facebook

You’re posting what on your social network feeds?

November 14, 2012

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a social network.

There were no digital cameras. No iPods. No iPhones. No laptop computers or XBox 360s. Playstation 3? Ha!

Nothing of the sort.

If we were going out to play baseball or ride bikes, we didn’t text somebody or tweet them — we called (via a land line phone — gasp!) or knocked on their door.

That’s technology when I was a kid! (photo by mr_write at MorgueFile).

If we needed talk to our parents or something, we’d go home or call on a pay phone (yes, back then, they were easy to find).

Now, to be fair, when I went to school, I didn’t walk up hill, both ways, in snow. And I didn’t fight off bears with a loose-leaf binder! Close enough though.

This isn’t a post about the boom of technology or my childhood compared to these days, though. I love technology. And, I won’t yap here about kids worrying more about texting and playing on Facebook rather than going out and jumping bikes in an old park.

It’s how this technology and social networks are used.

I use many of the bigger social networks out there. I tweet. I have Facebook. I love using Instagram. I’m active on Flickr. And I mess around with other social and popular sites because they are fun to use.

But I also watch what I post.

I’ve seen an alarming number of people who are not so careful. Heck, some of them aren’t even the younger generation. Some are people my age and older.

The things they post! Sheesh!

The reason this post has come about is because of an alarming number of things I see on photo sites, such as Instagram. I can’t fully comment on Facebook (though I’m sure the same things happens as many people post their Instagram photos to Facebook) as I keep my profile and everything else extremely private.

It’s one thing to post a picture of yourself being scantily clad.I don’t think it’s smart, especially for younger ladies — but at least they have some clothes on. Do I condone? No. But there are far worse things.

Such as posting illegal activities.

I’m starting to notice more and more people who are posting things like this, such as images of marijuana. No matter where you stand on the fence when it comes to legalizing this substance, as of right now it’s illegal on the federal level, which trumps states.

The people who post these images get creative, too. Such as posting a photo of their bag o’ weed. Or the buds all spread out. Or their bowl all packed with the herb.

They even hashtag these posts with things such as “#weed,” “#420,” #marijuana,” “#pot,” and other things that allows users to find these photos.

Seriously?

I just went on Instagram and did a few quick hashtag searches. When I typed in #420, it came back with 1,259,245 photos. #pot came back with 382,399 photos. #marijuana came back with 817,032 photos — but there were also offshoots of that term that had many more hits.

Some of the photos I saw? Marijuana plants. Bags of pot. People smoking. Pictures of paraphernalia. Scales of people measuring out pot. People — this is illegal! Why would you post such things?

People, let’s think about this for a reason.

You’re on a social network that can be seen by millions and millions of people. Your image of your pot might get 150 likes, but who are these people liking it?

Something tells me, in most cases, it’s not somebody who is going to rush and give you a job offer!

In this day and age when jobs are becoming harder and harder to find (I can testify to that!), why would you ever put something out there that can be searched and used against you?

With the Internet growing every day, more and more personal information can be out there. And once it’s out there, it’s out there.

I realize many of the people I see posting these sort of images are college-age people. And they are living life and living it large. But there can be repercussions to things like this. What happens when potential employers stumble upon your feeds? If you haven’t made them private, they are there for the world to see.

So a potential employer stumbles upon your page and sees images with weed and things like that.

What’s wrong with posting simple photos to Instagram or other social networks?

Next!

It doesn’t matter if you are the best candidate or not — if you are flaunting an illegal activity, why take a chance?

It’s not even just jobs. It could be your friends. Or family members. Or kids. Anybody can see this stuff. I have relatives who are just reaching or barely in their teens who are on Instagram. Though their profiles might be private (which is a good thing), they can still see other people’s feeds and photos.

Having them see images of people all high or of pot isn’t something I would want them to look at.

And though I’m not sure cops would go after somebody posting a picture of them smoking a joint, I’m sure it’s possible they could. How would you like to have that knock at the door and get ticketed or arrested for posting a picture of you smoking weed? Or packaging it as it looks like intent to sell?

