/ flashing lights on Wolfe St. We turn off early as we are near home and try to figure out what it is. Seems Wolfe St. is blocked by police tape. About a block later we turn to corner onto Alfred St and head towards our house, when we see a police car blocking the road. We then notice that the King St. & Alfred St. intersection is blocked off and surrounded by police cars.
When we see a neighbor, he informs us that there was a carjacking and the driver of the car was caught on Wolfe & Washington, tried to run down a police officer, was shot in the shoulder, took off in his stolen Mercedes, and got to king St and MADE AN ILLEGAL LEFT HAND TURN ONTO KING FROM WASHINGTON!!!! Now, there is nothing that burns me up more than people on Route 1 and Washington making illegal turns where it is very VERY clearly marked that there are no turns in several instances. So just because you lacked the forsight to turn a block earlier where it was LEGAL, or lack the patience to turn a block later where it is LEGAL, it is somehow your right to inconvenience other people while you wait to turn left, or in this case, RAM other cars while turning left because you are to impatient to just wait your turn to make an ILLEGAL left hand turn.
Then the dude got into 3 accidents in the next two blocks (was probably very upset that he made that illegal left) and then as he turned onto Alfred making a right (legally I might add) he rammed into another car. Then a police car that was probably chasing him to give him a ticket for the illegal left onto King from Washington accidentally rammed into the back of the stolen Mercedes. The perp fled on foot and was so upset by the events he tried to hide, bleeding, in a dumpster. An off duty cop who happened to be there gave chase and exposed the minor traffic law infringer and he turned himself in. He was taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries where he was given a $25 ticket to making an illegal left turn in a marked no left turning zone, among other things. |
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An outrageous article...
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04/29/04 01:32 PM EST
posted by Michi |
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I've never posted anything before, but I have to share this article with you. It was written by a UMass grad student in the Daily Collegian. I'm gonna have to paste the whole article (sorry) because the site is getting too many hits and can't be viewed. I'm interested in hearing your responses. Here goes nothing...
Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him
By Rene Gonzalez
April 28, 2004
When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected.
I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6 million contract for joining the military. And, not just the regular army, but the elite Army Rangers. You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the "real" thick of things. I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot. They should call Pat Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."
But, does that make him a hero? I guess it's a matter of perspective. For people in the United States, who seem to be unable to admit the stupidity of both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, such a trade-off in life standards (if not expectancy) is nothing short of heroic. Obviously, the man must be made of "stronger stuff" to have had decided to "serve" his country rather than take from it. It's the old JFK exhortation to citizen service to the nation, and it seems to strike an emotional chord. So, it's understandable why Americans automatically knee-jerk into hero worship.
However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a "pendejo," an idiot. Tillman, in the absurd belief that he was defending or serving his all-powerful country from a seventh-rate, Third World nation devastated by the previous conflicts it had endured, decided to give up a comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him his life. This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out of financial necessity, or to have a chance at education. This was a "G.I. Joe" guy who got what was coming to him. That was not heroism, it was prophetic idiocy.
Tillman, probably acting out his nationalist-patriotic fantasies forged in years of exposure to Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies, decided to insert himself into a conflict he didn't need to insert himself into. It wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power. THAT would have been heroic and laudable. What he did was make himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it. It's hard to say I have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel like his "service" was necessary. He wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people. He was acting out his macho, patriotic crap and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in.
Perhaps it's the old, dreamy American thought process that forces them to put sports greats and "larger than life" sacrificial lambs on the pedestal of heroism, no matter what they've done. After all, the American nation has no other role to play but to be the cheerleaders of the home team; a sad role to have to play during conflicts that suffer from severe legitimacy and credibility problems.
