Don't Get Fooled (Again)

Now, right off the bat, let me just say that I don't have any April Fool's hoaxes on tap for you this year. (April Fools Day being tomorrow, Saturday, in case you weren't aware. Boy, would you have looked silly.)

As far as I know, AOL doesn't really go in for April Fools Day jokes anymore. This is ever since we got burned a bit after April Fools Day, 1996, when we ran a promo on the Welcome Screen which said the government was covering up the existence of life on Jupiter. As usual, some people didn't get the joke, and I think we swore we'd never do it again -- at least, not in News.

(In one of those lemonade-from-lemons moments, some of our folks said, well, this shows how important AOL and the Internet have become for providing news and information to people.)

Anyway, that stunt comes in at Number 66 on the online Museum of Hoaxes's Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes.

News.com also has a story today about April Fools Day on the Web, which chronicles more tomfoolery on the Web this time of year.

Also, good year-round for the debunking of hoaxes, chain letters and urban legends is the ever-useful Snopes.com.

So, with all this in hand, I'm sure you won't be taken in by "Internet Spring Cleaning", or the equally implausible "Daylight Savings Time", which supposedly goes into effect on Sunday.

Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 3/31

Hi everybody. As posted to the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

As we bid farewell to March (and Q1 of 2006), we look ahead to April with Guest Editor Deb, who highlights women photographers and graphic artists in her top six blog picks:

* Nancyluvspix
* At the Base of the Mountains
* My Beloved Furr Babies
* Sometimes I Think
* Bedazzled
* Mary Louise's Photo Shoot

Not content to be limited to just six, Deb also gives blog link love to lots of other people, so check out her entry.

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

(Being a Guest Editor isn't as easy as it looks, but it is very fulfilling.)

In other news, the Journals problems we experienced this afternoon seem to have cleared up, so we got that going for us.

I have an item or two left to blog about, but in the meantime, have a great weekend and don't forget to root for George Mason (underdog -- says who?) in the Final Four.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Cleared: Sporadic Journals Trouble, 3/31 PM

So over at In the Know, Journals Product Manager Susan reports on two items that affect Journals users; one is a fix, and the other is a problem:

* First, the fix: Journals Search, which had been experiencing some problems earlier in the week, should be all back to normal.

* Next, the problem: There seems to be sporadic timeout errors, which is causing some things to be slow (like when you try to view a Journal), sometimes leading to the blue "Journals is unavailable" error screen.

The Journals ops and dev teams are working on this. As noted, it's a sporadic outage (since I'm posting this and you're reading it). Check Susan's blog for updates as we get them.

[Update, 4:10pm ET: The sporadic problem was followed quickly by what looks to my unexpert eye like a brief but total outage of the edit servers. We seem to be back to normal, now. Thanks -- Joe]

If Journals goes all the way down, neither Susan's nor my blogs will be available -- if that's the case, check out the Journals message board, where you can see the message I just posted.

Thanks, and sorry for any inconvenience. -- Joe

It's Finally Spring (Outside)

Hi folks -- so, it's like, boiling outside right now (a whole 74 degrees):

And yet, here I am inside, wearing a fleece:

(Note: Actual amount of zipperage may be exaggerated for dramatic effect.)

Sharp-eyed readers may see my Darth Tater in the background, although I have to admit, that's not his usual spot -- I moved him so he could be in the shot.

Oh, and don't bother scanning my whiteboard for clues or trade secrets -- I haven't updated it in a few months.

Moving on, I will get this week's Guest Editor's picks up in a bit. In the meantime, since it's spring, check out this entry from our buddies at Slashfood; as you're going about your spring cleaning, here's a guide to basic things everybody should have in their pantries.

It's simple stuff that you use everyday, and it's also stuff that's essential if you find yourself having to cook something on short notice. (And that bit about dried pasta lasting a really long time? I can vouch for that -- I still use boxes of pasta from supermarkets that don't exist anymore.)

Of course, there are essentials, and then there are essentials -- now that the food is covered, let's not forget the drink -- from last Sunday's Washington Post, here's a list of essentials items for every home bar.

Thanks -- Joe

I'm Hearing Things

Hi folks -- so I was thinking about the songs I put in the "Music I'm Listening To" field for this here blog. Looking at my most recent entries, here's what I've listed:

• Beethoven, String Quartet in B Flat Major No. 13
• Throwing Muses, Night Driving
• Dave Brubeck, Pennies From Heaven
• The Donnas, Too Bad About Your Girl
• Fatboy Slim, Weapon of Choice
• Stereolab, Margerine Melodie
• Josh Rouse, Directions
• The Shamen, Transamazonia
• Soul Coughing, City of Motors
• Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 3 - 2. Intermezzo - Adagio

It's an honest list -- I'm not trying to put on airs. My music is typically on shuffle play, so I usually type in whatever I'm hearing when I first start drafting my entry.

Since, technically, the music I'm hearing goes all the way from when I start my draft to when I hit "Save", so I will occasionally tweak it when the song I started with has a particularly obnoxious title, but other than that, what I hear is what you get.

Sometimes, the titles sync up with what I'm writing about, but it's more synchronicity than anything else -- I'm not trying to send any messages with my music selections.

When I'm really writing or concentrating on something, I'll typically have classical on, but turned down fairly low; it's more to help drown out the ambient noise in pod-land than to try to stimulate the synapses. Besides, if it's too loud, I'll end up focusing on it, instead of what I'm supposed to be doing.

There's a little jazz, pop, and some electronic of various subgenres (tip: for a good and biased multimedia look at more than you ever wanted to know about electronic music, check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music).

Now, I like electronic music, don't get me wrong, but a lot of it is just really... dumb. I mean, it sounds complicated, with a lot of layers going on, but if you dig a little deeper, a lot of it is just really repetitive, which makes it perfect for working along to. It's like elevator music.

Anyway, when you get down to it, having a field for the music you're hearing at the moment is kind of one of those silly blog conventions that's stuck; we've grown used to it, but we don't really (at least, I don't normally) expect to see it in other places. But it does help to express yourself, or get a view (even a superficial one) of the person behind the post.

If you have any thoughts on the songs you list as you write your blog entries, I'd be curious to see what you have to say, so please share in the comments.

Thanks -- Joe

Go Ahead, Change Your Journal's Address

Hi folks -- so, Journaler NJmom72 e-mailed me a question last week; she wanted to know: What would happen if she changed her Journal's Web address (or URL) to match the new title of her blog -- would it break people's bookmarks or Favorite Places if people went to the old address?

I'm happy to say that the answer is: No, changing your Journal's Web address won't break people's bookmarks. Read on.

When you first create your Journal, your Journal's address is determined this way:
journals.aol.com/[YourScreenName]/[TheNameofYourJournal]

In terms of Journal addresses, Your Screen Name is what it is; you can't change it. The Name of Your Journal is what you typed when you were first creating your blog, trimmed down to 32 characters and with the spaces and funny characters stripped out.

