#1 The Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Browser The latest and greatest version of Firefox came out yesterday. I made the jump to Firefox about a year ago and haven't looked back. Personally, I find it a much better browser than Internet Explorer - especially if you compare them right out of the box.
My favorite feature is 'tabbed browsing', which allow you to have many web pages open at once in separte 'tabs', with only one browser instance. Super handy. Firefox also blocks pop-ups and you can set it to reject images from various websites (great way to eliminate ads).
In addition, Mozilla (and a bunch of other developers) offer tons of extensions and themes for Firefox allowing you to really geek out if you are so inclined.
If you are a PC user, give it a try. (If you are a Mac user, I like Safari - although they do make Firefox for the Mac and people seem to like it) COST: FREE
#2 Bloglines "Bloglines is the most comprehensive, integrated service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs, and rich Web content." There are bunches of similar services, but I like Bloglines the best. If you aren't familiar with this whole RSS/XML Syndication thing, it's really cool and very easy once you fiddle with it.
It works something like this. A website, say happyrobot, sets up a 'feed' for their site. The feed is usually just a file that lists all the newest content on the site.
The user goes to Bloglines, types in the address of the happyrobot feed (you can that from those little orange XML buttons on every site). Bloglines then checks the feed every half hour or so and displays it on their site for you to read. You set up your account and add a series of sites that you like, and whenever the site is updated, it will specify it on your Bloglines page. I feel like I am not doing a good job explaining this. Just, try it out - and feel free to ask me any questions. COST: FREE
#3 2004 Beaujolais Nouveau Next Thursday we should all drop by our local wine shop (or wine shoppe) and pick up a few bottles of the 2004 Beaujolais Nouveau. It's the first wine produced from the 2004 harvest, and it's a fun wine. Red, lightweight... goofy. The nice thing is that it's also super cheap - under 10$.
It's great with fun food (pizza, burgers) but I also know that a lot of people serve it at thanksgiving - just drink it before 2005. COST: Quite Cheap
Donkey Shots I forgot to tell you about this, but we went to a nice Halloween party at the home of JJ and Cari. The reason I forgot to mention this is because we were all riled up about liberals and conservatives and the state of Ohio. But, yea, Halloween. Remember that? Pre-11/2?
Like true, decadent free-lovin democrats, we participated in doing "donkey shots" - it entailed wearing a donkey mask and sipping irish whiskey through a straw (the straw goes through the donkey's nose for wacky effect). It was funny - and delicious!
One other note about Halloween was that we forgot the address of where the party was. Someone wrote it down on paper and put it in her bag, and then promptly took a different bag. D'oh! 11-something that night we wandering around Brooklyn looking for a party. We had a very general idea of what the address was and luckily they were loud and we found them.
Red State Blue State Fatigue I am tired of democrats complaining. Wait. I am complaining. I am tired of other democrats complaining.
I am not even sure I want to be a democrat anymore. Two party systems are no fun with both sides are such f*cking dorks.
"happyrobot, reporting for duty!"
Last night I was listening to a current events show on our local public radio station (liberal! liberal!) and they were discussing GWB and his debt to evangelists since they helped deliver the election to him. Aiyeee.
These evangelists folks I am sure are nice people - but it was all I could do to not throw the radio out the window. Oh my. They were asked why they voted for Bush and it seems to break down to these two facts: 1. He prays 2. Ignoring everything else, he's pro-life
Literally, the news guy was saying, "how about this tax break for the rich" and "his funding of that" and "his raping of fathers" and the one guest was basically avoiding answering anything except to say that he is good because he is pro-life.
Me in 2008 If I want their vote when I run for president in 2008, I already know my campaign platform: I pray and am pro-life. I suspect on my campaign poster I could be shown smoking a joint with my arm around Hitler - but I pray and am pro-life!
There I am flying a plane in to the trade center! I pray and am pro-life! Vote for me! Is that me in a german poop video?! I pray and am pro-life! Vote for me! That girl I am in bed with isn't my wife OR has graduated from high school! I pray and am pro-life! Vote for me! Did I just kick that dog? I pray and am pro-life! Vote for me!
To my jewish friends According to someone on this same show last night, the jewish faith can be against abortion, except in cases where the mother's health is at risk. The fundamentalist christian folks, from what I understand, have set out to ban all abortion, no matter what.
