The Comment Tater

Just so you know, I have no resolutions. I have resolved to have an "aha moment". I live every second of my life trying to be brilliant or genius and a better person. I don't need to resolve to be these things or do these things once a year. This is the way I live my life.

Happy new years to you all.

All I can say is hallelujah that someone else feels this way. Maybe it is just me...

Tonight, while looking at some of my links in my blogroll, I ran across this post from Jim Durbin titled "Strive for Dissatisfaction." Great read, in my opinion. In the following excerpt, Jim's wife hits a homerun with her quote, stated below:

"Nothing new was ever created by a satisfied person. Dissatisfaction is what motivates us to achieve, create, and alter our circumstances to do more, be more, and make more."

Quite a woman, eh? And she's right. Companies use employee satisfaction as a metric to measure their benefits against those of their competitors and reduce turnover. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's nothing right with it, either.

The key to true satisfaction lies in doing a job well - facing a challenge and defeating it. Dissatisfaction in our world is considered a negative emotion - like it's somehow wrong to want something better. If companies truly want to excel, perhaps they ought to poll their dissatisfied workers and find out what is it they want done better. Maybe the key to turbocharging stock prices is not eliminating dissension from the ranks, but encouraging its expression in order to find out what it is you can do better.

Or you can keep doing what you're doing and wonder why things never seem to change.

Jim, your wife is has a beautiful mind.

I was checking up on certain phrases today, one of which was Social Butterfly, when I ran across this article - which, mind you, is rather old, but a hoot none-the-less - about the social habits of bloggers.

Bloggers are social creatures and I can see a glimmer of truth in this article but I can tell you that I am digging the fact that I am, as the brilliant Jag puts it, riding this gravy train called blogging.

OMG... This is so right on and completely hysterical. I dare not even begin to describe what you're going to read here but I will say that that elf can dance.

Edit, Edit, Edit: The Very Lovely Jag linked to me for a list of attendees to the recent Nerd Fest that I attended. Don't go get your panties in a wad, Nerdliness is an aspiration of mine and to have been in a room full of Nerds is like being in the presence of world leaders for me. Anyway, to the point, the Lovely Jag linked to me and gave you this url. If you are looking for that list, follow me. Otherwise, want to read about the bag of crap, see below.

Well, I'm absolutely thrilled that the lovely Aunt B. linked to my laundry list of attendees at a recent nerd fest that I attended. Love you lady...

Moving on, it is Christmas Day. Are you feeling lonely? Is the sum total of recipients on your Christmas Shopping List one, and that is your cat? If so, you might like to check out Woot's offer for the day. My friends, you can have your very own bag of crap for only $1.00 plus $5.00 shipping. Woot recommends that you purchase in quantities of three to get the best deal out of shipping.

Merry Freakin Christmas.

Chris rules was the password for entry into the tightly secured apartment complex downtown on Second Avenue... What a beautiful view My Quiet Life had. After meeting the folks last night, however, I think I might recommend to Chris that he change the name of his blog to My Not So Quiet Life. Food for thought.

As we entered the door we were greeted by Chris' lovely fiancee who is quite knowledgeable on her wines. I think I must consult her going forward on good wines. We were greeted as "The Smyrna Bloggers" which is nearly hysterical to me since the other two bloggers I was with, Bad Bad Ivy and Chip Talks, both live in La Vergne.

The room was full of people, all who appeared to be in their late 20's, with the exception of one who looked about 19. Too cute. Before the night had ended, I sent a notebook around for everyone to write down the names of their blogs so I could get it right today and not repeat the same, horrible, mistake that I did recently when mentioning Salem's Lots.

So, I have the list of folks and I'd like to share with those the acquaintences that I made. Of course, there was Aunt B. She does seemt to be quite the social butterfly but I was so saddened to see her leave so early and was a bit let down that the Butcher did not come with.

Then there was the very handsome and married Newton Dominey. Newton is only one degree away from Bruce Springsteen if memory serves. Newton, please do correct me if I am wrong. Newton has a site apart from a blog which allows him to promote his musical skills. It would seem that he is a skilled musician with a number of talents. He is a singer, drummer and guitarist in Nashville. He plays the local clubs. I'm really interested in helping him with optimization so that he can be number one in the search engines for the keyword phrase "Musicians in Nashville".

I also had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Jamie (name is a bit difficult to remember). Her blog's name is About to be Brilliant, which I think is the story our all our lives and how we feel every day. My experience with Jamie introduced me to the word Twat Waffle. Contain yourself.

Now we turn to Becca. Though we did not get to speak as much as I did with the others, I did learn that she has a blog with crazy eyed dogs on it.

Then there was this guy who looked like Ben Folds and claimed not to have a blog but rumor has it that he does. Perhaps he was not too quick to claim it since it is named Loser Fish.

Another blogger with whom I had little opportunity to speak I think his name is Chris, but if you are looking for business technology information, you might want to pay his site a visit.

And finally, shortly before we had to go, TV on the Fritz showed up. Ladies, he is quite adorable but alas is quite young as well. Fritz, you've got a delightful smile. I hope that our paths will cross again sometime soon. I will definitely be paying your blog a visit for some youthful wit and wisdom.

Chris, thanks once again for your hospitality.

I'm going to a party with my friends from the Middle Tennessee Blogger and Podcaster's Group. Bad Bad Ivy, Chip Talks and I will be attending a party hosted by My Quiet Life. I'm very excited to be meeting more bloggers. I'm also thrilled that Aunt B. plans to be there so this is going to be a lot of fun.

