There are hundreds (if not thousands) of recaps, reviews, etc of this weekends events at the NYC Hilton.  I don’t need to tell you that there were thousands (I think) of women and a maybe a couple of dozen men sprinkled in, all with different goals underscored by the commonality of blogging.  But even if you weren’t there, chances are if you are reading this, you know what it was all about.  So, I will not rehash what really requires no rehashing.

Instead, I will share what I learned, because obviously being in the minority at this event, my perceptions and what I took away, particularly from the keynote speeches will be markedly different than those of the majority.  In particular I took a lot away from the closing keynote, because while it was geared and spoke directly to the women of the crowd, the underlying theme is one that we all know but sometimes forget (or toss aside because of political use… but that is another story)… and that message is… “Yes, I can make a difference!”

Ever so often I tend to start shying away from posting here when I get too caught up in one of my phases.  In particularly one of my ranting phases.  ”Who wants to hear this?”  I ask myself.  ”Who cares?” and “What difference is it going to make?”  During the Keynote it was asked if the sponsors were there “because they like us?  No!”  And it very true.  We as consumers have a lot of power.  We as voices on the Internet have even more power.  We have the power to not only vote with our wallets, but to spread the word, not to mention the ability to do what PR people fear most… spread the word.

And oddly enough, just today, I saw on Twitter, a post that described this sentiment exactly:

@StephanieWDC: The era of effective consumer boycotts is over. Companies don’t change behavior, they just get better at PR.

And this helped gel my new affirmation I had pledged to myself.  This is NOT true unless we allow it to be true.  There are victories (albeit small at times) that are being won all over the place if you take the time to look.  More and more milk companies are asking farmers to take “No bovine hormone” pledges and offering milk that is no longer tainted with this.  Why?  Because consumers demanded it.  In many of the consumer products that dotted the exhibit all you were seeing the effects of the demands of consumers, items made with fresh ingredients, items that were now organic, or made with greener packaging.  No, it is not every company, and some of the companies are being sneaky (but I will address that tomorrow) with their ingredients, but the effects are clear, they are real and they are tangible.  And they are there because, “Yes… We CAN!”  (please again, put aside your political ideology, because that is not what this is about)

You will see “experts” that will say bloggers are a bunch of egotistical beings that like to hear themselves talk (so to speak), and to some extent, there is probably a modicum of truth to that.  I didn’t start blogging because of money, it is not my “job” it is a passion, and one I take pride in doing.  So, yes if that is egotistical of me… so be it.  But that doesn’t make my voice, my feelings, my opinions any less worthy.  It doesn’t mean that if I want to help effect change by supporting the removal of rBGH from milk, or warning others of the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup that my sharing that information is just as valid as any other persons.

There is a great line in the movie, “National Treasure” where Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) paraphrases something from the Declaration of Independence:

“If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”

If you liked nothing else about this movie, this is a great line, and one that is an excellent take away for every person.  We as bloggers, whether the cause be big or small, whether we are trying to right injustices all over the world, or just in our own back yard, we have the tools… and I don’t mean the Web Server, or WordPress, etc.  I mean we have a voice, we have a platform, we have the ability to affect change, whether it be fixing problems with food, seeking parity between men and women in elected offices, ensuring our children get the educations they deserve, or finding the best knitting needles to make a scarf, whatever it is you strive to do, to say, to acquire the knowledge to learn, you have the ability.  Now it is up to you to go out and do it. say it.  be it.  Because, Yes… We Can!

Edgardo Alfonso playing for the Newark Bears

I am… in general, a sports fan.  Except possibly for hockey, I am not a sports “fanatic” (much to my wife’s appreciation, and probably to the chagrin of many major sports and their advertisers).  No place has my hot and cold fickleness been more apparent than it has been with baseball.  Baseball has broken my heart (not in the “my team lost” kind of way), disgusted me, annoyed me and turned me off to their product more times than I care to count over the years.

Now, in fairness, I guess some of it does have to do with “my” team.  A fan of the New York Mets (on again and off again), I have watched an organization assemble a team  that has had the character of a hot steaming pile of garbage (more than once).  Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Bret Saberhagen to name just a few from “The Worst Team Money Could Buy” club. Sure, there are players like that in every sport, those types quickly fade away and are out of the game, not given additional lucrative contracts.

But it goes beyond just “my” team. Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Mark Maguire and others that ran up home run totals as MLB looked the other way, allowing the long ball to try and bring fans back after the 94-95 baseball strike. Oh, and yeah… baseball work stoppages. Does any “union” have less of a reason for its members to go on strike than Major League Baseball Players? (And yes, I blame the owners as well, this is not just the players, but the teams themselves willing to shell out millions of dollars while pricing fans right out of the game in favor of corporate sponsorship and high priced suites, etc).

Armando Benitez

So, I have been in my “off again” part of my relationship with baseball, for what has been probably the longest stretch of time, somewhere around 7 years. As part of a writeup I was (well I am still am technically) looking to do on New Jersey sports, I went to see and photograph a Newark Bears game.  Never did I imagine that one evening in a ballpark would remind me about every single factor about what I used to love about the game on so many different levels.

