I should pay better attention to Google

This is going to sound like an advertisement for Google, but it really isn't. Disclaimer: I own 5 shares of Google stock. But I don't pay enough attention to that either.

I used to be an "early adopter." I was always one of the first to try new stuff. Then I had a spell when the new stuff breaking down was getting in the way of getting my work done. I was spending too much time on the phone with support...in the days when support was right up the road in RTP.

Lately, I've let other people figure it out, get through the first round of bugs, and then convince me.

1. I was late adopting Google as my favorite search engine...I was suspicious of the context relevant advertising. Now I hardly notice the ads.

2. When somebody suggested googletalk for an organization chat, I groaned...not another chat thingy. And I had to sign up for gmail to get it. Groan...another email. Now I hardly ever chat on any chat, but gmail has become one of my first-line emails. (Don't ask how many I have)

3. When my new PC came with Google desktop, I groaned again. I was skeptical about anything indexing my whole hard drive. It took me a year of ignoring it until I tried it. Man!! That thing is fast as...(grasping for appropriate bigdaddycc simile)...a jackalope with the runs. I've had to reinstall the thing a few times after some weird error, but when it works, there is nothing faster.

4. Dear hubby volunteered me to put up a website for the church. They had already decided that I should use Google-apps, because it's free. Groan again, I told them "No such thing as a free lunch, just wait til you see the Google advertising." They still wanted it. It turned out rather well, no ads have shown up yet in 7 months. I even use Google-apps for my own website.

5. Donny has been pushing Picasa (now owned by Google) for years. I was probably the last to come along....kicking and screaming.

6. The latest from Google, they announced a few weeks ago, Google Reader. I looked at it and said, "Why do I want to read a bunch of different stuff all in one place." Then one of my Twitter links showed how he reads all the blogs he follows all at once every day. hmmmm. I decided to try it. Man!! It is so cool. I read a lot of different blogs, Yahoo 360, Blogger, Wordpress, Boing Boing, etc. Any blog that is public and had some kind of Feed or subscription, I can add to my Google Reader. Anytime I go to my reader, I see the latest updates from all of them. I can browse quickly...no waiting for a slow connection, and go to the source if I want to comment.


Google has changed my life. I can organize my procrastination!!

Hancock

Today we went to see the movie, "Hancock" starring Will Smith as a drunk, obnoxious super-hero. I wasn't expecting much. But I tend to defend Will Smith. When my son, the actor, said he wouldn't go see it, I said, "But Will Smith 'owns' the 4th of July." Ever since "Independence Day" the movie, he has had a big summer hit released around the Fourth. In spite of the bad reviews (what do they know), I enjoyed it. The surprise came from out of nowhere, nobody had leaked the ending to me. And I ain't telling. (Have to make Tinker keep quiet.)

Besides, Will has "matured" physically. I was just watching "Fresh Prince" on TV Land the other night, and it's amazing how that skinny kid has developed. Of course, his ears still stick out. But this is a good year for big ears.

I give the movie three-an-a-half stars.

I don't get it!!

That's what I said about blogging before I got into it. I thought, "Why would anybody be interested in what I'm thinking every day?" Well, here I am, telling you my stuff on the regular.

Has anybody heard of Twitter? That's the latest thing that I said, "I don't get it." The thing is to answer the age-old internet question, "Whatcha doing?" in a little box that holds 140 characters. So instead of a long blog, you do short bursts anytime, from work, home, phone, all day.

I still don't get it, but I'm sorta doing it, here. I'm following somebody's advice to promote my book. Gotta get out there.

The next thing on my promotion list is a trailer. A book trailer. I never heard of those either until a few months ago. Now I see them all over the place. Some are major film productions like a movie preview. Some waaaayyyy too long....borrrrrring!! The funniest one I've seen is this one.







So now I'm working on a script for my trailer. My son, the actor turned filmmaker, has reluctantly agreed to produce it. He wants it to be more theatrical. I want it to be funny. We'll see.

Lest we forget...

Exerpt from Portland Independent Media

Racist Rhetoric of the Right Wing-Part

author: Cash Michaels

When former Raleigh City Councilman Jesse Helms took to the air on WRAL-TV in Raleigh during the 1960s with station editorials, he made [the epithet] ''Martin Luther Coon, Jr.'' and an unrelenting rhetorical assault on the Southern civil rights movement led by Dr. King and others his trademark. While many whites agreed with what Helms said about the movement being ''Communist inspired,'' many Blacks, and whites, were appalled that the former sportswriter was allowed to say such things so blatantly.

That kind of racial plain talks is what propelled Helms into the U.S. Senate in 1972, as the conservative Democrat (who would soon switch to the GOP) rode the coattails of President Richard Nixon's ''Southern strategy'' to corral angry white southern voters.


Yes he said it on the air, I remember hearing it.

Blessed be the dead who die in the Lord. All others....