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I flipped on the TV to tell my TiVo to record an episode of Oprah. NOT, mind you, that I ever watch it (three thumbs down)… but a friend’s wife is going to be on the show, so I’ll ignore my lifetime ban just this once.
When I turned the TV on, Murder, She Wrote was playing. The combination of character actors like Stella Stevens and Donald Moffat combined with generally corny dialog, and jessica’s kitschy western wear sucked me in. I wanted to believe every word Jessica told me. I had to pull myself away to get to the shower.
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Archive for January, 2008
| What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Midland
“You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. |
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| The West |
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| Boston |
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| North Central |
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| Philadelphia |
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| The Northeast |
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| The South |
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| The Inland North |
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| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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“what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards” (embedded somewhere in the run on sentence).
Sphere: Related ContentPlanetOut’s still struggling! Despite selling RSVP Vacations and splitting its stocks, the gay publishing company - which brings us Out and The Advocate [and gay.com, hello], among others - simply can’t find the cash to stay afloat.
In an effort to keep from going under completely, the company’s reportedly looking for a sugar daddy: · (Read More)
I still own all my PlanetOut stock - I think it was about 500 shares or so that I bought when I left the company—now about 50 after their recent 10-1 reverse split. I’ve kept it because it’s the only time I received an actual stock certificate, and having one with a tricker of LGBT is a cool piece of queer interweb history.
One of the comments on the linked post said “OUT once spoke to all gay men, it now speaks to a small percentage who buy Gucci and other fashion brands that have nothing to do with an average or successful gay consumer.”
I beg to differ that Out ever spoke for all gay men. For a period of time time, those magazines had the benefit of being novel and unique against a landscape of other lifestyle mags, but that time has passed. The changing landscape of queer politics and lifestyle have fractured and commodotized into a thousand different groups. Just like there is no monolithic “black vote” supporting Obama, queers are more diverse than a single, static, unpersonalized sheaf of pages can speak to.
With the web, they have the ability to behaviorally target the specific and varied interests of the reader, providing advertising and content that is relevant to different demographics, rather than just Guccigays. Sadly, PNO (and by extension out and the advocate) did not invest in their technology infrastructure to flex into this new mode of content delivery. They rested on the laurels of the gay.com domain, assuming that would bring in the eyeballs, while their competition became nimble and microtargeted their audiences… and as such, PNO continues its tailspin.
I want to see them survive - partly because of the staggering number of once prestigious brands that could go down with it, partly for the cool people who still work there, and partly because I can see a cool future for them, but they’ll need a massive infusion of strategy and cash in order to do so.
[dupe/repost with a different slug, since i linked to my blog from queerty’s comments and broke the link. duh.]
Sphere: Related ContentPlanetOut’s still struggling! Despite selling RSVP Vacations and splitting its stocks, the gay publishing company - which brings us Out and The Advocate [and gay.com, hello], among others - simply can’t find the cash to stay afloat.
In an effort to keep from going under completely, the company’s reportedly looking for a sugar daddy: · (Read More)
I still own all my PlanetOut stock - I think it was about 500 shares or so that I bought when I left the company—now about 50 after their recent 10-1 reverse split. I’ve kept it because it’s the only time I received an actual stock certificate, and having one with a tricker of LGBT is a cool piece of queer interweb history.
One of the comments on the linked post said “OUT once spoke to all gay men, it now speaks to a small percentage who buy Gucci and other fashion brands that have nothing to do with an average or successful gay consumer.”
I beg to differ that Out ever spoke for all gay men. For a period of time time, those magazines had the benefit of being novel and unique against a landscape of other lifestyle mags, but that time has passed. The changing landscape of queer politics and lifestyle have fractured and commodotized into a thousand different groups. Just like there is no monolithic “black vote” supporting Obama, queers are more diverse than a single, static, unpersonalized sheaf of pages can speak to.
