urbansurvivor

Raw Sugar - Wha happn?

2007-08-31T08:07:00.000-04:00

Admittedly I have not been the most prolific poster and have not maintained my blog, taglists, relationships . . . I digress . . .

I had a Raw Sugar taggin account which I liked very much. Now I have nothing except a login. My question: Wha happn? I do not recall receiving any notice from them about service changes however, that may have been due to plain old not checking an unused email account.

Point is; I liked that service! I had stuff there. Now the stuff is gone. I do not like the "new and improved" crap. More investigation is in order, updates to follow, perhaps.

urbansurvivor

Hey Barbara Walters, Do You Listen to the Public Anymore?

2007-04-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

On behalf of all of us who are too busy making a living to watch the View
or care what the spoiled, mean spirited pitbull Rosie O'donnel has said lately,
we endorse the spirit and content of what this sensitive, intelligent, articulate
man has to say...

And incidentally we are damn sick and tired of hearing four back to back recaps
while we are trying to relax after bustin our humps to make said living.

We have heard all we care to hear from and about Ms O'Donnel.

Joining VagrantMemories

2007-03-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

Hello, hello? Is this thing on?
Urbansurvivor here. WBF invited me to become a guest columnist a year and a half ago. I'm just now getting around to joining. If you have cruised over to the Urbansurvivor, you probably have read a rant or two. If not, you can read a little about the things that set me off, various interests and my newsfeed on Bloglines RAW. Oh wait, you can do that here as well.

VagrantMemories & Urbansurvivor's points of view sometimes clash. I do not anticipate a 'he said, she said' type of exchange but you never know. If you are bored by now, check out the Heartside.Tribe over on Tribe.net. Interesting independent art over there. Check out some of the other tribes associated with Heartside as well.

-Urbansurvivor
Ok, how'd I do? I certainly hope we passed the audition.

LOST speed portrait of John Locke

2007-03-03T23:31:00.000-05:00

This guy puts me to shame. Awesome Photoshop timelapse.
Great work dude.

-urbansurvivor

P.S. LOST fans will appreciate this, even if they don't know anything about Photoshop.

Huge 'Ocean' Discovered Inside Earth - Yahoo! News

2007-03-03T10:09:00.000-05:00

It seems there's a whole lot more going on under the earth's crust than we expected. I found the following article in YahooNews! fascinating...
Huge 'Ocean' Discovered Inside Earth - Yahoo! News

Does anyone know how I can get some beachfront property down there, eh?

Headbanger Threads - check them out!

2007-02-25T12:01:00.000-05:00

I was poking around Tribe.Heartside today and one of my colleages, VagrantMemories has a link to a diy tribe...so being the Urbansurvivor I am, I checked it out. I found the post on scrap paper floor treatment preceeding this one but could not tear myself away. [yea, it was a cheesy pun]

Voileee! The Headbanger Threads:

These two live creativity. Concept to video report, Nicely done.

scrap paper floor - DIY - do it yourself - tribe.net

2007-02-25T11:29:00.000-05:00

scrap paper floor - DIY - do it yourself - tribe.net

I ran across this post and comments, what a great idea! Great reason to go back
to paper bags, recycled ones of course. Filing this in the 'remember this one' file.

P.S. many profuse apologies to my heartside tribe friends, been pretty busy this year.

Review: A lost art; Romance in the age of irony

2007-02-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

We have failed them all. We have sold the hopeless romantics down the river. We have taken the fragile, tender blessing that those blissful souls once bestowed upon us and we have crushed it like a rose petal beneath an Ugg boot.

Don't pretend you don't know what we mean.

Love in the 21st Century is a joke. It's a scam. It's a punch line in a sitcom. It's an e-mail with a lame smiley face in place of an original phrase. It's a hasty text message (LUV U) with a hieroglyph where your heart ought to be.

This review probably belongs over on my colleague's blog VagrantMemories. I concur with the above quote and will go you one further; a large part of the target purchasing demographic is influences by the 'hip-hop nation', and that fact has some interesting overtones.

