I am so sad.  I think this jacket is awesome.  Well it would be at least awesome to own, I’m not sure how much wearing it in public I would do.   I have an NES backpack with the same design I don’t really use.   I caught this from my Engadget RSS feed, I do agree better looking people could of modeled this.  That being said I don’t think I would have looked any better.

Picture taken from here

Last night I we had our community band practice moved to a church for the night.  Ironically it was the church of the girl I lived with before I was with my wife (over a decade ago).  I wish I could tell you that we broke up over a mutual disagreement where we went our own separate ways but it didn’t work out like that.   Since at one point of time she was once a huge point of my life I thought I would document her, at that point the facts will be recorded and I’ll put the past behind me.

When I was a freshmen in high school I met Kim the night of the High School Homecoming dance (back in 1990 – cripes this memory is of legal age).  I had friends in marching band (this was the year before I started playing trumpet at all) and I was hanging out with them some girl was just wandering around a circle of people crying on the shoulders of those around her.  I was one of those people, this girl was Kim.   She had just been dumped by some guy and the marching band members were taking the pity circle approach.  She started crying on me and I didn’t know who the hell she was.   Eventually she moved on to the next person.  A few weeks later she started dating my best friend, fortunately I didn’t go out with them to do anything so I saw very little of her the rest of the school year.  She popped up occasionally but for the most part she was a non issue.

Picture of me and my best friend that brought Kim into my life – bastard.

The next summer I got conned into joining marching band (ironically I didn’t play an instrument at the time) and I was there around the time my friend dumped Kim (who graduated the previous year) so he could have a shot at chasing after another girl.   Kim hung around the marching band practices like graduated seniors with nothing better to do occasionally do.  One day it was raining and I asked her for a ride home – curse her.   This started to be a regular thing, she was still upset with my friend leaving her so she would talk to me about him, and other things.   After a couple months of becoming good friends we started dating.   On a cool fall day down the road from house at her friend’s house I had my first kiss sitting on the hood of her 1991 powder blue Topaz.

I started sneaking out a lot at night to see her, I think this was the start of my 4 hours a night sleeping routine.   I had sneaking out of my house down to the science.   Sometimes I wonder which was greater, the nights I did sneak out or the nights I didn’t.   My parents were not too ecstatic with their 15 year old son dating an 18 year old.   I’ll also be kind enough to leave out details and allow you to read between the lines when it comes to intimate details.

This was also the year I started writing.  I started with poetry and found I had a knack for it.  I did the silly love letters and so did she.   I think I still have a few of them.  Almost all of my poetry is already is already on this blog but I’m sure there are some journal pages (folks that was analog blogging) I’ve left out.   I’m sure reading them today would sound very Emo-ish.  If I can find them and read through my chicken scratch hand writing I’ll put them up.

The summer that followed we spent most of our time with one another, we went to movies, to Cedar Point, and other related activities.  One thing I can remember sticking out in my mind was when we left Cedar Point because the weather was picking up.  As we were driving back there was a Tornado siting in our town.  We watched the skies carefully and made it back to her parent’s house.   We found out later that a tornado did touch down about 2 miles from us.  It was very crazy and stupid to be driving out in that.

We dated for 9-10 months and the following year in marching band I took my friends lead and dumped her.  I started dating another girl Mari.   About 3 months later that relationship didn’t work out and I left Mari.   We’ll discuss more on Mari another day.   At this point Kim was going with Nate, some guy ahead of me in school.

Mari from back when I dated her.

Well Kim and I started talking again since we had always been good friends.  On December 31st, 1992 I was having a New Years Eve party at my house (with a fair amount of people as I recall) and I get a phone call from Kim.   She wasn’t going to stop by because some of the people there didn’t like her, which was fine.  She was at her friend’s house at another party just a couple streets over.  What ever was going through her mind, because though we had been talking again off an on, she wanted me to stop over and talk for a few minutes.   So like a good friend (fool) I wander over to talk to her.   What I don’t remember if she told me was that her boyfriend Nate was there.

