Dean Paxton

Category: Personal

  • Spam and Propaganda

    Since I’ve been registering and re-registering at various jobs sites in my search for part-time and less-than-permanent employment, I’ve noticed an increase in SPAM lately. I’m not talking about a few extra e-mails. I talking about a 1000% increase. No suprise there, in fact, its really a perfectly acceptable trade-off for gainful employment. SPAM for a job.

    But then again, what on earth makes a list of e-mails from a job site so valuable to advertisers anyway? I mean, we’re all broke for god sakes! Okay, if you want to be optimistic, I guess we probably do represent earning potential. Not a bad demographic after all. After all, they gave us credit cards when we were broke college students for the same reason. Imagaine, they have the nerve to get pissed cause I don’t pay those bills either.

    But, wait… what about my privacy?

    I guess you must sacrifice your anonymity and privacy for prosperity as well as protection from potential terrorism. Hell yes, I am ready for my barcode tattoo and cooresponding chip implant (with RC4 encryption of course).

    In fact, just give me a job and simply deduct from my pay for the costs for services that I will most likely use. Speaking from a demographical, statistically predetermined consumer profile, of course. Simply send me the stuff take the money out. That will save everyone quite an awful lot of trouble. I’m fine with that. I’m sure… I’ve been ready for a cashless society for quite some time now. I’ve been dutifully using my in-store savings cards. I’ve used ATM and check cards for every single purchase I possibly can. I’m ready. It’s time for the consumer convenience aspect of this ponzi (nods to Jeff P) scheme to kick in.

    I’m sure they will leave me enough to retire upon, right? No, in fact, the boomers are taking that right with them to their pending graves. Our retirement awaits on our death beds… So, yes… sign me up for a couple of those Netscape Mastercards, I’ll also take a few X-10 spy (voyeur) cams, while you are at it, set me up with a Casino On Net account, I’ll go ahead and refinance my home for the cash…. it’s easy after all.

  • Happy Birthday Wikipedia

    Wikipedia is a year old. Starting with nothing, they now have over 18,000 articles to browse on just about anything you’d ever imagine. This online encyclopedia was started from scratch, as a free resource by, for, and of the people.

  • Christmas 1905

    xmas-1910.jpg In 1906-1015, or so, my great-grandmother used to receive 3 gifts for Christmas:

    a shiny, new penny,
    a candy cane,
    and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

    She often told me that when she was 10, she got an actual china doll. She said that it was the only doll she ever got as a young girl. It didn’t make it past Christmas day. She broke it over Sigurd’s (one of her 6 brothers) head. Unfortunately, she didn’t get another one, despite the fact that her brother probably deserved the rap on the skull. Often was the way with him. There is a story about him I have that is amazing and true, but I’ll share it some other time.

  • Bin Laden surrounded in caves

    Bin Laden surrounded in caves

    Opposition fighters and U.S. troops continued Friday to move toward the area where Osama bin Laden is believed holed up in a cave complex in the Afghan mountains near Tora Bora.

    No one is sure that he is there… there is not concrete evidence that he has not left the country… We’ll find out soon enough.

  • PET?

    I’m going to start a new special intrest group. People for the Ethical Treatment of Men. It can have splinter groups like, People for the Ethical Treatment of Fathers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Women, or even People for the Ethical Treatment of People

  • Question the Government = Terrorism

    Ashcroft raises the bar for the definition of terrorism and supporting terrorism. “Attorney General John Ashcroft lashed out Thursday at critics of the administration’s response to terrorism, saying questions about whether its actions undermine the Constitution only serve to help terrorists.”

    “To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve,” Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.”

    Audacity, sheer audacity. This must offend even moderates. Liberals and progressives are starting to howl for Ashcroft’s head on a stake. Give dubbya some credit, he sure knows a thing or two about good (Powell) and evil (Ashcroft).

  • Goodbye Blogger

    I deleted paxtonland from blogger today. It was a bittersweet event for me. I’ve held onto that service until it was actually beginging to hamper the development of this site. I was an early adopter of the service and it gave me flawless results for a long time, at absolutely no cost to me at all. All I can say to that is thanks very much, well done!

    I wish Evan, with whomever is there at Pyra Labs, the very best. I’m not one to dispense advice to those who don’t need it but, I’m going to give you guys some anyway (famous last words). Now that you’ve got a smoothly operating model with blogger and blogspot, now that you have some corporate support, and now that you have advertising revenues streaming it. Do think about getting back to the beginings of what Prya was possibly going to be about.

    The web can still use a good project management tool. eproject.com is unusable, intranets.com isn’t nearly sophisticated enough, and Microsoft Project Central costs too much and is too complicated to set up. Oh, I can give you about a dozen more sites and reasons why you should, but even if you were listening… I don’t really expect you to take my advice.

    However if you are listening, it’s not just project management that is important. It’s providing an acceptable solution for people in two or more different places to work together as if they were side by side. One that encompasses an awful lot more that project management, message posting, and file sharing. If someone really sat down and examined the elements that are essential to remote workplaces, it would be a major step. Thus far, people have just added functionality to what are essentially message boards. That is not and never was good enough. With that said, obviously I’m thinking about this a great deal and have been for quite some time.

