Secrets of the Ya-Ya Neighborhood

I attended a presentation about technology and media this morning where the video below was shown ...

I couldn't stop nodding my head as I watched all of the factoids scroll and sweep across the screen. Because I can relate to this video on so many levels -- from the ways I interact with technology, to my television-viewing habits, to relying on my parents' advice and examples in certain situations ...

I love this stuff!

On a side note, this gem came over on Overheard In the Newsroom today:

Sports Editor: “So May 31 is Quit Facebook Day?”

Managing Editor: “Yes. Because the people too stupid to use it are now afraid of it.”

Don't get me started about the people who complain about Facebook and all of its quirks and privacy issues when so many of those same people are sharing their locations on Foursquare, whining on Twitter or sharing their innermost thoughts on blogs ...

Ok, check out the video ...

Framing Childhood

I got a good kick from this story in The New York Times about the role parents in the 21st century have taken in branding their children ...

One passage from the story reads ...

The marching orders come immediately, with the newborn photo, which must be e-mailed to friends before a baby has left the maternity ward. A conscientious father — chief executive of the budding business — must snap dozens of shots of the modestly wrapped newborn, generally with a Canon PowerShot though sometimes with a showy digital single-lens-reflex camera or a lowly cameraphone. Back at a laptop, he uploads the haul, scrutinizing pixels with the intensity of Anna Wintour. He selects a becoming one. The mother signs off, often via e-mail, from her hospital bed.

For better or worse, I'm one of those fathers, having planned and posted a blog entry within hours of Phoebe's birth ... Heck, just look at all stories, photos and videos of her I've posted on this blog -- I posted another one the other night -- and that doesn't include all of the photos posted to Flickr, the videos on YouTube, and the Facebook status updates. (What's more, notice how I've shamelessly provided a link to all of them ...)

Interestingly, I stumbled on this story this morning just a couple nights after reading about and finding "STFU, Parents," a blog that lampoons parents who go a little overboard with their Facebook status updates ...

And now that I'm self-conscious about producing and posting too much about my kid. I'll end this post and move on to another topic ...

Overheard in the newsroom

... One of my favorite blogs is "Overheard in the Newsroom."

Today, I submitted this piece of dialogue heard in our newsroom ...

Reporter: "I'm not feeling a lot of love for that video."

Editor: "Well then let's make some love."

Stuff Journalists Like

My friend Matt sent me this blog today about journalists, for journalists ...

So good. So true.

As seen on the Web

Some Web finds I've been meaning to share for a few weeks ...

First in the political spectrum ...

I came across this Sarah Palin flow chart after the vice presidential debate.

Then there's "Palin As President." I got wind of this one a couple weeks ago from a college buddy and it's becoming an instant classic. Very Short List pubbed the site earlier this week and also included a video of Palin "singing" a response to a question from Katie Couric ... Ha-larious!

And the Boston Globe wrote about this one that allows users to "help Sarah make sense."

* * *

Also compliments of Very Short List ...

Here's an amusing blog focused on "Cake Wrecks."

... And here's a fascinating photography site from a guy who took pictures of people driving their cars. So cool!

And this Web site allows you to read a book on your work computer. ... Pretty clever.

* * *

Finally, my friend Jocelyn posted this one over the weekend ... Too cute.

Sunday reading

... After my game this morning, Kates and I spent the day on our deck, playing with Phoebe and enjoying the GOR-geous weather ...

And now I'm watching Sunday night baseball.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday.

Here's some of the best stories I read over the last week ...

Sports ...
a Historic season looms for Chicago baseball
a Cursed-to-first Rays, White Sox buoyed by offseason deals
a Hitting .400 isn't last crusade for Atlanta's accomplished Jones
a Embattled McLaren, Randolph, Yost fight on
a In NBA playoffs, less ink means more viewers
a Packers to deliver old locker to Favre

Politics ...
a Ex-press secretary bashes Bush
a Book: Rice kept 'her hands clean'
a Hillary Clinton's 'critical decision'
a Obama Practices Looking-Off-Into-Future Pose ... From The Onion. Ha-larious.

