ROFLCon Day Two

The race, age and gender questions came up again during the second day. It is hard not to notice that a lot of the internet entrepreneurs at the conference tended to be young, white guys. Every time the race/age/gender question was asked or was brought up, there was a reluctance by the audience to engage and explore.

There were a lot of fanboys and fangirls at the panels. Most of their questions were fan-specific, and did not really have an academic slant. Do we really need to hear the Homestar Runner guys do their voices in person?

I realized at the conference that I am not a zealous consumer of entertainment media on the Internet.

I did enjoy the marketing panel, but I would have liked to have seen a traditional marketer on stage. Ben Palmer from the Barbarian Group is now labeled “the punk rock marketing guy.” Katie Dreke from Wexley School for Girls had a well-timed and intellectual comment on Wal-Mart . But I only say that because I work at Wal-Mart.

The last note I have is about rickrolling. Enough is enough! It was funny once or twice, but now it is supremely annoying.

ROFLCon Day One

I’m at ROFLcon in Boston this weekend. If you want to see a notes/blogging of all the events, I highly recommend John Eckman’s blog OpenParenthesis.

I’m surrounded by a lot of real bloggers and people who are Internet celebrities. I actually recognize a few people from videos of other conferences that I was too busy to attend. I am so inexperienced at conferences that that I don’t even know what a backchannel is. I guess the term has been around since the 1970s.

The opening Keynote by David Weinberger was quite entertaining. The first panel was on making money on the Internet. There were a variety of internet celebrities (e.g., the million dollar homepage man). The discussion became a lot more interesting once one of the audience members pointed out that the panel was made of all young, white males.

I also sat in on a panel hosted by Jason Scott He did an awesome job of presenting the history of LOLs. What interested me was how social interaction has evolved as technology has evolved.

The last panel that I attended was “Pwning for the good of mankind.” It was all right.

HRC’s Minority Mess

I know the spin machine is at maximum rotation at the moment. HRC’s political operatives are holding conference calls and selling the Pennsylvania Primary as a victory. And for the moment, it will help her raise some money to continue the race.

However, it is a statistical certainty that despite all the negative campaining, Obama will finish with a lead in delegates and the popular vote.

Bill Clinton has spent most of the campaign trying to marginalize Obama as the black candidate. The hope from the Clintons is that by doing this, it will give them a shot at winning the popular vote, which is pretty close.

If HRC does manage to secure the nomination by persuading the super-delegates, the Democratic Party will suffer great harm. That scenario requires the super-delegates to vote against the delegate count and possibly the popular vote. In essence, they would be discarding the results of the primaries, and voting on an ephemeral quality – electability.

The most damaging aspect is that if Hillary does manage to secure the Democratic party nomination, she will effectively isolate the entire minority population. It will appear as if a wealthy, connected, white politician has stolen the nomination from a minority who won it fair and square.

It looks like the only reason HRC is continuing this damaging, ugly, and lose-lose fight is for personal gain. It is either that, or she truly believes what millions of Americans do not believe – that Obama does not have the capability of being a good president.

Automobile 1, Rabbit 0

I had a hellish travel day yesterday. It started when I flew home, at 2 AM early Saturday morning. After spending a short weekend in Boston, I jumped on an flight to Chicago at 6 PM EST. Once reaching Chicago, I had an hour and a half layover. This was extended to three and a half hours, since my departing flight was late. First it was just a delay in the incoming flight. Then I sat through another maintenance delay.

By the time I got into Northwest Arkansas, it was 2 AM CST. I was dead tired and driving from the airport to my corporate apartment. The road from the airport has very few lights and requires a lot of high-beams to avoid skunks, snakes, raccoons and beavers.

I was trying to change the audio on the brand new Ford Focus that I got from Hertz. So naturally, I didn’t see the bunny rabbit sitting in the middle of the road.

I swerved right onto the shoulder to avoid the little guy. But he decided to head off the road. I then swerved left to try to run directly over it. I was hoping that it would miss the wheels and wouldn’t get hit by the low car. I was hoping that it would just pass safely under the car. Sadly, the rabbit decided to switch directions yet again. I hit him directly with my left front wheel.

There was a sickening crunch as it went under the tire. I imagine that it is probably the same crunch you get as if you eat an Ortolon.

Handlebars

I need to find a new pair of handlebars for my bicycle. Either that, or I will have to find a stem that fits the head tube. Since the bike is a Schwinn from the 80s, it has very irregular sizing. The handlebars I have right now are fine, but they really stretch me out.

I have a friend at a bike shop who recommends a pair of swept back bars that should help me out. My only worry is that I will lose leverage, and therefore control, when riding it with my fixie. Also, my bike right now has British racing bars, and I am afraid the bike will start looking like a Franken-bike.

Tracey’s Hilo Ukulele

Since I spend so much time in Bentonville Arkansas, I thought I’d practice my Ukulele while I am out there. I really should have picked up a 90-100 dollar Uke off of Ebay, but I made an impulse purchase at Guitar Center and bought this Hilo Uke.

Honestly, the ukulele stinks. It doesn’t stay tuned through more than one or two songs. The sound is actually very flat and the action is way too high. I am thinking about making some mods to it once I am done with Arkansas, but I doubt I’ll be able to make it sound half as good as my other Ukulele.

The running joke is that whenever I buy a second of something to use in Arkansas, it becomes Tracey’s. I purchased a second set of golf clubs…which are Tracey’s golf clubs. Now there is a ukulele that is really Tracey’s ukulele.

Lastly, as Terry Teachout pointed out to us, we’re a “two ukulele household.”