    So, it you, dear Prya, or anyone else is listening and interested in what I’m thinking…. let me know. I think that there is a major paradigm shift about to happen. The infrastructure is not yet in place to support it. The features are, but form and functionality isn’t.

  • Asia Knows Best

    Asia to increase IT spending. SINGAPORE — Despite the global slowdown in IT services spending, the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to generate revenue of $31 billion this year and $60 billion by 2005.

    From some genius at the Gartner Group: “Although poor economic conditions and the impact from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will dampen growth to “single digits” next year, the market researcher said it believes overall demand will bounce back to double-digit growth from 2003 to 2005.” Oh, well… Let me ask my wife and kids if they can hold out until 2005 or, move to S. Korea.

    Hells bells!!! So, let me get this straight. Asia (except Japan who is dead broke) is boosting IT spending and investment to expect a longer term technological and infrastructural growth to realize higher profits and revenues in 10 years. Therefore boosting the capabilities of it’s economy to benefit a large group of people, the government, and businesses.

    Meanwhile back here in the good old USA, we are cutting people, reducing IT spending and selling off our infrastructure now to realize a very small profit immediately. In order to benefit stockholders, the government, and businesses. Now, please don’t ever tell me again that that is what the market will bear. If I hear that again, I’ll scream. I’d rather hear the old Y2K song and dance all over again.

  • Dave at greasyskillet.org gets some play… literally.

    Dave Elfving, a long-time paxtonland friend, got a mention on MSNBC and NPR. Wow, very cool indeed.

  • December 1st. is World AIDS Day

    World AIDS Day is being observed all around the web today. In observance of this, paxtonland is participating by discussing only AIDS related topics today as a part of the Link and Think effort. Link and Think was formerly, A Day With(out) Weblogs.

    On that note, we’ll begin:

    Sean Collins of NPR wrote a remarkable piece a while back that I caught most of. I found the audio archive of it, well worth the time to listen — warning, real audio stream. Also, it’s a popular link so it may take a few tries to connect.

  • Damian’s Birthday

    Yesterday was Damian’s birthday. He shares his birthday with Elliott Lewis, Berry Gordy, Jr., Hope Lange, Paul Shaffer, Ed Harris, Judd Nelson, Jon Stewart, and Anna Nicole Smith.

    We went to Trevi’s (no, no web link) and had couple of pizzas and a rather nice time. Pizza was great, not at all what we expected. I recalled also having spent a few meals in there with my father, mother, and grandmothers. Anyway, happy (belated) birthday to Damian who is 7 years old now.

  • Beware of Turkey

    Be careful handling that turkey now that it is all cooked and such. I know that those slivers of white meat look tempting sitting there on the countertop. Best bet, make sure you get the carcass in the fridge ASAP.

  • paxtonland Thanksgiving

    My father would be proud of me this year as paxtonland preprares to deep fry a turkey for Thanksgiving. I’ve never done a bird this way before, but thanks to Michael who loaned me his fryer, I’ll give it a spin.

    I did inject the foul a simple marinade of a mixture of lemon juice (to break down the cellular structure of the meat and accept the spices), garlic (as ever), and black pepper. Didn’t go crazy with the injector, soaked the outside of the foul with the remainder of the mixture. I’ll snap a few pics of the process and progress of the bird. Dinner is at about 7:00 EST.

  • Gary, Dean and Coffee Stories

    Gary sent me an e-mail. A good story about an old pot of coffee. He and I have a joke we share about the time that he served me a cup of coffee from a thermos that was god knows how old. It tasted worse than anything I’ve ever tasted in my life. A fact that he takes great glee in. Well, I finally got even. Warning this post contains fecal matter, could put you off coffee forever, and may offend some…
    (more…)

  • Melvin Burkhart, 94 “Human Blockhead” dies.

    Marking the end of the “old time” carnival side show performers, Melvin Burkhart, 94, the “Human Blockhead” dies. “No freak was a freak to me,” he said. “They were my friends, and we were all freaks together. I tried to be their shield against the world.” Carnival sideshows, or freak shows, declined sharply in the 1960s as medical science learned how to eliminate or reduce genetically caused deformities and as public attitudes changed, prompting state laws that banned exploiting the disabled. Other factors included development of special effects in movies, television and theme parks that could induce greater thrills than a mere peek at a bearded lady.”

    “He taught me how to be a rich man,” said his son, Dennis, a biochemical engineer. “He said a rich man is someone who can make one person smile every day.

  • Carrie Donovan Dies

    NY Times – (username:paxtonland password:paxtonland) – Carrie Donovan, one-of-a-kind fashion editor and TV’s `Old Navy Lady,’ dies at 73. “Ms. Donovan’s career had a screwball quality worthy of Hollywood. Though she studied dressmaking at the Parsons School of Design, she could never master a needle and thread. She lacked a similar command of automobiles and typewriters, and as a reporter for The New York Times, then as an editor for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times Magazine, she wrote all her copy by hand.”

    Although many of you may not know who she was, or perhaps you had a vauge idea. Her life is interesting to pause upon nevertheless. Take a second to read this thoughtful article. I was impressed and sentimentally sadened.