The Internet ...
a Blog posts photos from lost cameras to find owners
a MySpace gets its mojo back by opening door to developers

Life & other stuff ...
a Principal's blunder holds good lessons ... One of the biggest stories around Chicagoland last week. The pincipal eventually was demoted.
a Stonehenge was a royal family's burial site, researchers say
a Lowly pencil still the write tool
a N.Y. Hopes to Ensure Smooth Pedaling for Bike Commuters

Sunday reading

Some of the reads that piqued my interest this last week ...

Sports ...
a University of Wisconsin, Washburn wrangling in court over ‘W’ logos ... Ah yes. The good 'ol Washburn 'W'. See Washburn is a rival of Northwest, and it struck me every time we played them how similar Washburn's 'W' looked to Wisconsin's 'W.' ... Not that I think the school needs to get sued over it, but it is interesting ...
a BCS got it right this time ... Whatever. Yes, it was a loony college football season, but it didn't make me any more hip to the BCS.
a Why clean up college football's lovely mess? ... Ditto.
a No favoritism toward Pats, or is there?
a Cuban's 'passion project': Buying Cubs
a A new boss in the Bronx
a Barry Bonds Pleads Not Guilty to Perjury
a Bonds' team has tough road ahead
a Baseball waits, wonders as Mitchell report on steroid use in the sport looms
a Gagne deal is for one year ... I think he's a has-been. But I'm willing to believe.

Internet & media ...
a Japan's Bloggers: Humble Giants of the Web
a Readers' online postings enliven site, merit caution
a The Decline Of The Critic

TV ...
a Zachary Quinto: Highly logical, for a human ... All I know is I detest is character in "Heroes."
a Pulling Their Punch Lines

Music ...
a No academy CDs? Play live!
a It's a holiday tune full of pure joy ... I remember the first time I heard this song too. December 1994. I was a sophomore in high school, getting ready to head to my job as a grocery clerk at the local Price Chopper. I was listening to my stereo in my room -- as usual. I started bouncing around my room, and I thought then that it was one of the greatest song's I'd ever heard ... Yeah. Here's the video.
a James Taylor returns to his roots
a Jordin Sparks maintains innocent charm in pop CD debut
a Blake Lewis, 'American Idol' runner-up, looks to move beyond the show with release of new CD
a Led Zeppelin's glorious excess ... I'm becoming a fan too. And here's one thing I won't soon forget: How cool it was a couple weeks ago to be glancing at the Billboard charts and seeing both Led Zeppelin and the Eagles with albums in the Top 10 ... whoah.
a The Song Still Remains The Same for Led Zeppelin
a The McCartney interview: 'I'm trying to create an antidote' for difficult times

Politics ...
a The Love Song of Dennis J. Kucinich
a Bush in Psych 101: 'Feeling... pretty good about life'

Life & other stuff ...
a Easy on the eggnog, Cinderella
a AT&T saying good-bye to its last pay phones
a D.C. leads metro areas in walkability

Sunday reading

The week in review ...

Technology & the Internet ...
a Apple Puts Wi-Fi in iPod Touch, Revamps Other iPods
a Apple credits iPhone buyers ... What a croc. If I was Steve Jobs I would've said "Sorry, folks. That's what you get for being idiots who stand in line all ga-ga over a phone ... " People should know better ...
a Shutting down big downloaders: Comcast cuts Internet service to bandwidth hogs
a Blogger wrote the book on driving a cab in Manhattan

Politics ...
a The Magic Touch? Winfrey Lends Her Brand and Her Empire in Support of Obama's Presidential Bid
a Watergate Bares All: Hotel to Sell Everything to Prepare for Face-Lift. Will the Deals Be Scandalous?
a Presidential Politics Roil Observance of Sept. 11

Entertainment ...
a Your Anniversary? Here's To You, Mrs. Robinson.

Baseball ...
a Report: Ankiel received shipments of HGH ... Uh-oh ... Not such a Hollywood story anymore now are we, Mr. Ankiel.