All I’m saying is be smart.

As time continues on and technology continues to grow, more and more apps and things will show up to make the social media market that much bigger and stronger. It gives more options for people to put things out there that can be incriminating.

Hey, I understand it. I’m out there. I blog. I use the social networks. I used to work for a newspaper. So I’m searchable. But I’m also careful. I have privacy settings to the max at some places (such as Facebook) and wherever else I feel it necessary. Not because I’m trying to hide anything but because I don’t want my whole life out there and searchable.

Be smart and think about possible outcomes.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

The next step in gaming…

August 29, 2012

Do angry birds find a way to make you happy?

It doesn’t seem to matter which way you turn anymore, the future of social networking and gaming is merging at every corner.

Word with Friends.

Draw Something.

I’m not the greatest at drawing.

Scramble with Friends.

Dice with Buddies.

Song Pop.

Oh the list could go on and on. If you have access to a smartphone or, for that matter, Facebook, the games are coming from all over.

It’s about time to check the virtual farm, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s time to collect rent from somewhere in your city, of which you built from a small town to a major metropolitan area.

There’s so many games out there, I can’t keep up. Well, I don’t even really want to try to keep up. I’m on all of these games. But I can only pay attention to one or two at a time. If I did all of them, I’d never get anything done.

I guess I could set aside 15 minutes a day and play just that span. Maybe then I’d be able to keep up on everything. Who knows.

But there are so many games!

And then the ones that aren’t even connected to others. Such as Angry Birds. Or Bejeweled Blitz. (For the record, there’s a Bejeweled game for playing others… but I don’t know how to actually score big and losing everything by more than 200,000 points doesn’t seem fun). There’s Boggle and Tiny Tower and Temple Run. Don’t forget Doodle Jump or Order Up or Parking Frenzy.

Holy cow can it go on and on!

But it’s those social ones that can really get you.

You find opponents who are better than you and you want to get better to beat them. Or you find ones who are worse than you and you want to continue to play them and stomp them to boost your stats.

Those stats are huge, too!

My biggest addiction is Dice with Buddies. It’s quick to play and you can check in on it here and there. It’s basically Yahtzee, with a different name.

It’s funny with video games. I’ve played them throughout my life, but I’ve never gotten too into them. As a kid, there was the Atari 2600. Yes, I’m serious. And yes, it was an awesome system. In fact, I’d love to get my hands on a working one because I still have a bunch of the games. Talk about a throwback of fun. And what a great blog post it would make. Oh the games were awesome. Frogger. Pitfall. Donkey Kong. Elevator Action. Defender. Space Invaders. I could go on and on.

I never had stats like this on the Atari!

From there, it was the flip-open Nintendo. That’s where the likes of Super Mario Brothers came to life. Games like Pro Wrestling and Ice Hockey were awesome. And Tecmo Super Bowl? Awesome! And getting to and beating Mike Tyson was one of the greatest things one would ever do in gaming!

I received a Super Nintendo for Christmas one year and that was the latest and greatest in gaming. It was during the Sega wars and things like that.

Then came Playstation. Wow.

That’s as far as I went. The new systems are incredible. The graphics? Amazing. And the fact that people can hook up and play online (which is a total blast, for the record) is insanely cool.

Imagine being able to play someone in the old days of Atari baseball? As if!

Now there are systems like the Wii, where one can do so many things with the game.

But not everybody sinks money into the gaming systems. They have their phones. Computers. iPads. And whatever else. So that makes social networking games — where you can utilize Facebook and Twitter to find friends to play against — an even bigger market.

It’s items like this that make me really wish I had done something in college with gaming and learning how to make these games. Then I’d just need the perfect idea and a way to do it.

Maybe I could still make my millions. It’s never too late, is it?

Never mind. No time. I need to figure a way to draw “hula.”

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Notes from my noodle: May 22

May 22, 2012

It turns out, there’s life beyond disc golf!

Let me clarify that. Back in March, I started a second blog. That has somewhat hurt this blog a little. Not a ton, but it’s made it so I don’t publish a new post here every day. That’s not the biggest worry in the world, but it has come to the idea that I have had some issues with said other blog.

