Putting the "F" Back In Freedom

Go see the TEAM AMERICA movie trailer, and then come back here and tell me that you laughed out loud at the opening.

Ha!

Ain't It Cool News reports from the set.
via [ random abstract ]

Hello?

Learning how to put small moving images on the web daily.

My eighth video blog report from the DNC

Here's my eighth DNC video blog report: Participatory Democracy.
[ QuickTime 5 MB ]

Thursday night, the last night of the DNC convention, I went into Cambridge to check out the Final Hurrah of Participatory Democracy.

Go ahead, make a blog.

Getting Started With Blogger: A Tutorial from the Folks at Feedster.

It's getting hot in here

Dave Winer over at Scripting News says this about Kerry's speech:

"I wish I were watching it on TiVO so I could hit pause and catch my breath as he moved from topic to topic at utterly inhuman speeds. This guy is a very unnatural public speaker. It looks like they worked on getting him succinct, now they have to get him to work on the breathing. The crowd kept wanted to be part of the event and the candidate simply wouldn't let them in."

It was uncomfortable watching Kerry sweat.

The Post mentions it:

... the pumped-up Kerry, sweating like Nixon without looking uncomfortable the way Tricky Dick always looked uncomfortable, delivered it with real panache.

Maybe Kerry should carry a towel like Louis Armstrong did or Ruben Studdard should.

Garrett's House Tour

Human Dog productions has a great video of Garrett's House Tour over at his site.

I love the Precious Momments!

Video Blogging Coverage

Mark Glaser writes for the Online Journaism review, Blogsploitation: Big Media Tries to Steal Bloggers' Thunder at DNC:

Though a lot of bloggers were excited about candidate Howard Dean speaking at their Bloggers Breakfast on the first day of the convention, not too many quoted him from this comment: "I read blogs from time to time," Dean said. "Not because I sit down and intend to, because I don't have that much time, but because supporters send me e-mails with various blogs that they read...We have two people that we pay to read blogs, 25 or whatever it is per day."

(I found Dean's comments via an interesting video blog by Steve Garfield, an uncredentialed gate-crasher.)

I found this link over on New Media Musings where JD writes:

I hope we'll see much, much more video blogging in the months and yeara ahead. Mark Glaser's OJR column pointed to Steve Garfield's Video Blog, where he crashed the Democratic convention party and has posted seven video reports so far. Terrific stuff.

Thanks for linking, reading and watching.

Free Irritating Rainbow

One of my favorite bands, Irritating Rainbow has some free mp3's on their website.

Priest 85 [ mp3 ] is my favorite Irritating Rainbow song.

It's featured in the web comic movie Robot Bastard.

My seventh DNC video blog report

Here's my seventh DNC video blog report: Tim McIntire.

Ha!

Hot, ready and legal!

Lindsay Lohan on the Cover of the Rolling Stone.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers Drive By

I just drove by Louis Boston, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were on stage.

Here's some crappy audio, recorded on my cell phone, from the street:

It was all part of The Creative Coalition & RIAA 2004 Benefit Gala.

The Statue of Liberty Gang Interview

Here a still image from my video shoot of The Statue of Liberty Gang, during the DNC in Boston 2004.

I'm A Friend of Garden State

Zach Braff's Garden State Blog

Now I'm Audio Blogging

Audioblogger let's you make audio posts to your blogger blog from any phone, for free!

Here's my first lame 'Hello World' post:

via [ The Social Software Weblog ]

Many in mainstream media have gone AWOL

Media For Democracy 2004:

Join me at "Media for Democracy 2004," an important election-year initiative to make mainstream media more accountable to voters' best interests.

Showing sitcoms instead of the DNC and Obama?

What's up with that?

Obama Blogger

Barack Obama DNC Convention Blogger.

Revolutionary Women Rule!

Today I went to Revolutionary Women Boston 2004 at the new Boston Convention and Exposition Center.

Today's women are amazing.

The whole expo center was filled with women, and a few men, who were there to 'engage, mobilize, and empower women voters and to elect democratic women to public office."


I was there to shoot a video blog report of my friend Amy, and her Statue of Liberty Gang, as they spread the word of being Terror Free, while dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.

