Coomey.net

BREAKING NEWS:

Pluto has been demoted. No longer is it a planet. Pluto is dead, long live Pluto. I guess we'll have to refer to it as "the celestial body formerly known as the planet Pluto". Maybe it can get it's own goofy symbol to represent it too.

First off, yes I am an old fart and an elitist jerk. Sue me. I've just about had it with what the MySpace mentality is doing to the Web. Sure, I'm on board the whole "Web 2.0" bandwagon, but somehow MySpace gets put into the same boat with folks like Meebo, Digg and Google. The whole idea of the social networking website is a valid one. But there are such better implementations of the idea out there.

But, with popularity comes the unwashed masses. Just when I thought the Web as a medium had finally moved beyond ridiculous animated GIFs that burn a hole in the users' collective retinas, the latest fad has become "pimping one's myspace". Where we get to see things like this:



...and this...



Stuff that would probably kill your average epileptic. Gone are the days when people created HTML to be lean, mean and 56k modem-ready. Here are the days of pages with 15 embedded 35 MB videos, embedded flash music players and broken, bloated markup that inevitably crash the visitor's computer like a flight over Lockerbee.

I miss the old days. Jakob Nielsen is dead. Long live Jakob Nielsen.

Those of you who have heard me talk about my co-worker Dave Kimball know that I speak wih absolute reverence about the man. He is easily one of the funniest human beings I've ever had the pleasure to cross paths with. He's a real salt of the earth type of guy. Hell, he spent 24 years in the Marine Corps, part of that as a drill instructor at Parris Island.

One of the best things about Dave is his story telling ability. He's always got an outrageous tale about what he did to recruits at basic training, or what it was like to fight in a war with a gun that had no bullets, or having to support a girl's entire family in the Phillipines. The stories never end. And when they are told with Dave's unique and endearing speaking cadence, it's all the better.

So today, Dave was telling us a story about a day in the life of the relationship between his crazy cat and crazy dog. I had my PDA on hand and surreptitiously recorded it for posteriy... and the results, while short, are a hoot.

Warning, Dave drops a few F-bombs, so be aware.

A nice story about the six year old son of a girl I know who is fighting spindle-cell sarcoma. He's been battlinging since 2004, but I guess the latest prognosis is not so good.

Also, there's a benefit being held for him and his family on September 15th, and bands are needed. I'm thinking this might be a good cause for a 7HP reunion. Hint hint Billy.

All aboard! Lil’ train conductor lives out dream