On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla,Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to take action and help fight the passage of the Protect IP Act. So will WordPress.org.

If you want to join the protest by blacking out your WordPress site or applying a ribbon, there is now a variety of blackout plugins in the WordPress.org plugins directory. While joining the protest in this manner is laudable, please don’t forget to also make those phone calls to U.S. Senators — they’re the ones with the voting power.

Blackout the Internet on January 18th to prevent it from being blacked out by Corporations.

There are BILLIONS of barrels of oil right in the middle of the good ol U.S. of A. Billions I tell you! Shale Oil is the next big thing!!!!!111!1one

Talking about lying did you hear that congress doesn’t pay taxes, gets paid for the rest of their life even if they only serve one term, and that they feast on the dead but still warm bodies of puppies and kittens?! It’s true my uncle Sam’s friends cousins bosses gardener forwarded it to me, which means it must be true. I once read that the brand new (if 10 years ago is new) gold $1 coins don’t have “In God We Trust” on them. Wait I have one right here, nope there is no In God We Trust on the coin… Oh wait there it is on the fucking edge of the coin. See this is the problem with a large percentage of the general, they don’t really know what they are forwarding.

The unfortunate part is that many of the people who send these things are actually intelligent people, and I know they meant well when they forwarded along the message, but every person that reads this cutting edge information is another possible fish that might fall for the lies.

My real issue here is who is the idiot that first creates these false sensationalistic stories that tug on our heart-strings, hit on our religious beliefs, or social awareness. Was it really some smart person that thought they could pull a fast one on the me? Or is it some stupid bastard that thinks they can get the pitchforks and torches pulled on the targets of their deceit?

With great power comes great responsibility, and with the Internet it appears as though responsibility has got thrown out with the baby and bathwater.

Please think before you link, or forward.

Here is a list of websites that you can confirm facts on before forwarding along stories that could be deceiving or have misinformation.

Factcheck.Org
Snopes
Truth or Fiction
PolitiFact

By the way, Obama is a US citizen, Congress is held to the same laws as all citizens, the DreamAct would offer amnesty for illegals that join the military or has at least 2 years of college under their belt, AND if we all don’t buy gas one day it won’t do anything since we will buy gas another day… moron.

If you have a friend or family member that sends along emails or Facebook links to lies like those listed above, send them this email next time and maybe they will check their facts before they spread the lies.

Go as in AWAY from Gowalla

For those of you that don’t know I have been an avid user of Gowalla (and Foursquare) for well over a year. I first started with checkin apps when I discovered Foursquare, I loved the concept of being able to track where I had gone for my personal benefit but also I enjoyed sharing cool places I went to with others that I socialized with. When I discovered Gowalla I was impressed and felt they took the Foursquare concept to the next level with the addition of pins and really nice looking stamps and badges that you could collect for your Gowalla page. Sure these weren’t real tangible but I still thought it was neat. For a months I would check in on both Gowalla and Foursquare. Then Gowalla came out with what I thought was the killer app they incorporated a way to checkin to both them and other sites at the same time, I no longer had to spend time checking into two applications. Since then I’ve been almost exclusively a Gowalla user (except when I checked on Foursquare to make sure I got checked in).

Unfortunately today my use of Gowalla ends. It appears with the next version of Gowalla 4.0 they have transitioned their business away from the checkin application and decided to become a travel guide. Now when I log into Gowalla and attempt to checkin to where I am the first list of 20 or so places I see are “Recommended places”. Which is Gowalla speak for places that have paid us money to make sure you see them instead of where you actually are. That’s great Gowalla, good for you! You have discovered a business model that has completely alienated they majority of your userbase, the locals. If I wanted to use Gowalla as a travel guide I shouldn’t be forced to use it that way because although I love Disneyland I don’t need to see every Disneyland location near me instead of the places I am actually next to.

Why did you fuck up so bad? Because you didn’t actually try it out with your CORE users before you screwed it all up. Changes like this are something you test out with users that are willing to try out new things, you don’t just change it and tell your users to deal with it. Wait that isn’t exactly what you said. You told the users reading your blog that there has been a “Fabulous response”, I don’t think you are reading the same response I’m reading, because the majority of the responses on your blog have been negative. You have completely alienated the userbase that created the database you now use as your travelguide. More power to you for taking advantage to our two years of patronage to create yourself a business model that will be the end of you.

Bye Gowalla.

