The stock market fell another 369.88 points today.  So what?

While I am sure people will greatly disagree with me, I believe that the stock market has become nothing more than a giant gambling scheme where everyone has forgotten the most basic principle.  The stock market is a long term investment, and short term hiccups should be ignored.

While I understand there are those out there that need to move mass volumes of shares for funds and so on, for individual investors, you should always take the view that any stock is a long term situation.  Occasional bumps in the road, no matter how long they may last, need to be viewed in the overall long term projections you set for yourself when you purchased the stock.

Am I some sort of economic and financial whiz?  Heck no, but this is one mantra I have lived by for eons.  Admittedly I have been out of the stock market for quite some time personally (I owned Wal-Mart for years until it seemed to go into an almost 2 year stall), and my parents got out some time back after some success, but the one rule we all lived by was, “Oh well, the market dipped, we aren’t in this for short term gains.”

This also brings up a point about the major indices that has always driven me mad: they are not the final say to the economic health of the nation.  If it was, why did it not start falling long before the failures began to happen?  Wouldn’t all these great “analysts” have seen it coming and inested more conservatively?  No, they showed once again that the market is more controlled by emotions than by actual facts and analysis.  The market is in freefall, but that does not mean the every day consumer is.

If anything, I would be more prone to buy right now than anything.  I’m not, but if I had money to be gambling with (come on folks, it IS gambling, it’s just very fancy gambling), I would be eying a lot of different stocks right now.  Yes, things are bad NOW, but this is mostly shake out of people that are just plain nervous.  Give it a few weeks and every one will begin regaining their senses, and while the market won’t boom, it will stabilize and people will start focusing on the things in the country that need the real fixing.

In the meanwhile, please don’t go investing in comic books.

If it’s September 19th, then it must be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Normally I talk about this on the 19th, but since it falls on a Friday this year, and Fridays are Scattercast day, I thought I would give you all the reminder today.  And, no, I will not be doing Scattercast in pirate speak as my throat would give out in about 5 minutes.

The fascination with pirates never ceases to amaze me considering what a dirty, vile lifestyle they led, but I’m just as bad being interested in them.  And, hey, if we can all indulge our fascinations for one day a year, why not?

For those of you have not talked pirate before, the official site gives you a good primer on talking like a pirate.  So me ‘earties, grab ye a tankard of grog and be the best pirate ye can be!

I debated all day if I wanted to say anything this year or just continue with my normal BS posts, but you obviously can tell what won out.

As I said last year, 9/11 has come to mean many things to me, it changed my life in a number of ways; it probably led to me finally sealing the idea I would close my retail store to concentrate on other venues, but it also brought about other changes I am more reluctant to discuss.

For whatever reason, it seems to bother me more with each passing year instead of getting a numb feeling.  Perhaps I should be grateful for the fact that I’m not turning into some sort of machine where something of this magnitude doesn’t effect me, but it also makes me not thrill to this day each year when it rolls around.

I try to concentrate on the things I’m thankful for, the people in my life, and that it hasn’t happened again.

So, what does 9/11mean to you now, dear readers?

Episode of Scattercast is here folks… can you believe it’s been 2 months already?

This week is all about technology.

- Have you tried Google Chrome?

- Do you do enough to spread the word about web apps you love? Why not? Are you not doing your part for tech evangelism?

- Should you avoid Blu-ray and where is media going?

Here’s

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

for those who wish to download it.

You may not have known his name, and you may not recognize his face, but you certainly knew the voice.

Don LaFontaine passed away on September 1st at the age of 68, and going to the movies will never be the same again.  LaFontaine did the voice work for over 5,000 movie trailers and 750,000 TV spots.  To say the man was kept busy due to his distinctive voice would be an understatement.

True, the man did nothing more than speak, but he was truly a master of his art, and I, for one, will miss him.  There was something comforting about always hearing his voice boom through a theater as some trailer would play.  Good-bye, Mr. LaFontaine, it just won’t ve the same without you.

There has been a lot of coverage in the media, especially in the UK, that the identity of well-known graffiti artist Banksy has been discovered.  I hope it hasn’t, and if it has, I would hope people would have the good sense to keep it quiet.

For those of you with no clue who I am talking about, Banksy is a graffiti artist working primarily in the United Kingdom, though he does occasionally pop up in various locations around the United States.  While the word “graffiti” immediately brings to mind all sorts of ugly scrawls on walls, but that word does a disservice to what this person does.  His works are only graffiti in the sense that he does his work on walls without the prior permission of the property owners.

His works have been popping up since the mid-90′s, but he became well known after he helped organize a graffiti exhibition called “Walls on Fire” in 2000.  When he fully turned to using stencils to do his work, his notoriety really took off, and he was able to do some amazingly elaborate pieces due to the amount of time stencils shaved off his free hand work.