We were talking (and sitting on that damn Topaz again) and someone started yelling inside the house.  Out of this house busts this big guy.  All he said was “Nate wanted me to mess you up.” and I got punched in the face.  Since I was on the edge of the car he caught me in a spin and knocked me down a few feet from where I was standing. This was the second time in my life I have been punched (in a true fight and haven’t been punched since).  I think he may have gotten in a couple more shots, it’s been so long ago it’s a blur.  This guy’s girlfriend and Kim dragged him off an pulled him back into the house, Kim apologized and I wandered back home.

When I got there I was fuming, I grabbed a baseball bat from my bedroom and started back towards the front door.  Luckily from a police record stand point I was talked down by the people at my party.   Granted half the guys wanted to go over there and start something, but the girls at the party and some of the other guys cooled down the situation.  I never went over.   Since that night was one of the few times I have been punched it’s etched into my brain.

Things calmed down and Kim and I continued talking.  A few months later things didn’t work out between her and Nate and they broke up.   We dated a little bit for a few weeks, but just kind of maintained a friendship point of view.  After that we went our separate ways for awhile.   In spring of 1994 my girlfriend at the time dumped me right before prom (today we have different takes on how this went down).  Shortly after that (somehow I don’t remember) Kim and I started talking again.   Talking lead to dating.    This was the road that it always was with Kim.   Being friends and trying to keep it platonic always lead to something more.

We dated through the summer and she even went to my Mother’s wedding.  My step-father and I never really saw eye to eye, he came into the house trying to be an alpha male.  It wasn’t happening though.  We never got along though for time periods we could fake it and even be civil to one another.   Why is this relevant?  Well right after the wedding took place ( I played trumpet so I was part of the service) I guess my step father made a lot of derogatory remarks to her about her and about me.  Then and there I didn’t know this.  She told me as we were driving back to my mother’s house for a wedding reception.

I was fuming.  I arrived to the house just a couple minutes before my mother and my new step father.  I happily started a screaming match on the front lawn.  Luckily Kim was house sitting at her sister’s place for a couple of weeks I went inside and grabbed a couple changes of clothes and left for a few weeks, never even calling.  Sometime during this time frame being an young fool I asked Kim to marry me and she said yes.  I was just a couple weeks past eighteen and I was engaged.

I came home and stayed for a couple weeks before I was to leave for college.   The big day arrived and I was supposed to use my mother’s mini van to haul all my stuff an hour south to school.  Originally my mother was going to drive me down to school and Kim and my friend Tim were supposed to come and help move stuff.  My mother said she would go but my step father also had to come.   I didn’t want him there and asked if we could just take the van and Kim would bring it back afterward.  Well this escalated into a screaming match that rivaled the wedding reception just a month or so earlier.

I hadn’t been on speaking terms really with my father at this point, and there was a lot of animosity between my mother and him.  My step-father helped fuel this by mocking me and saying my father should take me down (I literally had to be at the school the next day for college marching band camp).  Time was dragging on and the fighting escalated, I ended up kicking the mini van in the front passenger side fender and leaving a huge dent that stayed there for a few years until my step father pounded it out.   For a little FYI the mini van was already packed and filled with all my stuff.    Even if I had compromised and capitulated and had him go there literally was no room for a fifth person in that van.  My mother had enough at this point and handed us the keys.

I think I cried the whole way down to college this was the second time my mother chose my step father over her child in what was an important day in his life.   We made it to school and I settled in.  We were going to do the long distance relationship.  There was a phone on campus where i used to make collect calls to her (or I had a huge roll of quarters sometimes).   When I called collect I used a fake name so her parents wouldn’t know it was me and think it was a wrong number if she didn’t answer the phone.   She came down and visited once (which looking back for a 40 minute drive really is pathetic – that’s less then one way in my daily commute).   After three of four weeks I had enough and broke it off with her.  I started dating someone at college and I called it a day.

