Everyone seems to be having a freak-out about the slight changes that have been undergone on Facebook recently. Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced the coming of even more, much more substantial changes to the way we interface via the world’s most popular social media site. I wanted to weigh in, talk a little bit about change, and maybe keep everyone’s collective head out of the oven – or at least keep you closing your Facebook account for awhile.
"Remain calm! All is well!"
When I was a kid, there were no cell phones. By the time I hit high school, there were brick phones, those big bulky things with the long, black antenna that you probably only saw on TV (at least if you lived in my area.) I can still remember people talking about how silly the thought of having a phone with you all day long, every day was.
How many people do you know today that don’t have a cell phone? (more…)
You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News by Jacopo della Quercia
Aug 31 – September 3
( 4 stars)
Every once in awhile you yearn for a deep engrossing book. One to enrich your vocabulary, your emotional coffers, and your thirst for intellectual stabilization.
This book is none of those things.
What it is, a tongue-in-cheek list of lists (similar to what you’d find on Cracked.com, the site the book originated from.) While jocular in its presentation, the book does bestow you with a font of trivial knowledge, like knowing the five most dangerous ways to entertain yourself or the list of famous presidents that could neverr be elected today.
Be warned, like its parent website, the book is rather blue in some areas and covers some unseemly topics. On the other hand, it will raise some smiles, occupy your day, and perhaps make you a question or two better the next time you watch Jeopardy.
I stumbled upon this list at artofmanliness.com and wanted to re-post it. Red text indicates the ones I’ve read. Blue means I read the title but not all or it. Black means I’ve yet to get to it.
1. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald 2. The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli 3. Slaughter-house Five – Kurt Vonnegut
4. 1984 – George Orwell 5. The Republic – Plato
6. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky 7. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
8. The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
11. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
12. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (more…)
Ah, yes! Spring is here, and with it, baseball season ahs returned. But nothing is without its unwanted baggage and the arrival of the boys of summer is no different. For though we are but one game into the season, the first vile fan jibe has been launched and, no surprise, it came from the launch pad of a Yankee fan.
So, this that in mind, lets go through an opening weekend list of why it’s dumb to be a Yankee fan.
10. Joe Girardi – Simply stated, grown men with dental braces creep me out. Totally.
9. Jorge Posada – Million and millions earned, still he has not done a thing about those ears. Two words Jorge – COSMETIC SURGERY
8. The New Yankee Stadium – You cannot be brand new and maintain “old tradition”, especially when you charge the same price for a seat as a month’s rent for a Soho one-bedroom apartment.
7. A-Rod – He’s gone from a prima donna Mr. Perfect and all around all-star to an slightly above average third baseman with a positive ‘roid test in his history and a really, really uncomfortable Super Bowl moment, to boot.
6. Derek Jeter – I would have mad respect for this guy if he didn’t consistently let people (A-Rod, Hank Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, Yankee fans-at-large) crap all over him. If he had a spine he’s be with the Dodgers, Cubs, or Phillies right now.
5. Hank Steinbrenner – What’s worse that being a pompous blowhard who treats people like dirt and leads by fear and intimidation? Being the son of the guy who did that and trying to mimic your dad, but being a really lame copy.
4. Hal Steinbrenner – When you play second fiddle to the likes of Hank, you’re pretty much the dictionary definition of pathetic.
3. No Sergio Mitre – In a long line of questionable pitching moves, when the Yankees traded Mitre on 3/25, they stole my best joke material. “You know things are going good when the Yanks bring out the Mitre! What’s a party without a Mitre?”
2. Suzyn Waldman – There could be an entire list of reasons to dislike this lady, but for our purposes here, we’ll settle for A) Women should not broadcast baseball games, and B) She once cried during a postgame wrap-up. Enough said?
1. Yankee Fans – At the top of every list, the piggish, unknowledgeable fans. If you ask 10 Yankee fans know precious little about anything not related to pinstripes. In fact, I asked 10 Yankee fans who the person was the I referenced in #2 on this list and only one knew, so many know very little about their own team. They have proven to time and again to be classless (example: spitting on Cliff Lee’s wife), hypocritical (embrace of Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Tom Gordon, and the way they threw Jeter under the bus this past off-season.) Not to mention, as stated in the first paragraph, they are usually the first to weigh in with bile when the subject of baseball season begins.
In reading the book What’s So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza (I’ll do a review when I’m finished,) I came upon a quote from Richard Dawkins, a British biologist who, as a devout atheist, has made a career out of espousing pure Darwinism and not just arguing against religion and Creationism, but lampooning the concepts and railing against them.
Obviously, I don’t agree with Mr. Dawkins’ views. I am a Christian and make no apologies for such. I respect his right to his views. But it seems clear from this quote that Mr. Dawkins does not respect my right to mine, nor that of my right to raise my children.
He has referred to monotheism (the belief in one God) as “The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture…” and has suggested that “atheists” should start being called “brights” instead, the obvious insinuation being that the rest of us would then be the “dulls”.
This quote, though, made a chill run up my spine. In his book The God Dellusion (snappy title, huh?) he wrote:
“How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It’s one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in? What about bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods? Isn’t it always a form of child abuse to label children as possessors of beliefs that they are too young to have thought out?”
As a parent and an American, I find the assertion that my parental rights do not include teaching my children about my beliefs, let alone that doing such would constitute abuse as patently absurd. The idea that an educated and, as such we then assume intelligent man, would suggest such a thing borders on psychotic. Is Mr. Dawkins so afraid of the opposing side on his argument that he would really espouse criminalizing a basic tenant of childrearing?
If it were not for the constantly repeating evidences that show us that even the most absurd idea can gain support, I would brush off such radical and absurd posturing by an advocate of a position that (despite what atheists contend) losing support, not gaining it.
In the end, my response to Mr. Dawkins, now, as it is usually is simply this: I’ll keep you in my prayers.
Yesterday, I tried to log onto my blog here and got a rather nasty surprise…It had been hacked!
Not that there is any reason to think that someone would find the material here of any value (that includes me, in case you’re wondering.) Also, it really wasn’t worth getting to upset about – so I didn’t. I contacted my hosting provider and found that it was not just my site, but one of their servers and that they were well on their way to fixing it.
Which reminds me… If you’re looking for a web host for a personal or business site, you could do a lot worse that going to www.2mhost.com and checking them out. They are very reasonably priced, offer lots of bells and whistles for your hosting dollar, and, as yesterday was a prime example of, they have super tech support.