Here's a preview video of my day with the Statue of Liberty Gang.

Also, watch NECN for footage, as well as your local newpaper. A Statue of Liberty Gang attracts media attention.

Like Drumline but longer

Marking Time: A Season in Drum Corps

My Fifth DNC Video Blog report

This DNC video blog report covers the Veterans Caucus featuring Wesley Clark.

Steve Jobs: Bearded or Not?

Find out at The State of the Beard O' Jobs (S.B.O.J.)

My Third DNC Video Blog Report

Here's my coverage of the credentialed bloggers breakfast.

If I couldn't get in as a credentialed blogger, I figured why not go as a citizen journalist video blogger.

So that's what I did and got to see Walter Mears of AP and Howard Dean. I also did a quick interview with fellow bloggers David Pell and Dave Winer.

More on the breakfast from Garflyer here.

My Second DNC Video Blog Report

Here's my second DNC Video Report: James Michael Curley House.
[ QuickTime 4.9 MB ]

My First DNC Video Blog Report

Here's my first DNC Video Report: No Sam Adams Ice Cream.

It's a story of local interest to me because it includes beer. ;-)

Jimmy Fallon, Queen Latifah and Hot Girls!

Taxi Trailer - A Yahoo! Movies Exclusive.
I think Jimmy Fallon is so funny. I met him a few years ago when he was a second tier player on Saturday Night Live.

He was really cool and supportive of my comedy writing.

I'll miss him on Saturday Night Live.

That guy almost got runover by a truck!

The Movie Blog - Born To Fight Trailer Online!

The DNC Bloggers Officially Got Drunk

politics.feedster.com :: The Official DNC Bloggers.

So much terror, what's a girl to do?

Paint herself green and join the Statue of Liberty Gang.

I Am TV

PlaNetwork Journal -> Anybody Can Be TV: How P2P Home Video will Challenge The Network News.

DNC Coverage: It's Alive!

HD-NNC will cover the Democratic National Convention, July 26-29 at the FleetCenter in Boston. HD-NNC members and other interested parties should contact HD-NNC to learn about HDTV coverage. In addition, HD-NNC will provide live streaming coverage at this website.

Voom and HDNet will have complete HD coverage of the Democratic Convention in Boston.

HD-NNC will be providing the feed.

Don't have HD yet? HD-NNC is going to provide a stream on their website too.

Time for the Statue of Liberty Gang to Unite!

Cowboygirl Productions is getting a gang together:

Hillary and I are starting up the Official Statue of Liberty Gang for the DNC.

Anyone and EVERYONE who wants to dress up like the Statue of Liberty and join us for certain events is welcome to...

We are putting together a list of events to meet up at.

The people in the green paint stores are rejoicing!

Outside The Box

The little square cubicle
a small box in which to live,
thoughts, hopes, and dreams
all contained there.

At the end of the day
take out your box cutter,
cut through the lid
unpackage yourself.

Bring a piece of bubble wrap
to cushion reality,
enjoy your time outside
have some damn fun.

-Anon E Mous

Drudge Was Wrong.

Matt Drudge apologizes to Alexandra Polier for Kerry affair rumors.

Was Kuleshov looking at soup?

I'd like to read the whole Grahame Weinbren's Ocean of Streams of Story sometime. That's why I link to it here.

It's all about interactive fiction and film.

Butterfly in Motion

I went it Apple today for a preview of Motion. Here are my impressions and a short butterfly that I put in motion.

Show. Sell. Print. Photos.

Exposure Manager has a site for election bloggers to show and sell their photos: electionphotos04.com.

BU students are covering the convention too.

Put reel crazy people in movies, that you make up in your head

Screenplay Systems : Reel People

We are the media

We the Media.
"A Website and Weblog About Topics and Issues Discussed in the Book We the Media by Dan Gillmor"

The Boston Weblogger Meetup on Wednesday, July 21st

Boston Bloggers are meeting tonight at 7:00 in Boston at the Marche Movenpick.

I'll be there.

Stop by and say hi!

And don't forget, I'm featured on Fox 25 News tonight at 5 and 10 PM, in a segment about blogs, video blogs and the DNC!

Movie Premiere at the DNC

American Wake - A Film by Maureen Foley

Citizens Media

Jeff Jarvis discusses Technology and Journalism.

