Rush Limbaugh: The Face of the Republican Party

I recently heard that Rush Limbaugh, the Howard Stern of politics, was the face of the republican party. I guess that's the end of the republican party. They might as well rename it the redneck party.

Stephen Colbert summed it up best when he said, "If Republicans do what Rush Limbaugh says, they'll get the only vote that matters: his."

The GOP Senators Need to Shutup

GOP senators, including John McCain who said Obama is off to "a bad beginning," might want to keep their mouths shut.

After digging the huge hole we're in and spending about 600 billion dollars on the Iraq war, they should be quiet about the current administration's efforts to revive the economy, if they ever want to have a majority in congress again and, God forbid, another president in the White House.

Sure, Obama and the Democrats should reach across the aisle -- reach across and slap the GOP silly for getting us in this mess and spending billions on wars and tax cuts just so they can put more money in their pockets.

The nerve of those jerks...

Use Your Cruise Control!

I did a lot of driving on interstate highways during the Christmas and New Year's holidays this year and I just had to rant a little about the way people drive. I just don't understand why people can't maintain a constant speed. Do they not realize that it's important to maintain a constant rate of speed and stay the hell out of my way?

I suppose, ideally, everyone should drive at the speed limit on the interstate highways and maintain that speed, but since that isn't going to happen they should at least stay to the right unless they are passing someone, pass as quickly as they can, and then move back to the right as soon as they can. I am amazed by the number of people who will pull into the passing lane in front of me and then slow down! What are they thinking? Are they insane?

I like to set my cruise control so I don't have to try to maintain speed manually, but I'm constantly having to slow down for people who pull in front of me and then drive along slowly until they decide to get out of my way.

So, if you could, when you are driving on an interstate, for God's sake, decide how fast you would like to go, set your cruise control, and then only move to the left to pass someone who is driving slower than you are.

Thanks!
-Rick

Flock -- "The Browser For The Modern Web"

My brother was visiting recently and mentioned the Flock browser. I had installed it a long time ago but wasn't using it. When I first installed Flock, the only thing I remember that was different about it was that it had support for Flickr built into it. You could open a film strip across the top of the browser window that would display thumbnails of your contacts' recent photos etc. Kinda neat but I'd rather use the contacts window at the Flickr web site.

I installed the latest release of Flock to see how it had changed and was pleasantly surprised -- they've added a lot of features. You can configure a lot of your accounts for social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter and display updates in a sidebar. You can configure your primary web-based email through Flock and it will alert you to new email, and Flock also has a built-in feed reader so you can subscribe to news feeds and display them in a sidebar.



I almost forgot Flock's blogging support. You can post to blogs from Flock's blog editor. Without logging into your blog. It seems like a quick way to post something from the browser.

So far it seems like Web pages might load a little slower then they do in Firefox, IE, or Google's new Chrome browser, but my primary computer is a little low on RAM. I want to either add some RAM to that computer or use another one that has a little more memory. I'll update this post when I've tried the browser a little longer and let you know what I find out about the speed, but if you're like me and you like to try out all of the new social networking sites, you should give Flock a try.

Later,
-R

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I'm a ChaCha Guide Now

I found this cool service called ChaCha. You can call ChaCha at 1-800-224-2242 and ask any question, anything at all, like directions, or movie times, or where babies come from, and a ChaCha guide like me will search for the answer and a good Web link to send to you in a text message. You can also send your question in a text message to 242242 (ChaCha), or type your message into ChaCha's Web site.

ChaCha guides earn $.20 cents for each question they answer and they have to do it in 10 minutes -- preferably in less than 3 minutes -- so you get your answer quickly.

Most guides average between $4 and $10 an hour.

UPDATE: Since I originally posted this, ChaCha has changed the pay rate to only $.10 per post unless you answer a certain number of questions within a certain time-frame. That really makes it not worth it to me. I got a job a couple months ago as a contract tech writer and I make more in an hour than I could make in a week as a ChaCha guide. I suppose it would still be worth it for students and stay-at-home mom's, but I think ChaCha will lose some professional people.

Let me know if you're interested in becoming a guide, though. If you tell them I sent you (I'll give my email address to you but I'd rather not post it here), I'd get 10% for everything you earn.

Have a great 4th, and happy ChaChaing!

-Rick

Blurb: Book Making Software

I just found a Web site called Blurb where you can download some book making software (I suppose you would call that desktop publishing software). You can use the software to make any kind of book you'ld like to make. They have templates you can use for layouts etc.

You can submit your book to Blurb and have as many books made as you want starting at something like $12.95 a book.

It looks like it would be particularly good for publishing photographs and they are having a contest right now and giving away $25,000 for the best photo book submitted by July 14th.

Later,
Rick

I Got Published in the Schmap Niagara Falls Tour Guide

I've been meaning to post this link for a long time. This picture I took of The Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls and posted at Flickr was chosen for inclusion in the Schmap Niagara Falls online tour guide.

It's not a big deal, but it's kinda nice to be recognized for something.

-R