Jami's Second Graduation Party

Photos from Jami's Second Graduation Party are now up.

The first party was just practice, as Nebraska Wesleyan University walks its grads just once a year through the coma-inducing commencement ceremony. Wednesday's party was more practice, as Jami finished her final class that day but still doesn't have her diploma.

Coming up as soon as the diploma comes in the mail: The real graduation party. It'll be a humdinger.

Thanks, BugMeNot.com!

BugMeNot.com supplies generic, privacy-saving logins for all those news sites that erect a registration wall between themselves and potential readers. It lets you easily read the odd news article without registering. There's even a Firefox extension that puts a menu item for BugMeNot in your right-click context menu.

Advice Sought on Re-Starting Business

Loyal seven readers, I'd like your advice on an idea I have for re-starting a computer consulting business I let slip into nothingness a while back. I basically just need you to tell me whether you think the price I have in mind is attractive for the service I want to offer.

My old idea, which didn't work, was to charge $50 an hour for on-site computer repair and software training for businesses, and a $50 flat fee for the same services for home users. My new idea is to charge a $35 flat fee for up to two hours of software and gadget training for anybody, and not do computer repair (instead referring customers to a friend of mine). It could be people who need help with office suites and other standard applications, or, more likely, people who need to learn how to use their new digital camera, printer or CD burner and the like.

I think the old idea didn't work because a) the price was too high and b) I utterly underestimated the torturously severe problems people have with their computers. My repair skills weren't up to the task.

So, would you or someone you know pay me $35 to come to your house or office and teach you how to get the most out of your computer or other gadgets? Would you buy a gift certificate for that amount to give as a gift along with some new gadget you're buying for someone? Please let me know, and be brutally honest. No comments about my ancestry, however. The French and the Germans are nice people. :-)

Bush's Polarity Tops Clinton's

And you thought the dislike of Clinton among Republicans and his popularity among Democrats represented unprecedented polar opposition in American politics.

You thought wrong. Turns out the like-Bush and hate-Bush crowds are much farther apart than the comparable Clinton crowds, according to the study reported in this article:

Bush is a measurably polarizing figure. Republican Bill McInturff of the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies uses an "intensity range" to show that public attitudes are significantly stronger on this president than they were on President Clinton in 1996 or Bush's father, former President Bush, in 1992.

When McInturff adds the percentage of Democrats who strongly disapprove of Bush (69 percent) to the percentage of Republicans who strongly approve of him (68 percent), the "intensity range" is 137 percent -- almost double the 72 percent range for the elder Bush. The range for Clinton (in this case, Republican disapproval added to Democratic approval) was 92 percent.

"It's stunning. I have never in my life seen these kinds of numbers on the level of intensity on both sides," McInturff said. "We are seeing the largest gap in American history in approval and disapproval by party. The level at which people are locking in is without precedent."

Urggle.

Loyal seven readers, you may have noticed some appearance ickiness when visiting johnfulwider dot com lately. I blame half of it on Bill Gates and his freakin' incompatible and insecure Internet Explorer browser, and half of it on my poor understanding of CSS and XHTML.

Anyhoo, your favorite Web site will be displaying a safe layout and style for a while. Hope you find it pleasing to the eye and, more importantly, usable.

Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004

Oh. My. Gawrsh. Not to be overenthusiastic, but presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to 2004 are now online. This is exactly the kind of resource I need to do research about political communication.

It's also a great way for people to understand contemporary debates about negative advertising. Everyone who's read or heard a story about attack ads has heard "the Willie Horton ad" mentioned, right? Critics of the ad say it's an example of Republican race-baiting, as it features a black criminal given weekend passes by then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Now, thanks to the American Museum of the Moving Image, you can watch the ad, read the transcript, and judge for yourself.

Golden Climbing Trip Slideshow

Just posted: Golden Climbing Trip Slideshow. More later.

Golden Climbing Trip Photos

Javal took a bunch of great photos on this past weekend's climbing trip to Golden, Colorado. Check 'em out.

Back in the Flatlands

The Colorado climbing trip's over and we're back in the Flatlands. Trip report coming for your perusal and enjoyment, along with pictures of Brian sporting the cutest French-braid ponytails you're ever likely to see. And a whole lot more. In the meantime, why not rate the trip using the handy-dandy poll on the upper-left side of the page?

World's Best RSS Reader: Bloglines

Bloglines is the best RSS reader out there, and I'm about to tell you why.

1. It's Web-based so you can keep up with your RSS subscriptions from anywhere. Read a few in the morning from home, and they're marked as read when you later log on from campus or work. You don't need to download a reader application.

2. There's a bookmarklet to auto-discover and subscribe to the feeds on any page you visit.

3. You can e-mail to a friend, "blog this" or clip any article. Clipping an article puts it in your choice of folders for later perusal. It works fast so you need never hesitate to send something off or save it for future reference.