Matters are a little clearer for those living outside the American borders. Tillman got himself killed in a country other than his own without having been forced to go over to that country to kill its people. After all, whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than we are. Their resistance is more legitimate than our invasion, regardless of the fact that our social values are probably more enlightened than theirs. For that, he shouldn't be hailed as a hero, he should be used as a poster boy for the dangerous consequences of too much "America is #1," frat boy, propaganda bull. It might just make a regular man irrationally drop $3.6 million to go fight in a conflict that was anything but "self-defense." The same could be said of the unusual belief of 50 percent of the American nation that thinks Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11. One must indeed stand in awe of the amazing success of the American propaganda machine. It works wonders.
Al-Qaeda won't be defeated in Afghanistan, even if we did kill all their operatives there. Only through careful and logical changing of the underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will Al-Qaeda be defeated. Ask the Israelis if 50 years of blunt force have eradicated the Palestinian resistance. For that reason, Tillman's service, along with that of thousands of American soldiers, has been wrongly utilized. He did die in vain, because in the years to come, we will realize the irrationality of the War on Terror and the American reaction to Sept. 11. The sad part is that we won't realize it before we send more people like Pat Tillman over to their deaths. |
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Time to improve Shiny Donkey's rating
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04/29/04 08:06 AM EST
posted by alex email |
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Its time to help Shiny Donkey become a higher ranking search site than the "other" Shiny Donkey website. These changes will affect lots of search engines, not just google. Jerry, to do this, you will need to make a few key and necessary changes. First of all, you need to make your pages conform a little better to the w3c standards. Use these as your header page code, making.
*snip* useful tags removed to prevent theft from shiny dash donkey team *snip*
This will better serve the title searchability, as well as instruct the search engines on a few other items.
Then, most importantly for google, make the mast head ALT tags for the link back to the main page read "Shiny Donkey .com". This will register the text of Shiny Donkey with this site.
Also, write a filter that will turn any mention of the words Shiny Donkey into Shiny Donkey if the words aren't already in a href tag.
This will make this site rank much higher for a search for Shiny Donkey on google.
The next step it to start linking back to SD for content. |
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| Look, Bull has some fans from Iraq. They even have his pose down! http://www.ryano.net/iraq/?102767 |
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| Please let me know if you have any problems with the new site. I'm sure there are a few broken links here & there. |
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I'm thinking of adding a new feature to Shiny Donkey and am interested in a little feedback. Basically, it would be similar to those "Your Face Here" photos you take at amusement parks & carnivals, but it would feature drawings of Bull and allow users to add their own images to those drawings.
A user would be able to upload a friend's photo into a hilarious Bull situation & then shinydonkey.com would send the friend an e-mail notifying them of their predicament at the hands/schlong of Bull ("You've just been ass-raped by Bull, courtesy of your friend Alex.").
Worth the effort? |
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Well, based on an "It's okay" review from Kearns, I went ahead and purchased a Dell Axim x3i last week. It is now on the way and I am eagerly awaiting its delivery. Additionally, I purchased a 3com 802.11g wireless access point for my house. 3com becuase it is stackable with my other current 3com officeconnect firewall and switch that sit on top of my old school 1980's radio alarm clock that has been blinking the incorrect time for well over a year since I have it plugged into a battery backup that is so dead that it can't even supply momentary power to devices when a power flicker happens. As a result, the clock has been blinking various times since I moved into the house. Time for a new clock (hopefully a stackable on my 3com stuff clock) and more importantly a new secondary battery backup for my non-essential computer equimpment (scanner, usb hub, dev machine, clock).
But I digress. I purchased this Dell Axim x3i with a very grand scheme in mind. I plan on using it, along with 3-5 additional handhelds of the same model, to control my whole house multimedia and automation systems. This is a plan I have to place a PC on every television, make every light controlled by PLC modules (I am using X10), have a multimedia server that will store my recorded programming and all of my digital music. Video can be recorded by or called up from any one of the 4 televisions I plan on having (maybe 5 if I ever make a theater room in the basement, 5-10 years off though) that will be running Windows XP media center on small little Shuttle PCs. Whole house or zoned audio can be controlled from the Axim handhelds through a web interface that dictates what the media server is playing. I can adjust the temperature on the thermostat from my PC, Axims, or telephone, I can schedule recordings on the Media Server when I am at work in case I missed a show, if all televisions are active and I want to record another show, just throw a schedule on my media server. Basically, I want a house that can do whatever I want it to.
