Thankfully Wednesday, Feb. 21 was a nice sunny day. It made for a pleasant walk to Louis Lunch on Crown Street in New Haven. I had been reading alot about Louis Lunch. It seems that Athens, Texas wants to proclaim their town the home of the hamburger. New Haven had already made that claim to fame. Local newspapers, both articles and editorial coverage started. After doing some ancillary reseach on this, I discovered that the New Haven area was the birthplace for many significant firsts. So, it was fitting that I experience my first visit to Louis Lunch that sunny Wednesday afternoon. Stay tuned…Monday I’ll continue with a full report on my experience at Louis Lunch.
February 24, 2007
February 6, 2007
I’m Back!
The spring semester has begun and once again we must blog. Hopefully this semester I can come up with some interesting, or at least, marginally interesting information to put on this blog.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl this year. But, I visited MSN.com and previewed the commercials. I’d have to say that the Blockbuster commercial “Click the Mouse” was my favorite. I wish I could download the file and create a loop. I’d love to have that as a screen saver.
Enough nonsense…back to work!
November 27, 2006
The HTML Writers Guild- Is this the same as the lollipop guild
Lullaby League and Lollipop Guild
We represent the Lullaby League, The Lullaby League, The Lullaby League
And in the name of the Lullaby League,
We wish to welcome you to Munchkinland
We represent the Lollipop Guild, The Lollipop Guild, The Lollipop Guild
And in the name of the Lollypop Guild,
We wish to welcome you to Muchkinland.
We welcome you to Munchkinland
Tra la la la la la la
Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la
Tra la la la la la la
From now on you’ll be history.
You’ll be hist …
You’ll be hist…
You’ll be history.
And we will glorify your name.
You will be a bust
Be a bust …
Be a bust …
In the Hall of Fame!
Tra-la-la-la-la-la,
Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la–
Tra-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la, Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la-la
Tra-la-la-la-la-la–
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
geovisit();
<img src=”http://visit.geocities.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1164676061″ alt=”setstats” border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″>
November 17, 2006
Another one of my pet peeves
Can telemarketers contact wireless phones, pagers, and other text devices?
Under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, it is against the law to use autodialers or prerecorded messages to call numbers assigned to pagers, cellular or other radio common carrier services except in emergencies or when the person called has previously given their consent. (47 USC 227)
But the law fails to specifically prohibit “live” telemarketing calls to cell phones. Telemarketers claim they do not target cell phones with solicitations, but it can happen, especially if a wireline phone number is inadvertently assigned to a cell phone. Aside from the privacy and annoyance factors of receiving junk calls on cell phones, there is the further aggravation of having to pay for those calls. (Cell phone users generally pay for both the outgoing and incoming calls.)
The Direct Marketing Association’s ethical guidelines instruct DMA members to refrain from knowingly calling a phone number for which the called party must pay the charges, unless the recipient has given consent.
(www.the-dma.org/guidelines/EthicsGuidelines.pdf, scroll to Article 45, “Restricted Contacts” )
November 13, 2006
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
A new report has suggested that blogs are fast becoming an authoritative resource that can be used to market products more effectively. The survey, conducted by Ipsos Mori, found that consumers consider blogs to be a more trusted source of information than either TV advertising or email marketing. Can the same be said for news sources or blogs?
There are a variety of blogs, other than a blatantly personal blog, most blogs should be considered a news site; the bloggers considered journalists. They should follow the ethics and standards of accuracy for journalists. Cyberjournalist.net says since not all bloggers are journalists and the Weblog form is more casual, they argue they shouldn’t be expected to follow the same ethics codes journalists are. But responsible bloggers should recognize that they are publishing words publicly, and therefore have certain ethical obligations to their readers, the people they write about, and society in general.
Cyberjournalism.net goes as far to post A BLOGGERS’ CODE OF ETHICS. Their three main points are: be fair and honest, minimize harm, and be accountable. (Actually, if you listened to your teachers, parents, etc., these points should dictate your behavior for your whole life.)
Each society has a list of implicit and explicit consequences for people who violate standards of behavior, etc. In order to foster an environment of ethics and accuracy on the web there have to be implicit and explicit consequences that people will recognize and respect. Removing inaccurate content from your website should not absolve you of the responsibility of posting inaccurate information or the possible harm inflicted by such information. This should be applicable to both corporate sites and John Q. Public sites.
While, President Bill Clinton isn’t the greatest role model for personal responsibility, he said in his 1997 Second Inaugural address that “Each and every one of us, in our own way, must assume personal responsibility—not only for ourselves and our families, but for our neighbors and our nation.”