4. It's free.

I'd change just one thing about Bloglines: When I signed up, at least, the "My Blogs" listing of my subscriptions defaulted to displaying the last month's worth of entries. This created a long load time for me and must have been a heck of server load for Bloglines, so I'd suggest changing the default to display the last 24 hours or week's worth of posts.

Bloglines' creator, Mark Fletcher, deserves a pat on the back.

Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

The always-handy Ask Yahoo reveals the singer of Saturday-morning classics "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill" was jazz singer Jack Sheldon.

Schoolhouse Rock, that series of catchy TV spots that made learning fun, debuted in the '70s. Ad exec David McCall was trying to find a way to help his 11-year-old son learn the multiplication tables. The boy could memorize lyrics yet couldn't master mathematics, so McCall had the idea of setting lessons to music. The catchy ditties were eventually turned into animated TV spots that ran between Saturday morning cartoons on ABC and taught millions of kids about grammar, math, history, and science.

Well, I don't know about the rest of you kids, but after I finished battling my friend with water guns on the wooden dining-room floor, I was so keyed up on sugar-laden cereals I didn't learn much. :-)

Almost-Final Colorado Trip Details

The climbing trip to Golden is less than a week away. Here are almost-final details about the trip: who's going, who's driving, how many ropes we'll have, where we're camping, how much it'll cost, what I suggest we do after climbing on Saturday.

Who's Going (confirmed):

• Bryant


• Chris


• Devin


• Erik


• Jami


• Jane


• Javal


• John


• Justin


• Shannon


• Tim

Who May Be Going:

• Jihee


• Matt


• Ryan


• Sharon


• Tim

Friends above: Would you please contact me to let me know?

Who's Driving:

Chris, a minivan that gets good gas mileage, leaving at ???
John, a Pontiac Grand Am that gets okay gas mileage, leaving around 4 p.m. Friday
Tim, a Ford Taurus that gets okay gas mileage (I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, Tim), leaving at ???

How Many Ropes We'll Have:

At least three. Brand-new ones owned by John and Tim, and one or more borrowed ones. My intent is to have one rope for every three or four climbers, so everyone gets to climb a lot.

Where We're Camping:

Pepper Pod Campground in Hudson, Colorado. It's just off the interstate right before you enter the Denver area, you can't miss it. Showers and restrooms, but no natural beauty and near-death cliffside 3 a.m. tinkling experiences like on the Shelf trip. You've gotta make compromises.

What It'll Cost:

Camping, gas and food. Pepper Pod will give us a group campsite for $5 per person per night, so your total camping cost would be $10 if you stay there Friday and Saturday nights. Gas you'll split among the people with whom you ride. On trips I've taken, the car owner has paid with a credit card for all the gas, kept the receipts, then split the total at the end of the trip. Expect to pay $20-30 for gas. Food: Bring your own. The dollar store on North 27th Street, by Toys 'R Us, has three flavors of trail mix, granola bars, and more, all for $1 each. It's pretty much the shiznit.

What I suggest we do after climbing on Saturday:

Saturday night, go to Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza (just a few minutes away from the crag) for dinner. $8.53, if I remember right, gets you all you can eat pizza in endless variety, from cheese to pepperoni to vegetarian to BBQ chicken and more. That also comes with a salad bar.

Sunday, split up the group if that's what everybody wants and go our separate ways. The REI outdoor gear megastore is just a short drive away in Denver, the ultra-hyper-mega-cool Neptune Mountaineering is even closer in Boulder (the climbing gear selection, tent displays and in-store mountaineering museum have to be seen to be believed) , and there's always climbing in Boulder Canyon, Garden of the Gods, and, well, just about anywhere you and the people in your car care to go.

Previous Updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #5: Camping for $5
July Climbing Trip Update #4
July Climbing Trip Update #3
July Climbing Trip Update #2
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

About/FAQ

What in the name of all that is holy is this?

My blog, recording my thoughts both interesting and not so much, displaying my photographs, serving as an outlet for my self-taught and rather lacking Web design skills, and providing links to information elsewhere on the Web I think my loyal seven readers will find interesting and/or helpful.

What is a blog?

Usually, a collection of short posts and links posted in reverse chronological order, so the new stuff's at the top. See also "navel-gazing."

Why do you blog?

So I can be as cool as this guy:

I've been running a personal website for about six years now. You should see the ladies' faces light up when I casually drop that little nugget at a kegger or outside the dressing rooms at Old Navy. Their voices get husky, they twist their frosted curls around suggestive fingers, jot their numbers on my bare chest just in case I need someone to do some "freelance QA work," you know how it is.

Where can I read more about this ... umm ... fascinating topic?

You could start in my Blogging category.

Do you have any other interests?

Yes.

(Exasperated sigh.) Well, what are they?

Rock Climbing, Food, Photography and Travel.

You're just trying to suck me in to reading more of your blog by including all those self-referential links, aren't you?

Yes. It's all about the traffic.

What's your favorite color?

#FF9933.