Today I was checking out Pandora, which is a really cool service. So cool in fact that I was tempted to suspend my boycott of the RIAA in order to purchase some of the music I discovered on my new personalized station. But then I read about the latest activities of the RIAA, bullying witnesses into perjury, and my convictions were renewed: The RIAA is a scary group whose activities I refuse to support. Therefore, the boycott continues.... I did notice on the Pandora FAQ that you can submit your music for inclusion, so I'm hopeful that at some point down the road I can have a personalized station of independent artists.

Just stopping by? Here's the executive summary: Check out uncylopedia.org. Feeling really bored and in for the mood for something inane? Read on.

I am sitting here killing time and decided to do some unconstructive, but therapeutic searching to recover from a bad router experience. (I compared the phrase "netgear sucks" with "linksys sucks.") According to Yahoo, Linksys is just over twice as sucky as Netgear -- the complete opposite of my experience. I won't be buying from Netgear again. But I digress....

Still killing time, it occurred to me that what we need is a reliable suckometer to measure these things. Well, it turns out that there is such a creature, sorta. If you go to suckometer.com, you'll find a download for your Palm Pilot. Well, I have an iPAQ, so I Yahooed for "suckometer" in the hopes of finding that it had been ported to the PocketPC. No such luck. I did, however, come across the Suckometer entry at uncylopedia.org. Definitely worth a read, and while you're there, be sure to find out what a "boson" is too. Then go to the main page because the whole thing is hilarious!!

Part of me is thinking that I saw uncyclopedia.org mentioned in one of the feeds I read, but just never followed up by checking it out. If so, and I owe someone a hat tip, my apologies -- and let me know. I thought maybe it was Dave Winer, but a quick search there revealed no mention of this site. Perhaps my brain has combined "unconference" with "wikipedia"....

Steve Rubel tells us how to have fun with Technorati Charts. And he's right, it IS fun. Here are a few I did today at lunch:

Posts on spying:

Posts on NSA:

And my personal favorite, posts on impeachment:

Ed Batista blogs:

As I noted earlier, I agree that context is essential if attention data is to have meaning. But it's still unclear how yapaZOO would provide context to fill in the Why and Return On Attention blanks. Opportunities for users to answer these questions explicitly will provide context, but will they also create confusion and open the door to attempts to game the system?

Not necessarily. I suppose it depends on the return obtained for gaming the system versus the return obtained from providing truthful responses. As I stated before, what I expect in return for my attention data is relevancy. The only way I foresee getting that is by being truthful and providing accurate context. So my question is this: How can you ensure that the return for providing accurate context is more attractive than the return one could obtain from gaming the system?

The nurse from my doctor's office just called with the results from my tagged scan. Apparently all that radioactive isotopic goodness -- not to mention the myriad of other tests I've been subjected to -- was for naught. They STILL don't know what the lesions are so they're rescheduling the liver biopsy. And, since it's nearly January, I have another lung/chest CAT scan to look forward to as well.... Anyone got a good doctor joke to cheer me up? Feel free to comment here or answer my request for jokes at Yahoo! Answers.

I'm especially fond of my Devil Duckies; my pig and cat catapults; and my factory-mistake zombie Jesus for which there seems to be no link, but I swear it exists. I guess you had to be a cult member to get one. Regardless, their latest product takes the let-them-eat-cake. It's the Marie Antoinette Action Figure.

Marie Antoinette's reign as the Queen of France was clouded in controversy. Her extravagant lifestyle led many to believe that she was not worthy of the throne and eventually she became widely despised as the epitome of incompetence and frivolity within the French royalty. During the French Revolution, Marie was stripped of her crown, imprisoned and beheaded by guillotine in front of a cheering crowd. This 5-1/2" tall, hard vinyl figure features amazing "Ejector Head Action," and comes with a removable plastic wig and dress.

A bargain at $8.95. I so must have this!

Via Strange New Products.

Here's (another) excellent example of why the Patriot Act freaks me out:

A Massachusetts paper is reporting that a college student was visited by Department of Homeland Security agents in October after requesting a copy of Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung -- better known as "The Little Red Book" -- from a university library:

...

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security...

How can Bush continue to defend this behavior? I have a really hard time believing that interrogating this student is "critical to saving American lives."

