The Smarmy Carny

One Economy Corporation's Digital Connectors program has young people helping their community through technology. Here are two brothers who worked in the program:

Jeremy and Justin Smith have enjoyed working with computers for years. Now the 16-year-old twins from south Chicago are learning enough to teach others – thanks to One Economy’s Digital Connectors program. In the fall of 2005, the engaging teenagers enrolled in the One Economy Digital Connectors course to prepare them for A+ certification in computer set-up and troubleshooting. Participants in the program received a small stipend and One Economy paid the fee for taking the A+ certification test.
Jeremy and Justin are already using their skills to help others – friends in the neighborhood, teachers at their school and even an occasional paying client who needs assistance with a computer problem.
“The Digital Connectors program is really great,” says Jeremy. “It gets kids involved with the community. I like giving back and this program gives me an opportunity to do that.”
Adds Justin: “It gives kids alternatives to just standing around on the street. It teaches them something that will be useful to their futures.” Despite a busy schedule that includes the computer training, coaching a little league team and participating in a robotics competition, the twins are already thinking about their future. Both are taking a course at a nearby college and they’re making plans for the computer business they hope to open someday. Also in the boys’ plans: a community center in Chicago to offer technology training to people in the area. “It’s something we really want to make happen,” says Jeremy.
One Economy’s work in Chicago has been generously supported by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

There are dozens of stories like this that come out of the Digital Connectors program. When you help kids to learn to help others, it's always a win-win situation.

Why and how Scooby Doo got so many guest stars is beyond me. Just to clarify: Technically, the show in question here is The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Here are five guests who appeared on Scooby Doo:

• Batman and Robin: D When you're bringing on other fictional characters from another television series, you know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for guest stars. Perhaps it made for good entertainment for the kids, but it's just a lousy match-up. A superhero millionaire hanging out with a bunch of hippie kids? Ack.
• Don Knotts: B Don Knotts appeared as his usual bumbling character, being comical in a butt-of-the-joke manner. It worked out well enough, though I thought Don was always drawn more realistically than the rest of the characters on the show.
• Harlem Globetrotters: A- The Harlem Globetrotters were a treat. There were so many of them, you really only knew Curly. They kept the action going and provided a bunch of laughs. The only problem is that their whole shtick is basketball tricks. In the cartoons, Scooby can perform those same tricks!
• Sonny and Cher: C+ I was never a fan of Cher, and I'm not sure the duo came across all that well in Scooby Doo, either.
• The Three Stooges: B+ Somehow, the Three Stooges' slapstick carried over to animation when they appeared on the show. It wasn't quite as edgy as the Three Stooges episodes, but they got the job done.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why? Which Scooby Doo guest stars do you wish were included that I didn't cover here?

I am now officially convinced that 2-year-old my son was trying to taunt me tonight.

I took him out of his high chair and he was a bit fussy. I sat back down at my computer desk with my son on my lap. Within twenty seconds, I saw this:

I'm a night owl, so this isn't a late hour for me, but a sleeping child always tends to make one drowsy!

Now why don't I make him sleepy when I'm sleeping and he's batting me in the face with an empty 2-liter bottle?

e-coffee

Phwew, I was nervous for a few short minutes. The server my host has me on was a bit unresponsive for a bit.

Normally, I'd never notice because it was just a short blip, but since I'm sitting here for 24 hours, I was certain to find this one.

Hopefully it wasn't the Blogathon traffic here that caused a problem. I like to think that I'm unpopular enough, even during the rush hour of Blogathon, to make any sort of impact on a web server.

Thanks to Glo Paint for the e-coffee!

Also thanks to John for playing Wesley Willis at my request! The song was just posted, so catch it while it's hot! That track is "Rock and Roll McDonalds."

We Blogathonners have just completed the first half of Blogathon!

As a reward for making it halfway, I will take this hour off from posting a Grating Rating. Next hour's Grating Rating is Minor Seinfeld characters!

I think it's time to get up and take a little walk . . .

Blogathon Status Update: Hour 12
Sponsorships: 7 pledges for $100.00
My neck is tired right about now. I think I'll get up and move around for a bit.

The official Blogathon website is running a game currently, asking bloggers to post a self-portrait in whatever format.

So, here's a very recent picture of me:

No, really, I wasn't sleeping! I'm staying awake the entire 24 hours! I really am!!!

In my mind, the Atari 2600 is the best video game console of all time. You either had a joystick or a paddle — both of which had just one button. Modern day consoles have nothing on the Atari 2600 with their 80-button, vibrating controllers and frequent crashes. The Atari 2600 blows these out of the water with its 128 bytes of RAM and 1.19 MHz processing speed.

• Basketball: D- I know that the graphics weren't top-notch on the Atari 2600, and that's fine. But playing basketball with a square ball? Something's just not right with that.
• Combat: B It came with the console, so everyone had it and knew how to play it. Somehow, they managed to turn two games (tanks and planes) into 27 games — really just different options on the two themes. For such a basic game, though, getting those tanks to move and shoot the way you needed them to really became an art.
• Missile Command: C- In retrospect, I probably played Missile Command far more than I should have. This game, though entertaining, quickly becomes repetitive. Gee, I wonder what the next level will bring me — perhaps more missiles I'll have to shoot down in the same manner? You basically played until the game outplayed you.
• Pac-Man: A- Pac-Man was the game. Easy to understand but difficult to master, I don't know a kid who was yelling at their television because of this yellow dude.
• Pitfall!: B+ I don't know how many times poor Pitfall Harry fell down holes or got eaten by a crocodile, but this game was addictive. The game used a combination of timing skills and just a bit of strategy that made you want to come back for more.
• Space Invaders: A+ Simple, easy, and perfectly designed for the platform. You have shields, you have bad guys. They inch closer, and you try and pick them off. And just when that might have started to get boring, you've got a UFO to aim at! It even spawned quite a few 80s song, which actually might not have been a good thing.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why? Which Atari 2600 games do you wish were included that I didn't cover here?