But right now, I am waiting for my 3com wireless access point and my Dell Axim. The complete plan is years away and I will take baby steps to get there, but for now I will just sit out back and read my email on my Axim while I am cooking some form of red meat on my new Grill. The new Grill that I will have a cookout on shortly that all of my friends will be invited too. We will have steak or hamburgers, maybe even chicken, and we will have Hot Dogs, but they will be Hebrew National Beef Franks so that Kearns can come and enjoy too. I will cook the chicken, franks and hamburgers, but I will undercook the steak, as any good steak should be prepared. We will have lime chips and twinkies too. How does late May/Early June work for everyone? |
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Amazon Associates Links - what's in your basket?
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04/26/04 09:39 AM EST
posted by alex email |
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Well, we all know I, as well as others, like to use their Amazon.com associates to get themselves 5% savings on Amazon purchases. I went to check my report for this quarter, and it appears that I am not the only one purchasing items by using my referring URL. This quarter's report, as is the same with previous quarters, had a few items other that those that I purchased. Typically I get NASCAR racing related items due to my website, but this time, it looks as if Jerry was shopping after clicking on a link with my link. This quarter has a copy of Deliver Us from Evil : Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism giving me $0.81.
I have also had a few purchases in the past relating to terrorism and the history of Bin Laden. Oh well, just sort of interesting to see what shows up in the list. |
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In Search of a "RequestTimeout" property...
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04/26/04 08:48 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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A Q & A article on MSDN mentions that a programmer can modify the timeout of an HTTP request by using reflection to get at the members & methods of the System.Web.RequestTimeoutManager & System.Web.RequestTimeoutManager.RequestTimeoutEntry namespaces. This assertion is a bit misleading, though. Taking a look at this namespace via ILDASM, one can see that there is no "Timeout" attribute that can be modified in this location. So unless you want to remove your current request from the RequestTimeOutManager's thread pool and manage it yourself, you should write something like the following:
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.GetType().InvokeMember("Timeout", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.SetProperty | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance, null, System.Web.HttpContext.Current, new object[] {new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 1)});
If you test the code posted above, you'll see that even though I've specified a timeout of 1 millisecond, the actual page timeout will be closer to 15 seconds. The RequestTimeOutManager uses a System.Threading.Timer object to manage requests and checks thread status every 15 seconds. While it's unlikely you'll ever need a page timeout so small, just keep that in mind. |
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I ran a search on Google for "Sharepoint sucks" to see if I'm the only one who just doesn't get it, and I found an interesting blog post about how Blogs as conversations suck.
Kearns & I had discussed this topic a little while ago, because we noticed that after the initial few posts to a blog topic, the conversation dissolves. I think trackback is meant to counter this in some way (?), but I haven't seen a compelling use of it that makes me want to add it to Shiny Donkey.
Has anyone else used Sharepoint Services yet? Whether you hate it or think it's the best thing since Jay Mohr, I'd like as much feedback as possible. |
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IT HAS ARRIVED!! or at least the best thing I have ever created in photoshop has. Hey, I am a developer, I need to aim low.
DonkeyD.com |
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Jake listened to Warning Sign for about 20 seconds today and commented, "This makes me want to shoot somebody..."
Imagine how he'll feel after another 8 hours on repeat... |
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Code-Behind, Code-Inside, Code-Beside, Code-Around, Code-Upside down, etc.
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04/20/04 01:31 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
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For the past week I've been trying to port a website from ASP.NET 1.1 to Whidbey (ASP.NET 2.0) and feel like Rob must feel when he tries to tie his shoes.
Whidbey's not shipping until next year sometime, so much will change, but in terms of the concepts & general practices, Whidbey is (for lack of a better metaphor) like buttah.
