Is the Internet endangered?

Its been a long time since we blogged...well Its been a long time since I blogged. I apologize. I'll try and not let it happen again.
"Where have you been Morgie?" You might ask.
I have been down a rabbit hole that has no bottom. I have been traveling around the internet at the speed of light, I am Rocketman, and this is my story.
My journey starts out in Facebook.com, my newly adopted "home site." FB as I like to call it is a fast growing Social Networking site that was created by Mark Zuckerman from his dorm room at Harvard four years ago. It is simple to use but is quickly revolutionizing the way we use the net. Facebook.com uses associative links to create a fun and rewarding experience for users. Each Person's page offers associative links to comments, photos, groups, music and videos. Following these links can lead to a powerful feeling of discovery. The top two Social Networking Sites (SNS) in the United States are Facebook and Myspace
According to Time magazine article, Old Friends on Facebook, By Justin Fox . Facebook claims to be signing up 150,000 new members a day. MySpace says it's adding 250,000 members daily, but those don't all represent actual people (MySpace places no restrictions on how many identities one can assume), and there's a widespread belief--albeit one not yet backed up by much hard data--that Facebook is gaining ground. It's a belief shared by Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns MySpace. When an interviewer quipped in June that readers were abandoning newspapers for MySpace, Murdoch shot back, "I wish they were. They're all going to Facebook at the moment."
I started thinking about SNS and how they are different from the old static web sites. I know its not new...Web 2.0 has been around for along time. But what was web 2.0? Byrne has been talking about collaboration for months. Was that what web 2.0 is? I decided to start researching for my own understanding what 2.0 really means.

Web 2.0 means many things. Its not just one thing. The more I researched, the more rabbit holes I went down. I had started at Social networking soon I was looking at terms like folksonomy, participation, and convergence. According to Tim O' Reilly who coined the phrase Web 2.0, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."....Huh? An easier definition was Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. I like that. So what I'm saying...

I guess the best way I have found to define web 2.0 is a word cloud with many of the 2.0 themes.


than I stumbled on this...

OurGirl: A Plucky Response

my friend stew recently posted about growing up and playing by the rules of the game. this is a response post. i don't think i'm getting at what stew is talking about, this is just what i thought about when i read his post.
http://onstewsmind.blogspot.com/

i think my boy1, right now, may be plucky. he's in a football league where he's the youngest, smallest, and the lightest. he thinks all about protecting himself. i think about it all the time as well. use your black belt experience, i advise him. be quick and agile. then i cover my eyes. i also try to learn about the game from him. if there is anything a child—at least my child—diggs is to instruct an adult in something—anything.

growing up, i was in the athletic plucky category. i grew up in an anti-sport household. this proved to be a handicap in gym class. i really thought we were playing a game. but we were not. i approached a sport with a half heart about improving my game skills. i was just enjoying the game. i think i wasn't totally inept, but my lack of coordination and my goofy attitude towards the game kept me in the lower half of the picking order. which didn't bum me out—it was just a game.

then, one day the game changed.

my middle school gym teacher was a wildly popular teacher. she went by a her first name, not the usual ms. whoever, and all the girls were interested in being recognized by her in a familiar, pet-like way. so naturally, just floating along with my peers, i had the half-want of having this recognition, as well. but she had her own impression of me, so mostly i just smiled and tuned her out. i mean, it was gym. not a serious academic grade, so why bother? but as i said, the game changed.

it was time to pick teams for basketball. the gym teacher called out my name and another girl's name for captains for the teams. i grew uneasy. it didnt smell right. my unease was confirmed, because as i stood up, brushed down my gym shorts and stood next to the gym teacher, i heard her say to a pet girl in my class: "this should be good."

the other girl was asked to pick first. she played by the rules and picked the popular girl, who awarded her a smile. inside i was seething. teachers were not supposed to be mean. there was plenty of mean to go around. now she was adding to it.

i opted out.

i chose my best friend as my first pick—she was plucky, too, and i tend to be loyal. the other captain picked the next, popular, capable girl. as she did, the rebellion jelled in my mind: i would pick every girl that was always picked last. two vastly uneven, lopsided teams were being formed: the strong quick and popular girls headed by the most unpopular pick and my team: all of the pluckies of the class, with a dreamer, tuned out, turned-rebellious captain.

i remember standing there, miserable and angry at being used for sport. but the girls that were picked, for once, first—they were excited. they named the team using my last name in the name. why? i grumbled. why bother? i was so angry. my best friend said something about how i was captain and it should be part of the team name. i didn't respond graciously or act graciously. in a john hughes movie, my team—galvanized by being picked first—would rise up and kick the pants of that lousy, popular, capable team. in reality, we were spanked by the capable team. and spanked hard. we played and we played poorly. nothing changed as a result of my rebellion. i don't even know if the teacher had an inkling of my intent.

i know that really soured my perception of sports. later, in college, when i discovered fencing—and that i was somewhat more capable in fencing—i understood more about the importance of sports and the underlying principles and life strategies that the practice teaches you. but then again, it was a sport where you got to poke at people. i understood the value of that particular sport implicitly.