UPDATE: The plot thickens: Now there is talk about this story possibly being a hoax. Boing Boing has been posting updates on the page linked at the top of this entry, so keep checking there for the latest.

UPDATE: Looks like it's a hoax.

We have another contestant for the Why Christmas and Animals Don't Mix pageant. Behold, Santa Guinea! Or is it Guinea Claus? Either way it's like a nasty automobile accident: You really don't want to look, you try not to look, but in the end you just keep staring.... According to Yahoo! News Photos, this little fellow was apparently all decked out for the Moscow's Club of Friends of Guinea Pigs' exhibition and fashion show. With friends like that....

On a completely different and more serious note, I wish Yahoo! would add a "blog this" feature to their news photos, like flickr has.

If you've had it with the music industry, as I have, check out music.download.com and garageband.com. Both are great tools for locating independent artists. Hat tip to Kreg for introducing me to garageband.com.

Apparently this past Friday was Zombie Claus 2005. What on earth is that, you ask?

At it's most basic level, we'll be carrying out a holiday-themed zombie attack on downtown Ann Arbor.

Other cities have been recently attacked by the undead. San Francisco, Madison, Austin and Vancouver have all had to battle against zombies in the past several months... None of them, however, has had to battle undead mall Santas and their zombie elves.

I suppose that is true. At least they're a civilized bunch:

The attack itself should commence between 8:30 and 9:00 and last for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Once the attack is over, refreshments will be had.

At this rate, I may be able to get into the Christmas spirit after all!

Kreg at Spyndle asked, "How can you be scared of Santa?" Answer: Hang out in Wellington, New Zealand on a Saturday afternoon. According to the AP:

A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus costumes, many of them drunk, rampaged through New Zealand's largest city, robbing stores and assaulting security guards, police said Sunday.

The rampage, dubbed "Santarchy" by local newspapers, began early Saturday afternoon when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an Auckland overpass, said Auckland Central Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty.

She said the men then rushed through a central city park, overturning garbage containers, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on buildings.

One man climbed the mooring line of a cruise ship before being ordered down by the captain. Other Santas, objecting when the man was arrested, attacked security staff, Hegarty said.

The remaining Santas entered a downtown convenience store and carried off beer and soft drinks.

Too bad no one photographed this event for inclusion in the Scared of Santa Gallery...

UPDATE: I just found the official Santarchy site. There you can find chronicles of adventures dating as far back as 1994. That's what Christmas is about, really: tradition. And you cannot argue with their motto: "No force on earth can stop one hundred Santas!"

Yesterday I blogged about the need for an iTunes-like product for independent artists. I also sent a note to the folks at the Podsafe Music Network asking if they had given such an endeavor any thought. Here is their response:

Boy, do I have some good news for you! In first quarter of 2006 we will be releasing a new version of the PMN. It will include an Itunes style store with multiple payment options, and some really great features for listeners. You will be able to find out more info on an artist, see where they are playing live, and be able to communicate directly with them... no labels, DRM, record executives in the way.

I, for one, am psyched!

Because I have thoroughly had it with the music industry, I spent some time this afternoon checking out the Podsafe Music Network. The plan was to locate an artist I liked, then go to that artist's site to learn more about them and potentially purchase their album/songs.

Given the large number of artists at the Network, I did an advanced search specifying Enigma as an influence. This quickly narrowed things down to two bands, one of which was Chronos. I listened to their offerings and decided that Chronos would be the first independent artist added to my music collection. So far so good! But if you're not a podcaster, which I'm not, you cannot download music. And the band has not listed a website. I Yahooed for Chronos and found them listed on mp3.de, but as a typical, monolingual American I found things there tough. I was able to download some of their songs, but I really do want to put my money where my mouth is and give it to the artist rather than the industry, so I continued scanning the site.

It seems that I can purchase their album from the German version of Amazon.com, and I don't mind purchasing in Euros, but since I don't read German I'm somewhat concerned about giving them my credit card number and hoping that I purchased what I think I did based soley on linguistic cognates -- and trying to resolve any problems if it turned out I was wrong! I also found a way to contact either the band or the folks at mp3.de regarding the band, though I'm not sure which (did I mention I'm German challenged?). I think it's the band. Anyway, I wrote someone a note in English apologizing for my inability to read their language and inquiring about how I can purchase their music. Because the rest of the world has taken the time to learn our language (thanks guys!), I am hoping for a response that I can read.

