Entries Tagged 'Uncategorized' ↓

I hope you’ll join me in signing the petition “Stop the OCLC powergrab!”. You can do so right now at:

watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc

OCLC, the not-for-profit that provides library services around the world, has gone too far. Originally, it was a library collaborative — one library could catalog a book, upload it to OCLC, and then other libraries could save time by reusing the catalog information. But as the price of such technology has fallen, its prices have risen. It charges membership fees, record retrieval fees, user support fees, and fees for all sorts of additional services. But now it’s gone a step too far — it wants to set the terms of use for every library record ever retrieved through OCLC, so that it can maintain its monopoly in the field. In a very real sense, they’re trying to steal our libraries. We have to make them stop — sign this petition.

For more information, see this wiki page: OCLC Policy Change.

——–

ok, so that was a canned message. but i did sign it. thanks to aaron swartz, with whom i disagree about a great many things, but am aligned for this particular cause.

Several people have asked me since I moved to Dallas if I’m happy.

The question has made me think seriously about happiness and its role in my life.

Happiness is so very fleeting. Even if nothing bad happens, eventually I’ll get bored with just about anything that makes me happy. Even Disneyworld.

Happiness is also destroyed fairly easily. I’m happy now, but just wait ’til later today. Someone will ask me to do something at work that I don’t wanna do, or the dog will poop on the floor, or any number of other little things that happen regularly that threaten to upset my precariously balanced sense of happiness.

Not that happiness isn’t worth enjoying. It would be a waste to ignore or attempt to avoid the feeling in the moments where it quietly exists.

What I’m saying–I think–is that it’s not worth pursuing, contrary to our country’s mission statement. Happiness is icing on our proverbial cake. If it comes, so much the better. But there are more important things in life to spend time and energy chasing: things like faith, hope, love.

And the best of these is love.

So this team called USC, who were supposedly the #1 team in college football, just got beat by another team called the Oregon State Beavers, who weren’t even good enough to be given a ranking.

The best part is I know an OSU Beaver personally.

I love underdogs.

I’m a selfish kid. I’m selfishest at home. But for now I’m fighting it at work. I want everyone to listen to my way of doing things.
Still, even when I’m fighting my own selfishness, though, I end up being selfish. If I do the work of unselfishely helping someone with whatever it is they are doing, then I expect them to recognize my helpfulness.
They were right all along (no big surprise). Marriage just shows you how selfish you are.

you have 24 hours to see it for free. GO.
[it's a Joss Whedon show. it's awesome.]

[ok, so i'm not getting on the internet these days (that's what that droll post was all about), but i have a program that lets me post without opening a browser...so here you go:]

This is the best news I’ve heard in a while. I actually called them myself, and apparently it worked. If you use Netflix, and there is more than one person in your house, you need to start using Profiles:

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

Dear Nic,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

phone and email only thanks. i’m done with this.

i spent the entire day coding css. i’ll spare you the gory details, but let me just say this:

there are no protagonists in css.

no backstory in html.

you can’t define a love interest in classes or ids.

any sometimes i just wish i could <span style=”display:none”></span>.

my car broke today.

the internet hates me.

i’m still sick.

and now this.

i thought i had cross-posting to xanga figured out.

then i was unsure. so here’s a last-ditch effort, and if it doesn’t work, i’m done.

sorry if i bothered anybody’s rss feeds…

see here:

Awesome Highlighter is about being awesome. you can be on any page,
click a button, and then just highlight the text that you want, ya
know, highlighted. no extensions or Firefox required.

Awesome Highlighter creates a copy of the
page, with the highlights included on it, and provides you with a link
that you can use to email, share on facebook, or twitter, or tumblr, or
your blog, or whatever you wanna do.

Nobody in this process has
to create an account or install an extension for Firefox or anything.
It’s the simplest kind of social: it works just like it would in real
life.

You should use it. Here’s a highlighted version of this very page on my blog that i made with the Awesome Highlighter:
http://awurl.com/povxlf98097

The state of Texas is large. 268,601 square miles. 7.48816612 × 10¹² square feet.

The population of the world is VERY large: 6,602,224,175.

In 1970, the average American home was 1,400 square feet.

…

If we gathered every single person into the state of Texas, every man, woman, and child would have 1134.2 square feet to themselves. Almost the floorspace of the average American home just 38 years ago.

But don’t forget, the world has an overpopulation problem.

[and also: where would we put Disneyworld?]

today is Union’s graduation day.

i hate graduations. i especially hate them now. because for me, all graduations remind me of is that feeling. the feeling you have of just accomplishing something truly great, coupled with a hope that the future holds something greater.

and while i know that the future DOES hold something greater, it’s little more than intellectual assent. "yes," says my brain, "heaven is a place to look forward to." but the rest of me just hates where i am right now.

which is INCREDIBLY STUPID, considering the fact that i’m surrounded by some of the most amazing people that i’ve ever met, and most of them happen to like me. i have a house, some fun animals, a job, security, and a loving wife.

and yet i still hate it. every day is a struggle to get to bedtime.

i don’t even know why i’m telling you this. back to regularly scheduled programming.

i just responded to every Wall post i got on Facebook on my birthday.

i feel like that was the most productive thing i did all day.

i think this might be my dark period.