It's apps like this that make the Andriod totally superior to the iphone.   The future of these two platforms is apps.  With the big brother behavior of Apple, Google will blow the iphone away when it comes to the developer community.   Watch, the future will prove me right.


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In my short life I've met a great number of fellow Christians.  My own father is a Deacon at the same Baptist church attended for the past 20 some odd years.  I've dated many girls, and when I married met many different Christian types of all sects. 

I've come to appreciate every type, even the Pentecosts (lightning strikes them in the isles - it's hilarious). In fact some of my best friends are Pentecostals.  But one thing I have to wonder about is home schooled Christians.  I'd say I've met and known pretty well about 7 families that home schooled.   What I've seen is to a man, their kids want out as soon as they come of age.  This one family in a neighborhood where I lived...  The kids were so two faced to their parents it was amazing.  Now I'm not saying they didn't love their parents, but they wanted out.  They wanted out but NEVER let on their parents. They didn't pick colleges on the opposite side of the country for no reason.  They didn't want to break their  parents hearts so they lived a lie under their parents noses.  

What I also learned and here is where my inspiration for this article sprang from came up...  (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108084 - copy of article below in case article vanishes) is that all of them really were not prepared for the world when they did leave their parents.  One girl... She baby sat my kid.  I tried to teach her computer skills years ago.  She was socially inept and lazy about life.  She was beyond innocent, she was naive.  Then when she moved out, she hid her core personality from her parents.   She rented my friends apartment when he left the country for six months and she threw wild parties.  He ...   more »

I write for a gossip magazine.  I come across A LOT of news.  We can't write about politics there for obvious reasons.  And frankly, I find politics on a whole - a time sink.  

But I see things  many people do not.   I'm not usually inclined to weigh in either as politics is a discussion that you can ALMOST NEVER change anyone's mind on.  People decide the are of a political value, or party and that is it.  Nothing anyone can say will penetrate their thinking. 

So I post this to you no matter your political affiliation as a reminder that we are not living in an unbiased media world.  Use your head when you read news or watch it on TV ...Especially on TV. 

Check our these articles as a bold reminder to use your head when watching the news:

Files Prove Pentagon is Profiling Reporters
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64401

ABC, NBC Won't Air Ad Critical of Obama's Health Care Plan
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/27/abc-nbc-refuse-air-advertisement-critical-obamas-health-care-plan/

The 5 Ballsiest Lies Ever Passed Off As Journalism
http://www.cracked.com/article/100_the-5-ballsiest-lies-ever-passed-off-as-journalism/

These are just a couple selected from various sources to make the point the issue is important and applies to us all.  Thanks for using your brain.


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I cannot take Brad Lidge any more.   Why?  Why?
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Imagine you are three months into pre-production of one of the most elaborate movies of all time.   It's big, but not as well known as Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, but just as big.  Then due to issues between the studios and the property owners of the story, the plug is pulled on the entire project.  What do you do?

If you are lucky and smart you get District 9.  

District 9 is the child of 29 year old director Neill Blomkamp.  District 9 is entirely based on the concept from a short video Alive in Joburg which Blomkamp directed and Sharlto Copley produced in 2005.  It's worth noting that Sharlto Copley (authentic South African) has the starring role as Wikus in District 9.

Both Alive In Joburg and District 9 are truly original ideas which elevates this sci-fi horror film to greatness; yes horror.  It's extremely graphic but mostly be inference.  Bodies blow up but the action is so fast you are not left watching grotesque images.

You may question what was the original film much of the production of District 9 repurposed?  It was none other than Halo, based on the Bungee studios video game built exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox game consoles.  If you are aware of Halo's story line it's entirely possible to envision District 9 as the precursor to Halo.  In the story Halo, earth is at war with an alien race.  A back history question is what caused the war?  Generally wars are provoked and story of District 9 could be that provocation towards an alien race that drives Halo.

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Director) was slotted to head up the Halo movie and he brought in Neill Blomkamp to direct it.  When Microsoft ...   more »

Want to see a movie before it's released? filmmetro.com. 
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OK, are you on Facebook?  Or MySpace?  Sorry, I'm about to offend.  Well, sorta.  After all, you all know I'm not on Facebook or MySpace and my reason long ago was the lack of autonomy.  However over time, I learned another big reason I was glad not to be in that world.  Narcissism.   And yes, I'm acutely aware of my own behavior on my own blog.  Aside from family photos and sharing with friends, family and colleagues some of what I'm doing, I've come to learn what I say can make me look like and ass if I'm not careful.  So I am.

Here are my basic rules when I write. 

1. Will anything I write haunt me later?
Court battles with ex-wife taught me this lesson.  She had every friend she knew scouring my blog for dirt and waited to pounce on anything I wrote in hopes of using it against me in court.  Then there is potential employers.  If you know me, I've got two current forms of income and in today's economy, it ain't cutting it.  So I'm looking for third form of income.  Any prospective employer won't find anything about me that says social misfit. In fact, I know I'd do a company proud.

2. Reach and Readability.
How wide is the reach of what I write and is it written well enough for a repeat read?

3. Usefulness
Have I written something that will be searched for days, months and years from now?

I can go on but you get the idea. 

But let's back up a bit...  I have to watch out for the pitfalls of the MySpace and Facebook mentality.  What is that?  Well, check out this list of 'types' I found in an article on CNN. You'll get a kick out of ...   more »

For skate club members, this is what our T-Shirt would look like if we get enough advanced orders.  Sorry, I don't have the cash to front this alone.