Christmas break rolled around and I was kind of in between girlfriends at the time (another post for another time) and Kim and I managed to get back together.   We spent most the month with each other and when it came time to go back to school, I took a side trip to see my grandfather who was in the hospital.   We drove down to the Dayton area about 4 hours away and stayed at my my grandfather’s house since no one else was there.   That night Kim went to bed and I stayed up and wrote a letter to my grandmother.  The next day we headed to the hospital but stopped at my grandmother’s grave and I left the note for her there.   We went and visited my grandfather who had suffered and stroke and lost 60% of his body mass.  She was there for me and I appreciated it.

School rolled around and I reconciled with my girlfriend from the previous semester.  Now for some reason this should have been a straight break up with Kim moment.   I held off for a couple days and Kim came down to visit.   The situation was not a surprise to my college girlfriend, she knew what was happening.    I took Kim to the local mall and we walked and talked, but my college girlfriend stalked us and was obvious about following us. After getting back to the car Kim asked what it all was about, I explained and broke up with her.  She dropped me off at my dorm room and I thought then that she left.   I went up and spent time with my college girlfriend, while this was happening Kim proceeded to make out with my roommate’s best friend.  That’s the kind of rebound girl she was.

At this point you would think that the Kim college years era was over, well not quite.   I get a phone that she is pregnant and needs to talk.   I arrange it that I come home that weekend to talk to her.  Problem was college girlfriend insisted on going and I had not told her about the pregnancy.  I manage to get up north and slip away for a little bit to talk to Kim.   This leads me back home and my college girlfriend is upset.  She tells me she is pregnant (I had not told her Kim was pregnant yet).  So I’m 18 years old and I find out in less then seven days that I have two girls pregnant.  To add to the top of the tower here, college girlfriend and I break up.

A few weeks later I’m dating someone else and I find out both college girlfriend and Kim have miscarriages within a week of each other.  I don’t tell anyone and did not tell either one of them, so it’s coincidence that they both told me, and today I think they were both lying to me over the incident.   Around this time period my grandfather died and I was dealing with that also.   College progressed mostly Kim until summer rolled around.  I was not going back to school the following year, so two weeks after moving back I moved out of my mothers house and moved in with Kim who had taken over her sisters apartment.

Kim managed to get me a job at the local Speedway, which at the time was about the size of two of the cubicles I have at work now.   I enjoyed working there, I enjoyed the night shift.   One day however I got in a disagreement with the manager and just up and quit.  After that my high school friend that originally dated Kim secured me a job at a local marina.   I did that for a year paying the bills until I secured my first computer job.   All through this Kim and I stayed together.   One day a girl saw us at a restaurant and told me (a year or so later) that she felt so bad for me she wished there was something she could do for me.   I used to go out and hang out with friends until early morning hours and around this time I finally got my drivers license (I was twenty).

One night Kim went out and didn’t come home, she stayed at a friends house – a single male friends house – after a night of drinking.  from all accounts nothing happened, I don’t happen to believe that.  The reason I didn’t believe it was that my high school friend kept saying she came on to him when I wasn’t around.  I believe him, not her.  Things were getting worse and worse over the next year, I would go out more and she would do her own thing.  She criticized my friends, or say they were too young. or into the wrong things.   Though we did manage to go camping twice while we lived together.

The first time we drove to somewhere in the backwoods of Pennsylvania with her parents.  Her parents treated me even worse then she did, so for the week we were there I hated it the whole time.   It’s hard to get me to go camping as it is now (ask Xie) let alone with people I don’t really like.   The second time we went camping I took a friend with me, in the middle of the trip Kim went storming off and said she was taking off and going home leaving use 300 miles away from home with no way back.  While she was so confident and storming off to her car I told her to “Screw off, ” I then laughed at her and told her I had her keys which she asked me to hold.   My friend and I left her at the camp and went off hiking.   Things reconciled and at this point we are at July 1997.

