Poker Face by Molly Lewis

I know that it's well passed Halloween but I needed to post this video up here for anyone that still hasn't seen it.

Visit Molly Lewis at http://sweetafton23.com/

Desert Bus

If you get a chance, stop by DesertBus.Org and make a donation. The poor sketch comedy troop is putting their remaining sanity on the line to raise money to help make the lives of sick children better.

LoadingReadyRun is a comedy troop that will put their lives on the line playing Desert Bus, a video game deemed to dangerous to be released from the dastardly minds of Penn & Teller. They will attempt to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada at a maximum speed of 45mph. Its an 8 hour trip and the game cannot be paused. Also the steering is faulty so constant course corrections need to be made. But there are no turns and no scenery, much like the real road.

Last year they managed to raise over $70,000 for the Child's Play charity. Please help them make it another amazing success.

Mike's Book Corner: Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours

Yes everyone. I read 2 books in a week. Its astounding. (Psst. I might even read a few more. They are addictive you know.)

As I was wandering through the bookstore the other day I stopped to see if through some strange time warp any of my favorite authors had written another book for me to devour. (There is a problem with growing up with TV. When you have to wait more than a week to get the next part of the story, the 5 year old in me starts to scream "BUT WHYYYYYYYYY?????????") This time instead of being disappointed I was a little confused. Here I was looking at Jim Butcher's books (Jim Butcher being the author of the amazing Dresden Files series of books), but the name Spider-Man was on the cover. I am not a regular comic book reader, but I have read a few graphic novels in my time. I grew up watching Spider-Man swinging his way through saturday morning cartoons. Having someone like Jim tell me a story about an old friend was going to be a treat, and it is.

Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours is one of those books that disproves the adage "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words." Jim Butcher uses his writing skills to paint the Marvel Universe to tell an adventure of our friendly neighborhood wall crawler. Peter Parker is grown up now. He's married to his beloved Mary Jane and has a job as a Science Teacher. Then the horror starts. He is given the task of substitute coaching the basketball team. Oh yeah and his old nemisis The Rhino and a trio of nearly unstoppable characters going by the name The Ancients have shown up to ruin Spidey's day.

If you are a fan of Spider-Man or a fan of Jim Butcher, you are going to love this story. If you are a fan of reading cookbooks, then I'm not sure this is the right book for you. But give it a try anyway.

Mike's Book Corner: American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson

It must have been over a year ago that I was flipping through the channels and first saw Craig Ferguson hosting The Late Late Show. Of course I knew who Craig was from his stint on the Drew Carey Show and from that movie about the Hairstylist that comes to America to make it big. What I was seeing though was classic TV being created today.
Craig Ferguson is the king of talk show hosts in my opinion. He has made something new from what has become a standard format. I grew to become a huge fan of his very quickly and have lost more hours of sleep staying up to catch his show than I would care to count. (BTW Recording his show and watching it during breakfast might not make you more informed about the day to come, but you will feel better about trying to go out there and attempt the day ahead.)

When I heard that Craig had written an autobiography i was instantly thrilled. Any insight into what makes comedy happen has always been of keen interest to me. So I picked up the book and I have to say its one of the best autobiographies I have ever read. Craig takes a humorous yet no holds barred approach to telling the stories that make up his life. He is a man that doesn't revel in his mistakes, but takes ownership of them. Through the laughs and tears his writing style shines through like he is in the room telling you the stories himself. Craig's descriptions of dealing with drug abuse and alcoholism are some of the most informative explanations of what goes through an addicts mind while they are on that roller coaster.

I highly recommend finding this book and taking a few hours to read it. Its not going to score you any points just having it on your shelf. Read this one.

Hey Blackberry, what's the deal???

I have been looking for a new cell phone for a while. (I know that most anyone will just answer back to that "Get an iPhone." And while I wouldn't mind some of the functionality, as long as I am limited to only using one on AT&T its not going to happen.) Sprint & Blackberry recently released a new phone and I was excited to see it. I have done some research on Blackberry recently and was surprised to see such a paradox in thinking. Some of the newest & fastest technology combined with something as simple as E-Mail that hasn't changed in almost 10 years. To this I have to ask, "What's the deal RIM?"

