Top Ten List Or...

10. www.folkstreams.net

What it says: “A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures
streamed with essays about the traditions and film making. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.”

What I found: It is a look back at the past. You can get lost in the different videos.

9. www.npr.org

What it says: “NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming.”

What I found: Faces behind the voices of “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” my favorite talk shows. Full of NPR information and extra NPR information if you are a NPR fan.

8. www.pandora.com

What it says: “…a radio Internet service that wants a conversation with you.”

What I found: A free radio Internet radio that you will love for sure.

7. www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

What is says: “…by the numbers it means that 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs.”

What I found: Work until you find out what it is you like to do. This site is Quite interesting if you are a writer or a burgeoning entrepreneur.

6. 100-downloads.com

What it says: “Top-100 essential downloads of free software & freeware for Windows XP.”

What I found: Free shareware programs for XP. Especially FREE virus scanners. WARNING: Do not download programs you do not know how to use! I found out the hard way.

5. www.illwillpress.com

What it says: “HAIL FOAMY!”

What I found: A neurotic potty mouth squirrel rants about everything. This site is funny as heck. The squirrel really does have a potty mouth watch his toons at your own peril!

4. www.stumbleupon.com

What it says: “Channel surf the Internet with StumbleUpon! Discover great websites,
videos, pictures and more — all according to your interests.”

What I found: Stumble will keep you rooted to your computer chair until you have butt cramps. It is an Internet roulette wheel taking you to random websites according to the interest you pick. However it is best to have the FireFox browser first before you install this program.

3.www.stevepavlina.com

What it says: “Make money from your blog.”

What I found: Long read but very, very informative.

2. www.futilitycloset.com

What it says: “No matter how much you love your job, you can't work for 10 hours straight. That’s why there's Futility Closet — 2,000 anecdotes, epigrams, illusions, and wonders; puzzles, prodigies, sublimities and horrors. Read a few and get back to work. We'll keep finding more.”

What I found: It is a literal merry-go-round of oddities that will “un-bore” you if there could ever be such a word.

1.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

What it says: “The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. With FireFox 2, we’ve added powerful new features that make your online experience even better.”

What I found: This is a highly customizable web browser that you can add themes to, and all sorts of unique extensions. FireFox comes with pop-up blocker and will TELL you if you are running an illegal script or about to download content from an unknown host. Download this browser today.

This was just a small list of sites I frequented daily during 2006.

Have a Happy New Year and be safe!!!!

~VALE~

Saddam Saturday

I was listening to CNN this morning while dressing for work. Between sips of coffee and packing my bags I listened to a guest who was commenting that Saddam should only be executed by a stable Iraqi government, who has put down the insurgency and rebuilt the infrastructure of Iraq. Because, in his opinion, anything less would have tragic consequences. Now just a few minutes ago there was a breaking news alert on Yahoo that stated Saddam will be executed on Saturday December 30^th 2006. Somehow in all our democratic glory and daily filial sacrifices to the God of all things stupid we still are not getting the “memo”.

As we all know (the ones that are not in denial that is ) the present Iraqi government does not run Iraq. The insurgency runs Iraq. There has to be something said about making an evil despot a martyr. Haven’t we realized that the Ba'thists and Saddam loyalist are not gone, and that the Shiite and Sunni will fight even harder to rid of one another? Tip-toeing across Iraqi borders will be nefarious power brokers who will try to side with any insurgency leader or Imam that might potentially gain power. Let us not forget we were friends of Saddam in the war against Iran. So yes it is quite possible. Did we guess who will be directly in the middle of this mess? I am not a harbinger of doom…but geesh where did our common sense go? I am not in anyway saying Saddam should not be executed, after all, I along with another 150,000 service members kicked him out of Kuwait in 1991. It was there I saw Saddam’s atrocities first hand, and yes he is ruthless as they say he is. But we should at least let him live until this mess called “Iraqi Freedom” is resolved then it can be death by rusty bull-dozier. I don't care.

~VALE~

Sincere Apology

Updating a blog is hard work. Missing a day is just like cheating on a diet. One day turns into twelve days and soon your belly has consumed your waist line. (Actually the diet thing happened also) Then your readers become past readers and your blog joins the other tens of thousand of blogs in that infernal holding pattern. For this I am sorry. I have missed juicy opportunities to point out public hilarity and political transgressions. I could have done the “I told you so” about Donald Rumsfeld or the “I told you so” about the Dems in the House (but I didn’t know they would take the Senate also). I could have blogged two thousand words alone about the look on the Presidents face when his party lost power. I could have joined the thousands of bloggers in chastising Kramer about his racist tirade (that would have been a good read I promise). I could have blogged about the Saadam death sentence being handed down, even though when the Iraqi government finally does hang him---holy…immortal…hell will break loose. It’s that whole puppet-government-hangs-beloved-dictator-in-home-country kinda-thing. I really do not want to turn this apology into a slobbering Jimmy Swagger-like event with tears and lots of snot. But I do feel that way because as a writer I let my own ego get in the way. “Maybe tomorrow I would say, maybe tomorrow.” But as you know tomorrow is never promised. So that’s why I got started back today.


~Vale~