786-879-6669 is a phenomenon you don't want touching you.
786-879-6669 is evil.
786-879-6669 is real.
Continue reading 786-879-6669: The Phantom in Your Phone.
March 2006 Archives
I am a big coffee fanatic. This Starbucks Whole Bean Coffee review will share my thoughts and feelings about the following coffees that I have been tasting over the past few months. I prefer Whole Bean over pre-Ground because the taste is fresher and persistence of effervescence is protected.
I grind the beans moments before the heated filtered water touches the beans' rare internal essence. Each mini-review below begins with the title of the coffee, the price per pound and a blurp from Starbucks explaining the background of the coffee. I then share my take on the reality of the taste experience and if the description matches the truth on the tongue.
I grind the beans moments before the heated filtered water touches the beans' rare internal essence. Each mini-review below begins with the title of the coffee, the price per pound and a blurp from Starbucks explaining the background of the coffee. I then share my take on the reality of the taste experience and if the description matches the truth on the tongue.
Continue reading Starbucks Whole Bean Coffee Review.
Do you remember the moment when you decided to get up and move away from your hometown and family?
What that decision voluntary or not?
What prodded you to make the move: College, marriage, military service or something else?
What that decision voluntary or not?
What prodded you to make the move: College, marriage, military service or something else?
Continue reading Getting Up and Out.
Paul Dana died on Sunday. His Indy Racing League car crashed into Ed Carpenter's disabled car at 176 mph during the practice session for the first race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He was 30 years old. His wife Tonya survives him.
Continue reading Execution by IndyCar: Watching Paul Dana Die.
In yesterday's The New York Times an editorial asked if search engines, and Google in particular, are making students stupider because they acquiesce critical thinking for clicking on search return links and then copying the information they find without providing any sort of analysis:
In December, the National Center for Education Statistics published a report on adult literacy revealing that the number of college graduates able to interpret complex texts proficiently had dropped since 1992 from 40 percent to 31 percent.
Continue reading Are Students Getting Stupider?.
If you are interested in writing articles for Urban Semiotic, I am making one small change to how that process will work. Everyone will now have "Contributor" status. That will allow me to pre-read the articles before publication and allow some give-and-take in feedback and I can also better determine how the new articles will appear for publication. I thought we'd have many more new articles about the Urban Core than we have but that isn't proving to be the case so queuing up posts and patterning them out will give all the articles more "face time" on the blog. If you have a new piece for publication, save it online and then let me know the piece is finished. I will then check the piece and clear it for publication to give you the best exposure.
One lesson you quickly learn while shopping in New York City is if you see something you like, you must buy it right then because if you decide to delay the purchase to think about it the item will no longer be there when you return.
I call this effect "The Trick of Wants" because the second you want something and then release it you have instantly forever tricked yourself from the opportunity of ever buying it while guaranteeing you will later cry over the loss. Hiding your want where no one else will find it rarely works because that's a trick effect everyone else practices, too.
I have no idea if my tricksy Wants Effect theory has resonance beyond the New York City Metro area but if it does I am curious if the aftereffect of the trick is instantaneous as in New York City or if the item you want can linger for five minutes or an hour or an afternoon or a day until you finally decide you want it creating a lesser risk of not finding it again when you return.
Do you find the following link creepy or not?
http://www.4kwd053.info/David-Boles.htm
I did not create that page and while it is not entirely about me, I still find it curiously creepy.
Do any pages like that exist about you on the internet that you didn't have a hand in or a say in creating?
What is the purpose of someone setting up such a site?
Yesterday I wrote a lengthy review about my new Cingular/at&t BlackBerry 8700c phone/PDA/slicer-dicer/messagemonster.
I also decided to kill my current unlucky phone number because an opportunity of great passion and magnitude was unwittingly offered to me by the Amazon.com/Cingular/at&t/RIM/BlackBerry cabal that I could not refuse.
Continue reading Super Lucky Big Number.
Yesterday I tossed over the Samsung a900 I've had since December in favor of the even more provocative Cingular/at&t PDA BlackBerry 8700c phone and here's why:
While I love the sleek and small feel of the Samsung a900, I live via email and the a900 is more of a multimedia phone than a text device.
My lovely wife Janna is also big on email and she needs to track three email accounts while she's out in the world away from her computer 12 hours a day. We both need a phone with a keyboard because the a900's T9 predictive text isn't cutting it as a vibrant writing tool.