Still, this is WAY too much work. It's not easy to boycott the music industry support independent artists. What we really need, therefore, is an "iTunes" equivalent for independent artists. I want to be able to go to one place, search for artists based on genre, listen to samples, see what other listeners think, find recommendations a la "people who purchased Chronos also purchased ...", and, of course, purchase songs and albums. In other words, do all of the great stuff iTunes lets you do but with independent artists. Have credit card, will spend! I just need a place to do it....

The senate just blocked the extension of the Patriot Act. Thank goodness! Don't get me wrong: I am concerned about terrorism. Heck, I haven't flown since September 11th. BUT there has to be a way to thwart future attacks without authorizing carte blanche spying on citizens of the U.S.

I just called the D.C. offices of both New Hampshire senators. Sununu voted against extension -- or against cloture actually; Gregg for it. Thank you Senator Sununu!

This just in from the Strange Coincidence department of Grain of Salt:

Yesterday I received my Staples Rewards status via email. I guess I haven't spent much this quarter because my purchases were not sufficient to earn me any rewards. I realize that you have to spend so much to get a reward, and it's not Staples' fault if I don't always manage to do that. But their message still made me cranky. After all, here was a company I consistently give my attention data to, and consistently receive an unsatisfactory return in exchange: Rarely do I earn significant rewards, and even more rarely do I receive RELEVANT offers of savings. Why am I bothering??? So today at lunch I was going to rant blog about cutting Staples off from my attention data.

Lunch time arrived, and I went to my admin tool to write a new entry. You will not believe what hit my inbox at that very moment: A message from the Staples Rewards folks. I kid you not. The subject: "Thanks for Shopping Staples." That's a nice start. I'm feeling less cranky already. But the thing that struck me is what the message said:

We've selected a few products based on your recent purchase. It's just another way we're making it easy for you to get what you need.

This statement was followed by three offers of savings for the sorts of things I do indeed purchase. If you read my entry on attention last week, then you can appreciate the feeling of eeriness with which I'm currently filled. Not only did Staples drop me a note just before I was about to complain publicly about their rewards program, they did exactly what I had asked CVS to do:

Send me something that I can actually use. How about three coupons for products I already buy as a way of saying, "We noticed you spend a lot of money here and give us lots and lots of data. Thanks!!"

Staples gets it! Cool!

I have been dying to get a Scooba ever since I learned of its existence. Now I'm not so sure.

... unlike the Roomba, cleaning the Scooba after each use "takes time" with up to four removable parts to clean in addition to the gunky bottom of the Scooba itself.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose for acquiring the $400 magical floor-mopping robot in the first place?

Read the rest of the entry at Engadget.

When I got up this morning it was 2° F out. And it's only supposed to get up to 20° today. Yikes! But that's warm compared to tonight's forecast:

Clear, with a low around 1. Wind chill values between -4 and -9. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Burr!!!

I was so busy telling you about my adventures as Radioactive Girl that I completely forgot to tell you about something I saw as humble JD sitting in the lobby waiting to be registered -- something so utterly bizarre that it really needs a photo to do it justice. But when I got out my RAZR V3 and prepared to take a few shots, my mere mortalness stood no chance against villainous Angry Hospital Worker Woman who menacingly sneered "Can I help you?" So I slinked back to my chair in shame. (Radioactive Girl would have responded with a confident request for Angry Hospital Worker Woman to pose next to the objects being photographed.)

So let me do my best to describe how Radiology at St. Joe's decorated their lobby. They took some wrapping paper that somehow managed at once to be both bland and remarkably ugly, and with it wrapped the following items for all to see: Two prints that were hanging on the wall and (here's my favorite) the top half of a spiral-bound wall calendar. That's it.

Mind you, I'm not big into the holidays, but a little Christmas cheer can certainly add some sparkle to an otherwise sterile environment. That said, unless this was an attempt at irony -- in which case it was hilarious -- it would have been more festive for them to leave well enough alone.

Given all the buzz around Yahoo! Answers and my lack of a decent vegan "egg" nog recipe, I figured what the heck. Posting my question might be a good idea; then again, it might not. We shall see....

