Lately, I’ve done some thinking on how to make the blog layout a bit better. I know most people don’t like having to scroll down the page just to absorb all the info. That goes hand-in-hand with my ever-growing Sidebar. The categories were slowly growing, as were the monthy archives and links. I felt I had to do something!

So, I made a new page! The Archives and Links page is now open for viewing. The hardest part of it was trying to find out the WordPress codecs to use. The Archive template in the theme I’m using doesn’t allow for a sidebar or the tabled layout; I had to modify the template by hand to get how I wanted it to be.

Gotta go, will write tonight and tomorrow!

For the last few posts, I’ve pretty much implied how much I love Twitter. It connects you to others in ways that few services can ever be able to. Among other things, I’ve learned it can even enable you to learn about happenings well before major news sources are involved.

I got a very interesting tweet from fellow Twitterer Crystal Williams proclaiming, “this is just sick. My heart really goes out to Kathy Sierra”, with a link to Kathy’s blog entry…

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/as_i_type_this_.html

… which I read in it’s entirety.

Y’know, along with all the other sick shit that I’ve had to read in the news about some very grotesque atrocities, this defintely isn’t the worst. However, it ranks right up there with the honorable mentions. No one should have to endure the harassment and humiliation that she has had to put up with. I don’t know what she did to deserve this but, whatever it may be, it’s just not warranted.

I apologize to any of my family members who are reading this and seen my expletive outburst. I’m not changing it though, because that is truly how I felt while writing and absorbing all of this. This Kathy Sierra is someone whom I’ve never read about until now. I’ve never read any of her articles and postings. Not even one of her books, geek that I am. But for a individual or group of individuals to make comments on her posts insinuating and/or threatening to rape and beat her, that just goes beyond the pale in any online blog or community. I don’t even care if it’s revealed that it’s all a joke. I know how I would feel if I were in the same situation. It’s just not right!

Just before writing this, I saw another tweet come from noted techie writer, Chris Pirillo. I’ll post the link here on his response to the outpouring for Kathy from our fellow bloggers…

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/03/26/i-had-death-threats-in-high-school/

… and, while I truly respect him as a fellow blogger and geek, I have this to say about his posting. I agree with his point that death threats seem to end up as empty threats. However, I’d challenge his feeling that threats are somehow worse from people one already knows. For me, and I’d imagine (yes, speculation) a lot of others, if I know the person then it doesn’t make me take a threat like that seriously. I’m more worried about the people I don’t know at all who may want to take my life. At least the people I know have a face I can look out for! Also, I don’t know about his childhood, but back when I was in high school, we didn’t see things happen like… oh, say, the Columbine Shooting… or some of the other atrocities that have happened in recent years. These latter incidents have made it so you can’t be too sure if your co-worker of 10 years isn’t suddenly going to stab you, chop you into bite-sized pieces and bathe in your blood.

My point in all this: As a global cyber-community, we need to fight these bullies and cowards with all the tools at our disposal. Bloggers, get with your server host on ways they may be able to help track down and pinpoint the origination location of any hostile commenters, so we know what to do to help our buddies in law enforcement act against this sort of illegal activity.

PS: In almost unrelated news, Christine and I are strongly thinking about participating in the 5th Annual Walk to End Domestic Violence. I may fill you in on the details later…

Technorati Tags: Kathy Sierra, Passionate Users, Twitter, Chris Pirillo, Crystal Williams, Harassment

Hey! How are you all doing? It’s time for yet another edition of the Esoterik News Of The Week™. It’s the post thats assured to give everyone their fill of the corny, ridiculous, amazing and offbeat headlines permeating the news waves. Comments are made tongue-in-cheek, and are not meant to be taken too seriously. In fact this blog assumes no responsibility for said comments, and places the reponsibility square on the shoulders of the author, even if the author owns the aforementioned blog! Lets dive in…

Big deal… Officials have found more than that in Keith Richard’s system over the course of his lifetime!

My mind had a ball with this one! Um… sorry for the bad pun. This is one off-the-wall delicacy that I don’t think I’ll try anytime soon. And I’m known for being adventurous.

For those times when you have that “special urge”, and a live animal just won’t cut it… There are other stories, from this week, that gave me the creeping horrors worse than this one. But this deserves the offbeat label, with a rating of 11.5/10 on the Mark Foley scale of creepiness (thanks, Wil!). They want to put the guy through treatment! Newsflash, guys: if he killed a horse in 2005 with sexual intent, and he did something similar now, he’s far beyond any curing. Just lock him in a room with nothing but a bed and a slightly insane pit bull terrier. I guarantee the dog won’t take his advances with anything approaching kindness! Let ‘er rip!!

My advice to this couple is a simple solution: GET A CAT!! It’s either that, or you’ll be doomed to relive scenes straight out of “Tom And Jerry” cartoons until that mouse finally eats the big cheese. Sheesh!!

