Folks, I've spent this past week enjoying a fantastic podcast:
The Maniacal Rage Podcast (formerly the Garrett Murray
Podcast). I'm listening to Epis
ode 12 right now as a matter of fact, and am loving it.
I don't really listen to podcasts to be honest with you, but
when I heard this one, I was hooked. The reason: It's
hilarious, and it's about random funny topics - that's all.
It has nothing to do with web design or technology or
anything of that nature. It's just plain old funny. And
funny is what I need when sitting in front of my computer 10
hours a day, coding websites.
There are currently 21 episodes of which you can listen.
The first 18 are referred to as the Garrett Murray podcast
(hence the URL). The reason for the change, is because
Garrett is always joined by his friend Shawn Morrision, and
they decided it'd make sense to change the name. Both of
these guys are very funny, run-of-the-mill kinda guys who
work well together.
So, I highly recommend having
a listen. You won't be disappointed.
This morning, while getting ready for work, the TV was
tuned in to Good Morning America, and the newscasters were
talking about "Google-ing themselves". Now, I realize that
this this sounds like it could be construed as a slang term
for doing something to yourself that isn't particularly
family friendly. However, what this really means, is to go
to google.com and do a
search on your name and see what comes up. You may be
wondering at this time what the big deal is for me to
mention this. Well... I'm gonna tell ya. Google has done
it. They have become a ge
nericized trademark. Much like making a photocopy has
become synonymous with xeroxing, and using Kleenex has
replaced tissue paper, searching for something on the
internet has now become "Google-ing". In the fast-paced,
constantly changing internet technology market, Google has
been able sustain such a huge edge over their competition
that the idea of "searching for content over the internet"
has now become "Google-ing for content".
This morning's GMA was not the first time Google has been
genericized. Pontiac had a car commercial that urged their
customers to "Google Pontiac" (see video clip), while in the
movie "The Holiday", Cameron Diaz goes to Google to find her
perfect vacation getaway. You never hear people saying
"Yahoo to find your answer", or "MSN it".
Congratulations Google! You've truely made a name for
yourselves.
One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away yesterday. My initial
experience with Vonnegut was in high school, when I was
forced to read 'Slaughter House Five' for a class called
'Novels Satire'. I must admit, that it wasn't until my
second time reading the novel that I really fell in love
with his writing style. Since then, I've read a large
number of his works including: 'Slaughter House Five',
'Timequake', 'Breakfast of Champions', 'Mother Night',
'Cat's Cradle', and am currently enjoying 'Bluebeard'.
It's weird to think that there will be no more new books
to read from him. So long Mr. Vonnegut. So it goes.
