w00t!

According to IO9, AMC is thinking about/planning/preparing a Red Mars series.

Kim Stanley Robinsons, Mars trilogy is one of my favorites! There's a few more slow/dry spots than I'd prefer, but the overall story arc is amazing!

If you haven't read this awesome SF series, you should track it down, new on Amazon or at the library or something! It's incredible.

Plus when the show comes out (fingers crossed) you'll know what's going on.

Technorati released their "State of the Blogosphere" today.

Good (long) read.

Definitely some interesting tidbits. Funny I was just updating my technorati profile today.

The breakdown of bloggers (to the right) is pretty interesting. I actually expected more corporate bloggers by now, though I suspect the "Pro bloggers" are also the bloggers for hire for corporations, makes sense.

The report will span a few days, so make sure to come back and consume the rest as they release it. It's quite telling and interesting.

Nicole and I celebrated our anniversary a bit early this year and went to see Avenue Q last night.

Holy crap what a funny musical.

We like to do the VIP evening, it's just a fun time; open bar, not terrible food, usually pretty good conversation, and then really good seats.

Normally the shows are held at the Buell theatre, but to our surprise (we just assumed, and never looked) Avenue Q was performed at the Ellie Caulkins Opera house. I don't know why, but opera goers get WAY better seatting! Usually by intermission, my knee is aching something feirce. Like I can barely concentrate on the show. Not so at the Opera house! I had enough leg room to full extend my legs. Ahh it was absolutely luxurious.

Now about the show :)

F-U-N-N-Y. Oh my god. Muppets, cussing, having sex, talking about pr0n. Oh my! I couldn't stop laughing!

The set was very well done, and since there was very little in the way of set changes, the effects used to change the view up when needed were incredibly creative.

I had heard the songs long ago on the soundtrack, but it's funny how much of a Musical you don't get to enjoy or even know exists when all you have is the highlights. The "Bad Idea Bears" were great!

If you have the opportunity to go see Avenue Q, I highly suggest you not miss out. It's worth every cent of admission.

I've been kinda noodling this for a few days now.

One of the big things between republicans and Dems has been, Republicans are "small government, let the market do it's thing" and Dems are more government regulation, etc.

So I'm curious how republicans see the huge government bail outs of our lame ass financial institutions? I mean now that I am part owner of AIG and Freddie and Fannie, doesn't that pretty sizably increase the government?

Doesn't that also kinda fly in the face of the whole, "let the market handle itself" stuff? I mean, if the company I work for makes a bad bet and we lose some deals, is the government gonna bail us out? If I buy a house in a risky neighborhood, and lose that bet, will the government bail me out?

I have no doubt AIG and Freddie and Fannie, and the others tanking would be very bad for our economy, but still. How is it ok to simply bail these businesses out?

Fire the CEO? big freakin' whoop. "I almost toppled the American Banking Sector, and only lost my over paid CEO job. SCORE" That's kinda like taking a bank robber once you've caught him, and cutting him lose without his latest heist. Yeah lesson learned.

I'm certain a Democrat would react the same way, i'm not saying otherwise, but government interferring with the market is what we're all about (according to Republicans).  AIG, Freddie, Fannie, and who knows who else will follow suit, all need to suffer the repurcussions of their bad decisions. You take a risky bet, you have to be able to lose. It's called gambling, and if you're gonna gamble you have to be prepared to eat it.

This is speculation, but in the best of times, I don't AIG was cutting a check to the government, "We had a great year! tons of bets went our way. Here's a little something extra"

Mainly thinking out loud on this, but would love your opinions on it. I've very torn on whether it was in our (the populaces) best interest. yeah AIG didn't collapse, but now we're starting a new administration that's 1 trillion in the hole, for no other reason than big business needed a bail out.

Got pointed to this graphic, and WOW. Very interesting to see which words were more common and more widely used by one side or the other.

So I saw this a few days ago, and found it at once totally spot, on and a little creepy.

Yeah the business card is definitely a throw back. I hate carrying them, so usually don't. Those are the times I need to give one out.

At conferences and meetings I come home with a small stack, that then have to be either tossed, or input into Address Book, so I can thn have them in my Phone. PITA!

