Astrotweets

Lately I've wondered if I would ever get back to blogging. Today I saw this cool story of astronaut Soichi Noguchi sending mobile pictures from the international space station back to earth through his twitter account.

As far as I'm concerned, that about does it. We've accomplished everything.

Most of us use such technology to show the world the sushi plate sitting in front of us. Which, up to now, left us one step short of accomplishing "everything."

In the meantime, here I was about to post the link to my facebook when I remembered that once upon a time I used to blog.

When I arrived here to finally show my face again, I was horrified and amused to learn that it was exactly one year ago today that I posted. So, instead of composing a draft and then letting it stew for a month and then maybe adding photos, and thus merely bulking up my 'drafts' folder, I'm just going to publish this and run.

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Beware: DilbertFiles.com Is Not A Joke. I Repeat, Not A Joke.

Reading Dilbert panels is really really important.

I once formulated an extremely convincing argument for including a visit to Dilbert.com once a day in order to, well, something something, business acumen, cultural something finger on the pulse, savvy insight, something something staying on my game. Be the ball.

I wish I could remember it.

So when I went to read me some Dilbert this afternoon - after work, uh, during research time, preparing for tomorrow something something be the ball - I saw a link to something called DilbertFiles.com.

Instantly I broke out into psychotic laughter because Dogbert was pointing to the ad and clearly a joke was intended. Eventually, through my tears of internet mirth, as I came out of my coma, I could see Dogbert was quite serious.

Hmmm. Confusion. This was a real link to a real service, and I was not actually supposed to split open with laughter and spill my convulsively cramping innards onto my desk.

So, I cleaned up the blood and clicked on the link.



Apparently, for a nominal fee, you can create an online server space which can be used to transfer monster-sized files to people, with upwards of a hundred huge attachments on a single standard email. You can created shared folders, password accounts, and the like, and use the space as an online backup for everything which you can actually access from any computer anywhere with no special software.

Question is, how safe is Dogbert going to keep my files??

I don't personally see a compelling need to subscribe to any level of the service they offer, but I can see how some small businesses or a professional, like a graphic artist for instance, might find this pretty handy.

Talk amongst yourselves. I'm heading back to the funny pages.

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Bobby Jindal Is A Perfectly Normal Young Obfuscating Republican Who Supports Creationism In Schools And Was Once Involved In A 3-Hour Exorcism....

You think the Louisiana Governor is squirming now?

Wait until he seeks higher office and THIS gets more play.

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Arizona Phoenix* Random Eleven

Jesusland - BEN FOLDS
N.M.A. - EEF BARZELAY
Carolina - BENJAMIN GIBBARD
Welcome Home - RADICAL FACE
Naked As We Came - IRON & WINE
The Last High - THE DANDY WARHOLS
Simple Love - ALISON KRAUSS
Right Side, Wrong Bed - SMASH MOUTH
Feeling Oblivion - TURIN BRAKES
Lies Behind The Sun - PIERCE & E.J. MAGGI
For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless in Ypsilanti - SUFJAN STEVENS




* A long long time ago a man who had only recently worked as a grocery checkout clerk - a bagger - got himself a job as a quarterback on an arena football league team, where he started making the relatively big bucks. In an unlikely twist, the man some time later was the starting quarterback on an actual NFL football team. There, he did his job in a satisfactory manner, a description that would have been just as apt at the little grocery store for which he had not too long before filled bags of sundries. One day this NFL quarterback found himself playing in the Super Bowl with his team. My, what a rise to stardom.

The man then did what all good quarterbacks do: he faded. He bounced around the league, started behind rookies and other quarterbacks who will never be known as greats. He was, in a way, back to bagging groceries.

But never count out a nice guy. After being a washed up back-up QB for most of four seasons, suddenly the man starts every game, for an entire season. Suddenly the man wins games, suddenly the man is on top, again. His team, his new team, is going to the Super Bowl. Only one other quarterback in history has brought two different teams to Super Bowls.

He is reborn. He is risen from the ashes. It's fitting that this man, this year, plays in Phoenix.

MORE

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10 Lessons* Random Eleven

Do not fear the link. The links provided go to an info page for each song provided by pandora dot com. Hear a sample and then act according to your whim. But always come back here. Simple.



Let Me Know (Demo) - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Each Coming Night - IRON & WINE
Jenny Under House Arrest - THE TROPHY FIRE
On/Off - SNOW PATROL
Seaside - THE KOOKS
1995 - THE RADIO DEPT.
Tame Thoughts - WARM IN THE WAKE
So Says I - THE SHINS
Your Scars - CHARLEMAGNE
President Of What? - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
The Great American Napkin - THE SUMMER SKINNY




*I guess January 18 is as good a time as any to do a quick and mercifully final look back at what went wrong with the Bush administration. Not just to keep flogging the beast but to see if there are any general lessons to learn.

Oh, and there are. Bob Woodward writes in the Washington Post on ten insights to draw from the Bush, uh, calamity.

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Just A Second - or - So That's The Purpose Of The Earth's Rotation And International Time Keeping Whatsa-Whoosit Commission

Secret functionaries of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service are going to insert an additional second into the space-time continuum, in between 11:59:59 p.m. and 12 midnight on New Year's Eve. Oddly, this is about when every person on the planet will be paying attention to the clock.

Very very crafty.

Intercepted communications indicate that this additional second has been smuggled into this dimension for the purpose of adding to the already massive block of time currently amassed over the eons. The intent, as deduced by counter-intel analysts, is to keep the earth on track with reality, a goal which the most recent United States Presidential Election had already purportedly achieved.

Science marches on. And so does time, even with the additional weight.

See for yourself.

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A-11* Random Eleven

I used to be able to link each song to a full free play at Napster (the legal Napster). Now, I can't do that. I am linking each of these to a sample play at either Amazon or Itunes or some other place as I see fit. If I were driven to be cleverly rich and have all those multiple streams of income I'm always hearing about, I am sure I would go through the time to set up a referral link commission thing, with one of them. But, No.

Coyote - JENNY OWEN YOUNGS
The Way I Am - INGRID MICHAELSON
Foundations - KATE NASH
Engine Heart - MIRAH
Finally Woken - JEM
Gray Or Blue - JAYMAY
The Polite - KATIE TODD
Happy Alone - EARLIMART
Hands - MS. JOHN SODA
The Park - FEIST
Dark Side - POLLY PAULUSMA







* If you tune in to an NFL game one day and you see the offense line up with three lineman at the ball, three receivers out right and three out left, with two quarterbacks something like 8 or 10 yards back from center, go ahead and blink so you can watch closely, and then remember this article.

What may one day be the offense of the future of football was dreamed up at Piedmont High School by coach Kurt Bryan and Director of Football Operations Steve Humphries a few seasons ago.



They call it the A-11, and if they threw it out onto the field every now and again you might forgive the trickery. The high school has but 1000 students and sometimes you have to drag a little desperation onto the field and see what he scares up.

But this is no gimmick. This is how the offense lines up most of the game. This is a full offensive scheme which runs, passes - and yes, inserts a trick play or two - and which in its first season produced a 7-4 record and has resulted in three straight post-season appearances.

What makes this offense so innovative is that depending on exactly where everyone lines up, any five of the eleven players on the field could be eligible to catch a forward pass on any given play.

The "Offense of the Future" looks kind of fun, even here in the present.

PS -- If you worked your way through this post because you arrived with an undying interest in Mirah and Feist, but you found yourself in an article about football and became hopelessly lost at "three linemen", well... thanks for trying.

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