james nunn | blog

Earlier today, like much earlier, I was out and about with a few other people cleaning up trash around the City (as part of the Keep Frisco Beautiful campaign). It would have been nicer to see more supporters actually helping, and at one point I was thinking there were as many organizers as there were volunteers. Still, after our city’s mayor said a few words (to the press), and then said a few more words (to more press), he actually said a few more words (to us) and set us free to go grab some trash. (I make this general observation about the length of time it took to set us on our way, as I am not a morning person, and I’d been there for an hour already.)

Anyway, I worked with a couple of other members of Frisco Pride, and collected a good amount of trash. At first we thought the area that we were assigned was too small (for the amount of time — we were wrong). Sadly, most was related to building materials (like plastic wrap, etc.), and got me thinking that I hope the city actually gets a clean up bond or payment from any builder (chances are this is not the case). After an hour and a bit of cleaning up, we finished, and I came home to wash the morning off me.

When I got home, I found this on the answering service (we have Vonage, so it emails any messages left as WAV files *snicker*):

[audio:cbm_jul29.mp3]

That was Chris (who is in Florida for the weekend). Isn’t that sweet? He might be a litle off key, but I loved it Of course, the safe thing about Chris being in Florida is I can post this just to prove how sweet he can be

(Side note: the little WordPress audio tool/plugin can be found here.)

Thanks to danah over at apophenia, I discovered that the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA pass the US House today by a vote of 410-15.

According to a ZDNet article, the bill was

apparently meant to restrict access to MySpace, the definition of off-limits Web sites is so broad the bill would probably sweep in thousands of commercial Web sites that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow “communication among users.”

The details will be left up to the Federal Communications Commission, and authority was provided that “gives more leeway to the FCC in devising a category of verboten Web sites.”

I find it interesting that this is “one” of those pieces of legislation that aims to help legislators with their election efforts in November.

Monday while driving from Denton, I heard this commentary from this girl who, according to the NPR site:

is a high school student with an online journal. Her mother reads the journal — but Bly thinks she shouldn’t.

The piece covers a little about the phenomena of MySpace, and how parents are connecting online to this network to keep an eye on their kids (in particular, this girl’s mother).

As I was listening to this, I decided to jot myself a note (which I’ve just found) and blog about this. One, I applaud parents for getting involved with their child’s online activities; it’s what parents should do. Secondly, as you listen to this piece you realize the potential for parent’s to understand their children more by reading their online journals. And, C. (This is directed at the “youngings”) If you don’t want your parents to read your journal, don’t post them online for the world to see.

As my very wise friend Ian commented, it’s the equivalent of writing a journal, and then pasting the pages on your front door (his words were more descriptive, but it was the best a mind could do after consuming a number of glasses of wine).

Side note: I hadn’t heard that MySpace had overtaken Google and Yahoo as the most visited site (which apparently happened a week or so ago).

This is a term we have heard (and will continue to hear) a great of in the media these past few days. I think it sums up what ‘could’ have happened quite appropriately. Yesterday, while watching CNN’s coverage, a spokesperson for Israel was intent on explaining how precise their attacks were (stating that they could direct them to within 20 feet of the target). UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is right to call on a full investigation on this matter, especially when it appears that there is no obvious reason why this target was fired at.

I was listening to NPR the other day, and they were discussing the insanity defense being used by Andrea Yates attornies (a defense that appears to have worked). After listening to this, I was left wondering – what is the apparent connection of “doing God’s work” and insanity. Yates, by her own admission, said that she needed to protect her children “from damnation” as she apparently had a vision that indicated that at least two of her children were on a pathway towards sin. In November 2004, a mother who cut off her baby’s arms in God’s name, as she wanted to give her children to God (she was later found not guilty by reason of insanity), and earlier that year, another woman from East Texas was found not guilty (by insanity) by bashing in the heads of two of her children with rocks (again, by carrying out God’s will). The women’s attempted to murder her third child, but according to the mother, he just “wouldn’t die.”

Last week, I decided to reschedule one of my classes that I had dropped earlier this summer. Guess what? The class is full, and they don’t offer it in Spring. So now, I’m reviewing every class that is being held at 11am or 3:30 pm on a Tuesday and/or Thursday – as this is the only time that “fits” with my schedule. What is really crappy about this, is that up until recently I had the perfect schedule that would have enabled me to graduate in December. So now I’m looking at taking a History Class and looking for an English class. Let’s hope I can actually register for them.

Update: Well I finally figured it out. No minor, but classes that I might actually enjoy. Just waiting on feedback on one of the other classes that I am looking to drop (just to see if it will be available next semester).

Well, summer is here, and I’m not enjoying it. During a conversation with Brian tonight over sushi, I verbalized how I’ve been liking summer less and less over the last few years. I enjoy the mid-80′s days, but when it gets into the 90′s and above, it just becomes something I dislike. I am not really sure how to change my feeling on this, and to be honest, I’m not sure I really want to.

Today, I decided to play catch up with movies. We’ve had three movies from Netflix for over a month, and I decided that I need to watch at least a couple of them. I’ve already blogged about the first one I saw, The God Who Wasn’t There. The other two movies were The Fluffer and Ben and Arthur.

Of the two movies, I watched The Fluffer all the way through. This is not to say that it was a good film, but it was bearable. I guess I lived in hope of seeing some porn, but it didn’t happen. There is a good scene where Ron Jeremy and Chi Chi La Rue are making cameo performances. It really isn’t anything more than just a party in the middle of the movie. It was probably the most interesting part.

I didn’t make it through Ben and Arthur. When the film stars the writer, producer and director (all the same person), you can kind of see that it’s going to be low budget. The number of times that you could see the actors actually “start” acting was kind of funny (you know when the director says “action” and they start). What is really interesting is looking at the movies that many of the actors have appeared in. Many of the same names keep on appearing. One thing that is consistent is the ranking these movies get – nothing more than two stars (I exaggerate … barely)

There is a silver lining – I have three new movies on the way