This is supposed to be the cell phone for the enterprise. Yet it does not natively support something as simple as communicating with an MS Exchange Server. Almost every other smartphone does this without a second thought. Rim has decided that going an entirely new route of going back to the ancient (in tech years) times and have a server for companies to add to their mail system to provide this service. Well thats sounds fine and dandy, but it isn't. They chage a hefty penny not only for the server, but for a license for each phone & an anual support contract for the license. (Just wondering...how many licenses break so that they need a support contract?)

I guess this isn't a huge deal for me. I won't be adding their server so it will make my experience with the phone worse and I won't be able to recommend them as highly. (I don't even have one and was driven to write this.) Its just a company that knows how to bleed its customers without them knowing.

If someone at RIM would like to comment about this I would love to know if I am missing something here. Is there some feature that is worth charging for that the others give away for free?

I think this is where I'm supposed to attack Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, or any of the others for their billing practices. (Unlimited does not mean a lot, it means without limit. Look it up.) I'm not going to do that. It looks like the technology that's the backbone for RIM products is where any other weirdness of these phones come from.

Come on Blackberry, lets get with the program and develop the world best phone, not just the best phone if you use your phone exactly how we tell you to.

Windows 7: A First Look for IT Pros

Windows 7: A First Look for IT Pros

A new year and a new OS for everyone to drool over. Microsoft has released the Windows 7 Beta to the world. Here are a couple of the new features and improvements that I have found interesting.

The Problem Steps Recorder
Its a terrible name for a long needed feature. How many times have you wanted to show someone a problem with an application only to find out that they can't get the same problem to happen. With the new Problem Steps Recorder you can record snapshots of each step and error message into an HTML document that can be emailed easily.

Bitlocker and Bitlocker to Go
While Bitlocker is not new, it is improved. Bitlocker allows for encryping entire drives to protect your data from getting stolen through physical means. Bitlocker needs an unencrypted volume to place some of the required boot files. In Vista that meant having a second hard drive letter. Any information stored on that drive was not encrypted. In Windows 7 that has been fixed so that while there still is a second volume, its generally not accessable by the user.

They have also added Bitlocker to Go. This allows for encryption of smaller storage devices such as memory sticks.

Prop 8 - A reaction to the reaction

Well the election has come and gone. I for one am thrilled for it to be over. Now the government can get back to avoiding work like the rest of us. Something new is happening after this election though. I can't ever remember a time where more discussion of a proposition happened after the election than before.

California had Prop. 8 on the ballot. A constitutional change to state that marriage is only recognized between a man and a woman. OK, that seems a bit odd to have in a state constitution. Dictionary, Encyclopedia- sure. But constitution? Does Pennsylvania have the definition of a cheese steak in their constitution? Is it in the Philadelphia city charter? I know, I know, this is more serious than a sandwich.

Prop. 8 passed. Kind of. It still needs to go back to the courts. The courts that this proposition was trying to overrule get to decide if its valid. (I love government.) In the mean time though, more attention is getting focused on Prop. 8 now than before the election when it really mattered. Some good, but there is also a lot of bad attention too. I understand protests, walks, marches, & sit ins. (Understand is probably the wrong word, accept would be more accurate.) They are the accepted methods passed down from past generations for making your point.

My problem is with the attacks against supporters of Prop. 8. Spray painting "No on 8" on a church is not the brightest way to win support for your cause. It fosters the fear that went into the writing of the proposition in the first place.

I have been a supporter of the California Music Theatre in the past. When I heard a story about Scott Eckern donating money to Prop 8, I admittedly was confused. California Music Theatre always seemed to be a very accepting group. When that story started becoming calls for boycotts I was very disappointed. Not in Scott or CMT, but with everyone "calling for his head". Scott had every right to donate money to whoever he wanted. It was his money. Was there a call out to get someone to educate him? No, they just could not accept that he as someone working in the theater community was not in agreement with them. Scott has made statements of his beliefs and graciously stepped down to not hurt anyone else involved in CMT. I am just amazed that people who are asking for others to be open minded can't be open minded themselves.

Since you have been reading this far I guess you want to know how I feel about the issue. I wish I had something interesting to tell you. I fall into that third category of people that don't really care either way. I want people to have the right to do what they want. Marriage is a religous concept that the government uses. Maybe the government should get out of the marriage game. Make everyone domestic partners. Then you can go to church and get married or or not and still have the same rights. I just want people to think before asking someone else to change their minds. If you can't be accepting of how they think, then try and change their mind. If you don't want to be thought of as freaks and monsters, don't act like freaks and monsters.