If we all look past ourselves and our own agenda, and take a trip back to the 1960s for a lesson in social responsibility, we can have an internet that promotes the First Amendment and the freedom of speech, and doesn’t feed rumor or conjecture.
November 7, 2006
Watching the Richter Scale
We live in two worlds, the mobile world, and the stationary world. The mobile world is our commute, to the mall, school, work, weekend at the beach. The stationary world is our home. While we are traveling, we will put up with modified internet service on our blackberry’s, but at home we want our big screen televisions, computer monitors, etc. Is the universal digital machine that Edward Felten predicts in his lecture (Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue Lecture) on the horizon something that we will really want or use?
There are laptops and other computers that do everything, music, video etc. There are IPods that do almost everything, Podcasts, video, music. Will the universal digital machine be that much different I don’t think so, but I’m not in the techno-must-have category. As it is the new IPods can plug into a number of audio ports and into computers.
The great earthquake that Felten refers to is near. According to National Geographic, scientists are studying animals to see if they can predict earthquakes. I don’t know if animals can predict an technological earthquakes but I would start watching Sega’s Idog!
If the VCR, Compact disc and IPod are tremors before the big earthquake, I fully believe with the rapid onslaught of new technologies we will be seeing a lot of products that will be classified as aftershocks.
November 6, 2006
Another View of Convergence
The Harmonic Convergence was a loosely-organized new age spiritual event that occurred on August 16 and August 17, 1987, when groups of people gathered in various sacred sites and “mystical” places all over the world to usher in a new era, a date based primarily on the Maya calendar, but also on interpretations of European and Asian astrology.
The Harmonic Convergence was supposed to be a global awakening to love and unity through divine transformation. It was initiated in 1987 by Jose Arguelles. According to his interpretation of Maya cosmology (an interpretation held as completely unfounded by Mayanist scholarship), this date was the end of twenty-two cycles of 52 years each, or 1144 years. The twenty-two cycles were divided into thirteen “heaven” cycles, which began in 843 A.D. The thirteen heaven cycles ended in 1519, which began the first of nine “hell” cycles.
The Harmonic Convergence was (according to Arguelles) to be the end of the “hell” cycles and the beginning of a new age of universal peace, as supposedly foretold in Maya prophecies. To supporters of the concept, the signs indicated a “major energy shift” was about to occur, a turning-point in Earth’s collective karma and dharma. Believers said this energy was powerful enough to change the global perspective of man from one of conflict to one of co-operation. Actress and author Shirley MacLaine called it a “window of light,” allowing access to higher realms of awareness.
According to Arguelles and others, the Harmonic Convergence also began the final 26 year countdown to the end of the Maya Long Count in 2012, which would be the “end of history” and the beginning of a new 5,125 year cycle (not that there is any evidence at all to indicate that the ancient Maya believed the world would end at this point), the Maya knows that this is the turning point where all what exist today – war, materialism, violence, abuses, unjustice, govermental abusive power, etc – will end with the birth of the 6th Sun and the 5th Earth on 21-12-2012.
Philosophical Implications
Supporters of these esoteric prophecies maintained that the Harmonic Convergence would usher in a five-year period of Earth’s “cleansing,” where many of the planet’s “false structures of separation” would collapse. As it turned out, the late 1980s and early 1990s did indeed see some events of significant geopolitical shift, such as the breakup of the Soviet Union, the reunification of West and East Germany, and the ending of apartheid in South Africa. Some believers in new age philosophy held these events and others as being indicative that a major cosmological shift had taken place <citation needed>.
However, a great number of wars, atrocities, famines and suppressions continued apace, such as the massacres in Rwanda, the ongoing disputes of the Middle East, civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, war in the Balkans and war in Iraq. In terms of significant events and world (in)stability, the years after the Harmonic Convergence are indistinguishable from other decades, before or since.
Thus, given the multiplicity of anticipated outcomes of the Harmonic Convergence, its effect on subsequent world history is questionable. Effects on individuals, of course, varies with their experiences.
An excerpt and editorial
Bad Habits Can Be Good for Your Career
http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/
De-stressing After Work
By Candace Corner, CareerBuilder.com writer
Everyone has a bad habit or two (or six). Bad habits don’t necessarily have to work against you. After a long day at the office, keeping all of your emotions in check and your work in focus, you could use a little de-stressing to wind down. Here are some bad habits that could actually work to your advantage if you work ‘em the right way:
Playing Video Games
Dressing Your Worst
Watching TV
Swear It All Out
Gambling
Rocking Out Your Air Guitar
De-stressing After Work
By Anita Steeves, working drone
All the above, plus rewriting your resume while having a beverage and/or food item of choice; preferably one that’s bad for you.
