One of my few academic memories from junior high school is “Question Day.” This was a 45-minute period where our science teacher would permit the class to ask about anything. It was cool that we were able to go beyond since science, with his rationale being it all comes back to it anyway.

Back then, without the Internet, it was a great idea. Our question-asking options were limited. You simply couldn’t turn to mom or dad, an older sibling or the library for the “important” stuff. There’s nothing like knowledge imparted by strangers.

If information truly is power, we must all be superhuman at this point. The Q&A market is completely saturated.

Yahoo! Answers covers the bases, ChaCha helps you out on the go, and SocialThumbs makes sure we never have to make an independent decision again.

Is it possible that we are asking way too many questions and being barraged with too many answers. Always the analytical type, I’ve recently found myself bogged down with too much information. Decisions that were once made after a few minutes of thought now become a great big opus. I can barely move an inch without consulting with other people.

What has happened to me?

I need to Shut-up the strangers and put myself back on the road to self-reliance. Decisions about jobs and houses and kids and health – freom people who know nothing about me – mean nothing.

Do you feel the same way?

Jeez, another question! Make it stop!

How do you gracefully tell people to F off these days? Since everyone likes to play Internet P.I., it’s become increasingly difficult to end relationships. Something, quite frankly, I used to be very proficient at.

DeadSpace. EndSpace. LonerSpace.

That’s what the Web needs. A Website where you have no desire to tell anyone where you are, who you’re married to or what your current mood is. The site would be designed to tell people not to waste their time looking, because you have taken preventative measures not to be found. And even if the person does manage to track you down, this Website sends a message that you are not to be disturbed – forever.

Anonymity is a beautiful and important thing. I want mine back. Proxy servers help keep my surfing activity private. Can I get a
human proxy server?

From what your house is worth to how much money you make, the Internet reveals too much.

If I haven’t called, written or texted you in more than six months, it’s highly unlikely I want to receive a LinkedIn request from you.

Let alone grab a beer.

It’s no secret that as we get older we tend to shed our circles. Heck, mine is starting to look like a funnel. But that is by choice.

Before you send me (or anyone else) a friend request, I ask you to visualize the following:

Pretend there is no Internet. No computers. That means, any communication we have will have to be face to face.

Still want to connect? Probably not. Because these types of relationships take work – something most people are too lazy to put effort into. If you honestly want to reconnect, call me or drop by.

So consider the ‘Do Not Disturb’ doortag hanging on the door and buzz off!

My personal house hunt continues.

Living about 20 minutes outside of Manhattan, it’s difficult to find a house in our price range (I’m a blogger, she’s a teacher = you do the math!). There always seems to be a catch: train tracks, water towers, scary electric looking things, busy streets, and so on.

Is finding the right house impossible, or is it just me?!

While I find many of these things to simply be eyesores, they could have much larger ramifications. For example, what about the air we’re breathing in?

Since the air we breathe is often taken for granted (after all, it’s clear and odorless!), it’s easy to overlook air quality when house hunting.

But it doesn’t end there.

What about the 8,000 power plants scattered across America? Don’t you want to know what the Carbon Dioxide emissions are in your future or current neighborhood?

Of course you do.

Thanks to Fizber, you can now research data on climate change and the affect it’s having on the nation. Find out which U.S. states and cities are the most polluted. As you know it’s not just in our air…

it’s in the ocean too!

Whether or not you believe Global Warming is a phenomenon or a myth, there’s no disputing the fact that the Earth is constantly in a state of flux. The areas most likely to be hit the hardest by change are our 12,000 miles of coastline.

So before you buy that home that’s on the water…or even that condo that’s 2 miles inland…you NEED to understand what is happening to the surrounding area.

Using a neat Google map mashup, you can view a visual representation (an aerial, three-dimensional snapshot) of what the anticipated sea level rise will look like. After seeing portions on New Jersey and New York underwater – literally – I’m suddenly wondering if I should consider the middle of the country.

I’ve gotta run. There are a few open houses on the docket for the end of this week. However, rest assured, I’ll be researching more than just the crime and school districts of each town. I’d advise you do the same.

I know that dream house has to be out there…somewhere…

The latest reality TV sensation to hit the American airwaves is The Moment of Truth, a FOX show that hooks a willing participant to a lie detector device. The individual is peppered with deeply personal questions. The goal is to tell the truth, all the way to $500,000.