In the hip-hop nation, thugs dominate the social landscape, women are objectified to an extreme just short of sex-slave and to quote Notorius B.I.G. "You're nobody 'till somebody kills you." I find the contrast of a rose petal being crushed under an Ugg a particularly telling. Women wear Uggs more than men do, get where I am going with this?

Let us throw in the technology aspect. I remember way back in the ancient days when there was no graphic element to the internet, the spelling and typing skills of people were not up to real-time communication, necessitating some creative shorthand. Those who for their own reasons, did not learn to spell or type have contributed their little part.

I found the above article sad and telling. I agree with the author JKeller, we want mad love and do not know how to get it. Guess I'll stay single a little longer...

MySpace security warning

2006-09-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

For those of you who still play in the sandbox, read the Register's article regarding the 'private' setting for profiles....

Teen data on Myspace compromised
Hack allows 'private' entries to be made public
By OUT-LAW.COM → More by this author
Published Wednesday 30th August 2006 07:02 GMT
Find your perfect job - click here for thousands of tech vacancies.

A security hole in the popular MySpace social networking site allowed users to view entries marked "private", a crucial protection for users aged under 16, according to weekend reports.
www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/30/myspace_teen_data_hacked/

Hey Art & George, the BrainTrust finally caught up with CoasttoCoast listeners!

2006-09-25T11:13:00.000-04:00

Scientists discover 'shadow person' | COSMOS magazine

Chalk one up for the Coast to Coast AM listeners, they beat the scientific community to the punch once again by their diligence and open mindedness. Read the COSMOS article detailing the cause of some of the 'shadow people'.

Links for Living in Italy

2006-09-21T10:04:00.000-04:00

Some realistic resources for foreigners living in Italy, or wishing they did. Yes, there's lots of sunshine, pasta, and good red wine in Italy - but you'll need a few more things to actually build a life here. Lots of money, for starters...

read more | digg story

MissionFish: How it Works

2006-09-20T15:59:00.000-04:00

Ebay Sellers, Amazon-iers and other online vendors as well as independent artists and non-profit organizations can benefit from this site. Backed by ebay, sellers can designate a percentage of sales for a charitable organization. Great Resource for the socially responsible and progressive.

read more | digg story

Funny Office Slang

2006-09-19T19:58:00.000-04:00

A funny guide to business terminology for people who work in an office.

read more | digg story

New Contact Info

2006-07-31T11:23:00.000-04:00

For no particular reason, my email server took a powder therefore;

urbansurvivor@cachette.com

is the thing.

-urbansurvivor

Zen Sarcasm

2006-07-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of
me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either.
Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

2. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

6. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of days at work or car payments.

8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like 'The Force.' It has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together.

18. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.

19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

20. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night

I believe I have finally become a bit jaded, my cynisim has gotten the better of me today.

On the Road

2006-07-12T17:04:00.000-04:00

Nope, did not drop off the face of the earth. Have been busy now that the warm weather has finally arrived. I have checked in from time to time at the Heartside tribe on tribe.net. Seems like things are picking up again and heading in the right direction. Congratualtions to the Heartside Neighbors for electing an interim board of directors to tidy things up.

Congratulations to the local Heartside Artists on two successful art shows this season. Sorry I missed them, keep up the good work! Hope to see you all toward the end of the summer.

-urbansurvivor

Leave it to the Blue Man Crew

2006-06-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Research is a dangerous pursuit for me, I eventually end up getting side-tracked by way more interesting things that the original research subject. Today was one of those days. Check out the cool stuff Blue Man Crew have dreamed up...

Blue Man Crew Toys

What Makes a Good Blog?

2006-04-20T08:22:00.000-04:00

This non-blog, blog layout article from Spring 2005 NY-Times discusses in brief good blogging strategies. Personality is key, single focus is not as important as *interesting* content. Reader comments build traffic, ya just gotta have 'em, no way around it. Urbansurvivor agrees that comments and the resulting traffic come very s l o w l y.

read more | digg story

43 and 1

2006-04-20T05:35:00.000-04:00

Recently I jumped on the 43 bandwagon. You know, the social networking tool-ish sites which are so popular and allow you to rate, review, build upon 43 stuffs you are into? Thought it was a really cool idea, a-la Kevin Bacon six degree concept. Wrong.

