Friday Humor with Hank and Jed

I've posted a couple videos by Hank and Jed productions in the past. They are a small production company that makes some fun movies. This past weekend they launched the newest version of their site, which keeps up with their brand of humor. You can also see their movies online, in decent quality.

Check them out at HankAndJed.com. ...

Open Congress

In the past I have posted about a congressional tracking tool called govtrack.us. Recently I came across a new site called OpenCongress.org. It uses data provided by govtrack.us to do something a little different. OpenCongress.org seems better laid out and has more of a social/web 2.0 vibe to it. This social vibe may make it easier to find current hot topics being debated on the hill. Check it out today and see for yourself. It's important that as many citizens as possible know what is going on in our government.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Friday Humor With Google

Humor with google? What's so funny about google? Actually there is quite a bit funny about google. There are many types of humor and one of my favorites is sarcastic wit. Someone used their wit sarcastically to put together a page to answer the question, "What if google had to design their interface for google?" ...

Since most of the sites we build at Provis Media Group are flash only, we don't rely on search engine optimization to get our clients listed. In fact it is our belief that almost assuredly you end up paying people more to do the work of search engine optimization than you would just using googles ad-words program ( or similar search engine systems ). And since flash based sites are usually more about design anyway, search engine optimization usually works against that philosophy.

A second bit of related humor - google "search engine". Only google UK is on the first page when I checked. Maybe something does need to be done about their page rank - I don't think they get enough traffic. :lol:
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Daryl "Deacon" Ducharme is currently Director of Application Development for the Interactive Agency Provis Media Group, LLC which helps organizations enhance identity, connect with customers and increase productivity.

Friday Humor with Dubya

Web cartoons are what got me into flash and from that actionscript. One day a friend turned me on to Homestar Runner and I thought, I should figure out how to do that. I later realized that I don't want to spend the time it takes learning how to cartoon, and I left that to other more talented artists. However another funny web cartoonist, Sam T., has his creations available over at his website ebolaworld.com. His are a bit more crass than homsar :) but his "Dubya" cartoons are absurdly funny.
...

Here's an episode from his newest "Dubya" series.

Friday Humor with XKCD.com

A while back I posted about the web comic XKCD. With its tales of love, raptors, computers and more there is a lot to laugh at. However, recently they did a comic about the state of summer blockbuster action flicks. I thought the solution they came up with was quite good. ...

If you didn't understand the joke, make sure to watch the Firefly TV series and the follow up movie Serenity.

Language learning with mango beta

I've talked many times before about the positive aspects of learning multiple languages. While I am still only fluent in one I do my best to learn French where I can. I have posted other ways to learn foreign languages in the past. Since then I have come up with a few others. Listen to the alternate language tracks on your DVDs. I have kids, so I watch the same movies over, and over, and over, and over... you get the picture. I have a quebecois in my EQ2 guild who gives me one phrase lessons quite often. For those of you who just want to enjoy your movies in your native tongue and don't have foreign language friends there is a new tool that recently went into beta online. The new tool is called Mango. ...

I tried it out and it seems decent. It is still in beta, and that is obvious at some points, but the basic lessons seem good. There is repetition of spelling, sound and meaning. Since learning a different language means looking at the world through different filters, it is good to learn the real meanings of the phrases you are saying.

There are 11 different courses, 9 of which are for english speakers. The french for english speakers currently has 100 lessons. It will be interesting to see how this grows over time. More courses? More lessons? Video?

Get learning.

Friday Humor with Tom Wilson

A few days ago I mentioned that one of my favorite movies of the past is Back to the Future. One of the people I've wondered about it Tom Wilson, the guy who played Biff, Griff, and Bufor "Mad Dog" Tannen in the Back to the Future series. I hadn't really seen him in other shows / movies that I've watched. While I may have looked him up on the internet movie database at one point, I didn't see anything that I would remember other than BTTF. After following some links on bttf.com recently I found out that he is now a comedian. Read more for a video clip. ...

For more videos, you can check out his you tube page or his website.

I've always had a thing for comedians who make me laugh with music. Recently I featured Flight of the Conchords on my site. I grew up listening to Wierd Al Yankovic. I really do laugh out loud when I watch Wayne Brady make up a song on Whose Line is it Anyway. One of my teachers in college has a funny Country/Metal/Rap band called Travis Shredd and the Good ol' Homeboys. In fact he is Travis Shredd ( not a good ole homeboy ). All good stuff, I'd love to hear about more.

Watching the debates

Last week both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates held debates. The Democrats on Sunday and the Republicans on Tuesday. I don't have cable so I didn't get to watch either of them live. Thankfully, CNN has each debate broken up into 4 parts that allowed me to view both debates. I'm glad I got a chance to watch both debates. ...

While I attempt to align myself with neither party, I mostly lean democrat and so far I am leaning very strongly towards one candidate I have written about before. Despite my leanings, I took the time to watch both debates.

