DAnnisms

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter

Since I write about Twitter a lot, I thought I should try and become a bit more active on the service.  The problem?  Time.  And Energy. Oh yeah, and remembering to go to the Twitter website.

There are a lot of really cool Twitter clients – I really like Tweetdeck myself — but none of them seem to offer the one thing I think would really be a cool feature: popping up every once in a while and asking what the heck you are doing.  A smart app, of course, that can tell you aren’t playing a web game on InstantAction or surfing for porn on Bing – because Microsoft is awesome to give us all this porn to watch! — but when you aren’t doing much on your computer or iphone, it just pops up the message.  Then, next time you pop on to do something, you can say what you’ve been doing.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.  It would also keep me from constantly making  a tweet while standing in line somewhere and thus trying desparately not to say ‘hate lines’ or something similar.

The Cowboys Will Be Better Than People Think in 2009

It’s rather funny how quickly the media jumped off the Cowboys bandwagon once they dumped T.O., ignoring the fact that many of them questioned why they hadn’t got rid of him before the move, and after the move it has become the biggest mistake in NFL history.

Here’s the facts: The Cowboys defense will be among the best with Wade Phillips more involved and the NFL sack leader continuing his domination. And the offense still has more weapons than the vast majority of teams in the league when you count up Romo, Williams, Witten, Barber, F. Jones and Tashard Choice. And look out for Bennett who is going to have a breakout year in his sophomore season.

Will they win a playoff game? Dunno about that. There’s a December curse going on. But they’ll definitely finish better than many people think.

On a totally different front, I’m dragging Ann and I into the 21st century by getting an iPhone 3GS and giving her my Tilt. Yep, that’s right, we’ll both have cell phones. It’s like dogs and cats living together. Wanna know what apps I’ll be installing on the new phone first? Here’s a list of must-have iPhone apps I compiled for my newest gig.

Why we got the Wii…

Blood of the Templar is a best selling vampire book

That’s right. The Blood of the Templar is currently listed among the best selling suspense/thrillers at Fictionwise over the past twenty days. Heck, it’s probably the number one vampire eBook released this year with blood in the title and an author whose last name starts with an ‘N’. That’s something, ain’t it?

But seriously, my novel is currently ranked #39 over the past twenty days for suspense/thriller at Fictionwise. This puts it right ahead of The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury and The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (for eBook sales at Fictionwise).

Here’s another interesting tidbit. EPIC, which runs the eBook awards (Eppies), has their own bookstore over at Fictionwise. And Blood of the Templar currently tops the list of thrillers at the Epic Bookstore.

So if you are looking for the best selling vampire book of 2009, you’ve pretty much found it.

Christmas 2008

Thanks to Liz for the photos.

Are People Finally Going To Figure Out Texting Is a Scam?

I don’t text. Why should I pay for something that should be free, or at least is so overpriced it can only be labeled a scam? The fact is that text can be compressed to about 5% of its original size or even smaller, so text messages — which are already small enough — can be made very tiny.

And for this the mobile carriers want to charge 10 to 20 cents a pop?

Scam scam scam.

The good news is that people are finally asking questions. Yahoo! Tech reports on how one person questioned the system.

I guess it only took 5 years to figure out something that should have been common sense to any computer person.

In other news, I collected 40 links to gaming sites today. No real reason this is news other than the fact that it took about twice as long as I’d intended to spend and was rather boring.

Singing about Singing

I don’t know what it is, but songs about singing just bug me. We used to sing a bunch of cheesy songs in the chorus I was in for a few years, all about the power of music. Just let the music be powerful, and stop singing about it. You’re just watering down the message and treating people like they’re stupid.

Then there’s the songs that refer to themselves, like the endless loop of a mirror reflecting another mirror. At the top of this list is ”Your Song” by Elton John. “You can tell everybody that this is your song.” I mean, I wish he’d just written me a real song. And let’s not get started on how Princess Di’s ghost must’ve felt when he sang that song to her about Marilyn Monroe, pretending like no one would notice.

Another one that bugs me is Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain.” When she tells me, “You probably think this song is about you,” I get trapped in that crazy loop again. After all, she’s talking to me and then insinuating that the song is not really about me, or maybe she is, I don’t know. I’m so confused.

So maybe it’s the song writers who are vain, thinking we care to listen to them musically masturbating. Just get over yourselves already.

Fun Web Stuff Found in 2008

Wow, 2008 is almost over. Just got to get through the most nerve-wracking week first

I guess 2008 could be called the Year of the Web for me. I’ve been all over it combing for cool and interesting websites. I found some really great mashups, some cool websites, some interesting websites for gamers, fun widgets, and even some fun browser games.

I’ve also learned a heck of a lot about social networks, wikis, and crazy stuff like Enterprise 2.0 and cloud computing. Sometimes, I think I drive Ann crazy going on and on about all that crap. Heck, she’s still clueless about Twitter, so when I’m talking about issuing a bunch of tweets, she’s probably thinking I’ve gone all bonkers.

Anyway, I for one will be glad to see 2008 done with. Four more years till the end of the World! (It ends in December, you know.)

It seems I married an Elf

I love words

I love all the “bad” words, and I worship Henry Miller and Lenny Bruce for embracing them. I love the word, “y’all,” even though I resisted it in my college days.  I love “onomatopoeia,” “euphony,” “cacophony,” “crescendo.” I love songs for their lyrics.

I’ll admit I’ve never liked the word, “plethora,” though. When people say that word, it always sounds like they’re puking. I much prefer the more poetic “cornucopia.” I also have some trouble with hearing the word “placenta” in Live’s “Lightning Crashes.” I don’t know, it’s just yucky. Leave that word to the doctors, not the poets.

I know the power of words and the images they invoke, so I’m not altogether opposed to the notion of political correctness, even if Dan views it as pure and evil censorship. I love to see language evolving as we learn new ways to communicate, but I also like to see where words came from, their context and history.

So, when I found this list of the weirdest words from the Oxford English Dictionary, I “jumped for joy.” See how I did that? I used a cliche bunch of words to share an emotion with you. You didn’t think that I literally jumped for joy, but you understood what I was saying. In actuality I did just the opposite. I found myself laying in the same position on the couch with my laptop atop my lap, reading through every word in the list, sending e-mails to my friends with the link and a few choice exerpts and then sitting even longer to write this blog entry, when I haven’t written here for over two months. So there.