Posted 12:01 PM by John A. Seafisk

Helping Our Four-Footed Friends

I'm not sure if this site is a scam or not, but it seems pretty legit. No, I don't mean this blog (because, in fact, this site here is the final level of a massive pyramid scheme involving Nigerian e-mails).

I'm referring to The Animal Rescue Site. The way it works is that when you visit the site & click on the button, you'll be helping donate 6 bowls of food to an animal currently in a shelter or sanctuary. Although it doesn't really specify which shelters or sanctuaries, or which animals, I'd rather be helping out some poor cat or dog than clicking my way out of a pop-up site offering me university diplomas and increased penis sizes. (I already have my degree, and my genitalia is fine, thank you.)

And today's front page pic on the animal rescue site is of a Black Labrador Retriever puppy, not unlike the dog our family had for 14 years. No fair, pulling on the heart strings like that. So, anyway, if you like animals & like clicking buttons, check it out. You'll be glad you did!

Posted 6:16 PM by John A. Seafisk

Getting Personal

I've noticed that the personals sections of The Onion and Fark are exactly the same.

I knew this FCC de-regulation would cause trouble!

Posted 6:53 PM by John A. Seafisk

With Friendsters Like These...

Upon the advice of a few friends, I signed up with this website friendster.com. The idea of this site is to broaden your friendship horizons by meeting friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, friends of friends of friends of friends....and so on. People are inter-connected through their own 'personal network', where you can look at someone's profile and see who their friends are, and see what their interests happen to be...and maybe meet someone for a friendly get-together or much more.

So, I sign up, and within a week, I already have 12 friends linked to me in one degree of separation. According to Friendster, I'm connected to over 30,000 people throughout my 'Personal Network' in furthering degrees of separation.....and 29,993 of them I'm connected through via Maura.

Now I'm all set! Ready to open wide the doors to online social interaction! Look out ladies, here I come! So, let's just log on to 'www.friendster.com', and......

What's this? "DNLL server error...cannot find this website." Oh, they must be updating it. I'll try a little later.

A little later - click, click, click, return...it's loading....it's loading.....still loading...

"DNLL server error....cannot find website."

Hmmm. Seems to be a glitch of some kind.

2 hours later - "DNLL server error....cannot find website."

6 hours later - "DNLL server error....cannot find website."

The next day.....success! Logging in name & password, then enter. *click*.

Loading.....

Still loading......

Still loading......

Still loading....................

"DNLL server error....cannot find website."

Later that evening - "DNLL server error....cannot find website."

And the next day after that.....loading.....loading.....loading......loading....

"DNLL server error....cannot find website."

OK, so after some near misses and many far-off-the-target misses, it appears I'll have to meet people the old fashioned way....by meeting them.

Darn it.

Posted 5:06 PM by John A. Seafisk

Thanks, Blogger! (#1)

I had recently typed up a great blog entry about going to the Arclight Theatre in L.A. and seeing the film "Wattstax". However, when I tried to post, blogger.com went off the air, so to speak. I was given that 'this website cannot be found' error message.

The crushing blow of this sad realization had wilted my desire to re-type the whole thing. So basically, to sum up what I had originally written - liked the movie, liked the theater, $14 is a bit much for a film, but you gotta treat yourself once in a while.

Posted 7:20 PM by John A. Seafisk

Bandwagonesque

Go Ducks!

I admit I'm not a die-hard fan of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, but I do enjoy ice hockey. And I always root for the team who isn't supposed to win. (This is not too difficult, as I am a graduate of Northwestern University.)

At first, I was amused & kind of proud of the Ducks for sweeping the Detroit Red Wings in the first round. Then I found myself a good spot on the bandwagon and cheered as Anaheim faced the Dallas Stars, a team I'm not particularly fond of. When it comes to the NHL, I have a slight irksomeness toward the teams that have relocated from colder, hockey-appreciative areas to warmer, hockey-indifferent-but-might-like-it-as-a-novelty places. I realise there's profit at stake, but I don't care much for the business/corporate side of sports. Bunch of killjoys. Anyway, these teams I'm not that fond of:

Colorado Avalanche (was the Quebec Nordiques)
Dallas Stars (was the Minnesota North Stars)
Phoenix Coyotes (was the Winnipeg Jets)
Carolina Hurricanes (was the Hartford Whalers)

I have more of an affinity toward the Avs & Stars because of their success & superstars. I'm a iconoclastic hockey fan. Or maybe revolutionist, I'm not quite sure.

But anyway, it was great seeing the Ducks in those overtime thrillers beating Dallas. The Ducks won the series on a goal with about a minute left in Game 6. Bye bye, Modano, Hatcher, et al.

Then it was on to the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Wild. I honestly would have been happy if either the Ducks or Wild won this series. Like the Ducks, Minnesota wasn't expected to get this far. But I admired the way they did arrive at this point: In the first round, beating the Colorado Avalanche in overtime of Game 7 after being down 3 games to 1 in the series; In the second round, beating the Vancouver Canucks in 7 games after being down 3 games to 1 YET AGAIN. Most importantly, I think the Wild have a cool jersey. I'm glad to have it as one in my collection.

Sadly for the WIld, goaltender Jean-Sebastiern Giguere kept up his amazing hot streak by registeing 3 straight shutouts as the Ducks advanced to the Stanley Cup finals in a 4-game sweep.

Now those Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are facing the New Jersey Devils (and another team whose jersey I own). The first 2 games were 3-0 Devil victories, and it looked like the Ducks magic had run out. But wouldn't you know it - when the series came back to Southern California, those Duckies swung the momentum around with 2 straight overtime victories. They're now 7-0 in overtime playoff games. Game 5 is tomorrow, and I need to find me a TV set somewhere around 5 p.m. Pacific.

I hope the Ducks can do it. Disney ownership & camera shots of Emilio Estevez in the luxury box aside, this is a team I can root for. There are no star players, except for Paul Kariya, and he hasn;t been lighting the lamp too much. These are guys working as a real team, depending on each other when no one really gave them a chance. Just like the Angels, another bandwagon I hopped on last October & November.

Well, here's hoping Keith Carney, Steve Thomas, Steve Rucchin, Ruslan Salei, Stanislav Chisnov, Dan Bylsma, Jason Krog, Sandis Ozolinsh, Marc Chienard, John LeClerc, JSS, PK and the rest of the guys will be the one hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup over their heads.

I better get me a jersey.