thirty seven roses

This year they chose to hold the Handmade Arcade at the Hunt Armory in Shadyside rather than Construction Junction. I think this was a much better venue for the event even though Army humvees were ominously in the back of the venue behind the complementary bike rack. 

Artists Image Resource was printing 4 foot by 6 foot prints of the front page of the Post Gazette on November 5 for free. All you had to do was help the dude with the ink. 

After the death of author David Foster Wallace in September, I had a conversation with a few friends about what would happen to your web content when you die. How long does Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Plurk, WordPress, Blogger, or any other site, keep your information active? Is there a law prohibiting the removal of content? Is there such a thing as a will for content? I would be leery of giving up my passwords to a legal document.

TechBurgh did a post yesterday about the new WordPress plug-in called “Next of Kin.” It’s apparently a nice way of saying, you can decide what you want to happen to your blog when you die.

Here’s an interesting thought, morbid but interesting.

What would happen to your blog if you were to die? Sorry but it’s a valid thought.

I’ve pondered this before, briefly but seeing a plugin while wandering the WordPress Plugin site prompted me to post about it.

The Next of Kin plugin monitors your visits to your blog and sends you a message if you haven’t visited in a preset amount of time. If you don’t visit after your warning message the plugin will send a message to the person of your choosing.

Call it blogging from the grave.

It’s weird but do you have a contingency if anything were to happen to you?

Does someone in your family have a username and password to your account?

Is your web host written into your will?

What do you think? Is your blog/site important enough to worry about post-mortem?

If you don’t like the idea of thinking about death every time WordPress wants to let you know you haven’t posted in a while, think of it as a motivator to post more often. Or something.

It’s certainly something to think about, and I’m glad WordPress has thought about it!

Yesterday, in the 14th minute of her 15 minutes of fame, Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin answered questions from the press while her staffers were trying to shut her up. From CNN:

Asked if she had any regrets about the campaign, Palin bemoaned “the state of journalism today.”

“The blogosphere, the two, three hour news cycles, where just too much is reported based on gossip and innuendo and things taken out of context,” she explained, adding that she’d like to help improve the profession because she has “great respect for the world of journalism.”

I found it very interesting that she is quick to point out the fallacies of citizen journalism and I wonder what her vision of new media really is.

Here’s hoping the new “beacon” of the Republican party takes a look at what is going on around her and gets over it.

Happy Birthday, Dear Missy, Happy Birthday to YOU!

Today’s CNN headline of “One More Day” links to an article titled “Candidates sprint toward finish line.”

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, it won’t matter what state they stumped in on Monday, it won’t matter which person they spent 20 minutes talking to and which person they just waved to, there will be a winner either way.

I think today is probably the most anxious day of the campaign for these two candidates and their counterparts. I’m thinking of both of them today and wish them both a little mental Xanax to get through it.

I’ve been watching CNN spottedly throughout the past week, the reporters seem to just be highlighting political buzzwords and keeping their eyes on the candidates to see if either of them does something questionable so they have something new to talk about. It must be tough to play with a map and change the color of the states just to thrill the audience with numbers.

Promise, Change, Hope, Healthcare, Economy, War, Environment, Education, Immigration, Taxes, Numbers, Numbers, Numbers; History. 

No matter who wins, we’re still in Iraq, we’re still in a recession, we’ve still got supreme court justices to appoint, and we’ve still got to muddle through. There are plenty of people who have said that we are the richest and most spoiled nation on the planet; and who are we to complain about anything?

What makes a leader? Who is a leader? And, who is a follower?

Make sure you vote tomorrow.