At this point I was hanging out in a different crowd with people with which I’m still friends with some of them until this day.  There was a girl who caught my eye and I was interested in.  My friend from the camping trip and were talking and I asked him if this girl would be interested in me if I was single.   He said she probably would be (he had no clue).  This is a Tuesday night.  I went over and talked to my mother and asked her if I could move my stuff back home.  I then showed up at the apartment with at least 10 people with 3-4 vehicles and I told Kim I was moving out and the group then paraded through the apartment and had me moved out in about 20 minutes.   I told Kim I would come back and we could talk about it after I got everything unloaded.

I went back and spent the night at the apartment (nothing happened) and we talked most the night.   She borrowed 100.00 from me so she could pay rent.   The next day I asked the girl I was interested in out on a date.   Kim called me on Thursday night to see if I wanted to do something on Friday.  I told her I had a date.   The next morning there was books and items strewn across my mothers lawn.   Things that I had forgotten to take with me.   The date went off without a hitch and the girl told me that a year or so earlier she had seen me at the restaurant broken and wished she could have helped me.   This girl was Xie and I married her.

You would think this is where it ends, but there is an addendum.   Xie had recently broken up with her boyfriend.  For some reason it was in her boyfriend’s head  and Kim’s head that we mutually dumped both of them to be together.  It was a matter of circumstance, but to them they felt the logical thing was to date each other.   Xie and I laughed and let them be on there way.  Kim degenerated more and more, she slept around a lot, somehow everyone thought I wanted to here and know about the stories so they filtered in.  After trying to make me jealous didn’t work she dated a couple people and then one day a couple years later I get a note on the windshield of my car outside the apartment Xie and I had.   It said she missed me and really jsut wanted to be friends.   Well we’ve seen how being friends worked out in the past, I never called her.

I did have to deal with her for a few years at the High School Alumni Band every year, but I guess while I was in Oregon she got in a big huff with someone and said she was never coming back.   Yay me!  That was a treat to hear when I came back.  Other news that passed through the grape vine while I was in Oregon was that she worked as a lunch lady for a little bit, my sisters told me they saw her working at the school.  She was married, but the marriage only lasted a few months.   Now it seems that I hear that she is single and can’t find anyone that wants to settle down with her (I don’t blame them).

The last year we were together she was working for my father, and still worked for him a little ways after the break up.   She borrowed 100.00 dollars from him and never paid it back.   So she owes him and I each 100.00 dollars, it’s definitely worth eating the loss to have to not deal with her again.

The last couple years she has been at the sidelines with Tim who helped me move to college all those years ago (as friends they always have been) during the Vermilion Woolybear Festival while the whole band is on the float.  She kept her head down, pulled a hood over her head and wore sunglasses, but it was her.   I think she was hiding from teh band in general then just me since Tim looked shocked my first year back from Oregon seeing me on the float so I’m sure she had no idea I was up there before hand.

I started this off by saying I had practice in her old church.  While on break I wandered around a little bit and saw a K Pearce in the member mail box area with a pamphlet in it.  I then found a board that had pictures of all the members and who they were.  There was her picture.  She looks a good 10 years old then she she should and who knows if the picture is recent.  I thought for a minute to put my initials in an art style she would recognize as knowing where they came from on the pamphlet in her mail box.   I thought about putting my email address, or just typing in “Google Creeva”.  I then realized I might find it funny or humorous at that moment, but it wasn’t worth it.   The humor did not out weigh the pain of maybe actually having to hear from her or deal with her in any way.

If you know her and see her, you can happily tell her about this.   I’m happily married and in January it will be my tenth wedding anniversary.   I’ve managed to sum up most the highlights in the relationship in a few paragraphs.  If she wants to meet in public and talk about them I’ll be happy to…….as long as she has the 200.00 she owes me and my father.  I’ll give her time to finish a coffee at the very least.   I’d even bring the coffee, all conditional on the back debt being paid.   Otherwise I just look at the life she has, where she has gone, and what she has brought upon herself.  Do you know what I do when I do that?  I laugh.

