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I suspect anyone who is reading this already has a number of technology gadgets. I suppose this could be anything from a computer to a cell phone to an MyePet (quick survey ... does anyone really have a MyePet?). Anyone with a gadget knows that it doesn't always work right. However, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 15 percent of individuals never bothered repairing a piece of technology that broke within the past year.
Before moving to Baltimore, I had had little experience riding most types of mass transportation. Back at home in Louisville, I occasionally took the bus places, but most of my other experiences were infrequent. I can count on one hand the number of cities (Chicago, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco) where I had ridden some form of public transit.
During the weekend, I had a chance to finally attend the Baltimore Writers' Conference. There had been times in the past when I was thinking about going to one, but I could never fit it into my schedule. Luckily, I think I picked a pretty decent one to attend. First, it happened to be at Towson University, where I attend grad school. Second, there was a pretty good crowd of people there, all of whom seemed like qualified members of the writing profession.
The day after the election, I had a chance to check out all of the front pages from around the world. It was remarkable how many international newspapers had Obama as the top story, and as expected, a number of U.S. papers devoted their entire front pages to election coverage. I created an Obama collage of the papers as a tribute to our next president. Feel free to use as a screensaver or desktop image!
You may have noticed that I recently changed the name of my new book to "Corporate Ties." I haven't had a chance to change all of my marketing material yet because, well, there's only so much time in the day, right? After thinking about it and discussing with others, "Polos to Ties" worked great for the local audience, but from a book sales standpoint, a random person might not notice the fashion connection.
It's scary to think there are just two questions that can determine your entire life outcome.
What's even more scary are the two questions:
1. Do you think Grimace, the big purple McDonald's guy, stands for cookies or a milkshake?
2. If bits of chocolate are normally called chips, are bits of peanut butter called peanut butter chips or peanut butter morsels?
They say a random quote is like reading obituaries from an 18th century newspaper on the other side of the world. The information is worthwhile to someone, but probably not the person actually reading it.
All right, so I made that up, but regardless, meaningful, unique quotes can be difficult to come by, unless you are perusing Food for Thought. The site is billed as "A Collection of Heretical Notions and Wretched Adages compiled by Jack Tourette."
One of the more depressing things online is when you notice that not a single one of your AIM buddies is at his or her computer. Even though you may actually have to do some work (or, at the very least, envelop yourself in Internet "research"), it's always to find at least one additional soul you know that's also available.
Perform a Google news search on "olympic gymnastics controversy" and you'll notice 1,230 articles (at least, at this point) pertaining to what seems to be evolving into a silly event.
I don't want to take away the athleticism of the participants. They do things that not even the best breakdancer, which is what I want to be when I grow up, cannot do. But the reward for their efforts is a couple of judges apparently randomly giving out scores. One time, I think I saw the South Korean judge with a Scantron, trying to create a flag pattern with his scoring.
When I originally wrote this, I was also keeping tabs on the St. Louis-Boston World Series game. It's a distraction I can live with, though, because baseball is more important than telling you what's on the web, right?
Then again, if my TV went out, I would be furious because I'm a Boston fan. But if it were the Yankees playing the Astros, and if the TV went off, I probably wouldn't care.