I also changed the name of the site from :skyecade online to simply robertsinclaire.com. It’s been something I’ve been toying with for a while now. All the original URLs will still work, however, so feel free to keep plugging in skyecade.net if that’s what you prefer.

Lastly, I added a “Subscribe Via Email” section to the side bar for people who would like all my wonderful posts sent directly to their inbox. Never again will you miss out on the pure awesomeness which is :skyecade online robertsinclaire.com. Just pop in your email address, hit “Subscribe”, and wait by your inbox. Oh yeah!

Okay, off to jury duty……again.

Poor bastards.

Battlestar Galactica Razor was great, although, I was under the impression that it was the season premier. It wasn’t. Needless to say, I was a little bummed saddened annoyed when I found out I have to wait until March for the next episode. Boo! A year and a half between seasons? This better be the best season EVER!

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Tin Man sucked. I hate giving negative reviews, but I just couldn’t sit through it. In all fairness though, I’m a pretty harsh critic. I hated Firefly when I first watched it too, now it’s one of my favorite television shows ever. I’ll probably give it another shot, someday.

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Facebook. Facebook. Facebook. I just don’t understand the hype, I really never have. I get that it’s a great social network, but isn’t that all it is? How can it possibly be compared to Google? How can it possibly be valued at 15 billion dollars? What’s going to happen to it when the next great social network comes along and people leave Facebook in droves in favor of the latest and greatest social phenomenon. 15 billion? Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is great and they’re really coming out with some innovative stuff, but it’s just a social network. Internet platform you say? I seriously doubt it, it’s far too proprietary for an internet platform. Open it up and we’ll see, but until then, let’s ease up on the hype a little. This is the kind of crap that makes bubbles burst.

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I recently finished David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been GTDing now for about 3 weeks and I can already see the benefits. Granted, I didn’t really have a productivity philosophy before this, so I guess it had no choice but to help me. Regardless, the community is great and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to tighten up their organizational habits.

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I just found out that the author of one of my favorite blogs, healthbolt.net, will no longer be writing for said blog. Nooo! I’ve recommended this blog to oodles and oodles of people. Sara Ost, said author of said blog, is moving on to bigger and better things. What kind of things? I have no idea, but I’ve already subscribed to her new blog and await her witty remarks with bated breathe. Seriously though, I read a ton of blogs, and Sara’s writing style is among my favorites. I’m curious to see what she’s got up her sleeve. >>>> saraost.com.

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Cam is getting Mario Galaxy for Christmas. Sweeet. I can’t wait to try it for her to try it out. I also bought her another controller so I can kick her ass in Tennis. I don’t care if she’s nine, she’s going down!

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Okay, that should do it for now. Oh yeah, I’m going to see “I am Legend” Friday with MLL. I’ll let you know what I think. I’ve been dying for a good movie lately so cross your fingers.

“PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills. Whether you’re just interested in new media or an experienced veteran, PodCamp Boston 2 is for you!”

All registered and rearing to go. Hope to see you all there.

Zen Habits is a motivational and, I think, inspirational website dedicated to abolishing bad habits and creating good habits. I think what I like most about this site, is the fact that the author, Leo, is just a regular person like you or me. He writes about the different techniques and philosophies he uses to improve various aspects of his life. Specifically, he writes about productivity, organization, finance, family, simplicity, happiness, and health. His two main philosophies seem to be GTD (get things done) and simplification. I’ve always been a big believer in the latter approach toward life, hence the reason why I think I’m so drawn to his website.

If improving your life is subject that interests you, and it should be, then I would highly, highly recommend checking out Zen Habits. It’s extremely well written and I always leave the site with a renewed sense of confidence.

Since my blogroll is comprised mostly of tech sites, it’s sometimes hard to weed out all the other non-tech blogs that I like to read. Here is a list of some other sites that are also dedicated to improving your life in one way or another.

43 Folders
Lifehack
Lifehacker
Pick The Brain
Get Rich Slowly
Dumb Little Man

I’m happy to see that all of the above websites also made it onto Leo’s blogroll. Of course, Leo has quite a few more self-improvement sites in his list than I do in mine. I’ll have to take a closer look at what he’s reading. If they’re even half as good as Zen Habits, then they would be worth a look.

His name is Robert P. Lindeman. Apparently, the case was leaning in his favor, at least until the opposing counsel sprung the following question:

“Was Lindeman Flea?”

At the time, the jury had no idea what this meant. It turns out that Dr. Lindeman had a blog, and on this blog he went by the name Flea. This obviously isn’t bad by itself, but what he was writing on his blog was a bit of a shocker. According the Boston Globe, Lindeman scoffed at the plaintiff’s case and the plaintiff’s lawyer. He wrote things like the jury was dozing. He even revealed what their defense strategy was.

Needless to say, the defense quickly settled the next day.

I don’t usually write about stories like this, but this one caught my attention. Probably because of a discussion I had a month ago with a friend of mine who was stating the reasons why NOT to blog. One of his arguments was that you can get busted for things that you don’t want other people to find out. He’s not the only one with this view either. But that’s no reason why NOT blog. Just don’t blog about stuff you shouldn’t be blogging about, e.g., the details of an on going court case that you happen to be a part of. If you’re going to blog about something, or comment about something, or post about something, or……almost any case where you add something to the almighty Internet, assume anyone can get a hold of that information. Because for all intents and purposes, they can.

