this is real and not for play, twitter, vote Obamaway
Ti$a - Vote Obama
[via The Rap Up]
Why didn’t Obama Twitter the news of this video?? LoL. He’s got his account set to follow everyone that follows him. Brilliant! and how flattering: Barack Obama is following me! hahaha! No doubt it’s an aide that reads & sends the messages, but still, interesting use of technology. And fun video :~j
Filed under e-life, media consumption, music | Comment (0)blogrollin
Pretty much every blog that ever blogged in the blogosphere has a blogroll, a list of links to other blogs. Making this list is a task I’ve long put off because there are just so many cool sites to link to, I know I’ll miss someone. How could it ever be complete?
But I finally added linkage to some sites of interest in the far right column, under the Twitter updates, above the Flickr pictures, under the title Hi, Friends.
I’m starting with links to people who commented on this here humble site (many thanks!) and including a few news sites I like (tho Under The Radar Media and Lorelle on Wordpress actually each count as both). The blogroll is capped off with an Airspace Workshop link since I’m like their #1 mixtape fan and happen to be listening to their "called off because of rain" mix as I write this.
Watch that space, it’s gonna grow. And comment if you have a site and want to quickly link up with jeelago.net :~j
I’m forgetting something important….
Filed under e-life | Comment (0)don’t look, I’m naked
I’ve decided to expose my <body> on the internet in honor of Naked Day ‘08 on April 9th. Thousands of other people are doing it, too, so I figured, why the heck not. You heard right: I’m stripping off my styles and going bare on the internet… that is, my website will be going bare on the internet, for all to see. What were YOU thinking? ;~p
My purpose in participating in Naked Day ‘08 is three-fold:
- Advocate web standards This is the official reason for Naked Day and a cause that I am fully down with but am much too lazy to explain here, mainly cuz I do it all the time at work! That’s what a good link is for anyway, right?
- Celebrate good design Trying to pick matching link colors and backgrounds and fonts for a site is not fun for me as a non-designer, and the results always underwhelming. The industry has come a long way, baby, and now hundreds of beautiful, free templates are available for Wordpress alone. The design I currently use is called Bluebird and it’s by Randa Clay. Many thanks, design people!
- Show off Wordpress The code for the Wordpress software that powers the blog is clean and standards compliant, meaning that even when you strip away the pretty work designers do, the site still makes sense.
Wordpress makes participating in Naked Day ‘08 super easy by providing a plugin that will automatically turn off my CSS template. The result should be a text-based, bare-bones-looking site. Not pretty but very usable…. at least I hope that’s what happens LoL… it’ll be a good experiment.
On the jeelago.net index page, which is not powered by Wordpress, I manually strip-teased out the very minimal amount of CSS I’ve used to do things like align the text and set the width. Were my site more complicated and I more adept in php, I could use a script to strip, but that won’t be necessary this year.
Filed under e-life | Comment (1)will my new phone prevent brain damage?
So apparently Mobile phones are ‘more dangerous than smoking.’ Great. [via Under the Radar Media del.icio.us news feed]
Guess it was a good idea to upgrade my busted up phone, even tho I had to betray Nokia for the $100 (w/contract) Pantech Duo.
This new phone easily encourages me to text message even more. I’m thinking that is a good thing, cuz it keeps the rays away from my gray matter. It’s a theory anyway.
If only I could stop complaining about the data package they sold me to go along with this phone, which basically doubles my monthly bill. I must be brain damaged already to pay that much!
But the old phone didn’t do important stuff, like ring. Or work as an alarm, or have a data cable. An upgrade was imperative.
The two are actually about the same size when the keypad is pushed in, and the same thickness, but the Pantech has another slider with a number pad that comes out the side. It does feel a little flimsy, and I don’t love Windows Mobile, but it has 3G, removable MicroSD memory and the lovely keyboard. I think it’ll hold me over til the day I maybe get my hands on an internet tablet, kick-ass PDA, or next generation iPhone.
