hypocrisy in the white house

the president's statement about terri schiavo:

"I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," he said.

"The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions the presumption should be in the favor of life." *

* Offer not valid in all 50 states. Offer does not apply to Iraqis, death row prisoners in Texas, blacks, hispanics, gays, lesbians, democrats or anyone living in a blue state or a state where my brother is not governor.

free dogs

it really should be flattering. they bark and bark and bark at every little noise when one of us is not home. they know the pack is incomplete and are so excited that the missing one may come back. but it drives me frickin' nuts. anyone want two free dogs?

uscis at it again

posted this morning on the american immigration lawyers association (aila) website:

Still no word on when USCIS will start accepting petitions for the 20,000 H-1Bs. In the meantime, government sources confirm that the USCIS miscounted fy2005 H-1B allocations, such that at least 10,000 more than the 65,000 quota were allocated. Posted on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 05032860 (Mar. 28, 2005) .

wtf?! wtff!?! this agency is so beyond f'ed up. every day its something like this. are they going to take visas away now? am i going to get calls to turn my clients in because uscis gave them a visa they weren't supposed to get?

podcasting

so, what is this podcasting thing? as we established in my first post, i am coming rather late to blogging, so i figure i am behind the curve on podcasting, as well. not as behind, though. so anyway, i'm reading one of my favorite blogs (http://randomreality.blogware.com/) a few months ago and i see this word podcast. don't know what that is, don't bother to look it up (yes, i am lazy). then, randomly, the next day, i read some other reference to podcasting. ok, this is something i need to know about, i think, as i google the term. i find ipodder (http://ipoddernet.sourceforge.net/) and am instantly hooked. so, what is it? basically, podcasts are radio shows that are produced by all manner of random individuals and posted on the internet so that you can download them and listen to them on your ipod. ipodder is an aggregator for podcasts, like all the content aggregators for blogs, news sites, etc., that will automatically check the sites you indicate for new podcasts and download them into your itunes for synching to your ipod.

so what do you listen to on podcasts? anything. literally anything. the content is so specific. they are radio shows that you would never hear on the radio because they are so not commercial. there are talk shows, music shows, comedy bits, food shows, sports talk shows, everything. there is so much content out there and some of it is crap, but some of it is great. i was having a hard time knowing where to start, but, lucky for me, literally minutes after i learn about podcasting, i read my wired magazine (yes, i get the old school paper version) and see this article (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66133,00.html) about adam curry (yes, the former mtv veejay), who is apparently the granddaddy of podcasting. he's involved with ipodder and has got a great podcast called daily source code, which you can get at http://www.dailysourcecode.com. there's almost always a fun mash-up to hear, a funny name-that-tune game called jan polet's hit test (http://www.janpolet.nl) and he runs promos for podcasts so you can find good content to add to your ipodder. like the roadhouse blues podcast, which i am jamming to right now. it's the best blues you've never heard. hit it up at http://www.codemode.typepad.com/roadhouse/ . other than adam, there are some other great sources for finding good podcasting content, including websites like podcast alley (http://podcastalley.com/), podcasting news (http://www.podcastingnews.com/), and podcast bunker (http://www.podcastbunker.com/).

so, there you have it. there are so many issues to talk about, like legal and copyright issues about content, the future of podcasting, how it could be made to be profitable and about a million others. this is my new favorite thing right now (which will probably fall by the wayside in a few days, we all know that i have the attention span of a gnat on meth). but, for now, i think its cool, so check out this podcasting thing...

spyware

spyware has got to be the most evil thing ever invented by mankind. seriously, people, i do not want to play blackjack at an illegal offshore casino, refinance my home or learn about unbelievable travel deals. i think the thing that tipped me off that i had spyware issues was the 8,000 pop ups for spyware detecting software. can they be that stupid to advertise something that blocks their advertising? probably not. so, figuring that the spyware software they were advertising was just another way to install spyware onto my computer, i closed the 17 popup windows that had just opened on my screen and went straight to the microsoft site and dowloaded the free anti-spyware beta. 15 minutes later, i am spyware free and surfing the web, gloriously pop-up free. thank you microsoft. pick it up at http://www.microsoft.com. i highly recommend it.

e-bay as art

go to ebay and search for item 5566217149. can't get the link to work here. did ebay know what they were getting themselves into? did they know that their site was going to be used for entertainment as well as e-commerce purposes? who was the first persion that thought they would use ebay as a platform to distribute their writing? this is a great hoax. very well done, well planned.

pat o

one of the funnier things i've read in a while...

http://stuckinrehabwithpatobrien.blogspot.com/

k&b

i will be the first to admit that i am a dedicated kevin & bean fan. i have listened to them, basically, since they went on the air on kroq in 1990 and they often have me laughing out loud. but i had no idea that people are so fanatic as to have blogs dedicated to the kevin & bean show. for your surfing pleasure:

http://kevinandbean.blog-city.com/

http://www.livejournal.com/community/kevin_n_bean/

so here we are

ok, we're going to try this again. i feel the need to have an online record of stuff. what i think is funny. what i think is annoying. annoying but funny. funny but annoying. plus everyone in l.a. has a blog or a script and i don't have a script, so this is the only thing left. funny, i am being brutalized by my 5 pound dog. max chews his nails to sharpen them during the day while i am at work. when i come home, he paws and swats at me. it's like a million paper cuts. he just got my nose because i wasn't paying enough attention to him while i am typing this. i look like i have been attacked by a gang of rabid cats. annoying, the u.s. citizenship & immigration services released another version of the i-129 from again, just 6 days after they sprung the last one on us (on a friday night). yay, we thought. i bet they fixed the mistakes (the duplicative questions; the place where they ask the province and country of birth, but not the city; the quaint olde english spelling of "previouse"). no, no changes that we can see. wtf? this is your government, folks.