Sorry, for the downtime. I switched to a new web host. I brought up Chalkboard Manifesto first, and then this weblog. I’m not sure if I lost any entries from April. The WP export only went up to April 1, 2010, but I didn’t notice this until after the import. I was able to find entries from April 3 to April 16, and then another entry from April 22. The only important one, I think, was from the 22nd, so I’m really glad I found that.

The database backup for Chalkboard Manifesto was missing 5 entries in the middle. Luckily, I had all the comics saved so I just had to put in the missing data into the databases. I could find this via ohnorobot, which stores transcripts of my comics, and the Google.

I really have to check the integrity of my backups.

I also decided I wanted a new theme for my blog, so I didn’t copy over the old one. I just upgraded my version of WordPress and am currently looking for a new one to customize.

One day, I’m going to create my own blogging software, and it’s going to be really simple to use. I dislike WordPress these days. It’s not super-intuitive to use and it has way too many features. Mine will allow you to write entries, but if you want any formatting, you’ll have to write the HTML yourself. I don’t even know if it will have categories or tags. The main thing I want is for the front admin page to have a large text box where you can just write. Editing and administration are secondary.

All the internal links in my blog probably don’t work. I’ll have to fix that at some point.

Via facebook:

Introducing the Like button
Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site. Learn more.

Facebook: Making life even more superficial. Our social connections are now more “lightweight.”

So first with News feed, we, as human beings, were replaced by memes. No one has a profile; instead, they have a never-ending stream of narcissistic nonsense. Our personhood is not defined by our interests or activities, but by bits of text that float in the stream.

Now, we no longer even have social connection. We are ephemeral memes connected by lightweight strands of “like.” We went from joining groups, to becoming fans, to merely liking something. Pretty soon we won’t have friends (however diluted that term has already become), but there will just be people that we “like.” Our assimilation into the stream will be complete after that final step. First, you could like bits of text. Now, you can like “pages”. Soon, you’ll be able to like news articles and products and songs. Once you can like people, there will be no difference between you and a bag of Doritos. I like you both, with no indication of degree. Welcome to relationship inflation — as the connections go up, each connection will be worth less and less.

Yes, soon we will all be assimilated into memes in the stream — bits of you intermingled with bits of products. This will be the new form of human connection. Imagine the future: You won’t attend events, you’ll “like” them. Who cares if anyone went? How many people liked it? The best products and the best people won’t be defined by virtue or profitability, but by how many likes they have accumulated.

You + consumerism. Facebook likes this.

49ers traded for Ted Ginn Jr. Nice.

Friend: if it was possible for me to turn gay, it would be this coworker that did it
Friend: (sidenote)
Me: ooooh, that’s hot
Friend: what???
Me: oh wait, sorry
Friend: oh wait i just realized that coulda probably been taken the wrong way
Me: I totally misinterpreted that
Friend: HAHAHAHA!
Me: instead of the frustrating guy coworker
Friend: u thought it was a girl
Me: I thought you had an incredibly sexy female coworker
Friend: HAHAHAHA!
Me: whom you had fantasies about
Friend: i mean
Me: well, now you know how guys think
Friend: it’s not completely out of the question but
Friend: it’s a question of spectrum here
Friend: hahaha

I may be completely wrong, but when markets are completely unfettered, the end result is the collusion of the rich with the rich. You get monopolies and swindlers. To actually get a “free” market and competition, you need regulation.

I find it bizarre that one could be pro-regulation or anti-regulation. Shouldn’t the content of regulation be the object of debate? Doesn’t context matter? This seems to be precisely the type of thing that would elude a general rule.

I remember when broadband meant freedom. With a faster connection, you could get everything done faster and spend less time on the internet. If it’s always on, you don’t have to wait for it to connect. Of course, instead of freeing us, broadband turned us into the internet’s slaves.

I know there are products that block the internet for periods of time. I wonder if introducing more barriers would be effective. What if I had to wait a minute for your internet connection? Would I use the internet less? My instincts say yes. When I made Opera stop remembering my facebook password, I stopped signing on facebook as often.

I wonder if I could take this further. I used to limit internet time because it tied up the phone. What if the internet tied up my computer? I mean, what if I could no longer multi-task and was just tied to the browser (and maybe a word processor)?

I need to tie myself to a mast to elude the internet’s siren calls.

Muse, Picnic Day, and Lindsay’s birthday party: This week is going to be awesome.

I read a book during lunch today. Engrossing and liberating. (Liberating because I escaped the nowness of blogs.)

I’m not sure when’s the last time I read a book.

I’m going to stop reading blogs during lunch break.

I’m very busy these days, and I’ve not updated my comic a few times. This is making me feel really guilty. There are two steps to fix this: 1) Create a buffer. 2) Temporarily cut back on hanging out so I can make said buffer. (Those steps were presented in reverse order.)

Hopefully this will help me juggle all my priorities in such a way that I drop the ball less often.

Is our partisan-centric news coverage blinding us from class warfare? It’s rather interesting to view recent events using this lens. Take a peak at Enron and the recent recession, where execs are raking it in while jobs are still hard to find. You’ll see an economic elite profiting by screwing over the middle class and poor. Moreover, it’s the result of collusion and incest between government and private corporations. You could consider this class warfare. From the other end, you’ll see what’s often characterized as anti-government sentiment, but there’s also a lot of anti-corporate sentiment too. The bailout left a lot of people pissed off at government and corporations. Now consider the recent incidents of political violence: the Pentagon shooting and Joseph Stack’s terrorist act. From the lens of class warfare, you can interpret the violence as acting out against an economic elite.

I’m not saying anything definite. It’s just something to seriously ponder, at least.

After figuring out that I could sort my text messages by sender, I decided to see if my text messages followed an 80/20 rule. Did 80% of my texts come from 20% of the people who texted me? Turns out, the top 20% of people who text me account for about 75% of my texts. This is something that is only interesting to me; luckily, this is my blog.