If you like, you can change the name of your Journal and you can also change the name part of your Journal's address. It's easy, and when you change your Journal's address, it will automatically redirect people going from your old address to your new one.

Here's how you change your address:

* When you're signed in to your Journal, click the blue "Edit Journal" button near the top of your blog.

* In the first section, click the link that says "Edit journal name, description and address."

* In the section marked Address (URL), you can change the name part of your address (the bit circled in red):

That's it. For example, NJMom72's previous Journal address was http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/InMyLife/ -- it's now http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/TheStrawberryPatch.

Clicking either the old address or the new address will take you to the same place.

[Added: If, after you've changed your Journal's address, someone clicks on a direct link to an entry (such as one in your archives), they will not automatically redirect to the new address of the entry. Instead, direct links to entries will be redirected to the main page of your Journal.]

Changing the URL shouldn't affect Alerts, and feed readers should be smart enough to pick up the change. Of course, you probably don't want to continually change your blog's address, since that could be kind of confusing, but it's there if you need it.

Thanks. -- Joe


p.s. The automatic name-change redirect confused me for a while when it came to the case-sensitivity of Journals addresses. The title part of Journals addresses is case-sensitive, which means that the capitalization matters.

For example, http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway is blogger John's correct address; http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/ByTheWay won't work (note the incorrect capitalization of B, T and W).

When I first created my blog, the title part of my address was MagicSmoke, but I changed it immediately after to all-lowercase to make things easier.

I didn't know about the automatic redirect, and it took me a long time to figure out why my blog address didn't appear to be case-sensitive, since both http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/ and http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/MagicSmoke/ worked.

It was the redirect at work, of course, but I didn't know that at the time, so I couldn't figure out why my blog seemed to work differently from everyone else's...

Tags: aol journals tips

Monday Not-Morning Update

Hi folks -- hope you had a good weekend. Here's a picture I snapped on campus just now; some folks have been busy all morning setting up stuff on the lawn (which are those black boxes you can see stacked up):

Apparently, it's for some sort of shindig this week (yay), though it's for some other group (boo).

It's kind of a crummy pic, but that's only because it's a zoom/crop of this wider shot here, which is a bit more interesting, because of the blue, cloudless sky and the leading lines of the sidewalk:

The building on the left is CC2; the one on the right is CC1, which is where I am.

This being Monday, I am catching up on all my mails and such from my various accounts. I do owe responses out to bunches of folks, so apologies if you've written to me lately and haven't heard back from me yet.

In other news, local college and #11 seed George Mason is off to the Final 4 in Indianapolis. (Note: Do not confuse this George Mason with this George Mason.)

I know a lot of folks in the area who have gone to or are going to Mason, so congratulations to all you Patriots.

Blogger John wrote about it; also, Mister Irrelevant himself, Jamie Mottram, goes one (even two) better, since he was at the Verizon Center for the regional final -- see his thoughts and photos from the game, blogged.

Also, in the spirit of nepotism, see perpetual-intern Chris's entries in his Saved by the Blog (remember: he hates because he fears).

Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 3/24

Hi everybody. As posted to the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

It's spring, when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of ... blogs? Guest Editor Kyle is newly 18 and sharing what's on his mind. See his Journal, kab philosophies and see his top six blog picks.

[Please Note: Some of Kyle's picks contain profanity]

* Ponderings of the Smartest Monkey
* Empyrean Siren
* Cogito Ergo Doleo
* The Monday and Friday Mews Catzette
* Can You See Them?
* Moonlight Drive

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

In other news, my NCAA bracket is completely busted and West Virginia got knocked out by a last-second shot, which means we won't be hearing the name Pittsnogle anymore. Oh well, I will watch the rest of the tournament anyway.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Office Spouses and the Other, Other Woman

First off, I didn't realize that the concept of a green, spinach-flavored wrap would be such a mind-blowing concept to some of you folks. But that doesn't really have anything to do with anything, save for the fact that Amanda of Cult of Invisible Women left a comment in that entry with a link back to her blog.

Naturally, I took a look at her blog. It's what I do. (Especially for blogs I don't recall seeing before.)

In one of her recent entries, Amanda wrote about how a blogging buddy of hers, Jess of CIW: The Other Invisible!, was featured this week on CNN's Paula Zahn Now because of something she wrote in one of her blogs about the concept of an "Office Spouse."

Now, I'm familiar with the idea of an Office Spouse; it's pretty much a cow-orker with whom you have a close friendship at the office (and sometimes only at the office).

It's friend, mentor, and ally all rolled up into one, and romance is not part of the package.

(I remember the first time I was introduced to someone at a gathering with "She's my work wife." I was confused for a moment, but the concept isn't that hard to grasp, especially if you work stupid, all-encompassing hours, as, um, people I know do.)

Anyway, a CNN producer (who actually turned out to be a CNN producer) got in touch with her, and included her in a piece that aired on Wednesday. (Here's a link to the video, which should work. Also, here's a link to the transcript).

I took a couple of screen shots (that is, shots of the screen):

I wonder if you can get that title on your business cards: "Office Spouse."

As it happens, Jess is kind of the second office wife of the gent in question (Mike), which kind of makes her the "other, other woman."

I wonder if Mike can get "Office Mac Daddy" (Daddy Mac) on his business cards.

Anyway, Jess wrote about the filming in both of her blogs (Journals | Blogspot), so you can get the behind-the-scenes scoop.

Congratulations to Jessica on the on-air time. Here she is when she's not being all famous and stuff:

There's a lesson to all this, and I think the lesson is this:

If you leave a comment in my blog with a link back to your blog, I will probably read your blog and take a look at the blogs that you link to.

Also, you may not believe it, but you just never know when someone may read what you wrote in your blog.

Thanks -- Joe

Pod-People, Viral Teen Webcam Buzz, Plus Bush on Blogs

Morning, folks. Going through my morning news routine, I found a few items about user-created content (that is, content created by regular folks and shared) that I will inflict on you:

The first item (found on digg) is a study suggests that maybe we need to come up with a better term for "podcasting", because as many as 80% of podcasts never make it to a portable player (that's supposed to be the whole "pod" in podcasting), and are instead listened to on a desktop computer (or are deleted or otherwise not listened to).

The article (which, of course, is pretty much a press release for the study) talks a little bit more about the origins and theory behind podcasting, so check it out even if (or especially if) you're not familiar with podcasting (which is just a way to subscribe to audio broadcasts on your computer.)

Next, there's a News.com article about a teenage girl who posted a video on video-sharing site YouTube that's attracting some attention.

The video is being buzzed about not because of its primary content (which is the usual teen-angsty breakup stuff), but because she was using a particular model of webcam that lets users add special effects to the video they're sending.

At different points in the 75-second video, she's wearing horn-rims, cat eyes, a gas mask, a snorkle, and John Lennon glasses. It's viral, and it's much better advertising than the webcam maker could have ever come up with.

Also, in other news, apparently President Bush reads blogs (or is at least aware of them), since he used the term in a speech.