With the web, they have the ability to behaviorally target the specific and varied interests of the reader, providing advertising and content that is relevant to different demographics, rather than just Guccigays. Sadly, PNO (and by extension out and the advocate) did not invest in their technology infrastructure to flex into this new mode of content delivery. They rested on the laurels of the gay.com domain, assuming that would bring in the eyeballs, while their competition became nimble and microtargeted their audiences… and as such, PNO continues its tailspin.
I want to see them survive - partly because of the staggering number of once prestigious brands that could go down with it, partly for the cool people who still work there, and partly because I can see a cool future for them, but they’ll need a massive infusion of strategy and cash in order to do so.
Sphere: Related Content
Website: swapsf.com
When: Saturday, January 19th, noon-3pm
Where: CELLspace (2050 Bryant St. between 18th & 19th)
How Much: $5 ($10 without clothes)
Please note: I am not the organizer of this event. Monica and Jason @ SwapSF.com are the genii. Geniuses. Whatever. 
Visit the web page swapsf.com, facebook pages or upcoming event page to RSVP and get more info.
I don’t think I’ve ever logged on to facebook using a PC.
I rock out with my socks out, because if you google “Crocs are retarded” I am the #1 result. That is all.
(picture stolen from igobychad)
This is a continuation from my first review of the TomTom 920T, which i bought just before the holidays (Merry hoho to me). I’ve had some time to get used to my new toy, so I thought I would follow it up with some more thoughts.
Additional things to love:
- I’ve had almost no problems staying in tune with satellites. Granted I am in the bay area, but I still expected to drop out every once in awhile in rural areas like Woodside. I’ve only had some minor problems on the east side of the financial district, specifically when navigating around the Embarcadero centers.
- Great battery time. I have no quantitative numbers, but it seems to do a nice job.
- Nice night-colors. I only have my previous unit to compare to, but this is very usable and melllow, even in day time.
Additional things not to love:
- My previous review discussed iPod integration. In fact I have an iPhone, which makes a bit of a difference. The iPod Connect cable is not one of the “apple licensed and approved” devices for the iPhone. It does work, but only on the second try. When you plug it in you get a warning on the iphone that it’s not approved, and “would you like to go into airplane mode to minimize something or other”… um. No, but thanks. I dismiss the iPhone dialog box and move to the TomTom, where I navigate into the iPod control area and try to hit my driving playlist. As soon as I touch it, the TomTom reports that it lost the iPod connection. I have to un/replug the cable, dismiss the dialog box again, then it works fine. Every single time. Dunno if it’s a TomTom or iPhone thing, but irritating.
- Overly global and semi-sticky voice preference. Most of the time I know where I am going. I don’t need to hear turn by turn instructions from the TomTom telling me to keep to “two hundred and eighty Ess Bee [sb=southbound] towards San Ho-Tha [San Jose]” or “Towards San Frahn This-Kaa [san francisco]” So I keep it off most of the time. There appears to be no way to keep voice traffic alerts on while keeping instructions off. Occasionally I’ll jump to the traffic menu to have it speak traffic conditions, which it does quickly and smoothly. Unfortunately this toggles the global voice back on without warning.
- Overly chatty voice. There are several major and minor turnoffs along my usual route to work. The system seems to be unable to distinguish this so it helpfully tells me to “keep left then follow blah blah for another 2 point 2 miles” where it gives me another prompt to stay left. And another. The whole way down. Useful in an unfamiliar area, but not so much in a known area. This manifests in the text/list route browser as well: 35 miles of my trip is along 280, but the list shows it as about 10 different steps of X.X miles. No roll-up. There should be a “detailed v. simple” instruction mode.
- Stupid cabling. The worst annoyance is that the traffic antenna cable and iPod connect cable use the same port. So you have to choose which one you want. It already talks to my phone over bluetooth for traffic supposedly, but still wants that antenna plugged in. I don’t know why, and it may be an operator error. Anyway, this means I have the 1) power cable 2) the traffic cable, and 3) the ipod cable to manage. All of which have to be put somewhere, and between those three they fill up my rather small center console box when keeping them hidden.
The only thing that can’t be fixed with software updates is the cord management, so overall I am still very happy with this.
Update: Getting a little less happy with my TomTom in my third review
Sphere: Related ContentHappy new year.