I’m not one to usually do link posts, but here you go:

Apture sort of reminds me of pop-up-news, but without the automagic, pithy commentary.
Sweetcron is perhaps a step in the right direction. The next cool thing might be a foaf app that organizes your friends. You’ll need some decentralized way to request that someone be your friend.

I absolutely cannot deny that there might be something in this. But I call bs on the whole semantic web thing. I can imagine people finding information for a small subset of questions, and that even within that subset twitter should be able to find a revenue model. I doubt, though, that this approach would work in the larger search context. And, I still don’t get twitter (or ff for that matter). :( How has no one made the new hotness that competes with these?

And while I’m semi-ranting, why are there no standards for blog themes? Have I mentioned this before? Anyway, wouldn’t it be so nice if there were another xml feed that you could just xsl into a theme? Then any theme created for any blogging software might be able to skin your favorite blogging software…

Who was the idiot who booked my flight at 610a? Oh, wait, that’d be me…

I made some notes when I booked these tickets around October 27/28:

monday, checked yahoo, aa: 483 atl to ama, thurs thru mon
tuesday, checked yahoo, aa: 425 atl to ama, thurs thru mon
booked ticket tuesday night, yahoo, aa: 390 atl to ama, thurs thru mon

Honestly, what sense does that make? The only thing I can figure is that demand rises around the 30 day mark, because everyone thinks there’s a cutoff and that the prices will precipitously increase. So everyone books 30 days out, increasing demand and thus price, and then it drops off. At least for once my cheap side actually paid off, as normally it doesn’t.

I can’t seem to shake this feeling that I’ve forgotten something. I don’t even have an inkling for what it might be. :(

In other news, I’ve had that stupid catchy iPhone song in my head (The Submarines’ song “You, Me, & the Bourgeoisie”).

Hmm, it’s sort of sad it’s been almost a month since I’ve written last. I’ll be heading to Canyon on Thursday morning, flying back sometime Monday (I forget when exactly). Then on Thursday, I’m heading out to Chicago to see Chad for the “weekend”. I’ll be there until Sunday.

I’ve also been thinking about going on Choir Tour, which would be a pretty cheap, week’s worth of vacation…

When did sacrifice for a cause greater than ourselves, once a supreme fundamental strength of these United States, fall to the wayside? When did we start thinking that the solutions to difficult problems would come easily, without pain and sacrifice?

You look at Reagan’s inaugural and Kennedy’s oratory, they do not say that it will be easy, but that these things must be done now and not later, that we must do them together, that we will do them together, that we will sacrifice as one, and that we will triumph as one.

is in his head this morning. Oddly enough I’ve actually seen them live in Atlanta.

So, if I was behind before, I’m still behind. Like I said, I’ve seen a good number of movies, but I’m still pretty far behind. When I was home I saw “An American Carol” which was mediocre, as was expected. We also saw “Burn After Reading”. Now this movie’s trailer gave it awesome potential. Stellar actors, great directors, and what looked like a quirky plot. Man was I wrong on that one. It was just too weird for me. It was just not worth seeing. Please don’t go watch it. Don’t even rent it. Don’t even download it for free. :) There was a preview for “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” which in hindsight we should have seen instead…

I also fell in love with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. Had I known it had Marshall in it from “How I Met Your Mother” and had I known he wrote it and is an awesome musician, I would like to think I would have seen it sooner. I watched it once, then got it and the bonus dvd from Netflix, watched all of that content, then watched it again. A super classic.

(Oops, this was a draft from June 8 that I never posted… I’ve actually seen a good number of these.)

I am like crazy far behind on movies that have come out recently. Recently meaning in the past six months. :( Here’s a list starting with movies released in Jan 2008:

Meet the Spartans
Definitely, Maybe
Jumper (not thinking this one will be good, but should see anyway)
Be Kind Rewind (can’t pass up Jack Black)
Vantage Point (eh)
The Bank Job (??)
21
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Baby Mama (should have its funny moments, right?)
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
Made of Honor (hard to pass up Michelle Monaghan from Gone Baby Gone)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

And if you take into account my Netflix queue, it gets even longer:
Lady in the Water
The Illusionist
Saw III
The Prestige
The Queen
Eragon
Shrek the Third
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Vacancy
We are Marshall
Fido
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Semi-Pro
Mama’s Boy
Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show

Man, I’ve got my work cut out for me…

I had this Neil Diamond song in my head for a couple of days. Twas the oddest thing.

I’ve been watching some C-SPAN of late, catching PM’s questions, Alan Greenspan’s testimony, the testimony of the credit rating agencies, etc. It’s funny how these hearings seem really pointless, not unlike many regular meetings. All too often it’s people talking, and not a lot of getting things done. Also, it seemed like in the more high profile ones, that Congressmen were all too often trying to push an agenda, seeming to me like they weren’t really wanting to hear whatever those testifying had to say. Perhaps they’ve become cynical that those testifying have their own agenda, so they will ask directing questions, and not really let people speak? It’s a sad state of affairs. Some of the lesser committees seem like they are more interested in getting to the truth. But I have to wonder how quickly even the staunchest idealist would soon be pulled down into the dregs of everyday congressional life; if every day brings you closer to just becoming a cog in the government wheel and further away from your ability to inject change and remember what it was looking from the outside in.

If anyone reading this ever writes a sitcom, write a plot around this:

Twice in the past 6 months, there has been a car directly outside my apartment that spontaneously started honking its horn. Not in the expected and obnoxious car alarm way, but in a constant, monotonic, piercing way. I never knew a horn could sustain like this for so long. I really wonder how much it drains the battery. The first time was quite late at night, making it all the more dreadful when you’re trying to go to sleep (or wake up to it), but this time, it’s in the early evening, so not quite as bad. Either way entirely annoying, and after listening to it for any period of time, I think it quite difficult for anyone to not want to pummel whomever’s car it is.

…is hating on Vanguard and kicking himself for not capitalizing on today’s bounce in the market.

…and for unknown reasons feels compelled to say that the leaves started turning and falling last week.