The New Blog Format

So after monkeying around with templates, layout, html, css, xml, new Blogger vs old Blogger, and a few other choice buzz words, we now have the web 2.0-ified Thinking Sand Blog.

Yawn.

Just watched the video clip of Prince's big stupid bowl half-time show. If you care, watch or get it now over at You Tube before the NFL legal goons force a take-down. Inexplicably, some folks are all kinds of excited about this same-old boring, overproduced, over-hyped, bloated, half-time show we've come to expect from the asshats at the NFL. But this one had Prince! Whoopie f-ing doo. And a word to supposedly cutting edge musical acts: marching bands don't augment, improve, provide a counterpoint to, or even gracefully coexist with any kind of music. Ever. See Fleetwood Mac and "Tusk" for further proof.

Owwww! My Ears! My Eyes!

This is just so wrong on so many levels. I don't even like the original that much, but this is just offensive. If ever an excuse was needed to never see or hear gawky toothpick Celine Dion again, this would be it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FONt47Z0KZg

A Plea

To all the folks who post videos to YouTube, Google Video, et al........
Buy a freaking tripod and use the damned thing!!!

The Dumbest Representative Sweepstakes

In the past, Utah had a solid lock on having the dumbest representative(s) in the House and Senate. Who can forget the moronic insanity of former rep. Jim Hansen or the current punishingly stupid Chris Cannon? Looks like another state may be giving us a run for the money:

The House passed, 430-1, a package of rules aimed at demonstrating Democrats' commitment to cleaning up Congress. Tomorrow, the House will vote on rules designed to end the anonymous sponsorship of pet projects, or earmarks, that have been quietly tucked into spending measures.

``The culture of the last Congress came to be defined by a phrase now common to Americans throughout the country: it was a culture of corruption,'' said House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat. ``The American people stated loud and clear that they were ready for a new culture to take hold in Washington: a culture of commitment.''

As the Democrats won control of the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years, exit polls from the November election showed the issue resonated with voters. In a CNN exit poll, 42 percent of respondents said the issue was ``extremely important.''

``This is legislation I wish we had done,'' said Representative Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), a Connecticut Republican. ``I'm sorry it took a Democratic majority to do it.'' Jonathan D. Salant, Bloomberg, http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070105/pl_bloomberg/adc7z497fqsa

So what idiot was the lone dissenting vote? Republican Dan Burton of Indiana.

The Madness of 12 Days

How does anyone attempting a serious rendition of that 12 days song ever manage to do so without going batty?

Even Worse Than A Mission Statement

There are a bunch of bogus awards floating about, the most notorious perhaps being the J.D. Powers Awards, where you (a company, entity, etc) basically pay for an award and pay again for the right to use the name and logo of said award. I just recently found out about the Stevies, supposedly "...the Oscars of business...", given in four categories - American Business, International Business, Women in Business, and Selling Power Sales Excellence. You pay a fee to be considered in any of 300 sub-categories and the awards are based on unverified applications filled out by the entrants themselves i.e.: there is no real judging.
As a result you get gems of gibberish in the applications, like this one from PostcardMania, which won for Best Writing (!):

"The objective was ... imparting to all our visitors that they can be causative over their income and expansion by understanding marketing and implementing the basics we hope to teach with our articles."

Next Previous Newer Older Oh My

Wouldn't it be nice if blogs, tech journals, et al could standardize on exactly which direction navigational links like those in the title go?

Another xmas Song I Can Never Listen to Again

This is so shockingly bad I'm speechless:
O Holy Crap
As the poster says: "...just when you think it couldn't possibly get any worse, it does. By a lot. And it does this more than once,..."

Emo Sucks, Part 2348

A tune, if you could call it that, by Dashboard Confessional was just on the stream from our local alt rock station. Oh crap. My ears are leaking brain fluid, yet again. I didn't think it possible for a band to be more insipid than Creed or Coldplay. I was so very wrong.

Cannon

A different take on Pachelbel's Cannon in D

Here's Jerry C's official site: http://jerryc.tw/

Cell Phone Companies Don't Get It

Just came across a description of the features of the new Sony Ericsson P990 cell phone over on gizmodo.com:

Other features include a business card reader?what I wouldn?t give for that?and a music player that supports MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats. Then you?ve got a 2-megapixel phone with 2.5x digital zoom and flash, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, and FM clock radio with stereo Bluetooth support. If previous incarnations have been any indication, the price on this thing will be stratospheric.

Please. Enough already. Want to know what will sell phones and keep customers? Here's a hint: phone service. Just give me a cell phone that works - doesn't drop calls, able to place and receive calls everywhere, has a good microphone so I don't have to shout, has good sound quality so I can understand what the other person is saying, has exemplary usability so I can store and retrieve numbers and names without having to read any manuals or quick start guides - keep the cameras, videocams, mp3 players, radios, game consoles, and PDA applications where they belong....anywhere but in my phone!