#besttwitterconvoever

I like mocking hashtags as much as the next person. (Though probably not as much as Pluta, who says things like "Oh hi, hashtag. Why so sad? #youwerereallymeantomeyesterday -I was real lyme ant om eyes terd, ay? #youreadick", but, you know, like a normal hashtag mocking person.)

That said, this conversation justified my generally lackluster twitter existence. Irritatingly, the "show conversation" option is set to most recent, so it will make more sense top to bottom:

For the record, no, I do not recall when the drunkest I ever saw him* was. Sorry. Maybe next time he comes to town we can rectify that situation. The front runners right now are the night he ended up wearing someone else's boxers and the night he puked on my couch, but there are so many options...

*He's actually a really great person and not the drunk this blog would lead you to believe, but don't tell him I said so, I'll call you a liar.

A "stunt" I wish I'd pulled

I read a lot of blogs, most of them progressive, but I like to keep up with the wingnutosphere as well sometimes, just for the humor value, and today I read something I found offensive and just couldn't shake.

The right wing's wingnuts are claiming all sorts of nonsensical self-serving explanations for Obama's brief campaign suspension (note: not really a suspension if everyone else is still stumping, but whatever.) Some are humorous - the idea that he's actually going to Hawaii to deal with a lawsuit related to the old birth certificate nonsense, for one. But mostly they were cynical. The one that really got me was the claim that taking time off from his campaign today and tomorrow to fly back to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother is a stunt. 

A stunt?

A few years ago I was on tour when my grandfather, pictured here the previous Christmas, fell into his last struggle with cancer. We were incredibly lucky - he lived for much longer after the first bout than we had any right to expect, but when he was dying, I was on the road, and didn't have the chance to visit him. My tour ended just in time for me to fly home for the wake and the funeral. Fortunately, my grandmother, my mom and all her siblings were there with him, and mom says he might not have even known that I was there had I rushed back, but I still regret that I didn't just leave the tour to go see him - I thought I would have enough time, I thought the extra week wouldn't matter. It did.

I hope that Barack Obama's grandmother lives many more years, but if not, I'm glad that he has his priorities straight. 

I always knew I liked them...

I've always liked Google (or, for those of you supporting McCain, "the google" - keep using those Video Professor CDs, you'll get there eventually) for a number of reasons. Mostly that the products they produce are so darn useful. I blog here, I've used Gmail since I first managed to wrangle an invite (remember the beta? When users had like 6 invites?), Google Reader is my preferred RSS reader both at home and on my mobile, Google Maps takes Yahoo! to school and while I've never really needed Google Earth, it's awfully fun to play with...

They're also a very cool company. They encourage employees to use 20% of their work time to pursue their own projects, some of which have turned out to be more cool Google products. And don't get me started on the Googleplex. I want to work at the Googleplex, and I don't do anything even remotely useful to them. Those kids play areas filled with multicolored balls? I didn't encounter on until I was just over the height restriction for it, and I was quite resentful. Google? Has one for the Googlers. They're just fun. They feed the Googlers quite well and have snack and drink stations every five feet (hyperbole alert)!

So now I have one more reason to like them. They have taken an official stance in opposition to  California's reprehensible Proposition 8 (constitutional amendment banning gay marriage), claiming that, 

"it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."

See the Official Google Blog for the full statement.

Way to go Google. Thanks for being a standup sort of company. And Happy Tenth Birthday!

this is a test, this is only a test

In the intrest of rampant consumerism, I'm just looking to see how difficult it would be to update blogger from an iPhone.

The answer is, the keypad (or lack thereof) takes some getting used to, but the browser. Makes. Me. So. Happy.

Part of that may be that the web browser on my dumb windows mobile 5 Q is lame and won't play with blogger at all

I'll bet Video Professor could help you out with that, McSame...

Every single time I see those Video Professor (no link - if you can read this, you don't need it) commercials, I either mock them mercilessly, or I shake my head and ponder the poor fool who needs to be taught anything past "click here" for the internet.

Who could that lamebrain be?

Why, the Republican't nominee for President!

"I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself."

Honestly, what person under the age of 80* can possibly take him seriously? I'm willing to allow that he probably hasn't ever needed to figure out email, since there are plenty of people around him to do it for him, but web browsing? He'll have that down "fairly soon"? Really?

*My grandfather is over 80 and totally has this down, but in all fairness, my grandfather is also FAR smarter than McSame.

Date Blue?

I am seriously amused by this.

Especially the statement that, "For the price of one month on Republican-owned Eharmony, you get a full year of liberal dating choices on Democratic Match!"

In case you were wondering, that showed up as a gmail ad link with my Weekly Grist email.