If he does read blogs, one can imagine what's on his bookmark list. Or feedreader, if one takes an additional logical leap.

I found that item on Newsvine, which is one of those new Web 2.0 sites that relies on human users to organize and present news. I'm still playing around with it; it's kind of neat, but I don't have an opinion yet of the quality of the articles.

Lastly, in my own news, I will get the new Guest Editor's picks up later today. Also, I will be highlighting a particular blogger and trying to extend her 15 minutes of fame.

Thanks -- Joe

Spring on the AOL Campus

Just a quick snap for blogger John's latest Blog Photo Shoot, Signs of Spring:

It's not a cool macro shot or anything fancy like that -- it's just a row of trees in bloom by the parking lot (you can see a parking garage in the background). Thanks -- Joe

Mashed Potatoes in a Wrap?

Some people might think that mashed potatoes in a wrap would not be a good thing.

Those people would be wrong.

For the curious, the wrap consists of:

Grilled Chicken, Mashed Red Skin Potatoes, Crisp Slaw, Scallions, Tomato and Roasted Corn Salsa with Tangy Chili Sauce

For those keeping track at home, this is my second food-related entry in a row. It doesn't mean anything.

Thanks -- Joe

Do You Speak Cooking?

So I was reading Al's Morning Meeting again this morning; Mr. Al linked off to a Washington Post article about cookbook publishers having to rework their recipes for an increasingly cooking-illiterate culture.

There's a little sidebar quiz too (non-interactive, but still good) -- do you know what it means to blanch vegetables, cream butter and sugar, dredge chicken, fold egg whites, and simmer stuff?

Cooking is just like any other specialty, in that it has a specific vocabulary that you really should know before you get started to get the maximum benefit from it. (Oh noes, not learning! What about my instant gratification?)

Computers, sports, dance, driving, sewing, filmmaking, shooting, fishing, painting, surgery, music -- when you get down to it, pretty much everything worth doing (and lots of things that aren't) ends up developing its own specialized language so you can express essential but complex concepts quickly and easily. This saves time, wears less on the tongue, and lets you get to the more interesting stuff.

This can be kind of irritating if you don't speak the language, so people who aren't fans of overly-complex jargon may also have a point: Sometimes jargon develops to help distinguish members of the tribe from outsiders. If you know what a Brown Coat is, you're of the Firefly tribe; if you roll on dubs, you're probably... well, you're probably a lot younger than I am. (See also: Teen Slang).

As with anything, you have to strike a balance between efficiency in language to accessibilty and ease of use by others -- personally, I'm a fan of explaining the concept the first time you use it, then going forward from there.

I slip sometimes, of course -- when you've been doing something for a long time, it's easy to forget that things that are second-nature to you (like, FTP) may be completely foreign concepts to someone who's getting started.

Switching topics, the Al's article also had a link to a multimedia representation of coalition casualties in Iraq which was kind of sobering.

Thanks -- Joe

Alerts Are Not Going Away

Hi folks -- hope you all had a good weekend. Oh, and welcome to spring (don't put away those shovels just yet, though).

Now, about Alerts: I've gotten a few notes from people who are worried that Alerts are going away (they're not) -- for example, Csandhollow blogged about it.

The driver behind this is an e-mail that the Alerts folks sent out about some changes to Alerts that will be happening at the end of March.

One of those changes is that one specific type of alert is going away for a bit, to be replaced by a new version later this year.  The version that's going away is the Member-Generated Alert -- it's one particular type of Alert that isn't used by very many people, and it doesn't affect anything else.

The Member-Generated Alert is an Alert that regular folks can create so they can send Alerts to a select group of people. It's kind of like an e-mail group, only it uses the Alerts delivery system.

For example, I have one that I'd created to let a few of my cow-orkers know when I get my new copy of People (it's a comp subscription -- I'm not a People person).

(The Daily Scores Roundup is also going to be discontinued, though I'm not as familiar with that one.)

I spoke to the Alerts product manager, who assured me that all the other kinds of Alerts, including the editorial Alerts (like the Skywatcher Alert that I get), and the Journals New Entry Alerts and Comment Added Alerts will still be around after the March 30 Alerts install.

FYI, I asked him if there were any other Alerts changes that would be happening on March 30; he said there would be some changes to clean up the UI (user interface), as well as a more significant change: Right now, there's an Alerts "cascade" -- when you  sign up for an Alert, you can get instant delivery as well as e-mail delivery. If you're online when the Alert is sent, you will get the instant Alert; if you're not online, it will send you an e-mail. 

The cascade seemed to confuse some people, who didn't realize that signing up for an alert meant they might get an instant Alert as well as an e-mail Alert, and were wondering where the e-mail was coming from.

After the March 30 install, you're still going to be able to get instant and e-mailed Alerts -- it just won't automaticallycascade anymore -- you'll have to explicitly pick your delivery methods.

Anyway, that's the story on Alerts. Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 3/17

Hi everybody. As posted to the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our Guest Editor this week is Dianna, a student of English and shopping who likes playing around with graphics. Check out her Journal, Dianna's Mindless Musings, and see her top six blog picks:

* This and That, and Hockey!
* Just Silly Me
* The Wildcat's Lair
* Diary of a Mad Woman
* Cab's Creations
* Just Getting It off My Chest! [Strong Language]

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

In other news, check out the results of the first Blog Six-Pack Picks -- I've listed out of your Six-Packs in two separate entries: Part 1 | Part 2.

There are some stragglers out there, so I will probably be adding a few more in.

In other news, looking at the AOL Blogs main page, we've been having some problems with the featured blog feed modules, so those are off the page temporarily (which explains the big gaps in the page).

Anyway, hope you're all enjoying the NCAA tournament. I would just like to say that I did take Northwestern State over Iowa. Also, I am rooting for West Virginia to make it to the Elite Eight, mostly because I like hearing the name "Pittsnogle." Then again, I picked Syracuse to go slightly farther -- like the finals -- so I should probably stop talking.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, all!

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Blog Six-Pack Picks, Part 2

So, here's the second half of your responses to the first-ever Blog Six-Pack Picks, where I asked you to pick six -- any six -- blogs, write them up in your blog, and share the link. (Here is Part 1, if you missed it.)

