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Fellow blogger Lisa Chau came across a fun website called OkCupid which has a neat little test called the The Commonly Confused Words Test. Stop by and take it, I gaurentee you'll learn something. Not perfect, by I'm pleased. I think I messed up on the There / Their part. I always screw that up ;)

Thanks Lisa...

Here are my results:

English Genius You scored 93% Beginner, 86% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 83% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables how you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 30% on Beginner You scored higher than 13% on Intermediate You scored higher than 40% on Advanced You scored higher than 85% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

An interesting case study in one of the most delicious web sites Del.ICIO.US. Have a good read as the author makes some interesting observations about peoples initial "conceptual shift from traditional forms of classification (using fixed taxonomies) to distributed classification schemes (using flexible taxonomies)" being something of a stretch.

i d e a n t: A del.icio.us study

Abstract
Working within the constraints of a very limited data sample, this study attempts to identify some of the information management and meaning construction practices of an online distributed classification (a.k.a. free tagging or ethnoclassification) community. Specifically, this study seeks to investigate the social and communicative practices that emerge when users are encouraged to share web links with one another by using a metadata keyword, or tag, to demark a social group, apart from using other tags to classify links according to an emergent taxonomy.

It looks like Nieman marcus is trying to corner the market on gifts for the person who literally has just about everything.

Check it out here. Make sure you click on the "Fantasy gifts" link on the left hand side of the catalog.

[via: BoingBoing]

If you really want to piss of the person in the cube next to you, give this a try. It's a flash of a sheet of bubblewrap that makes noise when you click on the bubbles.

Well...along with my move to the East Side, I'm thinking it's time that I gave the Epicenter a new look...a new perspective and maybe even a new name. Not sure but I'm thinking about it. I have the mirror site for The Epicenter setup already at epicenter.gregscher.com. It's still under construction, but very shortly I will stop production here...and pick up over at the new address, so stay tuned. In the meantime I will be cross posting these entries. Gotta get the Google score up a bit before the cutover.

In the meantime, I'm thinking of some new names but I'm definately open to suggestions. Here's what I have so far.

- Crossing The Park
- A fish out of water <--- personal favorite
- 2nd Avenue Lines
- Making Waves
- UES Fantasies

Anyone with some other ideas?

Found this a while ago and couldn't believe how ridiculous it was so I had to share it with you so that you could be equally baffled and amused. Who can hold the button the longest? Find out here http://www.holdthebutton.com/ when you have roughly seven days of nothing to do.

Apparently some things in life are free....after a rebate.

Check out Freeafterrebate.info

Seriously folks...I was skeptical also, but its true.

Weblogs Inc., the B2B blog that I write for from time to time, has been covered in the San Jose Mercury News. Here's an excerpt where they talk about two uber bloggers Jason Calacanis and Nick Denton. Jason is the part owner, along with Brian Alvey, of the web property Weblogs Inc. You can find the full article right over here.

In New York City, two entrepreneurs are waging a mini-war to become the best-known operators of niche blogs -- sites catering to relatively small but passionately interested audiences. Nick Denton's Gawker Media (www.gawker.com) runs several popular, advertising-supported blogs including Gizmodo (www.gizmodo.com), which is devoted to gadgets, and Wonkette (www.wonkette.com), which gossips about powerful people in Washington, D.C.

Jason Calacanis, meanwhile, created Weblogs Inc. (www.weblogsinc.com) and is competing with Denton. Calacanis lured the original author of Gizmodo to launch his own gadget site, Engadget (www.engadget.com). Weblogs Inc. hosts about two dozen sites now, including Cuban's.

Business aside, I'm much more interested in the use of blogs for social and political change. One of the most important sessions at BloggerCon looked at blogs in the international context.

According to this link I picked up over at Pariahs blog, my life is R-Rated. I suppose things could be worse ;) Check it out and find out what your life is rated.

My life is rated R.
What is your life rated?

If you were looking for new ways to waste time, check out todays article on the Manhattan Users Guide. The write up today delves into a number of web sites that are notorius for killing brain cells and reducing workplace productivity.

I feel my brain cells fading as wa spake....

If you happen to be stopping by when today has become tomorrow and the link above is no longer today, then here are a few of the links for your amusement.

Name That Candy Bar Cross Section
Disturbing Auctions
Mr. Picassohead
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

and finally...
Bee Cam

Link

Sorry folks, but I couldn't resist this. According to Nature magazine, a prominent
p e n i s (hoping to evade porn spam glut) gives cold-dwelling mammals an edge.