Other stuff ...
a Guilty in the Duke Case
a Thrown off plane for outfit deemed too skimpy
a The Flop Heard Round the World: When the Edsel Debuted in 1957, It Became America's Most-Hyped Failure ... I gotta admit, until coming across the Ugly Cars last week, I'd never heard of the Edsel ...

Sunday reading

... Some of the stories and headlines that have caught my eyes the last couple weeks ...

Music, pop culture, entertainment ...
a Britney to kids: You’re both mistakes!
a Bigger audience would suit Fey better
a Pop looks to the past for a forward-feeling sound
a Weird Al's Imitation: A Funky Form of Flattery
a Movie Endings We Love Forty pitch-perfect film finales
a Jim Killeen: The Man Who Found Himself: "Google Me'' might have begun as a gee-whiz exercise in egotism for Jim Killeen, who found numerous other Jim Killeens via Google, but it quickly became much more.
a Colbie Caillat: A MySpace Star on the Rise

Newspapering ...
a The graying lady: Cuts in newspapers' foreign reporting will leave the world worse off
a For Some in Oakland, Editor's Death Shows Subversion of Black Activism

Politics ...
a Obama Says He Can Unite U.S. 'More Effectively' Than Clinton
a Eating Right: In Frederick, a Bushel Of Crabs and a Back Slap For President Bush

Baseball ...
a Keep the Brewers in perspective
a Giambi escapes punishment from baseball
a Ruthian or Faustian? Barry Bonds' sins -- the questionable use of science, the raging drive to be No. 1 -- are, we should remember, distinctly sins of our time.
a Vincent says Bonds' record tainted
a Connor was baseball's first home run king
a Costas: HR record is 'inauthentic'
a Aaron, Bonds faced hatred on the way to historic homer marks
a Will A-Rod be the next HR king?
a Rizzuto’s Secret of Youth Lasted for Years
a Goodbye, Scooter: Insults didn't stop Rizzuto from living a wonderful life
a Dubious distinction: Cox passes McGraw for most ejections with No. 132
a My All-Time Team: Cobb, Hornsby, Ruth are among the best of the best
a My All-Current Team: Jeter, A-Rod, Manny lead the crop of today's stars
a My All-Future Team: Which stars of today will still be great in five years?

The Internet ...
a Bloggers consider forming labor union
a Facebook Grows Up
a Class War: MySpace vs. Facebook

Other stuff ...
a Gruesome mystery of eight skeletons in a forest
a Old Age Cause Gives Pause

Sunday reading

Some of the stories and headlines that have caught my eyes the last couple weeks ...

Music & entertainment ...
a Kelly Clarkson's dispute with Clive Davis has made her music hard to hear
a The Baby is Back on Ferrell's Funnyordie
a Chuckles, Guffaws and Some Yucks: Potty-Mouthed Toddler Got Will Ferrell's Comedy Web Site Up and Running
a Bringing Out the Worst In Celebrity Coverage? Esquire Chided for Jolie Cover Story
a What were they thinking? Good actors' bad choices
a Blunt's shaking his hit
a Watching Films or TV Together Is a Rite of Coupledom, Until A Scarlet Temptress Beckons
a TV cancellation hidden in a cloud of euphemism
a Paris fans are so Paris
a Rowling's spell, not a wizard, is behind the magic of 'Potter'
a When bad roles happen to good actors
a What will Ben Silverman think of next for NBC?

Sports ...
a Once the dirtiest player in the NFL, Conrad Dobler is now fighting for guys he tried to dismember ... My friend Mike is responsible for many of the photos you see with this one ...
a 'Bronx' revisits boys of summer 1977
a With Old-School Sluggers, A 'Derby' Done Right

The Internet ...
a Blogging Vs. Broadcast Rights: Free Press Or Freeloading?
a Calling In Pros to Refine Your Google Image
a Nanoseconds Of Happiness: You're Going to Love Your iPhone, Until the Next Gizmo Calls a Candidates learning that YouTube and other Web sites are potent portals

Other stuff ...
a A Roto-Rooter rescue
a A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease
a For 50 years, Milwaukee's been on a freeway ride
a Robotic cars could take pressure off nation's highways
a Travelers to the Grand Canyon have always had a killer view. Now they can take a step in a new direction
a Two Little Letters, Addressed to Everyone, That Speak Volumes
a Big blasts at harbor rock out near Big Gig

Sunday reading

Some of the headlines and stories that caught my eyes this week ...

