You are 33% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You’ll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I’m givin’ her all she’s got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

I have an average e-penis. How big is yours?

Virtual Dogshit

All from Relicious.

Feeling Misquoted? Weblogs, Transcripts Let the Reader Decide

Wolfowitz seems to be a particular target for quote manipulation, if you believe the bloggers. The Guardian recently ran a report under the headline: “Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil.” But the Belgravia Dispatch blog quickly found that this was not what Wolfowitz was saying at all, with the full quote being: “The primary difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options in Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil.”

Thus the Guardian article has been removed with a retraction:

A report which was posted on our website on June 4 under the heading “Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil” misconstrued remarks made by the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, making it appear that he had said that oil was the main reason for going to war in Iraq. He did not say that. He said, according to the department of defence website, “The … difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq.” The sense was clearly that the US had no economic options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic value of the oil motivated the war. The report appeared only on the website and has now been removed.

(via Instapundit. Well, you can really find it anywhere, but that’s where I got it.)

Hey, everything’s dandy at J’s Notes again!

Bachelorettes Mistake Cop for Stripper

A police officer arriving at a bachelorette party because of a noise complaint was mistaken as the entertainment.

The partygoers thought Gainesville Police Officer Jamie Hope was the stripper, and they didn’t realize he was legitimate until he drove away with the bride-to-be in handcuffs.

“They didn’t go so far as to try and grab him,” Gainesville Police Sgt. Keith Kameg said.

But they were wondering when the show would start.

The little boy who would be pimp!

Once upon a time, in an ordinary street, in an ordinary town, lived an ordinary little boy called Tommy. Tommy liked the usual things associated with 8-year-old boys, he liked football and ice cream and playing at war. As I said, Tommy was an ordinary little boy.

But Tommy was no ordinary little boy. Tom had higher ambitions than the other kids in his class at school. He had aspirations to greater things than a mere racing car driver or astronaut, for Tommy’s walk home from school took him right through Main Street, and little Tommy’s dearest wish…

Was to become a pimp!

Beer ice cream goes on sale

Newcastle Brown Ale flavoured ice cream was launched on Tuesday by Doddington Dairies, and will only be available during the summer months.

The makers say the handmade ice cream reflects the region’s identity, and was even handed out to the European Capital of Culture 2008 judges on their last visit.

Newcastle Brown Ale has already been used as an ingredient in locally produced products, such as bread.

Bread, fine, don’t have a problem with that. Ice cream? Does anyone really enjoy the flavor of beer enough to eat it for desert? I think I’m gonna go make some beer pops…

‘Fuck it, Dude. Let’s go bowling.’

Lebowskifest!!!

Lebowski Fest is an annual celebration of all things Lebowski. The 2nd Annual Lebowski Fest is July 19th , 2003 and will include:

• Unlimted Bowling and Free Shoe Rental
  
• Celebrity appearance by Jeff “The Dude” Dowd
  
• Big Lebowski Costume Contest
  
• White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas
  
• Trivia, Farthest Traveled, and Bowling Contests
  
• What-Have-You

Sweet!

Well, gee, I hope my old posts return or this new Blogger set up sucks ass.

I don’t know about you guys, but my sleep last night was the most peaceful I’ve had in months. I’m so glad they finally got that Martha Stewart bitch. I now feel safe bringing children into this world.

Art or Crap? I’m damn proud of my 7/16. I suck and that’s fine with me. I thought the urinal was art.

Mike Sanders (who’s archives never want to work, kinda like mine) talks about Blogging Criticism:

Habit 3 is begin with the end in mind. In blogging the habit suggests that we think about why are we blogging something - to entertain, to inform, to educate, to persuade or to personally benefit in some other way. I think most blogging falls in to the last category - people blog for personal benefit. This might be why there is so little blogging criticism from bloggers - why would you criticize something that you are benefitting from - i.e. don’t bite the hand that feeds you. But in all fields of endeavor, criticism has an important place and blogging suffers from its lack of criticism.

Most of the constructive criticism of blogging comes from outside sources and it serves a useful purpose, despite the efforts by leading bloggers such as Doc, Dave Winer and Glenn Reynolds to flame into silence any criticism.

And I can’t help but agree. But I think part of that is the nature of the beast. Look at the number of bloggers out there. One whiff of criticism of the medium means that the blogger himself is under attack and a defense must be made. Who better to lead the charge than three of the biggest guns? (Though, I really don’t think of Glenn Reynolds as a big gun of blogging, I’m sorry. Yes, he’s popular. Yes, he’s king warblog. But he’s a metablogger who’s ridden the coattails of the medium created and the trail blazed by folks like Doc Searls, Dave Winer, Evan Williams and the like. I prefer to pay attention to was the techie bloggers have to say about things.)

But, such a defense, while not favorible, is not too out of the ordinary. It is the same thing seen in politics or religion or any other situation where people have definate positions and vested interests in what is being criticised. The best way to win a debate is to end it, even if your first response completely smacks down the opposition and destroys any semblance of ‘debate’.

Unfortunately that does nothing to help the medium (or any cause being debated). When you slam the door on critics, you reinforce what they believe by not allowing an insightful discussion to occur where ideas can be exchanged and minds changed. You do yourself a disservice by seeming like a hardass in something that really should be discussed, an ever evolving technology. You cheat your readers by not creating an environment for constructive discussions that could lead to greater understanding of what blogging is and what can be done with it. You also destroy any arguement you’re trying to make that blogging deserves respect as a journalistic medium because you remove any possibilities for bridging that gap.

Constructive criticism should be met with constructive debate, no matter what the topic. The purpose of such criticism should not be to enrage you but to make you take pause and consider why the other side feels the way it does, whether or not they are making any points that you should consider more fully, and how to approach them to correct or fill in any gaps within their logic.

