Crasymaker

Thanks to Lacy for the heads-up on this one.

Although I have a pretty firm opinion about meteorologists, I’m not a Charles Salser hater by any means. But after hearing that the strangest weatherman I’ve ever seen was leaving KHOG 40/29 to become a pastor, I had to let ya’ll know. Apparently, he’s accepted a position as Lifegroups Pastor for LifeChurch in Oklahoma City. According to his goodbye letter, Charles “will be working for the people just like I have here at 40/29, only this time trying to keep them safe from the storms of life.” Genius.

While looking for a picture of ole Salser, I discovered this blog post which has some serious pro-Salser/anti-Salser commentary including one guy who claims that Mr. Salser will correct you if you don’t call him “Chief Meteorologist Charles Salser.” Incredible.

Most of you know that Sarah sells clothes on eBay but if you haven’t actually had a chance to check it out yet, then visit Bittersweet Styles and look around a bit.

If it looks easy, let me be the first to tell you that it’s not. I’ve had a first-hand look at how much work is involved. She shops, she dresses up, takes photos, edits photos, uploads photos, writes listings, answers tons of email questions, monitors her sales, contacts the buyers, receives payments, packs orders, ships orders, leaves feedback and then starts all over again. Phew.

Needless to say, I am really proud of her.

Tim Shorrock’s latest piece for The Nation is a pretty surprising look at likely collaborators with the NSA’s warrantless surveillance of American citizens. He says, “Some of the names are familiar (AT&T, Sprint & MCI). But others will surprise you.” Our government is the obvious culprit amidst all this mess but it takes two to tango, you know? Check out other articles by Tim or drop by his blog for more interesting reads.

For a humorous look at AT&T’s latest retarded advertising tactics, check out Seth’s article which was recently picked up by AdRants.com.

I have been wanting to switch Crasymaker.com over to WordPress ever since I set up the LunchTour site. Instead of relying on Blogger (which, by the way, I still believe is an excellent blogging solution), I’d rather have total control over my site. Plus, WordPress supports categories and searching which is something that Blogger doesn’t do yet.

I was mostly waiting because I hadn’t found a template that I really liked. Although I can tweak different types of code to my liking, I am no good at starting from scratch. A few days ago, I stumbled upon Tony Geer’s KKP Light theme and it was almost exactly what I had been looking for so here’s my brand new site. Expect a few things to change over the next few days but it’s good enough to go live.

So yeah, now you can browse the archives by date or by category. You can also search the site if you feel the need to look up your name. And finally, the Flickr+Hoverbox widget in the sidebar will show the four latest photos that I have added to my brand new Flickr account. Enjoy.

Last week I played my first softball game since getting smacked…sort of. So far, I am just a hitter, meaning that I only hit (with my helmet, of course) and don’t actually play in the field. It kinda sucks just sitting there waiting to hit and not being able to help out in the outfield like I am used to but it is fun to be playing again.

We got our pictures taken the other day. I think we are making trading cards for each of us. Check out the photos at Nick’s Flickr page.

Can someone shed some light on something for me? I’ve been trying all morning to figure out how forecasting the weather ever broke away from forecasting your future (fortune telling) and became a legitimate profession. I am sure there are plenty of scientific arguments as to why forecasting the weather is different such as “it’s based on physical evidence and experience” but for crap’s sake, at least a fortune teller will be vague enough that you can formulate your own justification for taking them seriously. I mean a weather man/woman can say, “We’re looking forward to sunny skies all weekend” and then it will rain for three days straight meaning that they were just flat out wrong.

Every time I make this argument and ask someone “Hey how come the weatherman said it wouldn’t rain but now it’s raining?” I always get the same kind of response which is usually something to the effect of “Well, things change” or “Well, they can’t really know what’s gonna happen.” If you can’t really know what’s gonna happen but you’re telling people what you think will happen, that is called GUESSING. If I could only get things right 50% of the time at my job, I would be fired. FIRED.

I know I am being pretty irrational but I am pissed because I was supposed to go camping this weekend with a bunch of friends and now it’s looking like we might not be able to go because of the rain. The rain that “wasn’t” going to be here but mysteriously showed up out of nowhere. Those sneaky clouds…

A fast-growing college town of 62,000 in the Ozark foothills, Fayetteville is flush with youth, culture and natural beauty — especially in spring, when the redbuds and dogwoods are in bloom and the University of Arkansas students emerge to frolic in the warm weather. Get there before it’s too hot to hike the lush, forested trails that braid the area. Stroll through the leafy campus and holler “Woooooooooo, Pig! Sooie!” at the 72,000-seat Reynolds Razorback Stadium (but beware: hotels are already booked for the fall football season). Soak up the atmosphere that entranced a young Bill Clinton. Then wind your way down lively Dickson Street, a former strip of dive bars that has gotten a good scrubbing.

Read the full article here.

Apple has released six new ads for the Mac. For a while now, they’ve concentrated solely on the iPod and iTunes but the new ads focus on things like ease of use, invulnerability to viruses and not having to restart all the time. They’re really funny but since they’re poking fun at PCs, I imagine there will be quite a bit of backlash.

Ironically, as I was watching the one about not having to restart all the time, my Powerbook locked up for the first time since November of last year. I figured out a few minutes later that it wasn’t actually locked up but that my mouse had wiggled its way out of the port but still, I had a good laugh this morning.

Watch the new ads here.

Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Want to do something quick and painless and feel good about it today? Yes? Good then take 30 seconds and sign this petition.