Krspkrmmom says The Light's On... But No One's Home and goes with six "S" blogs:

1. The Stupidsheet Guy


2. Something New


3. Sometimes I Think


4. Still Randomly Rambling...


5. Screamin' Remo  [Private Journal]


6. Slashfood

Xscrazychris of Abrupt Change of Topic sticks with her knitting:

1. Yarn Harlot


2. You Knit What??


3. knittyBlog


4. zibibbo Is Good


5. Autum Sweater


6. Team Clapotis

BoiseLadie says Welcome To My World and shows off some of her favorites:

1. MySouthernHome


2. Reflections of Ari


3. Where Life Takes You...


4. Walk with me... [Private Journal]   


5. Blue Skies... Gentle Breezes


6. In The Shadow Of The Iris

Mavarin over at Outpost Mâvarin highlights blogs for writers:

1. Write Stuff


2. Making Light


3. Writer's Edge


4. A Stop at Willoughby


5. CIW: The Other Invisible!


6. Julie's Web Journal

Delela1 from Blue Skies and Gentle Breezes shows off six Forest Friends, which I'm not going to try to explain:

1. These are the Days of our Lives...


2. Picture Window


3. Welcome to My World [Private Journal]


4. kbear's heart


5. Grains Of Sand


6. In My Opinion

Bgilmore725 of Wanderer gives us Teachers & more:

1. Caregivingly Yours,


2. Outpost Mâvarin


3. Interface


4. (((Reflections)))


5. Serendipity


6. Porch Stories

Candynkiss of Candy's Cooking took some time out from her St. Patrick's Day cooking prep:

1. Nat's Hmmmmmm


2. Fantasy's Realities


3. Hitting The High Notes


4. Live, Laugh, Love - Reminiscent Times of a Blue Eyed Lolly


5. Dumpster Diving


6. random thoughts and musings

Mumma4evr from Mumma4evr's life or lack thereof jumped in:

1. dating tips for psychopaths II


2. Dad's Views And Tomato News


3. Stitchy McYarnpants


4. ~~ Life with Linny ~~   


5. Courage


6. Just One Girls Head Noise UK

Rachaelanne21 over at Rachael Anne Rules the World, snuck in under the deadline with work blogs:

1. Tales From the Cube Farm


2. G²'s Cube Farm


3. And another thing...


4. CubicHell


5. Waiter Rant


6. Work-related Blogs and News

Coming in with a late, late entry (which I got just as I was about to post this, so what the heck) is Jevanslink of Mrs. Linklater's Guide to the Universe, with a Moms Six-Pack:

1. Livin' la vida Mommy


2. The Peach Pages


3. Adventures of a desperately fat housewife


4. DUST BUNNY CLUB OF NORTH AMERICA


5. Bonanza Jellybean


6. Anna's Crazy World

Finally, I'm not sure if this is an honorable mention or public shaming, but Lurkynat of Interface picked 16 blogs in two different entries and tried to stick me with the tough part of narrowing down her picks to a Six-Pack. Sorry, Nat, I warned you -- you have to be ruthless with this sort of thing, or at least arbitrary and capricious.

So, I think that went fairly well. I wll think about doing another edition maybe next month, or as soon and my cut-and-paste muscles uncramp.

If you have any ideas on how the Six-Pack Picks could be better, from topic, execution or display, let me know. Now go check out some blogs.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Six-Pack Picks

Happy St. Patty's Day (Patty. Patty! Patty!!)

Hi folks; Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Just so you know, this here entry's headline is specifically designed to irritate my Irish-from-Ireland friends, who go absolutely nutso because we Americans think that "St. Patty's Day" is an acceptable abbreviation for "St. Patrick's Day."

Here it is directly from the AOL Style Guide:

"St. Patrick's Day
· St. Patty's Day is an accepted abbreviation. Do NOT use St. Paddy's Day."

Of course, the Irish-from-Ireland say "No! Patty is a girl's name. It's Paddy!" Okay, I say, then how about "St. Pat's"? "NO! It's St. Paddy's! Arrrrrggghhh!!"

Now, I've had my disagreements with the AOL Style Guide in the past, but I just go with the flow on this one.

I will get Part 2 of the Blog Six-Pack Picks up a little later today, and then the new Guest Editor's Picks up later after that.

Thanks. -- Joe

Blog Six-Pack Picks, Part 1

Okay folks -- better late than never: Here is Part 1
of the results of the first-ever Blog
Six-Pack Picks.

(I was going to try to
put them all in one entry, but I wanted to list out all your picks, and
with about 20 Six-Packers with 6 picks each, the entry was getting
way too long. So, I will break it down and do Part 2
tomorrow.)

As noted, these are all picks that you
put together. This one was a wild card -- some are
themed; others aren't, and I see some new links as well as some
well-known Journalers. So it's a good mix -- check
them out, say hi, leave comments, and do all that good blog
stuff.

Note here that I have numbered the
picks, though this is just so we see that there are indeed six -- they
don't indicate any particular order.

Also, the Six-Packs below are listed in rough order of how people commented in my entry (where you can see the full list, if you don't feel like waiting).

Be sure to
check out each Six-Packer's entry, where they describe a little more
about the blogs they linked to.

So, I kicked thinks
off with my picks, which I guess would make it a Joe
Six-Pack; I chose blogs in my "Pending" file that started
with the letter "B":

1. Bendy's
   World
2. Beyond
   the Invisible
3. Bottled
   Dreams
4. Brandie's
   World
5. Butterfly
   Girl
6. Bert's
   World

Blogfather
Johnmscalzi got into the act at By
the Way... with sci-fi authors's
blogs:

1. Tobias
   Buckell
2. Chris
   Roberson
3. Justine
   Larbalestier
4. Nick
   Sagan
5. Scott
   Lynch
6. Cherie
   Priest

Monponsett
from High
Above Courtside gives us some (mostly)New England
blogs:

1. Miss
   Stacy's Pisses and Moans [mature
   content]
2. Premature
   Jock-ularity
3. Celtics
   Pride
4. Cape Cod
   Today
5. Coztanza's
   Commentary
6. Two
   Minute
   Warning

Sepintx of
(sometimes)photoblog
picked (not surprisingly)
photoblogs:

1. Quicksilver
   Dreams
2. A
   Firefighter's Camera
3. Every Picture Tells a
   Story
4. Arizona
   Life Through My Eyes
5. Digital
   Traveler
6. Creativity--Bits
   and Pieces

Dpoem
shares The
Wisdom of a Distracted Mind and includes a Bloggie finalist:

1. Crapalog
2. Mrs.
   Linklater's Guide to the Universe
3. Jenn's
   World
4. In
   The Shadow Of The Iris
5. Involuntary
   Motion
6. Waiter
   Rant

Armughanjavaid
sees Infinite
Diversity in Infinite Combinations (yes, I know it's a Star
Trek reference) with some techie blogs from his
sidebar:

1. James Gosling: On the
   Java Road
2. RabsBabs
   Space
3. graphicallyspeaking
4. Mini-Microsoft
5. Starbucks
   Gossip
6. The Corridor Of Uncertainty
   (a Cricket blog)   
   

Dougsbabygirl31 asks
Is
There Really Life Out There?!?! and tried to cheat and sneak
in 7, which I can't abide (see her blog for
#7):

1. Reflections of
   Ari
2. Bedazzled
3. Looking Beyond
   the Cracked Window(deux)
4. Judith
   HeartSong
5. Inane
   Thoughts and Insane Ramblings
6. Celebration of My
   ExHIStence

Onestrangecat
at One
Summer's Day goes in for UK
Journals:

1. Specimen
   Days
2. It's My
   Life
3. Jeannette's
   Jottings
4. The
   Life & Times of an Essex
   Girl
5. cynicalchick
6. Stranny
   Dayze

Seastormscamp
has QuickSilver
Dreams and mixes another assignment in with her friends's
blogs:

1. (sometimes)photoblog
2. The
   Dailies
3. A Walk Through Durham
   Township, Pennsylvania
4. Ellipsis...
   Suddenly Carly
5. Photoblog
   2.0
6. 52
   Projects

Terrydreams
of Bottled
Dreams choses lovely ladies (or a
Six-Pack of Chick Picks)

1. The Ragamuffen
   Chronicles
2. Time of Your
   Life
3. YaYaDuchess-again
4. Dear
   Diary
5. In
   The Shadow Of The Iris
6. Welcome To My
   World

Randlprysock of
Adventures
From Florida seeks those deserving of the
spotlight:

1. Confessions
   of an Angel Waitress
2. The
   Stupidsheet Guy
3. Stories of
   a SAHM
4. The
   Secret Life of a Stay at Home Mom
5. Purple
   Snapdragons
6. Lanny's
   World

That's the first batch, which should keep you busy for a bit. Tune in
tomorrow for Part 2. Also, if you have any suggestions as to how I can
better present the Six-Pack Picks, let me know.



Thanks -- Joe



Tag: Six-Pack Picks

Thursday Update: It's On

Hi folks -- I'm running a little behind today. How much? Well, for starters, I wasn't able to make my NCAA tournament picks until after the tipoff of the first game, so I'll
just be keeping a paper bracket for my own gratification.

It's probably for the best, actually -- my record for these things is such that I would probably be better off flipping a coin to make my picks. My bracket (and many others, I suspect) was nearly blown up by Boston College (who I have going to the Final Four), which needed two overtimes to beat Pacific.

In more important news, I will get my entry featuring your Blog Six-Pack Picks up later this afternoon -- it's a good batch.

Thanks -- Joe

Free Productivity-Killers, Streamed Directly to Your Workplace

Hi folks -- amplifying what blogger John wrote about the new In2TV service -- it's a lot cooler than I thought it would be.

Granted, there are a few technical requirements -- you need to be using Windows XP (sorry, Mac/Linux folks), and it seems to be working best with the Microsoft Internet Explorer (though it will accomodate Netscape as well as Firefox [you need the Active X extension]). You also have to have Windows Media Player 10 (I didn't, so I had to install it).

Once you get past all that, though, it's pretty neat. At first, when I saw that Time Warner would be opening up the rerun vaults, I thought it would be all Alice, F Troop, and Welcome Back Kotter -- good stuff, to be sure, but it didn't exactly set my world on fire.

I was kind of surprised, then, to see Babylon 5, La Femme Nikita and V. Score!

You can check out the full list of shows here.

Poking around the big ole sphere o' blogs, I would call the reaction curious and optimistic -- at least, from the people who don't dismiss it out of hand because 1. it's from AOL and 2. it doesn't support Mac or Linux.

Also, the In2TV shows are streamed, not downloadable, and are protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management -- think copy-protection), so you can't copy and share the videos (hence the Windows Media Player 10 requirement).

On the plus side, it is free -- it's ad-supported, though I have read in the industry pubs that there are plans to add premium downloads in the future.

Anyway, if you want to see Teri Hatcher before Desperate Housewives and Dean Cain before, um, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and you don't feel like shelling out for the DVD set, check out Lois & Clark.

(Say, they have have Spenser for Hire, too. I used to wonder why Spenser for Hire was always on the Lifetime channel [you know, "Television for Women"], until some lady friends of mine said "Hey dummy, two words: Robert Urich.")

Switching, um, channels, as you may be aware, CBS is offering March Madness on Demand, where they'll be streaming all the games from the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament, though you may be subject to queuing and blackouts (for local TV coverage). It will be interesting to see how their network holds up and if they can keep up with the demand.

So last year, the online broadcast package was $19.95... this year, it's free, but ad-supported. Why the switch? Not out of the goodness of their cold, cold hearts, of course -- obviously, someone counted the beans and thinks that the ad-supported model could bring in more revenue than charging a premium.

Now, I don't want Jamie and his Sports Bloggers Live goons to rough me up because I didn't plug them as I was mentioning the tournament (not that they need my plugs anyway), so go check out their infinite sports blogging wisdom and go stack up your picks against theirs in the SBL NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool (it's all free, only bragging rights are at stake).

Thanks -- Joe

Reminder: Blog Six-Pack Picks

Hi folks -- just a quick reminder: If you would like to participate in the first incarnation (which presumes there might be a second, but who can tell?) of the Blog Six-Pack Picks, all you have to do is:

1. Do a blog entry that lists and links to six blogs. They can be any blogs you want to talk about -- your most favorite, least favorite, themed, unthemed, whatever.

2. Leave a comment in my blog, with a link back to your blog.

3. Get 'er done by 12 noon ET, tomorrow, 3/15.

After that, I will do a blog entry, probably sometime on Thursday, listing out all the great stuff you guys have sent in.

Thanks -- Joe

I Was Wrong When I Said the Bloggies Were Stupid

Remember when I said the Bloggies were stupid
and gratuitious?

That was only because I'd
never really paid attention to them before and wasn't that familiar
with the previous years's results.

I took a look at
the historical record, and I admit I was
wrong.

I
should have said that the Bloggies are
fricking ridiculous.

Now, it
would be stupid to get worked up over a silly awards
show. After all, I don't care who wins the Academy Awards... why should
I care about the Bloggies?

It's just that I find the
whole conceit of "Best of" awards for the entire big ole sphere o' blogs to be completely
distasteful and counter to the whole spirit of the
thing (whatever that means).

Maybe I'm just being a
killjoy. There are over 30 million blogs right now,
so awards for the "best blogs" are two whole orders of magnitude
less ridiculous than, say, People's "Sexiest
Man Alive" (Which pulls from a pool of what, 3 billion men?
Okay, call it 2
billion men between 15 and 64 -- close
enough.)

(Isn't it amazing how People's Sexiest Man
Alive is always a Hollywood movie star? The odds must be
astronomical.)

Similarly, the
repetitiveness of the Bloggy finalists and winners is
just insane. People, this isn't the Emmys.

Take,
for example, the winner of "Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog",
Loobylu -- it looks
nice and all, but is it really the best blog in
Australia/New Zealand for 5 out of the past 6
years?

You figure that the ANZAC blog
universe is a bit smaller than that of other regions, but come on
now.

How about a technology category: "Best Web
Application for Weblogs"? It's a real barnburner --
a see-saw rivalry between Blogger (2 years) and Movable Type (4
years).

"Best European Weblog"? The um, colorfully
named My Boyfriend
Is a Twat, 2 years running. Before that? Textism, 2 years running.
Before that? PlasticBag.org, 2 years
running.

Perhaps it would be simpler if they just
voted each best Euroblog to a two-year
term.