Man, oh man, I wish I had a Geiger Counter because I am theoretically emitting rays of the nuclear persuasion. That's right: I am Radioactive Girl! Don protective gear or get out of my way!

You see, early this morning I had to drag my sleepy self to the hospital for my "tagged scan". I didn't know what a "tagged scan" was; now I do. And conceptually it's pretty cool: They borrow some of your blood and then invite you to "make yourself at home." While you lounge about listlessly in the waiting room, a lab technician busily infuses your vital fluid with radioactive isotopic goodness. Then it's returned to you. Alas, around this time the coolness wears off because you must lie very, very still on a poorly-disguised 2×4 while some sort of imaging device does its thing very, very slowly. Then you hang out in the waiting room for an hour until you're called back for even longer scans. But I digress.... Where was I?

Disembodied announcer's voice: When we last saw Radioactive Girl, she was talking to the nurse....

Oh yeah. Back when I still thought the test was cool, I asked the nurse if this meant that I'd actually be emitting radiation. I was joking. But she responded matter-of-factly that this was exactly what it meant, adding that if I needed to go to the airport they had official hospital cards that I would need to bring with me because I "would be stopped." Wow. That's good to know. It would be such a drag to make the national news for causing an entire airport to be shut down and evacuated due to a dirty-bomb scare. I can see it now: When the all-clear was sounded, hoards of reporters would swarm upon the angry travelers who would say things like "Thanks to that jerk, I'll be late for my own wedding" and "What idiot doesn't know that a tagged scan makes them radioactive?!?!" A photo of me with a goofy grin would appear on cue.

Fortunately, I didn't have to go to the airport and returned home instead. Being a good telecommuter, I immediately went to my office and tried to get cracking. But the sad reality is that with 3 hours of sleep and 4 hours at the hospital, there wasn't much point in even trying. Besides, how often does one get the opportunity to warm up their best fake cough and call in radioactive?

Remember that commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from way back when? You know, the one where two oblivious people are walking towards each other, each with his/her unadulterated snack. Then crash! An argument ensues: "You put peanut butter on my chocolate!" "You put chocolate in my peanut butter!" But upon tasting the result both conclude that this collision was fortuitous, and we the viewers are left convinced that you can indeed achieve great results by mixing two very diverse items that seemingly had no business coming into contact with one another. But that was then, back before we knew about the Baarmy Sheep and this oldie, but goodie.

When you check out the Baarmy Sheep -- and you know you will -- look to the right of the video. That's right: A ringtone version! And me with a RAZR V3.... I'll post my meeting schedule. Call me!

Is it just me or have the music industry and reality had an ugly and irreparable parting of the ways? It's bad enough they are installing rootkits on our machines and suing children. Now they have decided that providing song lyrics and scores should be a jailable offense!

Give me a break. While one could make a semi-plausible case for file sharing being bad for business, I do not think the same can be said for sharing lyrics and scores. I mean, who says, "I have the lyrics (or the score), now I don't have to buy the song"??? More often than not, the reason why people want the lyrics is because they already have the song and want to get the wording right -- which, depending on the artist, might not be achievable just from listening. So now, thanks to the music industry, we'll all be singing things like "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" -- at least until the RIAA and MPA get wind of it and sue us for libel on the basis that our lame attempt at singing our favorite tune was a damaging misrepresentation of the artist's message.

You know, I'm going to stop buying CDs, stop purchasing music through iTunes, and start listening to podsafe music. And the money I used to give to the industry, I'll give directly to the artists -- whose music is undoubtedly rootkit free!

I really like egg nog and 'tis the season to be consuming it. Since traditional egg nog is vegetarian, I can have it. But is there a good vegan "egg" nog out there?

UPDATE: Today I bought White Wave's Silk "Nog" hoping that would be in the ballpark. It was not. The color was close, and the smell was close, but the taste was only vaguely suggestive of proper egg nog, and it was really, really watery. Upon closer inspection of the carton, I realized that this product was not meant to be proper nog, but rather nog-flavored soy milk. Viewed in that light, it's not bad: A nice alternative to the vanilla which I usually buy.

Determined not to give up so easily and figuring some thickening might do the trick, I ran out for some silken tofu. Alas, in order to get the same thickness as traditional nog, I needed equal amounts of silk nog and tofu which, of course, completely obliterated the original flavor. Thus the quest continues....