Morgan: Generation YouTube

Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity? Two weeks from everywhere!

- Brother where art thou."

This blog seems to have become a geographical oddity in that Byrne and I seem to have been slowing down. Which is understandable considering how busy we've been lately. She's waking up at 0430 and I'm going to bed then...just kidding. I don't ever want this to become a chore for either one of us. It should be Fun, Fun, Fun. And it still is.

With no encouragement from me, my son (Christopher) has begun to show an interest in something besides video games. His new found hobby is producing short videos, no doubt inspired by all the idiots on You Tube. Him and his friends have formed a production company Vertical Productions for the purpose of making films.


There first undertaking was a zombie film...Last of the Living Brian Hoeg was the director and editor, Christopher was assistant director on this film. Its about 4 minutes long, very suspenseful and well edited. I was impressed and Christopher seemed to have been bitten by the film bug.

He started researching filming techniques and even wrote a script. He found a video demonstrating the construction of a Track dolly Thats when he asked me for my help. I had been watching his interest and wanted to encourage him to continue...so we started a new project. The Track Dolly. The first thing I made him do was create a material list.













Material List
16 Skateboard wheels
32 Bearings
10 ft of 2" angled aluminium
8 - 4" 1/4 inch bolts
16- 2" 1/4 inch bolts
24-1/4 inch nuts
1 2'x4' piece of Plywood
10 ft of 1 inch PVC Pipe



We than went online and purchased 16 skateboard wheels ($40.00) from the SkateShed I should have just purchased the bearings there...but I overlooked that small fact. When the wheels arrived a few days later we decided to go to the Fairfax Surf Shop in search of bearings. It was a good choice as they had bearings...but not enough. We had to buy 3 different brands to get what we needed (32 bearings - $80.00) I made sure they threw in some cool stickers for free.

With all the materials purchased we began construction...oops. We had forgot to purchase the Angled Aluminum. I remember picking it up at Home Depot....hmmm, I checked the receipt. Damn! No Aluminum. We had to go back. $4.00 for gas. I borrowed a portable saw from next door neighbor Col Collins to cut the aluminum. Using my incredibly accurate graphics eye I calculated where to drill the holes.

Christopher said, "Dad shouldn't you use a tape measure?"
"Naaah." I replied, "I don't need one."

When I was assembling the wheels I realized the bolts were too long and I had to disassemble them all and cut about an inch off every bolt with our hack saw. Cutting 16 Bolts with a hack saw is no easy feat. I finished after two days of hacking. Felt like I was breaking out of jail!

Finally it was time for final construction. I couldn't find the 1/4 inch ratchet so I just hand tighten the nuts on to the frame and finally I attached the wheel frame combo to the plywood...sigh, time to take a break. This was a lot like work. I got to admit I was growing weary of the track dolly.

The next morning Christopher informed me that the Dolly was dragging on the track. What? My my wheels were placed to wide? My gestimate drilling was in error? I didn't want to take the track dolly apart...I thought, I would go back to Home Depot and get bigger PVC pipe. Finally I took the dolly apart again and redrilled the inside track, to much success. The dolly was ready for filming.

The next morning (Saturday) we drove the young Speilbergs (Brian Hoeg, Mike Flynn and Christopher Morgan) to the "filming set". They had a script, props, storyboards and the track dolly. I watched as they filmed their different scenes. Kept my eye out to make sure they didn't get run over as they were filming near a busy street. We got some weird looks, but overall everything went well. I haven't seen the movie...but Im sure it will turn out fine. I'm just glad the boy is doing something creative and not just sitting there playing Guitar Hero. I predict in the next five years, thousands of young film directors will be entering film school inspired by You Tube I wish them all good luck!

"Wall Doctor"


Here is another fun Vertical Production
Hey Video

And We'll Have Fun Fun Fun

She loves to laugh
She loves to sing
She does everything
She loves to move
She loves to groove
She loves the lovin things
—Any Way You Want It by Journey

i run a hard and fast life. right now, that means up at 4:30am and back home at 9pm. that means my husband and i communicate with a phone call after work, a kiss with a plate of spaghetti before bed, and a groggy kiss buh-bye before i plug into my ipod for my morning commute.

but something different happened two days ago.

