Month: May 2007

I really enjoyed catching up on shows that I missed via ABC’s streaming online viewer.

However, I use Ubuntu (a flavor of Linux) and now ABC has dropped it’s support of that…

That’s just stupid.  It’s a flash based player, and they are actually having to do work to exclude Linux users since it’s an OS agnostic player.  Wonder how much Microsoft payed them?

As the users in this Digg thread about the subject point out, Pirate Bay and tvtorrents.com are still working on my Linux world wide web, so I guess I’ll be watching ABC’s shows that way (and without the ads).

Looks like I’m headed to the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte on Sunday night.

Here’s where my seat is located…

And here is what my view will look like (add about 150,000 rabid fans and spectators)…

I can’t wait! Ryan is on the pole (his 200th start as a driver) and I love the Charlotte track. Should be a blast!

I’m listening to Tom Petty’s Wildflowers tonight.

It’s an album that still just as relevant and awesome as it was in 1994. I remember the first time I heard “You Don’t Know Kow It Feels”… Petty was on Letterman and had altered lyrics (“so let’s hit another joint…”) and it was an epiphanic moment for me.

It was one of the first albums I looked forward to coming out (along with In Utero from Nirvana that same year). I was a geeky dorky high school sophomore and not quite sure of my place in the world. I was heavily into Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots at the time, but I knew that I’d like this album. I’m glad I stuck with it 13 years later.

I know it’s cheesy to like Tom Petty… but this album kicks my ass every time.

“Sometime later, getting the words wrong, wasting the meaning and losing the rhyme…”

Earlier this week, Rion sent over an article on the concept of “Redneck Liberation Theology.” I was and continue to be floored by the piece. It reminds me of the first time I heard Thelonious Monk in a beer stained dorm room in Spartanburg, SC.  “Fiery little apocalypses.” Stuff that grabs you by the kidney or some other random but needed interior organ and won’t let you go. A gnawing realization that something is different after having read it, and no matter what you do, you can’t undo what has happened.

Perhaps that what life and fate really mean. Instead of living in the present, our minds are constantly focusing on what just happened or what happened hours, days, weeks, months or years ago. That’s what seperates us from the other animals, right? We can remember back beyond just a few seconds and form decisions based on those experiences. I doubt some of that theory, but in this case, that fiery little artice really did influence all sorts of future decisions in my head.

It doesn’t help that I’ve been re-reading WJ Cash’s The Mind of the South at the behest of my friend and mentor, Larry McGehee of Wofford College. The themes and clever positions Cash takes are echoed very much in Joe Bageant’s piece referenced abov. Cash was indeed a tortured soul with a troublesome spirit, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t share more in common with him than I’d prefer. The constant self-doubt, the stubborn inability to find a suitable profession… the constant gnawing to speak out about the virtues and vices of the people that you love and identify with in a grand meta-context like “Southernor.”

After all, Cash wrote THE Mind of the South, not A Mind of the South. There’s a huge epistemological difference that goes beyond semantics there. He was speaking on behalf and against all of us in very much a country lawyer meets hellfire preacher fashion.

Bageant picks up Cash’s alter call and reverberates it through our (my?) ribcage. It’s downright scary because it makes so much sense. Redneck liberation theology. What a goddamn blessing and a curse all at the same time because that is the essence of where my academic career has been heading up to this point. All the Old Testament infatuation with the prophets, all the wonderments over the reception theory behind ancient Assyrian artifacts in the context of a evangelistic 19th century call to the ministry… and the Golden Leaf of tobacco that still hangs on my wall to help me not forget Mullins, SC.  It was all pointed there. A Rose Line in the Asheville clay.  Wonderment.

It’s a curse because I’ve got to go out and develop this now. You can’t sit on something like redneck liberation theology and study it from a left wing academic point of view or from a country pulpit.

I’m watching the Daily Show with John Stewart and Al Gore just called the internet the “greatest hope to cure the ailments” of the modern media and to “bring back the conversation” that is lacking.

Has Al Gore read the Cluetrain Manifesto?

Or has Steve Jobs turned him on to Winer, Scoble and Rubel?

Great interview… hopefully the video will be on YouTube Comedy Central’s site soon.

My favorite NASCAR driver is Ryan Newman.  He won his first pole in a long while tonight for the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte.

I might have to go to the race on Sunday night!

I love Ubuntu. I’ve made a number of posts about Ubuntu that you can see here.

Basically, it’s a free and open-source Linux distribution that replaces your Windows operating system (and is 10 times better in my opinion).  I’ve been using it full time since last summer and have not looked back.

Today, Dell announced the initial laptops and desktops that will be shipping with Ubuntu pre-installed instead of Windows.

