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Friday, August 26, 2005
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Outbursts of Everett True
For some reason, these comic strips from 1905-06 appeal to me :)
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
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Show me the funny
I love silly websites. Sites that really serve no purpose and some may even go as far as to say they take up valuable bandwidth. But damn they're teh funny. And yes I know I typo'd 'the' there, it's a Fark thing.
Here's a sampling of some of my favourite sites whose sole purpose in life is just to get a giggle out of you:
 Stuffonmycat.com: Do you enjoy putting stuff on your cat? So do these people. Not so sure the cats dig it, but they do make for some damn funny photos. Submit your own pics and share the funny.
The Llama Song - Everyone sing!
IllWillPress: Oh that foul little squirrel Foamy's at it again in this collection of rude, vulgar, hilarious, stupid, silly, addicting flash 'toons. I'm particularly fond of the "Amityville Toaster."
 Emotion Eric: I'll give him a mention because I once loved his site dearly, but he hasn't updated in a long long time :( I miss you Eric! People from around the globe request emotions for Eric and he does his best to act it out for you. Even though he's not around, there's still a pretty good gallery of teh funny to peruse.
I'll end with the Subserviant Chicken. Sure it's been around a while, and is sponsored by Burger King, but come on. How many people get a chance to order a chicken around?
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Sunday, August 21, 2005
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Secrets
 Everyone has something hidden deep down in places you don't talk about at parties. A secret. A skeleton in the closet. it could be something fairly mundane, or maybe it's something that could get you into trouble.
The Web has come up with a place that lets you vent your secret anonymously in some of the most creative ways I've ever seen - via postcards sent to a P.O. Box.
Postsecret is a unique, interesting, addictive site that posts these secrets once a week. From the site: "Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before."
 It's fascinating to see some of the secrets published. Some are sad, some scary, others funny... Some might even hit close to home.
Some secrets have even been featured in a music video by the band All American Rejects. The concept is interesting. I often wonder if the act of sending in a secret is cathartic for the sender - a way to get something off the chest without consequences. It seems to be anyway, from what I can tell. Anyway, check it out. New secrets are posted every Sunday.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
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New Blogger Feature
So I'm trying out Blogger.com's new plugin that allows you to create your post in MS Word and publish it directly from Word as well. Seems interesting, though maybe the only real benefit of it is being able to look like you're doing work rather than getting caught blogging - luckily for me this blog is a new part of my job so *phew* I don't have to worry about that (
I also suppose being able to take advantage of Word's features might be a plus.
We'll see.
If you're a Blogger user check out their news section for instructions on how to install this plugin for Word and check it out for yourself - unless you're a Mac user. Then you're up a creek. Hehe.
EDIT>> Ok I've published it and discovered some weird formatting errors because I forgot that Word has character compatibility issues with Blogger. I'm sure it's a setting somewhere that needs to be flipped but until I find it, I think I'll just carry on using Blogger's editor.
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Tuesday, August 09, 2005
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Mooovies
"What was that one guy's name in that one movie? You know.. He becomes sheriff of a town and everybody hates him because he's black, so to keep them from running him out of town he pulls a gun and pretends to hold himself hostage and the townspeople are so dumb they buy it?"
"You mean "Blazing Saddles"?"
"Yeah yeah! That's it. Who played the sheriff?"
Repeat after me: "The IMDb is our friend. The IMDb is our friend."
The Internet Movie Database is 'the biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.' And they mean it. It's handier than a dictionary for folk like me who love movies and I can't tell you how much it's enhanced my movie viewing pleasure with things like trivia, common folk reviews, access to trailers, message boards and just tons of information about nearly every movie ever made.
Did you know that the role of Bart in "Blazing Saddles" was intended for Richard Pryor, but due to the controversial nature of Pryor's stand-up routines of the day and his background, Mel Brooks couldn't secure financing for the project with Pryor in that role?
Or how about this quote from the movie: "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"
So visit the old IMDb and look up some of your favourite movies - or remember the IMDb the next time you're trying to remember the name of that 'one guy.'
It was Cleavon Little by the way :)
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Saturday, August 06, 2005
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What is RSS?
As you travel around the Net you may see little orange icons that say things like 'RSS 2.0' or 'Atom' or 'XML' and you might wonder what those are.
Those icons mean that the site you are visiting is syndicated. And THAT means that you can add the feed from that site into a news aggregator of some kind.
More on those later.
So what is it anyway?
Basically, it means you can add a website's 'feed' to some software that will automagically let you know as soon as that website is updated. RSS feeds are primarily used with blogs, news sites and podcasts.
There are numerous kinds of newsreaders you can use to keep track of a feed. Everything from using your email software, to using Firefox to collect the data.
