One Man’s Trash, originally uploaded by jonl.

The Tutor will go nuts. Keeping up with the Joneses arrives on the dumpster scene.

Watching Leslie watch.

Check out the itinerary Amanda posted! Memphis to St. Louis to Kansas City and back to Louisville? A few hundred miles this way and a few hundred miles back! I’m happy they’re coming through Madison. I’ll try to get my fat face in a few shots, ever angling for another 15 pico-seconds of fame. Better, I’ll try to get a few pictures of Amanda and her entourage. She’s doing good work, you gotta admit it.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/

Neil Patel offers five hints for making your blog popular through content. The hints are simple:

1. Break news.
2. Post on weekends.
3. Write timeless posts.
4. Teach don’t sell. And,
5. Join in on conversations.

Here’s some breaking news! Next weekend I will offer training centered on the following timeless posts:

I expect a huge conversation to come out of our examination of these five timeless posts. Naturally, everyone is invited to join in!

Catherine Bennett on abuse memoirs as a genre…

In a really fine piece of survivor-ware, you’ll find something redemptive - yet convincing - on every page. As a child, Briscoe read The Little Princess and vowed never to give up. Now we can read Judge Briscoe’s horrifying memoirs and vow never to give up. Such - assuming that their appeal is not witless voyeurism - is the moral that makes these memoirs of true-life victimhood so compelling to readers of the Oprah persuasion that they have not just become a genre of their own, with a well-stocked misery section in Borders, but spawned a flourishing sub-genre: miserable true-life memoirs of questionable or contested veracity.

After that lame jumping-on-the-bed reintroduction, Ms. Congdon has served up three for three interesting pieces.

Allan Moult’s “Leatherwood Online” now features the art of Richard Wastell, paintings and drawings in reaction to the clear felling of old growth Tasmanian forests. There may or may not be a better place for UN intervention against corporate greed on behalf of environmental concerns. The old growth forests of Tasmania certainly should be on a list of areas deserving international attention and protection.

…the particular agony of Tasmania is in the end neither environmental nor political but spiritual, and it is merely one end, one highly visible end, of a continuum that extends from the muddy ash of the Styx valley to the blood spattered walls of Baghdad and the torture cells of Guantanamo Bay.

PhoneCon 2.0 is running down the track right at us, mars light flashing, whistle howling in a rising doppler shriek!!!

ding-a-ling

Where are you now?
Don’t forget the kitty litter on your way home.
Should I call out for ‘za?

That’s right biz-guys and val-gals! It’s time for PhoneCon 2.0. Since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, this thing has grown like gangbusters! After the first PhoneCon in 2024, we vowed to do it again soonest, and I guess this was about the soonest we could do it. We weren’t sure if we should invite women, but hell… we weren’t sure if we should invite men either. We decided not to invite engineers and graphic artists, so if you see any of them in the lobby, well… they’re crashers.

Go grab yourself a PhoneCon badge for your blog… the conference planner has us on a tight schedule and it looks like we have less than eleven hours before the plenary session begins.

I understand we’re due to open with a stirring rendition of the Marseillaise performed on the fipple flute, then there will be some talking and more talking and then some talking and stuff, until finally the fat lady sings. And in this case, the fat lady is me. I’ve prepared several numbers for your edification and delight, but I’m also willing to take requests. Just hum a few bars… for the click through impaired, the agenda is reproduced below:

TENTATIVE AGENDA:

Introductions
Conclusions

BLAHAHAHA!

Okay, no, seriously, you’re in charge. But I was talking with the Co-Vice-Honorary-Capital- Advisory-President this evening, because the Chief Evangelist of the Chairman of the Bored whom I originally made this shit up with last time was ’sleep, and we came up with some ideas to kick around. Please bring your own topics.

Some Topics and Estimated Runtime:

Are you experienced? - 3o minutes
Favorite Hues - 3 hours
Wikipedia–”fixed” or free to procreate? - break out groups: 5 minutes.
What makes the web (AKA: meaning making 101) — ongoing
Frank Paynter: A song - 2 minutes
Conclusion - 30 seconds (AKA: Bye!)