More on Trolls

Saw this pretty funny t-shirt on the subject via Wil Wheaton's post

Also I'd like to add, it was really amazing to read his latest review of Star Trek TNG, I haven't bothered to go to the full review on TV time or whatever it was he wrote for, but the link is here. It's just neat to read his self-reflective writing and put it with what little I know about sphincter-boy as we all referred to him back then and what the real person went through, and see the comments he makes about himself in the role. Just great writing, for real.

Fuel Cells

First off, I want to say I love reading blogs.... I read all sorts and all kinds, and there's no end to the amount of information I have access to without leaving my desk or talking to a single soul. I don't even have to nod my head, say "uh huh" or respond in any way, I can just absorb. Not very useful of me, admittedly, but this is definitely a state of the world in which I, your typical nobody has access to so much more STUFF.

One blog, Guy Kawasaki, who is quite useful in what he pushes out there, I have to say, said to look at your blog as a 'product' rather than a letter. A book, if you will. Well that falls in line with my original albeit unrealized goal of using this as a proving ground for my writing ability. Well if that's the case, then I need to pick a topic. For example, Anil Dash has the topic of blogging, intrinsically useful for bloggers, of course provided that he has useful things to say about it all. Guy's blog is about being a more effective entrepreneur (sp? oh good I spelled it right, thank you spell chequer!! (as a side not I almost never use spellchekre)) where was I? Oh yes, so Guy says all this nice stuff, and to top it off, he has traffic and he's figured out how to monetize his traffic, and the bank account (continues to in his case) fills right up. I'm not sure I have the time or energy to make my blog worth money, but as you can see to the side I do have some Goooogle ads so feel free to click on the links. Just one?

So! Why did I entitle my blog Fuel Cells? Well I'd like a piece of that market. Wouldn't we all. If I had to choose a topic I could actually stay on for more than approximately 2 days, it would be fuel cells. I even have a few bookmarks pointed to hydrogen fuel cell websites. I won't waste my time trying to link to them, since this isn't a fuel cell site yet, so no one is going to come here looking for information or anything, ok? Just go to del.ici.ous, Okay?

More ramble, are you ready? I've been using dogpile recently and I find it doesn't have the information I'm used to seeing on Google. How strange, no? It's actually a teeny bit annoying to use dogpile. I couldn't explain it quickly, but I'll have to think about it some more.

AdWords Campaign

Today I launched my first AdWords campaign, and it's a big step for me! I feel like this could really be successful if I do it right. It's really just pointed to my painting website, and it's in the hope that I'll drum up some more cashie income doing some painting. On the flip side, this might mean I have to go legit and get a company registration, license, insurance and all that (cough:crap) stuff.

I have a friend who lives right near people who have a bunch of money. He started working for them, and now he's well known as the go-to guy for their repair work, painting, remodeling, or whatever they need. No advertising needed. Lucky stiff.

Anna Nicole Smith

I feel stupid for having a post with a playboy playmate for the title, but this post really is essentially about the paternity test of her daughter. I wish I could make this comment somewhere people would actually read it and LTAO, but since I don't know that many forums or anything: I sure wish her paternity test would happen on Maury Povich's show, it would be the best one yet. I haven't seen that much of Maury, but what I have seen is mostly "who's the father" and people running around and crying. Pretty pathetic... but hey I bet he'd pay for the test, yeah?

Obambam

First read this post

Found this myspace video...here

Made me think of the MD governor's race, Mike Steele would go and speak and people showed up to throw oreo cookies at him.

Trolls Anonymous

Thinking about trolling, I wonder if there's a Troll's Anonymous out there somewhere. It'd be funny, you know, since trolls are inherently anonymous or even if they identify themselves (I try to) they're unknown persons to the blog they've just commented on.

I'll say I feel like a troll often, since I don't really have the time to be a truly social blogger. There are people's blogs I really enjoy reading, and I want to comment, but hesitate because I don't really know the difference between a random comment from someone and a troll's comment.

I think the first step in eliminating a problem is understanding the problem.

Later: I went to wikipedia, as many of us do to find information, and found this, which is more than I knew before. I guess being at odds with a 'community' or popping in and intentially being inflammatory would be the keys to being a troll...

My idea still stands for a Trolls Anonymous website. I wonder if there already is one? Checking...

Later: I found Kibo and his signature.

Even later: Trolls Anonymous on Dogpile. Nothing official that I could find..

Later still: Let's say for example the search trolls anonymous is not in quotes, well not it's not very specific, so follow on search, with quotes, yeilded this, a posting on a message board. It goes to show that someone somewhere thought of the same thing. Not surprising, not even annoying, but cool, actually. What's cool is the fact that the internet makes possible the connection between two similar ideas no matter who has it.

Last post script (maybe): You know how AA encourages its members to believe in "'something'-it-doesn't-have-to-be-called-God?" for TA it would be "'something'-it-doesn't-have-to-be-called-balance."

Ok my last PS I promise:
An example of me, posting to a blog just because I read it once in a while, and I felt the urge to be part of it.

Rich or Poor

Yesterday on the trip home in my car (yes my car, not via metro) I was listening to NPR, and there was a story about how the top 3% of income earners have 20% of the wealth and the gap is widening.

