Blankbaby

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Awkward.

Do you believe every word of the Bible?

These YouTube Debates are pretty interesting (the Republican one can be seen here and the Democrats version here), though I am not sure if they did what folks thought they would. The idea was that if you open the debates to anyone and let them ask the candidates a question it'll make the debates more open and more relevant. This, of course, discounts the fact that not every submitted question will be answered, just those picked by CNN. Furthermore not every candidate has to answer every question (which makes little sense to me). The debate moderator picks who has to answer a particular question, unless the YouTuber in question addressed his question to a particular candidate.

I've embedded above a question from calciumboy which I found interesting. The question, which he posed to all the candidates, was 'Do you believe every word in this book,' and he held up the Bible (though not just any Bible, but the King James Bible, which calciumboy believes is the best translation of the Bible). He further stated that 'your answer to this question tells us everything we need to know about you.' Clearly, he meant that if the candidate isn't a Biblical Literalist (i.e. the Bible is the Word of God, and as such everything in it is literally true. Jonah was in the belly of a great beast, Noah built an ark that has 2 of every animal in creation on it, the world was made in 6 days, and so are. These aren't allegories but facts.) then case closed, we shouldn't vote for you.

The question was posed to:

• Giuliani


• Romney


• Huckabee

All three of those men (and all the candidates, both Democrat and Republican I do believe) have stated that they do, in fact, believe in God. It shouldn't be too shocking that they all said that the Bible is the Word of God, but it is interesting to me that both Guiliani and Huckabee said, 'No, not every word is the literal truth. Some things are allegorical,' while Romney seemed uncomfortable stating that he believes the Bible is the literal truth.

It would seem to me that if you wear your religion like a cloak around your shoulders to get votes you shouldn't be sheepish about those beliefs when asked about them directly. Come on, Romney, I may disagree with what you believe (and I do) but I think you should have the conviction to plainly state your viewpoint.

I was raised Roman Catholic, though I'm an unabashed Atheist these days, so I've read my fair share of the Bible. I went to a Jesuit high school in which I spent many hours poring over The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (just seeing the cover to that book dregs up many memories from high school) writing up numerous exegeses about various passages in the Bible. This was all done in an effort to make us think critically about our Faith, in hopes that it would strengthen it. In my case it had the opposite effect, but I think it is laudable of the Jesuits to teach kids about thinking first, and then let the facts speak for themselves. Politicians could learn a thing or two from the Jesuits, if you ask me (which you didn't, but it is my blog so I get to talk about whatever I want).

Blogging Heroes: there must have been some kind of mixup

Anyone who has known me for any length of time can tell you I'm crazy about blogging. I've been blogging for a little over 7 years now, and I am sure that 7 years from now I'll still be blogging (and I bet I'll still be doing it right here at Blankbaby).

A few months ago I got an email from Michael A. Banks. He was doing a book about blogging, and he wanted to talk to me (thanks to my TUAW blogging duties). Never the one to turn down talking about two of my favorite subjects (myself and blogging) I gave Michael my details. He called me one Sunday afternoon, as I recall, and we spoke about blogging for awhile. I also took the chance to ask him about writing for 'Old Media,' i.e. in print. He gave me some things to think about, and I hoped I had given him something with which he could include in his book.

His book is called Blogging Heroes, and I am one of 30 interviews with the 'World's Top Bloggers' that make up the book (my interview is chapter 19) along side such bloggers as Steve Garfield, Robert Scoble, Gina Trapani, and Steve Rubel (to name only a few). If you want to read my interview Wiley said I could post it on my blog, so here is the PDF. I don't really say anything that should come as a shock to anyone. I only have two rules that are keys to success in blogging (or in anything, really):

• Never say/write anything that you are uncomfortable standing behind.
• Write about whatever you are passionate about, and success will follow.

Nothing earth-shattering there, but I said it with my rapier like wit. Plus, I'm a blogging hero so that means I am better than you are (but you knew that already).

New fall shirts for Scott

People love it when I blog about my new clothes, right? Of course you do! I've lost lots of weight, as I continually remind people, so this winter I have significantly less fat than I did last winter. In practical terms this means that almost all my long sleeve shirts are way too big, so I need to get new ones because without that fat the winter is cold!

Above are the 5 new shirts I purchased from J.C. Penney (online, of course). I was going to be fancy and get some shirts from Macys but I got all 5 of these shirts for less than one shirt would have cost me (though, that one shirt would have been very fancy) and that's just sound fiscal planning folks (McNulty for President!).

Anyway, the nice thing about these shirts is that they are all XXL, which I know seems big but last winter I was wear 4XL shirts so by that math next winter I'll be a plain old L.

Here's to less of me!

Mormon flip flopper!