Transitioning from the HTML Script Boy model of development (Cold Fusion / ASP) to ASP.NET was pretty painful, but I got the hang of it after a few months. Seeing Whidbey makes me wish that I was just now getting into .NET development, though. Everything I've seen so far makes complete sense. It's as if the Whidbey developers worked w/ ASP.NET in Visual Studio .NET for 2 years and said, "Why in the $#*&$ do things work this way?? Let's start over and do it right!"
That said, while Whidbey is great, now I have the fun task of shaking my lame 1.1 best practices. For an example of the nature of the many, many changes featured in Whidbey, see this bizarre discussion on whether one should use code-behind, code-beside, code-inside, etc. |
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Whatever George W Bush believes, I believe the opposite, because I'm a liberal douchebag.
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04/20/04 10:03 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| Michelle Malkin, Kearns' favorite Asian conservative, just wrote a great piece on 9/11 liberal hypocrisy. Many commentators have touched on this, but she really makes a good case. |
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Porn Industry shuts down until June
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04/16/04 08:43 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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According to CBS News, the adult film industry is shutting down production in Los Angeles until mid-June because 2 actors (?) tested positive for HIV.
So it looks like Bull will finally be coming back from California. |
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Air America stumbles onward
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04/16/04 08:36 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| After just two weeks, Air America (the liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh) is off the air in Chicago & LA. NR editor Jonah Goldberg discusses Frankenfreude, the joy one receives from seeing Al Franken fail, here. I thought it was worth linking to just for the coining of that fantastic word. |
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Happy April 15th
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04/15/04 08:18 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| Happy "Play Coldplay's Warning Sign at full volume for 8 hours at work" Day! |
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 Well, the wonderful folks at Nascarnet.com, many of whom have tons of talent with 3DSMAX and various other model and skin rendering engines, have done it. One of the best guys on the site, RanMan38, has come through with a beautiful chrome donkey for shiny donkey .com. I hope you guys like it. Really, the guy who provided it is a great guy and I thanked him a ton. Not bad, about a 10 hour turn around. |
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You Got Served, Y'all
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04/13/04 10:43 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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 If you liked South Park's "You Got Served" spoof last week, you'll love the production photos from the movie. |
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That SVG guy is awfully pesky. Despite having a mega-lame site w/ no content, if you search for "Shiny Donkey" on Google his shiny dash donkey dot com site is listed #1!!!
Foiled again! |
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Blearns' passive aggressive remark about Shiny Donkey's RSS not having "Subjects" was noted yesterday. Apparently his RSS aggregator doesn't feel the <subject> tag is valid and was looking for a <title> tag, or so I guess from the RSS feed on David Kearns' blog. I also added some validation rules to replace ampersands, etc., and allow the XML feed to work properly for those of you w/ pesky validation rules.
But at least the RSS link in the upper righthand corner of my page doesn't link to a site on 127.0.0.1, BL. |
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Jake posted a rather insensitive thread about How's Your News? a short time ago & most of us forgot about it.
But when I was looking over my "referring sites" logs I noticed that "http://www.howsyournews.com/stats/usage_200404.html" was in the list... so it looks like the How's Your News webmaster saw Shiny Donkey in his referral stats and clicked on over to the site. Or maybe there's a spider than indexes pages on the site and clicked through to Shiny D? Thoughts? |
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From MTV.com's "Choose or Lose" interview with John Kerry:
Yago: Well, we know that you were into rock and roll when you were in high school, and we know that you play the guitar now. Are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular culture in general, that have piqued your interest?
Kerry: Oh sure. I follow and I'm interested. I don't always like, but I'm interested. I mean, I never was into heavy metal. I didn't really like it. I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important.... |
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Sweet Vengeance...
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04/12/04 07:01 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| An old thread revisited... |
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Subject? These don't make it to RSS, so...
