bebo.com
as much as i would love to send all of my personal information over the internet to a third party -- and oh, how i would LOVE that -- it's just NOT going to happen. hello? a company that does nothing but collect email addresses and private information? i'd much rather type my email address on every square inch of my website and let the spambots and webcrawlers have their dirty way with it. i'd never see my inbox again, but for a daily list of viagra and porn offers.
my information is just that -- MY information. and information, nowadays, is more important than ever. we don't have do-not-call lists and anti-spam software just for the hell of it. companies shell out huge amounts of money for phone and address lists. i can only assume that your own inboxes are hardly pristine. and if you really believe that's my regular daily email address on the contact page, you are sadly mistaken. [props to lance for introducing me to sneakemail].
so to everyone who is registering with bebo.com, you will be disappointed to know that i will NOT be clicking on the link and entering my contact information. please don't take it personally. maybe i'm just paranoid, but i take my privacy seriously.
and one more thing: WHY IS IT BEBO.COM?!
clearly, this is a topic of interest to the internet-world-at-large.
consider this an invitation to you random searchers [yes, you!] to comment on information gleaned from your searches. i'm seriously interested.
mdog
19 Comments
modifications
speed
so, i installed my logitech cordless optical mouse [not more than half an hour ago, i might add], and, oh my. apparently the default for this device is set for somewhere around seventeen times the speed of light. i breathed on it and the cursor shot to the edge of the screen, presumably seeking escape. i felt like i was on speed. have you ever used a laser pointer to entertain a cat? if you haven't, you should try sometime. if you have, then you know exactly what i'm talking about. and i was the cat, my eyes darting around trying to follow this stupid cursor in a state of near hysteria. i was starting to feel ill and in need of dramamine before i finally made it to the control panel and mouse properties.
i am happy to report that the mouse is now functioning, and sufficiently slowed for my mental and visual processing abilities.
addendum: if you're bored and not prone to motion sickness, go to control panel > mouse > motion. set speed to "fast" and acceleration to "high". move mouse around in a normal fashion. find tylenol. sleep.
dooce
artful shards
let's be artful with our lives and attract others who are interested in the beauty that is in truth and the beauty in the idea that despite our brokenness we can reflect shards of greater glory."
- comments from rachel
so, i think i finished writing a song today. i'm not sure. i'll have to see how i feel about it tomorrow... oh, the curse of perfectionism.
i think i'm happy with it. but i have my fears... the biggest one being the fear that i have created precisely what i loathe, and that which rachel observes: bad christian schlock. granted, it doesn't have a chorus that repeats "i love jesus" ad nauseum for forty-eight bars -- that's not art -- but still, i have my doubts. is it crap? cliché? i have no idea. i've suddenly lost all perspective on what makes good music good music, thanks to my ego and insecurities waging their own little battle inside my head.
like any good perfectionist, i expect everything to be bright, shiny, presentable and durable the moment it's whisked off the Things Maria Has Created conveyor belt. because, you know, every song i write and photo i take and entry i create is, like, totally supposed to be a hit single, picture perfect, pulitzer prize winning sensation. silly girl.
basically, i wrote a song, it may or may not suck, and i need to just deal with it.
but if it really is schlocky, i'm going to be so disappointed.
well, i thought this was going to tie together a little better, but whatever. maybe the conveyor belt's broken. thoughts on artfulness and/or schlock are welcome.
unknown
turning to pâté
in case you've been living under a rock, super size me is a documentary in which the filmmaker eats nothing but mcdonald's, three meals a day, for thirty days. the doctors figure, eh, he'll gain some weight, his cholesterol will rise, something about triglycerides going up. unhealthy, to be sure, but nothing too drastic; just a little craziness for the sake of journalism. what we actually find out, though, is more than anyone bargained for. ewww.
two of my favorite things:
one i very much love the fact that a man eating nothing but processed foods with questionable origins for thirty days has a girlfriend who is a vegan cook. it just doesn't get much better than that, folks.
two "the smoking fry" bonus feature. scary. my burning question is: why aren't fries more like corn...?
for paul
"Be bloated but stay biblical!"
priceless.
logia's official website store proclaims, "The Bible Bar is a great way to control hunger pangs while still providing your body with the highest level of biblical nutrition."
biblical nutrition...?
actually, all the websites that talk about it in dead seriousness are [unintentionally] more hilarious than the satirical ones.
confession
is good for the soul.
slightly harrowing.
but good.
that is all.
apocalypse
"One peculiarity of the present age is that, in some cases, our powers of application are so compromised that we're incapable of recognizing as morally edifying anything that doesn't advertise itself as such. The most glaring example of this confusion is found in the million-dollar industry of marketing under the title of "Christian." Given our current cultural climate, the media consumer does well to be wary of any product that has featured, foremost among its selling points, it's so-called Christianness. Buyers with a taste for propaganda (and who soon find themselves strangely disinterested in anything that isn't) will find, in that which most loudly advertises itself as Christian, much in the way of crude moralism and plenty in the way of slogans and cliches that encourage blissful disregard of the soon-to-be-destroyed world around them. Often promoting an unincarnate faith, this phenomenon has more in common [with Gnosticism] than what can be understood as orthodox belief. I'm personally convinced that such market-driven theology will be viewed, historically, with at least as much embarrassment as, say, the medieval sale of indulgences."
- David Dark, Everyday Apocalypse [subtitle: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons and Other Pop Culture Icons]
a bit later, on a lighter note:
"Revelation ("the Apocalypse") is a
document that believers throughout history have claimed and tolerated
as a part of their tradition (like some deranged relative), but which
many would prefer not to think about. Mostly unread, it's as if we
assume it to be the obscure clause by which God reserves the right to
go crazy on us."
future chapters and subheadings:
- You Think You Been Redeemed: Flannery O'Connor's Exploding Junk Pile of Despair
- Impossible Laughter: An Appreciative Response to "The Simpsons"
- Bearing Witness: The Tired Gladness of Radiohead
- Living in Fiction: "The Matrix", "The Truman Show", and How to Free Your Mind
- Boogie Nights of the Living Dead: The Moral Vision of Beck
- Daylight Is a Dream If You've Lived with Your Eyes Closed: The Cinematic Epiphanies of Joel and Ethan Coen
methinks this should be interesting.
