th@talldude

Twitter Users Can Be 'el Stupido' At Times

I'm sure you're all well aware by now, I like Twitter.  A lot.  I follow a lot of people (634), and a lot of people follow me (525).  I'm what people might refer to as a 'power user.'  I don't sit back like some people do and just watch, I actively participate in the stream, replying to people with @s, sending and replying to DMs (direct message), following new people I find interesting, and throw out my own original thoughts and ideas, even if they may be a bit controversial at times.  I think after 5500 tweets, and following about 1.2 people for every follower I have, you can logically say I'm not a spammer, but a legit person, with legit frustrations.  When I follow you, I expect you to show at least a small bit of common sense.  Yes, this is part rant, part 'Twitter users, SHAPE UP!'

50 Bloggers in 50 States

I'm finally posting this, which is long overdue.  When you bookmark something, it's important to go back to it again, but things came up, and I got distracted.  Better late than never I suppose!

Fellow Tweeter Patrick Curl is planning a road trip to all 50 states.  He is currently in fund raising mode, and is taking donations in the form of cash and hardware.  He wants to interview a blogger in all 50 states, which can be a great traffic boost for your blog.  The interview will be in the form of text/audio/video, and will be spread throughout the internet through whatever means he can.  I hope you all swing over to his American Bloggers page and give him some support.  This will surely be a fun trip to keep our eyes on, and we'll all be certain to learn something new, as well as find some great new blogs to read!

Take Pictures of Models With Taco Bell and Sports Illustrated

Taco Bell has created a gold mine for viral marketing.  Combine two of the typical American male's favorite things, food and a hot girl, and put them together online.  Voila!  An online photo shoot.  I am sure they are going to get tons of traffic off of this.

My TweetWheel

I finally got TweetWheel to load for me today.  I haven been hearing interesting things about it, but their server has always been so busy, and even today, I had to refresh several times before it got all the way through.  TweetWheel is very similar to the Facebook app, FriendWheel.  It collects the data about you and your friends and who you're following, then gives you a visual display to show you how you are all connected.  You can find my original TweetWheel here, but I also took a screenshot of it, so you can glance at it on the blog before reading my other posts (wink wink). It obviously doesn't have all of my Tweeps on it, there's far too many for TweetWheel's current capabilities, but it still gives a nice representation.  You can follow me on Twitter @thattalldude.

Why Are We Blaming Shyftr?

As I went to check on my feed readers tonight, I came upon a couple of interesting posts, both on the topic of blog comments, and both targeting Shyftr.  Now this upsets me, as I understand the frustration of any blogger not seeing comments show up on their blog, but instead, seeing them elsewhere.  What I don't understand, is why this is reaching a boiling point with Shyftr, as opposed to the myriad of other sites guilty of it.

Not Even Magic Can Stop Chuck

My buddy found this destructive force over at http://img.skitch.com/20080330-tq5yuekdwnygjdpa6pc42kbkra.jpg.  As it turns out, not even the fabled, mythical creatures of 'Magic: The Gathering' (a great game, we killed off many hours of downtime in Iraq playing it) can come up against the mighty Chuck and stand a chance.  In fact, doing so merely kills off any other game characters nearby that may have been contemplating the same, death defying move.  I can only imagine how much money this card would bring on ebay.

Are You Linking? You Should Be.

I just read a piece by Scott Koon, Do Links Really Matter?  In it, he asks, "If the point of your writing is to spread ideas or opinions that you’ve had, does a link really matter? Should you care if you get credit?"  I think we all like to get credit, but isn't all of our writing an idea or opinion?  We do research, we get the facts, and with those, we state what we think about them.  A perfect example is Iraq, the facts are out about American death tolls, there's a lot, and people have widely varying views about it.  Having been there, and seen first hand what's going on (my job consisted of looking for roadside bombs, I've got pretty good knowledge of who's responsible for them), it's a very good thing that we're there, and just like Japan and Germany nearly a century ago, it's going to take a lot of time until things settle down.  But that's my opinion.  If someone were to read this, and it prompted them to write something, I would expect that they would acknowledge me in some way, leave me a comment, a trackback, or link to me.  I will have done all three for this piece, I left Scott a comment, I linked to his piece (first sentence), and I will use the trackback when I finish writing this.

