Musings For A Darkened Room

A year ago at this time (10:00pm on 10/06/07) Misty and I were sorting through baby clothes and getting the babies room organized following a day of baby shopping…Little did we know that a little over 5 hours later Misty would be wakened by her water breaking.  The events which took place over the twelve hours that followed were some of the scariest moments of my life up to this point.

Wanting to be more safe than sorry Misty and I rushed to Corona Regional hospital both pretty sure her water had broke, but both in a bit of denial about it.  The hospital quickly took her and began an ultrasound and prepped to test to see if her water had in fact broken.  The ultrasound and tests confirmed that her water had in fact broken, and that the babies were ok.  I remember the panic that rushed through Misty and I when we found out.  We both knew that having twins already made the pregnancy a high risk, but the idea that the babies could show up nine weeks early was terrifying.  There had been no complications, serious stress or trauma up to this point.  All of her ultrasounds were fine, all of her stress tests were fine, and if she was having contractions she was never aware of them.  I remember Misty repeating to me, “They’re not supposed to be here yet.  It’s too early.”  Those words have stuck with me as one of the hardest things I have ever heard my wife say.  As it wasn’t until that point that I realized the seriousness of the situation we were in.

Misty remained at Corona Regional under nurses care as they sought out another hospital that had room in their NICU.  Corona Regional does not have a NICU so their facility was out of the question.  They contacted hospital after hospital after hospital, but there was no room.  I was starting to understand how Mary and Joseph must have felt when it came time to have Jesus.  Finally they found an opening, and best of all we wouldn’t have to ride a donkey to get there.

UCI Medical Center had an available opening and Misty and the still unborn babies would be transferred by ambulance later that morning.  At this point they had given Misty some medicine to help 1) stop contractions and 2) stop any pain or discomfort she was in.  A few hours later the ambulance from UCI arrived to pick Misty up and transport her, and both my mother-in-law and my parents were now at the hospital.  Since I hadn’t planned on being at the hospital long I sent my parents back to pick up a few things for when we arrived at UCI, while my mother-in-law and I caravanned down to UCI following the ambulance.

When we arrived at UCI I remember thinking to myself, “Oh my god I am never going to be able to afford this”.  Truth be told I was right…but I’ll save that for another post.  The hospital and the room Misty was in was like no other I had ever been in; top of the line technology, quiet rooms, comfortable rooms.  I remember commenting to more than one of the nurses and doctors that came in and out of the room at how amazing the hospital was.

Hurry Up and Wait

After some more tests and talking with the team of doctors that would be working on Misty it was decided that as long as there was no infection the babies could remain in the womb until they were a little bit older.  Because of their age and size there were risks involved, most specifically the strength of their lungs.  With nothing more to go off of other than that it was now just a waiting game.  We had no idea if Misty would be in the hospital for hours, days, or even weeks.  The fact of the matter was as long as the babies were ok they didn’t have to come out.

The day dragged on and we were all tired, stressed and anxious.  As each hour passed it seemed like Misty’s discomfort increased, contractions were started to look as though the babies were going to have to enter this world earlier than planned.  Finally the decision was made that they would take the babies via c-section since at their weight they could not be delivered naturally.

It’s Time…

I remember the moments leading up to entering the room where the c-section would be performed and my mother-in-law and I were at our wits end.  I knew that at any moment my first two children would enter the world.  But in the back of my mind was the fear that as quickly as they came into this world they could be taken from it.  Those minutes of prep time before the procedure seemed like lifetimes to me, and when they finally whisked me into the room they had already gotten ready to work on Misty.

I watched the whole thing, I can’t describe it to you because it all blurs together in my mind, but I remember there being a lot of blood and I remember it being a lot more violent looking than I had imagined.  They took Aiden first since he was the one whose water had broken.  I remember seeing them pull a baby from her torso and then rushing off into another room…the room was silent accept for the sound of the music that was playing and the commotion of the doctors.  Misty was loopy from the drugs at this point, so much so that I don’t think the impact of what was going on around her really had the impact it had on me.  They then went in for Cambria, this being the more violent aspects of the procedure when it looked as though the doctor was performing a wrestling move on Misty to try and get Cambria to pop out where he could get to her.  She was yanked from her mother’s insides in a matter that looked almost inhumane, but one leg she dangled and then was softly placed in the arms of another doctor who whisked her over to a table just to the right of Misty and I.