His works, such as the Tesco Flag pictured above make an an amazing use of items already in the landscape, which also shows he must plot his moves well ahead of time to build the stencils to take these items into account.  His work is always tinged with humor, but also make powerful statements on society and the establishment that are hard to miss, let alone wonder if he isn’t also a bit correct in what he asks.

Unlike the revealing of Fake Steve Jobs that sent some people into a tizzy, Banksy is not only an artist, but socially relevant.  Part of his ability to say the things he does thorugh his art can only be accomplished via anonymity, and revealing whom he is would only serve to destroy any future works he may do, and possibly tarnish the past ones.

I was one of the people who was thrilled when W. Mark Felt was revealed to be “Deep Throat”, but after reading his back story, it changed my views of the man’s motivations for his actions.  While it had been something I had wished for, I was kinda sorry to see it happen.  With Banksy, I beg of the media to just leave it be.  Don’t actively pursue this, if he slips up, he slips up, but don’t try rooting him out because it just isn’t worth it as it will probably cost him his voice in this world, and we need it in these puzzling times.

Oh, for those of you who worry about the feelings of people that own the buildings he does his work on, most of them like it as it actually raises the value of their property as they can sell it as “a work of art with a home attached”.  (this actually happened)

On my second, and last day in Seattle (my entire time here is 46 hours), and I had some random observations to make about the place.

- I knew my trip to Seattle was complete once I saw some protesters.  I really didn’t care what they were talking about, I just needed to see some to feel like I got the whole Seattle experience.

- As the hotel shuttle was taking me back today from Pike Place Market, he had to drop some other guests off at the Space Needle.  Could someone please explain the allure of this thing to me?  Sure, you get a great view, but there was a 90-minute wait to just go up the thing.  It’s like the St. Louis Arch, I don’t get that either.  You ride up an elevator, you look you go down.  Whee.

- It has  been quite a while since I stayed in a true downtown area, I forgot about the number of homeless people and panhandlers you run in to.

- Did someone forget to inform me this city is made of gold?  I am paying insane prices for EVERYTHING.  Hotel room, food, cab fares… apparently this city has a bit too much money, and they take it out on their visitors.  Even my hotel wants to charge $20 a day to park a guests car.  I’m sorry, but that’s something that I think should always be free to guests.  You want to entice them to stay, not punish them for using your establishment.  I have heard this is happening more and more places, but it still seems pretty stupid to me.

- Sitting in a park yesterday across from Westlake Center, I heard multiple conversations from the younger folks about people who have left Seattle, people who have come back and people who are planning to leave.  Then while walking to dinner at Red Fin (a rant about sushi in the USA will be coming out of that dinner), two people walking in front of me ran into someone they knew buying a Greyhound ticket to leave Seattle.  He just couldn’t take it here any more.

What the heck is with this town and people moving in and out of it all of the time?  I have heard of this for years, thought it might be a bit exaggerated, but nope, not from my small sampling yesterday.

- I went in to two mom & pop record stores.  You would think with this being Seattle, they would be rife with indie labels, obscoure bands from the likes of Sub Pop and so on.

Nope.

Run-of-the-mill used mainstream BS.  This was really a big let down for me.

All-in-all it has been an enjoyable trip, but it is for sure that Seattle isn’t like anywhere else I have ever been.

If things appear a little odd over the next 24 hours, it’s because I am finally installing a new theme on the site.  It’s been up a few times, but we keep finding little bugs.  So, just hang in there and all will be well soon… I hope!

George Carlin was never one to skirt controversy, but no one can ever deny he had a profound effect on comedy.  Not many comedians could claim that one of their routines, Seven Dirty Words in Mr. Carlin’s case, was turned into a definfing case on onscenity before the Supreme Court of the United States.

At many times he was seen as nothing more than a foul-mouthed gutter comedian, but he was so much more than that.  He had an unfaltering eye for seeing faults in society.  His rant about Stuff came years before the current astronomical credit card debtthe most American households carry.

When you look at the current crop of comedians that are popular, there simply are not any that hold a candle to his ability for insight.  This is not saying that there aren’t any good comedians, they just aren’t of his level.  It may even be a disservice to call him a comedian as what he did was more of a form of social commentary with a humorous edge to it.

I’m getting very tired of writing these eulogies as I have for Bo Diddley and Stan Winston, and yes, I chose to pass on Tim Russert, though I felt that was also a great loss.  I’m tired of losing so many greats in their fields, and that is exactly what it feels like.  All of the people that have died as of late have been pioneers and masters of their crafts, and all of them have been a horrible loss to their chosen professions.

Rest in peace, George, you have earned it.  I leave you with one of my favorite routines of his, Baseball vs Football.