The evening was a perfect storm of things that roped me back in.  The last time I was at a baseball game, which happen to be a Shea Stadium, some of the best players on the field that day included Edgardo Alfonso and Armando Benitez and much to my surprise, those two players were there… sporting Newark Bears uniforms, in fact the Bears have no less than 5 former major league players on their roster, adding for Angel and Cardinal Scott Spiezio, former journeyman pitcher Willie Banks and Daryl Ward who was most recently played with the Chicago Cubs.  The remainder of the team is made up of players that never quite got their shot, or perhaps haven’t gotten their shot yet for one reason or the other in the “big leagues.”

Now without trying to make people out to be more altruistic than they really are, I am sure that their is certainly some money factor involved.  Every one of these guys would, if the opportunity presented itself, to jump (or jump back) to the MLB level and the payday that could involve, but their is still something different about players at this level of baseball.  When all is said and done, these players are playing with pride, with determination, with heart that far exceeds whatever nominal salary they are making at this level of play.  They have to play that way if they want to get noticed.  It is palpable, you can “feel” the difference in effort, and while it is true that the level of play may not be quite as high as the majors, the hustle and effort factor, for me more than makes up for it.

I watched not only the game on the field, but the few fans that made it out for a game on a weeknight while school is still in.  It was a very sparse crowd watching the game, and so far the Bears are sitting in last place, but that did not affect any of the young kids (or even the adults) in attendance.  They cheered their team, they begged players for autographs, took photographs with the mascot, and chased down foul balls into the stands. You couldn’t tell by the enthusiasm and excitement in their eyes that this was a “lesser” game than one in an MLB ballpark.  Seeing the kids enjoying this game, brought back some really great memories of going to baseball games with my dad when I was a kid.  We went to games both at Yankee Stadium as well as Shea, but there was no difference between those games for me, than when we went to Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City to see the Oakland A’s Double A team play.  It was very cool to watch these kids with that excitement.

I even got a little bit of excitement of my own.  Like any kid that has ever attended a game, I always wished for that opportunity to catch a ball hit into the stands, but it never happened, and as I sat there, I watched one young boy that dutifully attempted to dash from his seat and try and run down any ball hit on his side of the stadium (did I mention the crowd was sparse this day?).  But other, older and faster kids always beat him to the ball.  They were roaming free around the stadium, while he sat next to his dad right behind the visiting team dugout (it was a very sparse crowd), meaning he really had no shot, but he got his hopes up each time, only to have them dashed, and walk dejected back to his seat.  I knew that look… and that feeling, all too well.  I remembered being that kid.

One happy kid

As we went to the home 6th inning, I was once again on the visitors side of the field so I could get some pictures of the lefty hitters due up at the plate.  The first player up was Scott Spiezio.  After getting several pictures with my camera, I quickly switched over to my phone so I could share a picture via TwitPic as well.  As I snapped that shot, he fouled off the pitch, and it was headed straight for me.  With my camera in my right hand, I stood, and reached out with my left.  At 44 years old, I caught my first foul ball at a game.  Almost directly below me, I saw the young boy (who was now being aided by his father in his quest to get a baseball hit into the stands) looking up.  He was, he felt thwarted again and began to make his way back to his seat.  I beckoned to his father, pausing to speak to him first and to get his approval (sadly in this day and age, such steps I feel must be taken), and gave the ball to the boy who was a mixture of elated… and stunned.  I posted about it on twitter, and received some nice comments from people about how nice I was to do such a thing.  But, for me, I think anybody with kids, in the same circumstances would do the same.  Besides, I think I got more out of it, than if I had actually taken the baseball home.  I got the memory of catching that ball.  I got the memory of how thrilled that kid was to get that ball, his smile as he grabbed and stared at that baseball will stay with me longer than a dusty baseball on a shelf.  To top off the evening, the last place Bears went on to win 4-2.

So, I got to see some players I used to love to watch in “the pros,”  a night a great baseball, the first baseball I caught in a game, some great memories, and my love of baseball back.  Quite the bargain for a $10 seat, don’ t you think?

I know that seems like an odd combination, but please try and bear with me.  I had initially planned on writing about my experiences with attempting to put together a trampoline, but that will have to wait as I have a thorn in my paw.

It was really a fairly innocuous tweet from Lucretia M Pruitt (@LucretiaPruitt on Twitter), that really got me started again… but I really guess I should start with a little back story first, so insert the wavy screen filter and dreamy music as I bring you back a couple of years ago.