Image from Techcrunch in this article

It seems that Twitter is a being a little excited about the next big tech event, WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference – it’s an Apple thing).   I first got the news from the Techcrunch article linked above, but it seems that Twitter made an announcement that there will be no down time tomorrow – I call shenanigans.   They outlined the precautions in this article, among them are the following:

We’ve moved much of the load off our database by utilizing more memcache, employing more read-slave servers, and by fixing some bugs for improved efficiency. This work is in intended to help handle the load and keep Twitter up and running while Steve Jobs talks about all the new products and services Apple has planned. Of course these improvements will continue to serve Twitter beyond the WWDC as well.

Now it may just be me, but I’ve seen Twitter fail on slow days.  I know they have had experience with similar traffic load form other major teh events, but they crashed then.   While they may have some idea of the data they will need to handle, I’m not sure if they can truly appreciate the amount of data they need to handle when the tech world needs it’s geek porn instant updates.

Ironically there is no news if they are going to be taking updates via IM or SMS tomorrow, I’m betting not.   This way they get to handle a “larger load” – i.e. people that won’t be going to the site itself won’t be updating.  So it’s a win by not generating as much traffic.  Cheaters!!

For those that want to use twitter via IM to post updates (but you can’t receive them this way) I recommend trying Imified, it allows you to post to Twitter via IM even when Twitter doesn’t take IM updates through it’s standard channels.

Tweet, tweet.

Picture from here

Today I read a comment on slashdot that inspired me to write on this subject.  The comment was written on the Secret History of Star Wars article and was given by Omestes and was as follows:

Oh god, the Nerd/Dork/Geek argument. We always went with nerds being unwashed, antisocial geniuses who small vaguely like cheese, and somehow manage to reference Yoda, and differential equations in every utterance. Dorks are just like nerds, but dumber. And geeks are the swashbuckling generalists who get all the chicks (er…) because they have some modicum of social skills, while still knowing their swallows apart.

By your jargon though, there still is a deep relation between nerds and dorks, since both of them are “systems” people. D&D is just another complex system to play with, just like math, code, and circuits. As is, oddly, the various nerd friendly mythologies. Both groups, by your classification, are equally likely to get the chicks… Not very. Neither math nor D&D impress many of the chicks I know.

So where does arguing over the semantics of nerdery put one?

Now this has been written about hundreds of times (if you don’t believe check google), but wanted to stick my two cents into this discussion.   Let’s go over my own defintions:

Picture from here

Dork: A dork is an invidual that has an interest in something in so far that they are singled out and people believe because of some title given to them they are thought to be an expert.  In all actuality they are no better then a lay person and has the largest social anxieties and problems dealing with others.   They normally think they are smarter then they are, but yet normally lack in depth knowledge to move them up the dork/nerd/geek ladder.

However there is a missing factor to this definition, that is the fact that a dork is more likely to be the one that non dorks/nerds/geeks are most comfortable around.   They are the ones that come off lovable – like when your friends or significant other says “You big dork”.   While in some terms dork is an insult, when you properly it is definitely the least offensive to the general population at large.

Picture from here

Nerd: Nerds are the individuals that have an interest in things the goes so far that not only do they have to prove tehy are better then everyone on the subject of interest, they also are so intensely interested in there area of focus that social situations really don’t bother them.   It’s a waste of time for them.  They don’t know why you don’t want to dig into replicating a hologram in your microwave with tin foil and baking soda, which they do daily for amusement.

Picture from here

Geek: Geeks usually can deal with society the best, but completely zone out similar to nerds to nerds, but are normally capable of human relationships, though they took the hologram in the microwave and made a short film out of it to upload to youtube.   They are interested in the obscure and bringing it into fruition.   Normally geeks wear the term geek on themselves with a badge of honor.