Since the show has become a worldwide sensation (airing under different names in 23 countries), the editors here at Jack of All Blogs asked – no demanded – that I be hooked up to a polygraph for this blog entry. Being that they’re offering a prize of $10, I figured ‘why the heck not!’ So, without your permission, I’ll answer their questions, speaking on behalf of bloggers everywhere.

Q: Do you genuinely enjoy writing blogs?
A: Yes
Result: TRUE

Q: If presented with the opportunity, would you blog full-time?
A: Yes
Result: TRUE

Q: Would you stop blogging if your employer doubled your salary?
A: No
Result: LIE

Q: Do you adhere to copyright laws when using images on blogs?
A: Yes
Result: LIE

Q: Do you get angry when you see a similar post to one you’ve written – but crappier – on the front page of Digg?
A: Yes
Result: TRUE

Q: Do you leave comments on your own blogs?
A: No
Result: LIE

Q: Do you ever search porn when you hit a writing roadblock?
A: No
Result: LIE

Q: Do you research or write blogs on company time.
A: No
Result: LIE

Dear blogger, if you answered differently below, let us know in the comments section. Though we know you’re lying.

Tis the season for gratuitous award shows that allow our star-powered elite to pat themselves on the back. As these famous folks stroke each other off, it occurred to me, if Jack of All Blogs was accepting an award, our speech would break all the rules. We’d be honest and pithy. Heck, we’d show up even if the writers were still on strike.

And the award goes to, Jack of All Blogs!

“I deserve this. From the hours I spent researching the role, to the grueling on-set hours, I gave everything I had and the end result spoke for itself.”

(As I unfold the speech…) “I came prepared because I knew I had a 20% chance of winning.”

“It’s really satisfying to beat out a lot these people. Overall my fellow nominees were fairly weak.”

“The red carpet was so much fun. Interesting questions, deep conversations and salt of the earth type folks.”

“I only showed up because they told me in advance that I won.”

“I’d like to thank the general public for allowing me to ascertain a ridiculous amount of money. More than I’ll ever know what to do with.”

“At the end of my speech, can y’all point to which direction I need to exit the stage. Cause I know I’ll get it wrong even though I’ve been rehearsing in my mind all night.”

“I’d thank my other cast mates but they were a tiny piece in a large puzzle.”

“The people I’d like to thank already know who they are.”

“This trophy is lame. Before you AccessHollywoodInsderTonight people ask: I’m keeping it on my mantle.”

“It was a long road, I’m now validated. Hey trophy presenter person, wanna get smashed as hell?”

“Thanks for the award. We’re just hoping to avoid eye contact with Tom Cruise so he doesn’t turn us into space dust.”

Maybe this is why we haven’t brought home the gold. Yet.

I want to be a Rockette.

There I said it.

OK, I really don’t, but what if I did.

They probably wouldn’t take me because A) I’m a dude B) I’m only 5’ 9” C) I’m not graceful.

It’s really that third one that kills the dream. However, I do have one thing clearly in my favor: I’m Caucasian.

With another Christmas in the books, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular once again entertained millions of American spectators. And of the 36 world-famous Rockettes, the majority were once again white.

For an elitist group that didn’t even allow African-Americans to qualify for the dance line until 1987, I find this pretty surprising.

Over Christmas break my wife was watching the Rockettes on TV. (Yes, I swear she put it on the telly!) I couldn’t help but notice that they were all white. The show takes place in New York City for God’s sake, one of the most – if not THE most – culturally diverse places in the universe.

By my count there was one African-American and one Asian on stage.

That is NOT representative of NYC or the attending audiences.

The Rockettes already limit their talent pool by only accepting woman who are between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 1/2 inches. Can only white woman sustain 400 high leg kicks per show? I doubt it.

For those of us who are not a 5’ 9” woman, there is still hope.

The Rockettes offer a Rockette-for-a-day fantasy camp at Radio City Music Hall in NY. For $108 you can prep for the April tryouts. There’s also a week-long boot camp in the summer. In fact, this is how approximately 30 Rockettes have been “discovered.”

Do you smell a reality show?

According to a New York Times article from 1987:

Civil-rights officials have denounced the lack of diversity in the Rockettes as an offensive anachronism, especially for such a visible symbol of a multiracial city.

Has anything really changed?

Maybe I’m colorblind. Maybe I happened to catch an all-white day. Someone tell me I’m wrong. I’d love nothing more.

To everyone who felt the need to add something to Hugh McLeod’s whine about the A-List (link condom out of principle), let me tell you that the reason behind the entry not falling traffic was, but a blog eons old strategy. If twitter is so March 07, this strategy was so Fall 06. We call it linkbaiting.