The room again seemed silent to me despite the fact I was surrounded by commotion and the sound of the radio still played in the background.  Again no cry like the one’s you always hear in TV and in movies when a baby is born.  They worked quickly over Cambria and their medical terminology kept me from knowing even remotely what was happening with either Aiden or Cambria.  The silence ate at me and the lack of understanding made it feel as though the weight of the world was resting on my chest.  It was hard to breathe, and it was hard to think straight.

The Weight of the World Is Lifted

Finally the silence was broken by a shriek from Cambria.  It wasn’t until that moment that I knew whether or not either of them was alive.  And at that moment it seemed that at least part of the weight was lifted off of my chest.  I knew then, that at least for that moment Cambria was alive and breathing.  After a few minutes we were notified that Aiden was also doing well.  The moments that followed are a bit of a blur to me, the overwhelming emotion that poured over me along with the sheer chaos that surrounded us gives me flashes of moments that followed including seeing both babies and then myself leaving at some point to follow the babies to the NICU.

Once in the NICU the confusion resumed.  They planted me on a stool toward the center of the room and they began hooking the babies up to a number of monitors.  I remember the moments vividly because I remember feeling like I was in the middle of one of those scenes in a movie where everything around you slows, the audio gets muffled and suddenly the only thing moving or reacting in real time was I.  I remember noticing all of the babies surrounding me that were clinging to life.  One in particular was connected to some sort of ventilator that sounded like a portable generator and the vibration from the tube which seemed to engulf the babies face caused the baby to look as though it too were vibrating.  But through all of this all I was thinking was how my babies were here and being hooked to machines like some sort of science project and I had yet to even hold them.

Again my time spent here seemed to take what felt like hours as they hooked up breathing devices, heart monitors, breathing monitors, and a number of other devices to make sure that everything was functioning the way it should.  Again the time here blurs off and on and the story of the day is distorted due to exhaustion, emotion, and the chaos that surrounded their birth.  However this would not be the first time or the last time I would sit in this room unsure as to what exactly was in store.  For the next month Aiden and Cambria would call UCI’s NICU home.

That day was the first of many challenges that I would face in the year to come.  And as I look back on that day I do so with tears in my eyes and a sinking feeling in my gut.  I look back and realize that the two smiling faces that greet me every day when I walk in the door could have been taken from me before they even knew who I was.  I realize just how much we take our life and the time we spend with those we love for granted. I realize that at any moment the serenity and comfort of the every day can do a complete 180 and make a turn for the worst with no warning.

Happy Birthday Aiden & Cambria

Aiden and Cambria on the day they came home, exactly one month later.

I was overflowing with excitement when a friend of mine told me that StephenieMeyer.com had posted the full track list for the Twilight movie soundtrack this morning.  Twilight, the film adaptation of the book by the same name by author Stephenie Meyer is due to hit theaters on November 21 and its soundtrack will hit store shelves on November 4.  The following is the official track list as reported by StephenieMeyer.com:

1. Muse — Supermassive Black Hole
2. Paramore — Decode
3. The Black Ghosts — Full Moon
4. Linkin Park — Leave Out All The Rest
5. MuteMath — Spotlight (Twilight Mix)
6. Perry Farrell — Going All The Way (Into The Twilight)
7. Collective Soul — Tremble For My Beloved
8. Paramore — I Caught Myself
9. Blue Foundation — Eyes On Fire
10. Rob Pattinson — Never Think
11. Iron & Wine — Flightless Bird, American Mouth
12. Carter Burwell — Bella’s Lullaby

The soundtrack of the film has been something of particular interest to me since one of the reasons I started reading the Twilight saga was to create soundtracks for each book.  Inspired by the friend of mine who turned me on to the books and the fact that I thought Stephenie Meyer’s playlist for the books were awful, I have completed soundtracks for Twilight and New Moon and will do the same for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn once I’ve finished reading them.

A few months back I looked on Amazon.com to see if I could find any details on the film’s soundtrack.  At the time they had Stephenie Meyers’ playlist displayed as the soundtrack for the film.  A few weeks later this was taken down and replaced with “Track Listing Coming Soon”.  Since then the only interesting tidbit of soundtrack information to surface was the involvement of Paramore on the soundtrack and the news that they would be contributing two songs written exclusively for the film.

I now see that the most likely reason there hasn’t been a lot of buzz surrounding the films soundtrack until now is probably due to its lackluster track list.  The only thing new the soundtrack brings to the table are the two Paramore tracks, Perry Farrell’s Going All The Way (Into The Twilight), and Rob Pattinson’s Never Think.  Sadly I won’t be running out to purchase the soundtrack on the day of its release the way I will be purchasing tickets for the film.