Sorry for the Disruptions

    Sorry for the disruptions we've had here lately.  My domain was initially registered with Yahoo, but it became quickly apparent after setting up domain mapping that it wasn't going to work.  After getting multiple redirect errors daily, and giving them several weeks to work it out, this weekend I switched the registration to Go Daddy and updated the domain mapping.  It might be a few days yet until all of the domain info gets updated across all of the massive internet routers, but I believe that this should all be settled down soon.  Thanks for your patience.

Been Back 3 Years Already?

    On February 4th, 2005, I landed back in the states after my year in Iraq.  I declined to come home for my two weeks leave, so they bumped me to the first group of guys coming back.  It was nice, made it back just in time to watch the Superbowl.  Even nicer, somebody did some sweet talking and got people to come and do some processing for us over the weekend, so were in Ft. Carson, Colorado a mere four days and made it back home to North Dakota February 8th.  After being away from home for over a year, it was nice to not waste any time getting home, it was also nice to see  dozens of cheese burgers from McDonalds waiting for all of us as we got off the plane in Colorado.  McDonalds is a welcome sight after you've flown from the other side of the world.  I'll try to tell you about some of my experience without saying anything I'm not supposed to say.

Things That Might Bug Only Me

I've seen some really random stuff today, and got me thinking about some of the things that bug me.  So, in no particular order, here they are.

• Guys getting questions wrong on "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?"  The plural of roof is not 'rooves,' how hard is that?
• Websites with all the proper indications of having an RSS Feed, but not actually having the feed.  If my browser indicates a feed, I expect a feed.
• My blog's domain mapping always finding a few hours during the day to not work.  I know it is properly set up, so why quit working EVERY DAY.
• Kids bragging how tough their 'rice burner' is.  Seriously, listen to your engine, and then listen to a V8, it's not a contest, you've got a wimpy car.
• Kids thinking 'NOS' is the answer.  Sorry kid, that late '60s Muscle Car lined up next to you, um, uh, raw horsepower wins, plus the guy is a better driver than you.
• People who think "Big & Rich" is actually country.  As with most modern 'country' bands, once you can pass as southern rock from the '70s/'80s, you cease to be country.
• People who think XP is still better than Vista.  Ok folks, unless you run very specialized software, or have a wimpy computer, Vista is better, just because you're not used to it doesn't make it bad.
• The constant criticism of our President.  Admit it, we know more about what our elected officials do today than they did 40 years ago, Kennedy made some tough decisions too, you didn't see all his info then, and you don't see all of Bush's info now, but you see more than you should.
• People who swear a lot.  Really now, is your vocabulary so pathetic that you can't come up with more creative adjectives than vulgar 4 and 5 letter words?
• People who think farmers make a lot of money.  Do you want a better idea how many millions of dollars were lost by the farmers within a 10 mile radius of me over the last decade?  Prices finally went up on the grain they sell, but so did the prices on everything they need to buy.
• Intelligent Design/creation proponents who declare evolution didn't happen.  Just because every textbook in the country explains it wrong and has the time line screwed up, doesn't mean evolution didn't and isn't still happening today.  [Yes, I believe in Creation, yes, evolution is happening]
  
• The closest Apple Store to me being 14 hours away.  Steve buddy, North Dakota exists, people use Macs here, gives us a physical store that sells Macs.  EVERYBODY sells iPods, to get a Mac we have to order it online.
• People asking me how tall I am.  I'm about 2m 3 cm.  Didn't pay attention in science?  Can't convert from metric?  About 6' 7".  Yes, I play mini golf.
• People who blog about things that bug them.  C'mon, how desperate are you to resort to this to satisfy your itch to post something?

Dehydrated Water

Now you can buy your own dehydrated water.  No more worries about running out of the earth's most plentiful resource.  Simply add water to these cans of dehydrated water, and you will now have water!

Drumming To Mario

WOW.  This dude whips out a nice groove to the tune of the Mario soundtrack.  I wish I could play the drums like he does in this bit.

We've Got Dilbert!

