This Blog Is Full Of Crap

You will probably notice an improvement in load time on this site because I am now removing all of my remaining Pajamas Media ad banners.

I have yet to receive my final check from them.

Whether this means that they are short of cash, careless in their accounting, or a victim of the stellar performance of our Postal Service, I have no idea.

And I don't care. For all it matters, they can spend the remaining balance on condoms with which to screw themselves.

What was promoted as an attempt to empower bloggers became an exercise in further empowering only the already-powerful bloggers and adding noise to an already-saturated echo-chamber.

Back when it started, my attempt to provide a platform for the Pajamas Bloggers (the forums) was met with scorn, ridicule, or disdain by the PJM elite, and when it was time to select a "blogger relations" blogger, they decided to stile communications further by adding an incompetent part-timer as their gatekeeper.

The sense of community was zero. Heck, less than zero because smaller fringe bloggers such as myself were left out of the mutual-admiration circle among the upper-tier bloggers, seen only as "life support for ad banners" feeding the core site or the "popular" blogs.

Forget Pajamas Media or OSM or Jellyfish as names. It's really High School Media or Clique Media.

Steve, Moxie, and Dennis - you were right. You were right.

However, I'd still like to thank Roger, Charles, Glenn, LaShawn, and all the others providing the heels that ground my enthusiasm for blogging into dust. Without your suppression, I would not have sought out other outlets for expression and creativity, such as podcasting and gardening and building within Second Life.

Yeah, I've encountered cliques and such within those platforms, too. But unlike the blogging social stratification that Pajamas Media has sought to reinforce for profit's sake, podcasting and SL are still relatively young and there's still a chance for enthusiastic, energetic and creative types to be judged on their skills and achievements and not on past accolades and "who you know."

Menu Foods is never going to sponsor Carnival of the Cats after this.

Blogging will be light today because we're lost another high-volume trouble ticket tech without getting a replacement for them.

No, this does not mean I'm going to "step up my game" and start digging into the complex and challenging trouble tickets that customers submit on a constant, ever-increasing basis as they discover they don't really need to administer or maintain their own servers. All they have to do is buy more than one server and then tease us that they're going to buy more "if we just solve this little problem for them and prove that they are valued" yadda yadda yadda jerk me off another one, Molly etc and so forth.

What it means is that the ticket queue will explode, people will be flooding the phones, email, and chat to complain that their problems aren't being solved, and what few ticket techs we have left will be pulled off of solving problems and into the phone queue to mollify and pacify the angry customers.

Never mind that the real solution is to solve the problems that we're obligated contractually to solve and to stand firm and refuse to solve the problems that we're not.

Well, that, and hire more technicians to handle the supported and for-hire issues. Or provide training for those already on the payroll to make them more capable of handling issues (with the appropriate adjustment of compensation).

But, hey - I'm just a drone, right?

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

New patio lights...

They're pretty flowers.

Next week is Garden Week. We're going to pick up plants for the garden.

I swear, this time we're not getting ten thousand varieties of peppers.

Just basil, rosemary, jalapenos, mint, chives, and whatever else the Mrs. wants out there.

I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go plant-crazy. I will not go pla-

OOOOH! CILANTRO!

(the madness begins)

You know the drill.

Kitties... check.
Movie... check.
Monday... check.

Let's do it:

Get a YouTube account and join in the fun.

I spent all week scraping all the rust off of the grill to get ready for Sabbath Weber.

Let's get the fire going...

Got a plank soaking all afternoon, so...

There goes the salmon. Not sure what I had it soaking in, but it was soaking in it for days.

Lots of flavor. That foil's got garlic and butter covered corn with a dusting of blackened seasoning in it.

Mmmm... almost ready.

Time to eat.

Since the weather's gotten better, what have you been grilling?

IM IN UR PILLOZ...

Um... what is he doing in our pillows, anyway?

Should it be disturbing that this isn't too far from what really happened?

Remember how I've been saying all along that the Ku Klux Klan could revamp its public image by throwing its support to the Minutemen in defending our nation's southern border, thus pretending that they're not really a hate group? (You know, taking a tip from CAIR.)