Politics ...
a A Run, or the Runaround? Bloomberg, Other Non-Candidates Master Art of Being Vague

TV & movies ...
a FAME? PRICELESS: 'If celebrity is a credit card, then I'm using it,' George Clooney says of his Darfur campaign.
a Paying $1 million for Hilton interviews alarms journalist ethicists, rankles NBC employees
a Harry Potter book could spoil movie surprise, ticket sales
a Burnett remains powerful despite flops
a 'Sopranos' fans are either happy or angry about the show's lack of closure
a On 'Lil' Bush,' It's the Laughs That Are Tiny ... Yeah, so it's not great TV. But it's George Bush, and that makes it hard not to look away ...
a Steve Carell's course is to build an ark in 'Evan Almighty,' but he feels blessed to have a career that, he says, has no plan ... two of the highlights of my week were watching Carell yak it up with Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien ...HA-larious.
a Bad guys on TV are just too good to miss

Baseball...
a Wood working: Gantner helps son, players hone their skills
a BARRY BONDS: A jerk? Maybe, but a great hitter for sure
a Hitting the ballparks: Annual trip to baseball stadiums goes far beyond watching the games ... a good read I got this weekend from my pops...
a Start of something good: Verlander's no-no may foreshadow future greatness

The Internet ...
a On 'fatblogs,' heavy people weigh in
a Ogled By Google: Is America's Favorite Search Engine Chugging Into Cyber Privacy?
a Web site devoted to gratitude keeps users focused on positive
a Conservapedia: online reference that's read from right to right

Music ...
a 'Live From Abbey Road' on Sundance Channel
a After an early peak, singer-songwriter Paula Cole walked away from it all. Now she's back.
a Here's to You, Paul Simon!
a Country's honky-tonk men live in a changing world

The rest of the stories ...
a Baby monitor picks up video from NASA
a Marking Time: Americans Gobble Up Anniversaries - Sad, Glad And Bad
a In Small Spaces, Big Challenges
a Calling all hippies: Summer of Love turns the big 4-0

Sunday reading

Some good reads from the past week ...

a Peter Tork defends the Monkees' viability for Rock Hall of Fame ... Let 'em in.

a Aaron's 755th homer: Plaque will be placed where ball landed ... looking forward to it.

a Piniella not comfy in new home—yet

a Social-networking sites snag 'tweens

a Climate Change Scenarios Scare, and Motivate, Kids

a Every night on Alcatraz is a dance with the devil

a Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Blue Whale Bite

a Don Imus' darkest hour allows Katie Couric to escape the glare

a Pint-sized landlord sticks it to Will Ferrell

a TV shows use blogs to connect with viewers

a We have just 24 hours. Move it! ... A certain Fox show is supposed to be TiVo-proof, but this season it could benefit from this handy hidden remote feature.

Sunday reading

Some good reads from the last few weeks ...

Entertainment ...
a It’s hard work to become a Blue Man
a Mr. Television: Familysomething ... I stumbled across this one while searching for this story about Calista Flockhart.
a Heather Graham: Fun Is Her Middle Name
a 'Grease' is the word
a A bigger share of the couch: The late shift is starting to pay off for talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel. If not, Costco is calling
a With New Quiz Shows, 'Boob Tube' Earns Its Name

Media ...
a ABC News nipping at NBC's heels
a Big Profits in Small Packages: Little Newspapers Prosper With Narrow Focus on Very Local News
a Jailed Man Is A Videographer And a Blogger but Is He a Journalist?
a It's a new platform for comedy: For aspiring performers, Internet video sites are the new club circuit.

