IMPORTANT!!!! STOP AND READ ME.
Make sure your antivirus is up to date and your machines are up to date with Windows Update.
DO THIS RIGHT NOW.
Yes, there’s a virus that’s supposed to hit tomorrow (April 1) although no one knows what it’s going to do when it does…
Here’s more info.
THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC INFORMATION SERVICE COURTESY OF AMYGEEK.
I don’t have much for you. As you know, I took an emergency trip back east a couple of weeks ago but since then…not much going on in Amyville. Let’s see…work is kinda anxiety provoking, but that (the anxiety provoking part, not work) should wrap up in the next week or so, which is definitely good news.
My therapist/intimacy coach/whatever wants to set me up with someone. That’s a little odd. But I’m being open and seeing what happens next. She left me a message on Friday and I’m going to give her a call back tomorrow.
I went to the Microsoft/Amazon/Starbucks/Boeing gay mixer the other night. A friend I thought might be there didn’t make it which meant I was on my own. In case you don’t remember, the last time I went there on my own, I spent ten minutes hiding out in the bathroom & then bailed. Not one of my more successful attempts to socialize. This time, I went up to someone who looked interesting and struck up a conversation. And I didn’t lose my words (which is what generally happens to me in these situations). Someone else joined us and the three of us ended up chatting for about an hour and a half. It was fun and we all exchanged numbers and more importantly, I was generally myself which is who I prefer to be in these situations.
This was definitely a positive experience since I have this dopey habit of getting all self conscious when I’m meeting new people (especially in a gay sort of way…sigh). And then I forget how to speak. Needless to say, this doesn’t make me look particularly interesting (and is incredibly awkward to boot). It’s pathetic cause I am fairly interesting and can talk about a bunch of different subjects and sometimes I appear to be knowledgeable about a few of them. But it’s this nutty self defeating behavior I have. So, I’m trying to work on it because it’s making me hide out rather than go out and meet people.
And while hanging with ATG is fun and entertaining, it’s not going to go anywhere. And quite frankly, I’ve gotten to a point where that is exactly what I want from that friendship, which is really nice. We have fun hanging out and that’s it. There’s way too much drama on her side. It’s not for me. And as you know, she’s been adamant the whole time about where she was coming from. It took me a little while to get there, but I’m totally there now. She’s fun and sweet and as long as we’re both on the same page, it’s fine, I figure. What…evs…
Hey, I warned you that this would be boring. Go watch the video of Gus the dog running in circles now. He’s way more interesting these days…
This happens pretty frequently. Keep in mind that he turns 9 on August 21. Not too bad for a doggy senior citizen, eh?
FaceBook is kinda on my nerves a lot lately. It’s throwing me that there’s this weird mix of my friends, my family, work people and people I knew when I was 7 all lumped together. In many cases, it’s been nice to reconnect with people, but basically, the info I want to release to those different groups varies significantly and it requires way too much energy on my part to think about what’s generic enough to post on there.
Anyhoo, I got a really sweet note today from a girl I knew in High School, which made me like the Face a bunch more today. Here’s what made me feel all warm and fuzzy:
But you my dear are one of the few people that when I think of HS I truly have a positive feeling toward. You were kind and compassionate at a time in life when most aren't. I can only imagine you are more so now.
I hope I am…
Once again proving that children are intuitive comedians:
and this one is especially for Rosie:
Want more? Click here.
You can’t make this stuff up…
A Welsh little person who lost her way in the deep forest of Snowdonia near Dolwyddelan, North Wales, earlier this week is alive because of her pet Chihuahua, medics say.
…
Medics said the dog saved the 45-year-old woman from hypothermia by lying across her legs to keep her warm.
Here are more details if you want.
I was looking at this book on Amazon this morning and while scrolling down the page, I noticed this posting on an Amazon forum (apparently, it’s related to the topic of the book):
Now, I know that developers don’t tend to be great spellers which is why you always need someone to check on the UI before it goes live…but this is really pushing it.
Oddly enough, no one has responded.
This amuses me so. Gus the dog is looking at me funny trying to figure out why I keep bursting out in laughter.