I wish I had nothing better to do than to read and write. I wish I had the ability to focus for long periods of time. Mostly, in regards to writing, I wish that I could write as well as Aunt B. She can take garbage and craft it into something beautiful. I'm glad she's not feeling too antagonastic. If I could look into a crystal ball and tell you the future, I would say that Aunt B. will be known as one of the greatest writers of our time*.

Don't know Aunt B.? In a recent post, she responds to some kind comments by saying this:

Here's the part I especially like--"meandering tales" and "whole wonderfully constructed cast of characters." Yep, that's exactly it. I want you to read this and get a sense of what it must be like to sit next to me at a bar or across from me at the dinner table. I want you to care a little bit about the people I care a lot about. I want to take our ordinary moments and put a little shine on them.

And I'm glad that's coming across. That makes me happy.

For those of you who are not familiar with Aunt B.... a word of caution. She also has this remarkable ability to take something beautiful and turn it right back to garbage. Utterly hysterical.

* An experiment. ;) I thought it would be quite amusing to see Aunt B. show up in searches as "one of the greatest writers of our time."

I was having a VERY BAD DAY... I am an eternal red-headed step child. I can say that as I am red-headed... So, at 1:00 when I finally got to go to lunch after not having eaten ALL DAY and having had only vegetables and liquid the day before, I went over to Border's Book Store to sit in their wireless cafe and get some things off my damn chest.

Well, after paying $5.00 for a damn smoothie, I sit down to get online and what do I discover? YOU'VE GOT TO PAY TO ACCESS THEIR WIRELESS NETWORK. WTF!

ESPRESSO JOE'S, I LOVE YOU.

BORDERS, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?

Oh, John... Will you ever forgive me for my haste?

I attended a meeting of the Rutherford County Blogger and Podcaster's recently and I must say that those characters are a hoot... Anyway, Bad Bad Ivy has got one helluva idea. Seems she is feeling quite creative and suggested we have a Celebrity Blogger Smack Down... All proceeds to go to charity, of course.

I won't tell you which local blogger certain folks wanted in the middle of a cage fight. I wonder if John would be like the Emcee dude, or whatever he is called.

You read it here first.

Yes, it is true. The world in which we live is a dynamic place, although most changes happen over the course of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. This change, however, will be one that scientist belive will happen within the next fifty years.

Remarkably enough, the earth's magnetic poles are shifting. It is expected that within the next fifty years magnetic north will be in Siberia. No longer will the Northern Lights shine brightly in the sky above Alaska... but Siberia.

This is not something that is new to the Earth as there is evidence that this occurs with some frequency but it is quite amazing that it should take place in our lifetime. I highly recommend reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. This is, without question, one of my most favorite books.

Okay, call me crazy, but I just love the Brak Show and Sealab 2021. What the hell did they do with Mom on the Brak Show, though. Anyone know? I don't like the new Mom as well as the other.

By the way, I realize these are probably old episodes so what I mean by "new" is probably more accurately written as "different".

That's right baby! I'm number one in Google for the search term "Tater Me". Woo who, parteee...

Don't hate me because I am a success.

I have this laptop that I haven't used because without access to the internet, it was rendered very much useless. Well, as I may have previously mentioned, I set up a wireless network in my house, and got my laptop up and running.

I've since been installing all the necessary software the I think I need: Open Office, NVU, Firefox, IPodder and the necessary firewall and virus softwares, etc.

I have to tell you, in case you don't know, Firefox Rocks! These extensions are... OMG... fantastic. I highly recommend RUSure, and Image Zoom. I think I could have downloaded for an hour or more and really had to pry myself away from all the great extensions there were to make my life easier. I am so keen on the dictionary extensions, too. Check out Firefox 1.5.

Check this out, Scientist announced on Friday that they had discovered the birth of a new Ocean - of all places - in Ethiopia.

Now, if this doesn't astound you, I don't know what will.

I kid you not, I just saw the riots in Pakistan that have been sparked due to the banning of kite flying. As seen on CNN.

I wonder if I have it.

I'm not too well last couple of days.

I did manage to get myself a wireless network running in my apartment and I am soooo happy about it. I bought some wireless cards from Woot. Three B cards for $15. I would have preferred G cards but the B cards seem to be working just fine. I gave one to my friend for future use.

I recommend checking out Woot. Daily they have a new deal and it isn't always techie stuff. The other day they had some audio equipment for your car and then a bread machine, coffee maker and the network cards. I thought the price was very reasonable, shipping and all and the order came in quite fast.

I must retire.

My hubby was going on in his usual way the other day about the government and how corrupt politicians were, etc... Most of the time, since I have no ability to argue the point either way, I ignore him. I like to get the facts from more than one source, you see, and I don't drink kool-aid very well, not even his.

Anyhow, he asked me if I knew that the government was trying to pass legislation that would track the number of hours a user spent online and if you went over a certain amount, it would be deemed as an addiction and you'd have to (memory fails me here) take classes or pay a fine.

Now, dear readers, I've searched for stories that would give me greater detail on this and have yet to find one. Does anyone know of such a piece of legislation? If such a law were to be passed, how would you feel?

Anyone got a clue what I can do to fix my Playstation 2? I have one and the disc seems to have stopped spinning. Help.

Okay, so this might not be nearly as funny as what Aunt B. wants but, it is still pretty humorous. If ya'll want to ge me something for Christmas, this would look so good on my cubicle wall:




It's Pee and Poo. Now, ya'll know what that means, right? Tip of the hat to the CMO Blog. How funny.