My lovely wife Janna is also big on email and she needs to track three email accounts while she's out in the world away from her computer 12 hours a day. We both need a phone with a keyboard because the a900's T9 predictive text isn't cutting it as a vibrant writing tool.
Continue reading Cingular-at&t BlackBerry 8700c Review.
Haints and Hags -- is a term I first learned watching a show about South Carolina on one of those fancy cable television channels about flipping houses.
Continue reading Haints and Hags.
Last Sunday's episode of The Sopranos was the worst in recent memory because it was uncharacteristically static and boring.
There is nothing worse to watch in any sort of drama than a person talking on and on -- especially talking to someone who does not respond -- because that kind of monologue drains all the energy and tension from the show.
Continue reading Tony Puts Us All in a Coma.
The South Dakota abortion ban and the issue of male reproductive fetal rights suggests we may soon be back into the Wire Coat Hanger debate as a nation.
Morality is a personal choice that cannot be legislated from the courthouse or controlled from the pulpit.
The abortion issue is, has, and shall always be, a force that rips apart families and pits men against women and governments against its citizens and churches against its believers.
Continue reading Men and Abortion.
Since when did medicine turn into tasting like candy? It is because parents don't want to fight their children who don't want to put a bad taste in their mouths?
Did that change happen the same time children started telling their parents what to do or did it happen when parents decided they didn't want to control the behavior of their children?
Continue reading Medicine is Not Candy.
Yesterday I pulled through my collection of IBM ThinkPads to see which ones worked and which ones needed an update to start working again.
I found my old ThinkPad T40p with its massive -- at that time -- 40gig HDD that I used two years ago and ran into the ground with heavy usage.
Continue reading 41 High Priority Updates.
I have watched and generally enjoyed every season of American Idol. I did not believe Fantasia deserved to win but she lucked out by finding herself stuck in a bland year of contestants and so she won by default. Her career after her win demonstrates the failure of the American Idol producers to pick a winner beyond Tuesday nights.
Continue reading Top American Idol Stars and Fakes.
When you head off to bed at night what are the routines you follow before your head hits the pillow?
Do you check to make sure the oven and stovetop burners are off?
Do you wash your face, brush your teeth and comb your hair?
Continue reading Bedtime Routines.
24-year-old New York criminal justice graduate student Imette St. Guillen allegedly "earned" her murder at the hands of "prime suspect" 41-year-old bar bouncer Darryl Littlejohn -- his blood was found on the milky white ties used to cuff Imette's hands behind her back.
Continue reading An Earned Murder.
It's been a wild couple of days with the database update -- BIG THANKS to Chris Lea, Media Temple Director of Technology, for personally upgrading our server and making sure everything here sings the best and fastest possible tune.
Continue reading As it Goes.
If you are interested in becoming an Urban Semiotic Author today is the day to make contact!
Please read our Writing Tips page first to make sure what we require is something you are interested in providing.
If you're ready to take the step into writing posts, here's how it will all work:
1. WordPress 2.0 allows us to assign Roles to registered users. The two roles that interest you are Author and Contributor. There are two differences between those roles: Authors can publish their own work at will and also upload files. Most new writers will start as Contributors where their articles will be reviewed before publication.
2. Express your interest in writing via the Contact page and explain what type of articles you plan to write and what topics you plan to explore.
3. You will then provide a brief bio for our Authors page. You may also provide an 80x80 Avatar to accompany your bio if you wish. You will have to email the Gravatar because the code to call the Gravatar from Gravatar.com won't work on the Author's page. If you do not use a Gravatar, the default Gravatar image here will be provided for you. Authors will generally be listed in alphabetical order by last name.
4. We will add your blog to our Blogroll.
If you have any questions, please post a reply to this message.
Okay, things seem to be working pretty well with the database update and its new special caching properties. The database melted down last night at 11:11pm my time but that problem has yet to return. We'll keep an eye on it during the day. Please continue to help stress the database for hard testing by recalling old posts for your total and complete enjoyment.
As we step into the tomorrow of this blog, I would like some feedback on what you've been reading here and how you wish to read it -- or even write it -- in the future. If you have a moment, please answer the following questions:
1. Are you interested in writing posts for discussion? If yes, how often would you like to write a post and what sort of topics would you hope to address? I can even assign you a topic if you would like to write but you are uncertain of a good topic for exploration.
2. What are your favorite and least favorite posts to read here? You don't have to name actual post titles if you don't want to but what are the bigger topics at play that continue to lead you here or shy you away?
