If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

…At least from me.

I am sorry to say we are shutting down everyone’s favorite site, Villager With Wheel.

Bottom line:

1. I recently started a small business and haven’t had much time
2. I was the only one blogging since April
3. I’ve created a new blog with other members of my family using Multi-user Wordpress

I’ll probably leave this domain up for a while, until I decide what to do with it.

In the future, I will be blogging at:
http://n.sandell.me

Zach has a new domain, although I’m not exactly sure if he will be blogging. He can post an update if he wishes.

ACOM and Electronic Vagrant will continue to be lazy and not attempt to improve their writing skills by providing you readers with content. To express your displeasure, please e-mail them at:

• ev at villagerwithwheel dot com
• acom at villagerwithwheel dot com

Thanks for reading for the past almost year. Feel free to continue to follow my writings and anything Zach has going on.

-Elroy

Now that I am married, I feel like I can say things I didn’t really feel comfortable saying when I was single.

I like cats.

There, I said it.

Lots of guys aren’t man enough to admit that they like the little furry creatures. Some think it is weak to like cats because the (unfounded) belief that they are inferior to dogs. I’m not sure why. Have you ever seen a cat and a dog fight? Well, me neither. But, I bet if we went to YouTube and looked it up, we would see cats winning a large majority of the time.

Is it because cats lick themselves (and each other) to stay clean? Cleanliness isn’t masculine? Next are you going to tell me that women were meant to stay in the kitchen because they have small feet?

Is it because a cat’s meow melts a little piece of a man’s heart? Not mine, clearly, because I have few emotions. The ones I do have mainly involve lifting weights and grunting.

As far as I’m concerned, icanhascheezburger was the original and ihasahotdog is a less cute imitation. People don’t say LOLdog speak.

I think the time has come for guys to admit that cats aren’t so bad after all. You’ll feel better when you stop lying to yourself.

Although I do not work in the online social media world, I follow it closely thanks to FriendFeed and Twitter (when it is up).

This morning, my wife read Jeremiah Owyang’s post on Social Networks for all kinds of folks. He didn’t list AARP’s Online Social Community, so she left a comment about it. The comment hasn’t been posted. I’m not sure why.

Besides the point, soon after joining AARP’s community, which accepts everyone but focuses on the 50+, she received a friend request.

I don’t know how many people participate in AARP’s online community, but I feel like M. Rogers is to AARP what Facebook Gangsta is to Facebook. He has 414 friends and 488 testimonials. I’ll go out on a limb and say that is a lot for this community. Don’t get me wrong, there are almost 40 million AARP members, but I doubt many of them can spell internet.com.

Back to M. Rogers. I’m sure he’s a great guy, loving father, kind husband, but his profile page kinda scares me.

Maybe it is just the concept of my mother on a social network that I find odd (she is an AARP member, but not part of their community). Hey, don’t get me wrong, everyone needs a social network (according to Jeremiah’s post, even dead folks). It is probably just the profile pictures of old people that I can’t help but laugh at.

(Sorry Mom)

Tomorrow is my last day with my current employer.

I say this definitively even though I just got off the phone with someone at said company asking me to stay another week.

Although I won’t know if I am starting my new job until this weekend, it is a risk I am willing to take to not miss a week of the new project. I have my reasons and I’ve convinced myself they are correct.

I only gave a little over one week notice to my employer, who told my current client the next day. That gives everyone involved one week. I don’t even really care about the fact that Monday was a holiday, because I have already completed my assigned tasks for this week, so I am not leaving them incomplete work, at least in one area.

I’m a consultant, so when I signed on the dotted line, I knew that my “at will” contract stated I could be fired at any time. Conversely, I could quit without any notice.

When my soon to be former coworker called me and said that, “in her world” people don’t leave without two weeks notice and then tries to guilt trip me into staying an extra week, should I feel bad and say ok?

They could have let me go the same day I told them I was quitting. Then I would have been left without a job until my new one started.

With all of the consulting-type “at will” contracts, do people actually give two weeks notice anymore (non-executives)? I realize it is common courtesy to give your employers ample time to transition, but in this day and age with cell phones, e-mail, IM, and such, is a former employee really that far away?