You know, because the MSM loves to give every hateful, violent rejectionist group their fair shake when they're seen as performing a public service?

Well... ummm... doesn't quite work out that way.

There goes that brilliant idea.

The quest begins.

(I'll work on firephilgarner.com later this week)

It's at Kennealy's.

The thin crust of the pizza represents the matzoh, and they have wine and.. um... bitters... and...

Okay, so it gets me out of the house.

A friend of mine has informed me that it is possible to be a Cylon without knowing you are a Cylon.

So, I ask him if you can be a black Cylon and still not know you're a Cylon.

I get a message telling me that the correct term is "African American" and not "black."

Excuse me? Cylons are from outer space, not Africa or America.

Sheesh.

Blame Lidge, blame Garner for playing him, and blame Purpura for keeping him.

Blogging will be light today because I've got the last Pajamas Media check in one hand and a cigarette lighter in the other.

So. Very. Tempting.

But I won't.

Instead, I'll go to the bank and deposit this, then I'll do some good with the money.

What good can I do with this? Suggestions should go in the comments.

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

Don't give me crap for spending Passover at Kennealy's, okay? Brad Freaking Ausmus was behind home plate within spitting distance of Gramma Bush, and you don't see him taking shit for it.

Besides:

Bitter herbs = Bitter beer

Cheroset = Irish nachos, the finest gut-building mortar around.

The wine. (But not four glasses)

Pizza crust that didn't have time to rise.

And just in case you're wondering if Qualls got jacked by Jason Bay for 2 because I wasn't sending the mojo, well...

In public or in private, the spirits must be appeased.

When we got back from our Passover Seder at Kenneally's, we opened the back door and let Nardo go out and gets some exercise... and... um...

Green friends.

This lizard fought back, grabbing Nardo's paws and nose when he'd swat and bite at it.

Poor lizard.

Oh, and way to break in the new bedspread, you furry little bastard.

Houston City Council is considering the WiFi proposal.

The City Council on Wednesday is expected to consider a $2.5 million contract with EarthLink Inc. that would allow the company to build the city's wireless network and agree to be its "anchor tenant" for the first five years of the project.

While the agreement allows Mayor Bill White to keep his promise of not using taxpayer money to build the network, the city would be required to pay the company at least $500,000 annually for five years to use the service.

Anyone want to bet if a certain councilwoman's minority subcontractor clients friends get sweetheart deals from Earthlink to do the actual installs?

And this is going to go active right around the time that the po' people are going to have to wrestle with the analog-digital television conversion mandate... are we going to see a similar handout to the po' in terms of "wireless receiver module vouchers" as well?

After months of preparation, I've tossed all the templates and gotten Fire Phil Garner on the air with a basic MT 33.34 template and color scheme

I'll get the color scheme worked out, but nothing fancy planned.

Also, I've got firephilgarner.com and firegarner.com pointing at it right now.

If y'all have blogs or posts you want rounded up within the FPG blog, let me know in the comments on that site.

Well, I finally got my new video card from the woot-off delivered yesterday evening.

The problem is, my Gateway desktop is too short to fit a normal video card, so I have to settle for compact or half-height video cards.

I also have to use short brackets for expansion cards, which means the card that was already in there had to provide the bracket for the new card.

Sure, they were both ATI Radeons, but the old one had a normal VGA output and the new one had an HDMI output.

So, for the time being, the card is in there without a bracket, but it's seated quite nicely and the clip on the PCI-E slot is holding it in place.

Oh, and it's much, much faster in all the basic tests as well as more stable with SL.

Well, okay. I didn't put it through all of its paces with a high number of avatars on the screen at once, but it sure rendered up textures quickly on those I was around.

We'll see how well it holds up. I'm going to hold on to the old cart for a few days until it gets Bobbed.

We experienced a power hit yesterday afternoon which reset the Panasonic camera.

I tried to change its position last night, but it's back to the chair this morning.

The remote administrator isn't happy for some reason, so I'm turning the camera uploads off for the day.

Please go to the catcams site and peruse one of the other fine catcam sites for your catcam addiction until service has been restored.

Thank you for your patience.

"Cupid Is A Stupid Little Retard" is up at Hodgepodge Point for your enjoyment.