4:30 am and i blindly run my hands along the edge of the bed until i hit my husband's feet, and then its a matter of steps until my fingers hit his face, as always—but something is different. he's awake. and lucid.

so i sit down next to him and make some small chitchat thinking one, two, and i'm on to the workout. but he's being funny. and charming. at 4:30am, people. and after a couple of minutes, i realize—i don't want to work out. i want to talk to my husband. so i shrug, kick my overstuffed workout bag across the room and curl up next to my husband. and we talk.

about the progression of colour changes in kitchen appliances as we grew up.

ok, first of all, we were talking about growing up in the 1970s and i brought up the colour changes of that era: first there was goldenrod. then avocado (AVOCADO! my husband laughed. we had a green stove! that was avocado?) then came harvest, which was a pumpkin orange. while my husband spent part of his misspent youth as an artist, he could only take so much talk about '70s colour palettes.

so then we discussed weird cooking gadgets. like a counter top pizza cooker
or the really odd hot dog cooker someone gave us for christmas. it involved impaling your hot dogs on these electric prongs, which then cooked the hot dog from the inside out. it was also in the shape of a dachsund, this cooker—which just made it all the more slapstick. then it turned out that as a kid, my husband had made a hot dog cooker under the same premise for a school project—only with a wood board, and two nails that were wired up with a stripped down cut off lamp cord. weeeeee! we were roaring with laughter. then we discussed the salad shooter
what a concept! the physical improbability of being able to shoot out a beautiful salad from very different ingredients had us laughing. and then the jingo! salad shooTER! we tried to think of other really simple, two word jingos. we could only come up with: byyyyy MENNEN! which made us roar again. the conversation lasted about an hour. then i finally drug myself out of bed and into the shower.

i glowed for the rest of the day. i even hummed.

i had forgotten how much fun my husband and i can have.
even at 4:30am.

Morgan: Summer Heat

I love the heat of Summer...feeling the hot sun on my head, sweat dripping off my brow. For the past couple weeks I have been playing basketball after work. The blacktop outside tower four radiates the heat like a frying pan. Almost to hot to be outside. But the lure of basketball overcomes the heat and pretty soon I'm drenched with sweat. My knees have been taking a pounding, and it has become extremely painful to jump or run. I recently started wearing a knee wrap which gives me a lot of support. I absolutely love playing there. Its never crowded, someone always wants to play, so we get a three on three game going, until someone has to leave. I'm not the best shooter, but that doesn't matter, I just love to get out there and play.

I had to mow the lawn today...It was the same sun, burning me like an ant under a magnifying glass. Thank god I don't have a big lawn. The novelty of mowing my own lawn wore off years ago and now it truly is a chore to get out there and do my duty every week. I used to bag the grass clippings, now I don't worry about that anymore. Its grass! probably good fertilizer.

Last week we drove up to Atlantic City, New Jersey on hot, humid Friday night. As we got closer to the shore all of the towering casinos glowed a neon red, beaconing all to come and try their luck. I did play poker until three in the morning but what really captivated my attention were the people. Atlantic City tourists are so diverse coming from all over the world, but the majority seems to be from New York City. I watched the People in the casino, People at my poker table. Old people dragging oxygen bottles and smoking cigarettes. Young guys with their baseball caps on backwards and gold chains hanging outside their unbuttoned shirts. Women of all types. Old women with buckets of coins playing slots. Young women with small slinky dresses stumbling back from numerous nightclubs, shouting drunkenly to each other. The next morning we went out to the boardwalk and I did a little more people watching. The glamor of the night before was harshly revealed under the New Jersey sun. People wore less clothing, shorts and tank tops, sandals and flip-flops as they traversed up and down the AC Boardwalk looking sleep deprived. The number of tattoos looked almost epidemic, most ugly designs faded into wrinkled sun burnt skin. Hundreds of Filipinos flocked outside the convention center which advertised a Filipino game show. I could feel myself beginning to sweat profusely, so we hired a boardwalk taxi. It is basically a hand cart that the driver pushes down the center of the boardwalk while attempting to not run over the other tourists. It felt very indulgent to hire the young man to transport us down the hot boardwalk...a guilty pleasure. We passed a group of African-Americans all sporting maroon t-shirts proudly proclaiming the Jones Family reunion of 2008. I noticed an older man walking hand in hand with a Beautiful young woman with decidedly strong Russian facial features, Mail order bride? But the most disturbing thing I saw was a 70 year old man with out his shirt, dancing provocatively next to an ancient boom box. "I'm to sexy for my shirt."
The boardwalk was to hot for me. I was glad to go home.

This morning my (hot) wife and I drove to Sterling, VA to attend the Buddhist Lent Begining Day & Abbot's Birthday Ceremony at the Wat Yarnna Rangsee Buddhist Monastery. Once again it was Hot! The sun was blazing down on a cloudless day. Thai Vendors had set up food stalls all around the outside of the modest Monastery. Thai people wandered from stall to stall sampling the various food delights. We sampled fried plantains, grilled chicken satay. We sat down and slurped a steaming broth of beef and noodles. Making small talk with the strangers sitting at our table. While just as hot as Atlantic City something wholesome about the simple Thai celebration made me forget the sweat running down my back. I leaned back on my little stool and listened to the bald monk singing "only the lonely " with a karaoke machine. Yeah It was hot, but not so bad.