Dave Winer points us to RSS Labs' OPML Workstation, a "PowerPoint to OPML site". Very cool. But I want to go in the other direction. It is, I think, a matter of using the right tool for the job. The OPML editor lets you create and manipulate your information in an environment devoid of the constraints and influences necessarily imposed by presentation software like PowerPoint. But once your content has been created, PowerPoint is great for packaging it up for delivery. Any chance of OPML to PowerPoint coming along? And what about Office 12 support for OPML?

The Washington Post has RSS feeds for their Congress votes database making it very easy to keep up with how your representative and senators are voting. How cool is that? How did we manage before RSS?

Link via Scripting News.

I liked the concept of Yahoo! Answers enough to subscribe to the main feed via my Outlook RSS add-in. Big mistake! When I clicked on the Yahoo! Answers folder, Outlook sat there for a moment as if it were considering how best to proceed. Finally it responded with one of those little systray notifications informing me that it was working on "creating the view" I had requested. Huh? I've been using Outlook forever and this creating-the-view stuff was a new one on me. Further inspection revealed the source of the problem: Over 5000 unread messages for that feed. Geez Louise, I only subscribed yesterday! At first I thought that I must somehow be getting duplicate items, so I arranged the items by conversation and started scrolling: Each conversation only contained one item. Now granted, I subscribed to the All Questions feed rather than one of the topic-specific feeds. But I don't want to limit my subscription to only one or two topics because I might be missing out on questions and answers that I would find interesting.

So here's my idea: Yahoo! News allows you to rate stories on a scale from 1 to 5. Why can't Yahoo! Answers work the same way? After all, there are some really good questions being asked -- and a lot of junk. If Yahoo! implemented a rating scheme, and then associated feeds based on that scheme, visitors to the web site could vet the questions for the rest of us. If I were able subscribe to only those questions that had an average quality/interest rating of at least 4, Outlook would undoubtedly be happier, and perusing this feed would be a lot more manageable. I thought the folks at Yahoo! might have already implemented such a thing, but I cannot find it if they have. As best as I can tell, the only thing that you can rate is the quality of the answers you receive in response to the questions you ask. Am I missing something really obvious? If so, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm unsubscribing....

Last night I listened to Show 50 of Hometown Tales. Bryan had mentioned famous used-car salesman Cal Worthington and the ads he did with his "dog" Spot -- who was never a dog, but instead various and sundry other animals usually of the circus variety.

I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, where I put the keys, or pretty much anything else that happened more than a few moments ago. But to this day I can remember Cal Worthington's commercials, and I left California when I was 13 (I'm 35).

Now "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal!" is stuck in my head (thanks, Bryan!). Unable to stand it any longer, I just had to do a quick search. Look at what I found: My Dog Spot: the Cal Worthington Archive! Unbelievable! If you follow the audio link, you can hear what's stuck inside my head. And, yes, I feel sorry for me too!

CNET News.com reports:

An online auction of a "brand new vulnerability" in Microsoft Excel had reached about $60 when eBay pulled the item late Thursday.

If that's not proof that you can buy anything on eBay, I don't know what is. Oh wait, I do: Grilled Cheese Jesus.

Did you know that there was an actual founder of veganism? I didn't. Granted, I hadn't really given it much thought.... The founder of veganism was Donald Watson, and he passed away last month at the age of 95.

If you're ADHD then you know that random thoughts and ideas pop into your head for no apparent reason, and that there is an excellent chance you will then share those thoughts/ideas for no apparent reason. In that vein: If Douglas Adams were alive today, I think he'd make one hell of a podcaster.

Before, wishing someone a "Merry Christmas" was offensive; now, failing to wish someone a "Merry Christmas" is offensive -- unless the wishee doesn't celebrate Christmas, in which case it's anyone's guess what will happen when you wish them a "Merry Christmas." So much for it being the season to be jolly....

