Trotz.com

So today is full of a bunch of hooey. Someone had the brilliant idea to go and remake the legitimately creepy and good original Omen film and release a new version today, other kooks are predicting the end of days, while an offshore sports book is offering 100,000-to-1 odds that the Earth will end today (Earth is on the good end of those odds, by the way). But if you do bet against the end of the world, a cool $500 will earn you half a penny. All of this begins with Revelation 13:18 in the new testament:

“This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

I guess I must be extra evil, given that I was born with an extra six in my birthdate. But I think this professor has a more sensible outlook on this:

“Many people avoid the number; they’re afraid of it almost and there’s absolutely no reason to be afraid of it,” Just said. “It is not a prediction of future events. It is not supposed to be taken as a timetable for when the world is going to end.” - Rev. Felix Just, Professor of Theology  at the University of San Francisco

Sweet! I’ll be goofing off and celebrating my 40th today. Gee - I don’t feel any older, nor do I feel like the antichrist, despite what the Omen suggests.

Tags: Family, Miscellaneous

So as my long time feline buddy Chaos ages, he has been less and less thorough with grooming himself. That job usually falls to Amy and I, but with the arrival of Sam we’ve had less time to help him with these tasks. That combination of events means a fair bit of matting for the old guy, so off he went to be shaved at the vet recently. He looks like a goofball/alien/creature with his new ‘do - puffy around the head but stubbly everywhere else. You be the judge.

Tags: Miscellaneous, Photography

Now you can stream a podcast to your SprintPCS phone using Pod 2 Mobile’s Pod2Mob software, which is currently in beta. The company says it only works with SprintPCS because “they have the best data package,” which allows for unlimited data transfer - handy for streaming long-winded podcasts.

(via Dave Winer’s Scripting News via TUAW.com]

Tags: blog, Miscellaneous, wordpress

Over at personal finance blog Hello, Dollar! they’ve got a great post about how bringing your four times a week can eventually earn you half a million dollars.

So let’s see, four days bringing lunch at $2 plus one day out at $7 equals $15 per week. Eating out every day would cost $35 per week, so I save $20. $20 a week! That’s over $80 a month — that covers my utility bills right there. Who couldn’t use that?

40 years and the miracle of compound interest turns that into $581,826! Nice!

(via Lifehacker)

Tags: Miscellaneous, Web

Digital cowbell: “Cory Doctorow:

The Rad Monkey VLC800 is a digital cowbell that simulates the sounds of 12 popular analog cowbells through a high-quality digital signal processor. Will Ferrel and/or The Moody Blues should pick one of these up pronto.Link

The Cowbell Project

(via Red Ferret by way of Boing Boing.)

Tags: Miscellaneous

Last weekend, our neighbors Michael & Rachel organized the annual Rosalia/Cameron Street block party. Neighbors from all over Grant Park attended the festivities, and Sam had a great time at his first post-utero musical event - a local blues band. Check out the gallery of photos here.

Tags: Gallery, Miscellaneous, Photography

Atlanta breathed a sigh of relief after Brian Nichols gave himself up on Saturday. He added another victim to the death toll - a US Customs agent he surprised working at his home in Buckhead. The Atlanta Journal Constitution interview with the woman he held for seven hours Friday night into Saturday morning is amazing. The single mother who lost her husband in a knife fight several years ago knew exactly what to say and do, and even chose to delay tipping off the police when she thought a confrontation would ensue, believing instead that he would let her go on Saturday morning. Read the story here.

Tags: Miscellaneous

Today’s shooting that killed three took place about a half-mile from CNN Center where I work. I drive by the courthouse on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive every morning on the way to the office, and would have likely been right there at 9am when the gunman fired six shots across MLK and killed one of the victims, a sherrif’s deputy, right outside the courthouse.

I had an a 9am meeting today, and came in early to prepare, avoiding the scene.

The brazen gunman wrestled the weapon away from one of the deputies in the courthouse while in a holding area, then shot and killed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes and his court reporter, 43 year-old Julie Brandau. After he’d escaped the building, he shot and killed the other officer (Sheriff’s Deputy Hoyt Teasley), and carjacked at least two or as many as three vehicles in his efforts to escape, and currently remains at large. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter was pistol whipped and carjacked in the mayhem by the suspect.
UPDATE:CNN is now reporting (and showing) video of the suspect carjacking the AJC reporter in one of Turner’s parking garages, caught on a security camera. Not the one I routinely park in, but right next door. Really quite frightening.
Photo by The Associated Press

Tags: Miscellaneous

Digital marketing powerhouse Digitas/Modem Media announced today that my friend Cella Irvine would become their Chief Administrative Officer, reporting to their CEO. Cella is a long-time digital media vet, having led Microsoft’s Sidewalk operation in NYC for many years, up to it’s purchase by Ticketmaster/CitySearch. She went on to work for insurance giant Marsh, Inc. Anyway, she’s a brilliant and wonderful person, and should do well in her new role. BusinessWire news release on her new gig is here, and a Clickz.com news story is here.

Tags: Miscellaneous

The Savannah Morning News has moved into it’s new home. Like many businesses, they have outgrown their old facility. Working for the News-Press in the late 80s and early 90s, we felt very much a part of city, sitting in the midst of everything. The annual St. Patrick’s Day parade passing by out front. We were only a stone’s throw from City Hall. Moments from the ports, the police barracks, and all sorts of other key Savannah institutions. But while it’s sad that the paper is moving out of their 100+ year location in downtown Savannah (my hometown), it’s clearly a great new facility, and the costs to add these types of improvements on the old building would have been prohibitive.
Savannahnow.com coverage here
Slideshow here
VR gallery here

Continue reading »

Tags: Miscellaneous