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Sometime in 2009 I took the plunge and joined twitter.  Of course I tried to understand what it was before I joined.  After all, I think of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites as potential narcissistic endeavors.   Twitter does have the same pitfalls, after all it's all about YOU.  Social networking is supposed to be about you AND others; staying connected and meeting others with like interests.

I believe that is why I enjoy the autonomy of a blog, but even blogs can be trouble.  During my divorce I was tempted to use it as a platform to do more than keep friends informed.  I learned a big lesson during that time. 

What am I getting at?  Well along comes Twitter with the question, "What are you doing?" OK, cool.  But frankly I really don't need to know my friend's every move.  I don't follow many people on twitter either.  It's hard following what people do with their life and what motivates them.

In response to that I penned this article for PCM Magazine.  Enjoy…

TO TWEET ON TWITTER DON’T BE A TWIT

Are you a Twitter? You know - the site that allows you answer that life pressing question, What are you doing? to your friends, family and colleagues.  (Oh… and you have to tell it in 140 characters or less.)  The question you should ask yourself before tweeting is however, Does it matter what I’m doing?  or Do people want to know what I’m doing?

Hey if you are a celebrity, sure it would be ...   more »

Here I am at the Big Apple Roll.  I'm having a laugh during our second skate of the day.  We skated for almost 40 miles between two skates.  I'll be posting a full video of the skating soon.

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You have no exuses!  Go be creative!

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm

 

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Have some fun.  Enter the password:  ZHXM - IHDV at this URL: http://worksmartlabs.com/cardiotrainer/

Then just click on my history of skate maps. The cool thing is that you can ZOOM down to street level.  See every inch of where I've skated.
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Quick, what is the one thing that can do in Superman? It's not kryptonite. Try either time or an attorney.

Truth is always stranger than fiction and there is a strange but true legal battle going on now between the owners of Superman and creators of Superman even though the actual creators are now deceased.

It's an all American story that started out of Cleveland Ohio.  In 1933 two high school boys named Joseph Shuster and Jerome Siegel created a fictional "super hero".   A few years later in 1938, those two boys were now working for National Allied Publications which later became Detective Comics.   That year they somehow either made a foolish decision, were misled or outright duped into selling the rights of their character to National for $130.00. They assert a judge at the time considered money owed to them for their first Superman story (the $130.00) to be payment for the character.   That's another story.

Even by modern standards with adjustments for inflation etc... this was not a big sale and you'd think a judge would weigh that factor into a decision.   Over time Shuster and Siegel got a lot of "trust me" responses from their bosses and publishers and they were in fact kids trying to stand up to bully businessmen.  That too is another story.  Eventually they left the publication sued, lost their claim to the character, but settled for $94,000.00. 

Each court loss set the table for public sympathy in years to come.  After all, the creators of Superman deserved more than $130.00 for a character which proved to be one of the most if not the most identifiable story character in modern history.  Years wore on; neither man could match their accomplishment of Superman in future work. They fought on and years of legal ...   more »

There is a time bomb ticking away on the Internet surrounding the question every online news provider is asking. "How do we get paid?" You see, the fact is few online news organizations make any revenue outside of display ads. Due to the nature of providers being compensated for display ads by click thru impressions, almost ALL online news organizations are losing money. Even average Joe Blogger wishes he could make a buck off his hour's long researched article written for who knows how many readers.

For some time online publishers have not asked you to "Pay" but instead asked you to "Pay Attention" and click on display ads. If you enjoy a web site and visit it routinely, you owe it to them to pay attention as display ads are finely tuned to your interests.

The time bomb is ticking away. What will the explosion be? The major news outlets want it to be the day you can't surf the Internet for news without paying for it. For print news publications with an online presence it goes beyond the question of "Will you pay?" to "How much will you pay?"

How can that happen? Well it can only happen effectively if EVERYONE commits to this plan at the same time. In illegal business circles this is known as collusion. You know …when various rival businesses all secretly work together on fixing a price so you the consumer can't do a thing about it. But when you are Rupert Murdoch the owner of News Corp, you own all the rival publications (Fox News - NY Post - Wall Street Journal - The Sun, The Times, Daily Telegraph - Times of London etc and over 30 more), you don't call it collusion you call it an "offensive model".

The cold reality ...   more »

We put together this promotional video for our club.  Thought I'd share with friends.

I've hidden or saved an easter egg at the end for everyone to enjoy...

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It's time I discuss dating again.  It seems to be a subject many people enjoy reading about.  The problem is (if a problem at all) since being divorced, I avoid drama like the plague.  It's why I don't have a girlfriend - well that's not the only reason of course.  But it feeds into why I don't offer a woman 'the boyfriend experience'.

One girl/lady/woman (you pick) I dated once remarked  that I was closed off and I didn't give her enough of me.  With my head turned I closed my eyes thinking, "My strength is my silence".  She said I was like talking to a wall.  So I answered, "Buddha once sat before a wall and when he walked away he was enlightened."  Oh the stir that answer caused.  It seems my Zen philosophy was totally lost on her.

The good news I must tell you that men and women do want the same thing.  We know and appreciate what love can do.  There is something about love that makes the simple act of someone you care so deeply about that the mere act of seeing their body approach the bed to make love - being naked  ...you sense every move, the moment  is sensuously charged.  Meanwhile most of us make love to people we don't even like.  We stifle ourselves by settling.

It's when I wax poetic like this that many women feel they want to connect with me....   more »