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04/12/04 04:31 AM EST
posted by Blearns email web |
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Taking a cue from ShinyDonkey.com, some jokers who don't like the Democratic presidential candidate are trying to make his campaign Web site, johnkerry.com, the first answer to a search of the word "waffles" on Google, the No. 1 Internet search engine. From Yahoo! |
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Jake has suggested adding "meta data" to the daily cartoon to allow visitors to find a Bull that fits their mood.
I think this is a great idea, but the search page will probably just be a bunch of checkboxes. Can anyone suggest an alternative design for such a page?
I've thought of a few categories:
"Famous Women in Film"
"Bull's Death"
"Third Leg Is Prominant"
"Third Leg Not Featured"
"Something Bull Actually Did"
"Jimmy"
"Ram"
"Cheap Shot"
"Celebrity"
"Movie or Literary Character"
"Famous Monster"
"That's Supposed to be Bull????" |
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Best Blog Ever
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04/08/04 07:34 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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While Shiny Donkey may rank as one of the "top 10 worst blogs on the net," one of the best blogs around is Chris Brumme's blog. It's updated frequently and is loaded with detailed, insider analysis of .NET and OO coding techniques.
Who would have thought I'd ever use the word "blog" three times in a sentence. I'm going to go wash my keyboard with soap. |
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Bull's career... A Day late and an Erection Short... or Long? Heh heh heh
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04/07/04 05:57 AM EST
posted by alex email |
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Well, it seems Bull has missed the proverbial sexual boat to the porno promised land. It is being reported that the Justice Department is Cracking Down on Porno.
The strategy in the 1980s resulted in a lot of extreme pornography - dealing in urination, violence or bestiality - going underground. Today, with the Internet, international producers and a substantial market, industry officials say there is no underground.
I just don't see going underground as an option for Bull. His anatomy alone would not allow this as there just isn't enough room in the sewer systems of America to accommodate his size.
In a related note, Bull is entertaining offers from the defense department for use as a secret weapon in the war on terror. In this covert operation we would be shipped out to Iraq and Afghanistan, used to infiltrate all of the underground network of tunnels crushing most of the inhabitants with a single erection. After the first phase of the operation was completed, they would begin work on phase two. Phase two would be used to wipe out the rest of the tunnel dwellers in a massive flood almost impossible to navigate. The only problem is that there is no telling how long phase two would take to complete once phase one has been accomplished. Estimates are anywhere from 10 minutes to 239 days. The timeline depends largely on how much free time Bull would have leading up to this mission.
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Shiny Donkey announces "Supporting Character Day"
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04/06/04 07:45 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
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Blassociated Press, filed 04/06/2004 10:45 pm EST
Alexandria, VA - Ahh, Wednesday... new episodes of South Park, garbage day, supporting Bull characters --- SUPPORTING BULL CHARACTERS???? That's right, starting April 7, 2004, every Wednesday will feature the daily Bull cartoon AND a zany portrayal of one of Bull's hilarious supporting cast.
"About 3 people are hooked on Bull cartoons, and that's great," said Shiny Donkey Creative Director Jerry Negrelli. "But I know the third leg jokes tend to drive away the other 3 people who would visit. This gives them an excuse to get their Donkey fix once a week with no 'Bull guilt.'"
According to inside sources, the artistic team is hard at work on new cartoons featuring Ram, Billy, Jimmy the Used Condom and all the rest of the gang. Bull's real life friends may be included upon request, but notification and permission is required.
In related news, Shiny Donkey has also announced that anyone whose "Suggest a Bull" idea is approved will be e-mailed an advance copy of the drawing. The legal team is ironing out copyright issues, but e-mails should be going out soon. |
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| When I first read this article, I thought proxy classes were pretty silly. But after thinking about it for a bit, I realized they could be pretty valuable in tracing & debugging. Using a proxy allows total auditing of your objects, which is great for me, because I have a Windows Service that is peppered with Trace.WriteLine calls prior to calling my business methods. With a proxy, I can put this code in one place. |
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Delegates & User Controls
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04/06/04 02:52 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
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4 Guys From Rolla has an article discussing a best practice for calling a Page's methods from a User Control (here). Their recommendation is to use delegates, where each page first invokes the User Control and then initializes the User Control's delegate with a local method.