I'm not going to be voting in the primaries for a Republican candidate so what's the point? I wanted to hear, the other side of the story. While I believe there are more than 2 sides to any story in politics, in the U.S. there are definately 2 stronger sides and it is important to at least listen to them. The obvious differences between Democrats and Republicans were present. However, by watching the Republicans hearing what they had to say I heard some ideas that I didn't hear from Democrats that had merit.

One topic they both brought up I have talked about before was English as the official language of the United States of America. Senator Hillary Clinton made a good distinction between English as the national language versus being the official language. It makes sense to respect the language so that we can all have some common glue, but making it official denies too many people full rights by not allowing translator requirements in hospitals, courts and other places. Only one Republican seemed like he may not be fully for making it official but one talked as though there was a conspiracy to remove the English language from our lexicon. On the Democratic debate, many were decidely against making it an official language.

Other than the Iraq war part of each debate, a large topic of discussion was gas prices and dependency on foreign oil. Both sides talked a good talk but only a few really talked about affecting the problem ( using up too much oil and other resources ) rather than doing something about the symptom ( gas prices ). Most republican's stuck with traditional forms of cleaner energy, such as clean coal and nuclear. I think nuclear is a good approach, it has gotten a bad rap but is scientifically proven to be very efficient and less damaging to the environment than many other options we have now. On the democratic side, people spoke more about alternatives, wind, solar, biofuels. All good options to research as well. As long as the focus is to improve energy efficiency. Only Governor Bill Richardson truly spoke about the problem - we use too much. Yes, he talked about alternative fuels, but he also talked about asking the American people to use less energy. Give them incentives to use less. That is the kind of talk I like to hear. Facing the problem from many angles, and it helps that it is aligned with what I believe :)

If you didn't watch the debates I recommend it. You can go to CNN and browse the videos. Do a search for GOP debate and Democratic debate and it should come up. As long as you start watching part 1 of 4 from either debate, the other parts will show up in the right hand menu.

Remember: It is your country. Be a part of shaping it!

Governor Bill Richardson

I don't watch it often, but tonight I watched The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. I missed the beginning of his interview but I caught the last part of Governor Bill Richardson. If I were to say he was a breath of fresh air, the very fact that that statement is cliche would reduce the sense of what I felt. It felt good to listen to him speak. ...

He spoke quite eloquently, without speaking over anyones head. He spoke with passion without losing his temper. He spoke about change and it seemed like he held himself responsible for it. I only saw him interview for less than 5 minutes.

He got me curious with his statements regarding our dependence on foreign oil. Though he did mention reducing our dependence on foreign oil, he also talked about America being a little more green. In a politically risky move, he said we might have to change our ways in order to reduce our dependence. He didn't say it like I do, when he said it I felt like it wouldn't be that bad. If felt very peaceful about the types of changes he was discussing. That's powerful communication.

So, being curious, I checked out his website - richardsonforpresident.com. The first thing that caught my eye was his new "Job Interview" advertisements. These ads doing a good job of showing off his qualifications without the usual feel of a political commercial.

His website is well layed out so that you can easily look a little bit deeper than a commercial. Make sure to check out his views on some of the major issues we are dealing with as a country. Much like what I saw while he spoke on The Tonight Show. His words were realistic and yet seemed achievable. Even in his disagreements with current policy, his words showed great tact. A true diplomat.

I don't know many of the candidates yet. I've only just begun to look. From what I see, Governor Bill Richardson looks like somebody who deserves a lot of our attention. He looks like someone who will get a lot done. He looks like he will bring the country back together. He looks like he could raise the respect that the international community has for the USA. Finally, he has been nominated for the nobel peace prize 4 times - that speaks volumes right there.

Searching and Digging

I've been doing a little digging through the new legislation on govtrack.us and I thought I would point to a couple of bills that might be of interest to my blog readers. They might be of interest because they both deal with issues I have discussed on this blog. I have actually found, and am monitoring, many bills as well as the actions of my legislators. ...

The first bill is House Resolution 2111. Sponsored by representative Rush Holt, who is a Democrat from New Jersey, this bill is titled the 'Foreign Language Education Partnership Program Act'. The purpose is to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a partnership program in foreign languages. One part of the bill I particularly like is:

From the amounts made available to carry out this section, the Secretary may make incentive payments for a fiscal year to eligible partnerships to develop and maintain, or to improve and expand, model programs that support articulated foreign language learning in kindergarten through grade 12.

I like it because it talks about foreign language learning starting from kindergarten. Bravo.

The second bill is something that, I've read, comes up every year. It is http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1335. Sponsored by Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, this bill is entered with the intention of Declaring English as the official language of the United States of America. The full text wasn't available as of my post but it will probably be available in a couple of days. If English is declared the official language of the US, I could see some issues. Most of it has to do with respecting the diversity of our nation, especially the areas that are mostly native and those dialects are strong. Depending on the wording of the bill, people who don't speak English well may have their civil liberties threatened in cases where they would currently be provided an interpreter.

I know many people feel different from me, so whether you feel the same or different please comment. I highly recommend looking at the bills at least a bit for yourselves, but I'll leave that decision to you.