Stay out of prison. Use Facebook.

Accused of a crime? I hope you’ve been sharing your life online. Rodney Bradford was accused of robbery, and picked out of a lineup, but after his father pointed attorneys to a Facebook status update at the time of the crime, and evidence on Facebook’s servers showing the location where the update was made from, Rodney is a free man again.

Which is great news if he’s actually innocent. But how hard is it to have somebody else (or, for the technically inclined, an automated script) update your Facebook for you? I sense a wave of alibis coming. Especially with services that let people know where you are. “I couldn’t have killed him, your honor. I was at the bar that night. Check my Twitter. You’ll see I was tweeting. And Google Latitude will confirm my GPS location.” All it takes is a friend you trust to use your cell phone for you.

Overall, I still think it’s a good thing. It will clear more innocent people that guilty people, if for no other reason than most criminals are not that bright. But every tool that can be used, will be misused by some.

Going hairless

When deciding on a costume for Halloween this year, I decided to think about what costume I had a body suitable for…. So I went with “Happy” Hotei. Also known to most Americans as “Fat Buddha”, “Laughing Buddha”, or just “Buddha” (even though the first Buddha was a skinny dude…)

I found some images of Hotei that depicted him having short hair, and even the exact style of beard/mustache that I typically sport, but the majority of people recognize him from the statues/figurine, which don’t show hair. So I took the plunge and removed the hair from my head, face, chest, and belly. Then, because I decided that looked too silly, I removed the rest of my hair as well. That was 5 days ago, so I’ve got some pretty respectable stubble now. It’s not itching nearly as much as I anticipated, and I’m considering remaining hairless. I like it. I like the way it feels. I just don’t like how much work went into getting this way. It’s not something I can do unassisted. Need to decide if it’s worth the hassle.

Your password will expire in 5 days

Of all the useless things in the realm of computer security, is anything more useless than the “change your password” nag screen? About once a month I get these nags from my company laptop reminding me that I have to change my password soon. So my choices are to either change my password now, or keep getting nagged every day until I’m forced to change the password. Why not just force me to change the password? What’s the purpose of the nag? Does anybody really spend more than a few seconds coming up with their next password?

Is this politics, or “reality” TV?

First some Republican douche yells “Liar!” in the middle of a presidential speech to congress. Now a Democratic representative goes over-the-top on Cheney:

“I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking,” the Florida Democrat said on MSNBC’s Hardball Friday night. “But my response is this: he’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?”

It’s funny, but come on… You’ve been elected to do a job, not make jokes and grab the media spotlight. There’s more than enough ways to attack Cheney on merit, without resorting to childish name-calling. But, then again, maybe that’s what the voting public really responds to….

Making a comeback

Haven’t been doing much of a lot of things lately. Yesterday I played hold’em again for the fist time in over a month. Won 50-some cents I’m rich. Or, at least, I’m finally over the $5 mark, which means I’ll start playing the nickel tables. So my future wins (and losses) will be bigger.

This morning I went for a serious bike ride (as opposed to casual), also for the first time in over a month. Came home sore, but with a good time. The significant thing is that all my other morning rides came when the dogs woke me up early, which they don’t do anymore. This ride was after my normal wake-up, in lieu of Farmville. I’m hoping Winter holds off a while longer so I can keep the morning rides up.

And this is also my first real blog post in some time, too. I got some flack for just posting quotes…

Who knew the Fonz was so wise?

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.”
~Henry Winkler

The hard part is…

It’s so easy to fall in love but hard to find someone who will catch you.
 ~Author Unknown

Harder yet is to find someone who will keep catching you…

Mutual weirdness

We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
~Author Unknown

…and I’ll comment on that with another quote:

Let me lay it on the line
I got a little freakiness inside
And you know that the man
Has got to deal with it
~Adina Howard, “Freak Like Me” by Sugababes

We see what we want to see…

“True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self.”
~William Butler Yeats

And so the answer to “What does she see in him?” is clearly “something you will probably never see”.

Who needs sleep?

You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
~Dr. Seuss

Sadly (or thankfully?) this is only true of new love. After a while, sleep becomes important again. Especially when the bills pile up and the job starts early. Romance is great, but not very practical. :-p