That perfect device is just around the corner …right?
Filed under e-life, stuffs | Comment (1)Wordpress upgrade, post popularity
The much anticipated Wordpress 2.5 upgrade has been installed and is working away to power this blog. There shouldn’t be any changes on the front end, but let me know if anything looks off. My cynical friend among many, took the time to highlight some of the improvements.
One of the things I had hoped to do after the upgrade was install the Popularity Contest plugin which would generate a list of the most trafficked posts. Unfortunately for me, that plugin is not working correctly with the new version yet. So I’m just going to guess.
From monitoring my stats and eyeballing the numbers, rankings and search terms that bring people here, these are what I think are the most popular posts from my first eight months of blogging:
- Lapp it up: Pamela Anderson’s Finnish heritage
- the pop secret is out–microwave popcorn is super easy to make
- watch the Boondocks
- in search of the perfect travel backpack
- reservations about Anthony Bourdain in Hawaii
- supreme master moomin vision and the muumibuumi
- the overwhelming cuteness of twin baby Bengali tigers born different colors
- Barack Obama- Yes We Can
ketch-up: links, media consumption and political miscellania
From the comments in an on Stuff White People Like (a hilarious site whose authors need to stop stalking me!) I happened upon a gaggle of DC bloggers who made me feel fat and provincial.
Even tho their leader gives Finnish girls some props… in his way…
Finnish - I used to call my Finnish girl “finn-skinned”. She almost cried. The upside is that a Finn chick is a naif in the art of head games, so you’ll never have to deal with her flirting with other guys in a bar just to make you jealous. Finns are introverted. … A Finn girl’s introversion hides a surprising strength of character. She won’t tolerate her man walking all over her. Fiercely loyal and commitment-oriented, Finns make fantastic girlfriends. More than other women, Finns appreciate small gestures like spontaneously buying her a rocket pop from an ice cream truck. Finn girls smell fantastic and look ten years younger than their age.
…I’m not really down with this whole anonymous bad-mouthing of the opposite sex. (I’m not anonymous for one thing.) But that site led me to a whole bunch of other blogs that got me thinking about why assholes are interesting. (Ew.) A thought I quickly banished with pop cultural tripe and life-stuff.
Read about it.
Filed under e-life, finnish ish, media consumption | Comment (0)pictures: LA2CHI overland
Click to view the photo album, featuring the trip we took by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, with a pit stop at the Grand Canyon.
Scintillating thoughts on the process of getting photographs online, after the jump.
Filed under e-life, travel | Comments (3)social network burnout no match for serendipity
I never obessessed over MySpace. I’ll admit to having had a lurker account; how else could I check out the seemingly endless stream of grainy cell phone pics snapped in bathroom mirrors across America? And, later we did set up a QuadMag MySpace account where I sometimes check in. But I’ve never personalized a MySpace or checked it compulsively. Unlike so many of my peers, the craze missed me.
Which is probably why, when Facebook kept knocking on my e-door, I ended up embracing it with enthusiasm.
Many of my friends are not so eager, even the one who have been (or are) avid MySpace and Friendster users. The early volleys of Facebook marketing didn’t snag me too quickly either, but a few weeks ago I logged on and didn’t immediately log off. I stuck around and somehow ended up channeling a good portion of the energy I have for online activity (outside of work) into that site.
A chance contact with a woman I needed to interview convinced me of the site’s magical possibilities, and by the time a cousin from Finland found me with news of her engagement, I was seriously hooked. Besides, who knew that online Scrabble was so addictive? I was so caught up–adding friends and coworkers and testing new apps–I questioned the need to have a personal blog at all since sites like Facebook seemed so clearly to be setting the pace for personal representation online.
Filed under e-life | Comment (1)new Amazon mp3 store is nice (DRM-free!)
Just downloaded my first bought album in mp3 format, using Amazon.com: Manu Chao’s La Radiolina. The service worked like a charm, way better than the recent black eye left by the Amazon Unbox video download service, which was even a hassle to uninstall.