(Oh, and mustn't forget, due to a
change in categories, PlasticBag.org was the "Best British or Irish
Weblog" for -- wait for it -- 2 years running [2004 & 2005].
I'm not even going to mention the potential sensitivities around
lumping the British and Irish
together.)

Anyway, there's more repetition across
years and categories -- I'd started a spreadsheet, but then I realize
that I don't care enough.

Suffice it to say, if you
didn't know any better, you might think that the blogosphere only
consisted of a few dozen blogs, when in reality, there might be
hundreds.

I suppose I'm just
bugged by the conceit of the Bloggies. I would have
no problem with "Blog With Best Brand Awareness." Or "Highest Trafficked Blog." No
problem. "Best"? Um, no.

The Bloggies are far more
indicative of the power of brands and
first-mover advantage, combined with the tyranny of large
numbers and the power of small groups of highly-motivated
voters.

(To look at a non-blog example: When the
Washington Post runs its "Best
of" readers' choice poll, the big chains are almost always
overrepresented as finalists and winners. For example, from 2005: Best
bookstore? Barnes & Noble. Best coffeeshop?
Starbucks. It's just the nature of the beast.)

So
you might say, "Okay, smart guy -- come up with your own
statistically and spiritually valid 'best of the blogosphere' awards." And to
that,
I would say, "No. Get a life."

Validation and recognition are great up
to a point, but after that point, you have to say "Thanks for your
input, but I don't really care what you think about my
blog."

Fortunately for the rest of us, we can just
ignore the hubbub and just keep doing what we're
doing. I recommend it highly. Thanks --
Joe


Tag: Bloggies

Cutie Pies Only!

When we last left The Boondocks's Grandpa, he had embarked on a quest to find companionship via "The MySpace", but as yet, had found no floozies.

In today's installment (excerpted below), Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder engages in a clever bit of self-marketing by showing folks just what Grandpa has been up to with his MySpace profile:

See that URL in the comic? Instead of doing a fake Web address (the equivalent of the "555" phone number in TV and movies), or mentioning an address without having previously registered it, causing it to be taken by someone else (as happened in The Simpsons episode Das Bus, with Compuglobalhypermeganet), you can see Granddad's MySpace profile (complete with salty nickname):

Naturally, he lists Aaron McGruder as one of his Top 8 Friends.

Thanks -- Joe

The 2006 Bloggies Are Out (and They're Stupid)

So, the winners of the Sixth
Annual Weblog Awards (the Bloggies) were announced this
afternoon at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin.

Alas, I did not win anything. However, this is not a surprise, as I was not nominated for anything.

I'm not going to cut and paste the whole Awards list, so I'll just note a couple of things:

* PostSecret came away a big, big winner, taking Best American Weblog, Best Topical Weblog, Best Community Weblog, Best New Weblog AND Weblog of the Year.

That's a lot of Bests. Congratulations to Frank Warren.

* I see that our own blogger John chipped in a prize (copies of Agent to the Stars and Old Man's War) for Best Writing of a Weblog, which was won by fashion snark blog Go Fug Yourself. See now, this is the very definition of enlightened self-interest.

In my opinion, the Bloggies are infinitely less irritating than, say, The Webbys, but they still seem kind of... gratuitous.

Would I turn one down in the (extremely, vanishingly) unlikely event that I won one? Of course not.

It just seems to me, that for all the talk about blogging as showcasing the power of the long tail, bloggers still seem inordinately focused with notions of the A-list (and how they can break into it).

It's also part of the reason why I get tired easily of hearing all the Bubble 2.0 cyber-blog-utopianism of how blogging and social media is going to revolutionize society, give a voice to the little guy, transform everyone into empowered, self-actualized, do-it-yourself go-getters -- people, 1996 wasn't that long ago, just take your copy of Being Digital and substitute "blog" for "Web" -- it's kind of like popping the collar of your polo shirt: It may be new to you, but there is sufficient historical evidence out there for you that it's still stupid.

Anyway, just a little lack-of-coffee crankiness on a pseudo-summer day.

Thanks -- Joe

[Updated: I'm still cranky, so I updated with a deliberately inflammatory headline.]

Let the Sun Shine In

Hi folks -- hope you had a good weekend. In something of an anomaly for March, we've hit 80 degrees today:

This temperature reading is from Dulles airport, which is practically right down the street from the office, and my shirtsleeve test confirms it -- it is darned warm right now.

Is it too late to play hooky?

Also, in a near-perfect weather-related segue, this week is also Sunshine Week -- it's a campaign to raise awareness and advocate for openness and transparency in government.

The chief tool for this is access to public records, especially through the various state and local open records laws and the federal Freedom of Information Act, combined with good old-fashioned inquisitiveness and persistance.

Al Tompkins over at Al's Morning Meeting has a roundup of some of the stories that media around the country are doing for Sunshine Week, including listing out some of the important local stories that might not have happened if it weren't for open access to public records.

Public access to information isn't and shouldn't be limited to the professional media of course, and blogging has opened up a lot of avenues for regular folks to contribute to the ongoing discussion.

For an overview of some of tools available to us, check out the Citizen Journalism Primer written for the BBC by citizen journalism expert and advocate Dan Gillmor.

Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 3/10

Hi everybody. As posted to the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

This week, our Guest Editor is Brian, an actor and singer (with a day job) who lives in Knoxville and loves pop culture. Stop by his Journal, All the Makings of Insanity and check out his top blog picks:

* These Are The Days of Our Lives
* No Seriously ...
* Mortimer's Cafe
* Life or Something Like It 2
* This Is Me
* You Think You Know ...

For Brian's promo on the Journal main page, I had originally gone with "Tennessee Volunteer", which is descriptive but not terribly compelling. I replaced it with what's there, "Signs Point to 'Sing'", which doesn't really mean anything, but it references both Magic 8-Balls and the fact that he's a singer.

Headline and promo writing is an art, not a science.

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

Also, fine spring-like weather on the east coast notwithstanding, if you can think of six blogs that people simply must know about, this weekend might the perfect time for you to put together your blog Six-Pack Picks and share them with me and all the other Journalers.

It's also good practice if you think you might ever like to be a Guest Editor, or if you just want to pimp the blogs of some of your friends.

I have a couple of other items I want to try to get to before I head out tonight. Will I succeed? In the words of the immortal philosopher Sammy Hagar:

"Only time will tell if we stand the test of time."

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Friday Un-Phun Links Roundup (No Floozies!)

Hi folks -- just a few links to some blog articles from the past few days. These are not "Friday Phun" kind of links, but they might be useful or interesting if you are boring and overthink blogging (like me):

• From USA Today: The article has a "Well, duh" headline, but "What you say online could haunt you" is a nice little roundup piece of the issues around revealing too much information on blogs and the Web. Of course, our favorite youth-blogging whipping boys MySpace and Facebook are prominently featured.
  
  It's got a bit of generational snark ("Many adults wonder how a generation that is otherwise so savvy about the Internet can also be so naïve about its own privacy."), but it's not a bad read.
  
