Hi all, some banal updates from yours truly.

First off – I’m on twitter as prodaea. Fun little microblogging piece of software that you can update from anywhere and basically do anything you want with it. Some sites that I like to use with twitter are:

• twtrfrnd.com - for those times when christi1987 is following you and has NSFW pics.
• tweet stats - nice graphs etc.  to let you and your friends know just how much you tweet.
• twanalyst.com - brings you one of those personality tests – based on some twitter stats algorithms. is fun.
• twitpics.com - by far the most useful you can email or txt twitpics and it will post a short url for that pic to your twitter account.
• twitter.grader.com - gives you a grade out of 100 based on how you’re networked and some other stuff that i never really took the time to care about. i got a 70.
• www.twibes.com – is a system for group management and group tweeting based on the # thing that some genious came up with. i’m in a twibe, but i’m hoping twitter just integrates groupings.

I’m sure there’s a ton more that I’m not aware of, but I use these fairly regularly. Also you can plug twitter right into your facebook status. is fun.

Finally get involved in politics using twitter. Starting with Mr. Obama, there have been many politicians to get into Twitter. Some are good and informative – even responsive, some suck. Here’s  a great aricle I found that highlights several and let’s you know how useful they found them to be.

Ok, I’ve been a blog slacker, but since my wife is making me post at our new family site : Talk Is Sheep, I’ve been more apt to write interesting things.

I’ve started using some new fun software that I thought I’d fill you in on.

Digsby – Multi chat client that also logs into social services like facebook and twitter, putting all that stuff in one fun place. Also has a nice proxy and account setup system which makes it great for going from my work computer to my home computer.

Songbird – they say it’s an iTunes killer, but I’m holding my breath. Mostly because I’ve moved my media to the cloud using Lala, and I get my music recommendations from Pandora (despite the ads, its still my favorite for music discovery).

Dropbox – this thing is a life saver. Its software that syncs a file on your computer (up to 2GB) over the web. You can install it on multiple computers and if you can’t install it, you can grab your files over the web. I’ve also heard rumor of a portable version that would allow you to have a thumb drive that synced with dropbox. I need to get a big enough thumb drive, but don’t worry, I’ll get there. Currently, I’m using it to keep my working files in a convenient location.

I know it’s been a while faithful, if sparse, readers. And I apologize. Recently a great travesty has been done to my normal way of life. Pandora has begun putting invasive advertising in my playlists. Normally, I listen in peace, enjoy new music and can avoid the passive advertising on their site. Of course they offer a subscription service for money, but seriously, NOT WORTH IT OK. Streaming netflix and hulu to my XBOX because I don’t get cable, is a little more worth it.

so here goes, I googled “pandora alternative,” and while i mostly found yahoo! answers… here’s the results of my search (untested).

• musicovery - this is probably the one i will recommend for being the most like pandora in the way it takes your input and gives you new music to listen to.
• finetune – this is a really interesting one. I signed up for this a long time ago when they first came out with their player for the wii. I’m thinking I may get back into this one if musicovery bombs out. You enter an artist that you like and they make you a playlist with music you may like. A playlist that you can share! on your wii!
• allmuzz/lavabeat - these aren’t really suggestion programs as much as they are media purchasing centers. I’d recommend lala over these any day.
• rhapsody – i think this one is also like lala/allmuzz/lavabeat, but you have to subscribe, and i think realplayer is trash, so avoid this one like the plague.
• delicast – internet radio, not so much music recommendation, but it has a huge variety of stations to check out. presentation is uber lo-fi, so shoutcast may be better in this genre of things.
• shoutcast – AOL’s streaming radio. it used to be winamp’s streaming radio… or maybe it never was until aol bought winamp. i personally prefer podcasts to radios, plus itunes does the whole streaming audio thing too. but for a web based music source, this isn’t too bad.
• imeem – this is like virb or myspace for music lovers. i haven’t really jumped into this one mostly because i’m clinging to last.fm for dear life and honestly i’m not sure how many more social networks my life will support.
• last.fm – you get the plugin and listen to music. it logs what you’re listening to. then if you’re ever without your prized music library, you can login, and they have a radio that recommends music to you based on your listens. i’m trying this out now as we speak, but it’s tricky because i haven’t used their audio scrobbler in ages.