Sports ...
a Bush, Mantle Show Up on Derek Jeter Baseball Card
a Struggling Blackhawks losing games, fans

Music ...
a Piracy isn’t the only enemy
a Radio Stations and the Promotional Game: A Fatal Attraction
a Rougher around the edges: Jones sought a less refined feel for her latest album, "Not Too Late."
a Anniversary revives dark memories on Penny Lane

Everything else ...
a A Chip Off the Old Pringle? Not Exactly.
a Diaper Demographic: TV, Video Programming for the Under-2 Market Grows Despite Lack of Clear Educational Benefit
a Students Say Locker Size Is Cramping Their Style

Sunday reading

... The Shins strong -- and overdue -- showing on SNL last night inspired me to pull out my Shins CDs this afternoon. Great stuff ...

Here's some good reading (and cartoons, courtesy of Cagle's Cartoons) that caught my eyes this past week ...

Entertainment buzz ...
a What does Oprah believe?
a It's Not All About the iPods, Oprah
a You'll likely read more about Britney in '07
a Comedy writers aren't laughing about 'Studio 60' ... I have to agree: It's a show about a comedy show, but the comedy in the show that the show is about isn't funny at all!! ... I so wanted it to do well, but at this point NBC would be wise to let it fade away ...
a Who's that 'Studio 60' nominee? ... whatever. I've admired Sarah Paulson long before Studio 60 came along ...
a Matthew Fox talks about his dark side
a Vieira Settles In, and 'Today' Gets Ready to Go Long
a Tween actress' sex scenes raise ire ... Oh, Dakota, why must you grow up so fast? Please don't become a ruined child star ...

Music ...
a Ain’t it odd? Song lyrics defy grammar rules music ... Get over it, English teachers. Alanis Morrissette's ironic is one of the greatest songs ever, whether you like it or not ...
a Will compact discs go the way of the LP? ... Whatever. I'm still buying them -- heck I'm still buying LPs. The sweet cover art, liner notes and that feeling of tearing off the wrapping -- like opening a new toy on Christma morning -- is a big part of what makes certain music so special and enduring ...

News & trends ...
a Theme party ideas for February's major events ... As cheesy as some of these suggestions are, these parties could be a lot of fun to host! Who's in?
a After laughter, action ... Great column. So true.
a Too Casual To Sit on Press Row? Bloggers' Credentials Boosted
a 1870s dead horse photo sparks mystery ... Great story!! from Sheboygan!!
a Is there a new calling for Apple? ... My friend Sean appears to be obsessed with the iPhone; his eyes looked as though they were going to pop out every time the mega-hyped gadget was mentioned this week. I, on the other hand, prefer to use my phone as a phone and for calling people only, thank you very much.
a Kathleen Parker: Clicking on death ... So true.

Baseball ...
a Suppan joins Brewers after dinner, $42 million contract ... Now let's hope he holds up. If he does, it could be a very good Brewers season ...
a Don't Expect Hall Call, Big Mac

Person of the Year!

I just found out I was selected as Time Magazine's Person of the Year!!

Unbelievable! I'm so honored!!

... Ok. So it's me and millions of web surfers who are fascinated and obsessed with blogging, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube and all the other things that make cyberspace so amazing ...

... But apparently I seem to be one of the few people who love the idea and concept behind this year's selection ...

... Read Time's story here for yourself ...

Ah good times.

Other perspectives ...
George Will: You are 'Person of the Year'? Get serious
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gud 4 u: Time got it right
Jill Rachel Jacobs: It's about Time (lol) I won
James P. Pinkerton: Time's wimpy choice ignores readers' needs

Sunday reading

... I finished putting up the Christmas lights today, and managed again to do it without falling off the roof and breaking any bones ...

... My Christmas shopping is done ...


... And my beloved Bearcats are heading back to the D-II National Championship game ...

Life is good.

...Thanks to Internet radio, I listened to the 'Cats bowl over Bloomsburg. Once again, "Sweet Home Alabama" blared on the stadium PA, and the goal posts came down and went into Colden Pond ... Sitting here hundreds of miles away, I'm picturing every moment as it unfolds and reminiscing about my days following the team during the 'Florence or Bust' run of '98 and the miracle ride of '99. And my heart is yearning to be there again tonight to experience it once more ...

Let the countdown to next week's big game begin ...