Link Source: Live Curry

Just when you thought it was safe to photograph an item to be placed on sale on E-Bay and not have to worry about letting it all hang out comes ReflectoPorn. They even have their own category on Yahoo.

Check out my post on Kinja.com over on Weblogs Inc.

Looks like the Book of Ages web site has bitten the dust. While it's still accessible, it hasn't been updated since the middle of February and then only with a lame entry about Ashton and Demi. Before that the least entry was late January...and equally lame. I guess Lockhart, Jonathan and Joshua have been two busy with their "fame" to bother with the site anymore. Are they busy at work on a Book of Ages: 40? I hope not. BOA 30 was amusing...but a bit tedious.

This one's for all you geeks out there. Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey, two fellow bloggers and the founders of the Weblogs, Inc. on which I write about a variety of topics including spam, grid, rss, etc... have joined forces with Peter Rojas formerly of Gizmodo to launch Engadget.com

While there is much debate about whether Jason "stole" Peter from Gizmodo, it's really a moot point. Peter made up his own mind to strike out on his own. So more power to him. He's a heck of a writer who gets scoop, so the proof is in the blogging.

Ahhh...gadgets, gadgets and more gadgets.

Vinny over at Insignificant Thoughts.com and I don't see eye to eye on everything, especially politics...yet we really enjoy each others blogs. I guess it's the hard core New Yorker in us. He's the self proclaimed "lone conservative in New York City" and I'm...well...I guess I'm more the liberal. Yeah...I hate those labels. Anyway, that said, we do agree on alot of things, in this case it's baseball, a Universal cause.

With baseball, you either agree or you despise each other and every last shred of what they stand for...in this case, we agree ...whew!!! ... that we both hate the Yankees. Lets face it...politics means nothing...it's all about baseball :)

Check out his most recent post on the fairweather fans that make up a large percentage of Yankee followers. See...thats what I like about Vinny...he calls it the way he sees it. Ya gotta respect that.

Check out this somewhat overly critical yet very funny post on the new Pentax *ist D on a site that I found a few weeks ago called digitalslr.org. I really like this site because I'm a blossoming camera buff myself and Mike's always got some good info on the latest digital gear.

Kudos Mike.

Seriously...how can a company claim to be ?THE OFFICIAL DIGITAL CAMERA OF THE INTERNET?? when no one owns the Internet? Can someone even legally make such a stupid claim?
Even if it's legal, they should be fined for stupidty. But thats just my opinion which is why I love blogging ;)

Everyone listen up. I gotta give a shout out to my man Vinny over at insignificant thoughts. The dude just turned 28 today (my girlfriends birthday was yesterday..Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear S....) but I digress. Insignificant Thoughts is a blog beyond it's years written by a blogger with just as much attitude as I have...sometimes even more...and thats why I like him.

This dude has one of the most controversial blogs going. I've tried to comment on his site a few time, but some right wing conservative zealot always winds up flaming me, so I stopped, but that doesn't mean that I have lost any respect for Vinny and his writing. 10 times out of 10 I respect his opinion...I may not agree with it, but I do respect it because the man knows how to construct a logical argument. Case closed.

So Vinny...Happy Birthday my blogging brutha...and heres to many more years of kick'n ass and take'n names.

A bit odd and rather morbid, but yet intriguing application of a google search. On the other hand...I would hope they back check the facts because I'm sure there could be some libel in there somewhere.

Source: GoogObits: Obituaries and essays augmented by Google searches. There is a lot to learn from the dead.

I just set myself up over on Sitemeter today and lo and behold it seems that lots and lots of people are coming in via Google. These are people who must be expecting to read about earthquakes and what not. If this is you, e-mail me at schergr at gregscher dot com, and tell me why you searched on Epicenter and what you thought of the #3 entry for that search term. Was it what you were looking for?

I think I need to work on changing the google entry...but how?

...so little time.

Not even sure where to begin here but the last few weeks have been so busy that I really just haven't had time to keep pace with the amount of stuff that I want to write about. So, with that said, I figured I'd just put together a short highlight film, in reverse chronological order...sort of like the news in 60 seconds.

Here goes.

