While not blogging nearly as much as I should of late, I do still read voraciously online. I read blogs on everything from webcomics to tech to social media to screenwriting to skeptics to the inability to punctuate long lists of items in sentences to self-referential references^*.

I’ve always lacked a good way to share the cool things I’ve found. I tried Friendfeed, Shared Google RSS items, and other methods, but they never seem to really work across the board.  So now I’m giving Posterous a try.

From the Using It Wrong department, Posterous is intended to be a central syndication point for content, with the ability to publish to many different streams. I’m just using it’s quick clip/post feature to grab articles and put them online. I’m also going to try and always add a comment, as if I’m sharing something I find interesting it seems like I should at least be taking a moment to explain why.

If you want to follow my stream of shared items, you can find it at my jmoriarty Posterous site, or subscribe to the main Posterous RSS feed.

If you just want to follow the social media items I find interesting, you can follow my social media Posterous items, or subscribe to just my social media Posterous feed.

Hope you like them, and let me know if I miss anything spiffy.

* I want to formally apologize for this sentence. It falls well below my normal standards of butchering the English language.

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Image by hradcanska via Flickr

Last week while I was at the Taser International offices, they said they would be willing to tase me if I wanted to know what it was like. I knew right away I had to try this out, and a quick poll on Twitter confirmed this should happen.

None of my coworkers were willing to give it a try, so I was doing it solo. They were very willing to take pictures and the video below. I was nervous, which they didn’t help by informing me they would be using their top of the line law enforcement X26 model taser. This thing looks all business, and fires two unfriendly looking probes into the target to transmit the electricity. Lucky me, I was gonna get the full show.

I took off my dress shirt so it wouldn’t get punctured by the probes, and put on mandatory protective eyewear just in case a probe went wild. Two people held my arms to lower me down, and one of their certified trainers got ready behind me. That leads into…

Given how some people handle being tasered, I think I did rather well. Not much I can add about the experience that isn’t in the video – very intense, like a massive charlie horse across your entire body.

Image by Moriartys via Flickr

The coin they gave me is pretty slick, and I kept the cartridge with the probes. It really didn’t bother me that much when they yanked them out, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t look at them too closely beforehand. They look like little harpoons.

Why would you get tased?

After it was over they asked if I was an adrenaline junkie since I didn’t really scream or swear. I’m not addicted to adrenaline, but I am addicted to trying new things and having new experiences. Here was a chance to try something everyone knows about but few people have experienced, in about the safest way possible.  Painful, sure, but now I know things about tasers (and myself) that I didn’t know before.

Why did you want to do this?  I can think of a lot of things to do for the experience instead of that.  But that’s my boy.
~ from my mother after seeing the video

I believe life is meant to be lived and explored in all the strange ways you can find it. I love problems that I haven’t solved, and things I haven’t done. I don’t always have an end goal, and often the exploration itself is enough. About the only thing I’m really scared of is losing that interest, and no longer wanting to try anything new.

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oob_pics on Flickr

I’m a long time Improv fan, being a former member of the most excellent Oxymoron’Z Troupe, and a founding member of the Jester’Z Troupe here in the Valley. I haven’t performed in ages, but the topic still nibbles at me, which is what led to my interest in Improv + Social Media.  So I was flattered when I was invited to be a Guest Monologuist for the wonderful Galapagos Improv Troupe’s this coming Saturday.

Galapagos does long form/Harold type improv, so I’ll be riffing on some things from my past and right in front of your eyes they’ll be bringing it to scary, scary life. My improv skills are rusty as hell, but not having any idea what I’m doing rarely slows me down. So if you want to catch some great local comedy, support an awesome local theater, or just want to see me get made fun of for an evening, come check it out!

Where: The Trunk Space – 1506 NW Grand Ave. Phoenix, AZ (map)
When: Saturday, March 6th, 8:00pm
Cost: $5
Evening of Laughter: Priceless
Reusing Old MasterCard Joke: Cliche
Final Item In This List: Thank God

Hope to see you Saturday!

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I just finished listening to an NPR Podcast narrated by Howard Dully.  At the age of 12, Howard was the youngest person to receive an “icepick lobotomy”.  He never spoke about his surgery with his father, or his step-mother who forced it onto him.   Now, as an adult, he tries to understand what happened to him and why.

How could anyone ever think this is a good idea?  How do you come to terms with knowing that part of you who you were was scrambled in your own skull?

It’s not easy to listen to, but riveting.

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If I ever go so nuts I’m fully Tom Cruise Crazy, I hope someone puts me out of my misery and sends me back to Xenu.¬† Fortunately, Jonathan Coulton (of Portal theme fame) has boldly gone where I hope never to go… and wrote a song about being Tom Cruise Crazy.¬† It’s a year + old, but still sadly relevant.

I wish I had some semblance of musical skill so I could even attempt stuff like this.  This guy really has a knack for the absurdly fantastic.

Found via WWdN.

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ABC has an amazing article about Kevin Connolly, who was born with no legs.  He gets himself around on a modified skateboard, and with a Silver Medal in the 2007 X Games he seems more active than most people I know.

He’s also started his own photography exhibit by taking pictures of people who stare at him. ¬† Many of his pictures are posted at therollingexhibition.com¬† and make for some interesting viewing.¬† I’m not sure where the line is between rude starting and just being curious about something different, but as much as Kevin gets stared at I wonder if the difference matters anymore.

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I’m an unabashed fan of Cute Overload, but for some reason I can’t stop watching this baby sheep bouncing on the bed. He comes to the same end I did when engaging in this same activity…

I’d want to get our own baby bed bouncing sheep, but I think it would put our already neurotic Border Collie right over the edge.

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I’m thinking this guy who is dropping trou in local shopping malls to pleasure himself here in Arizona has some holiday-based issues far worse than the Grinch.¬† I mean, I had my share of not getting the present I wanted at Christmas, but it never even entered my mind that this might be a good way to make up for it.

Considering many stores have policies forbidding employees from detaining lawbreakers of any kind, this idiot could be at it until the official mall security captures him (or maybe ID’s him from his videos).¬†¬† I just hope they catch the sick-o before he decides to permanently alter the holiday decorations…

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The truth about the turkey vulture.¬† If reincarnation is the way things work out, I’m totally submitting a request to come back as one of these guys.

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Kettle Chips, which makes some tasty potato action, has a thing they do every year where they sell a sneak preview sample pack of five new flavors they are thinking about offering.  You get a box of usually tasty, always interesting, chips, and a bunch of review/voting cards.  We usually have some friends over, do a sampling, compare notes, and make a silly evening of it.  The theme this year is Fire and Spice.

Last year they had some Atzec Chocolate potato chips which were just the nasty.  But their Thai Spice one just disappeared out of the bag.  Nummy!  Highly recommended if you have an adventurous tongue.

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