I just got back from the grocery store and I’m feeling a little ranty here people, so bear with me.  My purpose for this shopping trip was to do nothing more than to feed a craving.  I grabbed a gallon of Dreyer’s Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream for Misty and since I’ve been feeling political lately, a pint of Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream by Ben & Jerry’s for me.  Clearly nothing more than a quick shopping trip.  However, it took a lot longer than I expected.  Sadly, that’s not what upset me.  What upset me was how other people in the store reacted to why it took me so long, including the checker.

I grabbed my two cartons of ice cream and made my way to the checkout.  I noticed when I went to checkout that for some reason almost everyone in the store had lined up at one lane though 2 were open.  I then noticed that the couple in the lane no one was lining up in had two carts worth of stuff.  Since everyone else in the store that was checking out decided that the couple with two full carts of groceries would not be worth waiting behind, I took the opportunity to be the first.

I got behind the couple knowing I’d have a slight wait, but honestly what more was I doing tonight?  Plurking?  Tweeting?  What did I have to lose?  So I sat there and waited like any good grocery store patron would.  By the time the couple had put all of their items on the checkout conveyor a handful of other patrons had lined up behind me.  I had put my two cartons of ice cream on the counter and continued to wait patiently.  At about this time I noticed that the couple also had a large stash of coupons that the female had just pulled out of her pocket.  She then happily greeted the checker with a, “How is your night going?” To which he responded with a look of disgust.  This was the first of many responses to this overall situation that bothered me.

The woman continued casual conversation with the checker who looked less than amused to speak with her and she explained how they were new to the area.  The checker of course had nothing to add to the conversation so the woman turned her attention to those of us waiting in line.  “Sorry everyone!” she called out so that the majority of the line could hear.  The woman behind me sighed, clearly agitated, which drew my attention to her four 24oz cans of Coors Light, Woman’s Day magazine, and half case of water.  Clearly she was on a quick convenience run much like myself.

People have to buy groceries

Picking up on the angry vibe of the other patrons, I decided to chime in with a friendly response to the couple.  “No worries” I said.  At this point the female started presenting her coupons to the checker.  “You’ve gotta eat, and I don’t blame you for trying to save some money in times like these.”  The male responded, “We just moved to the area. So we have to buy everything and start from scratch”.  I felt his pain.  My wife and I just recently moved and had to make a similar shopping trip, though not nearly as large.  The female chimed in explaining that they had just bought their first house.  The checker responded to our conversation with, “I’ve lived in the same house for 29 years”.  An unnecessary comment, but based off of the attitude this checker had I wasn’t THAT surprised.

Through all of this the woman behind me continued to sigh in aggravation, and many of the patrons behind her had since left or remained making snide comments under their breath.

The whole ordeal probably lasted about 15 minutes or more.  Sure that’s a long time, but have we become so impatient as a society that we can’t be courteous to our neighbors who need groceries?  Where else are they supposed to go?  Should they have to break up their shopping trips to convenience you?  Are you really in such a hurry that 15 minutes out of your life means getting so worked up you’re miserable?

Honestly the hag behind me had 4 beers, a woman’s day and some water…at 7:30pm on a Sunday the most her night was going to consist of was Jeopardy reruns, maybe a few pages of the Women’s Day and being drunk.  The checker on the other hand has one purpose, to serve the customer.  Does it matter if they spend $1 or $400 on groceries?  No. What matters is that you do your job and at the end of the day you leave with a paycheck.  If you’re bitter and old and hate your job, you have no one but yourself to blame.  Don’t take it out on those who are trying to further themselves and their situation.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  As a society we need to slow down and enjoy life.  It’s great that we live in a world where almost all aspects of our life are provided to us with near immediate results, but in some situations you just have to wait.  Don’t get mad at someone for trying to survive; for trying to stock their fridge and their pantry.  Have we forgotten the days when we used to greet our neighbors?  Have we become so self absorbed that only we matter and the livelihood of others is worth less than our own convenience?

Stop and think about it people.  It’s no wonder our society is as screwed up as it is.

Those of you who follow me on Plurk or Twitter probably saw my rants recently about the corporate decision to block Plurk.com on our network at the office.  While nothing was officially passed down, I am sure they felt it would help those of us who use it be “more productive” with our day.  The irony of this change is that the decision to block Plurk came shortly after the return of (The Gypsy) David Harry’s SEO Plurkshop; a clique which I frequently reference and pass on links from at the office.  I can understand blocking social sites like Plurk from departments that don’t NEED social media, but does it make sense to block something like Plurk from website marketers?

