If I Had a Good Camera...

Cameras can certainly be used in lots of positive ways. If you have babies, I recommend that you take as many pictures of them as possible. They are only babies once. Another great reason to have a digital camera handy at all times is that, at any given moment, there is a remote chance that you will see a cat in a very humorous pose. You want to be able to capture that moment for posterity and also add a ridiculous caption and post it on the internet.

Nikon cameras like the good quality SLR version that my friend brings to work everyday have a lot of advantages over my little Kodak point and shoot. High quality optical zoom lenses allow you to get a close-up photo of distant objects. There was a fantastic looking yacht near the beach the other day and I almost felt like chasing it so I could get a picture worth showing off. As it was my point and shoot provides photographic evidence, but not a photo worth publishing. My friend was at our house when some bee eaters were flying around and he managed to get a few great photos of them. I emailed the photos to my birdwatching aunt. I may have already shown my favorite picture on this blog before, but here it is again :)

Pap Test

This blog is a 'Former' Britney Spears News and Gossip Blog. I just am not feeling it anymore. One of the first changes that I made on the journey from what this blog was to what this blog is was to adopt a policy against Paparazzi photographs. Take a look back through the archives if you want. I don't exactly know when I last used a picture of Britney other than publicity pictures.

To be honest, I think that the relationship between celebrities is more symbiotic than parasitic. The only way that things will ever change is if fans and other consumers were to stop buying tabloids and viewing sites like Perez Hilton. The demand for Paparazzi pictures drives up their price and then the photographers start behaving badly. If they had very little value, people like Britney would have to hire a photographer to follow her around.

Seniors Need Luvin' Too

I think that many senior singles must feel more comfortable looking for soul mates in an environment that caters specifically to them. More to the point, I think senior dating scene is less fraught for seniors whose previous life partner may have left them for a younger person. It's a cliché because it is true.

DatingForSeniors.com is one of a new generation of niche personals and it is thriving. I think I should be a bit more positive and comment on the fact that there are a lot of sweet decent people on the site who are only single because the outlived their first love. These people also know how to write a good profile.

Joining DatingForSeniors.com is fast free and easy.

Retro Britney Game

The premise for this video game reminds me a lot of what Kevin Federline has done with his life. I am not joking. I wonder if he ever played this game. Actually I wonder if anybody ever played this game. In spite of the assertion that it is the coolest game ever invented, I don't think it can be considered one of Britney's hits. If you can't read the text in the screen cap, you can check out the archived website circa 2002.

Bikers Dating Bikers

BikerPlanet.com is a biker dating site that gives lonely riders the chance to type all those great biker terms and tweak them so they are double entendres.

Live to ride, ride like the wind, these are the headlines you use in biker personals.

I think the biker lifestyle is another subculture that really does need its own personals site and this one fits the bill. There are, of course some wannabes. But in this culture, pretty 18 year olds that want to hook up with a biker are quite readily accepted.

The site works the way that a free personals website should. You can send 'flirts' to members that you want to start something with. You can save profiles as favorites. As a past user of personals sites I want to suggest that you only send messages to people that you are serious about. You need to put in the effort to speak to what they want and be honest about who you are and what you want.

Retro Britney Business

I decided to take a look at the archives of Britney's official site today. The oldest version is pictured here. I find it weird that she is asking her fans about their household income. Does anybody know if the real Britney was actually in control of this domain back in 1999?

Maybe this was a typical squeeze page back in 1999. I wasn't very net savvy back then.

Tattoo You

As far as niche personals sites go, TattooLovers.com is pretty nichey. Apparently nichey is not a word.

When Johnny Depp was dating Winona Ryder, he got a tattoo that said Winona forever. Their relationship didn't last and he had the tat altered to say Wino Forever. I think they use that makeup that conceals tattoos when he takes his pirate shirt off. I don't know, I don't watch kid movies.

I guess a tattoo singles site makes a lot of sense. Not only is it going to be filled with people who are accepting of body art, it is probably going to involve a lot of people who are eager to show of ALL of their tattoos. I haven't joined and I noticed that a lot of the profile photos are for members only. I suspect that these photos are pretty interesting.

The site has all the bells and whistles that you expect from the latest generation of free online personals and it is filled to the gills with tattooed ladies and men.

So go get your tattoo dating on!

Human Interest

I am just throwing this poll up to try to engage readers. I will operate my blog according to my own interest and my own conscience regardless of the outcome.