And finally, one for the video gamers everywhere…

This just shows the power of original thinking on Nintendo’s part. The Wii game system is something that makes video games more accessible to the older generation. And it breaks down more barriers than just that one: it’s also the most inexpensive game system out of the big three and it get kids to finally come up off the couch and move!

Well, that’s all I have for now. Tune in next week wherein, in addition to offbeat news, I get to interview a squirrel with really big cojoñes!

Wait!! I said last week that I’d tell a sad, sad tale of a bunny with a pancake on its head. Ok, ok… I’m sorry. I really don’t have a sad tale to tell. However, a picture is worth a thousand words of that tale, isn’t it?

Enjoy! Until next time, be assured that I’ll continue writing, even if both arms and all ten fingers are broken. Hey, where there’s a will and a nose, there’s a way! Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, ABCNews, CNN, Bunny, Pancake, Deer, Dead Animals, Sheep, Cocaine, Wii, Nintendo

This is taken from the March 16th, 2007 post of Bill Maher titled “New Rules”. Major tip ‘o the hat to Wil Wheaton’s WWDN: In Exile Blog for giving this the attention it deserves. I hope I have the traffic to spread it further…

New Rule: Liberals must stop saying President Bush hasn’t asked Americans to sacrifice for the war on terror. On the contrary, he’s asked us to sacrifice something enormous. Our civil rights.

Now, when I heard George Bush was reading my emails, I probably had the same reaction you did: George Bush can read?! Yes, he can. And this administration has read your phone records, credit card statements, mail, Internet logs. I can’t tell if they’re fighting a war on terror or producing the next season of “Cheaters.” I mail myself a copy of the Constitution every morning just on the hope they’ll open it and see what it says.

So -so when it comes to sacrifice, don’t kid yourself. You have given up a lot. You’ve given up faith in your government’s honesty, the goodwill of people overseas, and six-tenths of the Bill of Rights. Here’s what you’ve sacrificed: search and seizure, warrants, self-incrimination, trial by jury, cruel and unusual punishment. Here’s what you have left: hand guns, religion, and they can’t make you quarter a British soldier. If Prince Harry invades the Inland Empire, he has to bring a tent.

You know, in previous wars on the home front made a very different kind of sacrifice. During World War II, we endured rationing, paid higher taxes, bought war bonds, and in the interest of national unity, people even pretended Bob Hope was funny. Right, like you laughed at him.

Okay, women, donated their silk undergarments so they could be sewn into parachutes. Can you imagine nowadays a Britney Spears or a Lindsay Lohan going without underwear? Bad example.

But, look, George Bush has never been too bright about understanding “fereigners.” But he does know Americans. He asked this generation to sacrifice the things he knew we would not miss: our privacy and our morality. He let us keep the money. But he made a cynical bet that we wouldn’t much care if we became a “Big Brother” country that has now tortured a lot of random people.

And yet no one asks the tough questions like, “Is torture necessary?” “Who will watch the watchers?” “And when does Jack Bauer go to the bathroom?” I mean, it’s been five years. Is he wearing one of those astronaut diapers?

In conclusion, after 9/11, President Bush told us Osama bin Laden could run but he couldn’t hide. But, then he ran and hid. So, Bush went to Plan B: pissing on the Constitution and torturing random people.

Conservatives always say the great thing Reagan did was make us feel good about America again. Well, do you feel good about America now? I’ll give you my answer, and to get it out of me, you don’t even have to hold my head underwater and have a snarling guard dog rip my nuts off. No, I don’t feel very good about that.

They say evil happens when good men do nothing. Well, the Democrats prove it also happens when mediocre people do nothing.

I totally agree with this. So far, the Presidential arm of the American government, along with the military and the Pentagon, have been given way too much power. The government is supposed to follow the will of the people, not the people following the will of the goverment. Here’s a recent example of what’s been going on.

I know… I’m scared, too!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Wil Wheaton, WWDN, Bill Maher, Government Concerns, Politics, Bush

Nowadays, the hot new stalker invitation “shout out” message service is Twitter. I blogged about it in a previous post, which you can read by clicking here.

To the left and slightly above, you’ll see a thumbnail of a window screenshot I made while the Safari browser was in the throes of a Twittervision frenzy. Click it, and you’ll see me in there! In this full map of the world, everyone who makes a “tweet” shows up in cute little balloons with their message and a link to see their page. It’s kinda neat to see just how many people around the world have latched on to this kind of service.

If one looks at this from a psychological standpoint, I think there’s an interesting thing to be learned. While most people wouldn’t want a full-on stalker creepazoid watching their every move, there’s a lot of people that don’t mind, and maybe revel in, texting pieces of their life for all to see.

To those people who do want a stalker, I say they should get some professional help. The stalkers themselves especially need that help! (Small moral rant done now.)

(This post was written while listening to Queensrÿche’s “Gonna Get Close To You” from Rage For Order)

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twittervision, Tweet, Stalking, Queensryche