Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

So I found this site while checking out makeuseof.com today. It claims to track down those annoying copycats out there who are stealing all of your blog contetnt.

Now for me, it's not such a big deal, you know, because if I ever came up with some original content, the world just might end. For example, I did a search on my URL and found John MCManamon's site that had the same, *gasp*, joke as mine! Eh, well, he posted his 473 days ago...and he referenced William Wallace, not Bonnie Prince Charlie. So he might want to have a word with me.

On the other hand, this would be useful for guys like The Photoshop Disasters dude I wrote about below, who obvioulsy has someone leeching his stuff. Looks like now he's aware of it and is watermarking all his work.

So, how do you measure up? Check and see how much of your Intellectual Property is being mined for god knows what reason.

Plastic Surgery Photoshop Disasters

OK..UPDATE:
This guy's blog appears to be the original ...the one below I guess is glomming off of it...not sure.

UPDATE: I am removing the original. DIGG'd link and keeping the Photoshopdisasters page above.

It's great to see someone calling an "Emperor has no clothes" (or "The Emperor's butt was badly photoshopped")on all the retouched and refinished images we are subjected to every day.
Honestly, I wonder how many celebrities I've passed on the street, totally unaware of their presence, because they look like every other schlub walking around.

I'm not sure which fakes I like better: The obvious 'airbrushing' of stars to make then look flawless or the bonehead mistakes of the artists who apparently need to take an anatomy class

Happy St. Pat's

Amused to Death

OK, what a week.....And yes, I'm an awful person for not updating in weeks. WEEKS!

What are you gonna do?

Las Vegas. A week in this town can be rough, especially on someone who has never been. Yes, it's true...I'm a Vegas virgin.

The thing is, it's the money and what it buys you...A whole city built on entertainment...whatever makes you happy.

Want to gamble? Knock yourself out? Drink anywhere and everywhere? Sure. Get a prostitute sent to your room in less than 20 minutes? You got it pal. Well, I did one of those, but I wasn't that much happier. You can probably guess which.
Among other things, it got me to Thinking...capital "T" thinking, about what happiness is, and since Vegas ain't a place you're going to find the Dalai Lama, I did the next best thing and went online.(OK, I was working a conference there and had some downtime too...)

I managed to run across a guy who was selling his Isolation Tank. Yeah, so it's Joe Rogan...but the idea is that this guy, and plenty of others, used this device in an attempt to attain a higher level of happiness. I know it would have been a better article had it been written by Timothy Leary, but Joe does make a few good points about clearing your mind to find inner peace and happiness. And no, I didn't bother with the video...let me know if it sucked.

On the other hand, I found a guy writing about a trip he took on his Ural motorcycle. Not just any trip, but a trip from Halifax to Seattle...on a Ural. Those of you who are unfamiliar with Urals just think of them as a motorcycle version of an East German Trabant...but not as smoky and prone to failure. OK, they do fail...just read Lutz' story.But still, not as smoky.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a zillion years ago and at the time i really missed the point. I don't know, I always liked motorcycles and maybe I was thinking there'd be some cool racing or something going on in the book. Lutz' story took me back to that book, it brought the point home. I mean, this guy was daring and brave(and a little nuts) to take this trip, but it's so beautiful. He couldn't have been happier, even though at some point he was riding with only ONE cylinder firing...it didn't matter. This kind of odyssey...is it Quixotic?....Who knows...What I do know is, after reading it I wanted to do it. I wanted to pile my stuff in a Ural and see where the road took me;to greet the occasional mechanical failure as an opportunity to learn, to meet new people, to take in stride the crap life throws you on your journey. I mean, admit it folks, some of our lives are more Ural-like than BMW-like if you know what I mean, and rather than fight it, you should accept the fact that your spark plug wires sometimes get fried and you have to figure out a work-around. It just sounded like such a great trip and when you think about it, a motorcycle is a kind of Isolation Tank.

I think of the two paths to happiness I read about, Lutz' struck me as the more enjoyable. I'd much rather take my chances on the road than float in a salt bath in pitch darkness...I don't know, call me crazy.

As for Vegas, meh, it's not for me. Maybe if I were younger and/or single-er, I'd have enjoyed it, but as it was, I chose to dream of rattling down a backroad on a Cossack bike, hoping the axle wouldn't fail before I got to the next town.

Here's the Ural "accessories" page. Notice the repair manual is the first item listed. I'm just saying.

Here are more stories of people and their Urals