I doubt people want to burn bridges in a professional environment.

I’ve probably said too much already, but please let me know if you think I am in the wrong in the comments….

Thanks to the price of oil going up, grounding of planes, and a so-called worsening economy, American Airlines will now be forcing more idiots through airport security.

How will they do that with reduced flights and employee layoffs?

In an effort to create profit, they have instituted a $15 fee for checking your first piece of luggage. While many airlines (including American) charge to check a second bag, usually $25, this is the first time an airline will be charging to check the first. Other passenger fees related to unaccompanied minors and pets will also be increasing.

Seeing as how most many people don’t know how to go through airport security today, imagine what will happen when all those cheap folks trying to avoid baggage fees try not to check luggage for possibly the first time in their lives.

TSA will have a field day. They will be searching all the clueless grandmothers (old people are penny pinchers) and bumbling foreigners (would get picked on regardless) who don’t know how to put their 3 ounce or less liquids in a 1 quart bag. 3-1-1 anyone?

I won’t get into a rant about how terrible TSA is (I literally saw an 80-year-old grandmother being patted down at the Dayon airport last week) because this is really AA’s fault.

When you walk into terminal three at O’Hare, you will feel the stupidity from the travelers and the contempt from TSA like a cloud ready to strike ignorance bolts.
I don’t even want to go to Dallas-Fort Worth, AA’s main hub. It will be complete chaos.

When all the rest of the airlines follow suit and try to avoid bankruptcy for the second or third time, good luck traveling. Even if you pay the $15 to check a bag, you will still have to deal with all of the people that didn’t pay.

Hopefully, TSA will get smart and create separate security lines:

1. Frequent travelers who don’t check bags
2. Travelers who did check bags
3. Idiots

I’ll probably be going to Nashville the week this policy goes into affect and possibly flying American, so I’ll let you know how it goes…

I realize how much I have talked up Twitter in the past, but today I am going to discuss a (potentially) more interesting social service:

FriendFeed

I use Twitter mainly to receive information, news, links, and content that I am interested in (tech and online social media). I only know a few of the people I follow in real life. Most of my friends aren’t that social on the web or just plain refuse to sign up for things (ACOM - only Villager without a widget dedicated to him on the blog sidebar).

FriendFeed is basically a lifestreaming service that aggregates content that you create or share around the web (see the post below by Jeremiah Owyang for a better description). It currently has 35 services available. It also integrates community aspects by allowing people to “Like” other people’s content or comment. It is still in the early adopter stage, but if you like the content shared by those early adopters, it can be very entertaining and informative. Side note - I use Twhirl to monitor both Twitter and FF.

Information or discussion on FriendFeed:
About FriendFeed
LouisGray.com
Some Conversations Have Moved to FriendFeed - Jeremiah Owyang

A couple competitors:
SocialThing! - LetsProve

Using the “Imaginary Friend” feature, you can track any of the 35 services for people who aren’t signed up for FriendFeed. I realize that asking my friends to sign up for FriendFeed is a bit much, since I’ve seen basically zero action towards Twitter. So, I have been setting up my real-life-people-I-know-in-th e-flesh friends as imaginary FriendFeed friends.

For more information on the uses of the imaginary friend feature:
Micro Persuasion - Using Friendfeed’s Imaginary Friends as a Master Aggregator

Here’s an example of one of my imaginary friends, a co-worker: Depasta

I’ve also added the rest of the Villagers as imaginary friends (ACOM is the weakest social web person I know).

If you already are on FriendFeed, I can be found at: elroy

If you aren’t on FriendFeed and use any of the services in the screenshot in this post, feel free to post your username(s) for the service(s) in the comments or e-mail me so I can start stalking you on the web.

Thanks to Disqus, our comment provider, and Seesmic teaming up, you can now leave video comments on Villager With Wheel.

For more info on this partnership, read this, this, or this.

I know, I know, you are all excited…all three of you who read this blog outside of its authors.

Out of the three of you, we’ll be lucky if one of you has a webcam.

Ed, I’m really pulling for you to leave the first video comment.

I’m not too proud to leave video comments on my own posts….(yes I do have a webcam)