Most bloggers ‘are teenage girls’ - survey

Over to Poland, where some hard statistics have emerged to help answer the question “are most bloggers teenage girls, or simply middle-aged men who write like teenage girls?”

The answer would appear to be the former. 62 per cent of Polish blogs are written by women and a staggering three quarters are written by teenagers or younger. So reported Marysia Cywiñska-Milonas at the BlogTalk conference in Vienna this week.

It’s a perfect fit.

Blogs: The Next Big Thing

The Blogging phenomenon, which recently drew much attention because of the purchase of Blogger by Google, will become the next big computer fad if it hasn’t already. And I don’t mean fad in a bad way. I don’t want to argue with various bloggers about the fact that blogging has been going on for years already. That’s beside the point, as is clear if we compare blogging to two similar über-fads?the CD-ROM business and the dot-com phenomenon. Both had been going on for years before they were suddenly catapulted into the mainstream in a big way. Blogging is following this exact path.

Also, I’m still not convinced blogging is really anything spectacular beyond providing a means for lots of people to update websites regularly. Though, there have been web journals for years and most services provided easy to update templates. Anyone could have updated their site ten or twenty times a day if they wanted to. It’s just easier now. But does that make it anything new and special?

Six Degrees of Blogging

If you really want to know, ask a blogger

Assiduous students of the print media will have noticed its practitioners becoming increasingly exercised about ‘blogging’ - the practice of publishing web-logs or online journals.

On 18 May, for example, one Geoffrey Nunberg fulminated in the New York Times about the fact that whenever one does a Google search on any topical issue, the top page rankings often go to blogs rather than established media sources (such as the New York Times ).

This was, according to Nunberg, A Bad Thing. After all, most bloggers are not professional journalists, but rank amateurs! He was not the first hack to articulate this whinge. In fact, he seems to have picked up the idea from an earlier piece in the Register, an online publication. But the mindset he represents is widespread in Big Media, so it is worth devoting a few moments to unpacking the prejudices behind it.

Test your reflexes

One Night Only! Bill O’Riley versus Al Franken!

RecordNerd.com is a neat site where you can list your record/cd collection for all to see. I just joined up and added a few things, more to come as I acutally sit down to use it. Check out my list. Also, check out Jericho’s list as he’s the reason I found it.

Are You A Blogaholic?

Your Score: 56 / 100

56 points is in the 51 through 80 precent

You are a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You’re the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!

Yea me!

Released last week…

Artifice Comics presents…

Bush43 #9 - “Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, Freedom Kisses, Freedom Ticklers And Titles That Have Nothing To Do With The Contents Of The Story”

“What the hell are you supposed to be?” I asked as I dodged a claw swung out by a man covered in what looked to be scales.

“I am Dragonman!” he shouted, swinging at me again as I stepped back to dodge.

“Dragonman? You look more like a fish than a dragon.”

“Fish?!?!!” shouted the man. Then he jumped at me and I just threw myself out of the way. He came down with both fists into the ground, cracking the sidewalk where I had previously stood.

“Well,” I said as I came to my feet, “you are covered in fish scales.”

“They’re DRAGON SCALES!” he shouted, tearing a chunk of the sidewalk up and throwing it at me.

I caught it.

With my gut.

But, still, I caught it. And it knocked the wind out of me. I leaned forward, clutching my stomach and quickly stood back upright as a clawed hand raked at the air where my head was.

“Look, I’ve seen fishies and I’ve seen lizards,” I said, “and those are definately fish scales.”

The man screamed and came at me again. I stepped aside and punched him in the side of the head as he stumbled by.

“Ew, see?” I said, holding up my hand that had scales on it. “You’re shedding them and they’re thin and shiny and stuff, just like fish scales. You should be Fishman or, better yet, The Minnow! Think of the fear you could strike in the hearts of those who oppose you!”

He mustn’t have liked that cause he swung out and shred the front of my suit.

We both paused as I looked down my tattered suit and shirt. I looked up to see him smiling like he’d just removed my kidney or something.

“That’s it,” I said.

You should have seen the look on his face as I pounced on him.

“Do,” punch, “you,” punch, “have,” punch, “any,” punch, “i-,” punch, “-dea,” punch, “how”, punch, “much,” punch, “this,” punch, “suit,” punch, “cost?!?!!” punch.

He started to fall but I grabbed him and held him up, his head wobbling, his legs giving way. Yeah, I’d beaten the shit out of the little fishy.

“Hey, hey,” I said, smacking him around, “hey, wake up, dude.”

He rolled his eyes to look into mine, his head low.

“Can you do me a favor?” I asked. He didn’t reply, probably brain dead from the beating I just gave him, but whatever. “Stand up,” I said, setting him up on his feet and steadying him. “There, wait,” I caught him and stood him back up, balancing him on his feet. “There,” I said, “perfect.”

And I kicked him in the nuts.

“YES!” I shouted as he fell to the ground, his eyes wide and his mind very conscious once again as the sudden shock of pain in his genetalia brought him to.

“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been able to pull that off?!!!” I asked, leaning over him and then standing back up right, extending my arms in the air. “WOOO!!

“Look out, Pacific City, I’m freakin’ BACK!”

The adventures of Bush43 continues! If you aren’t reading this series you obviously don’t care very much about me. *Sniff*

Woah…

You are Neo, from “The Matrix.” You

display a perfect fusion of heroism and

compassion.

What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Matrix followup: Yeah, first one was much better. I think the computer generated fighting threw me because I was expecting the neat revolving camera trick. Nope, they took the easy route.

And I’m pretty sure what the ‘plot twist’ for the third movie will be based off of what happened in the second. I’ll go into it later.