General and Random Posts

When You Abuse Vulnerable People in Your Care

It’s hard for me to think of anything that bothers me more than when someone abuses a person who is unable to speak for them self or won’t be believed. Especially when they have accepted a job where they are supposed to care for that person.

The video above is so disturbing (story). A 10 year old special needs student is verbally and physically abused by two teacher’s aides. One aide twists the student’s arm violently, tells him that there “isn’t enough Jesus to fix you” and – most shocking of all to me – strikes him directly in the face as the other aide restrains him.

Twitter Introduces a Block Feature I Can Actually Use: Mute

Twitter Introduces a Block Feature I Can Actually Use: Mute

The only time that I have ever used Twitter’s block function is when reporting spam (because they force you to block the person you are reporting). Beyond that, I have never used it.

The reason is simple: if your block feature tells people that I’ve blocked them, I’m not using it.

It’s Time to Get Back to Writing Here

It’s Time to Get Back to Writing Here

10 years ago today, on April 27, 2004, I launched this site under the pokeefe.com domain name. On July 7, 2007 (07/07/07, I always loved good dates), I moved it to patrickokeefe.com and converted it from Nucleus CMS to WordPress (thanks again Chrispian).

Somewhere along the way, I became too “busy” to write here. Busy just means that I chosen not to make it a priority. Everyone is “busy” – we just do what we most want to do. You can probably take it back to the end of 2010, though I did write several posts of length here in 2011. But it was quiet for much of that year… and 2012… and 2013… and 2014, thus far.

Please Update Your patrickokeefe.com RSS Subscription

Thank you for visiting my personal blog. This is a special message for those who subscribe it through RSS.

Until now, I’ve used a service called FeedBurner to serve my RSS feed. Unfortunately, there have been some ominous signs that the product is not receiving adequate attention, leading to questions about its reliability.

I wanted to address this before it is a real issue and, as such, have moved my RSS feed to another provider. To that end, I would like to ask you to please delete your old subscription and subscribe to my new feed URL, which is at http://feeds.patrickokeefe.com/patrickokeefe.

Happy Holidays! (and Thank You)

thank you thank you
Creative Commons License photo credit: nyoin

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has really supported me in 2011. This is decidedly unspecific, but I suspect that you know who you are.

Thank you to all of my loyal, close friends. That’s a small group. You know who you are.

Thank you to everyone who has been genuinely kind to me. I hope that I have thanked you all individually throughout the year. I mean it.

Thank you to everyone who shares my work and uses it to build a better business or online community. Your success helps to validate my work and I appreciate it.

I hope that you have a great holiday season and a happy, healthy and successful 2012.

I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be a really interesting year. I’m ready. Let’s get it.

Amazon Kindle Fire Review: I Love It

Disclaimer: I am a long time Amazon.com customer, which has led to me becoming a huge fan of the company and a shareholder. I just wanted to get that out of the way, up front.

I really love the Amazon Kindle Fire.

I would estimate that I am safely spending more than an hour every day on it and, more often than not, multiple hours, just depending on what my day is like.

There is a lot of video watching. I’m currently working my way through “My Name is Earl,” every episode of which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers. I also have been playing a bunch of games. “Night of the Living Dead Defense” and “Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips HD” are among my current favorites.

The End of Harry Potter

I’m a fan of the Harry Potter series. Today, I watched the final movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.”

When I think about things like this, what I tend to think of most is the passage of time. I wasn’t a fan early. I got into it in the early 2000s and the second, and maybe the third, book had already been released. My brother Sean was a fan first and that’s how I picked it up.

In 2000, Sean turned 11. I turned 16. My youngest brother, Trent, turned 2. Now, all of us love the series and we went to see the final film together. I’m 26, Sean is 22 (and heading to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to start his third year of college, and first away from home, in just 6 days) and Trent is 13. So, that’s what I think most of. Being kids and now being adults (and a teenager) and the time we spent together. I always marvel at the passage of time.

Music Video: “Otis” by Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Otis Redding

I pre-ordered the deluxe edition CD of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s new album, “Watch the Throne.” I expected to have to wait for it to arrive to check out the album, but I didn’t realize that buying a ticket for the “Watch the Throne” tour entitled me to a digital, standard edition copy of the album.

My favorite tracks on the record are “No Church in the Wild,” “New Day,” “That’s My B****” and “Otis.” They just released the visual for “Otis” and I like it a lot. Just Jay and Kanye having fun.

Happy Holidays!

We’re nearing the end of 2010 and so I wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season and a happy, healthy and successful 2011!

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported me this year. This includes the people who enjoy my websites, who like my writing and share it with others, who regularly read my sites and those who provide me with encouragement and inspiration. I really appreciate you.

As always, I have a lot of different plans and things I want to accomplish this winter and in the new year. Wish me luck. I wish you the best of luck in accomplishing your objectives.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Patrick

I Won Nick or Treat!

When I was growing up, Nickelodeon was probably my favorite TV station. I loved the channel and still do. It’s a highly memorable part of my childhood.

When I was at IZEAFest last year, I had an animated and highly enjoyable conversation with Ryan P. Thompson about old Nick shows like “All That,” “Doug,” “Kenan & Kel,” “Rocko’s Modern Life” and more. That conversation continued on Twitter where, somehow, I brought up that I had won Nick or Treat.