See, that blog — which is all about disc golf — has become pretty popular. In two full months, we’ve averaged more than 12,500 page views per month. For being a blog without any advertising and revenue, that’s pretty solid. We’ve gained many readers and have several writers, all working to build a better disc golf community.

I love disc golf, but with a blog and playing and all, it had taken over a portion of my life. I needed that to change so I don't get burned out from it!

What I love about it is we’ve worked as a group to make a great little spot for disc golf news articles and such. We give things in an entertaining way and, usually, with a journalism twist to things. We’ve done some really cool things, such as a women’s week and our weekly polls and such. It’s been fun.

But, like anything else, if you are pushing out a lot of things, you get burned out. I’ve been having a tough time with it lately because I feel like it’s taking up a ton of time and I’m trying to keep fun in it. We make no money on it and we do it in our spare time, so I need to make sure it doesn’t get me. As I said, thankfully we have a few writers and a few more have indicated they want to join. It’s a good group.

Alas, it’s kind of hit me over here with creative. I’m trying to find my “thang” again over here. I want it to be as it used to be. Fun and a way to relieve stress. Being I’m still in a job hunt (which takes up much of my days), I would like to be able to mix some fun here and not just at the other blog. I need this place to write some potpourri and enjoy it again.

That means it’s back to the old — topics ranging from real life to geocaching to pro wrestling to baseball to book/movie reviews to whatever else I can come up with. Earl will be coming back soon and I have some more players to work on for the HooHaa 9.

I’m going to push to get back to some fun here. If you have some blog ideas/topics you think you’d like to read about on the blog, let me know. It’s time to hit the idea notebook and see what I can come up with!

****

So speaking of geocaching, allow me to share this story.

There’s a new cache series in my area. It’s 12 caches total, including the “final” cache. It’s in a state forest land and follows trails (though many of the caches you have to go hacking and bushwhacking off the trails to get). It was a hot, and somewhat humid, day.

I was meeting up with a fellow cachers, who was probably going to have to come and go once or twice to finish. Still, my goal was to complete the series that day. By looking at the map, it appears the caches go in a loop and would bring you back to your car.

Note this is not one of the geocaches we found, but rather just a photo to show that fun is finding these items!

As I arrived to meet the fellow cacher, he says “Why don’t you ride with me and when I have to bold, we’ll go and then when we get back, we can park at the other parking area.”

So, I agreed.

What followed was something out a Keystone Cops type situation.

We did the lower loop of caches and had to decide how to get back to the car the quickest. Caching pal says to continue up trail and there’s a cross over. Alas, nothing came after another nearly half mile. That made us turn around and go back to the roadside.

From there, he bolted the road to grab the car (and I waited as I wasn’t going to keep up with him on this one). While I waited, with an amazing full service phone, I created the spot “Lost” on Foursquare and checked in.

We headed back to his area, where we picked up his daughter and into another town to drop her off to a birthday party. Then back to his place to get his son and do Round 2 of the caches.

We started at the upper parking area, got confused, found another trail and got an idea of the cache layout. With it being hot and on another time schedule, frustration set in early as we couldn’t figure which way to go.

See, I had planned on looping. By not looping, I had no idea where I was as I don’t know this area!

But, we were on target now and we started to cross off the caches. Then we had to go pick up his daughter. And I hadn’t figured all the coords out yet… yikes! Little did I know if I had plugged them in, it wouldn’t have required the third trip.

In the end, as I noted to the fellow cacher, I should have kept my car and could have continued on the path if he needed to go back-and-forth. But, to be fair, it also gave me a fun piece to this blog!

Overall, the series was a heap of fun. We actually might have walked more by doing it the way we did it because we went back and forth to things instead of just going around everything! And, in the end, we got some good stories, had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it, which is what this game is all about, right?

****

Do you ever get into a text conversation with a friend and it takes an odd turn?

It seems to happen to me too often.

Anyway, a conversation that started about bike racing to other sports to sports camps. Out of the blue, I decided to change it up a bit.