This delegate approach is ok if the programmer is familiar with the User Control, but if I add 10 new buttons (and 10 delegates) and Joe Dumbass needs to use my huge User Control, is there a way to force him to initialize the delegate at compile time? Unlike interfaces, I'm not familiar with any way to enforce such a rule duplicate that rule with delegates.
Beyond my compile-time concerns, one of the 4 Guys' key requirements was that the User Control should initiate all the action, not the main page. However, I feel that their solution violates the spirit of that constraint by forcing the programmer to type two commands to initialize the User Control. The main Page controls would never be updated without that extra line of code written in the main Page's Page_Load! |
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2004 Season looking to be a.... um.... long one
[reply] [2 comments]
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04/06/04 07:01 AM EST
posted by alex email |
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Well, it appears as if the 2004 Indians season will be as long as the DC summer is hot. If yesterdays game is any indication, we will be getting our hopes up all season only to have them crushed in the final seconds of each and every game. According to Bob Euker, you can tell what the season is going to be like from the first batter. I think with the Indians this season, you can tell a lot from the first two. See below:
2004 Leadoff batter Matt Lawton
Matt Lawton singles on a line drive to right fielder Jacque Jones.
Top 1st B:3 S: 2 O: 2
Omar Vizquel grounds into double play, shortstop Cristian Guzman to second baseman Luis Rivas to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz. Matt Lawton out at 2nd.
As you can see, we all had our hopes up, just to get them crushed before we were able to realize what happened. At least is was a solid single, not a bunt or soemthing.
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 Can I just say that this is the MOST amazing Bull yet. I think this could potentially be a whole new direction in Bulls. |
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Oops, Shapiro Did It Again
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04/05/04 06:43 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| What do you do when you're the second worst team in the worst division in baseball? For starters, Indians GM Mark Shapiro recommends trading your most talented and board-game-related player (Milton Bradley) to the Dodgers. At least the Indians still have the Parker Brothers (well not really, but they do have Coco Crisp). |
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| New Bull will be out sometime in the evening Monday, not early due to scheduling conflicts (Bull couldn't pencil me in for a modeling session until then). |
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Juan Cole? More like Juanhole
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04/02/04 02:23 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
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U of Michigan professor Juan Cole posted a few paragraphs about the tragic deaths of 5 servicemen & 4 civilians in Iraq.
Apparently the killers were upset at Israel for the death of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin and were taking it out on Americans because we supply Israel with helicopters. Juan sarcastically thanks Sharon for killing Yassin and, therefor, killing Americans.
Now to me, the blame seems very misplaced. Blaming Sharon for the tragedy in Iraq is like saying George Bush is responsible for the train bombings in Spain. If an irrational person is willing to kill for their cause, you can't hold the person who "provoked" them responsible.
Hypothetically, if I murdered someone because he was leading a group of suicide bombers against me and had been for many, many years, and a week later his cousin killed my brother in rage, his cousin would go to jail. Whether or not I should go to jail is something Mr. Cole is entitled to argue. But my actions do not justify the cousin's actions in any way.
Is any reasonable person really ready to take Cole's position? |
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The Trilogy on DVD is scheduled for September 2004
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04/02/04 01:23 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
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| Amazon.com is now accepting pre-orders for the Star Wars Trilogy, due in September 2004. Is there a catch I should know about, like the THX and SE screwjob on VHS. I don't want to buy these if there's a better edition coming out in a few months. |
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Scott McClellan's Hella Lame April Fools Joke
[reply] [1 comment]
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04/02/04 11:55 AM EST
posted by alex email |
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This is an exceprt from an article on WashtingtonPost.com's site this afternoon. It covers the Yawning Boy from Late Show fame. It is very funny so check that after you read my post.