Install bugmenot in your browser

Now you can install bugmenot in your Mozilla browser. This includes Firebird 0.7, Firefox 0.8, Firefox 0.9, Mozilla 1.6, 1.7b and Netscape 7.1.

So next time you go to a site that requires registration, bugmenot will be there!
via [ boingboing ]

Blogging this photo from flickr

Why bother?, originally uploaded by George.

So I just joined flickr, since Blogger says it's an easy way to post photos to my blog.

I love their registration screen where it says, "Your screen name is like a nickname. You can have spaces in it if you like. For example, Johnnie Rotten or My Little Pony are both fine."

I bet those screen names are already taken though.

So here's a cool picture taken by George.

Next up, I'm going to try their Mac OS X upload feature and see how it works.

Update:
The upload feature works pretty well, but you can only add one photo at a time. If you select a group of photos and drag them to the flicker upload application, it crashes. Also, instead of dragging the photos directly from iPhoto to flicker, I made them smaller first.


Here's my flickr photo album.

Note: They are going to have Pro Accounts soon which will allow, "Permanent archiving of everything you upload". I guess that means that the photos you upload on the free account won't be there forever.

Have you seen these Salmon Rice Bowls?

I love the Salmon Rice Bowls made by Starfish Inc.

Have you seen them in the stores?

I bought one once and haven't seen them again. Have you?

UPDATE - Starfish replies:

Starfish is no longer producing the salmon rice bowl. We hope to launch a new line of "meal solutions" shortly-but unfortunately, we cannot help you at this time.

We appreciate hearing from you, and hope to be back in stock at a store near you soon!

Ah, So that's what happened.

I Love Newfangled Parking Meters

Anthony Flint writes about the new parking meter systems in today's Boston Globe, Parking Matters:

The city's pilot program for 'pay and display' parking, on Union, Batterymarch, Water, and Kilby streets and the centralized pay-per-space system on Cambridge Street at City Hall Plaza was set to end in June, when the vendors vying to replace Boston's 7,000-plus coin-operated meters were supposed to take their demonstration equipment away (the old meters will be stuck back in the sidewalks at those locations). But the newfangled systems will remain in place through convention week and into August, said Dan Hofmann, deputy commissioner for field operations for the Boston Transportation Department.

The new systems, where drivers pay at a centrally located station, which accept dollar bills, for their spaces, will be evaluated for user-friendliness, ease of maintenance, and enforcement effectiveness, Hofmann said.

By calling the new meters, 'newfangled', Flint implies that they are 'needlessly novel.'

I disagree.

These new meters are amazing. Much like the parking systems you encounter in European cities, these new meter systems have lots of benefits over the current coin operated meters.

First of all, you get to pay with dollar bills. Secondly, instead of maintaining a whole blocks worth of parking meters, only one station needs to be serviced. Finally, they are fun! More fun than a boring old coin operated meter that always seems to loose track of how many quarters you put in.

These Schlumberger parking systems increased Toronto's parking meter revenue by 60%.

If they end up being used in Boston, I have a couple of suggestions:

1. On the receipt that you leave inside your car it says, "Use sticker on back to fix to windscreen."

For Boston, you should probably change the text to read, "Use sticker on back to stick the receipt to windshield. GO SOX!"

2. Instead of 'EXPIRY TIME', it should say 'Expiration Time', or 'Get back here by."

Bypass Compulsory Web Registration

BugMeNot.com
13,962 sites liberated.

The New iPod's on the cover of Newsweek

Newsweek - The New iPod.

"The considerably tweaked fourth-generation iPod will roll out this week, and NEWSWEEK got an advance peek. It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less."

MSNBC has the full text of the Newsweek articles.

You can't ride bikes around Jamaica Pond

My exchange with a bike rider at Jamaica Pond:

Bike Rider: "On your right!"
Me: "You know you're not supposed to ride bikes here."
Bike Rider: "Call 911!"

Bike Rider: "Don't take up so much of the path!"

Just then a Park Ranger vehicle stops the bike rider to tell him not to ride his bike around the pond.

Nice.

Park Ranger Gene tells me to call the mayor's office, to get better signs around the pond, to inform bike riders that they can't ride there.

