unplugged

I've been working on getting untangled from these wires at home. Just got the t-mobile aircard which it seems can hook me up wherever I may be. Problem is, I don't have a working battery for this dell, but once I get that, I'ma have my home office on wheels.

Also grabbed a new sidekick. I jumped on the sidekick bandwagon early and have had my black-and-white sidekick since they came out, even after it took a 14 mile ride on top of my car and spilled onto a four-lane road, screen down, no worse for the wear. I didn't think the color sidekick would be much different, but it really is sweet. It's faster, brighter, with just enough upgrades to make it worth the buying.

Now I'm going through that dizzy spell I go through whenever I spend on new technology: Oh, what have I done? Oh, where am I? Oh, everything looks different--i'm so confused.

Just now, Jenna's little friend Maddy's over and they're building a pillow fort in the living room. Or, might be better to say they're building a pillow fort OF the living room. From one end to the other, no less than 10 pillows six blankets, seven stuffed animals, two cheeseburger happy meals (one no pickles, one extra pickles), a sprite, a diet coke, four sneakers, a footstool, a notebook, pens, pencils, and partridge in a pear tree.

Life is good.

nothing brilliant to add.

PhoneCon Merchandising

Proceeds go to feed and insure the needy.

Namely me and RB.

PhoneCon Branding

logo design by RB.

PhoneCon 1876

WELCOME TO PhoneCon, 1876!

Please join us at the second annual PhoneCon conference in Boston, April 18-22, where we'll be bringing together some of the smartest minds from across the Harbor to talk about talking on the Telephone.

As you know, the emerging power of the Telephone as a tool to shape democracy, our flour and cotton mills, and our understanding of Rhode Islanders, is just beginning to be understood. That's why it's so important for telephoners to get together in person to talk about talking on the phone.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

-Do you have a telephone?
-Do you talk on your phone regularly?
-Do you wonder where the telephone's headed?

Then PhoneCon is for you.

Please note, this is a user's conference. Its focus is on people who use phones. It will address my invention only as my invention plays a role in letting people talk to one another over the telephone.

We hope you enjoy some of the exciting sessions we already have planned. The cost of PhoneCon is free. So get on your horse, put some Paul Revere in your giddeyup, and hurry on over to Boston.

--Alexander Graham Winer


KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Tilden for America -- How the Telephone Will Affect the Hayes-Tilden Presidential Campaign of 1876. Keynote Speaker: M. SO. Trippy.

CONFERENCE OUTLINE

More tracks are being added every day. Here's what we have so far...

Track 1 - We Got Phone - How Telephones Are Changing Our Culture -- Rebecca Sweatn Tears

Track 2 - The Telephone and God -- AKMABCD

Track 3 - Telephones in Business and Schools: Hello? -- David Weinsausage

Track 4 - Social Phoning: Use the Phone to Call Others -- Ross Mayforrest

Track 5 - The Phone and Emerging Democracy -- Joi Neato

Track 6 - It's All One Big Game -- Stewart Buttercup

Track 7 - PHOAPH - Phone of a Phone -- Marc Gallop

Track 8 - Alpha Males: Don't Wait for the Phone to Ring, Baby -- Hally Sue

Track 9 - Hey, Let's start a Revolution! -- Chris Rock

THIS YEAR WILL BE EVEN BETTER THAN LAST YEAR'S EXCITING GATHERING!

Last year, at PhoneCon 1875, there was no phone. I hadn't invented it yet. But we were already thinking about the phone. One exciting panel demonstrated a prototype telephone and discussed its implications on the future of our nation and the world. The demonstration transcript is provided here:

Bob: Hello?

Tom: Hello?

Bob: HELLO?

Tom: Huh?

Bob: Can ya hear me?

Tom: Pardon?

Bob: Can ya hear me?

Tom: Eh?

Bob: NOW can you hear me?

Tom: YES! YES!

Bob: YES!

Tom: Hi.

Bob: Hi.

Tom: We're talkin.

Bob: Yep.

Tom: My voice is coming out of my mouth and goin' across this here wire to your ear.

Bob: Yep. My voice is coming out of my mouth and goin' across this here wire to your ear.

Tom: What'd ya know. We're talkin.

Bob: I reckon.

-----------------------

PhoneCon: RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY!!!




[[inspired by RB.]]

It's all good...

The sound of the bloggers on #joiito hightailing it over to Typepad.