Basically McClellan decided he would go for an off the cuff April Fool's joke yesterday that IMHO is about the lamest thing I have ever read. It is a joke that a High School bully would play rather than a good natured jab at some (for all intents and purposes) co-workers. I personally think Ari would have come up with a much better one, I even think Rumsfeld could have come up with something better (although probably much much less nice).
The first question at yesterday's press briefing, as usual, came from Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House press corps.
"When is the President going to hold a news conference?" she asked. "He has not tackled any of these issues in an overall news conference, full-scale, since last December 15th. Isn't it about time that we had a time -- chance, that is, to question?"
McClellan brushed her off. "I appreciate your question, and I always try to work to accommodate your needs. . . . I will certainly take it into consideration." When she tried to follow up, he moved on.
Later, ABC's Terry Moran brought up the issue again.
"First, I just wanted to associate myself with Helen's request here. . . . "
Mclellan's response: "Anybody else? Anybody?" He takes a mock show of hands. "Okay. . . . Okay, we will do one later today. Oh, April Fool's, I'm sorry."
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This morning I got an e-mail forward about a girl meeting Bush at church. I didn't recognize the return address, hate forwards and vaguely remember seeing the same forward years ago. As a savvy e-mail user, I simply deleted the message.
About 5 minutes later, 2 women replied to all of the recipients saying that they wanted to be removed from the e-mail list. Irritated that they e-mailed me about something I have no control of, I replied to each of them with the following message:
"The other 50 people on this list don't need to know that you want to be deleted from this list. Reply to the sender (whoever the hell Johnny rocket is). For wasting 2 seconds of my time, here's another e-mail for you." Of course, they both replied w/ snappy comebacks of their own.
Jennifer wrote:
I was stressing the point that I did not want anyone else on the email list to forward the message to me again, since I continue to receive it from so many that are listed. As for your sarcastic remark and need to be such a jerk about it, I do not appreciate it. I don’t even know you, but you have decided to act in an immature manner normally expressed in children.
You have now been added to my junk email list. Katherine wrote:
"i sent it to everyone because i don't want to recieve e-mail from any of you! i don't know who you are or why i've been included on this e-mail conversation, but leave me out of it. i'm blocking your address too." So first they annoyed me w/ a junk e-mail message, then they responded to my response calling me immature and letting me know that (GASP!) I had been blocked from ever sending them another e-mail!!
What they forget is that they've only blocked ME, not every junk e-mailer on the planet. So as the mature adult that I am, hellfire has been unleashed and both addresses have been signed up for just about every Porn, Free Stuff, Bargain Offer or Newsletter I could find on Google.
The only sad thing about this amazing overreaction is that I'll never get to see the looks on their faces when they start receiving 1000s of e-mail messages per day and can no longer access e-mail that they'd actually like to read. |
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 I guess it's official that Bull hates me. I got an e-mail asking if there was a time he could pick up a DVD I'd borrowed. It was very terse and informal with the usual "Bull is mad but wants you to guess how he's feeling" undertones.
What's odd is that I'm told he's never seen this site, so any reason he would have for hating us would have to be based on some inner meditation on past experiences. What could have happened that triggered this sudden reflection?
And in the end, was it worth it? |
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I was vacationing in Tucson Arizona this past weekend. While laying by the Westin La Paloma's pool, taking in some sun while my wife was working, I started to do as I always do in this situation, I began listening to the conversations of other pool goers around me.
A few minutes into this uninvited snooping I started to pick up on the conversation of the 4 guys who's families were sitting immediatly to the right of me. They were all talking baseball, but from a different angle, like they were part of the game or something. Then I realized it, a Cactus league Spring training facility was wrapping up just down the street from the Hotel/Country Club I was staying at. I listened a little longer and realized that all these guys work for the front office of the Rockies. I started to chat with them a little and got to talking about the Tribe, rebuilding, Jody Gerut, DC Baseball, and baseball in general. Here is the inside scoop I got...
1. Jody Gerut, lots of clubs already have a ton of interest in him, but the want to see how he does this season for obvious reasons. These guys think he will be an important part of the Tribe's reuilding but not a part of their eventual success.