Some other good Bearcat reads ...
aBearcats step into national spotlight in Division II semifinal
aNorthwest Missouri State has no problem getting big-city talent
a Northwest Missouri State has plenty of pass catchers

* * *

Some interesting reads from the last couple weeks ...

Starting with this one: Things a Man Should Know: About Fatherhood, a fun, comical read for any father ...

New media...
a Morgan Freeman releases new film `10 Items or Less’ by digital download
a ’80s music videos pop up to rock YouTube
a TV, Internet melding
a Star of blogosphere segues easily into ‘old’ media
a Chronicle of the Newspaper Death Foretold

TV ...
a The silent transition: Meredith Vieira moves smoothly into new role at 'Today' ... Interesting. I was just talking the other day about how funny it is that Katie Couric and Rosie are having so much trouble in their new seats and Meredith is sailing ...
a 'The Office' opens doors for Rainn Wilson
a Writers as actors and vice versa ... one of the things that makes The Office so good ...
a 1st ‘Office’ managers write script for States ... if it hand't been for this story, I never would've known watching the episode ...
a Actor aims to leap from 'Heroes' to 'Star Trek'
a 'Heroes' star Masi Oka living the dream

Music ...
a Stefani stumbles during 'Escape' ... Hollaback Girl was 'bananas' enough. Stefani has really gone off the deep end now. Whether it's the AMAs, SNL or VH1, I've been reaching for the remote every time her mindless yodeling song comes on. She ripped off 'Fiddler on the Roof' with 'Rich Girl' (...something I had to inform my brother of at one point last year when the song came on the radio, you would've thought he'd never heard of 'Fiddler'...) and now she's ruining 'Sound of Music' songs .... ugh.

Baseball ...
a Ripken dodges steroid talk as Hall of Fame election nears
a McGwire won't get my Hall vote this year ...I hate to think about it, but these guys have a point ...
a Not all smiling over Soriano deal ... including me.
a Cubs must say 'No' to Soriano for his good and the team's ... more reasons not to smile about Soriano ...
a Piniella learns drought, doubt go together
a A baseball player answers his fan mail 15 years later

And in politics ...

Sunday reading

Lots of good reading this week. Here they are, some of the stories that fascinated me, captivated me and intrigued me from the past week ...

The life surrounding us ...
a Inspector: Homeland Security database flawed ... a good laugh. Seriously!? 8,591 potential terrorism targets in Indiana!? Seriously!?
a Wolves in Blazers and Khakis ... an excellent op/ed piece from the Washington Post regarding the boys involved in the Duke LaCrosse episode ...
a Where did all the kids go? ... A HA-larious, sarcastic look at kids playtimes thes days ...
a Even now, Gumby has that special dimension
a Death by Wikipedia: The Kenneth Lay Chronicles ... Hey, I'm not gonna lie -- Wikipedia is one of my favorites sites to read and surf around on it. But you've always gotta double-check your facts ...
a Vidgames can help you switch to sudoku
a Dave Barry talks about his Peter Pan ventures
a The YouTube way to fame and fortune (maybe)
a Music Blogs Try -- Futilely, Thus Far -- to Generate Radio's Communal Spirit

Entertainment stuff ...
a SHeDAISY pulls in sibling to continue sister country act
a After decades of bonding, disbanding and reforming, these women have nothing left to prove ... ah, the Go-Gos! ... I'm still glowing from seeing them a couple weeks ago, and a majority of their catalog had since been added to my iPod ...
a 'Clerks' Filmmaker Nurtures His Fans, and Himself, Online
a Pee-wee back on TV

Bonds and baseball ...
a Ex-friend accuses Bonds of ‘roid rages’ ... why I oughta ...
a Attorney says friend implored Bonds to stop using steroids
a Mantle, Campanella, Greenberg and Ott honored on new stamps

Sunday reading

Happy Sunday to ya ... here's some of the stories I found particularly interesting from this last week ...