first of all, this is a game called loops of zen. i’m linking you to the full window version because it’s way better that way. the game is a great little brain teaser that doesn’t require that much commitment… not that i’m afraid of commitment… well maybe i am when it comes to video games.

in the way of games, i’ve added two more neat ones to my arcade repertoire. the first is age of booty. it’s a fun pirate themed real time strategy game that strikes me to be in the theme of settlers of catan… but in real time, not turn based. at any rate, it’s probably just the hex tiles that remind me of it. you move your ship around the ocean board attacking merchant ships, other players and harbors around the map. i’ve been extremely addicted to it as of late, and i highly recommend it.

the second xbla title i recently downloaded is castle crashers. i’m not sure on the history of this game, but i do know it has quite a cult following so i’m guessing this game was originally launched as an artsy flash game. at any rate, sarah saw the demo of this one and we were hooked. it’s a well designed 2d side scrolling rpg reminisce of the old days of gauntlet.

finally, my good friend phil introduced me to portal for the first time last night. from the guys that did half-life and a group of college kids, this game presents an interesting and worthwhile twist in fps to bring you the fps puzzle game like never before. basically, you shoot portals out and warp everywhere. it sounds underwhelmingly simple, but it actually makes for a great new puzzle idea that i’m now itching for more of.

next up is a shiny new site that i’m dying to tell everyone about. it’s lala.com, and it’s part itunes, part itunes music store, and part last.fm all blended together into one, pretty easy, pretty familiar interface. i signed up yesterday, uploaded my entire library over the course of the evening, and voila! i can listen to almost all of my music over the internet through lala.com. if you go there, sign up, and like it, be sure to friend me.

oh yeah! and last up, before i forget is hobnox.com. the site has a bunch of interesting stuff, but i haven’t really taken the time to explore. the big thing that’s really caught my eye in the past is their audiotool. it’s a reason-like synthesizer that’s web-based. they finally added a record feature, so besides just doodling around on it, you can now save what you’ve done.

over and out!

Party Sites

• Libertarian – http://www.lp.org
• Green – http://www.gp.org
• Constitutional – http://www.constitutionparty.com
• New American Independant - http://www.newamericanindependent.com/
• Ralph Nader – http://www.votenader.org
• PSL - http://www.pslweb.org/site/PageServer
• Socialist - http://www.sp-usa.org/
• Alan Keyes - http://www.alankeyes.com/

Previously I had lived in the 6th district, and only recently moved into your district. I’m still adjusting myself to the new local and federal political landscape of Malvern, so please forgive if you feel this is misinformed or inaccurate.

I recently heard you speak your opinion and reasoning for voting for the recent “bailout” bill on the 1210AM radio talk show hosted by Michael Smirconish. I felt very disappointed in hearing that you, after hearing from a majority of your constituents, decided to vote for a massive bailout of major banking institutions, against their expressed opinions on the matter.  To understand your perspective on the issue, I also read your press release in regards to your vote on this bill. (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa07_sestak/pr_080930.shtml) And while I feel you are well meaning on your “Yea” vote, in the end, the bill as a package must require a vote of “Nay”.

I understand that it is your privilege and right, given to you by your constituents, to choose in a way that you think best for the nation even if they desire you to vote differently. However in this case I feel you more exemplify the out of touch social elite ruling economic class, than of wisdom, sense, or care for the needs your voting bloc.

As I understand it, now that the Senate has passed some form of this bill, you will again be voting on this bill. I ask that you would reconsider your original choice and vote against a bill that may seem to rebound a part of the economy, but will in actuality only delay the correction to the market that must eventually happen. The longer you delay this correction, the worse it will be, and you, along with your colleagues will be to blame for the mistake you made in medling with what is supposed to be a market free from socialist or communist leaning entanglements from the government.