Related articles

• Gowalla Updated To Version 4.0 – Removes Features, Adds Force Closes (androidpolice.com)
• Gowalla 4.0, Their Bold Revamp Towards Travel And Stories Goes Live (techcrunch.com)
• Gowalla flips its check-in service to be a social atlas for the world (thenextweb.com)
• Gowalla removes its defining features: Items and Notes (thenextweb.com)

• The Pratfall of Penny Arcade – A Timeline – Bunch of people are Butthurt over a comic that Penny Arcade did back in August. Wow, talk about blowing things out of proportion…
• YouTube – HD Twilight Landing At LAX (Cockpit View) – If you are going to watch one video I post this week, this should be it!
• The Mathematics Of Beauty « OkTrends – Another datasheet analysis on OkCupid. This one is about beauty. I love the things they found out (highlighted in Yellow).
• The Long Recall: The Civil War in Real Time, 150 Years Later | The American Interest – Great blog doing a real time recount of the Civil War, added it to my news reading feeds.
• YouTube – Drawing in Microsoft Excel – Did you know you can do elaborate drawings in Excel?
• Why Was I Banned – Putting the BAWWWWW in Xbox – Hilarious website that links complaints about being banned and why they were banned on Xbox Live!
• ezeStand – Buy it Now! – Cheaper docking station stand for the Droid X.
• YouTube – Captain America Teaser Trailer – I think I like the other one more. But still looks like it will be fun.
• YouTube – Captain America Trailer Oficial 2011 [ HD ] – Not sure if this is the real one but if it is, this is pure awesome. I love the title art, that’s perfect for the time setting.
• YouTube – Marvel Studios’ The Avengers: The Intros – I love Joss Whedon’s quote. “I had a dream all my life, and it was not this good!”.
• YouTube – “Premakes” Up! (1965) – Awesome fake trailer for a real time version of Up as if it was a movie from the 60′s Check out the other “premakes” they have as well. Really well done.
• YouTube – littlebigplanet one-take – Ever wanted to see a live action version of Little Big Planet? Well now you can!
• YouTube – Old Spice | I’m Back – Yes! He’s back!
• Inventables: Find new materials – Ever wanted just really neat stuff, even though you don’t know what to do with it?
• YouTube – Blowout Sale – Hey it’s Abed!
• Buy And Sell Unused Groupons (And Other Daily Deals) On Lifesta – Another service has popped up now that there are discount coupon sites! Why didn’t I think of this?

I don’t get how she is able to do this and not be charged with a felony…

Click here to view the embedded video.

So why won’t they air this Lane Bryant ad, but air just about any Victoria’s Secret ad?  My guess is that they don’t like real women with real bodies to be in bras and panties! (NO NOES!)

I mean come on they are airing this VS “The Nakeds” ad right now and it’s not any less ‘risque’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By the way, Weekly Cool Links will return later today!

Other articles about this.

Asylum

Consumerist

Food Stuff
For Super Bowl we had a small party with our parents coming over to watch the game with us, I wanted to try and cook buffalo wings, but wasn’t at all in the mood for frying them up, I found this awesome recipe two days before the game for cooking up crunchy buffalo like wings in the oven from Serious Eats, you owe it to yourself to cook them this way!  I also found this cool site that reviews all the interesting snack foods out there called Taquitos.net, they have everything from national brands to regional favorites.  Lastly if you are the type of person that is interested in trying your hand at brewing your own beer check out this quick blurb on Lifehacker about two free open source programs that will help you with your goal.

Music Stuff
I haven’t had much music stuff lately, but I had to share this awesome project that Michael Deal is working on that is a graphical exploration into the Beatles and the creation of their music.  This is a project and any true Beatles fan will want to check out.

Sad Stuff
For those that don’t know the Mars rover Spirit is stuck and can no longer move, so they have pretty much pulled the plug on the project, xkcd has a sad comic to show us that rovers have feelings too.

Funny Stuff
If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you might have already seen this, but if not, check out this graphic on How to Suck at Facebook.   I’m proud to say I don’t do any of those things listed, so I must not suck.  If you saw the Google commercial during the Super Bowl (which was my favorite ad) you saw a clever use of their auto complete feature, the site Autocomplete Me turns the auto complete feature into a interesting look at what people search for on Google.

The Lego Millennium Falcon!