Stan Winston, a true master of special effects, has passed away.

While not a household name like some directors, actors and writers, many of the world’s favorite movies would not have been possible without his technical genius. Even as recent as this summer’s Iron Man, his studio was the force behind the suits of armor. He was the person who brought the menace to Predator, and he was the designer who brought the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park to life. This is but a taste of his enormous resume of contributions to the cinema.

Mr. Winston had been battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, for seven years. He passed away in his home on Sunday the 15th at the age of 62. There is no word on what will happen with his studio, but you have to assume that it was continue. The question is will we see the same level of quality work as we’ve expected over the years.

He will be deeply missed by movie fans the world over.

When I first wrote about Garfield Minus Garfield, I thought for sure that the strip’s original creator, Jim Davis, would eventually shut the strip that removes his beloved cat down.

Sure, it’s silly on some levels, and you wonder how long this can last before Jim Davis, the creator of the comic strip, tries to shut it down. One hopes he will just leave it alone as it has probably brought his strip more attention than it has gotten in years

Well, in a New York Times article about the comic strip, Jim Davis not only admits to occasionally reading the derivative of his work, but to finding it “fascinating”. He also said that he is flattered by it rather than peeved, but he also sees that some of the strips work better than others.

Mr. Davis, who has been drawing Garfield for 30 years, said that “Garfield Minus Garfield” has actually prompted him to take a different look at his own work. He compared Mr. Walsh’s efforts to the cerebral approach of Pogo, the comic strip by Walt Kelly.

“I think it’s the body of work that makes me laugh — the more you read of these strips, the funnier it gets,” Mr. Davis said. As for Garfield himself, “this makes a compelling argument that maybe he doesn’t need to be there. Less is more.”

I am floored by this. Utterly, and amazingly, floored. We are in a day and age where people are sued at the drop of a hat for even remotely looking at someone else’s copyrighted work, let alone wholesale copying of it. I have to applaud Mr. Davis for not only taking this in the manner it was meant, but to also having the ability to see that it might teach him something about his own work.

In case you haven’t already done so, do make sure to swing by the site, and check out this amazing take on a comic strip, and know that the creator has no problem with it.

You know, I was just thinking, “Hey, self, you know that border guards have way too much free time on their hands! They need something to do that will impossibly clog up people crossing the border into some countries in anything even remotely resembling a reasonable time!”

Oh… thank you, G8!

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been revealed to be a secret proposal that is being worked on by the G8 nations that would empower border guards of the member nations to search through the contents of electronic devices such as iPods, laptops, phones and more for any material that infringes on copyrights. This includes, but is not limited to, files you have ripped from physical media you already own such as CDs and DVDs. If any infringing material is found, you can be fined, have your device seized and even possibly destroyed.

Apparently ACTA was originally thought of for going after large scale piracy, but at some point the whole proposal has gotten drilled down to individual users True, the total final document as not yet been revealed, and it is hard to believe it would stand up in court as the searches are reported to done without benefit of having a lawyer present, but this just screams an endless headache to me.

As if going through customs wasn’t already a big enough of a pain, now they can slow the process down even more as you explain where every file on your iPod came from. Am I now to travel with receipts for every file? Add in the point that they say this will even cover music you ripped from your own CD collection (remember boys & girls, we’ve been told that is stealing), and essentially every iPod crossing the border will have some form of “copyright infringing” file on it.

Is it just me, or do you think border guards have about 5,000 more important things to concern themselves with than someone with a couple of Beatles songs on their iPod they took off their own CDs? Yes… I’m looking at you, President Bush! This proposal would also require Internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over all private information about an individual with no more cause than suspicion of copyright violation.

Essentially, ACTA will turn us even more into a big brother state than ever with people digging through your cyber-life, even on your non-connected gadgets, all in the name of “copyright protection”. I’m sorry, but I have a news flash for everyone: copyrights don’t matter THIS much. I’m all for protecting copyrights, but there comes a point where it is just not worth it to protect some large corporations “intellectual properties” by inconveniencing everyone and their brother at security, treating everyone with an iPod as a potential criminal and then confiscating their devices. Simple solution though, I will simply never travel with my iPod because I simply do not want the hassle of explaining 120+ gigs of music to someone. That many hours of my life is not worth listening to The Ramones on the plane.

What else bothers me about this whole thing is that it was being worked on in secret. It wasn’t until some folks in Canada got wind of it and filed demands for information that it even came to light. Gee, why are you hiding such materials? Because you know it’s ignorant and the general public would never approve it? As the National Post points out, this would be a federal trade agreement, and as such does not require any sort of public ratification to be enacted.

If all goes according to plan, this proposal will be discussed in July when the G8 meets in Japan. We can only hope someone with a brain finally says, “wait a tick…”