Life as we know it ...
a Mark Patinkin: Suddenly, there I was, in the land of righteous retailers
a Make as much fun of him as you want ... My parents love listening to John Tesh. And yeah he's inspiring and interesting to listen to (sometimes) ... but, yeah, he's easy to make fun of ...
a 'Fido' is so last year: Everything you need to know about naming a dog
a In Texas, the Biggest Box Gets Mighty Fancy Trimmings ... Sorry. Not buying it. As luxurious as this Wal-mart sounds, I still side with those who percieve it as 'soulless' ... that and I wish life were so easy that I too could have a 4,000 square foot home and earns $145,000 a year ... Then, there's this related news: Cart Blanche? The Megamarket's Savings Don't Come Cheap
a Own the ultimate Elvis collectible ....if only ...
a Last writes: Dead men (and women) do tell tales -- in obituaries that are often full of life ... fascinating.

Tech reads ...
a Finding the hidden costs of downloading music
a At 30, Apple Is Mainstream -- And a Target
a Cell phones find a new calling ...and I hate it. Hey, I love my cell phone as much as the next guy. But -- aside from the Tetris game I enjoy playing to pass time in the airport, on the train or wherevere else -- I want nothing to do with having a cell phone that plays music, shows TV shows and all that other mumbo jumbo, let alone have to pay for it. Just let me use it to make phone calls.

Blogging reads ...
a Productivity Tip No. 1: Check Out the Blogs
a Mother makes room for MySpace ...a fascinating story about a 'cool' mom, her teenage daughter and the adventures of parenting ... and the Internet.
a New Trends In Online Traffic ... interesting stuff. I'm glad to contribute ...

TV reads ...
a Our 'Idol' obsession: The LA Times asked network executives, historians and even a comedian to explain why "American Idol" has come to rule the airwaves. ... I don't care what they have to say, I still haven't caught on ...

Music reads ...
a Blunt's music speaks (softly) for him ... say what you want about his voice. It's a great album ...
a Bedingfield is quietly taking over the charts ... I fell in love with 'These Words' immediately. And the video for 'Unwritten' hooked me immediately as well. But my jury's still out on the rest of the album ... She sure is admirable though ...
a Teddy Geiger is on the edge of stardom at 17 ... Give him credit -- he's extremely mature, he's a self-taught musician, and Ben Folds is one of his heroes. It helps that his music is pretty darn good too. (his CD has been in my stereo and near the top of my iPod's 'recently played' list since I got it a couple weeks ago ...)

Baseball reads ...
a Clubbies turn clubhouse into dollhouse

Good reads.

Five Deer Leap to Deaths From W.Va. Garage ...Here we go again! The Animal Kingdom has got to be reeling about this. After the summer's tragic sheep deaths, animal suicides are climbing at an alarming rate ...

It's online, but is it true? ... an interesting spin from USA Today on the Wikipedia concept. I caught onto the site several months ago and it has since become one of my favorite Web sites out there. Seriously, I can spend hours on it just typing in random people, terms or whatever, and learn a ton of things I didn't know before or hadn't thought about. In my opinion, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has definitely achieved his goal of putting all the world's knowledge in one place, but, yes, you do have to take it with a grain of salt ...

When murder hits the blogosphere ... A few more reasons to be mindful of the Internet's public domain ... but the more gripping isssue is where anyone gets crazy ideas like these two teens, I'll never understand.

Back Atop the Charts, Her Way ... Admittedly, I was (I still am) a fan of pre-breakdown Mariah. ... but I also was one of the people who scoffed at the idea she could return to her previous popularity after the epic breakdown and bomb that was 'Glitter.' I can't say I see what most people have in her new release this year, but this story may convince you to believe she really is one of the all-time greats ...

Review: 'King Kong' ...After my rant the other day about how blah Kong looked, this review actually makes it sound worthwhile to see ...

In a puzzling development, kakuro beckons ... great. As if my morning Sudoku wasn't addicting enough. Another puzzle for me to spend hours on. Although, I'm not a math man ... so maybe not.

Reads of the week

Neil Diamond pushes aside insecurities to make triumphant return

Mayer moves to blues, funk and soul

Roger Bart dispenses creepiness as Desperate Housewives druggist-boyfriend

Blogs of the network stars

VHS tapes are outmoded, but they're not trash ( ... and here's some tips for what to do with them)