MattBob’s Killer Webspace… | UNknown. UNderinformed. UNderthere.

Looks like a visit to my local library ended up into a book buying fiasco.  As many of you know, I love books.  My interests are wide and varying, so when an opportunity presents itself, I purchase extremely reasonably priced (ie, cheap) books.  This little book sale’s gem include the following;

Jane Brody’s Good Food Book - Jane Brody (1.50)

The Gluten-Free Gourmet, Living Well Without Wheat - Bette Hagman (1.75)

Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer (.50)

Tibet, A novel by Gil Ziff - Gil Ziff (.75)

Kitchen Companion - Williams-Sonoma (2.50)

I look forward to reading through these in the upcoming months.  Even though I already had two copies of “Into the Wild” I decided to pick up this copy because it was a crazy, 50 cents and I know others that would love this story and now I can share without hurting my, or their, pocketbook.  yay..

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Yesterday Doug over at eDoug posted some images of himself from a web camera from his Apple computer. This ‘maverick’ thought he was impressing the blogworld with these silly, carnival fun-house like images.

Guess not.

YOU’VE BEEN SERVED DOUG! EAT THAT!

okay, I’m being silly.. but not as silly as “The Sun” in England.

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Trying to keep up with all the interesting revelations occurring around the world with regards to Tibet, I found a blogger from Taiwan who elaborates on the difficulties of working in the media there, citing one specific example.

I’ve been discussing my recent angst about working as a tool to the Chinese propaganda machine, even from an independently owned media company.  While I don’t feel the mainstream U.S. media is any less victimized by its alignment with government information sources, in our country we have the right to choose to hear our own perverted news the way we like it.  It is the distinct lack of choice here, the standard of un-informing the masses in order to maintain control, that troubles me.   It’s fascinating, really, to consider both countries’ ability to manipulate news with a dichotomy between those who choose to be misinformed and those who are systematically uninformed.

His article is quick, but shows what lengths are gone through to paint the best possible picture for China without exactly lying.  No wonder why we do so much business with China, no wonder why we have a huge trade deficit with them.

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I love my Treo. LOVE IT. Unfortunately our days of companionship are numbered. For the past couple months my Treo has been slowly dying. Every few days I don’t hear from people, specifically via Text Messaging or MMS. I’ve learned that when I feel lonely, I restart my phone and voila, messages, lots of them. Much to the chagrin to my Treo 650, this is not a way to operate in these times…

A quick jaunt over at Verizon Wireless and I learn that Palm has not released a new Treo in years (WTF??) and most likely will not have a new one, if they don’t file for bankrupcy, until sometime next year.  Next best tool…. the Google to Treo’s Yahoo!, Blackberry.

Having enjoyed a full qwerty keyboard on my 650, I couldn’t see myself using the Blackberry Pearl, small and slim, perhaps, but not going to work. So, I finally find a Blackberry that I would like, the Blackberry Curve. Imagine my surprise that you are a paying customer of the best mobile service provider and realize that they carry crappy antiquated cell phones. No Curve available. Sure, if you’re girl in the 8th grade, Verizon’s got you and you’re subservient, spineless parents covered.

Searching for ‘new releases’ coming soon with Verizon, I find… wait for it… the announcement of RIM’s Blackberry Curve to be available in May.

At the CTIA Wireless 2008, Verizon on March 31st announced that sometime in May, the Blackberry Curve 8330 will be released to the public. Sad side of this, the Curve came out almost a year ago on their competitor’s networks (please wait until the end of May Verizon, that way it would be COMPLETELY embarrassing.)  Way to take care of your business clients Verizon.

GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!

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Count me in.   I’m now considered a fan of a professional sports team.  What???  I know, this comes as a shock to me too!  I can candidly tell you that I never really expected to join any team but over the past few years, I’ve started to enjoy the game of football (not American Football) on a passionate level.  Each Saturday when DC United plays at RFK Stadium, you’ll find me and many other heathens, aka fans, hanging out and tailgating for hours in the parking lot before heading in to watch the game. The rawkus caused by the Screaming Eagles, Barra Brava, la Norte, and others add to the excitement in the stadium.  What completely sucks is that I am moving and therefore will not be able to purchase a season pass to help the club as well as the league.  So, there you go.

Sorry Murdock, I’m still going to download the matches online, not going to give you a dime (although I’m sure I already am.)

http://screaming-eagles.com/

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I haven’t been able to read up on many recent Tibet issues today, basically there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot happening at this moment.  One can’t have too many expectations when the PRC has instituted what amounts to military law at numerous monasteries spread throughout Tibet, including Lhasa.

