When Real Life and Second Life Collide

Seems in the new techno-world of the 21st century, fidelity isn't just limited to the real world...

Case in point, a British couple are divorcing after 3 years of marriage when the wife repeatedly caught her husband's Second Life avatar having sex with various women (including prostitutes).

My question... in the divorce settlement, who gets the computer?

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AD39U20081114?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology&sp=true

(Reposted from my other blog, One Viewpoint)

Me And Murry

I recently went on a trip, involving several long flights. As I've done over the past few years, I brought along a book, an old collection of even older sci-fi stories (from the "golden age of the pulps") by Murray Leinster.

I first "met" Murray when I was in college. I was working on a paper and needed to use one of the computers in the 24 hour lab (this was before the days of affordable laptops). Since it was around Finals, I wasn't the only one in need of word processing and a printer; there was a line out the door of other people in the same predicament as me (and which further reinforced my theory that we ALL wait to the last minute to get things done).

To pass the time, I borrowed one of my roommate's books ("The Best of Murray Leinster" edited by J J Pierce), which just so happened to be a collection of his short stories. I enjoy sci-fi, but I wouldn't call myself a big fan; I haven't read any of the great authors like Card, Asimov, or Heinlein, and other than a few cyberpunk books by William Gibson, most of my exposure has been through TV and movies.

Anyway, I enjoyed the stories, even if some of the writing felt a little dated; his stories are populated with spaceships and computers using vacuum tube technology. But details aside, the plots are engaging, the themes still relevant, and the science well-rooted in some basis of fact.

Years later I was looking though a used book store and found a copy of the book I had been reading in college. I picked it up and let in sit on a bookshelf...

Later still, I was getting ready for my first trip to New Orleans, to meet up with some friends for a bachelor party. Looking for something to fill the time at the terminal and on the plane (and since I'm a dreadfully slow reader), I picked up this book again.

Over the years as I've gone on trips to San Francisco, San Diego, and even London, Murray has always been along for the ride. This year, Murry came along again (all the way out to Hawaii), but on the return flight home, I finished the last story of the book. Now it sits on the shelf as another finished novel, which I may glance at from time to time, but unlikely to read again; in spite of, or maybe because of the fact that I'm such a slow reader, my "to read" pile grows faster than I can read them.

So now as this old book takes a place on the shelf, I'm on the search for a new collection of his work... since I have no planned trips coming up, so I have a little time.

If you're interested in checking out some of his work, here are a couple of places to look:
* Free ebooks from Project Gutenberg.
* Books available on Amazon.
* Books available from eBay.

Hey! Know What Day It Is? It's National Punctuation Day

I kid you not... for more on the story, check on their website:

http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/

I'm particularly fond of their guidelines on how to celebrate the day.

Geek Spotting

Yesterday I had quite a shock in the parking lot of the apartment building I've been living at for the last two years. As I was parking the car, I saw an unmistakable geek walking toward and then into the main door for my apartment floor (there are several buildings in the complex, and each floor of each building has it's own main door).

I was thoroughly shocked, since as I mentioned previously, I have been living there for a few years and had no idea. You may be wondering how I knew this person was a geek. Simple, said person matched practically every geek criteria, including:

• male (between 20-25)
  
• slightly overweight
• wore a slightly worn out t-shirt (that was not very flattering)
  
• pale skin
  
• glasses
• and long, stringy, unkempt hair

At first I wondered if he lived on my floor, but a second look helped me determine that he was probably just visiting. He had what looked like some notebooks, along with some other unidentifiable supplies. The clincher was that he carried a 12-pack of orange soda and a 12-pack of Mountain Dew. Clearly he was a visiting gamer-geek and courteous enough to bring supplies.

But what game? He didn't have a laptop, so I doubt it was a LAN party. I didn't see boxes of miniatures, so he wasn't a wargammer (those dudes NEVER travel light), thanks to online play, there's no point to physically get together for any console gaming. He may have been an RPG gamer (D&D and the like) or a CCG gamer, I can't be sure...

Before anyone thinks that I'm making fun of/looking down on the guy I saw, let me say with full disclosure, earlier that day, during running my errands, I also made a stop at the local comic book/hobby store, and later that night I played some Guitar Hero (Rockin' the 80's) and had my own best-of season 5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer mini-marathon thanks to the complete Buffy DVD collection I own.

So to that geek I saw in the parking lot, I say: I hope you had a good time... and do you have room for another player? :-)

The Lesser of Two Evils

Even though he serviced as the mayor of his Romanian village for over two decades, it was a bit of a surprise when Neculai Ivascu was recently re-elected to said same post. What made this re-election unusual was the fact that he was DEAD!

One voter was quoted: "I know he died, but I don't want change."

Sadly the opponent, the still-breathing Gheorghe Dobrescu, had to endure the humiliation of being mentioned in the article as the candidate who lost to a dead man.

Original Reuters article

The Sum of All Internet...

It sometimes seems like there's so much information overload on the Internet, it's nice to see one site do one thing great. I present...

The Rimshot

If you need it, it's the only place to be!

"Bless me father for I am sinning..."