I get that social media isn’t always a business venture, and I know that those of us in the office that were using Plurk were not doing so on a strictly business basis.  I’ll be the first to admit that my use of Plurk was not always for the harvesting SEO information and news.  However, the time spent on Plurk outside of those tasks was used to develop relationships with others in the industry.  Relationships that have often provided me with useful and relevant information related to my work here in the office.

I think the problem is that most people still don’t understand social media and the value in it.  Sure there is A LOT of random banter and back and forth on social networks, but those interactions are what build relationships.  And out of those relationships you build a network of people who share their knowledge, their information, and their thoughts on subjects that in many cases may inspire your work or even give you a new idea or concept you might have never considered.

When the threat of a plurkless office was brought up a few months back I quickly tried to show the value in social media by openly passing on links and information from social sites that I felt would benefit my colleagues and our clients that I found on sites like Plurk and Twitter.  I would share links 2, 3, sometimes even 4 times a day with information that was relevant to the work we do.  These articles and ideas all came from social media and I would not have been aware of them had it not been for these sites.  There is always someone else out there who follows different people, reads different blogs, or has their own SEO experiences to share, many of which will never show up in your reader or during your personal research.

I feel that social media and website marketing go hand in hand.  I am a strong believer that social media can change the way businesses interact with the general public and other businesses in ways never imagined.  I also believe that the diversity of ideas, points of view, and information provided on social networks is a great way to help businesses and marketers alike stay on top of their industry and build a network of resources often lost in the sea of information on the internet.  Sure, social media might take a few minutes away from client work off and on throughout the day, but I think that the overall rewards outweigh those few minutes of “productivity” that are lost.  By blocking sites like Plurk in a marketing environment you are separating yourself from another avenue of valuable information that might not only benefit your employees, but often your clients.

Though I finished the book over a week ago, and created the actual mix on 16th I have yet to provide a full track listings for my New Moon soundtrack.  New Moon is the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, and continues the adventures of Bella Swan a teenager in Forks Washington who has fallen in love with a vampire.

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the reasons I started reading the series was because I wanted to create soundtracks to the books.  As I finish each book I will create my interpretation of what the soundtrack to the book would be.  I will list a complete track listing here on my blog, and will compile a “mixtape” version of the soundtrack, with as many tracks as I can find, on Mixwit.com.

Regular readers and friends will tell you that many of my mixtapes are lyrically driven.  This applies to these mixes as well.  The majority of the tracks you will find in my Twilight mixes will feature lyrics or themes that somehow tie in to different parts of the book.  I was able to capture all of the New Moon soundtrack on Mixwit, except for Death Lies Bleeding’s cover of The Cure’s A Forest.  However you can find 30 second samples of the track off of the Cure tribute album 100 tears on places like Amazon.com or CD Universe.  I hope you enjoy this mix as much as I enjoyed creating it.

New Moon Soundtrack

1. All Time Low - Running From Lions
2. Blutengel - No Eternity
3. Death Lies Bleeding - A Forest
4. The Birthday Massacre - Black
5. Stabbing Westward - What Do I Have To Do?
6. The Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
7. Bullet For My Valentine - No Control
8. Secondhand Serenade - Suppose
9. Rise Against - Blood To Bleed
10. Lullacry - Love, Lust, Desire
11. In This Moment - He Said Eternity
12. HIM - Right Here in My Arms

As some of you regular readers and friends will know I have an extensive collection of online mix tapes, nearly 50 created to date.  You’ll probably also know that some close friends of mine have surrounded me with the craze of the Twilight Saga.  I fought the craze for a while, but then when I found out the author had created a playlist for a book I was intrigued.  Then when I discovered that a close friend had created her own soundtrack to the book I became that much more intrigued.  I finally gave in and decided to read the books on the premise that I would also create my own soundtrack for each book as I completed it.  Earlier this week I finished the first book in the series, Twilight.  I had originally hoped to use my favorite mixtape site Mixwit to generate a soundtrack that I could share, but sadly I couldn’t find all of the songs I wanted to use.