- back to work... <sigh> gotta pay the bills
- Phillip Guston at the MET...hmmmmmm
- boarding at Butternut up around Great Barrington, Mass....too much ice on the mountain, not enough real snow!!! Scraped knees
- International Center for Photography, Only Skin Deep...Great exhibit...powerful imagery
- writing for a few new blogs at Weblogs, Inc.... Covering the subjects of Spam, Utility Computing and occasionally Social Networking, feel free to drop by, but be forewarned....you may be bored to death tears.
- the program that I volunteer for, Streetwise Partners, held their graduation the other day and my client graduated from the program. The graduation ceremony was really wonderful....Good Luck Sonja! I know you can do it.
- drinks at Calle Ocho...oooohhh...gotta love those Mojitos
- Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) seminar at the Learning Annex....Craig's great but the Learning Annex sux...the level of discussion was not what I had hoped, but Craig managed to pull it out
- The movie Of Mice and Men, with Gary Sinese and John Malkovich, Malkovich...Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich!!!!?!?!?!?
- boarding up at Killington this coming weekend with the GF and friends

...News at 11

Ok..now we are pretty much caught up. I hope to have some good stories from this years trip, but if you're interested, there are photos from ski trips past over in the gallery.

Man have I been slacking lately with my NYC@Nite reviews. My apologies to all of you. Lately, I?ve had a number of other things going on in the blogosphere in addition to a full-time job and an amazing girlfriend, so my attention, while remaining focused on The Epicenter has needed to give a little some areas. Since 99% of my writing occurs at night or on weekends things have been a bit tight, so I will continue to write these reviews however the may not come as frequently as I originally intended.

So, with that said, why don?t I tell you about those few other things that I?ve been doing lately? I have started doing some writing for two new blogs run by the guys over at Weblogs, Inc., Brian Alvey and Jason Calacanis. These are two very bright and motivated individuals who have a vision for blogging and where it?s going that is quite closely aligned with mine. So I am very pleased to have the opportunity to work them. I encourage you to check out their sites and learn a bit about them, you'll be hearing from them in the future.

Let me tell you right from the start that these blogs are quite unlike The Epicenter as they are very focused on specific areas of technology. So, while they are important subjects, they may not interest all of you.

One of the blogs that I am writing for is on the subject of spam, the site address is http://spam.weblogsinc.com. On this blog I will be discussing the subject of spam from technological (personal and corporate), legal, economic and political standpoints. This is a very compelling subject because it is something that touches each of us rather closely these days. I hope you will drop by and have a look at the site and maybe add your two cents on the subjects that we will be discussing.

The second blog that I will be writing for is on the subject of Utility Computing, the sites address is http://grid.weblogsinc.com. I won?t even get into the details of this site, but if you are the slightest bit interested or curious, I encourage you to check it out.

So, with that out of the way, lets get back to the issue at hand, catching up on the reviews. Next up?.Shalel Lounge.

Stop by and register your votes for the 2004 Bloggies at Fairvue Centrals Fourth Annual Weblog Awards registration site.

Don't forget to VOTE FOR ME!!! ;) Insert gratuitous statements about how amazing the readers of The Epicenter are --> here.

I came across a really interesting and extremly useful site called The Internet Topic Exchange today. In a nutshell, it's an aggregator and entry syndicator for blog posts on specific topics.

The way it works is like this...when a trackback / ping enabled blog posts a new entry on a topic for which the Internet Topic Exchange has a feed, that blog can be configured to send a trackback ping over to the Internet Topic Exchange topic thats been created for that subject matter (e.g. Movies, Spam, New York City, Social Computing). The exchange then syndicates these feeds via RSS for you to download into your RSS Aggregator.

As a result, if you posted an entry in your blog and send a ping to the New York City feed anyone who wants to subscribe to the RSS feed for the New York City topic can view your posts and find your blog.

In a recent development in the fight against Spam, Brad, from the one man Ottowa based band Brad Sucks, has decided to attack Spam in a very creative and amusing way, with parody. We?re not sure who is listening yet, but his MP3?s are up for free on his site and with any luck, and maybe so more posts like this one, he?ll get his gospel out.

Brad is currently working on a compilation of "songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of mass-email (spam)." I personally found the songs, I got your letter (particularly with the cat meowing in the background?instilling images of a sicko middle age cyber stalker) and Look and Feel Years Younger to be the best of the bunch. But that?s just me.

Now, I'm not sure if he's just being funny or if he is serious about his music (different parts of the site lead me to different conclusions), but either way it's somewhat entertaining in a Weird Al, Barenaked Ladies (BNLBlog), Ben Folds - esque sorta way. Well...let me clarify, to place Brad in the class of those guys is certainly to overstate his talent and his ambition, but he's entertaining nevertheless. I think part of what he has going for him is his self deprecating sense of humor, hence the title of his act ?Brad Sucks? and the title to the links section of his music page ?more of my dumb songs?.

I encourage you to check him out over here at Brad Sucks, and let us know what you think.