Cool Stuff
I just found this today but I wanted to pass it on, someone has taken the initiative to educate today’s men on what they need in their wardrobe, with Newbie Fashion Tips for Grown Men.  It really is a good group of tips and suggestions on how to look your best.  Wardrobe Oxygen takes it a step further, but I have to disagree with some their what to remove from your wardrobe section.  I’ve been wanting to get some Lego sets recently to put together for fun and I was checking out the online Lego store, they have a $499 Star Wars Millennium Falcon, a little more than I want to spend (it is 5000+ pieces though)…  I’ve seen a couple places recently selling recycled bottles that have had their tops cut off so you can use them as glasses, here is someone that decided they could just make them instead.  Check out this great article on the 19 Most Complex and Dangerous road in the world, I’ve seen some of these on Top Gear, the Road of Death in Bolivia looks like a bitch.  If you know me you know that Kelly and I met online, so I find the research that OkCupid is doing on their dating site is extraordinary, they recently wrote an article about profile pictures, and I highly suggest anyone that is doing any sort of online dating read their articles, they will help you make a better personal ad.  Example, Men: don’t make eye contact and don’t smile, Women: make eye contact and a flirty face.  And the last of the cool stuff, this blog post regarding the changes to the Crayola color spectrum throughout the years.

Not Cool Sports Stuff
The Chicago Cubs have thought up an complete asshole plan, they are going to charge a 20% premium on those that purchase tickets the 1st week they are on sale, and then after that they will be the normal face value.  Talk about scalping your customers.  I hope we don’t see this become a trend.  (edit, this is nothing new they have been doing it for 8 years.)

Cool Videos
Some geeks have figured out an awesome use for Microsoft’s surface, Dungeons and Dragons!

D&D on the Microsoft Surface from CrunchGear on Vimeo.

Hot Tub Time Machine will be the movie event of the year!

Someone has edited all the violence from the 2010 Super Bowl commercials into one epic Youtube video.

And last but not least does this sound familiar?

For those of you that didn’t see the pictures I posted 2 weeks ago, we put up our Christmas lights, we also got our tree decorated (pictures will be posted at the end of the month).  The past couple weeks we have been taking care of our Christmas shopping and also prepping the house for the first of what will be many Christmas parties our house will be the host of.  This Sunday is my dad’s side of the family’s Christmas party, we should have about 20-30 relatives in attendance.  And then on Christmas day we will have a party for my mom’s side of the family, which will be a bit smaller but will also include Kelly’s family (actually both parties will include Kelly’s family) and any friends that want to come over.  Work is winding down for the year as goals have been met and projects have been completed, I’m happy to say I still have a job that I enjoy although this year was a lot different from the previous two years due to the lack of new hires our department had to train.  Kelly’s business is doing well, although we did have a decrease in business compared to 2008, but we are in good standing.  All the animals are happy and healthy and we are all looking forward to the new year.  I’m proud of myself for keeping up with my Weekly Cool Links project, even though it’s not quite as ‘weekly’ as it claims to be, I hope someone out there finds some entertainment in me sharing what I find interesting.  Lastly my Eat in OC project has been doing great, I typically have around 5000 visits a month and I’ve made some major inroads with gaining new readers.  I’ve been linked to on a number of local websites, and high-profile local blogs, and in addition my articles are routinely linked to in the Orange County Register’s Community Blogs section which is only 5 links deep from their front page, how many others can say something like that?  I’ll probably post one more time before the year ends, but for now let’s move on to the rather large links section!

Food
Lifehacker had a great article on maximizing Thanksgiving leftovers that will also prove useful with Christmas leftovers.  While over at Slashfood they had 4 fast recipes for making great Tomato sauces.

Tiger Woods’ Women, er I mean Chicks
Some of these links may not be safe for work, or family friendly.  But this is my blog so if you don’t want to see possibly scantily clad women don’t look at the links in this section.  If you are related to me and offended, oh well, I’m sure you have something else you can be proud of me for, get over it… ;)
Twitter is a wonderful tool for communication and for people to share pictures with, some pictures are more interesting than others as you can see from this collection of Hot Chicks that use Twitter for the powers of good.  I do not approve or disapprove of their use of Twitter…  Maybe Twitter chicks aren’t your thing?  How about Chicks dressed in various NFL Team Jerseys?  What’s that?  You like farm girls?  How about German farm girls that model to help German agriculture?  Here you go.  Personally I like my girls a little different from the norm.  Lastly there is the Internet’s Girlfriend…  Funny how I’ve been on the internet for 15 years yet hadn’t heard of her till recently.  One suggestion for her site, more pictures like this and less like the one on the top of her website…

Sports
It got so bad at Notre Dame this year that after they fired Charlie Weis they went straight to the big man in the sky and offered him the head coaching job.  The Onion reports that Jesus Christ himself turned down a 3 year multimillion dollar offer to coach the Fightin’ Irish.  Maybe he was just holding out for the right job?  Such as this Head Coaching position with the Lingerie Football League!

Cool
Virgin Galactic has launched their official site for the space travel, complete with Spaceship Two pictures and information on the roll out.  Never would have thought space travel (even of this kind) would be available to the general public in my lifetime.  Lifehacker had a number of cool informative posts the past couple weeks, including Fixing Your Relatives Computer, Guide to Avoiding Online Scams, and the Most Popular Top 10s’ of 2009.