I began happily reviewing one of my favorite authors, reasoning that reviews lead to amazon revenue, occasionally.
Wrong.

What I found out was that after I reviewed my author/book, logged out then looked at the review as any anonymous surfer would, I had put traffic linkback into the coffer of some other reviewer. Traffic=revenue and not mine.

Lesson learned: Just because a service, website, fill-in-the-blank is popular does not mean it is right for you or is what it appears to be.

A very interesting caveat to this experince: I was amused to see the one name moniker of a local politico from my urban area of operation as a registered user. What makes this amusing is that this particular creature is feking paranoid about not revealing the former birth name as said creature has legally changed the birth name to this one name affair.

Add to the hilarity the one thing any techno-geek knows: You are never alone on the 'Net. Someone will accidently find you eventually.....even if they were not looking and wouldn't look for you anyway.

What are the Recruiting Bonuses?

2006-04-11T00:10:00.000-04:00

You gotta check out the "Moped Army" from www.coolhunter.com
Who would want to be tagged as a "Moped Soldier" anyway? Wait, yes we have it.....

....the French!

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/lifestyle/MOPEDARMY/

Mid-Week Whatever

2006-03-29T12:07:00.000-05:00

Check out the awesome ad campaign images created for Harley Davidson...
cool hunter-HARLEY DAVIDSON-AD/2/

For you Geeks give gojobby.com a glance. They're only looking for Geeks currently, and yes it's beta.

Finally if you find yourself with some downtime, check out this site www.hackaday.com/

Happy Wednesday!

urbansurvivor

How "LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF THE ROGUE WARRIOR" changed my life

2006-03-24T00:10:00.000-05:00

LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF THE ROGUE WARRIOR

by Richard Marcinko

I learned that leaders lead. They do not sit at desks pushing pencils and yapping with their feet up letting others do the work.

See more about LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF THE ROGUE WARRIOR

Why I admire hs intern

2006-03-23T23:16:00.000-05:00

Heartside Ministry is a great place to take an online class, job search, or get help with all things computer-ish. The hsIntern will help you post a resume, write a cover letter, teach you html, graphics, internet searching, help you with your term paper and help you fill out your FAFSA. Best of all, it was all FREE! Thanks, hsIntern.

Learn more about hs intern

Coca-Cola Blak | New Coffee Drink from Coke

2006-03-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

Caffiene has long been a very good friend to computer and technology geeks! Now it appears Coca-Cola has developed a new fusion beverage that promises to satisfy both coffee and cola addictions - at the same time !!!

read more digg story

Follow-up: Not only did this story generate alot of hoo-ha but having taken a second look after checking the above post to make sure it showed, I took a second look at the packaging. The bottle is well, Dark. Reminiscent of a dark beer almost. Minimalist design makes it sortof mysterious. Perhaps the package design alone will motivate the first try?

Influence the Blogosphere Revisited

2006-03-22T13:32:00.000-05:00

So my digg feed is relatively recent and today I'm poking around for research sources to provide raw fodder for the term paper mill and what do I find? I'm tagged as a spammer on digg already. Below is the recap:

by thepacketrat on 3/20/06
[comment buried, show comment hide comment] + 0 diggs
diggspam! It's a consulting site, not news. [reply]

by urbansurvivor 5 minutes ago
[comment buried, show comment hide comment] + 1 digg
When exactly did consulting become anathema? I use digg and the rest of the alphabet soup to gather information useful to *me*. I do not represent myself or my feeds as professonal journalism. However to be fair to you, I will give both your articles opining on the more general topic of rss a thoughtful read, fair enough? Slapping me with spamishness without further comment feels like being smacked in the face with a fish.