It was originally written for a Love Story competition held by the Caledonian Library within SL, but they pushed back their storytelling competition.

Thanks to Laieanna for not screaming in horror and hitting the Delete key.

It looks like the FBI is sniffing around Second Life for the gambling houses:

FBI investigators have visited Second Life's Internet casinos at the invitation of the virtual world's creator Linden Lab, but the U.S. government has not decided on the legality of virtual gambling.

"We have invited the FBI several times to take a look around in Second Life and raise any concerns they would like, and we know of at least one instance that federal agents did look around in a virtual casino," said Ginsu Yoon, until recently Linden Lab's general counsel and currently vice president for business affairs.

I hope this does not disrupt or kill a certain island's game shows, which are more fun than funds being exchanged. Apparently, the kerfuffle involving gambling sims has somehow stalled development of a very cool project there.

On the other hand (or face of the mirror), should the FBI crack down on the low-traffic tokens-with-value gambling establishments within SL, then it only stands to reason that similar schemes in RL with equivalent token-to-dollar ratios are also worthy of investigation.

One of the regular features of Fire Phil Garner! will be the call for the Least Valuable Player Award for each game.

Right now, Game 1 is a battle between Chad Qualls, Brad Lidge, and Carlos Lee.

Game 2 starts off with a vote for Dan Wheeler.

Also, I'm going to post up the Roundrocked poll so you can predict who the first person to head out of town will be.

So head over there and make your voices heard.

Linden Labs says that the customized last names feature will be available by the end of the year.

The online fantasy world "Second Life" will soon introduce the virtual equivalent of vanity plates, allowing residents to customize their characters' first and last names.

"Second Life" spokesman Alex Yenni said the feature, likely to cost $100 up front and $50 a year, would debut by the end of the year.

Currently, participants in the popular alternative universe can give their digital proxies - called avatars - nearly any first name they'd like.

But nearly everyone has to select from a rotating stock of surnames - conventional surnames such as Geiger, Felix and Lancaster, or futuristic, foreign or odd ones like Cioc, Stenvaag and Pugilist.

The 3-D fantasy world's operators, San Francisco-based startup Linden Research Inc., have approved special names to only a select group of high-profile members, including IBM Corp. Chairman Samuel J. Palmisano and Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. So far the company hasn't charged for them.

The company's business development team decided to create a vanity name feature in part to help legitimize the growing number of executives, political candidates and other famous people who stage rallies and give stump speeches in the virtual world.

Get ready, Dwight. Mister Crap is coming.

Okay, the catcams are back.

I know you missed them. You might have even contemplated doing something horrible to yourself and/or others.

But it's okay. You can relax.

Everything's good now.

When I hear the phrase "Hey, you like cats and have a website that mentions crap a lot, right?" my first instinct should be to close the dialog window and back slowly to the wall where nobody can sneak up behind me...

Too late.

Looks like Racquetball Roberts is preparing to fire up the gyroscopes for the media today...

An accident involving a Metro Bus in downtown Houston today sent 18 people to the hospital.

The bus was traveling north on Lorraine Street. when a car driving down Morse ran a stop sign, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.

The two vehicles struck each other, sending four passengers from the car and 14 people riding on the bus to local area hospitals, Roberts said.

No further information was immediately available and Roberts said the extent of the injuries was not known at this time.

Anybody get a copy of the video from the bus to confirm the driver ran a red light?

Historically, METRO's either not been terribly honest about that kind of thing, or just slightly color-blind.

Speaking of eye problems, how about questioning METRO's focus? Councilman Cat-Hater:

"Metro has completely lost focus," Berry said. "They're supposed to be in the business of moving people, and instead they want to be real estate developers."

Oops... wrong kind of focus.

Here's Racquetball Roberts on the land deal:

Agency spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said Metro knows of no other instances in which a transit agency has bought land to hold and sell to a private company for what is known as transit-oriented development.

You know, nobody's ever said "Your toaster may be used as a flotation device" either, but it doesn't necessary mean it's something to brag about and show as a shining example of good business sense to the community.

Another reporter calls for The Original LD-50 to get his day in the sun.

Geek Gathering is tomorrow night at Tropioca.

