How big of a blog chain do you think can be made? Let’s find out:
Check out the trackback link on this entry to see who has linked to it. Keep following the trackbacks until you find a blog with no trackbacks. Link your blog to the end of the chain.
Voilà! Blog chain letter! Wasn’t that fun?
… except, of course, your mother (she thinks you’re perfect).
So then, you may ask, what’s the secret to finding your perfect mate? You’ll never find anyone who doesn’t think you’re neurotic, crazy, slovenly, annoying or weird. The key is finding the person who just doesn’t seem to care. When you find that person, pursue them until you’re given a marriage proposal or a restraining order.
From the pages of the really really bizzare: the popular musician Pink gets her nipples tweaked before going on stage each night.
“I need my nipples squeezed before every show. It gets me pumped to go on stage. My assistant Jackie has it down to a fine art”
http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=36460&cat=Entertainment
When talking to strangers about Hotmail the most frequent complaint tends to be about Spam. This is often followed by the complaint that their block list is full and they can’t block any more Spammers.
Know what? The block list is terrible for blocking Spammers. Know why? Because each time a Spammer sends out a new piece of junk e-mail they change their address so you can’t easily block them. The block list does work, but it really just works for that annoying ex-friend who won’t stop sending you the latest e-mail humor (which happened to be the latest e-mail humor three years ago and you’ve already seen it, oh… about a bazillion times).
The best thing you can do to stem the flow of junk is turn on Hotmail’s Junk E-Mail filter. You won’t stop junk e-mail entirely, but you will slow it down (I’ll tell you later how to totally stop it, but the solution is not for everyone). To turn on the junk e-mail filter for your Hotmail account you can take one of two paths…
The quick way: | |
From the Hotmail Home page (the first page you see when you sign in) click on the red “Junk E-Mail folder:” link. |
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If you have the Junk E-Mail filter turned off, you’ll get the prompt to turn on the filter. Set the filter to “Enhanced” then click the OK button. Why is there no “Off” you ask? Perhaps I’ll get into that some other time. |
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The slow way | |
No, clicking on that one link on the home page is not the only way to access the Junk E-Mail settings. You’ll find, in fact, that once the filter is on, clicking that link simply drops you into the Junk E-Mail folder. To turn on the filter in options, or to adjust it at a later date, you need to start by going to options (the link’s at the top right of your Hotmail page). |
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Make sure you’re on the Mail options page by clicking the “Mail” in the left hand column. |
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Click Junk E-Mail Protection. |
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Click Junk E-Mail Filter. |
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Tired of clicking yet? Don’t worry, almost done. Now, just as in the first section, set your filter to Enhanced and click the OK button to save. |  |
One final tip: add your friend’s e-mail addresses to your address book to tell Hotmail you always want to get their mail. Hotmail will rarely (if I say never I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong :)) put mail from a friend in the Junk E-Mail folder.
I’ll be happy to get into more details later… but I think I’ve already tried everyone’s patience enough with 7 pictures in one blog entry. 🙂
Because every little kid loves building a fort out of couch cushions and sheets (I know, not “every” kid, but bear with me) there is a great market for grown ups who want a fort too. Enter 20th Century Castles, a real easte company specializing in decommissioned missile bases.
How cool would it be to have a house with thousands of square feet of underground space? You thought the basement was cool when you were a kid? You need a house that’s almost all basement.
Not to mention, this will be a great place to live when the whole world goes to hell because we’re doomed as a race and…
Oops, there I go again.
Bear with me, this started as an idle curiosity and then spiraled out of control…
I’m already convinced that, as a race, we’re doomed. You’d think I’d just stick my head in a hole and start ignoring the idiocy of my fellow man, blissfully unaware, secure in my happiness knowing I can’t do a thing to change it.
I am, however, still fascinated by the things people do to each other. Browsing Old New Thing I came across something quite new to me: people in India are declaring their relatives dead in order to claim property or insurance. This may seem like a humane alternative to hiring a hit man but being dead makes life a little difficult, esp. when dealing with the government.
Is there an answer? I’m not sure, but it gets me thinking. Let’s start with the bad stuff, people killing each other. Why? Can it be narrowed down to a simple matter of having what you need? Animals will instinctively fight when backed into a corner: fight or flee. If threatened with death, the stakes are high. Kill or be killed.
Okay, so fight or flight makes sense when the situation is immediate (a person is being attacked) but it’s not so immediate in the case of the article above. Or is it? In a country where some people are attempting to farm a plot of land as small as many houses in America, not having enough land could literally kill you. It could be rationalized as instinctual to kill for land.
So, what about the rest of the killing going on? Can that be boiled down to the same need? I don’t think so, but it makes me wonder if it has roots in the same place.
Religion is, for many people, a very real need. The church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc provides people with hope, guidance and community. For a religion to survive there has to be a strong belief in what is being taught. There seem to be two main things which will threaten a religion: oppression and reason. Oppression needs little explanation, someone stronger than you (your government, another religion, etc.) comes in and tells you to stop believing what you believe. The other, reason, needs a little more explanation: reason shouldn’t be construed as correct reasoning, just being enough arguments to make a believer start to doubt. Reason is what breeds religious zealots, they have so little faith in their beliefs they fear their followers will abandon in droves when presented with any rational alternative. Why destroy ancient Buddhist relics? Because people might find Buddhism more rational. If your beliefs are forcefully taken away this removes your emotional support structure. Aggression results. If people are leaving your ministry this takes money out of your pocket as well as calls to question your emotional support structure. Aggression results.
Some people kill their spouse, this isn’t religion, right? No, it’s one of two things jealousy or imprisonment. Jealousy results from having something that you are positive cannot be replaced. Being jealous of attention paid to your spouse is a self-confidence issue, you are convinced if your spouse leaves you that you cannot replace the emotional attachment. A significant emotional attachment will cause significant pain if broken. Pain drives the same fight or flight response. Aggression results. Being trapped in a relationship with no way out similarly causes pain. Aggression results.
What about killing for money? Muggers, mafia, etc. One of the things that makes the free market system work is competition, people want to have more than their neighbor. The Soviet Union seemed to illustrate that aiming for absolute equality will do more to beat people down than solve man’s built-in aggressive streak (this isn’t universally true, of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be communes). Being wealthier and more powerful than the next person is a matter of self image. The greater the stakes, the higher the risk, the more aggressive the response.
Sure, rational people don’t resort to killing. I’m sure you would never kill anyone. You’re rational, right?
How do you know?
A cool Google feature (and there are many, perhaps I’ll post them later) is the ability to search for sites which link to a particular site. This is cool because searching for the text “little.org” won’t necessarily find me all the sites which link to me. To do a search for your site simply type “link:yourURL” into the Google search. Any site which links to your URL (you can type just the root, e.g. little.org) will be listed. Turns out Omar links to me a lot (Hi Omar!).
So… while stroking my own ego, I came across Mark’s site. I’m not quite sure why he links to me but I’ll have to ask (I hope it’s not someone I know and I’m just being an airhead, how embarrassing). At any rate… there’s a link to my site with the display of “calittleblog” but I wasn’t able to find any other reference to my site in Mark’s blog entries. Oh well, another Internet mystery. I suppose I could just wait for him to find my site…
Hi Mark!
…and Slate is here to help you choose your new Guru. Don’t just skim the article and move on, make sure you scroll down to the bottom and read their “handy guru guide”.
My favorite part: the assertion that if Deepak Chopra wasn’t a guru he’d be “Managing a Eurotrash Nightclub.”