I was unaware there have been a few attempts to remedy this. Of course the vCard is out there, and like the article on TC says, it's not uniform, which means it's useless.

However I think I'll still do the paper card swap rather than wave my iPhone at somebody. Tom said it best, "Oh sorry important executive I just met, i didn't seem to get your info, let's wave our iPhones at each other and try again."

That sounds like a step backward to me. It's kinda sad, that in this day of standards bodies and such, a few smart phone OS makers or handset makers, or both haven't come together to agree on a protocol, I mean we've got bluetooth, we've got contact info. All we need is a format, and a means to exchange that every device can understand, and send receive. Done.

Come on some one, get on it!

I got an email today from the Obama campaign, letting me know that I'm at most, $1100 from the personal contribution limit for the primary.

"In only four days, we enter the general election and can no longer accept donations for the primary. Our records indicate that you are at the most $1,114.87 away from the individual contribution limit for the primary. Before I accept the nomination on Thursday, will you go all in?"

Emphasis theirs.

So no, I won't be going 'all in'. I'm sure I'll donate again during the general campaign, I still want Obama to win the white house after all, but I'll admit, I'm a bit bummed by the campaign right now.

2x, the campaign has put out a call, "donate any amount and you might be able to have dinner with the Senator, or be at the speach at Invesco"

2x I've donated, not expecting to win, but surely hoping.

2x the campaign has picked the most token constituents I can imagine. I'm sure those folks are great, but not a one of them seems 'average'. single moms, vets (the war kind, not dog dr kind), entrentprenuers helping the poor, etc, etc.

I realy more than anything else, hope that Senator Obama had no hand in picking the winners. I hope it was the wonks in his campaign (though I think his campaign should be wonk free, but that's probably too much to hope for, based on what I've seen), picking the people most likely to "resonate" or some other PR bull isht reason.

So no, sorry Senator Obama, no more money from me for a while. If the campaign turns too "washington" maybe no more at all, I'm watching.

So I'll admit, I'm only about 1/2 through the book, but one would think by that point the greatness of the book would be shining through.

I'm not seeing it. I'm reading my waste of paper Wired issue and there's an article in it about Neal Stephenson being a "Sci Fi Superstar" which one, shows me how much of a schill wired magazine is, but I just don't get it.

I'm a big reader of Sci Fi, and so far Snow Crash ain't gonna have a spot on my book shelf.

I'm not giving up on it, but some one please tell me it get's better.

This week should be interesting. I didn't head into downtown today, we were busy doing stuff around the house, but we did head down to 16th st last night.

It was crazy packed.... with cops. every block had some. In full tactical gear no less. We went down for a walk, and to find a blue mailbox, since Nicole had a book that she had to mail to someone.

We walked down to 16th, no mailboxes, walked up and down it, no mailboxes. Lots of cops however. We grabbed a Starbucks, and were in front of 3 Aurora PD officers stocking up on caffeine. Then all along the street, cops everywhere, they even moved the busses on 16th so they could zip by, lights and sirens going full tilt.

Then we saw them a block later, backing into an alley, no clue what was up. I certainly felt secure if not under a bit too much watch.

Back to the mailboxes, finding none around 16th or on the way to 16th, we headed for the post office. None. Turns out they're all gone, at least the ones we knew about. At the Post Office, the bolts were clearly cut. Incredible!

We'll try again tomorrow to find one, maybe the one on the way to the old gym is still there, it's pretty far from downtown.

So I finished reading Watchmen this afternoon. All I can say is, "I don't get it" People rave and go bananas over it, and the movie being made, well I'm pretty sure some Watchmen fans wet themselves.

I don't get it. The story, not that great. The characters, kinda weak. Now I'm not even comparing to like Batman, the X-Men, etc. Just in general, they weren't overly interesting. Dr. Manhatten, who turns blue and decides he's not human and above all things human? Because he's blue?

I'm not as big a comic reader as I used to be, but man, I'm definitely hoping that the movie (which does look promising) is WAY better than the comic.

Anyone in the market for a read once copy of Watchmen?