Me: I race turtles.

Friend: I thought you like crawfish?

Me: Turtle racing is big money.

Friend: On or out of water.

Me: Road racing.

Me: I once held the record for the 100 meters with a turtle I trained. Crossed in 14.3.

Friend: Is that hours?

Me: Days.

Me: Most people leave. I stay. Even if my turtle loses, I win.

Friend: That’s determination!

Random, I know. But it gave me one heck of a good laugh, that’s for sure!

****

I think it’s time for a Facebook purge.

Every once in a while, it’s worth going through my Facebook contacts and deleting some people. Let’s be honest, there are people on everybody’s Facebook that probably can be purged.

I noticed several people who have disabled or gotten rid of their Facebook, but they still remain “friends.” I have also noticed people I probably haven’t talked to in years. It just seems silly to keep so many. To be fair, I actually do stay in contact with many of the people on my Facebook. Still, I’d like to trim the numbers. I’ll have to see what I can do to bring the numbers down a little.

****

Softball is supposed to start today.

The weather forecast doesn’t look perfect, but we have hope. There is a chance of showers in the morning and then thunderstorms in the afternoon/evening. So, it’s going to be shaky, but hopefully we can get it in and get the season underway.

Another year of softball starts tonight!

We won our second straight league championship last year and this year is going to likely be even harder as a few teams beefed up a little. And that’s what softball should be about. Several good teams battling it out. That makes it fun. I look forward to a strong season.

We’re 35-4 over the past couple of years with, for the most part, the same guys. Other teams are getting better and younger teams (thankfully) are joining the league. So, if we have a few more losses this year, it happens. Hopefully in the end, we’ll have earned our third straight title. But you can never guarantee that to happen.

I’m stoked that we’ve won two straight. Because in this game, teams can win at any point. Figure this — in some 20-plus years of playing softball, I’ve been on teams that have won championships four times. Once in a league I only played part time back in the mid 90s. We won one title in the old Delhi league, which I’m thankful we actually won. Then these past two. We’ve been to finals many times, but finishing it off isn’t easy.

So, the season starts today (hopefully). We’ll see how it goes and check back in at the end of the year!

****

NOTE TO FELLOW BLOGGERS: I am trying to finish a survey I started a few months ago. It’s basically about the male/female blogging tendencies etc. I need a handful of bloggers for each sex to fill things out as I want to try and have an even number of each.

I will be taking some comments and using them in a blog post and everyone who participates will get a link back to their blog.

Please comment here or e-mail me if interested in participating. The survey shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes or so to fill out.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Notes from my noodle: March 21 edition

March 21, 2012

OK, this doubling up on blogs is tough!

Before I know it, I have one post elsewhere and then a neglect here. This is my apology to the friends of A ‘lil HooHaa. As I get everything built up over at the disc golf blog I’ve created, I have made this one almost second in comparison.

It won’t always be that way.

But I have been working on getting that other site running and moving. Starting a new blog for a niche such as disc golf takes some patience because you have to line things up, get topics and ideas and line up a few extra writers.

We’ve done much of that thus far, but we have a long way to go.

And for neglecting here a little, my apologies. It won’t be a full-time neglect, I can assure you.

I’ve had some version of A ‘lil HooHaa since July of 2005 and I don’t plan on having it end here. Not because of another blog, anyway.

So fear not, I’m here. And I plan on being so for a long time. I just might miss here and there because of some other commitments. It’s my hope to build up a queue of stories, too, that I can post as needed.

But I have some other things in my noodle at this time, too.

While you are at it, however, if you like or are interested in disc golf — check out the new blog at RattlingChains.com.

***

I read a story today that talked about potential employers asking people during an interview for their Facebook password.

Seriously.

This person, apparently, has their Facebook stuff set to private (which is a smart thing. I do the same. Privacy, folks, is an important thing). During the interview, the interviewer turned and looked up said person and asked for his password to be able to look at his Facebook.

Say what? Talk about an invasion of privacy!

This gentleman promptly refused and withdrew himself from consideration for the position.

