Email Troubles
For anyone trying to get a hold of me, it seems as if my two domain email addresses are not forwarding properly at the moment. So if you've been emailing me at nick-at-nickschweitzer-dot-net or nick-at-thecodingmonkey-dot-net and I haven't responded, please try me at schweitn-at-gmail-dot-com. I have a support ticket into my hosting service, so hopefully it will be resolved soon.
Update: Everything got resolved some time last night, and I even got an influx of emails from throughout the day. Nice to not lose anything, even if they were delayed several hours. I actually do prefer nick-at-nickschweitzer-dot-net however, since at some point, I may stop using gmail, and if everyone sends to that address, I don't have to worry about losing too much email in the switch.
A Hollywood Conspiracy?
Wait... has Hollywood infiltrated the blogosphere, and we didn't know it?
Same person? Long lost brothers? I report, you decide.
This Much Anger Isn't Healthy
This is not directed at any one blogger or political commentator out there. It's directed at everyone out there, and it's directed at myself as well because Lord knows I could never live in a glass house that did not eventually rain sharp points down on me. Why so angry? Why the name calling? What good does it do? You may think that it's meant as a joke, but let's face facts. Many people do it far too often to consider it funny any more. It's a problem. Whether those jokes take the form of derogatory slurs... racial, sexual, or otherwise... or perhaps it's just taking someone's name and twisting it into something downright mean.
It doesn't do any good. Yeah, you laughed. Maybe some other people laughed too. But I guarantee you, the only people who laughed are the ones who agreed with you before anyway. And what good is choir preaching when you're trying to convince people that a problem needs to be solved? Who is your audience? People who already think you're right, or people who are undecided who you want on your side? Because you're not going to sway them this way.
Besides, nobody... Bush, Hillary, Obama, McCain... nobody... is as evil as people want to make them out to be. And if you truly think they are... truly... then you need to step out into the real world.
For my part, from this post forward, I'm going to make every attempt to avoid doing it any more... though I hope that my archives speak to the fact that I've tried to avoid it in the past (not perfectly of course). I would ask all of you... all of you... to do the same as well. Not for "the future", "the cause" (whatever yours may be), or even for me... but for yourself. This much anger isn't healthy people, and it certainly isn't productive either.
* I have closed the comments on this post. I don't want this to become a he said - she said argument of who is worse than who. This is about self examination. *
2007 In Review
2007 was a pretty good year in blogging. I had nearly 1,000 posts, but here are the 18 that I consider to be my favorites. These are ordered according to oldest first, which come to think of it, is a very un-blog like style.
You can view my archives in case you want to make a case for a post that should be in this list that isn't. I already had a roundup of my favorite pictures from last year. My next roundup will be my favorite Monday Music selection from last year. Stay tuned.
He's Back
Another incarnation of Dave Casper... now with wife beater and birth control glasses. This ought to be interesting.
Spreading the Word
You can see my latest on Ron Paul at the Biz Times Blog. Spread the word... he's got the money... now he just needs for people to hear him.
Rest In Peace
Very sad news for the blogosphere. Tom's brother let me know that The Wheat and Rye Guy, Triticale, died last night, having never regained consciousness. He had Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and it had spread to the brain. No news yet on if there will be a memorial service.
Rest in peace. You will be missed.
Update: I'm being asked by various folks if I know about a memorial service. His brother Walter told me that Tom was being cremated, and that a memorial would likely be held in the spring, after some time has passed, so people can celebrate his life, instead of mourn his loss.
On The Radar
I just thought I'd toss out a reminder on my On The Radar feature. On the left side of my blog, you can see links to articles and blog posts that I've come across that I find interesting, that I may or may not blog about at some point in time in the future. It is powered by del.icio.us, and if you'd like, you can subscribe to my On The Radar feed too. If you had previously subscribed to that feed, I recently changed the tag that I used in del.icio.us from "blogthis" to "OnTheRadar", so you'll need to re-subscribe.
Triticale Update
I talked with Triticale's wife last night during Drinking Right. She phoned to tell us that although chemotherapy had helped the Leukemia, they discovered that he had significant cancer in the brain today, and that he only had a few days left. I offered her the prayers of the entire group to Tom and his entire family, and I ask my readers to do the same. A more gentle, thoughtful man, is hard to find.
Syndication Is a Great Thing
This Means War
You may noticed a trend in my posting lately... that I'm being a bit more aggressive with certain bloggers than I used to be, and that I'm going after other bloggers who may have felt that they used to be "safe". All bets are off now, and you may be next.
This Is a Test of The Ron Paul Retaliation System
This is only a test. If this had been a real post about Ron Paul, then Sean at the American Mind would have immediately posted something negative about him in response to my posting something positive about him.
You may now go about your regular weekend blog reading. This concludes this test of the Ron Paul Retaliation System.
Does Scott Adams Read My Blog?
I find it interesting that just days after I wrote this post, Scott Adams is writing about this:
In the United States, we have freedom of speech, in the sense that the government won’t arrest you for speaking your mind. Yay for freedom!
But your fellow citizens will happily ruin your economic life if you say something unpopular in public. Some might say that has nothing to do with the right of free speech. It's an example of free people acting in a free way. But to me, it looks like cutting out the middle man. There's no point in electing a government to punish unpopular speakers when the citizens can do it themselves, and cheaper. It might look we have freedom of speech to you, but to me it looks like we just found the most efficient system for limiting it.
Sound familiar? I'm not sure whether the fact that he agrees with the basic premise of my post means that I'm not as crazy as I think... or that I'm certifiable.
Bringing Down The Walled Garden
It seems that MyFoxMilwaukee has decided to add some gates to their walled garden, and they're now linking around the rest of the Cheddarsphere for commentary on the upcoming elections. They've even chosen a recent post of mine to feature. I think this is great news, and will help everyone, including them. Be sure to check out the Politics page.
Staring Is Allowed... It's a Good Cause
It's that time of year folks... time for the 6th annual Blogger Boobie-Thon to raise money for Breast Cancer research. The home page will always be work safe, but thankfully the galleries are not. So head on over and do some staring, as long as you also do some donating. Or if you'd rather, flash the Internet for a good cause.