My favourite one is called 'Feedreader.' It's free, quick to install and does everything I want it to do which is just tell me when something is updated. Sure there are better ones available but you have to pay for those and I'm a cheapskate.
Once you install feedreader (or similar) on your computer, you can then start adding feeds. You just add the web address (URL) of the site's feed and the software does the rest.
How do you know the feed's web address? Those little orange icons you've been spotting usually are linked to it.
For example, my icon in the right column is linked to my feed address which is invirtuallife.blogspot.com/atom.xml. Click on 'add feed' in your newsreader and paste that URL in and let the software do the rest.
From then on, whenever I add a new entry to this blog, you'll get a message letting you know IVL's been updated. Nifty!
A couple of tips:
Most (not all, but most) Blogspot blogs will have an atom feed (providing the blog author has turned it on in their settings) so if you have a favourite blogger using Blogspot, put in their URL and add the 'atom.xml' to the end of it to see.
Most major news sites such as CNN offer RSS syndication so you can get your breaking news as it happens.
So now when you see those weird little orange icons on a site, you should know what they mean :) I love syndication myself because it cuts down on time I'd normally be spending surfing to each and every website I visit on a regular basis. Now I just let FeedReader run and it lets me know when any of them have been updated and I can go on to do bigger and better things :)
Any questions or help with syndication, just pop me a comment.
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005
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Flame Warriors
Are you an Enfant Provocateur? Or perhaps the Lonely Guy is more your style? I'm a bit of Netiquette Nazi myself and so because of that, we're going to spend a little time learning about the different types of Netizens you may encounter in Cyberland and how to combat them.
If you frequent message boards, forums, or chatrooms you are bound to run into certain types of people. Some aren't so bad, others you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
Take the Lurker for example. The Lurker is harmless because he/she does not participate. He merely reads. Occasinally someone may post something that rattles the Lurker enough to cause him to "De-Lurk" and actually say something, but it does not happen often.
Then again you have the Nitpicker. This user is usually quite prolific yet their posts rarely contain any 'meat.' Instead the Nitpicker will look for errors in other people's messages. Anything from spelling errors to factual errors are fair game to this annoying little twit.
Visit Flame Warriors and scroll through the roster on this site to see if you've met any of these types of people. Or indeed, to see if you are actually one of them yourself (and if you are, cut it out man, it's irritating.)
How do you fight these Warriors? Well each one requires a different line of defense. With the Lurker it's easy because you hardly ever remember he's there. But with Nitpicker it's a little more difficult, like trying to swat a fly you can't quite reach. Nitpickers know they are obtuse and annoying and they enjoy watching you writhe in annoyance. Perhaps the best way to deflect is to simply learn to live with the fly.
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005
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My favourite geek
"TRAAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNNNN!!!!!!"
One of my favourite movies is "Stand By Me." Rob Reiner did such a beautiful job tuning a Stephen King story into a movie - something most directors seem to have trouble with judging by all the cak adaptations of King's work out there.
One of the many reasons this film is so good is because of the work of a cute kid called Wil Wheaton. Of course Wil went on to star in some TV show after that. I hear it did pretty well :) (Just kidding, I'm a semi-trekkie.)
So it was kind of exciting for me to discover Wil has a blog and is actually pretty active in it. I've become a regular reader and it's been an absolute joy to read. I started reading it about the time one of his beloved pets died so that may have been what sucked me in. I felt bad for him :( But he bounced back.
The thing I enjoy the most about his blog is that my God, he's just a regular guy! Granted a regular guy who appears on CSI and gets to play in the World Poker Tour etc., and while that stuff's fun to read, it's the in-between posts about his everyday life I like the most because he writes so well.
Did I mention he's a geek? I have a soft-spot for geeks so that's probably another reason I like Wil's blog so much.
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Monday, August 01, 2005
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Mmmm Pie...
"Pie is gooooood."
What the hell am I talking about you ask? I'm talking about pie. The kind of pie that inspires you and makes you sing of your devotion to pie. And donkeys.
 Actually what I'm talking about is one of my favourite sites called Weebl and Bob. These are funny, short little Flash animations that were first seen in America on MTV.
The thing about these weird little guys is you either get them or you don't. And it's interesting to show this site to people and watch how they react to it. It's just pure silliness put out there for silliness' sake and if you believe humour should have some kind of purpose, you probably won't 'get' Weebl and Bob.
Anyway check out the famous pie 'toon and judge for yourself :)
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GetIndyKnow.com blogs are collections of short, frequently updated posts by members of the Grand Island community and Nebraska natives. Bloggers, and comment posters, are solely responsible for what they say.
If you're interested in blogging for GetIndyKnow, email us at yo@getindyknow.com with some sample entries and we'll check 'em out.
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Steve's Weird House