It looks like the last time I directly mentioned Britney was Aug 16th. I would be quite happy if she magically became a happy productive function person who stayed out of the spotlight. I think very few people actually expect that to happen.

Thanks for Making Me a Fighter...

I don't know if that's the song that plays in the clay heads of the Terracotta Warriors that are visiting London from China, but I think it would be appropriate. They might not like Christina's musical styling given the fact that they are really old. Maybe Bob Seger's Like a Rock would be more to their liking.

I think it would be much better to go visit the impressive troop of Terracotta Warriors that were left behind in China rather than these emissaries in England. The tickets to view the touring warriors are expensive and very hard to find.

Viewing this massive army of life-size statues effects different people in different ways. Seeing them in real life is much more impressive than seeing them on TV or in a movie. They are going to be featured on an upcoming sequel to The Mummy.

What is the Point?

This blog has been adrift lately. I decided to just let a certain person live, to leave her alone as it were. I would like to add that I did that BEFORE the famous YouTube video was uploaded.

I guess the difficulty I ran into is the age old adage of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

I admit that I said things that weren't nice in the past. In my defense all I can say is that I thought they were really funny. It became not funny quite a while ago.

If anyone is reading this and they feel like giving me some direction with this blog, I would greatly appreciate it. Maybe we could get something going where the comments were the real content. I have seen that on other blogs.

Weightloss Options from Online Pharmacies

If you have a personal email account and you occasionally look in your junk mail folder, you know that weight loss drugs like Phentermine and Acomplia are being peddled online by people who are at the very least guilty of rude marketing tactics.

You have to laugh at all the hard sell pitches that you get for drugs to help you lose weight, stop losing hair and various other drugs. I have often wondered how frustrating it must be for people who want or need these products. Well, it seems that people are recognizing a need for a sort of consumer watchdog for this market. websites with Blacklists and Whitelists should be the first place you go if you are considering getting drugs from an Online Pharmacy. CompareOP.com focuses on sites that sell weight loss pills. Basically they test the eStores out and grade them as pass or fail, thus saving consumers money and aggravation.

Louisiana Needs Voices

The Jena situation is tragic and it might help if some of the State's most celebrated sons and daughters were to go there and add their voices of reason.

I think entertainers might be better equipped to create dialog without increasing tension. I am at a loss in some ways when I try to think about what should be done and what could be done. The root of the problem is that their are people in positions of power and responsibility whose actions are driven by hate and foolishness. I don't know if anyone close to the situation is calling them fools. I am very far from the situation and I think the some of the politicians and civil servants in Jena are fools.

Scubish.com: This Diver is Down

Right at this time, I am staying in an area with excellent opportunities for Scuba Diving. One of our favorite spots is Xlendi. I have seen countless varieties of fish as well as an octopus in Xlendi. The bay is at the end of a narrow gorge and the water is deep and usually very clear. On one side there is a cave where nuns used to bathe in seclusion. There is still a gate part way along the path to this cave where one lady would remain back to thwart any possible intrusions.

Scubish.com is a site that provides SCUBA enthusiasts with a wealth of information about dive sites. It also serves as a social website. You can create an online log of your dives and you can search for dive buddies as well.

The Forum on Scubish is very busy. I think all activities that can't be enjoyed by its enthusiasts as frequently as they might like tends to m get talked about a lot.

Time Travels Forward

Time travels forward. Everything that we have done up until this point is now in the past.

This isn't very profound. I am just writing it because some people don't seem to live their lives with this in mind.

The future does not exist.

The Example That We Set For Our Children

Children who grow up with parents that are addicted to drugs, including alcohol, are at a very high risk of becoming addicts themselves. The reasons for this are both genetic and environmental.

If you are a young parent, please do whatever you have to do to avoid exposing your children to your addictive behavior. If you feel like you can't give up your drug abuse, GIVE UP YOUR CHILDREN.

Spoof Cards from SpoofCard.com

I had a lot of fun making this video to promote www.SpoofCard.com
. Imagine how much fun it would be to make a real prank call. A good natured one to a friend or family member, please.

I once tried to fool the E-list actresses and models that had a phone in show on TomGreen.com. I used a Dr. Phil soundboard. They were mildly entertained, but not fooled in the slightest.

With SpoofCard, you can disguise your phone number and even your voice. You can also have your call recorded for posterity. They even have a free trial that provides enough minutes to find out if prank calling is your 'thing'.