My 89 year old mother-in-law was knocked down by a bike rider. That's why I'm concerned.

Quote of the Day

"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job."

-- President Bush, quoted in the Lancaster New Era, during a private meeting with an Amish group.
via [ TG ] by way of [ Scripting News ]

Magnetic Tape

www.magnetictape.net

Magnetic Tape features radio stories distributed by the Public Radio Exchange, a repository for exciting audio works created by radio producers across the country and beyond. The purpose of this show is to expose stories from new and seasoned producers who create creative, edgy, and relevant radio works that you don't hear often enough on your average public radio station.

Check it out even though it has nothing to do with magnetic tape anymore.

This is My Very First Time on an Escalator

TV Barn: Amish in the City.
Set TiVo to record.

Me and Strongbad

Andrew Grumet's RSS-Powered Personal TV Network.
Andrew has hooked his TV up to the internet to watch videos.

He asks, "Why shouldn't we be able to mix and match traditional news sources with StrongBad and our friend Steve making toast?"

Nice.

I wanna be a cartoon

Toonicons : personalized cartoon icons.

Safari: Create Bookmark Bar Dividers

Here's a neat Safari trick I figured out while watching a presentation at Macworld.

To make a divider between the entries in your bookmarks bar, all you have to do is press [ SHIFT ] [ \ ] when adding an entry.

That displays a '|' character, which makes a nice divider between your bookmarks bar entries.

Tech Superpowers Presents: Geek My Ride

Genius at Birth: Geek My Ride

Simply put, Geek My Ride was a Tech Superpowers challenge to our own team: to create, in one week, the ultimate Mac Concept Car for Macworld. Thanks to the guys at Brenthaven, we ended up with a last-minute booth at Macworld Boston 2004. One catch: we had two weeks and no exhibit. So our Mac Concept Car was to be the showcase.

Check out the link to see all the details of the installation, car and all the movies that were created by Final Cut Pro editors sitting in the passenger seat!

The Amazing Website Machine

Biz Stone explains Blogger to your friends who get that distant, wide-eyed, no-blink look whenever you try to explain what Blogger is.

Dick Breaks Out

Andy Dick kills on his new MTV show - The Assistant.

I love it! Sweet! Dude!

It's a reality show, that spoofs reality shows, realistically.

Feedster Status

See what's happening with Feedster and current feeds.

This looks interesting:
Latest Searches, Newest Feeds, Newest Posts.

This land is your land.

This land is my land.

This Land belongs to George and John!

An political annimation by Gregg & Evan Spirodellis, JibJab.
via [ Joshua ]

I'm on the radio tomorrow!

TV is not enough! I'll be playing music on WZBC 90.3 FM in Boston tomorrow from 3-6 PM.

From 4:00 - 6:00 is the local music show and Tracey, the regular host, tells me that there's a lot of new music in the studio.

So I'm psyched to be going in to ZBC to do a show. Listen on if you have a chance. ZBC streams on the web too.

Steve is a DJ - Official Web Site.

My Macworld Highlights

I went to Macworld on two days this week.

I haven't read much coverage about Macworld, other than fact that the show floor was small. Compared to the HUUUGE new convention center, yeah it was small, and compared to the shows out in San Francisco, yeah it was small, and compared to the shows from Boston back in the 80's, yeah it was small - but, the energy level of the attendees was LARGE.

Yes. People are excited about the Macintosh.

MOST EXCITED PRESENTER - DAVID POGUE
My award for the most excited presenter goes to David Pogue. He was insanely great! Pogue was at the O'Reilly booth teaching people tricks about iMove. Man, he gave out some pretty cool tricks. He was informative AND funny. I use Final Cut Pro in my day to day business, but I'm going to check out the new iMovie, and try some of the eat tricks that Pogue demonstrated.