Most of the songs I felt capture emotions from the story and parts of the storyline really well lyrically.  A couple of them were used solely based on the feel of the song and pieces of lyrics.  But I tried to pick songs that were lyrically driven since that’s how many of my mixes are created.  I hope to eventually be able to present this in a full audio format, but for now this is the best I can do. I’ve put together a Twilight Mix on Mixwit which includes all of the tracks that I could find, and I have listed a full track list below. Since Beautiful Danger by Kirsty Hawkshaw was not available through Mixwit I have linked to the Last.fm page where you can listen to the whole song.  Sadly I was unable to find an alternate source for You Are Familiar by Secret and Whisper.  Regardless I hope you enjoy!

1. Ludo - The Horror Of Our Love
2. Enigma - Gravity Of Love
3. Kirsty Hawkshaw - Beautiful Danger
4. Secret and Whisper - You Are Familiar
5. Evanescence - Listen To The Rain
6. In This Moment - When The Storm Subsides
7. Flyleaf - All Around Me
8. Plumb - Always
9. The Cure - This Twilight Garden
10. Juliana Hatfield - Close Your Eyes
11. Nine Inch Nails - We’re In This Together
12. Matchbook Romance - You Can Run, But We’ll Find You
13. Thrice - The Red Death
14. I Am Ghost - This Is Home

UPDATE 10/06/08:  I have posted the Twilight Soundtrack here for those of you whoe are looking for the official movie soundtrack.

It seems like everywhere you turn these days companies are trying to “go green” and make their product “all natural”. And while I applaud the efforts that are being made, I feel that a lot of programs and a lot of green living advice goes undiscovered. As consumers we are lead to believe that reusable grocery bags, CFL’s, organic products, and hybrid cars are all there is to help make a better tomorrow. But one important factor that most people aren’t aware of is the value in choosing local farms and suppliers when we buy our groceries.

When you buy locally there are a few advantages. First, you cut back on the amount of pollution caused by transportation of the item. Many items we buy are shipped from all over the U.S. and the rest of the world through various forms of transportation. Local products do not travel as far, if at all, and therefore do not have the same impact that a national supplier may have. Buying locally also helps stimulate your local economy. You are contributing to jobs and the welfare of people who live in your community. And finally, in the case of produce, you get a fresher product. If a fruit or vegetable doesn’t have to be trucked across the country it’s going to be a lot fresher when you get it.

How Can I Find Local Products?

There are a few ways to find out what’s available in your area. First, and probably the easiest, would be to check with your local grocery store. See if they know if any of their products or produce are from a local farm or vendor. Another option would be to go to a grocer that you know specializes in holistic living or local farming. Henry’s Farmers Market, which is the store I frequent, actually labels local products and produce. In fact the chain has devoted itself to helping support local growers and suppliers. Another grocer, Whole Foods Market has become a very big name in the holistic community and offers a number of organic and sometimes local products.

Farmers Markets

Another way is to support local growers and suppliers directly through farmers markets. Farmers Markets are often held on a regular basis in communities and they are a direct connection between farmers and the public. They are great way to not only get fresh produce, but another great way to support your local community and the environment.

Community Supported Agriculture

But perhaps the most interesting way of supporting local growers and suppliers is through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA allows people to invest in small farms through a subscription or membership and in turn they receive a weekly or monthly delivery of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, meats, or any sort of different farm products. Again this provides you with fresher food since it comes straight from the farm. You also save a substantial amount of money on produce because you remove the middle man from the business. You pay the farm directly and don’t deal with the price hike you see at grocery stores. Finally you decrease your impact on the planet. Smaller local farms tend to use fewer chemicals on their crops and often use organic farming practices. They also grow a smaller amount of crops because they have a more predictable number of consumers to sell to, which cuts back on packaging and on wasted crops.

For more information on farmers markets in your area and Community Supported Agriculture, visit LocalHarvest.org. There you can search for farms and farmers markets in your area. You can also get more information on Community Supported Agriculture and farms in your area that you can help support.

A few months back I was turned on to Mixwit while browsing through my reader one day.  Prior to reading a blog post about it, I was unaware that sites like Mixwit even existed. Mixwit is a media mash up platform that allows users to create unique “mix tapes” that can have completely customized skins and add tracks from Skreemr and Seeqpod by default, or they can provide tracks from an outside site that hosts MP3’s.

The site which originally allowed you to only create a mix and share it with friends via various outside social platforms such as Facebook or Myspace, took a step to make itself more social in late July when it added friend/fan capability.  I quickly added my few real life friends that were using the service, but following the addition of some outside fans I realized that the Mixwit site was severely lacking in something; the ability to communicate with other mixers.