When do you linkbait?
If you’re not as whorish as our bestest friend [tag]Scoble[/tag] and prefer not to loose time on every new network platform, gathering exactly the same list of friends you already have in your other 2 months old profile, or if you’re a member of … lets say a popular blog directory which has more than quadrupled the number of rulers. Add to that almost 20 times as much of members to the newest and designographically [sic] most elitist network and your shortage of time to write note after note in their community… then you whine linkbait.

And over the next days you admire the sudden flux of new readers. Readers who just discovered a graying A-Lister, a blogger trying to cope with the cruel reality of not being discovered anymore like in the old days, not having found a Blue Monster Sequel^TM and who’s still waiting for the next PR gig to go viral.

All those conditions combined, bring out the best blogging techniques in any A-Lister, and suddenly they remember that every columnist lurks.

Now Whine is the device!
Whine, sit back… and enjoy how everyone falls into the trap.

I guess exactly that is what makes an A-Lister. Knowing how to play the audience, the lurkers.
Well done, Hugh

Not more than two days ago a friend lost his 5 year young son in a pool accident.
Today, after I was at the funeral of a friend and colleague yesterday, my feed reader was full of supportive entries for Dawg and his family.

Within 2 hours after NYCWatchdog had blogged about the cruel event, a friend, Avitable, had set up a donation entry and pledges started to roll in. As I am writing this 114 bloggers have already donated in little more than 24 hours.
Technorati lists 64 links to that post. I have followed the evolution of the donation entry with interest and wondered if a personal blog could make it into the popular news section at Technorati.

64 Links would be a Top 10 ranking at this moment, but obviously TC doesn’t care about blogs, blogs written by non-paid bloggers. Bloggers who love to share their life.

Does Technorati really care about blogs or rather only about it’s own pagerank?
Where would Technorati have been today if no blogger was narcissistic enough to check his/her own link popularity?

Some folks would believe that Apple is the biggest liar that the world has seen. Sure, their products are hip and cool (not to mention outrageously expensive by some standards). But the marketing whizzes the people over at Cupertino, CA are, the general public just tends to believe that anything that comes from Apple is heaven-sent. Sometimes what they say isn’t exactly 100% true.

Case in point: the PowerPC. For many, many years, Apple has claimed the PowerPC is faster than a comparable Intel (or compatible) chip because of differences in architecture. Sure, it’s a “reduced instruction chipset” (RISC) after all, and does tasks differently than a more complex Intel chip would. But lo and behold, after hitting some speed bumps (meaning Apple couldn’t get past some speed ceilings for the PowerPC), they switch to Intel processors and declare their new computers 5 times (or more) faster than their comparable predecessors.

Another case in point: Safari. It is a known claim that Safari is the fastest browser around. Come on. What’s so fast about a browser if all your data gets shot through the pipes anyway? That means if your Internet connection is running at a snail’s pace, then you don’t get your webpages, streaming videos, or whatnot loaded up any faster.

Maybe they render the pages faster, but so what? It’s all about perception. I still go to the loo or brew some coffee when loading up big webpages anyway. And I take my sweet time.

My point is that Apple has just introduced its previously Mac-only browser to 90+% of the computing population who use Windows. A lot of people are excited. You get “Safari on Windows” posts from the A-listers, news blogs, and all that. How has the (re)launch of an old web browser ever gotten a blogging A-lister giddy like a schoolgirl (not that I find anything wrong with giddy schoolgirls)?

Maybe it’s because it’s the rise of a new platform? Come on—the browser has been the battlefield of web-based businesses for years now. But come to think of it, the iPhone is said to be running some form of Mac OS X, with Safari as its main UI.

Or is it because it’s kind of a novelty? Like how people got excited over iTunes for Windows. For the second time around, losers Windows people will get a feel of how it is to use a Mac.

I don’t think this one is worth jumping for joy about. I think we had this coming. Ever since Apple switched to Intel, all things OS X are theoretically compatible with PCs. When Apple starts selling boxed sets of OS X for PCs—now that’s something to get excited about.

Bloggers are always good for any kind of controversy. Even if the controversy needs to be twisted and serve as an attention call. For Wired this time. Once more more conventional media invite bloggers to react and have a round of linkbait.

If bloggers know how to do one thing really well, it’s fight.

It is obviously we have to react. And we won’t put up a fight, no we won’t. Because that would only be what Michael Calore is looking for.