Much like Willie Nelson I have many hit songs, tax issues and a fanbase with no need for dental floss. Unlike Willie, I don’t like to be on the road a lot. We’re heading back to the great state of Colorado. We’ll sleep in our own beds tonight which will be good. However, I’m sad that I’m not going to get to work on the house today and until it’s finished.
Anyhow, blogging will resume its abnormal patterns as of now. I hope to get some of the pictures I’ve taken here up online.
I have been called a poop nazi this morning. This is a name that I take seriously given that I’m German in descent and I married a rather German woman. Therefore Abby is still a mutt, but she’s got a lot of German blood. The reason I’m a poop Nazi? Because I ask Abigail if she needs to go poop when her face falls into what I would call a blank poop stare. A blank poop stare is one in which her focus can be seen shifting to her bowels and the inner workings of her body. It is like she’s doing a system check to make sure everything is as it should be.
However, I ask more often than Abby needs to go, and so Jessica has called me this crappy name. Therefore, I christen her, the Moderate Mommy.
I’ve installed a new Anti-Comment spam plugin (found here). It checks for an open proxy (the way most spammers send spam) and if so, it flags it as ‘one of Satan’s spawn.’
I had a hard time thinking up a title for this article, mostly because it’s philosophical rather than being practicle. I’ve identified a trend, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but I think it will change the way that companies deal with advertising and how they handle distributing information/propaganda. The last 5 years has brought about a radical change in when you get your information. If you think about technologies like Tivo (Personal Digital Video Recording) and now podcasting (downloading of MP3’s [or other audio formats] onto your computer using an RSS feed) you, the end consumer have control over when, where and how you consume the video or audio. This is not a new concept since books, newspapers and magazines have allowed for this to happen in the print world for ages.
I think this will prove to be a challenge for ‘traditional’ media like television and radio since they rely on advertisers (something that software can filter out) and since they have not adapted to the ‘e-consumer’ model. A smart move on their part would be to look for greater product placement within TV-shows for a PVR. Radio on the other hand is probably going to hurt from this shift since more control over songs/media means that people may dump regular radio programming for models like XM/Sirius which offer satellite radio channels with channels that have no commercials. A monthly user fee that affords station syndication fees is a model that many people are willing to live with. What makes RSS enclusures (which power podcasting) so powerful is that the internet allows for people to gather MP3 audio files, various video files and many other digital files while they’re away from their computer and then update any devices with content at their leisure.
You are in control of your content, and the time you consume it. This is a shift for the tranditional media outlets that I hope the react to pro-actively. If they respond in a reactive fashion in 5 years rather than beating the trends and doing something constructive now, it may be too late for many of the networks. While I expect that in 5 years only 40 or less percent of consumers will have the electronic equipment and know-how to achieve a completely autonomous media consumption habit it will surely effect the way advertisers choose to spend their money. Recently I heard that Sony was actually moving to spend more of their budget for video advertising at Wal-Mart, with their closed-circuit televisions that play ads 24-7, rather than spend the money on traditional television outlets [I cannot find the article that reported this, so please take this with the understanding that more research needs to be done].
As you consume media, please consider how you consume it, what you get in the way of advertisements and where your dollars go for entertainment. The trend is changing and I feel it will be an interesting next 5-10 years technologically.
[Thanks to Nick for getting me started on thinking about this].
Jeffrey Veen writes about a really good function for Flash intro pages: Skip Always. The idea is that when a site employs a Flash intro (also known as demon possession in some web development circles) that they offer a ‘skip always’ link that will set a cookie so that they get to the actual home page in subsequent visits.
Abby is getting spoiled rotten by Grandma and her generosity with her money. I am amazed by the amount of stuff Abby has accumulated. Grandma should buy her a new suitcase to ship it all back in 😉
When you’re two years old you get to overhear all sorts of things. Abby just interjected, “It has innuendo and Spider-man, Grandpa.” What was she referring to? NBC pulling Father of the Pride from their line up. She’s never once seen that show, it does have innuendo, but I don’t recall Spider-man in it 🙂 Oh, and she was talking to Grandma!
When you think of Randy Peterman, you think of beatboxing. Actually, if you think of beatboxing very often you probably are not a regular reader of this blog. However, this site got a link from one of the search engines because someone was looking for said term. Therefore I’m sharing this special sample clip of me beatboxing for your listening pleasure.
Shoot! That didn’t work, it’s just a midi file. Oh, well. I guess you’ll just never know what it sounds when I beatbox. Wait! I can type out some beatbox sounds:
Dhmp Dhmp Che Dhmp Dhh Dhmp Che
Wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki scratch.
<vanilla ice lyric>
Go White boy go!
</end white rap>
I suppose that I could move onto some other great search terms:
“I was a teenager”
“2004 US presidential candidates Randy”
“365th birthday”
“My computer turns itself up every 30 minutes”
Oh, well. I suppose that what comes in from the search engines is less certain than the winner of the presidential election.
Clair
This is a picture of my father-in-law, Clair. He’s sitting on the stairs in the new house he’s building.
Click on the picture for a larger version.
Or Maybe not. Maybe George Bush is.
No one will say since the media really screwed up in 2000 .
One Florida voter was reported as saying, “I don’t know how I messed up on my ballot. My vision is better than 20% of the drivers in this state and I can spot a car I’m about to hit from within 3 feet of hitting it. My reaction time isn’t so bad, I usually have applied the breaks by the time of impact…
“What was the question again?”
Swing states like Colorado have reported that usage of swings in parks in Denver have gone down since the cold weather and yesterday’s snow make the park uninviting for voters. Teeter-Totter states like California (where the building go up, and earthquakes bring them down so they can be built back up again) have reportedly just voted Democrat because they want Arnold in the Whitehouse.
John Kerry, if his bid for the presidency fails, has been invited by George Lucas to act in any upcoming Star Wars sequel he may choose. “Kerry, is an emotional powerhouse, between his expressive face, dynamic speaking skills and the CGI that Industrial Light and Magic can create he’s ready to play an important role in one of my next movies, Star Wars: The Botoxine Battles,” said Lucas.