The Smarmy Carny

Another program that One Economy Corporation uses to reach low-income communities is Digital Connectors.

Digital Connectors are young people, ages 14 to 21, who accelerate the use of technology in a region by providing training and support to members of their communities. Usually the program runs for up to eight weeks during summer vacation, though some programs vary from this schedule.

Since younger people have grown up around much more technology than the older generations, these young people are an obvious method for pushing technology awareness and education out. 150 Digital Connectors in 10 cities provided technology training and support to more than 3,000 families with an emphasis on basic computer and Internet use and guided instruction on the Beehive.

Digital Connectors are rewarded with stipends or personal computers in exchange for their services to their community.

Blogathon 2007

Starting Saturday, July 28, 2007, hundreds of blogs across the world will unite and blog continuously for 24 hours to help support various charities.

Blogathon is an annual event where bloggers choose a charity (a 501(c)(3) organization) to support. Each blogger must post something every 30 minutes for the entire 24-hour period beginning on July 29, 2006, at 9:00 AM EST. In turn, anyone can sponsor a blog that is participating. A sponsorship is basically a pledge to donate money to that blog's charity. You know your money is safe because any money you pledge is given directly to the charity itself, not to the blogger or the Blogathon website.

The Smarmy Carny is participating in Blogathon for the second year. This time around, this blog will support a charity called One Economy Corporation. One Economy is a charity that helps close the technology gap for lower-income people. Their Bring IT Home campaign brought broadband internet access to 200,000 low-income people. They also run The Beehive, a website aimed at low-income families and individuals. To find out more about One Economy Corporation, head over to The Smarmy Carny's Blogathon page. Also be sure to read the blog during the Blogathon and find out much more detailed information on One Economy's efforts!

Want to learn more about how to sponsor this blog and what The Smarmy Carny has planned during the Blogathon? Check out the Blogathon page on this site. Interesting in participating in Blogathon as a blogger? Check out the official Blogathon website.

Today I was tagged by Jono over at *insert witty title here* to play a word association game.

Here are the five words provided for me, followed by my associations:

• Stick — Post-It
• Bottle — Message
• Mint — Listerine
• Camera — Lens
• Trolley — San Francisco

I hereby dissolve myself from any conclusions anyone might make — trained or otherwise — regarding these thoughts from my subconscious. It's disturbing to me, however, that 3/5 of my answers are proper nouns. Two companies and one city. Perhaps I'm merely a product of television and advertisements. At least my Trolley answer wasn't Rice-A-Roni (the San Francisco treat).

And now, I pass the torch along to 5 more bloggers. Here are the 5 random words for them:

• Kumquat — ?
• Gobbledygook — ?
• Lollygag — ?
• Diphthong — ?
• Masticate — ?

You can always count on me to be less traditional and more eccentric than the rest.

And here are the five bloggers I am tagging:

• Jule Ann - Who is Jule Ann?
• xenomouse - Screaming for Mercy
• Marlene - Buffalo Tales from South Wales
• Abigail - Shotsnaps
• Jim - According to Jim…

Of course, these five wonderful people are obligated to post their responses on their own blog, choose five new words, and tap five other people to play!

OK, so I cheated and picked not-so-random words. All the words I selected were from my list of 100+ Fun Words to Say. So sue me! (Disclaimer: By "sue," what I really mean is "place no legal action against.")

Click to view

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie have this great song truthfully titled "Every OS Sucks." It's funny because it's true.

There is a fairly lengthy introduction, but it's worth the wait if you're a computer geek. The song reminisces about the good ol' days when our computers never crashed. It's truly geeky snark at its best.

Be sure to check out the Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie site for more!

Here's how the monitor chain works:

Photograph this blog post (including your monitor and its immediate surroundings), and post the resulting pic on your blog. Then, the next person photographs your blog post and posts it, and so on. Leave your post URL in the comments so people will be able to follow the chain, and link your image to the post you photographed… this way people will be able to zoom into the monitors by clicking.

Here's the site I photographed: shattering.org [site] [monitor chain post]

I spy . . .

This post has been re-posted at Random Fodder, Novac's personal blog.

You know you're a geek when . . .

. . . the first time you wear an athletic support is when you're 30 years old . . .

. . . and even then, it's because the doctor required it for your post-vasectomy care.

There's a ringtone floating around the internet specifically for teenagers.
Is it the latest Billboard Top 100 hit? No.
Is it the Ask a Ninja ringtone? No.
Is it a ringtone that kids can hear, but older adults cannot hear? Absolutely!

The ringtone, assuming you can hear it, is awfully annoying. The recent usage of this ringtone, however, is that students can hear their banned cell phone ringing without their teacher harping on them to turn their phone off.

Download and listen to the Mosquito Ringtone.

The New York Times wrote an article on the ringtone noting that one student was surprised that his 28-year-old teacher was able to hear the ringtone. (The ringtone's range is generally inaudible to those in their 40s and older.)

The ringtone is adapted from the Mosquito alarm, a device intended to keep loitering teenagers away from shopfronts while not disturbing older passersby.