GEEK MY RIDE
I spent a lot of time at the Tech Superpowers 'Geek My Ride' booth which was actually a mobile Final Cut Pro editing suite. Lots of people came up and said things like, "Talking on a cell phone and drinking coffee while driving is bad, but THIS, it's crazy!" Ha ha. So many people said that. Tech Superpowers had an editing competiotion where you'd film some video at Macworld and then get 1 1/2 hours to edit it. The winning video was about a rat who found love at Macworld. It was very well done by a guy who never touched Final Cut Pro before. He was used to using Premiere. His video got a lot of laughs, especialy when the rat too the escalator down to the show floor. The other videos were great too. A 12 year old did a nice job, and a music style video was also very good. Let me know if you ever see that picture that the AP photographer too of me.

WGBH INTERACTIVE
I enjoyed the presentation by the WGBH Interactive department. Especially the part about how they put together video for the web.

They said GBH serves TONS of content, said that of site visitors:

35% use quicktime
35% use windows media
30% use real player

They feel that they must make available quicktime and windows media as much as possible and real too if they can.

They have to use Cleaner on a PC to make a Windows Media video.

FOOD
The choices for food are limited to a food court that's half a mile away, over a bridge and around a corner from the hall Macworld was in. It'll be nice when that area gets developed further nasd there are some other restaurants and bars to choose from.

CONCLUSION
I had a great time meeting old friends and others who were interested in the Mac and video. The Peter Pan shuttle busses over to the $10 parking lot were sweet.

I hope Macworld gets a chance to come back to Boston next year, bigger and better.

PS: To get back to the Public Garden area from the convention center, you've got to drive down to South Station, turn left onto Summer Street, then right onto Kneeland.

And don't get me started on the abbreviation for the convention center, BCEC, used on the road signs. Please! Why couldn't they just write 'Convention Center' on the street signs?

Driving around that area made me feel like a tourist.

Guided search and navigation for restaurants

local-i: greater boston: restaurants: jamaica plain.
via [ pc4media ]

Hook up an iPod to your car stereo

ICELink takes the place of your external CD Changer and it operates like one.

Your Ad Here!

Bid now, to have your text ad displayed here.

Click here to bid on eBay.

Geek My Ride

He's a video I put together [ Quicktime 732 KB ] while sitting in the front seat of a Lexus IS300 at MacWorld Boston!

Tech Superpowers' editing unit, which has been nicknamed the “Geek My Ride,” combined an Xserve G5 Dual 2GHz system and a Raid Storage unit, along with a 42" plasma screen and an AJA 10 Box Video input/output unit all rackmounted in the trunk of a Lexus IS300 with an inline 6-cylinder, 218 HP powerplant, Garmin GPS, Valentine One Radar Locator, and 140MPH top speed it's arguably the fastest mobile HD editing station in the world. Power windows and moonroof are included!

Click here for High Quality Version [ Quicktime 1.2 MB ]

Me on Fox 25

The local news station, FOX 25, came to do an interview with me about blogs, video blogs and the Democratic Convention coming to town.

Jim Armstrong, and his cameraman Richie, were here for over an hour and 1/2.

I explained blogs, video blogs, what's happening with them and what the future holds. I hope my excitement about it all comes through in the interview when it's broadcast on tv next Wednesday at 5 and again at 10 PM.

Overall it was an exhilarating experience.

Video editing from the front seat of a Lexus.

Loren Miller took this photo of me at Macworld yesterday while I was doing some Final Cut Pro editing from the front seat of Tech Superpowers Lexus.

Everybody was taking pictures of me, including Josh Reynolds from AP.

It was a great photo opportunnity!

The cool thing about it was that Josh asked if we could roll down the window, open the sunroof, and get in the back seat.

He was looking for an unusual shot. That's what differentiates an poor photographer from a good one.

The good photographer comes onto a scene and askes himself, "How can I offer a unique perspective on this?"

The bad one just uses the Chevy Chase method of photography.

- Come upon scene.
- Raise camera.
- Take photo.

Ha! ;-)

Fire on Dane

Pondside residents of Jamaica Plain were awoken this morning to sounds of repeated explosions and fire in the street.

It was the infamous 'downed power line'.

Now I know why they say to stay away from those.

Steve Garfield, citizen reporter was there to cover the action. [ Quicktime Video over on my Video Blog ]

My Sharona?

Can anyone tell me why they are using My Sharona as the theme song for the new TV show Hawaii?

skunk

Last Comic Standing is so funny.

skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk skunk

skunk

PS:
Jay London went to the urologist. The doctor said he could go at any time.