;-)

The Sendoff

Scott on Drifting with the tide:

Tipping the bag, his ashes began to spill into the river, and as quickly as it started, it was over; the bag was empty. Looking down, I could see that Dad was now forming a cloud in the water, spreading out as he embraced his return to the sea. Slowly, everyone lined the docks, watching as the cloud continued to spread as well as cover the bottom near the dock. Flowers began to fall into the water, as each of us said our farewells. Gerry commented on how the tide was returning Dad to the marina, upriver from where we stood and that seemed right to me.

When Halley's Dad Woke Up that Day

Halley's most moving post on the death her father in 2002:

The screen door will slam with a happy familiar whack, and my dad won't miss that often ignored sound of home. Look at him grin. He will relish it, but not for long, because he'll nearly fall over his old retriever dog, who will shoot from stage left to see if he can upend this happy man. The dog's got the paper in his mouth, and every damned story is good news, one better than the next, but he'll have no time to marvel at it. He'll run to his kids and scoop them up, squeeze them so hard they'll whine, "Dad!" They'll roll on the grass in a mock wrestling match, the two of them unable to keep a good man down.

alone

From nine2000 on the death of his dad after his mom.

I don't know the timetable. I do know that he took the rose that normally sits on my mom's side of the bed off of the bed and put it on the dresser. Then he took his social security card and his organ donor card and laid them on the bed.

When they found him, they didn't see the rifle until they moved his body. He had shot himself. He had taken his own life

so sudden the shock

Gary Turner on the death of his dad in 2003.:

I picture him right now sitting in a pub with his own father whose death he never quite got over, or out walking in the glens and around the lochs with our old family dogs as we loved to do when I was a kid.

On not saying goodbye

From Hooloovoo, less than a year ago, reflecting on his father's murder.

There are things that I wish I still had the opportunity to say to him, things that I wish I still had the opportunity to take back. I won't be able to hug him ever again. I won't be able to hear him say he's proud of the man I've become ever again. I wont be able to call him someday to let him know he's going to be a grandfather.

Dad Loss - 1

From a Cynical Life from 2001: Seven Years

When someone you love dies, you don't care how horrible their "quality of life" may have become. The fact is, you're not thinking that your choices are he-keeps-living-with-destructive-painful-disease vs. he-dies-and-is-finally-at-peace. No, you think your choices are really between having him back the way he was BEFORE illness vs. never seeing him again in this life and having a bleeding gash in your guts where you thought your heart was. And guess what? I would choose to have him back the way I remember him. Every time.

I hadn't stopped by Fishrush's house in a while. Whenever I do, I'm always surprised that he's changed the window treatments and redecorated with blue and mauve pinstripes, or built a new deck, or decided to remove all the doors in the place. You just never know. I believe he is now in his minimalist phase.

"Tonight I walked past fish in the aquarium; I felt peaceful again, reconnected to a lost part of myself. The cool blue and the dim flickering lights, the slow-motion of the fish, the seaweed, the water, my thoughts. "

The Obvious? To Euen it was.

Euen does the right thing when he happens upon a Duck in trouble. I've never happened upon a duck in trouble, but if I were a duck in trouble, I would want Euen and his two girls to pick me up, dust me off with wipes, put me in box with a blanket and take me to the wild animal hospital. That was one lucky duck.

Blending Notes and Fonts

I hadn't seen this before but I'm glad I saw it today.

I could use a drink with this. I have no drink available. That does suck. Specially since, here in the Bible Belt, you can't buy drink on the Sabbath. It's for yer own protection, son.

Thankey to Da Goddess for the link.

Blending Notes and Fonts

I hadn't seen this before but I'm glad I saw it today.

I could use a drink with this. I have no drink available. That does suck. Specially since, here in the Bible Belt, you can't buy drink on the Sabbath. It's for yer own protection, son.

Thankey to Da Goddess for the link.

Blending Notes and Fonts

I hadn't seen this before but I'm glad I saw it today.

I could use a drink with this. I have no drink available. That does suck. Specially since, here in the Bible Belt, you can't buy drink on the Sabbath. It's for yer own protection, son.

Thankey to Da Goddess for the link.

This Passion

Beautiful Post on The Passion and the passion, with silent acts in far away lands resonating more loudly than the howl from Hollywood.

Thanks to Tom for the link.

test from the "blog this" little doohicky

Just a test to see if the "blog this" thing on my toolbar is working. Hey, is it taking this site forever to load or what? Anyone know why? too many images? Massive traffic from around the globe (ha!)?