Perhaps I should preclude my own research with a pre-claimer?

Sheesh buddy!

I guess now I'll have to review his stuff and report back. When I have time...after the rough drafts of two term papers are, well drafted. Wait, raw research, compare and contrast paper, Hmmmmm.....should I source packrat........? Interesting....

Well anyway, If I do there'll be an update. For now I expect the subject has died a quiet UN-dugg death.

Original Post from two days ago...

How much influence does your blog have on the blogosphere? RatSoe
your blog, rate other blogs and influence the blogosphere.

read more digg story

5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of digg Traffic

2006-03-22T13:02:00.000-05:00

Five simple steps for getting the Most Out of your front-page digg.

read more | digg story

Influence the Blogosphere

2006-03-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

How much influence does your blog have on the blogosphere? Rate your blog, rate other blogs and influence the blogosphere.

read more | digg story

TechnoGeek's Lust for Low-Tech

2006-03-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

I really must resolve to stop questioning my gut.

Three years ago I wanted a low-tech data conveyance and could not find one to suit me, save my life, or data for that matter. What I wanted was a day planner, contact tracker, journal, research record & scrapbook all rolled into one. The idea was that at the end of the year, I would archive the whole of the contents and start anew with all the junk in one package. Rational: My kids will not care about the nitty-gritty of my life; perchance my grandchildren would find it entertaining.

I did not want a full-blown Franklin/Covey/DayRunner type deal. I did want a simple tasks/appointment page shielding the journal pages behind it; low tech stealth. I wanted the ability to insert a quote, daily bread, picture or postcard associated with my scribbling if the mood struck me. I wanted my research notes with me in some protective covering not the scraps of library note paper and miscellaneous post-it notes which fell out and got lost with maddening frequency. All this stuff had to be portable, interchangeable and reconfigurable on the fly. Additionally, in the months prior to the affordable jump drive, I needed a Codex for all my favorite snippets of css and javascript as well as my favorite html templates.

In the end, the the blank book my Codex was made from fell apart rather quickly as the binding medium was nothing more than scratch pad glue. The pages on the other hand are far from wearing out and can be rebound in some other binding package. The planner, journal, research archive book is virtually empty. A few pages in the front have some scribbling but the project as a whole was for the most part, abandoned. Perhaps it was the process of imagining, creating and constructing which was an end unto itself.

Or that is what I thought until today. While doing research for three papers due in less than a month, I stumbled across a whole user group who has passion now is to create their own p.i.m. Some like the so-called, "HipsterPDA". Nothing more than three by five cards bound by a variety of means from biner clips, hair bands to bulldog clips and pocket protectors. (yes, you did read that last one correctly) Pages included; one for To-Do, one for Next-Action, one for Contacts and so forth. Others preferred a more traditional approach. Their own choice of cover, moleskins or actual binders and pages created to suit their needs.

Eventually, the web site owner published a series of pdf documents as templates. Users have contributed templates for specified professional note taking from blank staff pages for musicians to mini spread sheets. To my delight there in this creative mix were the templates I had been looking for in various professional websites; System Administration Log documents! I spent way too many hours today with these creative low-tech rebels when I should have been researching serious topics. I choose to think that perhaps the time was well spent. I was vindicated in my three-year lust for low-tech and my creative side with thoroughly satiated.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Many Thanks to the creatives at the D*I*YPlanner.com user group. I'll post some pictures at some point.

Ref Linkback: http://www.diyplanner.com/image/tid/14

2006-03-10T23:55:00.000-05:00

Found something way cool on the web today.
This is a chalk drawing done by well known Urban Artist: Julian Beever

Scroll down.....

This is the same image shown from the wrong perspective. It is actually fourty feet long.

Make Poverty History drawing from the side

Use this Ref Link: http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7567
to view the rest of this collection.

Purchase Clue? Y/N

2006-03-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

Type your answer and hit return.

Programmers humor. So here is my blog. Pretty sparse, guess I'll have to go get some content.

sign me....
urbansurvivor