I'm not really political, but this quote that the Clinton campaign gave CNN is pretty darned funny:

Reached by telephone phone later in the day, Clinton campaign spokesman, Mo Elleithee said: 'Given Governor Romney's long history of flip floppping on issues, we're not worried. We expect him to endorse us any day.'

Where will you be on September 1st?

September 1st, 2007 is shaping up to be quite a day. Colin, of Viddlerfame, asked Marisa and myself, of Fork You fame, if we would be up for doing some contest judging for Viddler. Since we are like BFF's with Viddler (like, totally) we said sure! Soon we learned that the man, the myth, the guy who is shorter than I thought he was: Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV would be judging with use. He's been on TV, and profiled in lots of magazines (even John Gruber watches Wine Library TV, something tells me Grubs doesn't watch Fork You), so we were pretty excited.

We then found out that not only would we be judging the MealToday Contest (best video wins an iPhone or a camera) but we would be doing it live at Indy Hall's grand opening on September 1st. If you aren't familiar with Indy Hall it is Philly's hot new coworking space and it is super cool (or so I have heard, I haven't actually had a chance to check it out myself, but watch Alex's tour).

I know what you're thinking, "How can I get in on all this fun?!" Head on over to Upcoming.org and RSVP (by the way, Upcoming.org sent me a tshirt many moons ago. When I got it, it didn't fit because it was a XXL and I was a XXXL kind guy. I now wear that shirt to the gym... yeah, I'm all kinds of awesome).

One final note, Colin asked Marisa and I if we would be up to filming some video for a promo for the event. Being the media whores that we are, we said sure! After the Philly Blogger meetup we set the camera up, sat on the stoop outside my building, and did whatever it is we do. Above you'll see the 1:40 minute highlight reel that I put together for Colin. Originally it was just meant for Colin's eye, but it would seem I can't hide anything from Alex and before I knew it the video was on Twitter. Luckily Marisa was OK with it, and so it is available for everyone to watch! We did many variations of this same promo over 30 minutes with no prep, because that's the kind of podcasters we are. It has been viewed 1113 times at the time of this writing. What is wrong with people?

Anyway, hope to see you on September 1st!

I'm glad I'm not a Chinese factory owner

Suicide isn't a good way to deal with recalls, if you ask me:

The head of a Chinese company that was behind the recall earlier this month of more than a million Mattel toys committed suicide over the weekend, China’s state-controlled media reported today.

Zhang Shuhong, a Hong Kong businessman and owner of the Lee Der Industrial Company, a company that made toys for Mattel for 15 years, hanged himself in a company warehouse in Foshan, in southern China, the Southern Metropolis Daily said today.

I get the sweetest emails

Someone, who shall remain nameless, posted on their blog about the trials and tribulations of online dating. I'm somewhat familiar with the process myself, so I can feel her pain (though from the other side of the gender aisle). She said something about the pickings being slim, while the men on those sites weren't (aka lots of fat dudes are looking for love on the Internets). I, of course, rose to the occasion to defend my hefty brethren (though she was talking about fat, stupid, toothless hicks of which I am not one) and said that not all fat dudes were bad. She emailed me a response, of which I shall quote the best part:

You're not even really fat anymore, so you're excluded from the category of men I eschew.

That might be the sweetest email I have received in a long, long time. And yes, I am aware of how sad that is. :)

8 Random Things about me

The latest meme is making the rounds on the Internet and I haven't been tagged once, or twice, but thrice! By the laws governing silly blog memes, I must participate now, and so here we go:

Rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and that they should read your blog.

1. I don't wear a watch, and I haven't for 3 years.
2. People say I'm funny, but deep down I don't think I am.
3. I am a little neurotic about being on time. I hate being late, and would much rather be an hour early (I am usually way, way too early for flights).
4. If I need to think of a celebrity's name on the spur of the moment invariably the first one that pops to mind is 'Mary Tyler Moore.' Strange but true.
5. I'm shy. Some might not believe that, but I am very shy by nature. I have gotten more outgoing as I have aged, but I'm still just a shy dude.
6. I have always thought that I will die alone, just like Capt. Kirk (look! I can be depressing and geeky all at once!)
7. I am starting to enjoy going to the gym (but don't tell anyone because that would ruin my whole,'I hate the gym' routine).
8. I overthink everything: relationships, future plans, people's offhand remarks. You name it, I overthink it.

So there you have it! Now I need to pass this on to 8 (!) more people:

• Owen


• Kurt


• Tony


• Dave


• Bre


• Jacqui


• Dave


• Joe

Oscar the cat knows when you're going to die

Lots of people prefer Google over Yahoo, this I know. However, I like going to Yahoo.com because they feature an offbeat story on their main page every day. It is how I stay in the know with crap that I really don't need to know. Take, for instance, the story of Oscar the death sensing cat. If I only used Google I wouldn't know about this little furry angel of Death, but thanks to those crazy kats (see what I did there?) at Yahoo I'm in the kitty death patrol know.