  
• From News.com: Any article with a lede of "Dog poop girl is infamous in South Korea," demands further investigation. It's a Reuters piece entitled "S. Korea aims to cool Internet rage attacks", about how South Korea is trying to balance free expression online with the potential for defamation and internet-enabled witch hunts and/or online mob vigilanteism.
  
  South Korea is the "most wired country in the world", so what they're dealing with now, we may be seeing more of soon in the U.S.
  
  
• If you want to check in on how companies and PR folks are trying to wrap their heads around blogs and social media, the Washington Post had a live chat with influential PR blogger Steve Rubell.
  
  In the chat, he addresses Word of Mouth Marketing, how to get companies to blog the "right" way, and his thoughts on the recent Wal-Mart blog astroturfing controversy ("Astroturfing" is when companies or PR folks try to get their word out in a way that looks like a spontaneous grassroots campaign)
  
  
• An AP story entitled, "Visual remixes on the Web: Are mashups art or theft?" (link via Fark), is another nice little roundup/think piece on some of the copyright vs. fair use issues around mashup (or remix) culture.
  
  An example of a remix that you may have seen was the recutting of scenes from the horror classic The Shining into the trailer for a romantic comedy.
  
  I've blogged about Remix Culture before -- now, as then, I don't have any answers.
  
  
• And, of course, you should check in on the progress of The Boondocks's Grandpa as he attempts to make connections on MySpace.  How's he doing?
  
  Huey: Still no floozies?
  Grandpa: No floozies!

In other news, I will get the new Guest Editor's Picks up a little later this afternoon.

Thanks -- Joe

JLMK

Hi folks -- nothing too substantive today. I promise I'll have something more useful Friday, in addition to the Guest Editor's Picks.

In the meantime, here's a snippet from the tail-end of an IM conversation I had this morning with a cow-orker (names redacted to protect the innocent):

[JournalsEditor]:  ok, jlmk
[Cow-Orker]:  will do
[JournalsEditor]:  (do people actually use "jlmk"?)
[Cow-Orker]:  I don't know but I actually understood it when you sent it...strange!

Of course, I meant "just let me know" when I typed "jlmk." I was trying to be clever, but I did a search, and it does have a listing in the Free Dictionary, among other places.

It's a little awkward to type, which may be why it hasn't gained wider usage (this online chat acronym dictionary categorizes it as "Commonly used? No.")

It's certainly no wayw, yt, or j/k. Not even a bbiab.

TTYL. Thanks -- Joe

Music Fans: Holy [Cow], This Is Cool

So I skimmed past this item on Metafilter this morning, but I didn't make the connection until just now: National Public Radio, which is headquartered in DC, has an ongoing Live Concert Series, where they do live Webcasts of specific concerts at venues including the 9:30 Club (also in DC -- it's probably my favorite local concert spot).

In most cases, the streams are archived, so you can listen at any time later on, and in a few cases, the entire concert is made available as a downloadable, completely DRM-free MP3 file (which means it's a regular, non-copy-protected mp3 that you can share with your friends, put on your iPod, etc).

That is very, very, very cool.

At the moment, I am listening to the concert mp3 of the Belle and Sebastian show from Monday -- the recording is very clean and high quality.

(I'd been reading the DCist review of the Belle and Sebastian show -- one of the comments linked to the NPR site.)

Tonight's stream is for the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! show; I don't know much about them, but I keep hearing their name, especially because they credit their current buzz to a series of different bloggers posting about them. So call it a band blog success story.

Anyway, check out the Live Concert Series page for more archived concerts, including Sinead O'Connor, Death Cab for Cutie, The White Stripes, and the hardest working man in show business, the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown.

Oh, and of course, rock on. Thanks -- Joe

Show Me Something: Blog Six-Pack Picks

Okay folks, here's a little bit of blog programming I mentioned a few months back. I thought I'd give it a test run and see how it does.

Now, I love the Guest Editor's Picks (and why shouldn't I? I came up with it), but as many people have noted, it's a little limiting, because we only have one editor a week, and it's not fully harnessing the power of the whole "wisdom of crowds" idea.

Also, over time, there's a tendency for the a lot of the usual suspects to keep cropping up in the picks again and again (especially since we need better tools for exposing you to other cool Journals -- we're working on that). I've blogged about some of the other concerns with the Guest Editor's picks.

Now, the Guest Editors picks are not going away; like I said, I'm looking for new ways to bring new and interesting Journals to light -- some that involve programming, others that use technology.

Here's one of the programming bits: My working title is the Blog Six-Pack Picks.

I wouldn't call it anything unique or brand-new -- it's actually an extension of the Guest Editor's Picks. 

It's kind of a Journals passaround, or a variation of a blog carnival (blog carnivals typically involve you submitting a link to one of your own "best" entries on a theme).

It's almost, but not completely dissimilar to blogger John's Weekend Assignments and such.

This isn't an awards show; these aren't nominations of any kind -- I'm just trying to find new ways of exposing people to more of your neighbors. Like a block party. (Blog Party?) 

I'm not sure if it's going to be a regular feature yet. Here's how the Blog Six-Pack Picks will work:

1. Pick 6 blogs. Why 6? For starters, it's one better than five, which means a Top 6 is 20% better than a Top 5. Also, six rhymes with picks.

2. We're playing fast and loose here, so none of the requests I usually make of the Guest Editors apply -- your six can be all AOL Journals, none, or anything in between. They can be bloggers we're sick of seeing; they can be all your friends or family members. If you're an egomaniac, they can be 6 of your own blogs (if you have six, that is). You can make up a theme of your own, or you can just go themeless. Just no porn, no spam and only one link per blog (so no lameness like 6 different entries from the same blog).

3. Do a blog entry listing and linking to your six picks. Descriptions or commentary would be great, but do what you want.

4. Leave me a comment in this entry with a link back to your entry.  Since it's kind of unofficial, this is open to anyone* who reads this entry -- the only requirement is you have to have a blog of your own; it can be AOL Journals, AIM Blogs, Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal... whatever blogging platform you like.

*Since you have to leave a comment here with a link back to your blog to participate, you have to have a screen name, though it can be an AIM Screen Name (which you can get at AIM.com.)

5. Leave the link to your blog in the comments here by Noon ET, Wednesday 3/15 (yes, the Ides of March), and check back on Thursday to see what I do with all the picks.

What am I going to do with all of them? I'm not sure, myself. I will probably do a blog entry listing out some or all of your picks, with summaries (it depends how many I get). There are no waivers, photo releases, etc. involved -- it's all just a bunch of links.

If this works, I will explore doing some other Blog Six-Pack Picks, maybe on a regular or semi-regular basis. 