Here we are, circa 2007 or so.  My daughter whining about wanting a cell phone.  After all, “all her friends had them,” and she wanted one too.  It was also a time when you couldn’t open a newspaper without hearing stories about kids texting in class, and schools banning cell phone, and other such stuff.  I was honestly confused at the time.  Why were parents buying kids cell phones at such young ages?  I wasn’t indignant about it (more on that in a minute), but just couldn’t see the rationality of it.  Then slowly people started giving some rally valid points.  Kids in more than one place at more than one activity, was one of the first that really resonated with me.  But surely I didn’t have that issue since I only had one to worry about.  Some pointed out the GPS feature in case of a child being abducted, but that to me was more about marketing attempting to scare folks into buying a phone, because more than likely that phone would get tossed by the abductor.

Fast forward to 2009, and my daughter would be finishing her ice skating camp approximately 1/2 before anybody could get there to pick her up.  Now there was plenty of things to do and to keep her occupied for that half hour.  But there was something missing.  Something that didn’t fit in with our “in case of emergency plan” of making sure she had change to call one of us should the need arise.  That problem… there was no pay phone.  Look around.  There aren’t many left, and even fewer that actually function.

We thought about it… not for very long, and I went out and picked her up a Pre-paid mobile phone.  I sat down with my princess and explained the rules to her.  I explained the charges, and what limits she had to abide by.  A year later, she has followed those rules quite well… and it has worked out that we feel quite comforted that she can get in contact with us at any time in case of emergency. (Quick Pimp… This is what lead me to review the new Kin Phones from Microsoft, which I have done on my new Review Blog)

So now, we are considering the next step, and that is giving her a better phone.  Back in 2007, I was dead set against this, but in reality, it was trying to keep her little, and not acknowledging that times are different.  Markedly so.  There isn’t a pay phone everywhere.  And (provided you set down the rules and they listen to them), it teaches responsibility as an added bonus.  So really, it really is a great thing all the way around.

Now, I am a rather opinionated fellow (hey… I heard that).  Of this I do not and cannot argue (oddly enough).  Certainly, Lucretia and I have disagreed on things before (aha… you thought I forgot that I had mentioned her earlier didn’t you?).  But disagree doesn’t mean anything but the fact that we have varying view points at times.  What got me started on this was her Tweet that went:

You can curse me all you like. We got the kidlet her own cell for emergencies. Tired of loaning her my ‘droid

Curse you?  For giving a kid a cell for emergencies?  WTF.  And as is not uncommon, somebody else stated (better than I ever could) what was on my mind (in this case it was BusyMom)

@LucretiaPruitt Ya know? A phone is just a tool, not sure when it became some sign of parenting superiority. Don’t even start me…

There it was, something that has been bugging the ever living hell out of me lately.  Snooty, who the hell they think they are people with some sort of superiority complex.  There are some places, that it is just as equally inappropriate, but more expected, like in political conversations… but in parenting?? If you are a parent presently… then guess what… you are still going through on the job training, and that job isn’t done yet.  You haven’t graduated.  You do not have a “proven method” regardless of how well Muffy and Chad are doing at the Academy of Really big Important Sounding Name School that I use to show how great my kids are and rattle off to get adoration and hear sounds of jealousy from others.  You not not done.  So please, stop and think for a minute before you open your mouth.  Consider for a second that somebody else’s situation may be different than yours.  Consider the oh so slim possibility, that you may not be correct.  Shocking, I know.  But it is possible.  So just climb down off that high horse.  This doesn’t just apply to cell phones, or any one particular issue, but your overbearing, unwanted “edict” of trying to rein down your superior knowledge.  If you are still parent… your job is not done yet… and that means, you still do not have all the answers.  You have opinions.  Nothing wrong with sharing them.  But before you are going to start lecturing somebody else about their parenting.  Stop, sit down, and shut up, until that feeling passes.  Then try talking to somebody as an equal, share your opinions (if they are wanted), and don’t forget to listen as well… because you just might learn something.

Recently, I’ve learned that it is not always what I say, but how I say it that makes a big difference.  Tell me, what have you learned that you didn’t know before.

I have been battling writer’s block for some time now.  So, I though perhaps a brain dump would get things going again.  But rather than the typical randomness, I thought I would try something a little different, and focus my randomness into the future, or to be precise, some things I think we will see (or not see) in 2009.

Tech

Twoogle – Twitter will be acquired in 2009 by somebody (like Google).  Its lack of pure business model will come under pressure from other’s trying to profit off of it (magpie), and investors will grow weary of waiting, pushing the company into making the sale.

Android for everybody – will become the belle of the mobile ball.  Microsoft will release Windows Mobile 7 but despite being a superior platform, players like HTC and Motorola will continue putting it in underpowered phones, so people will still be frustrated with it, people will finally look honestly at the flaws of the iPhone (and the continued lack of cut and paste support), Palm will have another delay in its next generation OS and thus Android will win by default.

Entertainment

Slot This in the loser column – Slot Music, the new “format” for digital music that few have heard of and even fewer have bought into will die, alone and unloved.  However nobody will notice or care.

Blu-Who – While lower prices (especially on closeout version 1.1 machine continue) will improve Blu-Rays uptake rate a bit, it will continue to be a no show to DVD sales, and will be severely threatened by downloadable and/or streaming video to the home.

