Honestly, I have grown to enjoy Twitter.  Is it something you need to be on?  Not really, but it is incredibly simple to use.  Nonetheless, the downtime of this free product has been annoying–keeping in mind you get what you pay for.  Given this, the most recent exhortation to flock to FriendFeed really started to grind my gears.

I’m spending 80% of my time on FriendFeed instead of here. Move over there, slow adopters.

Sure, I have a FriendFeed account, and it does some interesting things I like.  Still, FriendFeed to me is just an aggregator.  It relies on folks posting items–links from Google Reader, links from del.icio.us, blog posts, flickr photos, LinkedIn, and other things–to build their FriendFeed content. You still need things like GoogleTalk, Twitter, Pownce, and your blog.  People: use common sense.  FriendFeed is an aggregator of your various points of presence on the Interwebs.  It is nothing more.

My other complaint is how everyone is crowing about “the discussion is happening over on FriendFeed.”  Better yet, I am moving from Twitter to FriendFeed since I can have a discussion.”  If I wanted to have a discussion with people, I would send them an instant message, send them an email, or, for chrissake, pick up the phone and call them.

We have comments in blogs, and that is, quite frankly, where most normal folks who actually have things to do will engage in their “conversations.”  Most normal folks do not have hours on end to comment on someone’s blog post on yet another aggregator.  Call me myopic, but I do not see how FriendFeed is the technical equivalent of the second coming of Christ.

Great, people can comment on my blog, my flickr photos, and my various tweets.  .  Are they commenting on my blog?  On a photo on Flickr?  On Twitter?  No.  They are commenting on someting in FriendFeed.  You know what I call that: FAIL.

At the end of the day, FriendFeed allows me to catch up on things when Twitter’s infrastructure is a smoking mess of plastic and silicon.  Nonetheless, it is just that.  To borrow from William Shatner in a classic SNL sketch:

GET A LIFE, will you people!

“Don’t blame me.  I didn’t vote for Dixon.”

To describe myself as non-plussed by Dixon becoming Mayor last Fall would be an understatement.  I was suspect of her and the ethics problems that had been at issue since she first became City Council President.  Additionally, I like my politicians to have above average public speaking skills, and Mayor Dixon certainly does not rank first among her peers in this category.

So, to see new coverage of the ongoing investigation into her dealings with the awarding of contacts is not terribly surprising.  What has been fascinating–and highly annoying, actually–has been the focus on the Dixon’s spending habits.  She apparently bought some fur coats, some expensive shoes, and some other womanly accessories.  Of course, if one were to read the local rag, you would find nothing but article upon article about what Dixon purchased as opposed to the investigation, its history, and other pertinent matters.  If I read another article about her expensive purchases, I will tune out this investigation.

Ultimately, how surprised would one be if there was ill-gotten gain for Dixon and her associates as a result of her position of power?  In the continuing evolution of urban poltiical machines, is this terribly surprising?  Yesterday’s Tammany Hall has evolved into today’s nameless political machine.  By no means does this make it right, and it certainly is not an indictment of every local politician.

Nonetheless, I demand more substance to the coverage of this investigation.  Would it be too much to ask to actually get investigative journalism as opposed to the style of tabloid journalism that is currently being exercised here?  Thus far, that desire seems a bit outlandish.

Thus, I decided to do what every person does on the weekend, a la Frank the Tank in Old School.  My path was slightly different–a trip to Costco, Target, and Lowe’s The first two were for the usual things that I needed around the house, but I had big plans for my visit to Lowe’s.  I had some small repairs and upgrades that I have procrastinated on around the house, so I decided it was time to get them done.

I also decided to get a more comprehensive ratcheting screwdriver set.  Thus, a 56 piece ratchet set with all kinds of scew bits.  Let the man grunting commence!