Look, I don’t use my Facebook to badmouth any employee — past, present or future. I don’t do it on the blog. I don’t do it. Why? Because burning bridges isn’t a smart thing to do. Especially in a public forum. No matter how something ended, whether bitter or not, there’s always something good to take away from the experience. It also gives you something to work for in the future, maybe as an improvement or something else.

Not to mention it’s public. Why would you want to blast someone where potential future employers would see it.

That still doesn’t give someone a right to ask me for my personal passwords and such to snoop around my Facebook, see my friends and all that. I have personal things on my Facebook — nothing major, but family things etc., — and the reason I keep things private is because I don’t want people to see these things. Well, outside my small group of Facebook friends.

Could you imagine being asked to fork over this stuff at an interview?

The story also notes that the city of Bozeman, Montana, until recently, asked for passwords and accounts for things like Facebook AND your e-mail!

I really would like to move on in my employment hunt. But if things like this are a requirement, is it worth working for a company like that? I’ve always liked to separate work and private life. I’m not going to let a potential employer — or anyone else for that matter — rifle through my personal e-mail.

Not a chance.

I realize it’s a buyers market out there for people looking for work, but that doesn’t give someone the right to play big brother to me. If someone wanted to see my Facebook, I have nothing to hide. I’d gladly show it. With me in control of things. There’s no need to surf my friends and such. You want to see my posts? Fine. Photos? Sure.

But e-mail? Never. There’s private things between friends and family and me. I’m not letting someone know every bit about my life. Unless said interviewer is willing to part with all their private info, I’m not doing it, either. That’s just wrong and a total invasion of privacy.

Has anyone had this happen to them? How did you react?

***

I don’t know about where you are, but the weather we are getting in my area is insane.

At one point when I was out and about today, it was 78.

In March.

In Upstate New York.

That’s just crazy. To think area high schools might get to play baseball and softball this year before April comes is even more crazy. I realize March games are usually on the schedule, but it’s rare for them to actually be played.

This years might prove it different.

Some cooler weather is coming in the coming week or so as things are supposed to dip into the 50s — which is my kind of weather. I’m hoping to get out and do a few things as well to break up the job hunt a little. Hopefully I’ll be employed soon enough, so then when getting out of work, I’ll appreciate the weather a bit more!

But high 70s in March. I can’t believe it!

***

I’ve been working on a story that will be partially on this blog sometime in April.

But the story, which involved professional wrestling, is really captivating and I think I can make it more in-depth and more detailed. Far more than for a blog because of it’s possible size.

So I’m looking to maybe try and get an Amazon Kindle Single.

The Singles are really nice reading. They range from 5,000-30,000 words and are quite in-depth reports or short fiction. The story I am working on, which I obviously won’t want to give away ahead of time, is compelling. I thought it was going to be pro wrestling and it goes way beyond that. I think it’s going to be some really good reading.

And, remember, to read a Kindle single, you won’t necessarily need to own a Kindle. You can get the free app to read things on smart phones, computers, iPads etc. They usually range in price from $1-$4. But the acceptance rate is different. They need to approve it, which I think is great because it makes you really write some of your best.

I’m hoping, when all is said and done, they’ll like my piece and want it as a Single.

And hopefully, people will buy it. I know most of what I do out here is free, but I assure you if it gets accepted, it’s one heck of a story. Plus, you’ll be helping an unemployed dude make a few cents!

Notes from my noodle: Feb. 29

February 29, 2012

I’ve been trying to organize life here at A ‘lil HooHaa lately.

See, there’s a new blog a few of us have been working on. If all goes well, it will launch this upcoming Monday. It’s a niche blog, so it will stick to one topic. I will have more information on this probably this weekend. I just want to make sure we have everything in order before saying anything as we had hoped to have launched already, but some real-life things got in the way. Such is the life of a non-commercial blog.

With that in mind, I wanted to make sure I organized my personal blog a bit more so that I can do both with no issues, especially once I become gainfully employed again.

So, I have some things I’m working on here.