There is a good chance I will be there, since I really want to hand out some fridge magnets and then overtheshoulder with Dwight as he dips his toe once more into the multiplayer Visio that is Second Life.

We used to wear golf pullovers with the company logo on them as required attire.

It was an attempt to make the business look professional while the original owner desperately looked for a sucker buyer to take it off his hands.

The scheme worked, he got out of the business with a bank account full of our bonuses and sick pay and vacation time and raises, and left a huge pile of shirts made by drug-addicted AIDS-infected child labor slaves in Burma.

The instant the hands got shook, the shirts came off.

And there was much rejoicing.

A year later, the shirts appear in piles around the building with signs saying we can either take them or they go to Goodwill.

Yeah, that's brilliant - get your old name out on the streets with the old logo. Worn by bums.

If I were homeless, I'd wear a David Carr jersey before wearing one of those shirts.

Let's avoid the whole "The Jews killed Jesus" blood-libel and stick to what matters: Tom Waits rules.

I mean, how many other artists growl out their lyrics through a bullhorn so good?

Why is METRO begging for more volunteers for the Q-Booster program?

Because former Q-Boosters such as myself think their testing regimen is full of crap.

Still, it's ten bucks worth of rides. And you won't have to wait in line when The Big Screwover happens later this year.

Or next year, based on the gripes I've heard from drivers about the thing.

Chris Burke beats up... Chris Burke?

I'm waiting for Timmy Poo, Uncle Drayton, and Crapiron to blame this all on Scott Boras for signing our past two center fielders and then negotiating like a terrorist with a bus full of hostages.

One team will get its first win at the Distaster Area tonight.

Who will it be: Red Birdies or Twinkly Stars?

Stay tuned to Fire Phil Garner for all your snarky Astros fan news that I bother to type out.

David Carr gets to roll in the grass in Carolina now.

Fill in the usual rants about Reggie Bush and Vince Young here, and then head over to McClain and Justice for some high-quality revisionist history.

Remember when you were a kid and some nut would talk about the "unstoppable object" going up against the "unmovable barrier" and crap like that?

Well, now with Mario Williams on one team and David Carr on the other, we have the defensive lineman who can't sack anyone going up against the quarterback who is impossible not to sack.

I believe the fabric of the universe is in danger.

It's been nice knowing y'all.

Apparently, the English don't have enough things to worry about:

Owners of fat dogs or cats could face prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act which comes into force tomorrow.

The Act, the biggest overhaul of animal welfare legislation for a century, creates a new offence of failing in the duty of care towards a captive animal.

Pet owners can for the first time be guilty of an offence before an act of cruelty has been committed, for example by overfeeding their pet.

The Act says a person responsible for an animal must provide it with a suitable diet, intake of water, environment and housing and ensure it can behave normally and is without pain or disease.

What? Us overfeed our cats?

*mphf* *glorph* *slurp* *glorph* *slurp*

Oh, come on... cats naturally crave the flavor of maple syrup.

Is Houston's METRO running the train in SL's Caledon?

By the way, I've started putting all SL-related posts on firstlife.isfullofcrap.com and all Astros-related posts on Fire Phil Garner.

Yes, metro.isfullofcrap.com has slowed down somewhat, since it takes time to whip out satire on the insane statements coming out of Raquetball and Frankie.

In the world of self-mutilations as demonstrations of religious devotion, Filipino Easter Weekend Crucifixions are the Christian equivalent of Ashura head-slashings.

Kinda makes Fear Factor and Survivor look like a bunch of blow-dried pussies, eh?

I'm not sure that I agree with Ann Althouse that Rosie's continues spiral into madness on The View as a deliberate attempt to get Bob Iger to fire her.

What do I think?

Every now and then, when I get really irritated at someone and I am incapable of dealing with that person without finding limitless fault or frustration with them, I throw up every barrier imaginable and shut them out for a month or so.

It lets me take a step back, cool off for a while, and think clearly about the events leading up to the blow-up.

It also prevents me from allowing them to further irritate me into doing something utterly irrational (as if anything I do can be construed as rational).

For one person, that month is nearly up, and I'm almost ready to lift that barrier and see what's on the other side of it.

