Archive for the 'My A-Musings' Category





Feb 24 2010

How To Focus…Or Not

Published by Richard under Essays, My A-Musings

how to lose focusThis morning I lost focus which happens with regularity.

Fortunately, I can control it because I am aware of it.  If you are aware of losing focus, does that by definition make you focused?

My intention was to create a page on my how to video site about how to copy a DVD to a DVD because a lot of people want to know how to do this.  I had already written about how to copy DVD to hard drive and people really liked it so I thought I would expand on the topic.

Then, I lost focus. Continue Reading »

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Feb 12 2010

What Does It Mean To Poke Someone On Facebook

Published by Richard under My A-Musings

what is a poke on facebookMy friend Bob asked me the other day, “What does it mean to poke someone on Facebook?”

Initially, I did not give it much thought and responded, “A poke on Facebook…it’s simply an acknowledgment.”

“But,” Bob doth protested, “do you think sometimes a Poke can be much more than a poke?  Do some Facebook pokes have more significance than others?”

Bob likes to over analyze the meaning of things and so do I.  If we don’t, life can be really boring, right?  And then you’ll find yourself reading things like What can I do on the Internet when I’m Bored?

“So,” I asked Bob, “What is a Facebook poke to you?  Were you just Facebook poked by someone and think it was more than an acknowledgment?”

“Oh yeah!” Bob responded.  “I think it was much more than an acknowledgment.”

Bob explained the situation and it turns out that there is potentially much more beneath the surface with a Facebook poke.  A Facebook Poke takes very little time but can say a whole lot! Continue Reading »

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Oct 02 2009

Ted Williams Frozen Head Hit by a Baseball Bat

Published by Richard under My A-Musings, Sports

Catching up on the upcoming weekend in sports on ESPN.com, I just came across a story entitled Book: Williams’ head abused at facility.

This initially may not strike you as odd if you do not know the story. Continue Reading »

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Jul 21 2009

Open Pandora’s Box: A New Online Radio Website

Published by Richard under Music, My A-Musings

I was just taking a look at the top 10 pop songs to see if I am missing out on any good, recent music when I came across a website called Pandora Radio.

Occasionally, I listen to the radio online instead of playing songs from my iTunes. This was the first site that was returned when I searched for “online radio” so I gave it a shot.

This site completely stereotyped me…and I loved it!

Here’s how it works: You put in the name of an artist that you like and it will create a radio station for you.

It was as if I was playing my songs from iTunes but with a much greater selection. I put the name “Dave Matthews” into Pandora because I had just seen that many people were accessing my page on the Dave Matthews Cruise (because he has a new cruise scheduled–you should go by the way, it might just be the best trip you’ll ever take!). All of the sudden I was listening to Dave, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, and a bunch of other artists I love.

I think I’ll be opening Pandora’s Box everyday. It’s a great, personalized online music site. Check out Pandora when you get a chance.

Related:  For a daily list of today’s top music, check out Top Ten Songs, Top Rap Songs, Top Country Songs, and Top Dance Songs.

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Jun 27 2009

A Reaction to Michael Jackson’s Death

Published by Richard under Music, My A-Musings

Last night, I sat down to watch the evening news with Brian Williams when I heard the news:  Michael Jackson is dead.

My first reaction was utter disbelief–he’s too young to be dead!  We received no clues, no warnings, no serious ill-health reports.  For a moment, I thought they must have the report wrong.  How could Michael Jackson be dead?

If I give some thought to this, I know another reason that the news is rather shocking:  Continue Reading »

3 responses so far

May 31 2009

Know-It-Alls

Published by Richard under My A-Musings

Are you a know-it-all?  If so, I have one piece of information that you do not know:  You annoy everybody!

There are two kinds of know-it-alls:  know-it-alls who know nothing and know-it-alls who actually do know almost everything.  I am not sure which is more annoying. Continue Reading »

4 responses so far

May 05 2009

Why I Love Southwest Airlines: The Southwest Rap Video

Published by Richard under My A-Musings

This morning I was checking out the latest Top Rap Songs and came across a rap video performed on…Southwest Airlines?

How great is Southwest Airlines for allowing their employees to exercise creativity like this?

Let’s see…small seats, old airplanes, no assigned seating…but I always enjoy flying Southwest because of things like this. They just do things right.

Clearly the passengers loved this too as they joined in the beat and gave a big round of applause. Enjoy the Southwest Rap Song! Continue Reading »

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Apr 30 2009

Put Your Face on a Dancing Body

Published by Richard under My A-Musings

Put Your Face on a Dancing BodyI was recently adding some how to videos to the home page of my site when I came across a web page that allows you to Put Your Face on a Dancing Body. This site is called JibJab and they not only allow you to put your face on a dancing body but you can also put your face on another body.

You know those moments that you intend to be productive and then get completely sidetracked by some new Internet thing. You will get definitely get sidetracked with jibjab. It is so much fun. Continue Reading »

5 responses so far

Mar 21 2009

The Curious Case of The Best Man Speech

Published by Richard under My A-Musings

Over the summer, I attended a wedding along with a few hundred other people.  It was a gorgeous summer afternoon and the outside wedding was proceeding flawlessly.  Weddings can have hiccups as sometimes things go awry, but on this day everything was going perfect.

And then came time for the Best Man Speech.

What happened?  Did he ruin the wedding?  Did he give one of the worst best man speeches of all time?

No, quite the contrary.  He was brilliant.  This best man delivered one of the most hilarious best man speeches that I have seen.  From the opening line of his speech (you’ll see in the video below), he had the hundreds in attendance doubled over in laughter.  He jokes were tastefully colored so that those in the know got the jokes but the kids and grandparents would take no offense.  When he finished, the audience gave him a standing ovation.  I heard several people say–and I agreed–that this was the best best man speech that they had ever seen.

So, why do I tell this story now?

Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Feb 18 2009

Why Television Networks Are Stupid


Today, let’s talk about Why Television Networks Are Stupid.

I am thinking about this as I am waiting for the show 24 to download.  I am downloading 24 from this page.  By the time many of you read this, the link will be dead or say something like “this show is unavailable due to copyright infringement”.

I am downloading 24 because I am Living in Uruguay and they do not air the latest episodes of 24 here.

I download all of the shows that I like–24, Californication, Dexter, Lost, Entourage.  They’re all available.  How?  Basically, people Tivo these programs and then put them on the Internet and try to make money by people clicking on the surrounding ads.  For an example of this, see the website iwatchlostonline.com.  Did you know that, if you type in “watch lost online”, you will receive over 4 million web pages dedicated to this topic?

So, what do the networks do to combat this?

They employ people to track and shut down all of these sites which, judging by the vast availability of everything, works about as well as an athlete saying he didn’t take steroids when he did.

Continue Reading »

3 responses so far

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