While the story of a couple getting caught having "relations" (wink, wink) in public might not be all that noteworthy, it does get more notice when said "public" turns out to be a church confessional box (in Rome no less) DURING mass... unconfirmed reports claim that fellow parishioners assumed the couple were merely "filled with the spirit" before being discovered.

Original article from Reuters

Get the Flock Outta Here

This is a test post of the Flock browser... remember when apps were only written for PCs and then, MAYBE, if you were lucky, a less than stellar Mac version would come out later. And by later, I mean "much later".

Well as a long time Mac user, I'm glad to see more and more things being supported across several platforms. It definitely makes me feel like I'm just as much a cyber-citizen as some one running the lastest version of Windows.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Long Good Night

Seems the McMurdo research base in Antarctica just received a shipment of over
16 thousand condoms, for a base that currently only has 125 people during the upcoming winter months.

While that might sound pretty impressive (that's 132 condoms per person), their winter night will last till Aug 20, so they've got the time, and hopefully the stamina. The sad part to this story is hidden in the math... with 125 people on base, that comes out to 62 couples and one odd man out... poor guy

For more info: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0943167020080609

Japanese Woman Comes Out of the Closet

Choose Your Own Preface:

1) The next time you hear a strange noise coming from your closet, you might want to double check before you dismiss it as just your imagination...

2) So you think your apartment is small!

in the closet

I'm callous enough to appreciate a little "gallows humor" from time to time, but this headline about Sen. Kennedy may have gone a bit too far, even for my taste.

What a long strange trip it's been...

Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD passed away today... at the age of 102!

Good for you Al...

For more information, check out the full story here on Yahoo!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_re_eu/obit_hofmann

Are You $#!%ing Me!

Seems like crazy news is on a roll, and I'm along for the ride.

Here's a BBC News article about... The Hitler Doll, on sale soon in a Ukrainian store near you!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7362161.stm

At what point did this sound like a good idea. And what's next? Press a button and he does the Reich salute, or pull a string and he spews out hate and bigotry?

Strange but... Strange!

I know it's been a while since I've written, but I got a doozie this time...

Here's an article that makes Reuters look like The Midnight Star...

Article (if you're easily shocked or offended, be warned)

"Famous" For a Day

Hey,

I understand that you don't actually have to be talented to be famous (thank you Paris Hilton for proving that to a new generation of people), but now you don't even have to be famous to be treated like you are...

Celebrity for a Day news article

Seems if you can scrape up $1,500 you can get hounded by your own stable of photographers... and for even more money, get a bodyguard and publicist.

Publicist!?!... Who are they going to publicize you to? Fake reporters and imaginary newspapers??

It's a strange world, and it just got a bit stranger...

Nothing Ever Dies

Thanks to sites like YouTube, things that you might have thought were long gone and never to be seen again live on...

Case in point... the opening video for this (not so) classic Saturday morning TV show Kidd Video!



And for more info, check out their Wikipedia page (wait! they have a page and I don't?!?).

Time Travelin'

Some people say that Time Travel may be impossible, based on the current understanding of the laws of physics.

I tend to disagree with them. I say this because I have already time traveled, and no, I don't have a portable fusion reaction in my basement, or some other science-fiction-y device at my command, but I do travel in time. In fact I did it just the other day...

I was outside last night and it was dark and cold. There was something in the air, a mix of the bitting cold of winter and the dark of night. As I inhaled deeply on the pungent air, for a moment it was a decade ago and I was back in college (Penn State main campus). It was a Friday night (instead of the Monday night I started out in 2008) before the end of the semester (early January) and I was heading over to my fraternity house (I lived on campus, not in the house). I would have been smoking a cigarette back then -- I wasn't now, but I could almost taste it on my lips as if I had finished it just a few minutes ago. Those nights, at school, on the weekends were so filled with options... it's a shame I didn't take too many of the ones that were available, but that's another post for another day...

This trip only lasted a few moments before I was pulled back into 2008, but sometimes you can hold on a little longer, for whatever it's worth, though you can never stay.

Next time you smell something familiar, or think you see someone from a long time ago, take the time to appreciate your own little time travel... and enjoy!

Filed Under EWW!

Seems like twins, given up for adoption at an early age married each other in England recently.

For me, all I could think about was the line from Eurotrip:

"They really are the worst twins ever!"

World's Largest TV

All I can say is... wow

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0740737820080107?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology

ok...

1) so who has the room for a 150 inch tv?
2) what's the cost?
3) if I have to ask, I can't afford it
4) what's the cost of the juice to run this (again, see number 3 above)

"Let 'em eat cake"

I don't think this is what Marie Antoinette thought when she made her famous statement.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/01/07/cake.irpt/index.html

A life size wedding cake that looks like the bride... creepy! Especially when you think of the wedding tradition of keeping the top piece of the cake for a year and then eating it on the first anniversary of the wedding.

So next year do they eat her head?

No more words...

I guess Berlin had it right when Terri sang:

Remember when the words were new
They carried a meaning, a feeling so true

(from the song No More Words)

The following article lists this years winners for overused phrases, or "19 affronts to the English language":

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0160393320080101?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

As for next year, who knows what verbal "low hanging fruit" will "make the grade" or "fall through the cracks" :)