Roku that’s who – naturally somebody will have to dominate the streaming set top box.  So far the leaders are Roku and Tivo.  Tivo has been on tech “death watches” for some time, and could be snatched up by somebody, but I think it is Roku, with their $99 box which already has deals in place with the likes of NetFlix and Amazon that will be snapped up by somebody.

Blockbusted - Could this be the beginning of the end for Blockbuster?  I certainly think so, and wouldn’t be surprised to see them filing for Bankruptcy by year end.  Unless of course they come up with some sort of deal like Netflix has with Roku.  Streaming removes that last “advantage” of Blockbusters brick and mortar locations, which could actually turn into what winds up being the nail in  Blockbuster’s coffin as those locations become lots of little wells of red ink.

Half-Blood Prince, Full Blood Hit – Harry Potter and Company will smash the box office record.

Out of Thin Air

(These are the ones I have no basis at all on which to prognosticate… some cynical, some humors, a few are serious and some are just wild guesses… as if the others weren’t just guesses)

Add another 3 – Guy Kawasaki will launch 3 new companies that people will only care about because it is Guy Kawasaki.  He will grow tired of them and move on long before his followers do.

Rebel without repercussions – Additional dirty (and illegal) tactics that were done by Vice-Prresident Cheny will be uncovered.  There will be a lot of talk, but nothing will actually be done to him for it, or any other of the war crimes he commited.

Windows  7 – will not make an appearance this year.  There will be hints, suggestions, maybe even a target date, but it will slip at least until the first quarter of 2010.

Apple Byte – Some hacker will finally write a nasty virus that will hurt Apple.  Apple fanboys the world over will swallow hard and prepare for the “told ya so’s” from Windows users.

Here we go again - Once again the term “MommyBlogger” will tear up BlogHer.  People will make “team” avatars for Twitter based on “Yes I am a MommyBlogger and proud of it” and the “I am more than a MommyBlogger” crowd.  It will die off 2 weeks later, but the avatars will remain for months afterwards.

F for effort – We will hear of at least three plots to kill President Barack Obama.  None of which will actually be carried out, and only one of which will actually be feasible to actually be carried out.  Rush Limbaugh will argue that this is proof that Americans are tired of Obama and are just trying to save the country from his socialist ways.

Back to the evil future - In a return to 80′s style stupidity and disregard for human life, either an abortion clinic or family planning center will be target of a bomb.

Markets will not make a full recovery – it is going to take a long time to get  out of this mess, and while change may inspire confidence, problems will still take a longer time to fix.

Sign of the times – At least one College or University will announce a program that will give all incoming freshman a Netbook.

iTunes will still have DRM music – Apple is slow to embrace change desired by their users.  Amazon will start to cut into iTunes sales as more people give up on the iTunes store.

So what do you have?  what does your crystal ball show for  2009?

CNN is reporting, White House ‘puzzled’ by ex-spokesman’s book bashing Bush. I found this hysterical. Why? Because, anything that resembles the truth always seems to puzzle Bush.

According to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino:

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” Perino said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

Then White House counselor Dan Bartlett:

“We’re hearing from a completely different person we didn’t have any insight into,” he said.

Now, first of all, when McClellan was thrown overboard in favor of Tony Snow, the President spoke in rather glowing terms if I remember correctly:

One of these days he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the Press Secretary. And I can assure you I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done.

So, it is going to be interesting to watch these desperate attempts to try and discredit him, and still have Bush maintain an invitation to that rocking chair.

It seems to me that what is “puzzling” them is that they thought they had this guy gagged, and are trying to figure out how he slipped out with a proper brainwashing.  I guess they expect complete loyalty to even those that they have thrown overboard.

What is going to be even more entertaining, is to watch as this is just another former official stating how the White House played fast and loose with anything that looked like the truth.  Just how many of these people can be discarded as “disgruntled” liars before even the Faux News Channel has to admit that there simply must be some truth to it?

On a day to day basis, people fret over small details.  As highlighted by the show Bridezillas, in many cases this gets highlighted (and quite intense) during particularly stressful times (like getting married). We worry about the wrong flowers, or somebody is 5 minutes late.

How would you have liked to have had THIS to be your wedding day?

Just a reminder that no matter how bad something seems… it can almost always be worse.

OK, if you are like me you have gone on plenty of diets, tried “everything” but “nothing worked.”  Most of the times, if we are honest, we probably do something to sabotage it without even realizing we are doing it.   But I believe I may have found a cure.  The only question becomes, if you have the “stomach” to see it through.

My idea stems from a book I heard about recently, Everything I ate for a Year.  We all have some sort of camera at our disposal at virtually all times, whether it be that little point and shoot, or is there a phone left that doesn’t include a camera in it nowadays?  So, do exactly what that author did.  Whenever you are about to put something in your mouth, whether it is a cup of coffee, a “little snack” or whatever it is, if it is going to go in your mouth, take a picture.