One of the indicators of the wealthy CEO's pay in the story was the purchase of private jets.

This morning driving to work I realized that the key to good driving is not to be greedy. There's a lot of road there and you only need the space around your car. Then I thought back to the story about the rich, and actually short of getting your private jet/chopper/air travel, if you're on the morning commute, the road is a great equalizer, everyone, regardless of income can really only take up the space of one vehicle, and they only get so big, even a stretch limo maxes out at 3 cars long or so, and frankly isn't that much of an advantage, it only offers comfort while traveling, but won't necesarily get you there faster. In that sense the road is the great equalizer. Now reliabilty, comfort, and good looks is a whole nother discussion.

Quiz

One of the better quizzes to cross my screen, link here, via someone or other's blog, Oh wait it was a blog on blogger's main page, anyway, I got a 32. Some recent web company names, and some Star Wars names, can you tell the difference?

Charles Lenox Remond

Just now I went to amazon and read the freebie pages in How the Irish Became Black since I've never actually read the book yet, but should. In it there's a lot of stuff in the 1800's which I had no idea about, much less this figure O'Donnell in Ireland, etc etc. Anyway there was a reference to this guy Charles Lenox Remond who was a black guy (as though this was fortuitious and not often happenish) so I looked him up. Not a lot of web resources on the guy. Apparently a great orator (so he'd have to be played by Denzel?) who went with the delegation from the States over to a World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London.

No mainstream movies address this convention to my knowledge. If a movie like 300 can get made, easily a movie could be made about this guy, or the convention, and both. I'm sure Remond has made appearances in Civil War movies and he should, but I wonder how prominently and how detailed. I do believe it's one life not much explored. Here's a link to a blurb about him.

Political a little more

My other t-shirt goes something like this: a head shot of Obambam, or even my nifty bam-bam idea. It says above the picture, WE'RE NOT READY and below the picture HE'S NOT READY.

I sortof feel sorry for the Delaware Senator who put his foot in his mouth about Obambam, I hope he doesn't think he's a contender after doing that. Look at Howard Dean, in one night, he killed his campaign.

I'd like to add my editorial aside to this whole question of what you can and can't say about, to, or of the other race in America, and that is the underlying tension that still exists, on a different level, not that 'your daddy enslaved my daddy' so much any more but still the continued minority mindset and they hypersensitivity to accusation of any kind, by implication or explicitly. Accusations such as being racist, or being a minority, or being oppressed, or the worst, causing your own misfortune with bad choices rather than the excuse, I wasn't handed the opportunity.

That 'real' opinion said, to anyone who is still reading instead of rolling their eyes, I'll say I don't understand what it's like on the other side. I really don't and never will. My parents never drilled into my head that it will all come to nothing, as I know some kids get day after day. I also didn't grow up in a place where the weak are killed and the strong survive. This environment of the weak getting killed, literally and figuratively would in my mind lead to survival instincts of conforming to the norm, even if that norm keeps you down.

I still say we are not ready, but someday we might be. I'd like to see a world where a successful black person is not an anomaly or a story of conquering insurmountable odds, and I think we're getting there, albeit with a subset of blacks, the 'oreo cookies' if you will, but it's hard to separate the two groups because of the discomfort and the taboo which still honestly creates an us vs them environment. There's a book by Noel Ignatiev called How the Irish Became White. I wonder if in 50 years there will be a similar book, 'How the Blacks Became White.' Maybe I'll write it, but it'd have to be sooner than 50 years.

A little political

Some political tripe for you this fine morning. I've got visions of t-shirts dancing in my head again. one of them was after listening to NPR (I've been driving to work this week, so I get the news I haven't been getting) and there's a lot of buzz about Iran now. Predictably!

Who here reading this blog doesn't think that the rhetoric is building support for a hit on Iran? A lot of people say it's a bad idea, and rightfully so, but they're not the people who have their finger on the trigger. Those people, who went to Iraq, are still in power and there's still two years to serve out. Personally I hope someone succeeds in building a case for Bush's impeachment, he really is a terrible president.

Listening to the radio, they're detaining 'Iranian officials' who are doing trade with Iraq. This is clearly aimed at Iran, not at the security of Iraq, since Iraq needs to trade and become integrated with the region under the new "democratic" (read weak as water and failed puppet) regime if it is to build its economy. I love the fact that Jaques Chirac was brave enough to let out his real opinion on the situation, even if it's a little MAD-cold war era thinking.

As an aside, the MAD doctrine isn't the same anymore because Russia is no longer a communist threat, nor is China, which has trended increasingly capitalistic. These days it's much murkier since you have a cluster of unpredictable and uncontrollable countries and the question becomes how far can we go and how quickly in order to gain greater control of the region.

This is exactly where my thoughts went when I heard about the pressure on Iran's trade with Iraq, especially the cries of aiding and abetting rebels in Iraq. To me it smells like they found what they were looking for because they were looking for it, and granted I haven't done any fishing for more information but on the radio the official never says where the weapons are going, whether it's to Iraq the government we're trying to prop up, or to insurgents. Why wouldn't it be ok for Iraq, the sovereign state we support, to buy arms from Iran?

It is an agenda. We are the best, our way is best, and all you freaks and sheiks can put up or get out. The t-shirt: Bush is fascist.