Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Christmas Creep Before Labor Day! Stop It Now!

Oh, please, no. Please, please, please, no. Christmas creep gets earlier and earlier every year. It looks like it is happening this year before Labor Day. Someone spotted Christmas wrapping paper at a Walgreen’s, sitting on the top shelf.

Via The Consumerist.

Technorati Tags: Christmas Creep

Diebold Changes Name and then Admits Its Election Machines Were Broken

The saga of Diebold is one of the great under the radar stories when it comes to technology and politics. Diebold came under fire when there was suspicion that their voting machines had some problems. Of course they denied it to the cows came home. Remember the story of my actor friend Steven Heller who ended up serving jail time being convicted of three felonies for blowing the whistle on Diebold because he found out that you could access the machines with a hotel mini-bar key awhile back?

Well, now it appears that Diebold has changed its name to Premier Election Solutions, it has decided to come clean about some problems in Ohio and 33 other states during the last election. Apparently during the transfer of the data electronically some votes got dropped and never counted. Gee, you don’t think that matters much do you?

Check out more at The Washington Post, and I hope you feel good about voting this year.

One Show Down, Two More to Go

Whew.

Today was the closing performance and then strike for Moonlight and Magnolias. It was a great show. Just this last week, Potomac Stages picked the show as a must see in the Washington DC area. It is always sad to see a show close, and this was one of the sadder ones. The cast, Peter Boyer, Chris Reeder, Chris Todd, and Leah Raulerson, were all wonderful and provided a lot of great laughs for audiences.

But like all shows this one has reached the end of its run, and we got rid of all of the bananas and peanuts and now move on to donuts and sex farce.

Always Patsy Cline has one more week to play while we continue to rehearse Unnecessary Farce. It will almost seem like a vacation with only two shows to worry about this week. But not really. We’ve got a lot coming up and we’ll all be a bit crazy here pretty much up to the holidays. But hey that’s a life in the theatre.

Andrew Sullivan: Does Bush Believe McCain Was Tortured?

Oh, my. Andrew Sullivan pulls a good one here in the Atlantic Monthly. As John McCain’s campaign goes whole hog to try and turn his captivity and torture during the War in Viet Nam into the first line on his bio, Sullivan wonders if the Bush administration’s definition of torture doesn’t completely dump the water out of the waterboarding bucket. Here’s an excerpt:

In all the discussion of John McCain's recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?

According to the Bush administration's definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Oh, my. Wonder if this will get any play at all. Can someone please ask McCain this in a debate?

Chris Brogan on The Importance of Being Funny

I tried to turn the title of this post into some further Oscar Wilde-like word play but failed. Chris Brogan has been blogging his experiences at this year’s Gnomedex, and one of his posts, The Importance of Being Funny, is worth a chuckle or two. He talks about how being funny impacts storytelling, and it does.

Funny works. The guy or gal who can give us a smile in life will win fans for an an eternity. It often amazes me how folks who can be so freely hilarious in social situations completely lose their funny bone when it comes to conducting their business. And as Chris says, not everyone is funny, nor is every topic.

But then as Oscar Wilde says:

Life is too important to be taken seriously.

3D on the iPhone?

Interesting, Interesting. Interesting. This clever little demo points up a possible future for 3D apps on the iPhone (and perhaps other devices.) It was so interesting that traffic crashed the guy’s site.

iHologram - iPhone application from David OReilly on Vimeo.

via Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: David O'Reilly,iPhone

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Intersections: Twitter, Track, and CNN. Karoli nails so much of the recent overlapping debates about Twitter, track, politics, and media, that you’ll probably need to read this a couple of times.

Speaking of Twitter, Brian Carter on the Inquisitor looks at Why Twitter Is The Only Thing That Can Save The World from the Top 10 Causes of Destroyed Worlds. Very, very, funny.

Coming out of IDF this week, Intel began predicting that humans and machines will begin to merge in 2050. Hope I’m not around for that.

Martin Marty looks at Using God Politically. Good piece, too bad most who do, miss his points.

Michael Parekh wants more info from the presidential candidates on their tax and spend policies. So do I. Will we get it. Not without digging. There’s too much to gain (and lose) by staying away from substance.

Peggy Noonan says that folks are now starting to pay attention to the Presidential Follies, and thinks McCain should make a one term pledge. She’s right folks are staring to pay attention, and she’s wrong. McCain doesn’t need to make a one term pledge. Those paying attention have already figured out he would be a one-termer. That’s part of his appeal.

Biden is the Dem’s VP selection. CNet looks at his record on technology issues. Not a great record.

Waiting on line as a profession? Interesting.

Thoughts on Biden For VP

I have to admit that picking Biden for his running mate was a good choice on Obama’s part. It isn’t necessarily an inspired choice, but it is a good one. I got to listen to a little of the oh, so predictable coverage on this earlier today. Of course the Republicans are tearing into with all teeth bared like it was red meat. 

My favorite spin line is that it points up that Obama isn’t really for change (Biden is same old same old) and it plays to Obama’s weakness in foreign policy. Like I said, that’s spin and while it might work with some, it is as hollow as McCain is old. Here’s why.

Obama is preaching change. A part of that change is changing things up in Washington, and while Biden is old school, choosing him demonstrates Obama isn’t worried about the beltway blinders way of looking at things. I believe him when he says he want’s someone who will challenge him. I think Biden has proven that he isn’t afraid to do so.

On the foreign policy knock, I find it refreshing that Obama is confident enough in his own abilities to, in essence, acknowledge that his ticket needs some help in this area by choosing Biden.

Nothing we will hear this weekend and in the week’s to come will be surprising. Although I personally hope Obama will turn Biden lose as his attack dog, which is the traditional role of the VP candidate on the trail.

Now wouldn’t it be fascinating if McCain offered Hillary Clinton up as his running mate?

Love This Multi-Tool Pen

Ok, yeah, I’m a geek, and I also really love gadgets like this 13-in-1 multi-tool pen. Someone add this to my Christmas list will you.

In addition to a pen it includes a hole puncher; a stainless steel file; a short cutting blade; a flat screwdriver; a wire sleeve remover/small nail remover; an ear pick; a long cutting blade; a tweezer; a Philips screwdriver; a stainless steel fork and a saw.

I like the idea of the ear pick.

From Firebox.com via Gizmodo

Dave Winer As US CTO?

I guess now that the excitement of Obama’s VP pick is already fading, attention turns to other aspects of the campaign. Obama has said he wants to appoint a CTO for the US. Wonder how that will work?

Anyway, some are already beginning the speculation and lobbying, and Sean Percival has made his choice known with this graphic.

 

Via The Inquisitor