Here, I will get you started -- here is my six-pack of "B" blogs that have been languishing in my "pending Journals" file, picked either by myself or my predecessors. You may know them, but I'm pretty sure none of them have been featured on my watch before; all of them have been updated fairly recently (I refuse to feature stale blogs), and they're all pretty literate and good, although I can't say that I'm intimately familiar with each of them:

1. Bendy's World - http://journals.aol.com/bendyhendy/BendysWorld

2. Beyond the Invisible: http://journals.aol.com/pvodogaz/BeyondtheInvisible/

3. Bottled Dreams: http://journals.aol.com/terrydreams/TerryDreams/

4. Brandie's World: http://journals.aol.com/mnchickluvsocc/BrandiesWorld/

5. Butterfly Girl: http://journals.aol.com/lv2paynt/butterflygirl

6. Bert's World: http://journals.aol.com/flossiepumpkin/journalsaolcomflossiepumpkin/

Anyway, check them out and leave them a comment. Tell 'em I sent you.

Even if this Six-Pack Picks thing doesn't work (whatever that means) -- I will still continue dipping into my pending blogs file and exposing you to the velvety blog goodness held within.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: I'm going to use the tag Six-Pack Picks.

If you want to tag your own blog Six-Pack Picks blog entry, just paste the following HTML into your Six-Pack Picks entry -- make sure it says "View as HTML" in the formatting toolbar when you do this:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/six+pack+picks" rel="tag">Six-Pack Picks</a>

Best Wishes For a Speedy Recovery

So, as I was leaving my comment in blogger John's latest blog photo shoot entry earlier today, I saw a comment from blogger Christina (AOL Journal | Blogspot) that Journaler Pamela, who is battling lung cancer, has been having a rough go of it lately.

She hasn't been updating her blog because of her illness, so please send your thoughts, hopes and prayers her way, and you can also check out the Yahoo Group that's set up for Pam.

Thanks -- Joe

Current Reading

Just like many aspects of my life currently, my bookshelves are a disaster, so I will focus on a subset of blogger John's latest Blog Photo Shoot, Your Bookshelf:

These are the current batch of books that I have out from my local library. (Libraries are like chain megabookstores, though you don't have to pay for stuff. They're neat.) -- they are:

Emergence, by Steven Johnson (I'm reading it now -- it's about how complex behaviors and patterns can emerge from groups of individuals following simple instruction sets; a couple of examples so far include the behaviors of ant nests and slime molds)

Warrior Politics, by Robert Kaplan

The New Face of War, by Bruce Berkowitz

Thanks -- Joe

Meme Quiz: Join Up and See the Universe

I'll have to tread softly so I don't encroach on the territory of our resident science fiction expert, blogger John (who recently blogged about a science fiction plot generator), but I ran into a meme that's been going around the big ole sphere o' blogs (a meme is an idea that has a life of its own -- like a virus, it spreads, seemingly of its own will):
"Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: Which Sci-Fi Crew Would You Best Fit In?"

Some of the questions are obviously a bit leading, though I was kind of surprised by my results:

You scored as Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix).

You can change the world around you. You have a strong will and a high technical aptitude. Is it possible you are the one? Now if only Agent Smith would quit beating up your friends.

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)               94%
Moya (Farscape)                                  75%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)                          69%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)               69%
SG-1 (Stargate)                                    69%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)             63%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)                      63%
Serenity (Firefly)                                   63%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)    56%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)     44%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)                       44%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)             38%

I wouldn't have figured I was a rebel from the Matrix. I retook the test -- the results changed slightly, but the Nebuchadnezzar crew was still in the top spot.

Now, me, I'm not usually one for Web personality quizzes and such, but I liked the subject material.

How about you? Unleash your inner sci-fi geek and let me know: Who's Your Crew?

Thanks -- Joe

Intolerance and Homophonia

As I've noted before, pointing out other people's typos and grammatical mistakes leads to bad karma. But, it sure is fun, especially when it happens to the Paper of Record: The New York Times. The Grey Lady. The Paper With a Lot of Nicknames.

I was browsing through the New York/Region section, passing through on my way to read today's Metropolitan Diary column.

(Metro Diary is published on Mondays and features reader-submitted stories about life in the big city. It's what papers did before blogs. It's usually very cloying and treacly in a Reader's Digest-y kind of way, yet it also manages to reinforce the smug superiority sported by many New York City-ites. I read it religiously.)

Anyway, there was this following gem of a headline in the Metro section (it's been fixed already):

Of course, the mistake is Scene instead of Seen, which are homophones. At first I thought it was some new hipster slang: "Scene: (v.) The act of participating in A-list social events. -- 'She scened at the Viper Room.'"

I don't remember if I've ever made that particular error. However, homophone switchups I've made include:

* Peak/Peek (I always have to be extra careful with this one, it's been known to sneak out from time to time)
* Beatles/Beetles (yes, I actually did this once)
* Discrete/Discreet (two different words, two different meanings)

And of course, I have been known to add in superfluous apostrophes from time to time (but I feel awful about it afterwards.)

Anyway, just a bit of Grammar Policing this afternoon (and you can be darn sure I double- and triple-checked this entry to make sure I didn't make any misteaks).

Thanks -- Joe

Monday Update: Boondocks, UI Designer Holly and What's Coming Up

Hi folks -- just catching up on stuff from over the weekend. Hope yours was good. The morning-after headlines all say that the Oscars were boring, but I will have to take their word on that.

In other news, looking at today's comic pages, it looks like Boondocks cartoonist Aaron McGruder is turning his sights on MySpace -- Grandpa is jumping back into the dating scene: He wants to use "The MySpace." This should be interesting:

On my list for this week is getting a little more in-depth on how to use the new IFRAME feature we launched with R4, with a tutorial and some examples. Stay tuned.

I also do want to talk more about feeds and feedreaders, but first that means I need to get my Web-based feedreader accounts into shape so I can share them with you -- they're kind of a mess right now, so I don't know if I'll be able to get to it this week.

In the meantime, also say hi to AOL Journals UI Designer Holly; she's started up a new AOL Journal to talk about User Interface/User Interaction stuff. Her job is to help design the front-end experience that occurs when you use Journals -- how screens respond after you do certain tasks, where the controls are, etc.

Anyway, she can talk about it better -- her blog is Mountain View Musings.

Thanks -- Joe

Oscar Blogging (by Others)

So, I'll have to join blogger John and others in declaring: I don't care about the Oscars, either. I might tune in to hear Jon Stewart's monologue and the opening parody-thing, but that's about it.

Fortunately, if you're a fan of all the glitz and glamour and red-carpet shenanigans and such, you don't have to depend on me to blog the Oscars -- a whole gaggle of my cow-orkers are going to be liveblogging the event -- check out their event blog, Crashing the Oscars:

Pictured are four of the eight team members, who are very specifically not holding a replica of the Oscar trophy, because the photo is done in a very innocent and non-copyright infringing way.

Also, the folks over at Cinematical (who live for this stuff -- this is their time of year to shine) are going all-out, great guns for it too.

For those of us who hate Oscar but like movies, here are a series of visual and textual film quizzes that will keep you busy (link cadged from a Metafilter discussion thread).

Thanks -- Joe