FREE Macworld - Boston 2004 Exhibit Hall Passes

My good friend Michael Oh of Tech Superpowers is giving away FREE Macworld - Boston 2004 Exhibit Hall Passes.

Click here to download and print the FREE Macworld - Boston 2004 Exhibit Hall Pass. [ PDF ]

Check out his Final Cut Pro powered Lexus on the show floor and say hi. I'll be there today and Thursday editing some HD footage I've been working on for Moovlab Boston, and I'll also be shooting and editing a Macworld report for my video blog.

Macworld - Boston 2004

Why do statves have 'v' instead of 'u'?

Evolution of the Roman alphabet.

The Latin, or Roman, alphabet was created in the 7th century BC (more precisely 753 BC), according to legend. It was based on the Etruscan alphabet, which was derived from the Greek. Of the original twenty-six Etruscan letters the Romans adopted twenty-one.

The original Latin alphabet was A, B, C (which stood for both g and k), D, E, F, I (the Greek zeta), H, I (which stood for both i and j), K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R (though for a long time this was written P), S, T, V (which stood for u, v, and w), and X. Later the Greek zeta (I) was dropped and a new letter G was placed in its position.

After the conquest of Greece in the first century BC the letters Y and Z were adopted from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end. Now the new Latin alphabet contained twenty-three letters.

It was not until the Middle Ages that the letter J (to distinguish it from I) and the letters U and W (to distinguish them from V) were added.

So 'V' is a middle aged letter. ;-)

Kides these days don't know what Blublockers are

Blublockers are sunglasses, that when put on for the first time, make you exclaim: "Whoa! Check it out! Oh my! The colors are soooo clear!"

Watch the original Blublockers TV ad here.

Just A Geek: Now Shipping

Just A Geek is now shipping at Amazon.com.

Most Popular Links

Bloglines | Most Popular Links

It's a Flatenna!

Tritium's Flatenna parabolic reflector can be punched out of a cardboard template. They say you can use it to extend your Wi-Fi range.
via [ Daily Wireless ]

Claiming my blog

Don't Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

My Google Page Rank

From [ Google Blogoscope ] via [ Micro Persuasion ]

They Call Themselves Journalists

CyberJournalist.net J-Blog list.
"'The most comprehensive list of blogs produced by journalists' — Nieman Reports"

I'm a Sober Rational Constructive Follower

I took that peronality test.

My results:

You are an SRCF--Sober Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you a White House staffer. You are a tremendous asset to any employer, cool under pressure, productive, and a great communicator. You feel the need to right wrongs, take up slack, mediate disputes and keep the peace. This comes from a secret fear that business can't go on without you--or worse, that it can.

Bingo!

Except for the 'Follower' part.

Hey, wait up!

Off On A Tangent: Table of Contents

BlogToc

Powered by:

Imogen Heap has a moblog!

immi's moblog

"The sister site to Imogen's 'iBlog' - this moblog will feature photo sent direct from her camera phone while she cycles from the source of the Thames, back to her flat in London..."

Love her music.

Love her.

Free Boring Academic Videos!

MIT World has free videos for your viewing enjoyment.

Watch these soon to be favorites:

Nuclear Cloning and Cell Therapy: Fact and Fiction.

Progress in the Study of the X-Ray Background.

New Frontiers with Ultracold Gases.

Hey Mom, I'm going to MIT!
via [ hotlinks ]

Hot News from the Monkeywire News Service

A monkey eats an ice cream cone given by a visitor in a zoo in Islamabad.
via [ monkeywire ] who just launched [ bushisnotachimp.org ] which I just found on [ wonkette ]

Democratic Convention Storylines

pennywit has some good ideas for covering the Democratic Concention:

1) How far away is the so-called "free-speech zone?" Who's living in it? Why is it there?

2) Local, local, local. What do the Boston natives think of having this thing in their home town? Do they like it? Dislike it? How's the commute?

3) How's the help? Spend a day with one of the janitorial types -- chambermaids, etc. What kind of mess do parting Democrats leave behind in their rooms? Are liberals good tippers?

4) Access, access, access. How many parties can you crash while you're there? How long before your cover is blown at the D.C. Democrats for Kerry party?