This is a huge day for open source, for Linux and for Ubuntu.  If you need a good, cheap and reliable computer that won’t get gummed up with viruses, spyware and adware but is easy to use, then this is your chance!

Star Wars Celebration is this week in Los Angeles. It’s the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie (Episode 4).

I want to be there!

Here’s a link to the official blog (interesting that it’s a .wordpress.com blog… you’t think they’d spring for their own hosted blog!)…

Star Wars Celebration Blog

My mom just won Employee of the Year at her school district in Mullins, SC.

Send her an email and tell her congrats (miatasusan@gmail.com)… she deserves it for all the hard work and dedication she’s put in with the operation of the school and the lives of the primary school students she helps and loves everyday.

I know what I’m doing tomorrow!

Papercraft AT-AT’s

The AT-AT’s were always my favorite Star Wars vehicles (besides the Millenium Falcon, of course).  I still have my Kenner AT-AT from the original toys back in 1981(?).

Gosh, those are good memories!

(via BoingBoing)

While watching tonight’s season finale of Lost on ABC (the only show I watch regularly on TV these days), I was texting back and forth to my college roommate and long lost brother, Rion.  Amazing that we can watch the same show and communicate while being seperated by hundreds of geographical miles.

Not all tech is bad.

On Tuesday, I decided to try a nifty trick and use our exercise ball (basically a large blow up ball about 3 feet in diameter) for my desk chair. The benefits are that you are constantly forced to sit upright and it’s good exercise for your abs, etc.

So, it was a little flat and I decided to blow it up.

In the process, the plastic stopper (below) blew into my throat and went partially down my trachea (wind pipe)…

I put the quarter in the picture for scale.

It was a scary minute as the stopper did it’s job by stopping up my wind pipe as well. I finally got it out by an incredible hack in my throat (which also scrapped my throat up all to heck). I don’t remember it popping out, but it was close.

What a horrible way to go that would have been!

To top it off, I cracked the toenail on my big toe today while playing soccer with Schaefer…

It’s only Wednesday, so let’s hope the rest of the week goes a little better!

Anna, Schaefer, Macy and I went to DuPont State Forest just outside of Brevard, NC for a nice hike on Sunday.

We had a great time and Macy is quite the little hiker…

Springtime is beautiful in Western, NC!

See more at my Flickr page.

Anna, Schaefer, Macy and I went to DuPont State Forest just outside of Brevard, NC for a nice hike on Sunday.

We had a great time and Macy is quite the little hiker…

The two closest celestial bodies to us are still rather close to each other from our own point of view on this Pale Blue Dot.

If you go outside tonight or tomorrow, you’ll see Venus (althought it’s inching away from it’s closest point last week) very near a crescent Moon and it’s quite beautiful.

I’ll try to grab a pic on the telescope tomorrow night.

I LOVED Ghost Town when I was a kid during our visits to the mountains around Asheville, NC. There was something magical about that place.  It was the first place that I ever rode a roller coaster (which looked as it if were going to fall off the top of the mountain).

Odd that I live here now and it’s great to see Ghost Town back. We’re headed over soon!

(Thanks to Jon NeedsABlog Williams for the link).

MAGGIE VALLEY — Along the streets of downtown Maggie Valley, hotels and shops display signs of hope for a great tourist season ahead: Ghost Town is back.

After five years of sitting vacant, the mountaintop amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky is set to reopen Friday.

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Maggie Valley cheers Ghost Town’s revival after 5-year hiatus, hopes for boom

Weird to see that my little book on Assyrian art at Yale University is in a number libraries around the country…

Asia has claims upon New England : Assyrian reliefs at Yale by Sam B Harrelson

WorldCat: Asia has claims upon New England : Assyrian reliefs at Yale

Tonight I was going through some old files and stumbled upon a data CD with a label from 2002. Curious as to what was on the CD, I popped it into the laptop and up came nine images from my days at Yale.

Specifically, these were images I took from an examination that was done on the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection of reliefs from the palace of Assurnasirpal II (in modern day Mosul in northern Iraq… so who knows what condition the palace is in today).

We were checking to see what remnants of paint there were (we know these reliefs were once covered with bright paint) on the reliefs and to see if we could figure out what was the actual composition of the paint.

If you’re interested and would like to learn more, you can read a book I wrote on how/why the reliefs got to Yale in the mid 1800’s and why they were so important for a number of (at the time) small colleges in the Northeast of the US. The book was (I thought cleverly) titled “Asia Has Claims Upon New England: Assyrian Reliefs at Yale” and is available at Amazon or the Yale University Art Gallery Store. I’ve also got a few left over (but my supply is dwindling).