If there's anything left there.

A brief glimpse of... the truth:

Hassan Khraisheh, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that the commanders of the PA security forces knew where Johnston was being held, but were doing nothing to release him. "What's the point in having 85,000 security officers if they can't free a foreign journalist who has been held in the Gaza Strip for three weeks?" he asked.

Some answers:

• "Making sure that he's well-guarded around the clock to keep anybody else from freeing him."

• "Their job is to assist in capturing more, not freeing the ones they currently hold."

• "They've learned their lesson that policing duties for occupying armies is a futile effort."

• "He's not on the other side of a flaming hoop."

• "Sure, they're cousins and brothers with the kidnappers, but it's not polite to discuss business over the dinner table."

First, listen to Steve Winwood's "Back In The High Life"

Then listen to Warren Zevon's cover.

Winner: WZ

Blogging will be light today because I am unable to deal with a reality in which Phil Garner has managed to win a game.

What? No squeeze play with the bases empty? Tell Ausmus to pitch out to second when the runner is on third? Or sending all outfielders deep when the pitcher at at the plate? Or making Brad Lidge start?

I... cannot... relate... I... cannot... relate... must... see... this... for... myself...

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

The drought is over. I finally bought 2 tracks from iTunes.

One is Warren Zevon's "Back In The High Life" off of his "Life'll Kill Ya" album.

What's the other?

(First to guess will win a gift certificate from iTunes when I figure out how to do that.)

Someone won 72 million bucks last night.

As of 09:00AM, yawn...

I guess Chronicle's disdain for covering high-stakes gambles extends beyond METRO's Light Rail and semi-legal real estate projects after all.

Why is Brad Lidge not in Boston?

Carnival of the Cats may be 159 weeks old, but that doesn't mean we've settled into a orutine. Bad Kitty Cats fight over who gets to run the show, and we all get to enjoy the resulting chaotic frenzy.

So, with all that said, who is Catmodel of the Week?

It's St. Edloe the Grumpus, who watches over us all.

Catmodel of the Week is determined by the number of clicks a cat receives in The Catmodel Gallery.

If you'd like to add your blogging kittycat to the Carnival of the Cats homepage banner, just send me the 4-by-3 photos in JPEG format and I'll get them added.

The 9 was late this morning, so I ended up having to run for the 102.

Instead of lollygagging as I galumped out of the 9, I broke into a sprint from the moment I hit the ground.

Three blocks later, I barely caught the 102.

Thank you, Frank Wilson. Thank you from the bottom of my colon for focusing on real-estate swindles instead of maintaining a well-synchronized fleet of vehicles.

Sure, it helps that I've lost over 20 pounds since starting on this diet and very low impact exercise program, and shedding a few pounds out of the workbag reduced my burden, too.

But it would help more if I didn't have to assume that I need to run my ass off every morning.

I am curious to see who will be the guest-bloggers at McGuff's blog.

Back in my day at that place, unless it was Chris Adams or Gene Norman, trying to teach any of the "talent" anything was measured in bottles of Excedrin and frozen margaritas at Cabo's afterwards.

And the iXL (iAsshole) interface for blogging?

Don't. Get. Me. Started.

But unlike the Yours Truly of the Turn Of The Millennium, who found himself tilting at iron windmills with low-bid balsawood lances too many times, McGuff's got patience to spare and has earned the respect of his peers. I cannot but envy that, but I also deeply respect and admire his accomplishments.

It will be curious to see which old dogs he's taught new tricks, and which pretty pampered poodles pooh-pooh the proposition.

When I was growing up, I was a Dog Person.

When I grew up, I became a Cat Person.

They probably didn't know it, but Brian and Mim were a huge part of that transformation.

I didn't know, Mim. I didn't know.

I'm so sorry.

Wrigley/McKenna/Williams - Answer your emails.

Amazing, how this global instant communications medium of species-transformative dimensions of so many options and technologies can boil down to a "You didn't know?" phone call in the middle of the day.

Welcome to the Information Age, where you can feel like a schmuck for not knowing... not keeping touch... and even though deep down you care, letting yourself being caught up in the perpetual tidal wave of the trivial.

Time to hit the Houston SPCA site and begin my contrition.