I'm going to be doing some videoblog coverage that week and just might use a few of these suggestions.

Puritans Run Amok!

The Marblehead Reporter has this, Last call for sign with pint glass:

The Board of Selectmen last week declined to reconsider its decision to deny the Mugford Street Players theater troupe's request to display sandwich boards advertising its upcoming performances of "The Weir" because the advertisement was to include the image of an arm protruding from a full pint glass of beer.

This has taken censorship too far.

First they come for the sandwich boards, next they'll be censoring the beer labels themselves!

Sheesh.

Adam Kelly, please stop calling me.

I was getting repeated automated messages on my phone from "Adam Kelly". The message said to call 888-249-4134, and that it was not a sales call.

My caller ID identified the incoming call as coming from 312-895-3749.

An internet search showed me this is the company.

Merchants Credit Guide Co.
223 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 900
Chicago Illinois 60606
http://www.mcgdps.com/

Collection Agency

312-895-3749 cell phone
888-249-1033
888-249-4134

So I gave a call over there and Harold Butler told me that I was getting the calls in error and that they were meant for someone named Sylvia.

He said that they'd remove my name from the list right away.

Cool. A collection agency that cares. :-)

Jay Rosen is Going to the Convention

He writes about the convention and it's coverage here, PressThink: Convention Coverage is a Failed Regime and Bloggers Have Their Credentials:

"Now come the bloggers, a tiny group added to the mix, who with all their faults and shenanigans have one great advantage. They aren't a part of the failed regime in political convention coverage. They don't have to pretend it has the right narrative for us. They're free to look with fresh eyes and re-decide what a convention actually is, knowing where the dead zones are from having been on that story's receiving end: 'A political convention has become, at heart, little more than a reality show.'"

Cyber Journalist has a list of credentialed bloggers.

I'm not on that list. I got two rejections. One by phone, I thought that was nice, and one by letter.

In a way, I'm glad that I didn't get credentials. It leaves me free to roam the outskirts of the convention, and report from there.

Maybe something will happen, maybe I'll meet some interesting people from out of town, maybe I'll have fun.

We'll see.

If you are a non-credentialed blogger, planning to cover the Democratic Convention in Boston, post a link in the comments.

Boston (D) Party - Democratic National Convention Official Blog.

A Soundtrack To War

Deirdré Straughan writes:

I've seen Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11'. Very disturbing in so many ways that I won't go into - whether you agree with Moore or you don't, this film is not likely to change your mind. But one thing in particular, peripheral to Moore's arguments, jumped out at me.

Click the link to read more.

Protect medical marijuana patients

Congress will vote on an amendment tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday that would stop the Ashcroft Justice Department from arresting cancer, AIDS, MS and other patients who use medical marijuana with their doctor's recommendation. Please urge your U.S. Representative to protect medical marijuana patients.

Warning: Hospitalized Seniors Become Delirious

Here's a must read article from today's Boston Globe: Breaking through delirium.

Here's an excerpt:

Millions of hospitalized seniors each year develop the sudden, serious mental confusion that typically lengthens their hospital stay, slows their recovery, and can hasten their death.

I've seen this. It's scary. They never warn you about it and should. They have a hard time diagnosing it and should do better.

Delirium is often brought on in the hospital by a combination of factors that disrupt the patient's routines and health. Common causes include infections, medications, malnutrition or dehydration, immobility, noise, sleep disruption, and not being able to use eyeglasses and hearing aids.

There is hope:

Massachusetts General Hospital is considering an initiative that would flag older patients who show signs of delirium in the emergency room for special care throughout their hospital stay. The initiative would take simple steps, such as reducing the number of medications prescribed and medical tests performed, removing catheters and IV-lines as quickly as possible to allow patients to move freely, and providing darkness and quiet at night to allow normal sleep.

This is just common sense.

Why they keep all the lights on at night, have nurse parties in the hallways, and allows bells and buzzers to ring, is beyond me.

Life Caching

LIFE CACHING: collecting, storing and displaying one's entire life, for private use, or for friends, family, even the entire world to peruse.
via [ adrants ] by way of [ unmediated ]

Blogger Bios: If anyone cares

Mike Lauher suggests that Bloggers put up Blogger Bios for people to link to at the end of their post.