Professionals can use spoof cards so they can call from a private number without giving that number away to clients.

I have a short phone conversation that I had with Ed McMahon on video somewhere on the internet. I asked him if he had ever had to turn down the opportunity to plug a product for ethical reasons. I don't know if he was pausing for emphasis or if he drew a blank. We were interrupted by the 'talk show host' and my call was cut short.

GodTube

I found this while clicking on the Next Blog button. I had never heard of GodTube. I think it's kinda stupid to be insular like this, they should be hyping their message on YouTube. This particular dramatization of spiritual struggle is pretty intense. I was almost in tears through parts of it.

TrustedPlaces.com is Awesome

I like the idea behind Trusted Places. It is a sort of combination of a social site and a recommendation site for restaurants and clubs and many other types of places. The cool thing about this melding is that just like IRL, you are going to trust the recommendation of people who you know more than someone who has just shown up out of the blue.

I wish I had heard about it before I spent a couple days in the London area last month. I was very unadventurous simply because I didn't want to waste my time and money on any places that might not be all they were cracked up to be.

On Trusted Places, you can find out what people like yourself have to say about a london restaurant. Profiles include ratings of how Helpful, Interesting and Cool a member is considered to be. I think TrustedPlaces.com is Helpful, Interesting and Cool !!!

New Blogger Videos

This is a test. Blogger has its very own video uploading function now. It is much simpler than going off site to YouTube. It is also nice to not obsess about how many views you get for a video. I'm sure everyone is going to watch my test over and over again because it is so fascinating.

One tiny complaint about the new video uploading on blogger...it is very, very, very slow. I can continue to write this post while the video is uploading. I might have an entire novel written before this very short video uploads.

Bring It to The Dance With a Splendid Gown

It's never too early to start shopping for your prom dress.

I have never actually witnessed the stress of choosing/buying/making a prom dress first hand. I had already moved out when my younger sister went through it. I didn't have a girlfriend in high school. I invited an acquaintance from the previous year's graduating class to my prom. She already had a dress.

I have two daughters who may introduce me to the expense of ball gowns and/or party dresses at some point years from now.

Splendid-Gowns.com looks like a pretty good eStore with reasonably priced pretty dresses. Something that I really appreciate is the excellent photography used to display the dresses on the site. The image galleries feature large images with good lighting showing the dresses from several angles. This is important when you are ordering a dress online for a momentous event.

Such Sweet Sorrow

I was searching for the original recording of this song by Ben Harper when I found this very well done cover. The song is very open to interpretation. The devil is in the details, but on the surface it is about relying on a source of strength to bring you back from the depths of sorrow.

It is also a very beautiful song. Ben's arrangement is not for beginner guitarists, but you can just use a G and C chord for the verses. The chorus is C/D/G...C/D/Em...C/D/Em...C/D/G

The University of Wales Online

It must be hard for real distance education enterprises to market themselves effectively when there are so many scams on the Internet. The University of Wales Online is a highly regarded institution that offers a free trial. You can audit a real MBA course for 14 days. If you already have your MBA, you should still consider checking out the University of Wales calender in PDF for excellent post graduate courses such as Project Management.

I have a degree in Agriculture, it was very hands on. I'm not sure whether I am a better blogger as the result of my university degree, but I'm sure it hasn't made me any worse.

koyaanisqatsi excerpt

If you have eight minutes to spare, you should watch this. I watched the entire koyaanisqatsi movie when I was taking a university course in ethics in the early 90's. I was just reminded of this because a movie reviewer drew comparisons between this film and the global warming documentary narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. There is not one word spoken in koyaanisqatsi. The music is by Phillip Glass. The ugly buildings are by some guy who went on to design the ill-fated World Trade Center.

My Six Blade Knife...

The Swiss Army Knife is an iconic gift idea for a boy that has reached the age and the level of responsibility that makes it appropriate. It is also one of the favorite fathers day gift ideas.

The Swiss Army Knife like the one pictured has so many tools that it isn't just for outdoor types, swiss army knives make ideal corporate gift ideas. Even in an IT workplace, there is occasionally a need for a serious tool. You might never need to fillet a fish in your cubicle, but you might want to tighten a bolt on your chair, or cut a diseased branch off your favorite plant.

Swiss army is now a vendor on the internet gift market. InternetGiftMarket.com is a great place to find gift ideas for any occasion.