Arabs who are shown to be loyal to Israeli interests, whether in a public or private fashion, are marked as collaborators and traitors by various Palestinian groups and publicly executed.

On the other side of the security fence, Israeli Arab MK Azmi Bishara of Balad lives.

And not just lives, but lives well.

Who's civilized?

Some photos from yesterday's game before the battery (and Lidge) crapped out...

For fullsized photos, check my Astros gallery.

Once upon a time, I assumed that a yardstick was a yard long.

Then, a Physics professor demonstrated the fact that metals shrink and expand with changes in temperature. What was a yard at a particular temperature may be slightly shorter at a lower temperature due to the compaction of molecules... or longer with the expansion of molecules due to heat.

He described a world with a wide range of temperatures, and some creature walking around with a metal yardstick, trying to survey the world with a yardstick that was changing length constantly.

The yardstick needed measurement as well, with a thermometer embedded in it so the creature could read the length of the thing by its temperature.

Why am I thinking of this?

Well, it seems that the yardsticks of the political present need a bit of measuring as well.

The folks at Zogby, who predicted a 100-electoral vote victory for John Kerry in 2004 before the election and issued a horrifyingly lame excuse for their thinly-veiled stumping for him afterwards, now appear to be loading the questions in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Is this a pattern? If so, it calls into question the impartiality of Mr. Zogby's organization and the blurring lines between pollsters and activist organizations.

It's one thing to say you have a finger on the pulse of a society, but Jumping To Conclusions Johnny Z is looking more like a vampire draining it of its lifeblood, ready to command society with his mysterious dark Dracula-esque powers.

Let's see how he shrinks back and hisses at the bright, painful light of the truth.

How about some Kitty Movie Monday action?

Nardo flips and flops on the bed...

For those of you mourning the death of B.C. strip creator Johnny Hart, this golden oldie might cheer you up.

Or not.

Blogging will be light today.

So is the staffing at work.

They're trying to rearrange schedules to cover all the gaps, but it's like trying to cover Anna Nicole Smith's tits with a single post-it note.

Sure, you can tear it in half and just cover the nips, but that's not the point.

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow, since any attempt to change my schedule will result in wrath of mighty great vengeance and anger.

I live across from the stop that Christof analyses today.

This bullet point is classic METRO:

A bench. Let's get basic again. Unlike many, this stop has a bench. But it's behind a hedge; if you sit there the bus driver can't see you until he's at the stop. In other words, sit, and your bus may drive right by. Every stop should have a bench, and the bench should be placed so you can look down the road.

Even though there are a lot of projects in the works, I predict that METRO will blow off any improvements to the 9 route until the Dangertrain runs into the Westpark Wasteland.

At that point, just like the 1 was hamstrung by the Red Line, the 9 will likely atrophy or vanish

Kafka Schnabel dropped by for a visit to Matzohenge a while back, and he honored my creation with a feature in the first issue of 2life Magazine. Thank you very much, Kafka, for entrusting my mad little creation with helping kick off your publication... may every issue be even more successful than the first and twice as fun to produce.

The photos are from before my parcel's expansion, but the overall plan hasn't changed too terribly much at the base.

Most folks know that I'm stingy as hell with prims, so the fact that my virtual mezuzah eats up 13 prims but I keep it on the doorframe says a lot about what it means to me.

I'm listed in the credits as a Contributor, but with all that's going on right now, I haven't been able to budget any time yet to write for them. (I've also been passing on my IMAO and Shire Network News slots, but I just haven't been feeling all funny on the political side of things as of late... just nervous over the world's cowardice and dithering over the Iranian nuclear weapons program.)

I will make an effort to do so, although it all may end up being a rehash of the Moronic Missives of Milton Mariner's Mechanical Manservant (For those of you who watched NBC chatshows in the 80's, the M's are a tribute to Len Sella's "Moron Movies")

Oh, and the smiling photo of Crap Mariner in that issue reminds me of a guy named David Gwizdowski... just needs curlier hair.

The wind is blowing right to left 14MPH at Wrigley.

Jason Marquis is on the mound, who pitches like a girl's softball pitching machine.

That screams "Right handed lineup" - right?