Me and my grandparents – Years Ago (Years and Years)

I can say in certain areas I’m all three, but I’m mostly a geek.   I’m normally quite knowledgable in the things I have extreme interest in, and i’m capable of zoning out.  Most of my family considers me a nerd when it comes to social networks (and I really am when it comes to crossposting).  When it comes to certain items and gadgets I’m definetly a dork trying to be a geek.

Wait what am I saying I was a pimp, I don’t know why I’m sticking myself into any of these groups.  You don’t believe me?  Behold Creeva with a mullet (once again many years ago):

So which do you identify with and what is your definitions?

From the title I put in this post and what it is actually about are two completely different things, but they are related.  Trust me.

So last night, Xie and I were debating away like we are prone to doing and I was sitting on the floor smoking a cigarette.  Now pay attention to the fact I was smoking as it’s important to this discussion.   For some reason I started to get up quickly and smacked the cigarette on my knee.   It left a black spot on my pants I was wearing, but I decided to just sit back down and worry about it later.

A couple minutes later I was still smoking and I feel a kind of pinching in my crouch area.   A sudden warmness also.   I realize that when the cherry broke off the cigarette it landed on my crouch.   I patted it out and thought it was fine.  I was wrong.   It then proceeded to burn through my underwear.   At this point I’m standing up and Xie asks if I’m ok.  I say NO.   She asked what she could do as she was jumping to her feet.   I yelled NOTHING.   At this point I managed to literally tear off my pants and take off my underwear in the middle of the living room.  I guess it’s good we didn’t have guests over right then.

I think in the panic and ensuing chaos the cherry went out since it wasn’t found after the fact, and there was no charred carpet.   I do have a burn on my lower twins, and was quite angry as Xie was laughing away.  I admit in the grand scheme it’s funny, but not immediately after it’s happened (literally seconds after she was rolling).   The underwear held an entry and an exit hole.  Both the underwear and pants were placed in the trash, ruined.

I know that smoking is hazardous to your health, but I never thought it would be in this way.   My burning loins, literally.

Alignment:
Chaotic Evil characters are the most ‘evil’ people out there. They are willing to do anything to get ahead, and will kill anyone who stands in their way. A chaotic evil person sees no value in order and governments, and believes to the utmost in the tenant that ‘Might Makes Right’.

Race:
Humans are the ‘average’ race. They have the shortest life spans, and because of this, they tend to avoid the racial prejudices that other races are known for. They are also very curious and tend to live ‘for the moment’.

Primary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Take the Quiz here and post the results on your blog.

One of my best friend’s agrees with me that Charles in Charge was one of the greatest shows ever made.   It ranks up there with Mr. Belvedere and Growing Pains.    It was true sitcom bliss.   One thing that we found odd is that they freaking switched families between season one and season two.   Now you think, well he got a job with another family.  That may be correct, but it’s the same freaking house.

Did the realtor go through and list the house as having a “Charles in charge” as a feature?

“Over here we have the washer and dryer and in the room beneath the stairs is where the Charles is located”

“The Charles?”

“Yes, yes the Charles. “

“What the heck is a Charles?”

“He’s a new boy in the neighborhood.  He lives downstairs and it’s understood that he’s there to take good care of the family.   He is even trained to act as one of the family if you accept him in.   He  can be in charge of your days and your life.   You can have Charles in charge of you.”

“That’s fantastic, we’ll take the house.”

That’s the only way it could have gone down.   My wife already thinks that my friend and myself both have man crushes on Charles, so there was no way I could have bought a house with a Charles in it.   I just want him to be in charge of household tasks it wouldn’t have to go beyond that.    Maybe I would have him do some cooking to ease the household strain, but absolutely no Buddy’s would be coming over.

Moving on.

Let’s move into modern day.  Jan a lovely teenage girl receives a notification

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: Whu R U

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: I’m a new boy in the neighborhood just trying to meet the familes.

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: Wat U Want wit tat?

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: I’m looking for a place where I can live downstairs in the people’s basements

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: LOL, we have a basement my brother keeps his trains down there

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT:  You have a brother?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: nd a sis that’s 17, I’m 16 and hez 10.