Unlike iTunes, the Amazon mp3 downloads are DRM-free, so you can burn, copy and save to your heart’s content. You do need to install a small bit of software, but it’s a painless, 1-minute process. Then the program manages and organizes your downloads and imports them into iTunes or Windows Media Player, automatically. Very slick.
I don’t think the library is that huge yet, but I will shop there again. Besides the ease, I am really pleased to support Manu Chao.
This was the first video off the album, “Rainin’ in Paradize.”
Filed under e-life, media consumption, music | Comment (0)the all-consuming self
Recently took in The Century of the Self, about psycho-analysis, advertising, consumerism, mass behavior and how we’re all getting got. The BBC-produced series illustrates how both Freud’s theories and his family members were well in the mix of American public relations, advertising, entertainment and politics before, during and after World War II. It goes on to show how their influences still guide the hand of business in producing consumer-citizens who are “constantly moving happiness machines” (as Herbert Hoover put it) seeking only the fulfillment of personal desire and identity.
Shows like this get me agitated. Thankfully, this level-headed Village Voice review helped me be less hysterical in my thinking. Consumerism is not just a trap, it’s a total head trip. Middle classics like me are conditioned by the powers-that-be to salivate at the site of new consumer goods like the Nokia e90 Communicator. What can I do? Say no to technology? That’s no fun! Meh.
The BBC-produced Century of the Self is available free online, in four hour-long parts.
Filed under e-life, media consumption | Comment (0)thanks, Lorelle
Holy smokes, this tip alone is GOLDEN and it’s from two years ago. I will most definitely be tuned in to A Month of WordPress Tips from Lorelle on WordPress, my favorite WordPress-related site. Good stuff for newbs and know-it-alls alike.
I’m more of a low-power user than the “power user” she claims it is for, but I appreciate the ease of one-click blog entry! The less time spent cutting, pasting and marking up, the more spent um, working on the tagging system? Life as a blogger shouldn’t be so rough…
Nah but I like WordPress a lot, which is why it runs this site. It’s easier than myspace and waaaay less likely to crash my browser.
Filed under e-life | Comment (1)media fix
Sometimes I tell people I dont have a television and then let them believe that means that I dont watch a lot of television. Cuz people who dont watch television are cool. But this isnt true at all, I do watch television. In fact I watch quite a bit of television, more than I care to admit, but I watch it on my computer, that’s all.
There are lots of ways to watch tv on your computer. It’s not that difficult to do these days, with streaming video and torrents and sites like this, this, this and so many more.
One day I may be ambitious and install a tv tuner on my comp, but even just viewing what is available online is more than enough to keep me happily procrastinating for the rest of my life. And besides, what am I really missing?
Probably the most frustrating thing about online television is that you cant always get anything you want, even tho the prospect of just such a thing hovers tantalizingly close. I look forward to the day when tv shows and movies will be available on (easy) demand, I’ll gladly pay for that, too. But the 2 pay services I’ve tried so far have been disappointing.
Filed under e-life, media consumption | Comments (4)tech lust: Nokia e90 Communicator
It doesnt happen often, but it does happen. I am stricken with a case of tech lust so intense that it makes me a little ashamed. How DO you justify a thousand dollar phone? “I want it” isnt really enough for me to convince myself. But wait, there’s more!
My current phone (the Nokia 6101, one of their first widely-promoted flip phones) has served me honorably the last two years. Wear has worsened it tho; I had to glue a piece back on over the antenna and the paint on the front part is chipped and ugly.
So very different from this new beauty, which should be available in the US any day now (if it isnt already?!). The e90 would be my PDA and camera (both gadgets I need to upgrade) as well as mobile internet and music player. And phone–it’s a phone, too.
M already informed me that I am NOT getting this for my birthday. He said an iPhone is more likely. Not to be ungrateful but, I dont want an iPhone. Nokia no ka oi!
Filed under e-life, finnish ish, media consumption | Comments (3)