This solves to different issues.  Issue one, you have documentation of everything you have put in your mouth (assuming you don’t “skip” a few pictures), and it will help you see what you are actually consuming on a daily basis.  The second potential helpful benefit, is that you may even start questioning whether the calories are “worth” having to take a picture and add it to your collection.  (Or should you be particularly daring, and post it to a collection on say Flickr, “Is it worth letting people know that I eat that junk?”)

What do you think… would photographing every single thing you put in your mouth deter you from eating more?

Help Wanted – This one isn’t a link.  I have been a bit lagging on my posting lately because I am working on a new endevour that I have been wanting to work on for quite some time.  A new Podcast.  Any tips or tricks on setting everything up would be greatly appreciated.  I have been looking at MightySeek’s PodPress plugin for WordPress, any opinions to share?

Go ahead, defend DRM now - Microsoft announced that it is taking offline the License Servers that handle the DRM (Digital Rights Management) for the now defunct msn Music store. Once that happens, anybody who “purchased” music from the store will only be able to listen to it on the devices it currently resides on. So if that PC holding your music dies, too bad, your music is history, and you would have to go buy it again. Once again proving that you do not “own” music that is bogged down with DRM. While the music labels may like this idea, it is just plain stupid in today’s day and age. Just another reason, I am now using Amazon for my music purchases.

You must be a terrorist – Freedom? Protection against unreasonable searches? You must be some sort of terrorist or pedophile with something to hide, right? No matter, according to Ars Technica, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that US Customs agents have the right to take your laptop and search it without reason. Only your alimentary canal is safe against search without cause. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Bad Wiring? – BusinessWeek offered pure speculation on Dell acquiring Radio Shack. While most stories I have seen talk about how it would ruin Dell, or be bad for Dell, I am more terrified of what Dell would do to Radio Shack.  I mean, you could be sure that the days of being able to buy circuit boards, and wiring would be over.  Where would millions of kids get their parts for science projects?

Happy Easter to those that celebrate such things, and to for everybody else (well in the northern hemisphere) welcome to Spring (welcome to Autumn for those “Down Under”)

Who the heck is still voting for McCain? – apparently McCain is so senile, he needs Joe Lieberman constantly behind him correcting him. First he made it clear that qualifications (as he sees it) to be a “War President” and picking up the torch from Bush does not mean he needs to know the difference between Sunni and Shiite. And now he is showing off his International Relations skills by going into Israel and during a speech calling Purim, “their Halloween.” Now, to be honest I do not know squat about Purim, but I am not in Israel as a representative of the United States and making reference to it. Maybe before he opens his mouth next time, Lieberman could teach him how to use The Google , and get some information out of the series of tubes.

Glib Gibson – Gibson Guitars started out suing Activision for Guitar Hero claiming a patent infringement issue. Now they are apparently trying to get their way by suing retailers for selling the game! What next, will they sue you for buying the game?

Just another reason I hate Apple – Be careful the next time you update your iTunes software, apparently Apple is trying to broaden their market for their inferior Safari browser by making it part of an iTunes update. Remember when Microsoft tried to include IE7 as part of a Windows Update? Yeah, well the same outrage should be applied here. At least with IE it could be argued that by trying to move people from IE6 to IE7 Microsoft was just trying to rectify security issues (since IE6 is used throughout the OS whether it is your “browser” or not), but there is no valid reason to include Safari with iTunes. But this is Apple we are talking about, who would dare question the “Great And Powerful Jobs?”

Just another reason I love Starbucks – Things need to be changed… not so much new, but changed back to the way they were before, when Starbucks was mostly about coffee. Well it seems that Starbucks got the message, and is promising a number of changes to get back to their coffee basics. There is only one thing that would make me happier about this announcement. They did mention that there would be new espresso machines “designed to give a more consistent …” beverage. But to me, that only means another version of those automated espresso machines they installed. I would love to see them go back to grinding the beans and pouring shots from a real espresso machine. But I guess you can’t have everything.

Just wait until Bill O’Reilly gets a hold of this – I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this Jeff Parker cartoon, about the overcommercialization of Easter. Of course I probably didn’t laugh for the reasons it was intended. Here we have a holiday, where the symbols of the holiday in no way resemble the reason for the holiday. For this reason, either for a joke or not really understanding you always have people ask the question of what does the bunny and eggs have to do with Easter? Of course we know this is because the Christians stole the symbols of the Spring Holiday from the Pagans in order to “sell” their religion to try and convert people. Now you complain about its commercialization? I really just don’t want to see or hear about a “War On Easter” I really really don’t.

Welcome to the return of the Friday Focaccia. I don’t actually know why or how I got off track with this. But, I guess it is not important. It is now back in all its half-baked glory.

Speaking of Half-Baked. How is it that the hardline right people still think the GOP is the party to “keep us safe” from terrorism, but yet here we are, nearly 6-1/2 years later, and it turns out that the US military may not be ready for attack!

The commission’s 400-page report concludes that the nation “does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available” to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons incident, “an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk.”