Funny
I read three comics online; Order of the Stick, Dilbert, and xkcd.  I’m particularly fond on one of the Dilbert comics from this week, because it’s how I feel at my job sometimes.
Another one from this week that really hits the mark is this one regarding the use of FAX machines.  As for xkcd I have to give some love to ‘Daylight Saving Time‘.  Looking for a last-minute gift for a friend or loved one?  How about, How to Date a White Woman or the Gangsta Rap Coloring Book?  All these and more really do exist!  If you are single and looking for a Russian Mail Order bride one of the companies involved has started to compare them to celebrities!  Now you too can date a girl that sort of looks like Jessica Beil!  Just make sure you ask them these 10 questions from Deadspin before you ask her to marry you, it will save you a lot of heartache.  And lastly, now that you got your celebrity look a like wife, it might be a good time to reflect upon those stupid things you did when you were young and might regret someday…

Videos
My website is currently sponsored by Bitch Slap The Movie!, in theaters: January 8th, 2010!

If you know anything about the movie, commercial, or TV show business you might find some humor in this.

I love reading Maximum PC and listing to their podcast, I love this video someone put together from Gordon’s rant of the week regarding the Apple Tablet.

And last but not least at all, the Space Shuttle is awesome and this high quality video of the STS-129 launch is worth spending 15 minutes to watch.

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights from mike interbartolo on Vimeo.

Oh and Merry Christmas!

You can buy a bumper sticker that says “Pray for Obama/Psalm 109″

This is what they are referencing:

8 May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

9 May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

10 May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be driven [d] from their ruined homes.

11 May a creditor seize all he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

via my friend over at his blog A Futile Mistake: Psalm 109.

I just can’t get over that people think this is right to say about ANY president regardless if you agree or disagree with him.

It’s sad that there are people like this, it’s scary that there are people so simple and uneducated to think like this and wish violence upon any one.  This isn’t a right vs. left thing, this isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing, this is just a group of ignorant fools…  Disagreeing with the current president isn’t wishing him dead.

Check out this video below, fast forward to 3:15 if you want to get directly to coverage about these stickers.

I’ve been on the Internet for about 14 years now.  I remember using the Mosaic browser, and even Lynx.  I’ve seen lots of trends come and go.  I’ve usually been close to the cutting edge when it comes to the “next big thing” on the Internet.  One of the biggest trends on the Internet lately is the number of people who claim they are Social Media Experts.  If there was ever a completely overused term for the 2009 version of the Internet it is this term.  From my observation those that claim to be social media experts are so just because they make the claim.  I’ve been on the Internet, interacting socially with others for years.  I’ve had various forms of blogs for 9+ years, used messengers, chat rooms, MMORPG, and etc. for years, thus my experience has to count for something, especially when compared to these people who all of the sudden claim they are the experts.

From my observation of the users of Twitter, just about 10% of its population claim to be a social media expert.  I find it humorous that so many people are claiming to be experts in social media.  First let us look at what Social Media is.  According to Wikipedia.

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

What you are reading right now (my blog) is a social interaction, it’s highly accessible at a domain that I’ve owned for 9+  years, and it’s scalable since I can easily expand upon it.  I allow social interaction, by the way of comments, which allows others to add their input to the information I share, and I’ve become a content producer because of this.  So if I read this definition correctly, I’ve done everything “social media” is for nearly 9 years, which in turn would probably make me an expert in the field.  How many other social media experts can claim this much experience?  Don’t answer that question it’s not really important.  I guess my main point is what makes someone an expert in their field?  In most fields it comes down to experience (hands on actually doing it day in day out experience) or certifications (book knowledge but no actual usage).  I don’t know of a Social Media Expert certification so it comes down to experience.  Experience isn’t having a couple thousand followers on Twitter, anyone can honestly do that, with a couple minutes of work a day.  I have only 160 followers on Twitter because I’ve chosen the path of not automatically following everyone that follows me.  This is an active decision I’ve made because I like to communicate personally with the people who follow me.  The creation of lists on Twitter appears to be my chance to finally expand my followers-base.  I can no separate people I follow into those that I want to personally communicate on a whatever my time frame is basis, and those that I just want to disseminate content to.

I wasn’t looking to actual make a point, just share my thoughts on the current state of Web 2.0 and the Social Media Expert explosion.  This is Daniel Schoonover Social Media Expert extraordinaire saying, don’t sell yourself short, but also don’t oversell yourself.

I’m not the only one to have ever said this.  Open Press Wire has a great article about it as well.