Mostly in the featured galleries on my pic site…
Karen & Bob visit Fremont & we make a big dinner with friends
Nieces, Big Pete, my bunny nephew & my brother’s band
Chase’s birthday lunch (minus Chase) (Hey, he called in sick to work that day. We didn’t let that minor detail stop the celebration cause we really love him.)
And….video of Big Pete…
I’m a big fan of TripAdvisor – it lets me get info about locations I’m going to, although I mostly use it for getting info about hotels. It’s basically a site where folks can post their own reviews about their trips. I generally prefer to hear what “real people” have to say when I’m making a decision (I’ll also go to Amazon to read reviews about all kinds of items I’m thinking about purchasing – even if I’m not planning on buying from Amazon.)
I’ve started using Tripit to organize travel. It’s a nice site in that I can forward an email that contains my trip information (whether it comes from a site online I used to book a flight, hotel or car or from my corporate travel folks) and it organizes it all together, along with information about the place I’m traveling to. It also lets me share this info with folks I designate and lets me see where my friends are traveling to (in case we end up in the same place at the same time some day. Hasn’t happened yet, but…)
And my favorite is SeatGuru which lets you see exactly what the configuration is for the plane you’ll be flying on and tells you which are the good, bad and indifferent seats, so that you can pick a seat that has more legroom, or avoid a seat that doesn’t lean back, etc. etc. etc.
Mashable posted an article today about how to use social media for travel research. Click on the link for the entire article, but they mention some websites I’m not aware of that I’ll definitely check out before my next trip.
Where do you go for info when prepping for a trip?
with kids narrating….big electronic smile!
I’m in NY, staying at my mom’s house. Got a call from my friend R on Friday morning that her mom had passed away. R & I have been friends for 7 or 800 years (since high school). I lived at her house for a while when I was a teenager when I was a big mess and my parents didn’t want anything to do with me. We’ve been a big part of each other’s lives for a long time and her mom was just this really sweet, kind woman.
While she and her mom are not officially family, as far as I’m concerned, they definitely qualify. R’s mom took me in and cared for me when I was a mess, she didn’t judge me back then or more recently when I came out, she reveled in and was proud of my successes. I spent some time over at her house on Thanksgiving and I’m so glad that I got it together to get over there and see her.
She’s been sick for a while, but she died at home, which (if you knew her), was exactly where she belonged. You see, she didn’t go out much – not cause of any phobia or anything – just cause there wasn’t much reason to! She didn’t drive and her family all came to her. She just sorta held court in the kitchen of her house and we just sat there with her and talked politics (she was a big liberal just like me), current events, whatever – nothing seemed to phase her (which, considering she didn’t get out much, was even more impressive).
I flew back east yesterday (Friday) afternoon and got in around midnight. Slept in (jetlag) and went over to the house this afternoon. And we spent the afternoon mostly sitting in the kitchen and eating. That’s exactly what we should be doing – I don’t think she’d expect anything else from us. Oh, and the food was extra yummy – my mom sent over some fried chicken & R’s husband went to Arthur Avenue and brought back incredibly yummy Italian food. I’ll say this about New Yorkers – they throw the tastiest funerals.
The wake is Monday night and the funeral is on Tuesday. I’ll be flying back home on Wednesday. I’m so glad I’m able to be here to pay my respects, but more importantly, to be there for R and make sure she knows what a big part of my life she and her mom are/were/will be.
Oy. The media has been all over Twitter lately and they just don’t get it. Neither do a bunch of my friends and co-workers. As a big fan, I thought I’d post my perspective on how to use and enjoy Twitter.
Because Twitter falls under the recently popular “social media” term, it’s often referred to along with sites like Facebook & LinkedIn. But in my mind,Twitter is totally different from these sites. Facebook & LinkedIn are meant to be two way communication – I know who I’m communicating with because we both approve the “friend” ship. (I know that there are people who have friends they don’t really know on Facebook, but the general intent is that you “know” (in real life) the people who are your Facebook friends).