3. Are there any features or Plugins on this blog you would add or delete if you were the running the joint?
4. Do you have any other comments or suggestions to make this gig better?
Okay, then!
I have been informed this Urban Semiotic blog has been optimized by Media Temple -- mainly by upgrading our MySQL database server -- so please bang around here a bit and tell me if you find anything broken or ill-responding.
How is the speed?
Are comments and posts loading fast enough for you?
When you do a Live Search of our Archives do you get quick load times when you click on an article?
If anything is lagging for you please tell me what you were doing when the lagging bit you so I can provide a full report on Monday.
Thanks!
A good friend of mine is disappearing for a few months while she attends to her maternity leave. My friend is special and smart and kind and beautiful and wondrous in many significant ways. She will make a fine and loving mother and that unborn child thriving in her belly is lucky to have her.
It's strange how news and events can bend time and propel you back to moments of your childhood and make them real again with temperatures and smells and tactile responses.
Continue reading A Good Mother.
Over the past six months I have increased the server capacity for this blog, and for my other sites, three times. The latest Media Temple upgrade happened last week but there were still moments even after the upgrade when this blog was spiking the server. When a server meets its capacity strange things happen and the "user experience" begins to slow down for everyone and that's a Bad Thing.
Continue reading Making Your Web Server Crawl.
Continue reading They Killed Edgar!.
NBC news, in association with Perverted Justice, have now taped and aired three televisions programs -- and all subsequently re-aired on MSNBC -- where pedophiles are entrapped in online chat rooms and in-person "meetings" are set up between the pretend underage teen and the alleged pervert.
Continue reading Perverts at the Screen Door.
If you aren't using Google Sitemaps to manage the search details of your blogs and websites then you are missing out on a free way to find out what Google search terms bring people to your site. Having that knowledge at hand lets you keep your readers' interest in your pocket.
Continue reading Google Sitemaps Returns.
News came down yesterday the excellent blog exchange service, BlogExplosion is up for sale and with that announcement, the blogging world implodes to never be the same again.
I have written a lot about BlogExplosion on this Urban Semiotic blog and here are some of my favorite posts from the past few months:
Ten Thousand and Counting
My Blog is Exploding
Building Blog Explosion Traffic
Why Do You Blog?
Blog Ad Banners...
How NOT to Write a Blog
I've never been shy to share with you my BlogExplosion stats, and here they are as of this moment on this day:
Continue reading BlogExplosion Implodes.
When did so many young women -- especially those from the middle and upper middle-classes -- begin to find pleasure in being called "Bitches and Hoes" instead of slapping the person referring to them in that degrading manner?
Was it the growing popularity of the Hip-Hop movement that numbed young minds of both genders to the debased and insulting intent of "Bitches and Hoes?"
Was it the incomprehensible and insidious rise of non-melodic Gangsta Rap -- with its graphic spoken lyric telling tales of treacherous living in the urban core -- that somehow made "Bitches and Hoes" acceptable to most high school and many college age males and females? The only purpose of "Bitches and Hoes" is to make females sub-human so they can be treated less well.
The fact that awful phrase persists in current modern culture is disgusting and its intra-gender propagation as a term of endearment makes the sane wonder how it is possible "Bitches and Hoes" can be perceived by some as both a compliment and a condemnation in the same thought.
Was it the incomprehensible and insidious rise of non-melodic Gangsta Rap -- with its graphic spoken lyric telling tales of treacherous living in the urban core -- that somehow made "Bitches and Hoes" acceptable to most high school and many college age males and females? The only purpose of "Bitches and Hoes" is to make females sub-human so they can be treated less well.
The fact that awful phrase persists in current modern culture is disgusting and its intra-gender propagation as a term of endearment makes the sane wonder how it is possible "Bitches and Hoes" can be perceived by some as both a compliment and a condemnation in the same thought.
$2,500.00 USD was taken out of the checking account of a New Jersey woman who placed a "stop payment" on a check to a company that did not complete a work order on her house.
The company submitted the check three times over three months for payment and three times the check was returned un-cashed to the company.
Continue reading Stop that Check!.
After yesterday's post where death was thrust upon the unwilling by the trusted, I began to ponder the natural crook and crumb of our lives and how we decide to spend the blood and bone capital of everyday living.
How do you reconcile the inevitable reality that one day -- if it isn't already here for you -- that the road of your life behind you is longer than the remaining living path ahead of you?
Are your remaining days made more precious with the awareness that life is temporal or do you look back in envy at the missteps of a misspent and meandering youth?
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