I would also ask that you consider voting against the new version of this bill returning from the Senate because of these “bribes” placed in this bill. These bribes distort the true nature of what is trying to be done here and no good can ever come of a bad bill being bribed into law in this way. Some of these sections are:

• Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
• Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.
• Sec. 113. Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
• Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
• Sec. 205. Credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
• Sec. 405. Increase and extension of Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund tax.
• Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
• Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
• Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
• Sec. 503 Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

(From Mr. Andrew Leonard, http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/10/01/senate_bailout_extravaganza/index.html, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 13:36 PDT)

In addition, from the “earmark sections” and from footage of the Senate on CSPAN, the passage of this bill and the debate thereof is more akin to a three ring circus or mafia crime sydicate, and not the dignified debate of lawmaking that the citizens of this country deserve. Please abstain from adding or voting in favor of these earmarks which are really bribes for votes.

Finally, I have been enraged by what I feel is your outright ignorance of the people you were sworn to represent that I cannot, in good conscience vote for you when you run for your next term in Congress.

Mr. R. Lee Creasy

MSIT Bloomsburg University

BA Drexel University

I’m not going to vote for Obama, here’s a couple vague reasons why. 1) He’s only been in the Senate for a short time. This makes me think someone is propping him up to run as a figure head. Call me rascist, but I think who ever is propping him up may think it has something to do with the color of his skin and the national pasttime of looking at the cover and not reading the pages. 2) His voting record really isn’t as great as what he talks about in his speaches. He voted for FISA and Iraq. 3) Democrats = socialism in the name of victim hood.

I’m definitely not going to vote for McCain, here’s a couple reasons why. 1) He’s a soldier. In my cursory remembrance of US history, most of our worst presidents were war heros. I’m specifically thinking of the Grant administration. 2) His voting record is probably worse than Obama. He misses more votes than he casts and when he does cast, he actually tries to think about the repurcussions, which brings me to 3) He’s an idiot. He graduated near last in his class, thinks important issues that he isn’t up-to-speed on are funny and still thinks that Czechoslovakia exists.

In fact, with all the grumbling I do, I’d make a good case that the government should be overthrown for being criminals and not being subject to the laws they create and generally ignoring the will of the people. But I digress. I feel like my first two paragraphs were pretty good and I’m neither judge nor jury, just a humble subject, so I won’t go on.

I love the conversation when you meet up with a friend: “so what do you want to do?”, and the reply: “ehh, nothing, you”, “yeah, I don’t know”. With my group of friends this conversation invariably ends in one of several ways: TV, Videogames, or Jam Session. It was after one of these conversations with a larger assembly of my friends we began to play beats from a keyboard and battle rap each other. This may seem like a totally legitimate course of action for some people, but a closer look at the social make up and musical taste of our group would reveal, without a doubt, that rapping is not on the top of our “fun things to do” list.

However, we ended up rapping against each other, with each other, and around each other. It was hilarious. We rapped about school subjects like geography and science as much as we rapped about the funny growth on my nose or each other’s sexual preferences.

So, to that unexpected fun burst of creativity i have found some fun links for improving the battle rap skills of those around me. Read these and take heed. Though it may not happen often, battle rapping may soon become a regular member of our “bored-time” repertoire.

1. How to SURVIVE a Battle Rap
2. Learn your flocabulary
3. Wiki on freestyle wrapping

1. XBOX Live and the multi-player frag fests that ensue
2. XBOX Arcade (I’m a sucker for N right now)
3. XBOX media downloads, for you know, when I’m REALLY REALLY FREAKIN LAZY.
4. The possibility that that thing is the only box I need under my TV
5. Gears of War
6. Katamari Damashi
7. GTA (I have all of the old ones for XBOX as well as IV)
8. Midnight Club

Though I have to admit some of these are not unique to XBOX (but some of them are not on the Wii at all, though Damashi SHOULD BE)

So in a much needed conclusion, the Wii has yet to offer a series of games that would make me give up my 20 button controllers, and I feel like I’m in a strange Generational loop caught between the young and the old.