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: Hey can I come check out your basement?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: dunno my rents rn’t hom

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT:  I can just come over and wait for them, they’ll think of me as one of the family.

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: K, come over my address is 1435 Main, I’ll leave the door unlocked.

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: Ok, I’ll bring my friend Buddy with me.  Is that ok?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: wutevr

Charles (looking like the picture at the start of this post) and Buddy then arrive over at Jan’s house and discover that it is a “Catch a Predator Special”.    Chris Hansen would sit Charles down and it would go over something like this:

Chris: So Charles you came here expecting what from this teenage girl?

Charles:  I’m just a new boy in the  neighborhood and looking to live downstairs somewhere.

Chris:  And what do you expect to do downstairs?

Charles:  Chris I  know what your thinking, but this is innocent.   I want to live downstairs and it would be understood, I’d be there to take good care of the kids.

Chris:  What do you mean by care?

Charles:  You know I would be part of the family.   I would be in charge of their days and their lives.   They want Charles in charge of them.

Chris:  You do realize you referred to yourself in the third person.

Charles:  Hey Chris, respect the fact that Charles is in Charge.

Chris:  How do you explain the fact that your friend “Buddy” was bringing in a beer keg on a red wagon?

Charles:   I think I need to talk to a lawyer now.

No I don’t think Charles could exist in the same context today as it did all those years ago.   The especially creepy thing is that he stayed with the house when they switched out families completely.   I’ll still enjoy the occasional sitcom joy of watching Charles in Charge and when my friend finally makes it over to hang out we’ll do a Charles in Charge marathon, but I’m not sure that a family just moving in would trust their two teenage daughters and their pre-teen son with this guy on a daily basis.

Maybe it’s all me and in my head, but would you want Charles in Charge of you today?

I would like to preface that I work at a place which is known for it’s high technology.    This brings up the irony of what is happening.    I logged in and found a site that I wanted to bookmark, since I’m at my work computer and may actually want to look at it outside of work I attempted to save it to my del.icio.us account.   I hit the bookmarklet and BAM – you are not authorized to view this page, this is a social network / dating site.   What the hell?  It worked last week.

I grunted and figured if I really must I could use the google firefox plugin to replicate my bookmarks.   It’s not really that important to me, and I can just email myself the link and save it later.   It doesn’t change the functionality that is missing.   I agree that del.icio.us is a social network, but not in the same vein that myspace is.   I use del.icio.us to actually do work and search tags.  If I was just going to browse something to waste time I would just go to wikipedia.

Later in the day I was using google reader to go through my RSS items and there was a digg story I was curious on.   I clicked the link and BAM – again YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED SOCIAL NETWORK/DATING SITE.  Now someone most really have their panties in a bunch today.   A couple times a week I’ll run up against a blog or something that triggers the filter, but not del.icio.us or digg.    From a social standpoint, other then your friends can see what stories you are “digging” it isn’t a really social place.   at least not so much more then the slashdot forums.

Ironically I didn’t try reddit or stumble upon today.   I wonder if those get tagged under the same heading digg does?   I would say I would be screwed if they blocked gmail at work, but I could just tether a PDA or N810 to my cell phone and problem solved.   I use gmail for twitter, my rare IM conversation, and of course email.    As long as I have a method to send out email I can still blog and tweet (though I think IM would be dead – but i think I use it less then anyone else at work).

So to all your overzealous web filters out there – a very very small percentage of users are actually hanging out and wasting time socializing with their friends on digg or del.icio.us, we are not chatting the day away.   We are reading and researching.   To those blockers I have one thing to say – I hate you.

I think I may have angered the google gods.   There truly is only one way to solve this mortal combat.

Unfortunately I think with all the information in it’s databases it know infinitely more ways to kill me then I could come up with to kill it.

Thinking about that though – if Google decided to become a serial killer it would know more ways of killing people then that guy from Saw could ever come up with.

Would you accept a pony instead?

and yes I do have that hanging in my cube.