Well, Luke Scott's in there instead of Jason Lane.

Genius!

Regardless, this should be a home run derby for Lance and Carlos.

If neither rocks one out of the park, maybe they should dig through the Wrigley storerooms for some of Sammy's old bats.

Or did they recycle them into toothpicks and corkboards already?

Podcast Pickle has a new embedded player. And it's stunningly easy to configure as well as great-looking.

I'm tinkering with it at my test page.

Oh, and I'm playing with the header/banner, too.

Today is 4/11.

It is Information Day.

Ask me any question.

KT Cat needs your help to determine which of two videos is better.

I have some choice words regarding the prosecutor, fake victim, and the cyclone of attention-hungry race-baiters in the Duke Lacrosse case, which was dropped today.

I'll keep them to myself.

I woke up to discover that Kilgore Trout had died.

That's okay - when the timequake is over, he'll be back for another six or seven years of the same old shit, all over again.

I am writing this note before listening to the review of 100 Word Stories by Bruce of PodcasterWhosWho.com.

Whether it's a positive review or not, I'm deeply humbled and flattered that someone would take the time to listen to a few episodes of the podcast, gather their thoughts, and produce a review of that podcast.

I am reluctant to call it "my podcast" because the Weekly Challenges are a collaboration between a dynamic group of very talented authors and vocal talents, and I do not want to diminish their brief, but often exquisite efforts. I prefer to use terms like "The podcast I produce" or "The 100 Word Stories Podcast" in a third-person Bob Dole kind of way.

So, let's all listen to the review and be surprised together. Pardon me if it sounds like arrogance, but I am confident that this review will be a positive one, as has been all others I've come across recently.

I would not mind coming across more.

Oh, and the new banner with the Podcast Pickle player is now active. I was chatting back and forth with Gary about the margin on the thing, and very quickly he got that thing transparent and with a smaller footprint.

I am in Houston. He's in Austin. His develop is in... whevererville.

I remember when that kind of feedback-collaboration was bizarre and frightening, back when at Comspace/Nettech there'd be a bunch of folks in Houston wired up with people in places like the Ukraine.

Now, that kind of feedback-collaboration is becoming routine in the world.

Yad Vashem tells the truth (as we know it) about Pope Pius XII

The Vatican demands that WE FORGET that the Catholic Church's upper-echelon had a policy of appeasing the Nazi regime and turning a blind eye to the slaughter of millions.

Yad Vashem asks to see the Vatican's archives on the subject so the so-called "evidence" the Catholic Church claims as a defense can be reviewed and considered.

The Vatican bitches, refuses access to the empty files, and demands that WE FORGET their complicity.

Yad Vashem, as should we all, refuses to FORGET.

The Vatican is nothing more than a Catholic men's club for holier-than-thou perverts in dresses to old to molest the neighborhood kids, so they give lessons to their subordinates on how to do it without being caught.

Al Sharpton was a part of the circus of professional race-baiters exploiting the Duke Lacrosse Case and whipping up the poor, ignorant black crowds into a hate-filled frenzy.

Don Imus has been the target of a lot of attacks for his remarks, and Al Sharpton is one of those attackers.

So, Don's using Sharpton's words against him. And they're quite damning.

Don Imus' job is nothing compared to the damage this so-called man of God has done.

For crying out loud, Sharpton's public remarks in the past have gotten people killed in riots.

If Sharpton were white and pulling this kind of shit, he'd be sunk long, long ago.

Instead, he's able to run for president, hauling in campaign funds into a business operation that couldn't manage to pay his rent for office space.

Yes, there is a double-standard in this country.

Yes, there is such a thing as reverse-racism.

Reverse-racism is not a cure for racism. It only serves to perpetuate it.

The media's continued failure to discuss it and hold those who exploit it for profit responsible for the consequences of their actions will just make the situation worse.

If we're going to be equal, we need to be equally accountable for our racist statements.

But if you ask me, I think we're fucked.

I've been expanding Matzohenge @ SoHo within Second Life a bit, but the new header for the podcast means I need to clean up the billboard on the building...

Good Old Crazyman is back! Yay!

(For more on this madness, check What Is This Crap?)