This is my team, this is how we roll

I haven't really blogged on this yet, I have a lot to comment on this topic (of which 99.9% of you will be bored to tears with, outside of Kyle no one probably even cares) but I haven't figured out what to say... and I don't know what I COULD say to properly sum up what is happening here.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so how many words is a "moving" picture?

Enjoy:


Edit to add:
To all my friends and coworkers, there is plenty of room on this bandwagon, and we would love to have you! We have "Mr Sonic" coaching this the youngest team in the NBA (3rd youngest in NBA history) and 2 native sons of Washington (Martell Webster of Seattle Prep and none other than the Rookie of the Year himself, Brandon ROY), we have the #1 overall pick from the 2007 draft the dominant center of the next generation Mr. Greg Oden, and best of all... they are all just "good guys" who you can feel good rooting for.

So join the fun, jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride!

Sharing etiquite (or: How to not get removed from Ryan's friends list)

So I haven't blogged in quite a while, not any particular reason I just wanted a break. I have been under a lot of stress at work, at home, and in life in general and I just didn't feel the creative juices flowing.

I am sure I will begin blogging more, probably a LOT more after Annora is born, but for now I am just taking it easy.

But I am coming out of my blog shell for just a minute to post a mini rant. Google Reader has this great feature where you can share items with your friends. It's great if I read an interesting article or see something news worthy that I think my friends will be interested in, I share it. It's a great feature, creates a larger sense of community, and helps spread the word about cool articles.

There is one major drawback, there is zero filter for it. It is either all on, or all off for any given individual. While this is fine, it tends to lead to what I am now deeming "RSS Spam." We all have those friends/family members/coworkers who pass along the "there is an email virus watch out!" or "check out this funny story" or "here is my 100 bajillionth chain letter I am passing on." We all pretty much despise them, but we are too kind and we never say anything... but those of us who are tech savvy write "rules" in our inbox and that annoying relative gets relegated to the "junk" mail folder.

Well in Google Reader I have no ability to write rules about who or what gets filtered, you are either on, or you are off. With that being said, here a few helpful tips to ensure that you don't get "turned off" in my Google Reader.

1) If you are sharing more than say.... 5 items in a day, you are doing it wrong. Sharing isn't caring if you are filling my Google reader with every single article you have read throughout the day. I don't care that you read 400 different blogs today, just because you have that much free time to waste doesn't mean I do. Be selective about what you share, it should be something everyone not only SHOULD read, but WANTS to read. If there is something you want to highlight as "cool" how do I seperate that out from the other 9000 blog posts you shared today. So again, if you are sharing more than 5 items in a day, chances are you are "doin it rong."

2) If you are sharing the same feed more than 2-3 days consecutively, you are once again "doin it rong." If you share something I find interesting, and it's a series, I am smart enough to "subscribe" to that feed and read it myself. If I didn't find it interesting, I don't want to be inindated with 100 more messages all with the same crap. I have a friend who always shares this cartoon. EVERY SINGLE DAY he shares this cartoon feed. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they aren't. But he is "doin it rong," if I really wanted to read the cartoon every day I would subscribe to their feed, if I didn't, I wouldn't. But being spammed with it only makes me angry at him and the cartoon as well. So rule 2, if you are spamming the same feed every day, you are once again, "doin it rong."

3) Spamming yourself. This is probably my biggest pet peeve, when you "share" items that your readership/friends already all know about. For example, lets say you have a personal blog, and then you have a business blog, and your wife has a blog. When you start sharing stuff out from your personal blog that was posted either on your business blog or your wifes blog, once again, doin it rong. Chances are, if I read your personal blog, I read your professional blog and your wifes blog. If I don't, then either a) I don't care about those areas and you are spamming me with crap I don't want to read or b) I am already reading those blogs, and now I am being spammed with duplicates of stories that I have already read, once again filling up my reader with more junk spam.

I am sure there are more rules, and as I think of them I will post them here, but for now these 3 simple rules will most likely keep you off my "banned from friends" list in GReader. No one has been banned yet, but starting today, 3 strikes and your out.

Consider this everyone's "strike one."

Finally, a movie we can all take our children too!

Washington Republican Caucus

The Caucus is on Feb. 9th 2008 at the Shelton High School at 1:pm. I hope you all can make it for it is so important to get our vote in for Ron Paul. I was told to be there no later than 12:45pm for the meeting will start promptly at 1:00.

I hope to see you there (voting for Ron Paul, otherwise, disregard this message :p).

Prepare for Phase 2

So most of you have probably never heard of Ed Howdershelt, but he has one of my favorite quotes of all time when he said: "There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order."

For the last 3 months I have been on my soap box both in person and on this blog for one Ron Paul. Tomorrow marks the beginning of phase 2... the ballot box. The Iowa Caucus happens tomorrow evening. In the Republican caucuses, each voter casts his or her vote by secret ballot. Voters are presented blank sheets of paper with no candidate names on them. After listening to some campaigning for each candidate by caucus participants, they write their choices down and the Republican Party of Iowa tabulates the results at each precinct. The non-binding results are tabulated and reported to the state party which releases the results to the media. Delegates from the precinct caucuses go on to the County Convention, which chooses delegates to the District Convention, which in turn selects delegates to the State Convention. Thus it is the Republican State Convention, not the precinct caucuses, which select the ultimate delegates to the Republican National Convention in Iowa.

While I am doubtful Ron Paul will actually win the Iowa nomination, I am hopefully he will place third. I believe a third place victory for Ron Paul would solidify him as a "major candidate" this election cycle and give him a very real shot at victory. That being said, I am probably "expecting" Paul to finish 5th (most media organizations have him 6th, but I think he will upset at least one front runner) which won't be bad... but still indicates a long uphill climb for Dr. Paul. If he finishes 6th or worse, well I won't be ready to fold up the tent, but he would need a VERY strong showing in New Hampshire to keep up his momentum. If he finishes 6th or worse in both NH and Iowa it will probably be time for Dr. Paul to give up the Republican nominee and consider either running as an independent (and saving his loot for the general election) or throwing his support behind someone else (although I don't see anyone else he could/would support in this field).

I guess at this point it's down to watch and wait...

Go Ron Go!