I think Operation: Just Say "Merry Christmas" is on the right track, at least with respect to the following: If everyone wore a little "Just Say" bracelet that indicated what they would like to be wished -- be it a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter Solstice, a bunch of gifts, Season's Greetings, or nothing at all -- we'd all know what to say. You could even display a mini-banner on your blog so that visitors would know what to say when they leave you a comment.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I received a charitable "D" in the last art class I took ('twas the 7th-grade). If you make me a cool-looking banner (Season's Greetings please), I'll proudly display it! Regardless, as long as we could all respect each person's choice of bracelet (or banner or other form of expression), then we could spend the time enjoying the season in our own unique ways rather than getting all worked up over a couple of words. (Man, I've up and gone preachy!)

No, this has nothing to do with vegetarianism and everything to do with.... uh.... just go look for yourself, okay? It's worth it. Today's entry had me in stitches (pun intended)!

Via ProtoPage (it was in the default feeds list)

Steve at Micro Persuasion says:

Look out retailers, Gawker Media has launched a new blog called The Consumerist that tracks "the delinquencies of retail and service organizations." Every retailer in America should be reading this blog.

I think every consumer should as well so that one can make more fully informed choices. Caveat emptor, and all that. Besides, you can't go wrong with a site which sports a title written in menacing-looking flaming letters, a description like "Shoppers Bite Back," and a "Walmart" link at the top! And if that doesn't convince you it's worth subscribing to, maybe their intro will:

Welcome, internet, to The Consumerist, the latest title from Gawker Media. The Consumerist loves to shop, and is reconciled to utilities, but hates paying for shoddy products, inhumane customer support, and half-assed service.

Each week The Consumerist will guide you through the delinquencies of retail and service organizations. The Consumerist will highlight the persistent, shameless boners of modern consumerism -- and the latest hot deals, discounts, and freebies around.

Join us. You'll tell us when you've been royally screwed by yet another company, and we'll channel your rage. Together we will storm the revolving doors of faceless corporations to call them naughty words for genitals, and they will begin to fear us.

The Consumerist. Capitalism is broken. We'll help you fix it.

Among today's snail mail was a card with three "ExtraCare" coupons from CVS. (For those of you living in a land without CVS, ExtraCare is just another one of those card-based accounts where the store tracks your every move in exchange for "special savings" and cash back.)

What bugs me about ExtraCare is what CVS does -- or rather fails to do -- with my data. Based on the coupons they regularly send me, it is clear that they are paying attention to what I buy. But more often than not, the savings offered are for products I never buy. Yet apparently in the minds of the ExtraCare analysts there persists the belief that I just might buy what they're attempting to sell. This bothers me for a couple of reasons: For one thing, I feel like they are trying to subtly manipulate my behavior. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm starting to sound like the local Contrail Conspiracy Theorist. But why else would CVS be sending me coupons for products I don't buy EVER? Because maybe, just maybe, I can be persuaded by a coupon. And maybe, just maybe, that sound you hear is the oinking of winged pigs soaring above the frozen flames of hell. If the fine folks monitoring my shopping habits could be bothered to pay closer attention, they would conclude that their attempts are futile: No coupon or flier, regardless of its shine, schpiel, or savings, moves me to purchase something. Surely their data would support my claim. Which brings me to the other, more significant, reason that I'm bothered: They are wasting my time with irrelevant information. Send me something that I can actually use. How about three coupons for products I already buy as a way of saying, "We noticed you spend a lot of money here and give us lots and lots of data. Thanks!!" If things continue to be irrelevant, I will simply stop using my card.

Relevancy. That's what I want in return for my attention data. And with any luck, one day I'll be able to ask for it with a reasonable expectation of receiving it. After all, one of the principles of AttentionTrust is

Economy
You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has WORTH.

How empowering!

I realize that these things take time. But ultimately, I want every bit of every (AttentionTrust member) page I view to be 100% relevant to me. In my perfect world, this relevancy would come in the form of ad-free content. But I'm not so foolish as to think that my inattention to (in the form of not clicking on) the ads you display will cause them to magically disappear. So if you insist on cluttering up the content that I came for with things that I did not, at least take the time to analyze my existing attention data and make use of it.

Given how much I do online, one should be able to put together a nearly complete profile regarding what I will -- and will not -- pay attention to. Undoubtedly my data over time would reveal:

• The finite number of places where I consistently shop
• What types of products I frequently buy
• What types of food I eat
• What my political views are
• Who my favorite authors are
• What types of music I listen to
• What car manufacturer I prefer
• Etc. etc.