Check out over on the right side of the page, you might have to scroll down a little bit.  We now have the Dilbert Widget here on th@talldude!  Please come back here every day to check out the daily Dilbert, one of the greatest comics ever!

October Road

I just finished watching the first season of October Road, and I must say, I am quite impressed.  In an age where sex fills tv and movies, kids and young adults alike take away the wrong impression of how life really is.  October Road takes the basis of many familiar plot lines, and runs them past, through, and around one another, along with a distinct emphasis on forgiveness.  Nick, the successful author, returns home after a ten year absence.  He must deal with the fallout from his book, which based the characters off of his old friends.  Slowly, friends and family alike allow him to return to their good graces, only to be pushed away again.  Nick also befriends a ten year old boy, the sun of his former girlfriend, who may or may not be his son.  An excellent show in an age where not many shows are worth watching every week, this is one that everyone should make the effort to see.  I eagerly anticipate the ongoing second season!

October Road - The Complete First Season

Update

I see that my blog's formatting is messed up right now, odd since it was fine last night and I haven't done anything to it since.  However, I'm going to take some time off from the internet, and I'll look at it later, sorry for any inconveniences my blog readers may have.   ~Shawn

Making Progress

After an entire week of fooling around with the blog's code, and reacquainting myself with CSS, it's starting to round out into shape.  The domain mapping finally happened today, and aside from some minor tweaking and a couple more additons, the blog's structure is about complete.  I hope everyone spreads the word about it, and leaves lots of comments for me.  I'd also appreciate it if you could visit some of the ads on occasion too, to help cover the costs of the blog (I could never settle for the 'base' plan), and to help me do the things I do (volunteer at the youth group), at least until I land a full time job again.  Hope you enjoy it all!  Thanks, Shawn

Richard Simmons on Whose Line

There is no way you can watch this and not laugh!  This is hilarious, the guys at 'Whose Line' really raised the bar high when they did this!

Fancy Coffee Infraction

Is your ride Built Ford Tough?  Watch out for the BFT patrol, they're watching.

Florida Controversy Sparked by New Science Standards

There is controversy at hand in Florida (Florida Times-Union, The Gradebook, WMNF Community Radio), where the science standard for teaching in public schools, established in 1999, have been reevaluated and changed, and local school boards have a problem with the new standard.  The former standard, which pretended evolution did not exist, has given way to an emphasis on evolution as a 'fundamental concept.'

John Timmer's Ars Technica article references this document, by T. Ryan Gregory, which is essentially a very wordy way of saying the general public's terminology differs from the terminology the scientific community uses, although they are the same words.

Hypothesis, theory, fact, law. Prefaced with “hunch” or “guess”, this list of terms would reflect what many people consider a graded series from least to greatest degree of certainty. This ranking may be appropriate in common usage, but actually makes little sense when these words are employed in a scientific context.  ~Gregory

Perhaps the larger debate should be over teaching the correct use of the terms in science, as millions of students graduate high school, and even some colleges, each year, with the understanding  that hypothesis becomes theory, which becomes fact, which becomes law, regardless of what the proper scientific context may be.

Ghostbuster's Lecture Hall Prank

I wish I would have thought of this.  Today's students foster so much creativity.

Baby Got Book

Dan "Southpaw" Smith's parody of 'Baby Got Back.' 

Huck Chuck Facts

Chuck Norris is great!  Oh yeah, Huckabee is in it too.

Cal Band Halftime Show

Blogging, Finally

Well, I'm finally officially blogging, unless you count posting to Myspace and Facebook, but that's really not blogging.  Kudos go to @bentrem, who's been hounding me to start a blog since we connected on Twitter, which is quite possibly the best way to socially communicate online.  There will initially be some material you may have seen before, as I repost things I have posted on Facebook and Myspace.  Anyways, this is my first official blog post, and it might be shaky for a week or two as I shake down all the settings I have available and tweak them until they are to my liking, so there may be lots of cosmetic changes for a bit, let me know what you think of the site, maybe it will prompt me to change something.  But for now, I will leave you with this, as I have many more things to look at before this blog officially goes live, sometime within the next day, hope you enjoy!