“Right now we don’t have the forces we need, we don’t have them trained, we don’t have the equipment,” commission Chairman Arnold Punaro said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Even though there is a lot going on in this area, we need to do a lot more. … There’s a lot of things in the pipeline, but in the world we live in — you’re either ready or you’re not.”

Of course I am sure there will be some argument that the independent commission is “biased.” After all we don’t have to worry about them attacking us here because of our brilliant strategy of stretching our troops too thin, and extending their tours “over there” keeps the terrorists from striking here right?

Gone to the place in the sky…er… ethernet – Got pictures stored at skyfolder.com?  Or more correctly, DID you have pictures at skyfolder.com?  I signed up for a skyfolder.com (Beta) account some time back, but never actually used it.  It was yet another one of the free storage places to keep your photos and such so they are “accessible anywhere.”  I received an e-mail from them TODAY notifying me that the service would be taken offline on February 4th!  And that after that time I would lose access to my pictures and storage.  As I said, fortunately, I never stored anything other than a couple of files to test the service out, and nothing was lost.  I hope not too many people lost anything there, but it just goes to show… Don’t trust any of these services with your irreplaceable memories.  Because, all it takes is an investor pulling out, or advertisers disappearing, and suddenly they go bye-bye and your memories are lost forever.  Sure, use them to share photos and such, just don’t allow it to be your ONLY copy.

War Crimes -  It is often difficult to understand when you look back at history how people could sit back and do nothing when they have a war criminal as a leader.  People wonder how people could follow marching orders from a man that has no regard for International Law.  Only now, we are living that history, and our President is now the admitted war criminal.  Not only that, he and his staff openly defended the illegal practice, and could authorize its use again, even as the CIA Chief stated that it is “probably” illegal.  So, how do you feel about being one of those “people with blinders on” that allow these blatant abuses of human rights by their leader?

Does MSNBC hate women? -  First, Chris Matthews has  made so many deragatory remarks about Hillary Clinton that he was forced to do an on air apology.  Now David Shuster has been suspended by the network for saying that the Clinton campaign “pimped out” Chelsea.

I thought I would spin away from the typical, “People are rushing Xmas this year” posts, to something a bit more… well me.  This year Thanksgiving falls as early as it can possibly be thanks to the fact that November 1st was a Thursday.

This has everything completely out of whack around here.  Around here we treat birthdays like holidays.  By that I mean we move them to more convenient dates (like the nearest Saturday).  So yesterday was my big birthday dinner (thanks to those that sent along such nice birthday wishes).  Now normally we have about a week and a half to get everything ready from that point until Thanksgiving… but not this year.

No, this year we had to spend the weekend getting the house in shape, (since we know damn well we aren’t going to do it during the week) so that we would have minimal (I hope) things to do other than cook on Thanksgiving day.

I hereby propose rather than it being the 4th weekend in November, that we staple it down a bit better, and make Thanksgiving the last weekend in November.  That still gives us a “normal” Xmas shopping season, rather than adding a week to the madness.

When I was young, when November came around, I knew it was time to make, “the list.”  Between my birthday and  Christmas, I  could make one long list of what I wanted for my birthday and what I wanted for Christmas at one time, and hope that whatever I didn’t get for one, I got for the other.

First my mother got this list, and later of course TheWife.  It changed though once we bought the house.  With our birthdays only 12 days apart (TheWife insists I insert here that it is 5 years and 12 days difference), we started buying joint “gifts” that were really more about things we wanted for the house.

Then when LatteGirl was born it became “sort of” about me again.  I wanted an exercise stroller, I wanted a new quieter monitor (you get the idea, right?)

Now, “the list” is tough.  I guess in a way, I am lucky.  I don’t “want” anything.  Oh, there are things I wouldn’t mind buying for myself (The new Red Flash Zune, or maybe and Xbox 360), but nothing I would expect anybody to buy for me as a gift.  And even those things that I wouldn’t mind, I would just as soon at this point buy something new for LatteGirl.

So now TheWife (and yes even my mother still) get annoyed that every year, they ask me what I want, and I say either “nothing” or “I dunno.”  But really I don’t.  However, this year all I would like is something that I can tell them to keep from them getting so annoyed.

So, how about you, how (if at all) has your “wish lists” for birthdays, holidays, etc. changed over the years.  Or has it changed at all?

They should have tossed him off the balcony – I am sure there are people who will say that it is “only a dog” and that I am overreacting, but my this was my first impression when I read about the man that got 3 years for tossing a dog off a balcony, and will be elegible for parole in 20 months. Apparently, he got into a fight with his girlfriend and threw the 10 week old Yorkiepoo off the third floor balcony. What do think, anger issues? (I mean him, I know I have anger issues when it comes to idiots like this).

And speaking of uncaring idiots – Next time you look at your politician, that one that says he cares about you and what is important to you ask yourself this… “Why did he (and all these clowns) subvert the American people with the wiretap bill that will grant retroactive immunity to the telephone companies?” For all their talkabout caring about you, the constituent instead it seems that all they care about is the dollars from the telephone companies. The same telco companies that broke the law, and got caught. But rather than have to pay for their crimes in court, they opted to pay off the politicians that “forgive them” for their indiscretion with YOUR privacy.