Looking more closely, one might even be able to discern the opposites of those things (i.e., where I never shop, what I never buy, and so forth). Combine all of this information with the data-supported fact that ads very rarely motivate me to buy new things, and you're left with this: The only way you're going to make money off of my visit to your page is to display INCREDIBLY targeted ads for things I would almost certainly be interested in buying, but for some reason hadn't bought yet.

For instance, I regularly search for vegetarian recipes because I am a vegetarian. I never search for -- or click on -- diet information because I am not interested in going on a diet. The reason I regularly search for recipes online -- and, more generically speaking, buy audio books -- is because I prefer electronic media over print. From this information, the savvy attention analyst would presumably conclude that there's not much point in displaying all those ads for diet plans and print cookbooks: They are wasting your space and my time.

On the other hand, if I saw an ad from CompUSA (where I regularly shop) for the latest AMD processor (because I favor AMD over Intel) approximately 1 year after the last time I went shopping for and/or purchased a processor (because I'd be thinking it was once again time to upgrade), and the thing was on sale (because I'm cheap), I'd very likely stop attending to the content I came for and start attending to that ad because that ad would be highly relevant to me.

If your ads were that highly-targeted to my unique needs, interests, habits, and personal philosophy, I'd almost be willing to consider them content. I'd certainly stop resenting their presence. That's the value I'd like to receive in exchange for sharing my attention data. And if I don't get that, I'm going to think twice about sharing my data with you. After all, if you're an AttentionTrust member, you know that "(I) own (my) attention and can store it wherever (I) wish. (I) have CONTROL."

Today has been an amusing day in the seemingly never-ending medical testing that I've been subjected to of late. It started out not-so-good with a nurse from the hospital calling to give me the pertinent details for next week's liver biopsy. First the rules: I must immediately cease and desist taking my multi-vitamin until after the test. Same goes for my as-needed migraine meds. Then the plan: I must get to the hospital 45 minutes sooner than I thought, stay at the hospital at least 1.5 hours later than I thought, and I'm not allowed to drive or sign legal documents for the rest of the day because apparently I'm going to be stoned out of my gourd so that I don't mind the giant needle they will be sticking into my side. Plus I have to come in for some preliminary lab work this week that I wasn't aware of. Great....

But a little while ago things started looking up: The nurse who has been my contact throughout all of these tests called and said that I might not have to have the biopsy after all. Wooooo hooooo!!! I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I just had to ask what the source of this potential reprieve happened to be. The answer? As I understand it, a different radiologist. The radiologist who will be doing the biopsy looked at my oh-so-many scans and apparently concluded that a biopsy is not necessarily in order. (Again I say, Wooooo hooooo!!!) So this radiologist called my doctor up for a chat and they decided that I should first have a "tagged scan" which may rule out the presence of the possible-whateverioma identified by the radiologist(s) who did all of those other tests. So the bad news is that I will have yet another test which will be scheduled for some time this week, but the good news -- the really, really good news -- is that I might be off the hook with respect to the biopsy!

Radiologist #2, whoever you are, THANK YOU!!!

Well, that's what he would say if giant Christmas billy goats could talk. This massive Swedish holiday ruminant had a rough start to life:

A man named Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Yule goat of straw and placing it on (Slottstorget) Castle Square in central Gävle. On 1 December (1966) the 13-metre tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat stood on the square. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in smoke.

And things have gone downhill for the Gävle Goat ever since. According to this page at gavle.se, the annually-erected goat more often than not meets a horrible fate including being set on fire, broken to pieces, and hit by a car. One year (1997), having been spared the wrath of vandals, it sustained damage from fireworks.

So how is Billy doing this year? Not good according to this AP report. Once again, he was set ablaze:

It was the 22nd time that the goat had gone up in smoke.... "In just a couple of minutes only a sooty wooden skeleton remained," (Police spokeswoman Margareta Olander) said.

Poor goat....

UPDATE: The picture shown here is the "before" picture. I just found the goat story at BBC News, and it includes the "after" shot.

Because I am photography-challenged but having fun with flickr, the obvious question was what could I, uh, flick next? The obvious answer? All of those images from my tests at St. Joe's, of course! I got yer chest x-rays; I got yer cat scans; I got yer ultrasounds; I've even got a barium swallow! Anyway.... I just got off the phone with the hospital. They were confused at first.

