Mr. Rogers, one of the best ever

This is amazing. Tonight was the first time I have ever seen this video, and it brought tears to my eyes. In 1969, the Nixon administration (and congress) planned on slashing federal funding of PBS.

Fred Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications to try to sway them from cutting the funding, which would have likely had dire consequences on his show. At this time his show was relatively small-time compared to what it would become, and way before “Mr. Rogers” became a household name.

This video is 7 minutes long, and Fred Rogers with true sincerity and compassion tells Senator Pastore what PBS is all about, and Pastore, who is ice-cold at the beginning of the video, is almost reduced to tears by the end and awards $20 million in funding to save PBS. A must watch if you have the time… or even if you don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

I think that true compassion like Fred Rogers had is very hard to find now-a-days. Budgets for education are cut so slim that many wonderful teachers being lost every day, billions and billions of dollars are being shuffled around to be spent policing the world, while education and children at home suffer the consequences of US Tax dollars being spent abroad.

President Bush would like to cut all federal funding for PBS by 2011 (source). Don’t let it happen.

What would Mr. Rogers do?

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, revised

The “too many cooks in the kitchen” phenomena is perhaps the most frustrating thing for me in work life as a freelancer. Though perhaps it could be re-written “too many people with chef hats, not enough people that know how to cook”.

I’ve posted about this over at themographblog, but it’s a never-ending saga of (as my favorite Hillary Clinton quote puts it) too many people that are “All Hat, No Cattle”.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

So right now there is a commercial that plays on conservative radio here in LA (yes, I listen to conservative radio on my way to work… gotta hear all perspectives, even if they are dreadfully nauseating) and in this commercial it has “testimonials” from people about a certain proposition that will be on an upcoming ballot.

One of the actors says, “The Constitution says we are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What ever happened to that?”

Eh hem. Pardon me, hate to be a bother with the whole “facts” thing again, I know how much neo-cons hate those darn facts. I, of course, fully support the phrase… but “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

Go back to bed America, we will now return you to your regularly scheduled disinformation.

Declaration of Independence:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

Constitution:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/index.html

I am Yugoslavian Special Forces, 17 years

So, this weekend we jumped out of a plane. “Skydiving” the kids are calling it, it’s all the rage. My beautiful better half, my roommate, and three “i think it’s too windy maybe we should leave” Welsh fellows drove up to Santa Barbara on Saturday to huck ourselves out of an otherwise perfectly functional plane.

The guy I tandemed with has definitely killed people. With a super-thick accent he told me how he was Yugoslavian Special Forces for 17 years and has “9,869… well, i guess dis one make for 9,870″ jumps, his highest being from 35,000 feet with over 2 and half minutes of freefall and requiring oxygen… badass.

Anywho, everybody survived without cause for worry and we had a great time. It was definitely original, nothing quite as surreal as sticking your feet out the door of an aircraft and throwing yourself out of it. (except maybe sitting on a rock with three sleeping tigers)

Is it better than bungee jumping? Meh, I think bungee jumping is more frightening. With skydiving you can’t even really tell the ground is coming at you, it’s just really windy. And terminal velocity is only 120mph… and I DEFINITELY HAVE NEVER GONE ANY FASTER THEN THAT ESPECIALLY WHEN ME AND LUKE WOULD RIDE DOWN THE STRAIGHTAWAY ON BARTLETT STRIP ON OUR BIKES, NOPE NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR 140. But skydiving is absolutely gorgeous, so beautiful and so stunning. I will definitely go again sometime, it was a fantastic experience.

A++ thumbs up.

Question for the Times

Alright, in a week already riddled with “x vs. y”, this one trumps all.

Freddy Mercury vs. Bon Scott vs. Steve Perry

The ultimate Battle Royale.  So, who is it?  Who is your pick for greatest voice in the history of the universe?

Discuss amongst yourselves, I’m feeling verklempt.

Early Ending

So, the rugby season is over.  Whatever.

We started out 3-0 and were #1 in the country, then we dropped 2 straight and because of the conference we were in, the losses gave us a snowballs chance at the playoffs.  Losing again this weekend to a pretty good SF team sealed our fate and gave us an early start on the summer.
Oh well.  At least I made it through the season without any serious injuries, that’s always a silver lining.

Jeff Bezos posts job ad for Amazon, 1994

This is an awesome gem from the past that somebody dug up. It’s a job ad to work at what would become Amazon, posted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 1994 - how would anyone know what it would become? I suppose that’s the gotcha in the startup world, nobody ever knows…

http://groups.google.com/group/mi.jobs/msg/d81b6c1fa8f361f

cool.

Goodbye Dreamhost, You’re a Nightmare

So I’m finally biting the bullet and switching the hosting for all of my sites. Dreamhost, my current host, is horrible.  There is constant downtime, a couple of months ago almost every other night my hosting would be down (for all my sites).  And DH is CONSTANTLY slow.  Every 5th time I visit one of my sites, the brower almost times out.  Dreamhost sucks, but it’s also ~$10/month.

Media Temple is much better.  Some companies I work for host with MT, along with some other larger sites I know, and they are much better.  I have developed sites on Media Temple hosting and they give equal flexibility for controlling server options (more or less) as DH does.  Also, the Customer Support for MT is faaaar superior Dreamhost, blows them out of the water.  But, MT costs twice as much.  I think it’s worth it.

So, I’ve bought the account and will begin transferring my sites to MT over the next couple of months.  Hopefully there won’t be any hiccups and we’ll keep chugging right along.

Stash Off 2008, AKA Freaky Friday

So, tomorrow is Tuesday.  More specifically, tomorrow is Moustache Tuesday, in accordance with Stash Off 2008.

Why do I tell you this?  Not because I want to show off my moustache… though that may be a small part of it.  Not because I want to show you the picture of me doing my best “used car salesman” smile.

I tell you this, because I want to prepare you.  This is directed to those who know me and my family.  So you think I look like my father?  You think we have some similarities?

Well let me tell you, it has gone to a whole new level tonight.

View These Photos AT YOUR OWN RISK.

You can’t say I didn’t warn you.  Welcome to Freaky Friday… er… Tuesday…

Don’t boycott the olympics.

There is so much talk right now about boycotting the Olympics because of China’s treatment of the situation with Tibet, and their human-rights behavior in general.

All I can say is, don’t punish the athletes for China’s mistakes.  Thousands of athletes, many of whom will be in the Olympics for the first time this year, train year round, day after day, week after week, to get to the level they are at.  These athletes don’t have holidays.  They don’t have “oh i’m a little tired today, maybe i won’t worry about training” days like the rest of us (yes i’m guilty).

I think it is ridiculous to only now jump on the “boycott China” bandwagon, when it will affect so many people that have worked so hard.  I think China should change their policies as much as the next person, but it’s not like they got this way overnight, and I can tell you, punishing the athletes is a temporary solution.  The IOC chose China for many reasons, and I’m sure one of them was to bring some light to the topic of their regional policies - but lets not cut off our nose despite our face.  All that boycotting the Olympics will do is crush the dreams and years of hard work for the thousands of athletes involved… and maybe sell some “boycott China” t-shirts… which, undoubtedly were made in China.