Every once in a while you find a company that has a clue and perhaps has read the cluetrain and gotten the message. It seems Sierra Nevada may been one of those smart few.

If only more companies were that smart.

Jen talks about a WashPost story and she's completely right, go read it, amazing stuff. DC life is so fast most folks wouldn't notice a great artist at work. When I was in DC I always tried to at least give a dollar if a decent musician was playing by a subway entrance. They were not asking for money but providing atmosphere and I always respected them more than someone asking for a handout.

Of course I have my Amazon list, but for family then there are always other items that don't exist I'd love to have so here are a few quick thoughts.

Babylon 5 podcast mentions the DVDs are on sale I have season 1, but would love the rest.

You, me, and a Chicken Fried Radio Tshirt or Bumper Sticker would be great!

Microbrewed Adventures or the beer style books like the Hefeweizen

Last and if someone wins the lottery or is feeling really generous this will always be an option.

"I don't think movie theaters will ever go away"

So spoke a man who probably hasn't seen a film in a theater with sticky floors, bad sound system, or even noticed how overpriced the popcorn is in years.

I only see a film or two a year in theater, most of them aren't a priority. Not that I haven't wanted to see some of them, just the experience isn't worth the trouble. Probably part of the reason I signed up with Netflicks. I can wait a couple of months after release to see things. No rush.

Theaters can't compare to an environment where you can ocntrol the start and finish times, the temperature, the neighbors with cell phones, and the overpriced food stuffs. With today's surround sound and big screens we have our own theaters and we really won't need theirs.

A coworker was very excited about Rumsfeld’s resignation. Too excited really I thought for someone who had never worked in DC, defense industry, or the military. It bothered me but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the why.

This morning I awoke with my answer, it reminded me of the often ugly side of DC life. Those narrow-minded folks who were more tied to their party identity over the fact that at the end of the day we were and are all Americans. All too often in DC I would be in a perfectly pleasant conversation at a reception or party and eventually the question would come up “Where do you work?” With my response some people would turn and leave the conversation though it had been perfectly nice up to that point. They valued that party affiliation over friendship and conversation while it bothered me, it more depressed me that they were such shallow people.

I understand that my coworker doesn’t like Rumsfeld and that is fine, but the man has committed the better part of a lifetime working for public service and that ought to earn some basic level of respect.

Goldwater’s autobiography did influence me in this way, I enjoyed the section where he talked about at the end of the day, regardless of the political debate he and Kennedy would often sit down and play cards together. I tried to carry that same mindset with me to DC, because some of the best people I got to know and still remain friends with were working for the other side of the aisle.

I think it comes down to this are you an American or are you a party affiliation?

California has officially passed Florida in terms of being the craziest state in the country. If I was an automaker or retailer I would refuse business with state agencies while the lawsuit is underway. A state where the Governor drives a Hummer, granted not the most responsible vehicle, but if you want to stop global warming look in the mirror people suing car companies is not the answer.

Talk about a lack of personal responsibility...

Another school year approaches, another list of things this year's Freshman college class has either always known or never know gets written. As always it's slightly disturbing and often funny.

I spend a good chunk of my day waiting on hold on a phone. I think anyone who chooses an automated phone system must sit on hold for an hour listening to the system they choose to play. Rock station, classical, even easy listening music I can take. But it's the repeated over and over audio messages that get old quick, also the systems that blast your ear drum.

A picture is worth a thousand words the saying goes.

Old concept, but as the web develops we have the opportunity to present ideas in a new fashion. As example Frappr maps are mostly social purposes for instance some podcasts use them to show listenership.

Radley shows us a glimpse of the future of social science research. I think the visual nature of maps and other displays of data will become new tools in explaining the nature of research data. CNET has been using web maps associated with occasional news stories to show interrelationships.

Be it wiki, digg spy, or some yet to be invented mashup tools will define how we look for patterns of data. Heck Frappr is a mashup of taking the Google Map API and location data.

Education will impacted by these advances in collabrative learning in ways I can scarcely imagine. Group projects will likely be the start and individual research papers a close second.

20 years from now a map like this will be as outdated and basic as a static HTML page does today, but now it's a look of the future.

In just over a month the most anticipated film of the year on the web will be released Snakes On a Plane (SOaP). While not exactly high concept it may have the distinction of teaching Hollywood that blogs and the web aren't their enemies, but the future of their marketing and fan base.

Hollywood while embracing flash and graphics loaded sites, still doesn't get the web. But think of how much free advertising and building of a fan base SOaP has been doing long before release.

It's not that everyone in Hollywood is ignorant of the web, it can be argued people such as Kevin Smith, JMS, and David Mackenzie (Don't know the name you soon will in part to Hugh MacLeod) have been using it to their advantage. Kevin blogs on a regular basis, JMS regularly used the web to keep in contact with Babylon 5 fans, and David has a blog about his latest movie.

So I hate to propose you see a film just to get Hollywood's attention about the positive power of the web. But it's true, the best thing the blogosphere and those who use the web daily can do to get Hollywood pay attention is make it a hit. Dare I say it, yes a blockbuster.

To quote a great film maker " I just have to say I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found a kind of spiritual transcendence in the title "Snakes on a Plane". It gives me faith in this bleak Hollyworld that there should be such simple beauty, such direct and uncluttered understanding of the human condition. Snakes, as the great philosophers used to say, on a motherfucking plane."

Marc Gunther says "mass culture isn't so mass anymore. Instead, culture is evolving into a 'mass of niches.'"

and that this "explosion of choice has left us poorer".

Truth is he is wrong, the existance of mass culture is a fairly modern creation of the post-World War 2 age. His whole point of view only is based in a reality created by Mass Media, but the internet is changing us back to a time when local mattered, when niches mattered. Perhaps too many choices can exist, but I suspect it was only so in the Soviet Union. To the rest of us choice = freedom and of that we can never have enough.

For another informative review of Marc's Fortune article consider the good Radley Balko.

PS - My Mother, a former English teacher, might get after me if I don't point this out his use of 'poorer' is bad English. The phrase would have been better stated as "explosion of choice has left us more poor", but then I don't have fact-checkers and editors to catch such a gaff, for shame Marc and the folks at Fortune.

Big Bird in House, yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sometimes schools, just go a step to far.