GRABBINGSAND

(The Question checks up on Detective Montoya. Excerpt from 52 #4.)

I’m all about the comic books. Obviously. More people should read them, the good ones at least, particularly people that I know. The benefit would be mutual. They’d get to enjoy some quality art and writing. I’d get a few more ears to bend after reading my weekly short-stack of four-color entertainment. As it is, I have just so many of you to work with.

Typically, a worthwhile tale in any comic book requires a certain amount of backstory and context. For example, one of my first favorite story in The Uncanny X-Men involved an anti-villain called Nimrod. This was shortly after Rogue joined the team, having been a villain herself just a few issues earlier. Professor Xavier is nowhere to be found. I believe he was in outer space with the Shi’ar. So anyway, Nimrod (who is a kind of Sentinel, but evolved somehow) and Rogue (who ends up absorbing the mutant abilities of almost every single X-Man, making her a blue-furred, metal-skinned, teleporting, phase-shifting badass) face off in this huge battle royale that … see? I’ve lost most of you already.

Having said all that to say this, now would be a good time to step into comics. (more…)

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Darkened skies.

What’s Flock? It’s a web browser. Mostly. Built off the same Mozilla-fied architecture as Firefox, Flock has all of the tabs and shortcuts of its cousin, as well as a hefty set of other features that are meant to make it very useful for blogginating folk.

I’ve heard of it for a few weeks now, but I didn’t figure I needed it. Then the other day, Emily* sent me an email. There was a file attached. It was entitled “Why Thomas Needs Flock.”

Nothing sells a good idea like an annotated Visio diagram.

So I’m giving it a try. I like the way it incorporates Flickr and del.icio.us, though I had to be careful during the latter’s setup. Which the wrong click, all of my local bookmarks could’ve been passed into my public del.icio.us. It’s not that I’ve anything to hide, but I tend to “browser bookmark” links that are more immediately tied to work.

The Flickr photo bar is great though. There is also a built-in uploader.

Most useful is the bottom bar. It acts as a kind of chalkboard that allows you to drag links or photos or text for safe keeping (and for blogging later, presumably).

Right now, I’m using the built-in blog post tool. The proof will be in the doing. So if this post looks like ass, blame Flock.

To make out-of-the-box Flock more like my comfy Firefox, I added a couple of extensions: Gmail Manager (new mail notification in your status bar and right-click composition), Web Developer Toolbar, and Forecastfox Enhanced (weather forecasts, including local radar, in your status bar)

So … anyone else using Flock?  Anyone else interested?

* – She who has no blog, but really ought to start one.

Blogged with Flock

Anyone else using Picasa?

Anyone else know that Google (via Picasa2) has introduced a low-frills Flickr competitor? They have. Earlier today, I requested a beta test account. This evening, here it is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/grabbingsand

Go visit. Bask in the glory of my single photo so far.

Picasa Web offers 1 GB of space for free. For a familar fee of $25, you can amp that to 6 GB.

I’m not convinced. Picasa Web is missing a lot of the functionality that makes Flickr a good fit. No blogging from photo. No tagging. Not much yet in the way of community. But perhaps more is coming. After all, we’re talking about Google.

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Aaarrgh. Fear the fang.

(A nod to Allen.)

But really, it is. This Internet, the one you’re enjoying right now, is in jeopardy. So please, even if you’ve never taken the notion to contact a Congressman, now would be a great time to do so. And this is such an easy path to take. Red. Blue. Republicrat. Demoblican. For once, this is a simple case of everyone and their mother’s brother standing a very good chance of being universally screwed by the ill-informed actions of our elected officials.

(Unless, of course, any of you are a CEO, COO or CFO in the employ of a major telecommunications conglomerate. In that case, I say two things: “Welcome to my blog” and “Can I have a bag of cash?” Because I’m going to need a bag of cash to pay for premium access to sites that are currently freely* available.)

So stop your websurfing — is that still a viable term? Or all we all just browsing now? Either way, your Friends List, your MySpace and your other online obsessions can wait. Go. Remind yourself of who your Senators are — I’d say your Reps as well, but they’ve already dropped the ball they were handed — and write them an email. Or give them a call. Tell them that you are against S.2686, that you are an influential member of society (because you are) and that you vote (because if you haven’t before, you better this year).

November is only a handful of months away. We need to convince a room full of mostly old, mostly white and mostly out-of-touch men and women that a vote against Net Neutrality (which would actually be a vote for S.2686, confusingly enough) is a third rail that might mortally wound their political careers. Then when you’re done, tell someone else to do the same.

Like Arianna Huffington says, “Run by the average voter the notion that Internet providers are going to be able to control which Web sites are available to them (and give the highest paying mega-sites better treatment than smaller ones), and he or she will tell you that it’s a horrendous idea.” Because it is.