• Repair Closet Door Handle
  Since I moved in, one of the closet doors in my second bedroom had a screw missing from one of the handles.  Since it’s my second bedroom, I was in no hurry to fix it, but it was starting to bother me a bit.  While at Lowe’s, I looked around for an appropriate screw that matched the set and couldn’t find one.  I paid for an inexpensive handle, though, and used one of the screws that came with that.  Not the perfect solution, but it works.  Repair done!
• Replace Thermostat
  I have procrastinated on replacing my old school thermostat with a more advanced digital programmable thermostat.  With energy costs where they are, I figured replacing my inefficient thermostat was a good idea.  Today was the day I did so.  I purchased the Honeywell 5+2 Programmable Thermostat.  Installation was pretty easy, and it is now running in one of its programs quite nicely.  The one thing I need to pick up and forgot to is a simple drywall patch kit to repair the old screw holes that held the old thermostat in place.  Nonetheless, another successful home repair!
• Replace Door Sweep
  The door sweep that came with my front exterior door has had the weather stripping coming away from it.  I decided to pick up a new sweep.  Installation seems pretty easy, and I am going to see what it takes to remove the old sweep tomorrow.  Repair pending, but it should be pretty easy.
• Terminate Cable Wires
  My house came with structured wiring for my telecommunications and cable or satellite television.  In other words, all of the phone and cable outlets are wired and terminate at one place in my basement.  Back when I had the bastards at Verizon install my phone line, the technician kindly terminated my phone lines into the 66 block I had mounted.  So, my phone wiring has been done for some time.
  When I had my cable installed, the Comcast technician did not terminate all the wires.  He terminated only three of the six connections, and he mounted a 3-way-splitter.  Thus, I have three more wires to terminate.
  I purchased a crimping tool similar to this with the appropriate connectors, but I don’t have a cable stripper.  I will pick a stripping tool up tomorrow, and complete this project.  Once that is done, I will pick up a splitter to install so that all of the outlets in my house are active.

There are still two other outstanding projects I need to get done.  I have a couple of leaky pipes in the bathroom to fix.  The leaks are not major, but they are a nuisance.  The other project I need to fix is to repair some caulking around the house–mainly the kitchen sink and the bathroom backsplash.  The problem with both of those is that both places used colored caulk, and I need to do some more research to find out where to get that.  Your typical home repair store does not stock anything other than clear, white, or almond.

The joys of home ownership!  Now, to celebrate my home repair conquests with beer, again a la Frank the Tank!

He made a request the other night that I cannot recall, but tonight he asked me to pay for getting his hair colored.  I mentioned that I would think about it, but I am not too keen on the idea of paying for some preposterous coloring of his hair.  I asked what else he wanted, and he mentioned clothes.

At this point, I may treat him to a nice meal and some clothes, but the hair coloring is a last resort.  I definitely don’t want to be that kind of uncle.

George Carlin: Baseball and Football

George Carlin: On Religion

George Carlin: The Seven Words

I think I need to go enjoy a brunch somewhere, but the question is where in this fair city do I wish to do brunch?  The weather is nice and sunny, and I think I need to go enjoy it!  I will have to see who I can gather up for such an outing on such short notice.

In the words of the immortal Homer J. Simpson, “Mmmm…..BBQ“

One of the more interesting quotes from the essay was:

“We understand the necessity of schizophrenia, quadrophenia, or
whatever it takes to get you through the night. And we only understand
this because we have the necessary accessory to the splintered
life, the cell phone.

The phone that keeps us together. Keeps our illusions tabulated.
Keeps our data, our dates, our birthdays, our important memos, our
urgent must-do lists. Keeps us amused with games in between all that
seriousness.”

So, for all of the benefits that modern technology–and the cell phone–have brought us, it has also made our lives more splintered.  We are always expected to be available at all times.  We have indeed made a Faustian bargain with these little things we use every day.

Alas, steamingpileofawesome.com was not available.  Looks like I might have to settle for an alternate.

While not as entertaining and ubiquitous as FAIL has become, I think it could certainly earn its own niche.