Time Magazine’s, Simon Elegant in Beijing, wrote a compelling article, “The High Cost of Control,” about what many of Tibet interest group heads have been saying regarding recent China/Tibet history and the recent protest with the run up to the Olympics.  Jiang of the University of Alberta shares in this article some of my  own sentiments,

This insecurity underlies the central government’s heavy-handed tactics and rhetoric, even though repression reduces the country’s stature in the global community. “When the rest of the world looks at China, they see this increasingly powerful and confident country spending more and more on its military, its economy booming, its financial power overseas growing,” says Jiang of the University of Alberta. “But when Chinese leadership looks at the country they see the exact opposite: weaknesses everywhere from Tibet to Xinjiang, to rising inflation and civil unrest, environmental disasters and corruption. So the overall mentality of the central authorities is very insecure and nervous.” Jiang argues that the only way to move toward a solution in Tibet is to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. But he says leaders are now trapped by their own words, which have fueled passionate nationalist sentiments among ordinary Chinese, who fervently believe that Tibet is Chinese territory. Any appearance of compromise by Beijing would likely be intolerable to the public, Jiang says.

Therein lies that catch 22.

The end of Simon’s article inspires me the most.  He summarizes what could be a real turning point of global opinions of China and journalists visiting during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The authorities will no doubt make it virtually impossible for journalists to enter Tibet in the months leading up to the Olympics. But it remains unclear exactly how they intend to deal with the estimated 30,000 foreign reporters expected to witness the event, all of them eager to take advantage of Beijing’s own regulations specifying that they can interview anyone Chinese who agrees to talk. “They still don’t have any idea what is going to hit them or how bad they will look to the outside world,” comments one senior Western academic who has close ties to the upper echelons of the Beijing establishment. If its conduct over the past year is anything to go by, Beijing’s instinctive reaction to new problems will be to use its heavy hand once more.

Only time will tell.. and hopefully it’s the truth…uncensored.

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There seems to be a running theme with a couple of my friends as of late, it appears as though they’ve been holding out on me. Usually I’m the one sharing any great internet finds, which, lucky you, I’m getting around to sharing with everyone via this blog, but when something this cool comes along, an email or a IM would most certainly be expected from said friends. So it was a bit of a shocker when I just learned about this site.  The annoying part of this story is that I’ve told a few people about this and their response was something along the lines of “yeah, I know, I’ve been using it for awhile now.”  Lovely, shove it in my face.

For the past few years Google Maps has served my online map needs quite well. I left good ol’ MapQuest because they were not doing a good enough job keeping up-to-date with mapping tech. Now appear that someone has stepped up and over on Google the Great. A neat little site by Microsoft, Live Search Maps (June 2007) has really put to task high quality imaging (3.8 terabytes and counting) by adding a new feature; a 45 degree, multi-angle view they call ‘Bird View.’ This is wicked nice. Unlike the street level view of Google Maps, Bird View is available all over the world. It appears that a satellite can cover a lot more ground than a weird looking Google Van. (DuH!) Is Live Search Maps perfect, no, but it’s a hell of a lot better than anything currently available.. except, perhaps, National Intelligence Imagery, which rumor has it, is really hard to get access to.

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A few days ago I wrote about the hysterical, GarfieldMinusGarfield site and a number of people have told me how much they enjoy this ‘new’ take on an old classic. So, in order to put a smile on your face, I give you one of my absolute favorite, smart, single panel comic, simply named, ‘Bunny.’ It’s Welsh-based author, Lem (Huw Davies) first started this comic, online August 22, 2004. While viewers can usually enjoy a new strip daily, don’t panic (it’s hard sometimes) Lem is in college and from time to time this lovely institution makes him take tests or something, so he neglects his readers and does his studies. Apparently he’s all over the place with regards to visual arts classes, but now he’s finally gone to a class on Capitalism.

This artist has created something unlike any I have ever ran across. If you are disconnected from the world (which, c’mon, really isn’t necessarily a bad thing) then don’t feel bad as this comic is rife with pop culture references. It is very topical as well, so, if you miss a couple weeks and you’re not understanding the references, think back to the day it was released. Also, when you are online, hold your curor over the image, the Alt tags sometimes have additional witticisms added. Otherwise, delight in knowing that you have a new outlet for the funny. You’re welcome.

While I’d like to say start at today’s comic, it may be a better idea to start from the beginning and work forward. Bunny has matured over the past 3 1/2 years, so, all the lovely characters would need to be introduced in order to understa— what am I talking about, you can try understand. Hell, sometimes I don’t get any of the references so I turn to my Bunny-ites over at the Bunny Forum who discuss the strips. It is here one will become…enlightened.

Welcome to World of Bun.

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