Anyway, interesting stuff. Check out the pictures on my Flickr set…

Assyrian Reliefs Examination – a photoset on Flickr

Just got this via email from the Buncome County Democrat Party…

Take Action! Your home & auto insurance about to increase 125%

Home & Auto Insurance Rates at Risk

This message comes to you at the request of Insurance Commissioner Jim Long: URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Immediate action is needed on SB 901 because the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up the bill this coming Tuesday, May 22nd at 11 a.m. in Raleigh. With the “crossover” deadline looming only 2 days later, any thing could happen … and that is very, very dangerous for consumers and payers of insurance premiums here in North Carolina. Here is the summary: If SB 901 passes, then insurance companies will be able to file and use higher insurance rates automatically. If SB 901 had been in place in 2006, then insurance companies would have been able to charge homeowners in eastern and coastal NC up to a 125% increase in homeowners insurance premiums. If SB 901 passes, then the “burden of proof” – a powerful legal concept – will be moved from the insurance companies seeking rate increases to the Insurance Commissioner instead. What that means is that the Insurance Commissioner will have to prove that insurance rate hikes are unreasonable and excessive, etc., instead of insurance companies having the burden to prove why they should charge higher rates. If SB 901 passes, then it will remove the limitations for automobile and workers’ comp rate filings: Those insurance companies will be able to make multiple rate filings and rate hikes in one calendar year. If SB 901 passes, then the filed rates will go into effect immediately and would remain effective unless the Commissioner disputes the filing and a special Superior Court judge agrees with the Commissioner. If SB 901 passes, then the rate-setting authority will be shifted to a Special Superior Court Judge in Wake County and away from an Insurance Commissioner elected Statewide. If SB 901 passes, then a judge unfamiliar with the technical, complexities of insurance rate-setting – and without sufficient staff – will hear insurance rate-setting cases instead of the Commissioner of Insurance and his bevy of independent specialists working in the NC Department of Insurance. If SB 901 passes, then you are guaranteed that your automobile insurance rates will go up. Why? NC already enjoys being the 5th lowest in auto insurance premiums in the country. With SB 901 there is no where to go but higher premiums. If SB 901 passes, then insurance companies will even benefit from a new enormous windfall in the millions of dollars: Instead of having to refund excessive premiums to North Carolinians from the date the rates were raised by the companies, the insurance companies will only have to refund the amount of monies paid in unfairly since the decision by the Court. That is a huge change that will cost citizens and small businesses millions and millions of dollars. If SB 901 passes, the Department of Insurance anticipates that workers’ compensation premiums for NC small businesses will rise just as quickly as auto insurance. If SB 901 passes, then it will allow insurance companies to charge rates that are higher than the maximum approved rates. If SB 901 passes, then we know for certain that homeowners insurance premiums will rise up to 125% because of what insurance companies sought on the coast and in eastern NC in 2006, and based upon the activities of many of those companies in neighboring southern States. HERE’S THE LIST TO HELP YOU CONTACT THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Senator R.C. Soles, Jr. DEM Office: 2022 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-5963 Email: Rcsoles@ncleg.net Senator Tony Rand   DEM Office: 300-C Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-9892 Email: Tonyr@ncleg.net Senator David W. Hoyle DEM Office: 300-A Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5734 Email: Davidh@ncleg.net Senator Tom Apodaca    REP-116 (Co-sponsor) Office: 1127 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-5745 Email: Toma@ncleg.net Senator Doug Berger    DEM Office: 622 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 715-8363 Email: Dougb@ncleg.net Senator Phil Berger   REP Office: 1026 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-5708 Email: philbe@ncleg.net Senator Julia Boseman DEM Office: 309 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 715-2525 E-mail: juliab@ncleg.net Senator Walter H. Dalton   DEM Office: 523 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 715-3038 Email: Walterd@ncleg.net Senator Katie G. Dorsett   DEM Office: 2106 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 715-3042 Email: Katied@ncleg.net Senator Tony Foriest   DEM Office: 332 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 301-1446 Email: Tonyf@ncleg.net Senator James Forrester   REP Office: 1129 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 715-3050 Email: Jamesf@ncleg.net Senator Linda Garrou   DEM Office: 627 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5620 Email: Lindag@ncleg.net Senator W. Edward Goodall REP Office: 1414 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-7659 Email: Eddieg@ncleg.net Senator Steve Goss   DEM Office: 1118 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-5742 Email: Steveg@ncleg.net Senator Malcolm Graham   DEM Office: 620 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5650 Email: Malcolmg@ncleg.net Senator Kay R. Hagan    DEM Office: 411 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5856 Email: Kayh@ncleg.net Senator Neal Hunt   REP Office: 1102 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 733-5850 Email: Nealh@ncleg.net Senator Jim Jacumin   REP Office: 1113 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 715-7823 Email: Jimja@ncleg.net Senator John H. Kerr III    DEM Office: 526 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5621 Email: Johnk@ncleg.net Senator Vernon Malone   DEM Office: 314 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5880 Email: Vernonm@ncleg.net Senator Floyd B. McKissick, Jr. DEM Office: 314 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5880 Email: Vernonm@ncleg.net Senator Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr.   DEM Office: 300-B Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 715-3001 Email: martinn@ncleg.net Senator Robert Pittenger     REP Office: 521 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5655 Email: Robertp@ncleg.net Senator William R. Purcell   DEM Office: 625 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5953 Email: Williamp@ncleg.net Senator Larry Shaw    DEM Office: 311 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-9349 Email: Larrys@ncleg.net Senator Richard Stevens    REP Office: 406 Legislative Office Building Phone: (919) 733-5653 Email: Richards@ncleg.net