I’ll still be covering a lot of the same things I do now and I’m working on a few more in-depth journalistic style pieces. But I’m going to be working on a few more “fun” and “quick” things, so if I feel I need filler for a day, I have it.

This might include some of those wacky quizzes you see people fill out or challenges.

By challenges, I mean the ones that seem to pop up all over the place every day. They come in 7-day, 10-day and 30-day challenges. Some are even longer. Some shorter.

The idea is to do something for that amount of time each day.

For example, it could be a photo challenge. So for 30 days, they give you themes and you have to fill it. It can be about a movie. It can be about you. About friends. Family. Health. Whatever. There are so many of them.

Go check out this Tumblr page if you want some ideas. So many of them.

My plan won’t be to actually do the challenge as planned — I’m going to do them HooHaa style, baby! That means I’ll be doing full challenges in one blog post. Offline it might take me some time to do them, but when I bring it to you here, it will be in one post with all the answers.

I’m also going to be doing some fun things such as a joke/riddle of the week (most likely both) in one post. I’m going to bring back those “What’s going on this week” things. And I’m going to branch out to do some baseball card scans and such.

Again, I’m not changing anything else. If things are going on, I’ll do the normal thing. Heck, that might mean more than one post a day. But I want to have a few more fun things, too. Just to make it a little easier on me when needed.

I have a lot of cool thinks cooking here at A ‘lil HooHaa. It won’t be going anywhere. I just want to tweak a little.

***

Today is February 29.

If you are on FourSquare, make sure you mention Leap Day to get the sweet badge for this special day!

I know, nothing special. Or is it?

Of course it is! It’s Leap Day! Sweet!

This fine day only happens once every four years (usually). There are rare times it doesn’t happen, but it’s all how the world works.

Anyway, so this is a great day.

See, first of all, 29 is my favorite number, so it’s sweet to see February get this day. Second, there’s always cool little things with this day.

Take FourSquare, for example. The social game is giving a special badge out today, so make sure you get it!

For you geocachers out there, you can get a special souvenir by finding a cache today!

Welcome to the game, February!

There are many events, too. I was planning on heading out to one later, but it turns out Mother Nature is making this area a bit bad today with snow (during the winter? Who knew?), followed by sleet and freezing rain. Add all that together and a trip to Albany for a geocaching event doesn’t sound so fun.

Or necessary.

So if you’re a cacher, hopefully you get the chance to find a cache or hit up an event!

For me, it’s an extra day in the year and is the reason behind me doing the 366 challenge.

I’m hoping to find something good to shoot. I already have taken a few photos, but maybe I can find some other things. I’m a little stuck, however, as I don’t want to leave town with this weather, so I’m kind of looking around here. Something will come along, I’m sure.

***

A quick add on here as I just saw the news that Davy Jones died at the age of 66 today.

I still remember (re-runs, anyway) the Monkees show. I really enjoyed it. I actually have a bunch of their music, too. I was always a fan of that group and Davy Jones was always fun to see in television shows and wherever else.

It’s a sad day for music. Though The Monkees were a made-for-TV group, they really went past that and became part of a culture and a time period. Remember, Marcia from the Brady Bunch really thought Davy was “dreamy” and “groovy.”

Davy Jones was heading into the Northeast sometime in May for a tour and I had actually debated going and seeing him. It’s a shame that chance will never come for me and for many others who probably would have loved to see him perform.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos:

The Monkees theme song:

Daydream Believer (probably my favorite Monkees song):

***

I have only been summoned for jury duty once in my life. I was stoked, too. Two days before, however, it got canceled and I was done. Since then, I’ve never been called back.

I always thought it would be something to serve on a jury. It’s a duty not to be taken lightly and it’s one people should embrace because they are being part of the judicial process.

Apparently, one dude thought he had an out.

See, turns out this maroon was serving his duty as a juror in an auto negligence case, according to the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. The defendant, a young woman, must have caught the eye of this guy because he started to look around, apparently, for her.

And he found her on Facebook.

