Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

Current | Archives

Saturday, February 11, 2006

U.S.A. 3 Japan 2

US v. Japan in San Francisco: Painted Fans
Originally uploaded by earthdog.

I went to the U.S.A. v. Japan soccer friendly on Friday Febuary 10th. I have never been to a high level soccer game before. That might be one of the reasons the San Jose Earthquakes have moved from San Jose to Houston. This was a work outing. I am not sure I would have gone on my own.

The match was at SBC Park. I wonder if this is going to be the last event there before they change the name again. SBC Park is not a bad place to see a soccer game. Our seats were in the left field bleachers. We were pretty close to the goal. It was cool to see the action from behind the goal.

Soccer is pretty exiting live. I have tried to watch it on TV before, but it just seemed boring. It had to be a really good match for me to sit there for 90 minutes. Seeing it live you could feel the tention. Where there was a break away toward the goal you thought that anything could happen. The low scores helped add to the tention. Any goal would change the feeling of the game. I have never seen this on television.

If the U.S.A. national team comes back to San Francisco I would go to see them again. I am also willing to watch the world cup on TV this year. It might be cool to watch at a World Cup party or a bar. I am not saying that I am becoming a soccer fan. I am just saying that it is worth my time.

- Rich, 11:39 PM

Friday, February 10, 2006

Not to be lost

Bob Pence left a comment on my blog. I did not want the comment to be lost.

#1 Feb 09 2006, 08:43 pm


I've been trying to formulate a description of the central problem with East-West interaction for a while. I've been leaning toward insisting that we must not tolerant intolerance, which has obvious weaknesses. My latest insight:

They must tolerate tolerance.

The individualism of the West must spread for this to work, frankly. It is a problem when it is not enought to be virtuous, when you must insist that everyone around you be virtuous by your definition. A Christian may exercise virtue by not pulling into the local adult book store. If a Muslim will not be satisfied until the store itself is burned down, well, this is a problem.


Bob Pence [email] [homepage]

The last time I saw Bob we talked about Islam. It seems to be something that he thinks about a great deal. I think this commet was good enough not to be lost.

- Rich, 12:05 AM

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Muslims cartoon protests

I have been thinking about the cartoons that sparked the Muslim protests. I understand how the cartoons would upset Muslims. It is a major offence to insult Mohammad. There are traditions to never depict Muhammad at all.

My problem is that I believe in free speech. Free speech and freedom of the press are the most important freedoms anyone can have. Without these freedoms all other freedoms are useless. There is no way to comment about what is going on. That is why it is important.

I have heard some arguments about free speech not being absolute. I heard arguments saying there are responsibilities that go along to those freedoms. I have heard that respect for religion is just as important as free speech. I do not like any of these arguments.

The hard thing is about censorship is worrying about who is in charge of the censorship. You might like the person who is in charge of the censorship today, but someone else is in charge tomorrow. I am worried today people are upset about cartoons and tomorrow I cannot state my option. I guess I am a big free speech person because I am a blogger.

Links about this: wikipedia cartoons, cartoons, Brussels journal, L.A. Times.

- Rich, 7:57 PM

SV Bloggers Meetup: The Expression

SV Bloggers Meetup: The Expression
Originally uploaded by earthdog.

Elkit and Ealasaid wrote about our blogger meetup last night. What I remember about last night was:

• If Kevin Bacon was Stalin all of Hollywood was empty.
• I would not make much money with ads on Sad Salvation
• Everyone Knows Courntey P.
• We switched tables three times and seats countless times
• All of the South Bay Bloggers currently have jobs.
  

- Rich, 2:07 PM

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

laws v. technologies

Here is an interesting question, Is Slingbox illegal? I find this to be an interesting question. I think we will have more questions like this to come. Lots of broadcast rules we have right now are connected to location. Will the rules change or will the technologies be limited?

- Rich, 3:09 PM

Monday, February 06, 2006

What is my Blog worth?

I found this website that says my blog is worth over $6000. It just does not tell me over what time period. Is that per month, year, decade? I also do not have any clue how to cash in on this value.

I have been thinking about signing Sad Salvation for an ad program. I just do not know if it will be worth the money or not. If it could get me six grand in a year, I would be willing to do that. That would get me a camera.

My blog is worth $6,774.48.
How much is your blog worth?

- Rich, 10:47 PM

The best photo I have taken

Buzz's new profile pic
Originally uploaded by courtneyp.

I think this might be the best photo I have ever taken. My only problem is that I took it with someone else's camera. I know that my camera would have never got this shot. This is just adding to my SLR lust.

- Rich, 12:06 AM

Sunday, February 05, 2006

What does blogging mean

A few days ago I was listening to Forum on KQED, the local NPR station do a show about political blogging. They talked a lot about political blogging. All of the callers and most of the bloggers seemed dismissive of personal bloggers. The bloggers kept on referring to personal bloggers at people who like posting photos of their cats. They talked about personal bloggers like they are at best boring and at worst totally egotistical.

I have noticed that political and news blogs are the only blogs that get attention in the media. The reason for this is because these blogger are competing for the news media. The media never talks about what is happening with personal blogging. I am not sure they can see why it is important.

I think there is something happening with personal blogs. People are changing the way they are communicating. I am not sure who is going to read this entry. I am not sure who I am writing for. What I know is that anyone who wants will be able to read it. I know that millions of people are doing the same thing at this very moment. I know that I will not be alone, but I might get lost.

I love blogging because someone get try to get to know me through reading Sad Salvation. It is not all of me, but there is a Rich Thomas Sad Salvation Persona that people can get to know. If you add that to the Rich Thomas Earthdog Flickr Persona you can know even more of me.

I believe that no one will remember what was written on Political blogs, famous blogs, technology blogs, or business blogs 200 years from now. When the Ken Burns movie of this era is made 2000 years from now they will be reading from personal blogs. Personal Blogs will be what is read over the photos of this time. This will be seen as a dawn of a new age because of what our grandchildren do with personal blogs.

- Rich, 9:40 PM

Blog Sweeps Week Draws to an end.

I usually average about 350 readers a week. At the end of Blog Sweeps Week I have 535 readers. It looks like everything I did still did not move the needle very much. I know that this week was not all that different from an average week on Sad Salvation. Most of my google searches have been for things that people already find my blog for, Airplane Songs, madden drinking game, Sad Pictures.

I like the guest bloggers the most. I think they really added something to my blog. I hope I will find reasons in the future to have guest bloggers. If anyone still wants to guest blog, I would be happy to have you.

The final stats:

Average Per Day - 76
Last Hour - 4
Today - 84
This Week - 535

- Rich, 8:05 PM

Sad Photos

Down
Originally uploaded by earthdog.

One of the biggest Google searches that people find Sad Salvation with is sad pictures. For years I did not have any sad pictures on my blog. This search has never stopped, so I decided I had to post some sad pictures. I even started a flickr set for sad people pictures. I wanted to post this during blog sweeks week because it is something that drives my hits.

- Rich, 7:42 PM

Current | Archives

Contact me