2. The Tribe, According to these dudes, the tribe will be a powerhouse in 5-10 years. Their farm system is coming together nicely and unless they have a change of mananagement/ownership for some reason that makes it fall apart, or a few key players get hurt, they will be in contention within 3 years and in winning the WS in 6.
3. DC Team, Basically, these guys are friends with Bud Selig, and they love the guy. At this point, they said it is a very good possibility, and they would most like to see, a club end up in DC. If it is going to happen, it will be next season, if not, no club in DC any time soon.
4. Baseball in general, SELIG IS GOING TO TRY TO DROP THE NUMBER OF GAMES PER SEASON TO 148 or 152!!! WTF? This will piss so many people off it isn't even funny. It will cause so many *'s to exist next to players names that set records, it will fuel speculation that it is a change to allow steroid players to not break records but have amazing seasons, and it will make thousands of stat freaks lose controle. Why not double headers to shorten the season you ask? According to teams, the players don't like to play double headers, it is too hard or some crap like that. Anywho, thats the story.
Cool vacation, and Saguaro Cacti are really cool. So are Javelina |
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At least we'll always have Paris
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04/01/04 07:05 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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 The Simpsons voice stars are in yet another contract dispute, this time forcing a work stoppage while they work out some money issues.
I used to really love The Simpsons, but the last 4 seasons or so have been pretty "Meh" by comparison to earlier years. It's still better than a lot of what you'll find on television (and especially what you'll find on FOX), but the time's coming when someone should take the show out to the woods and shoot it. |
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April Fools??
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04/01/04 06:05 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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Google has just announced GMail, a free 1 Gig e-mail service. Sounds too good to be true...
I'm sticking with Shiny Donkey's e-mail for now. The website may be a bunch of cheap jokes, .NET ramblings and random news tidbits, but the e-mail's reliable. |
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My reply to the TIME idiots:
We answer all these criticisms with some satisfaction, defending our correct use of the noun desert, which, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "Something that is deserved or merited, especially as a punishment. Often used in the plural." Humble pie, anyone?
I take issue with this response to your 550 readers that wrote in about your obvious mistake on the cover of the magazine. I too noticed it but opted not to write as it was simply a mistake. To err is human and in this case, TIME obviously did. Responding the those pointing out the misuse of a commonly misused word on the cover of a national (international?) publication with a pompous, arrogant, and smug letter only serves in making you look more the fool.
The problem with your response to your readers is this: Your cover article was in regards to Martha Stewart, the domestic detainee who can make anything from wrapping ornamentation from a cactus, to the most mouth watering desserts (not deserts) that your television has ever seen. It is apparent that your headline was intended to be a play on words, letting Martha have her “just desserts” as the saying goes. When enough of your loyal readers vocalized the mistake on your headline and TIME decided to write a response, you opted to take a very cowardly route out by attempting twist what was intended by the phrase, much like a 6th grader trying to justify his C- rather than a D+ on his most recent vocab quiz (no I am not a teacher), discrediting yourself even further. Rather than eating your humble pie yourself and admitting your flagrant misuse of a word in your oh so clever headline, you throw it back in the face of the readers who wrote in, and more arrogantly, into the face of the tens of thousands of readers that noticed your mistake and then just brushed it off.
Perhaps TIME did not make an error with respect to the usage of the word “deserts,” but TIME did make an error in printing the word rather than what was clearly intended. This is a point when you need to accept responsibility for a mistake and this is it. There are most likely several grammatical and/or spelling mistakes in this letter to you; however, if you were to point them out to me, I would surely accept their occurrence. With TIME’s situation, rather than accepting the fact that the word was probably intended to be something else with a much more relevant meaning, you took the route of scoffing and attributing our misunderstanding to our obvious lack of intelligence and the poor understanding of the English language. So TIME letter department, keep up the great work of alienating your readers when they write in! Nothing serves you better to cut your readership, right? Well, you just lost one.
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