So let’s review. Sign a petition. Pick up the phone. Write your Congressfolk. ASAP. Don’t worry, your friends on MySpace will still be there when you get back.

For now.

* – By free, I don’t mean that I steal my Internet access from the neighbors. But it’s like this … in exchange for your monthly fee, an Internet Service Provider is only providing an on-ramp. Where you go, how far you travel and the places you visit are entirely up to you. The time and money that I spend when I stop, that is also up to me. And that’s how it should stay.

I’m becoming quite the penpal.

I sent one letter to Senator Chambliss last week. In return, I received a form letter, much like Amber’s.

This evening, after Nikki sent one of her own, I sent another. As I told her, I keep having this nagging notion of promise about Senator Chambliss. This is based mostly on the apparent cooperation on the part of his staff with Nikki was having post-wedding name-change SocSec card trouble. So part of me believes that a guy with decent folks in his employ might just listen to reason.

Today’s topic? Net Neutrality. I’m for it. So should you be. The bill has been passed over to the Senate via Senator Ted Stevens and his unfortunately (but honestly) titled “Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006.” For short, just call it S.2686.

This is what I said.

Senator –

You have another big decision to make.

In the weeks to come, you will have to cast your vote regarding S.2686 — the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act.

As you consider your options, please remember just what the Internet really is. It is a conversation that spans across cultures, nations and even languages. This conversation is made possible only through the absolutely neutrality of the space in which we communicate. We are all on a level playing field. Me. You. Corporations. Principalities.

Senator Stevens has proposed a bill (S.2686) that seeks to redefine where and how we communicate. Instead of enjoying this limitless field of opportunity, we will have to navigate instead a virtual geography of hills and valleys.

Content providers that pay a premium to communications companies will be the most visible, the easiest to find. Those that cannot afford to pay will be lost in the middle. And worst of all, those same communications companies will have free reign to throttle and silence any online offering they see fit.

I know this is a complex issue. We are living in complicated times. But for a moment, simply look at the advances in communication that the Internet has provided to all of us over the past fifteen years. And this was all without regulations, without favoritism, without compromising to corporate whim this amazing means of forming communities, of improving our lives.

I will close with a statement you have perhaps heard. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, states the issue plainly by saying “[a] neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.”

Please protect this wonderful and still new tool for democracy. Vote “No” for S.2686.

Thank you,

Thomas L. Strickland
Alpharetta, GA 30022

Too florid? To full of Doug Henning magic? When an issue is so complex that you have to call Vinton Cerf before committee to describe TCP/IP and packets in terms a fourth-grader could barely understand, I’m hoping the purple prose helps to emphasize the awesomely technical in majestic terms. Because honestly, I don’t think many of our Senators really grasp just what they’re risking.

I don’t think anybody does.

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Helpful mapping, courtesy of Chili’s.

Woo-hoo!

Act now. Don’t even read beyond the link. What link?

“It’s Your Wedding Day,” as performed by the Original B’way Cast of The Wedding Singer. For just a day or two more, it is a free download from iTunes. Why get it? Because Stephen Lynch is singing the lead role. While the show itself was met with middling reviews, Lynch’s performance was good enough to merit a Tony nomination. Will he win? Tune in Sunday.

(Unfortunately, none of Lynch’s comedic trademarks are to be found in this song. No obscenely-named superheroes. No alcoholic fathers. And no little devil horns.)

I meant to post my reaction to the much-anticipated Coca-Cola Blak some weeks ago, but the idea must’ve slipped my mind. Having just read Amber’s rather positive review, I believe it is only fair to balance the scales of appreciation.

How is Blak? Well, imagine that you have one of those Dum-Dum Pops. You know, the small lollipops that come in various flavors, distinguishable one from another by color. They’re typically free, and as a result, appreciated more for the novelty of getting something for nothing than for any actual quality. Now, this Dum-Dum, it happens to be “coffee” flavored. Of course, Spangler Candy doesn’t make coffee-flavored Dum-Dums, but we’re in fantasy-beverage-review-land here. Keep up.

So you pop it in your mouth and start walking down the street. The Dum-Dum is small, so there is no need to hold it in your hand. You just let it rest. You feel a bit like Kojak. Telly, not Ving.

“Who loves ya, ba –”

Out of nowhere, someone shoves you from behind. Maybe they’re in a hurry. Either way, the Dum-Dum has taken a candy-dive into your throat. Not pleasant, to say the least. Feeling apologetic and unsure of how to assist you, the accidental shover whips a bottle of Coca-Cola from his pocket and proceeds to unhelpfully flood your mouth with incredibly flat, room-temperature soda.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, behind all of your concerns about choking, your worries about drowning in soda and your developing plan to seek the litigious financial ruin of this horrible shover, you record the taste that is invading your tongue. Candy. Coffee. Flat Coke. Paper sucker stick.

That taste, my friends, is Coca-Cola Blak.