I think I’ve neglected to mention it on this site before, but the FCC has removed restrictions preventing companies from owning all the media outlets in a city. Basically this means that one organization can eliminate your access to opposing views. Jeffrey Zeldman has explained this in greater detail complete with links to other sources, so I’ll let him do it.
I instead would like to post the form response I got from Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, basically being extremely noncommital and saying that he won’t do anything about it. The letter could almost be a response to someone who is writing from either side of the issue which is quite impressive if it weren’t so maddening. Crapo says that he is not on the Senate Commerce Committee, but will watch the proceedings, and watch out for Idaho. I have gotten a lot of responses to letters to representatives in my time, but I think this is the most noncommital I have ever gotten, and it makes me sad. I would rather get a letter saying that he completely disagrees with me for this that and the other reason, and will work hard to ensure that the FCC hands over the media to conglomerates than something like this.
This will not stop me from writing to my representatives though. I truly believe that if enough people write enough letters about important issues, that our representatives will be more careful about voting for measures that hurt their constituents. I encourage you all to write to your representatives whenever you see the goverment thinking about doing something that you disagree with or will hurt you. You may get frustrating letters, and it may seem to make no difference, but it will if enough people start doing it.
Clicking on the picture of the letter on the left leads to the letter full sized in Word format. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but I got the letter in that format, and I couldn’t get it out with out it looking like crap.
ge.nius: 1) an attendant spirit of a person or place 2) a strong leaning or inclination 3) a peculiar or distinctive character or spirit (as of a nation or a language) 4) the associations and traditions of a place 5) a nature spirit, also: a person who influences another for good or evil 6) a single strongly marked capacity or aptitude 7) extraordinary intellectual power: also a person having such power. Plural: geniuses or especially in definitions 1 & 5: genii
There you have it. My (or maybe Webster’s) defininiton of a genius. Being a little miffed at my all too accurate depiction of his childhood foibles, Ultrabob, having no other outlet for his irritation, decided to nitpick at my choice of the word “geniuses” as the plural of “genius”. Being somewhat of a bibliophile, I did a little research. Well, my UltraSon, it seems that you are, at least, partially correct. Because when I referred to my offspring as more than one genius, I, of course, was using definition 5; that is, a NATURE SPIRIT. Who, more than you have influenced others for good or for evil through your nefarious ultrabob postings? Who, more than Johnny, has exemplified the very essence of NATURE SPIRIT through his love of flora and fauna?
Yes, I stand corrected. My children are all GENII. (Except, of course Heather and Jim, who merely display extraordinary intellectual powers).
ULTRAMOM
I’m excited that Bob invited me to join him posting on this site, and also a little overwhelmed! I’m sure I won’t be nearly as prolific and witty as Bob, nor as entertaining as Johnny. I’ll use this post to introduce myself a little.
As you have probably surmised, Bob and I differ on many things. I probably lean a bit more towards Johnny’s politics. But we also share some basic values and a sense of what is important; staying in close touch with our loved ones, for example...............(Bob, don’t forget your Dad’s birthday tomorrow!)
I am at a point in my life when I have the (forgive the cliche) “empty nest syndrome”. But surprisingly enough, I don’t seem to have gained any TIME. I think we must take on additional responsiblities proportionate to any time we may think we have gained. Or else, we just let other things, like wasting time playing word games on the computer, expand to fill all the glorious time we thought we would be scrambling to invent pleasant enough pastimes for. Of course by “we” I mean me. I really don’t know that much about any of you!
Let’s just start by stating the simple fact that all of my children are geniuses. Bob was always a precocious little tot. He knew the classic rhyming tale of a jumping pony “Jim Jump” by heart after hearing it only 1 or 2 hundred times, and would correct me if I skipped a word. He also loved the “Saggy Baggy Elephant”. Everytime we got to the part where the elephant got a drink in the river, I KNEW we would have to stop and get little Bobby a “Gwink” of his own. Also, (and I am NOT making this up) he won the prestigious “Etch a Sketch” contest by etching a picture of a hot air balloon- its really tricky turning that Etch a Sketch upside down on a copy machine. He won lots of fun and exciting prizes and threw a party for his friends with the $10 cash that was included. Try even buying lunch with $10 now.
Now, Johnny’s genius takes a different tack. He is a walking encyclopedia of….......television and movie quotes! Sometimes it seems like that boy hardly has an original thought in his head. Now that is something you won’t hear from me, as I can hardly even remember what I just said, let alone obscure media drivel.
My other two genius children are not contributers to this site, so we will save them for another post when I don’t have anything else to write about.
Well, Bob, don’t know if this is what you had in mind, but that’s what you get!
ULTRAMOM
I gave myself a new haircut yesterday, and I took some pictures in our bathroom mirror. I know it sounds extremely vain, but I honestly did it to try to get views from as many angles as I could to make sure I didn’t miss any. 
I ended up with one shot that shows me next to one of the girlfriend’s bottles of potion. I like the way the lack of perspective in the shot makes it appear that my head is roughly the same size as the bottle. I was going to submit the picture to the mirror project, but they are apparently not accepting submissions for a while, so I’ll put it up here instead. As you can see, I did a really good job on this haircut, I worked really hard to thin out the hair and decrease volume.
As I special bonus, I’ve throw in “UltraBob and the giant light switch” absolutely free.
| You are 42% geek | You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.
Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. |
Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com
A List Apart is back to active publishing with an interview with Anil Dash, Vice President of Business Development for Six Apart – creators of Moveable Type – the publishing system via which this site is in part produced.
Mr. Dash discusses that the new TypePad will by apparently output standards compliant web pages by default. The TypePad system sounds more and more exciting everyday. Being a product by Ben and Mena Trott I have no doubt that it will be a well supported high quality product, and with Mena on the job it looks beautiful too.
Anyway, here’s the article. Go check it out, and I’m very happy to have A List Apart active again.
It appears that Johnny has started work as a firefighter for the summer already, and didn’t have a chance to write that on the site. Given that, the duo will become one for the summer if I don’t find a temorary replacement. I thought long and hard about who would be a suitable replacement.
The person should be quite different from me, but also close to me. They should be witty and intelligent, and most importantly should be better at writing than I am. This leaves me with one canditate who would best fill in this slot, and who will probably make this site a considerably different read. I would like to invite my mother, Kathy to be my copilot on this website until Johnny’s return.
I suspect however, that she has quit reading this site due to my frequent political posts which weren’t much to her liking. To test this, I will leave this post up for a couple of days and see if she discovers herself that she has been invited.
At any rate, Mom, would you take up Johnny’s slack for a while. I know that you are a good writer, and I think you are the perfect person to add a new flavor to this site for a while. Please accept this invitation.
P.S. Everyone, please feel free to comment encouraging my Mom to start writing on this site. You too can make a difference.