Have a look. You may notice some design similarities.


<!--[if IE 7]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../wp-content/themes/skyecade/ie7_hacks.css" />
< ![endif]-->


It sucks that I had to do it this way. I was warned by multiple web developers that this is not the preferred method and I completely to agree with them. For now though, the site works in IE7 and it will buy me some time until I can really look over the code and see what, if anything, is causing this stupid, annoying, pain in my ass behavior. It should be fun.

I also wanted to cross post to a Livejournal blog, mostly because I really like the LJ community. Alas, the Livejournal Crossposter plug-in doesn’t work for me. I believe it has to do with Godaddy not allowing outgoing socket connections.

<rant>
Here’s the thing about Godaddy; I’ve never really had a major problem with them and my site is up 99.99999% of the time, but they leave very little room to grow. This is the third time I’ve tried to add some kind of functionality to my site and got slapped in the face with, “uhh, Godaddy doesn’t allow that”. I guess you get what you pay for.
</rant>

That’s okay though, I’m just happy that my Vox account will be revived. By the way, if any of you out there are interested in blogging but don’t know where to begin, I would highly recommend checking out vox.com. It’s extremely user friendly, it’s free, and the community is really cool.

Speaking of upcoming.org, I almost forgot all about this site. That would have been tragic since it’s such a great concept. The last time I was there though, the site was only a few months old and there really weren’t any entrees for the Boston area. Well, it seems like that has all changed. There’s all kinds of great events listed on the website now. I even joined the Boston Tech Events group. It’s wicked cool.

This entry marks my 53rd post to this blog. That’s an average of 1 post per week (I figured this out using a mathematical equation which is far to complex to post here). One post per week is rather pathetic by blogging standards. I was recently visiting another blog which also reached its 1 year anniversary. That particular blogger stated that he posted an average of 1.3 times a day. Not bad.

I think my goal for the coming year will be to reach a minimum average of 4 posts per week. That should be doable.

Happy birthday blog!

Enter my new camera. The plan is to keep this camera with me at all times. I’m also going to focus less on getting the perfect shot, and more on just getting the shot. If I want to take a portrait of someone, or if have the time to use my tripod, then yes, I’ll whip out one of my big guns. But for everyday use, this camera is perfect.

I also created a new flickr account. This will be the heart and soul of my photoblog. Every picture I take with this little camera will be uploaded to flickr for all to see. I’m not claiming that these pictures will be all that exciting, some of them may be down right boring. Okay, most of them, but that’s not the point! The point is that they will be there in chronological order from now until I die in 2097. You’ll be able to sort them by tags, groups, dates, or photosets (albums).

On the right sidebar you will always see the latest (or random) pictures I’ve uploaded to my flickr account. I can change the photostream by changing the tag associated with it. For example, if I use the tag “friends”, the photostream will only show the last pictures I’ve uploaded which I’ve tagged “friends”. Right now there is no tag associated with the photostream so it will show all of my pictures regardless of what I tagged them. But that’s neither here nor there.

You can view my entire photostream anytime by clicking on this icon located at the bottom of the sidebar. You can also just click one of the thumbnails also located on the sidebar. And that’s that. Exciting huh? Where are you going?

Let the fun begin…

In the interest of avoiding copyright infringement, I should mention that these four pictures were taken by the very creative and talented Cameron Ann. Yes, including the self portrait. Like I said, she’s very creative.

Seriously though, the last three weeks have been a bit disruptive to my normal routine. I’m finally starting to get back on track tjough. And the good news is, I’m putting the final touches on phrostbyte. And even better news, I was able to build a computer from the parts I salvaged from my original three computers. A fairly decent computer at that.

Well I have a lot to say and hopefully the time to say it soon. Be back in a jiff.

**on a side note, that”s the first time I ever used the word jiff in a written sentence.

This isn’t an isolated case my friends. Oh no. Here is another great example. I decided to start running again about a year ago. But could I just run? No of course not, don’t be stupid. I had to prepare for it. I went out and bought a new mp3 player, new Nike running shorts, a new sweat absorbing sport shirt, and shiny new Nike sneakers. I carefully selected which songs would be on my new mp3 player. I drove around looking for the perfect spot to go running. That’s right, drove around. Guess how many miles I run a week now. On an average week I run anywhere between 0 and .01 miles. However, in the summer time that number rises to about .02 miles per week. Good thing I bought that sweat absorbing sport shirt. My point is I have to stop preparing all the time and just do it. I got that last line from Nike.

I ran across something I haven’t seen in years and it piqued my interest again. It’s called The Game of Life. Though it’s not actually a game. It’s a mathematical experiment. You’ll see what I mean. Check it out and make sure to read the whole page. It actually is quite fascinating.

If you feel the urge to dumb yourself down a bit today then check out these totally useless but sort of cool sites. They are courtousey of LadyGwen over at the DDB.

• Remember this piece of crap? I hated it then and I hate it now.
• Oh this is much better. So pretty…
• This doesn’t make you dumber, it just makes you feel dumb.
• This is just plain cool.
• I only spent 13 minutes of my life on this one.

I need to go prepare for something. See you in a month.