Here's Mike's Blogger Bio:

Mike Lauher's Blogger Bio: Mike uses his blog, Junk Drawer, to put aside useful, interesting things he finds on the internet. In his other life, Mike works for Soy Capital Ag Services which offers professional farm management and Illinois farms for sale.

Peter Caputa just put his up:

Peter Caputa’s Blogger Bio: Pete uses his blog, pc4media, to network with cool people, to get the word out about new innovations in the online software space, get feedback on his ideas, and to evangelize his event promotional and social networking company, WhizSpark.

Here's mine:

Steve Garfield’s Blogger Bio: Steve is a Boston based video producer, editor and videoblogger, and is leading the charge to make video blogging available to everyone. He uses his blog, Off On A Tangent, to put up links to hot girls, pop culture, television comedy, and things that aren't right.

Copy it:

<b>Steve Garfield’s Blogger Bio:</b> Steve is a Boston based <a href="http://www.stevegarfield.com/">video producer, editor</a> and <a href="http://stevegarfield.blogs.com/videoblog/">videoblogger</a> and is leading the charge to make video blogging available to everyone. He uses his blog, <a href="http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/">Off On A Tangent</a>, to put up links to hot girls, pop culture, television comedy, and things that aren't right.

Smile: Fireworks!

This is an artist's rendering of my favorite fireworks display from last night.

We went up to Larz Andserson Park at 9:50 PM. The streets were packed with cars!

Once at the top, we found ourselves in the midst of lots of other people who had the same idea.

Kids, blankets, families, flashlights, cell phones and a police escort.

Courtesy of the nice police officers, WBZ AM was blasting out of the cruisers speakers so we could hear the music that went along with the fireworks.

It was a nice show, and the smiley face got the biggest response from the crowd. :-)

Local Boston band Freezepop has a new CD

Go visit Freezepop-land and look at the pretty freeze-pops.

They've got a really, really cool sampler of all the songs on their music page.

Michael Moore's Blog Starts Tonight

Michael Moore's Blog.

Cool logo!

stopnader.com

Throw away those blenders!

Lt. Blender's frozen concoctions.

A neat invention.

Have a problem?

Globewatch is there.

Comcast Sucks!

Comcast on-demand does not have this season's Sopranos anymore!

Stupid Comcast.

Her wedding photos look better than her mug shot

Debra Beasley Lafave's Wedding Photos.
via [ SMcCarthy ]

Foreign Policy: Imperial Amnesia

Foreign Policy: Imperial Amnesia.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his advisors have embarked on a historic mission to change the world. Too bad they ignored the lessons of history.

via [ geekman ]

Buy a text ad for Off On A Tangent on eBay!

Here's a crazy idea we had at last night's blogger cookout:

Let people bid on buying a Text Ad for the 'Off On A Tangent' blog over on eBay.

The listing, Text Ad for the 'Off On A Tangent' blog, is up at eBay:

Text Ad for the 'Off On A Tangent' blog

Description

As the winner of this auction, you'll get a text ad, for one week, placed on the popular Off On A Tangent blog.

http://offonatangent.blogspot.com

Off On A Tangent gets approximately 500 hits per day.

Want more traffic for your website? Want to advertise a product? Bid high on this item.

Seller reserves the right to reject the winning bid for any text ad that is deemed not appropriate.

The high bidder gets a text ad on this blog.

This will be a fun experiment to see what happens.

Just trying out an Amazon link

Here's a link to Amazon.com's Top Selling Photo.

Live Short, Eat Tasty!

That's the quote of the night from the Blogger cookout!

I was pegged as the healthy guy since I brought the veggie burgers. But, then I started eating some Chicago Style Lays potato chips, chocolate chip cookies and an ice cream sandwich.

Everything tasted sooo good.

It was a nice cookout by the pond at Sandy Beach, and I look forward to the next Berkman blogger meeting.

Drop-Frame Timecode

dropframetimecode - an open source drop-frame timecode calculation

Jon Stewart, Larry King, Libertarians, Badnarik, Get Your War On

Stephen VanDyke presents: Hammer of Truth.
Stephen has all the links you need to keep you entertained and informed for at least a 1/2 hour.