Twitter is a broadcast medium. It is me talking to anyone who is interested in listening to what I have to say (which is not necessarily “what are you doing right now?”). My job is to be an expert in an area that folks want to know about (like technology or knitting or sex toys or whatever hobby or business interests you) or be amusing or whatever.
You can do searches on Twitter to see all tweets that include a particular word. Then you can look at the individuals who tweeted that word and see if their tweets look interesting to you. If they are, then you follow them. They may choose to follow you back or they may not. It doesn’t matter. If they turn out to be dull or uninteresting, you stop following them.
Once you’re following some people, look to see who they are following. There’s a meme on Twitter called FollowFriday, where folks tweet recommendations for who to follow on Fridays.
If you’re a consultant or independently employed, you can use Twitter as a way to establish (or extend) credibility and a name for yourself. Set up a Twitter account and start tweeting info & links of interest to the community – potential customers and other folks in your world. Do some searches and find the members of the community & start following them. They’ll check you out too and may start following you in return.
And look for Twitter trends – what are the words most tweeted in the last hour, four hours or twenty four hours? It’s really interesting to watch what folks are talking about.
You can tweet by logging into http://twitter.com from a browser, you can send text messages to Twitter from your phone, you can download various Twitter apps for your smartphone or iPhone to tweet and read tweets from the folks you’re following, you can set Twitter to send SMS messages to your phone when folks you’re following tweet…there’s a lot of options.
Tools I’m currently using:
On my PC: I like both Twhirl & TweetDeck (both also work on Macs).
On my phone (Windows Mobile): PockeTwit
Twitter trends: TweetDeck shows trending topics or you can go to http://search.twitter.com/ to search for words or see what’s trending right now. I also follow Twendly which shows me trends for the last hour, four hours and 24 hours.
Some of the people I follow (who tend to tweet regularly):
Tech folks: ChrisPirillo, JohnStack, LotusRockStar, akaFrancie, vowe, mona, DocAndersen, al3x, EdBrill, FirefighterGeek, Carnage4Life, Winse7en, IdoNotes
Funny people: TheOnion, fireland, Yayaa, BlogofHilarity, WeirdNews, jennyrotten, MitchMartin, JessicaHalem, ChrisIlluminati, HotAmishChick
Sex bloggers: VioletBlue, AlexaRPD, AnsleyAgnello, AAGBlog
Politics: maddow, anamariecox
Seattle: SeattleWeekly, SMCSeattle
Gay stuff: AfterEllen, JointheImpact, DorothySnarker
Celebs: TheEllenShow, RobCorddry, Hodgman, JohnCleese, GregGrunberg
And here’s a new article by Chris Pirillo on CNN about Twitter tools.
(I had no idea that horses would let you do that! Clearly this woman has a way with animals, thereby totally qualifying her to be a politician.)
Elena Basescu, the youngest daughter of Romania's President Traian Basescu, poses in Bucharest, Romania, in May 2006. Romanians are now riveted, some even revolted, by President Traian Basescu's 28-year-old younger daughter's decision to run for a seat in the European Parliament. Many cry nepotism, say she lacks political experience, stumbles in public speaking. They argue she is merely a colorful and cynical ploy to win votes for the Democratic Liberal Party that her father, popular President Train Basescu used to run.
Here’s the whole story.
Jon Stewart took on CNBC recently about how their various “personalities” have been handling the financial crisis. And apparently, Jim Cramer thought it was unfair. Jon responds to Cramer’s response and it is friggin’ brilliant.
This is why I think that Jon Stewart is actually not just funny, but important. Check it out. It’s worth the 9 minutes.
there’s still two days to jump in and answer this question…I included the first answer cause it made me chuckle. Click on the pic to go to the actual question.
According to the LA Times,…a contractor who pleaded guilty to bilking the Pentagon out of more than $20 million during a nine-year fraudulent billing scheme was sentenced Monday to six years in prison and ordered to repay $15.5 million. Um…that means she gets to keep 4.5 million. But she is on probation for 3 years. And publicly shamed.
…Among the Defense Department payments made to Corley, co-owner of a South Carolina parts distributor, was $998,798 for shipping two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas; $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq; and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Pentagon records show.
There’s so many things wrong with this story…