"What facility shall we send them to?"

"Have you heard of flickr?"

"No"

"It's an online site where you can share photographs."

"Is it to get a second opinion?"

"Well, perhaps, but not a medical one. It's for fun."

"Fun?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay, you can pick up a disk after Monday."

"A disk? That's awesome! I won't have to rescan them in then!"

(silence)

"Never mind. Thank you!!"

The folks at St. Joe's are nothing if not extremely tolerant.

So who, then, is this fine furry friend on the right? Apparently it's Cleo. On a scanner. Get it, a cat on a scanner? A Cat Scan? Hehehe. Well, I think it's cute anyway, and it's my blog.

Back in September, after Katrina hit, things were looking really bad with respect to the cost of home heating fuel. And it does get quite cold up here in the winter, so I called the DC offices of both New Hampshire senators to share my concerns regarding lower-income individuals and families in this state. Senator Gregg's office got back within a week or two (the letter is dated September 29th) with a two-page response that directly discussed the impact Katrina had on fuel production and distribution, especially given the already high prices. He then described what he has done and thinks should be done in the future to address this issue, including "securing funding for federal assistance programs, such as the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)." He then added:

I believe that we must also reduce our nation's increasing consumption of oil, especially from foreign sources. Among other things, Congress must adopt policies that place a greater emphasis on renewable energy sources, as well as diversify and expand our domestic energy production.

I couldn't agree more, Senator Gregg. As a Yellow Dog Democrat, I have an innate distrust of all things Republican. But what the senator said makes sense to me.

Now let's contrast that with Senator Sununu's response which came in the mail TODAY, the 2nd of December. The letter is dated a couple of weeks earlier (November 16), but that's still 1.5 months after Senator Gregg's. So -1 for timeliness. He got my name not-quite-right. Because I blog semi-anonymously and have a unique first name, I won't put it here. Suffice it to say my first name was split into a first and a middle name, and Mr. Sununu addressed me by what he determined to be my first name. He also left my condo's unit number off completely, which might explain why it took 2 extra weeks to get his response. -1 for taking the time to attend to those small but, in my mind, important details. But the biggest point penalty is for relevancy -- or lack thereof. Remember, I specifically called each Senator because I was concerned about the high cost of heating for low income residents of New Hampshire. Here is the full text from Sununu's letter:

Dear (first part of my first name),

Thank you for contacting me regarding Hurricane Katrina and the devastation left in its path. I appreciate hearing from you and share your concern for the victims of this recent tragedy.

Americans expect a strong federal response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and demand that their taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly in the process. To date, Congress has approved $62.3 billon in emergency federal aid to help bolster response and recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast states.

To ensure that this money is spent effectively and that it reaches the intended recipients, I have cosponsored legislation that would establish a Special Inspector General for Relief and Reconstruction. Establishing oversight of Katrina recovery efforts through an existing and proven entity, such as the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, as this legislation aims to do, would help ensure that a review of federal expenditures for the disaster begins as soon as possible. Moreover, I joined many of my Senate colleagues in requesting the President create an office within the Executive Office of the President to oversee the long term rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region.

Once the rebuilding is under way, I fully expect the preparedness and response efforts of local, state, and federal officials to be exhaustively examined in a non-partisan, constructive manner to help us better prepare and respond to disasters in the future.

Again, thank you for sharing your views with me.

Is it just me, or does his response bear no resemblance to the topic which it should be addressing? Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to the victims of Katrina. I cannot imagine being in that position: completely wiped out, having no place to live, no place to work, and being told that my insurance policy won't do me any good because -- surprise, surprise! -- I didn't have flood protection. Katrina was indeed a tragedy! But that's not what I contacted the Senator about. -10.

So on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best, Senator Gregg gets a 9.5 (I had to deduct half a point for being a Republican!), and Senator Sununu gets a -2. Thank you Judd for your timely and relevant response! John E... Maybe it's time to get a new staff.

Hmmmm.... Apparently one of my fellow condopolis dwellers has a political statement to make. It never occurred to me to use my SSID as a way to speak my mind. Maybe I'll change my network's name to i_agree and see if we can get a wireless dialog going.

I just finished scanning and uploading the remainder of those historical postcards. Here is the slideshow for the entire batch or you can just view all my "photos" on flickr.