Can toys just be toys? – Look, I am the first one to admit that since having a little girl that I have become far more tuned into and far quicker to react to stereotyping little boys and girls. Matter of fact I was quick to knock the Daring Book for Girls, just based on the description that what is “important skills for a girl to learn” include pressing flowers, how to put your hair up with a pencil, etc.

That being said, I have been caught somewhere between amused and shocked at the some of the complaining about things like a Tonka Truck ad, because it is targeted towards boys (also another one can be found here), and the horror shown towards the Hasbro’s Rose Petal Cottage, which has {gasp} Rose Petals on it, and is marketed to girls. Horkin Ramblings says it quite nicely when she asks Aren’t There More Important Things To Complain About. She even picked out the most amazing comment, which lamented that this toy was, “polishing the glass ceiling instead of breaking it.”  Seriously?

C’mon folks.  Little Suzy has plenty of time to recover and be whatever she wants to be, and her furture is not going to be dictated by a toy kitchen set, nor will she be irreparably harmed because the ad for a toy truck is not “equally” promoted directly to her.  If she wants a toy truck… guess what, she will play with one, or ask for one, regardless of whether they are advertised for “boyhood.”  Similarly with the kitchen, I laughed at one comment (which I am admittedly too lazy to go back and find) that said because the Rose Petal Cottage has flowers on it, it precludes any boy from playing with it.  Well um, dare I ask, who is defining gender roles now?  Can a boy not play with a toy that is pink?  Can he not like flowers?  You argue against a stereotype but using a stereotype.

In the end.  It is a toy.  And as Freud didn’t quite say, sometimes a toy is just a toy.

I hate insomia, not (necessarily) for the obvious reason of feeling exhausted all day the next day, not because I can’t get any work done between yawns, but because my mind (and I assume it is not just me) tends to wander to the most inane, bizzare and completely nonsensical things.

But now I am wondering:

Now that virtually everybody has cordless phones and cell phones, does anybody else miss the simple pleasure of dropping the phone to the floor and watching as the cord unwinds itself?

On a similar thought, does anybody else get frustrated that you can’t slam the phone at the end of an argument?  I mean  it is just not the same… “That’s it, I never want to talk to you again”  {boop}

Does anybody else remember a cleaning product called Janitor in a Drum?

Why do “revolutionary” products have to be put in everything for a while… but then seem to disappear.  Like OxyEverything.  I mean when OxiClean came on the market, “oxygenated” became part of every freaking product on the market.  Now?  Where they hell are they all?  Did it suddenly stop working?

They have microwave instructions on Pop-Tarts.  This kills me.  Who needs this shortcut?  I mean it takes, maybe a minute to toast a Pop-Tart.   If you don’t have that kind of time, you are really overscheduled.

Why is is called Good Friday?  It certainly wasn’t a great day for Jesus was it?

Does anybody actually find Sarah Silverman funny?

Who are these people that actually believe and purchase products these creams that are supposed to make “fat disappear”?

Has anybody else seen that old commercial that shows how one person’s hand doesn’t get bitten when wearing OFF, but the unprotected hand is getting eaten by the mosquitoes?  Who accepts a job like that?  Oh, Yeah, I want to be an actor so bad that I will take a job being food for mosquitoes.

Is it OK to come up to a woman that is wearing a tube top and a bra and ask her if she actually looked in the mirror before she left the house?

And finally, why is it there in the dark, when everything is quiet… why is it then that some stupid commercial with the worst jingle you have ever heard pops into your head?

Inquiring (and over-tired ) minds want to know.

OK, so I am not one to write much about television shows, and if you are not one to read much about them, feel free to move on for today. I feel compelled, mostly because at present there is only one “series” that I faithfully watch (I am also addicted to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report), and that show is CSI: Crime Scene Investigators.

So why am I so compelled to write now? Well beyond the obvious fact that it is the season premiere, as I see it, what happens tonight may very well tell whether or not the show will continue beyond this season; and it all hinges on whether the character of Sara Seidel lives or dies.

It has been rumored for more than a year that William Petersen (Grissom) wants to leave the show.  They even did 4 episodes without him, seemingly as a test to see how the show would do without him.  Personally I thought it was a disaster.  If his love interest (Sara) dies, well that gives the script writers all they need to have Grissom walk away from the lab after failing his “most important case” and not being able to save Sara, “the one woman that I care about and love.”

Of course, if Petersen really wants to leave, it really doesn’t matter.  If that is inevitable, then I probably don’t care whether her character lives or dies.  I have found Sara to be a drain on the energy of the show, and I am not entirely sure whether it is the character (Seidel) or the actress (Jorja Fox).

So, I guess I just don’t know, and will have to wait and see what transpires.  What do you think… Do you WANT Sara to die?  Do you think she will?  Even if she lives, is her character damaged goods that will have to “get away” from it all?