He ended up sending her a friend request on Facebook, which is obviously a no-no as jurors should not be contacting the people involved in the case. See, this guy apparently thought the gal looked familiar and with more than 1,300 Facebook pals, he wasn’t sure if she was a friend or not. When he found her on Facebook (via his phone), he claims he tried to press the “mutual friends” button, but actually hit the “friend request” button, according to the newspaper report.

That’s not good, right?

Though he said he knew the request would be sent to the defendant, he didn’t say anything during the jury selection. And, he ended up on the seven-member jury.

The guy, whose last name is Jock, said he hoped she’d forget about it and thought it wasn’t that big of a deal because it was a mistake.

The defendant obviously saw the request, told here lawyer, who told the judge. That got this guy removed from the jury.

Oh, but the story doesn’t end there.

This Einstein then bragged about getting dismissed to his legion of pals on Facebook.

Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.

Really?

The end result?

Three days in the lock up on a criminal contempt of court misdemeanor. The newspaper reported he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom as his girlfriend cried.

Said the judge, after a two-hour hearing:

I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.

Fully agreed there.

A bit of advice to future people on a jury — take it serious. You are doing a part that in an important process in our country. It’s not a joke and shouldn’t be taken as such.

***

I’m shocked at the amount of people looking to meet me recently.

It’s like I’m a celebrity.

I’m not sure how to react to all of this, so I’m taking my time sifting through all the e-mails and such. See, it seems like there are people from all over the world who want to meet me. Want to see a couple of these awesome e-mails?

i’m Alice

!There are many good moments in a life…You certainly will be happy. Let’s meet?

write to me please.

Kiss.

Alesia

We’ll have to get rid of Alesia. I don’t like bad grammar and not capitalizing things. I could send an autograph, I imagine, if that’s what she would like.

I’m Alisa
Being with a man, makes me feel happiness.
Let’s communicate?
Waiting on your turn.

I wonder if this is the same person and changing the spelling of her name? Sheesh! But waiting on my turn? Are we playing a board game or something? I’ll communicate — lose my e-mail address!

Salute! I’m Lesechka. I’m 22.I saw your photos in brother’s account and decided write to you.

Some time ago I break with my boyfriend and now I am single. So if you want to chat with me please… write me something interesting about you.

Something interesting…

OK, I got it.

I don’t know you. You didn’t see me in your brother’s account. You’re a Spam Bot. Go away.

Sometimes, however, you just have to e-mail these people back. For kicks. Something has to return, right? I mean they are all looking for love and romance, after all.

Here’s an exchange I had with one person.

The initial letter:

So I’m happy that I have meet with reliable man.
My name is Irina, doing gymnastics since childhood and I love swimming.
I’m blonde with blue eyes.

Hope get more information about you.

I liked your snapshot, and I wanna meet you.

Hope read you soon

Sounds like Irina is quite the keeper, eh? Not sure where she saw my snapshot, though. So, I was curious. Let’s see if she knows me. (Note that this e-mail is for an account I have set up for junk mail signups and all, so it has no personal stuff at all).

Me:

I bet you can get into some great positions with that gymnastics background, huh?

Let’s get it on!

Where did you see my snapshot though? I don’t put that online. You stalking me?

I figured that response would get her attention, eh? Internet love with some chick overseas… I’m in!

Her response:

Hey! Hi!

I recently registered on the website (clipped… looked like a site heading to Russia), and uploaded my photo. Write me PM, cuz I hate email.
If you are interested, you can see my pictures.

compose me your minds.

That was the end of that chat. It’s unfortunate, too. It had such a good beginning. I’ll have to compose her my mind one day to see if she eventually found happiness in this cruel world.

***

Time for a riddle.

I will post the answer to this in the comments later tonight sometime. But until I do, feel free to answer away in the comments section.

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black.

None of the street lights are working because of a power failure cause by a recent storm.

A car with two broken headlights drives toward the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting the pooch.

How could the drive have seen the dog to turn away in time?

(Riddles.com)

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Notes from my noodle: May 22

Notes from my noodle: March 21 edition

Notes from my noodle: Feb. 29

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P.J. Harmer