We need you to take action! To learn more and take action, go to: http://www.buncombedems.org/actionalerts/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ActionDetail&actionalertid=31

This has got to be a ‘fake’ or parody blog.

Copernicus vs Brownback

Please someone tell me it’s a parody blog.

After becoming increasingly dissatisfied with offline newspaper and cable news, I find that I’m getting most of my news information from either RSS feeds from various sources or from the BBC and NYTimes Twitter feeds.

For instance, tonight I got this at 12:22am from the BBC’s Twitter stream…

bbcnews: Israeli aircraft fire missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing three people, at least two said to be Hamas fight.. http://tinyurl.com/33masq

You don’t get that on CNN or on the local news.

Times they area a changin’…

I’ve started a new blog to help newbie and veteran affiliate marketers increase their productivity and learn some new tricks of the trade called AffiliateFortuneCookies.com.

In one day, it already has a good number of feed subscribers (close to 75… it took CostPerNews a month to get that many) and double the daily traffic of CPN.  Of course that traffic will level off as the novelty wears off, but I think it’ll be a fun and interesting place to blog.

I’ve had a copy of Wilco’s SkyBlueSky for a few weeks, but it was officially released on Tuesday here in the States (5/15). In support of all the free streaming and encouraged sharing they do, I bought a copy. So, now I technically have 4 copies (1 vinyl, 2 cd’s, 1 digital). The recording industry could really learn something about sharing and record sales from Wilco.

I’ve read a few reviews and most of them agree with my sentiments… the record is one that grows on you.

It’s like a brain virus that seeps in quietly then you find you have symptoms at random times much later after a listen.

Critics are saying it’s “less experimental” than previous Wilco albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Summerteeth (or even a ghost is born), but I think the chord progressions and texturing are more complex than anything Jeff and the guys have done up to this point. Steal My Face (track 2), for example is a series of complicated twists and turns that somehow blends into one melody.

I’m finding new things with each listen, which is what music is all about.

Thanks to Royce for sending over the vinyl copy of the album!

So here’s my challenge… can online marketers (outside of the non-profit community) provide real worth to people’s life and change the world for the better rather than just pushing junk and fake promises?

Revenue Magazine’s May/June 2007 issue is out and I’m quoted a few times in the cover story about Web2.0 and online marketers.

I ramble on about attention data and widgets.

Thanks for the inclusion, Eric!

WebПарк.ру: Сенсация! Водоплавающие тигры (33 фото)

Sweet mother of wow…

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced two sets of residency gigs: nine shows at the Orange Peel in Asheville, N.C., (June 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 and July 2, 3, and 5) plus eight shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco (July 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 and 31 and August 1).

The band will vary set lists from night to night, performing songs from the upcoming album Zeitgeist, Pumpkins classics, plus unreleased material and tunes written the day of the show.

The concerts are designed to give fans a glimpse into the Pumpkins’ creative process.

Tickets go on sale this Sunday (May 20). If anyone wants to come up for a show ($20), you’re more than welcome to crash at the casa de harrelson here in Asheville!

Pollstar — The Concert Hotwire

YouTube, MySpace and PhotoBucket Blocked from Military Computers

YouTube, MySpace and PhotoBucket Blocked from Military Computers at Digital Inspiration

I read way too many feeds in a given day.  I need to narrow it down, but it’s a tough chore because I have so many varied interests.

Letting them pile up over the weekend resulted in over 2k new entries that I had to plow through rather quickly without much concentration.

Hmm… I need to outsource my feed reading…

The book on Assyriology and 19th Century American reception I wrote while at Yale has been up on Amazon.com for a while (you can also order it from the Yale Art Gallery site).

However, I was checking up on how it was doing at Amazon and there’s a re-seller who’s listing it for close to $30.  Wow!

If you need a copy, I’ve got a couple left and I’ll gladly send your way.  I would make it an eBook and post it here, but Yale Art Gallery owns the right and it probably would not be kosher to post it up without violating all sorts of copyrights.

I’ll know better next time I publish and make sure to have the ability to post it up here.