Following the closure of Muxtape I gained a couple of new fans on Mixwit following a comment I made in one of Michael Wiegand’s plurks about alternative services to Muxtape.  The downside is that Michael and I aren’t friends outside of Plurk.  I have no way of sharing my thoughts on his mixes unless I go on Plurk and tell him.  This troubled me a bit because I really enjoyed a couple of his mixes.  So late last week I shot a quick note to Mixwit using their feedback page with the following, “I love your service I use it almost daily to trade mixes with a co-worker.  But I was thinking that it would be cool if you could leave comments on peoples mixes.  Obviously they should be able to be moderated, but I thought it would be kinda cool.  Just my thoughts…”.  I was excited to find a response in my e-mail on Saturday from the Mixwit co-founder Radley.  The response read, “it’s something we have planned to release soon…”  If this is true and they follow through with this we will soon have the ability to add comments to other people’s mixes, which I think will add a totally great element to the service.

I can only hope that “soon” in terms of upgrades to their service runs in a similar fashion to replies to their feedback since Radley’s response was VERY timely.  If you haven’t checked out Mixwit I highly recommend it.  I’ve created over 40 different mixes with varying themes and probably won’t stop until people stop listening to them or the site pulls the plug.  Feel free to check out my mixes.

Content writing advice blogger Jeremy Rivera shared a story with me this morning which seems to have pretty much flown under the blogosphere radar undetected. Yesterday, Internettrees.com became the center of a controversy on both Sphinn and Twitter on the basis that the concept of the site was immoral. The site offers to plant a live tree to help restore damaged forests and a virtual tree in the form of a link on their site for a donation of $2 ($1 for each tree). The controversy? The second dollar clearly isn’t a charitable donation and thus winds up in the owners pocket. This has lead many to believe that this is all just a way to make money and not really about the charity. I say, who cares?

Let’s be honest here the concerns people have brought up about the fact that profit is being made off of what is posed as a charity are warranted. But at the same time IT’S ONLY $2! And are we forgetting that you are getting something in return? You get a link back to your website AND you help the planet that we live on. Nobody is losing here people! So what if this guy is making a little bit of money, at least he’s doing it in a way that benefits the environment.

Some will argue that if you’re trying to help the environment why not do so directly through the Arbor Day Foundation? Well, because the Arbor Day Foundation isn’t going to give you a link, and let’s face it, most of the people going to this site are not doing so because they are hoping to plant a tree. Furthermore, a number of the people who would buy a link probably wouldn’t think to donate to this cause. In this instance the site capitalizes on those who seek out links while benefiting their charity of choice. So again I ask you, what is there to lose?

An additional concern that Jeremy brought up in his post that wasn’t part of the original debate was what kind of stance Google would have on a site that is essentially selling links. And honestly I think they are going to look the other way on this one unless someone makes a big stink about it. First off they are not promoting the site as a site that sells links. They are simply providing a link to those who donate. The site is also trying to direct its efforts towards bettering the planet, and Google is clearly an eco-friendly company.

The biggest kicker about all of this is the fact that this site and the stories related to it were so quickly shot down by various outlets. Sphinn.com quickly took down the site saying that it was no relevant to SEO. Then Jeremy’s post which was sphunn was also taken down, followed by the debate that continued on twitter after the bashing on Sphinn. There are bigger fish to fry and I don’t think that slamming a guy who is trying to provide a means to sustain the environment while making a couple bucks is really who you should be attacking. How about the spammers, hackers, and various other internet scammers that aren’t providing anything of value through their sites or services? If you’re helping the environment who doesn’t profit from it? It’s one more way to sustain a greener planet for generations to come.

Pizza Hut sent out an apology letter today following a mass e-mail that mistakenly left it’s servers Wednesday.  The e-mail which was sent to the chains current e-mail subscribers list, offered a sports promotion of 2 Medium pizzas, 1 one-topping and 1 specialty or up to 3 toppings. The e-mail was apparently sent during some testing that the pizza delivery chain was doing to better their e-mail functionality. In the apology Pizza Hut says, “It was not theintent of Pizza Hut for this email to besent to you. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused. We value your relationship with us and understand that communicating with you via email is a privilege not to be taken lightly. We have identified the cause of the mistake and have taken steps to make sure this does not happen again.”

In addition to the apology Pizza Hut mentions an update to their privacy
policy in the e-mail. However, whether or not the update was in relation to the
accidental e-mail is unclear. My question is, where’s my free pizza? And do you
suppose they will start offering spam on their pizza’s?