Place your bets.

(But please no spoilers.  Since I am unfortunately busy at the time of airing, I will have to catch it on my Tivo about an hour to an hour and a half late.)

All for show – In a move that is (in my not so humble opinion) designed to provide some cover for companies like Mattel in the wake of massive recalls this year, a pact between the US and China was signed this week that bans lead paint in toys exported to the U.S. Now first of all, Mattel, which is importing the toys for sale here knows damn well that lead based paints are banned, when they set up their specifications, this should have already been spelled out. But obviously wasn’t. It is another case of turning a blind eye in the name of profits. Only problem. They got caught. So what does this “pact” actually supposed to do except perhaps give consumers a false sense of security.

From the land of “DUH”! – The CEO from Mattel admits it could have done a better job. But following closely on the heels of that (with much less fanfare) is a report that in order for these toy companies like Mattel to do what the should have been doing all along, that the price of toys will likely increase about 10% to absorb the cost of testing.

You can’t make stuff like this up – Today is the birthday of Russi Taylor. Russi has been the voice of Minnie Mouse since 1985. She is married to Wayne Allwine, who is the voice of Mickey!

High Expectations? – LatteGirl’s soccer season starts tomorrow.  Her first practice is tonight.  Upon finding out about this exclaims, “How can they expect me to be a goal scoring machine with only one practice to tune up my scoring foot!”   And to think last year, I was afraid that TheWife was pushing her too hard to go play soccer.

“School’s Open… Drive Carefully” We have all seen the warning for years now, but I never quite understood it. What are they trying to say? We can’t afford grief workers for the other students, so please only run the little buggers down during the summer?

That being said, there are a few more signs that autumn has arrived.

5. All the MDA telethon donation shamrocks are finally taken down.

4. The only backpacks and luchboxes left in stores are ones that have chacters from this past summers box office bomb.

3. Bloggers start making inane lists into posts.

2. All the beautiful colors… the browns and golds that are starting to appear… in the seasonal aisle at Target.

1. Pumpkin Spice Lattes return.

So what are your sure signs of fall?

Is there any chance we have heard the last of BlogHer 07? – What was in the gift bags, was it “proper” to give such and item, and the “meanings” behind the give-a-ways have garnered far more attention than any, you know, actual part of the conference. I know that this years “controversy du jour” was on advertising, and in particular the evil menace that is the SellYourCredibility (a.k.a. PayPerPost), but did anybody actually attend any other sessions?

Crab Apples - Apple finds out that exploits come a lot quicker when you have something popular (iPhones) as opposed to no market share (Mac). So, less than a month after the “All Powerful iPhone” hit the streets, the first patch is out the door.

Kind busy – with planning some Anniversary to-dos so I don’t wind up in hot water. What have you got planned for the weekend.

Look, I’m not so disillusioned that I think I can completely cut off how much influence can be inflicted on LatteGirl by the outside world.  In some instances this may not even be a bad thing, as it will expand her world view outside of my own realm of knowledge and/or beliefs.  Who knows what she may discover… knowledge, understandings of culture, better ways of doing certain tasks, and who knows… there could even be a person out there that can actually come up with a reason not to make fun of Scientologists (OK, I was reaching with that last one).

But (c’mon you had to have seen that coming from a mile away), isn’t there something that I can do to help her filter information?  Some way to get her to understand that sometimes… I’ll settle for sometimes here… that I do have some clue as to what I am talking about.  Oh, sure I know that by the time she is a teenager, I will be considered a closed minded, unable to understand the “modern world” idiot.  At least until she has a family of her own, and starts to discover that I am not as clueless as she thought.  That is the part of the circle of life that every parent understands… eventually.  That life is going to take the same pattern it did before, and that regardless of how hip and cool a parent you think you are, your child is going to show the same disdain for you through their teenage years as you did to your parents.  (Karmic payback I presume).  But that is supposed to be THEN, and NOT now.

Our latest foray into this world of diminishing parental knowledge deals with bugs.  When she was little, LatteGirl loved to look at bugs, collect bugs, and was rarely phased by a bee unless it was swirling around her.  Now however, the mere sight of a bug, or a bee being in the same acre of land as her, has her scurrying for the safety of indoors.

All attempts to allay her fears however are now met with contradictory “facts” as she has learned them from her friends.  “No Daddy, all spiders bite!  And then can kill you.  Because so-and-so’s big sister had a friend who went to school with the cousin of a girl that had to go to the hospital from a bite from a tiny spider.”  (And here I wonder why so many people forward the most ridiculous e-mail chain letters.  Now I see where this trend begins).

Now, she is a “princess” and I am not really all that startled that she would find some bugs “icky” and in the grand scheme of things, this really is probably not the worst issue I am going to face (or if it is, then I am probably the luckiest parent in the world (but I am just waiting for that whole Karma thing to kick in), but today it is bugs… who knows what other “facts” she will get soon.

… that final hour of work before leaving for vacation?