I am now using a Droid phone.

My whole life is on this device. My “real” email accounts and my “fake” ones – they’re all Gmail accounts and linked on the Gmail app. My phone numbers, credit card information and my real name. Facebook , blogs and tweets. It’s all conveniently tied together and linked to me (within a meter of my actual global position).

Google now has more on me than the United States Government. Comforting in that they’ll probably offer a better franchise, but can I trust them?

Certainly someone at Google has the ability to listen to and record everything I say or write on that phone. Have you used Google’s voice services? It’s no longer necessary to type text messages on a keyboard. Simply push a button and talk – the phone translates words into text and very rarely gets one wrong. This software can easily be programmed to listen all day long and perk up when it hears keywords – like “bomb”, “Jihad” or “Spaghetti Monster”.

I figure there are unlimited dystopian scenarios that arise from such an entanglement with Google. Go ahead and list a few. I have several. Naturally, there are also unlimited Utopian scenarios. List a few, I dare you.

The only way this ends well for me is to accept personal responsibility for my privacy and disentangle my life from Google.

This means I have to learn how to build my own server, host my own email, root my phone and install Linux on my computer. It’s possible, but it’s way harder.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Everyone has one. The one piece of technology that makes it official for you that you’re living in the future. Whether it’s a Roomba vacuum, Skype, the iPhone or something else – there’s something floating around in your mind that, when you see it in real life, you’ll know you’ve reached the future.

For me it’s cloud ships that look like this:

When this flotilla (1500+) of wind-powered spew ships is complete and I can watch them bellow sea water and (presumably) fish guts into the sky, I will have reached the future. One can only hope that the accordion-like stacks will crouch lower and lower as the pressure builds until BOOM! A new cloud is born … to reflect the sun … so the Earth doesn’t get warm.

Clouds are good. Let’s make more.

So, today’s the day we celebrate the plight of alcoholism in the Irish the fun-loving spirit of the Irish with good beer and good friends.

Here’s some factoids from a guy with a bit of the Irish in him:

Over 35 million Americans have Irish blood. But the rest of you are welcome to wear green.

Barack Obama has Irish ancestry. And that’s not a bad O’Bama joke.

Twenty-four American presidents have Irish heritage, including the last nine elected presidents dating back to Kennedy.

Andrew Jackson was our most Irish president — both his parents were Irish immigrants.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in America was in New York City in 1762. Fourteen years later, nine of the signers of the Declaration of Independence could claim Irish heritage.

Killian’s Irish Red is not an Irish beer. It’s brewed by Coors. Don’t be fooled.

If your Guinness is cold, it’s too cold. Proper temperature is 45 degrees. Also known as Irish room temperature.

Skip the corned beef.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, y’all.

And not only that, my sister’s boyfriend wrote the issue! He’s Zeb Wells and he’s mentioned further down in the following excerpt from USA Today:

On Jan. 14, Marvel Comics is releasing a special issue of Amazing Spider-Man #583 with Obama depicted on the cover. Inside are five pages of the two teaming up and even a fist-bump between Spidey and the new president.

“It was a natural after we learned the new president is a Spider-Man fan,” says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada about reports that Obama once collected Spider-Man comics. “We thought, ‘Fantastic! We have a comic-book geek in the White House.’ ”

The White House transition team did not respond to a question about the extent of Obama’s comic-book geekiness, but Obama did mention Spider-Man during the campaign, primarily at children-oriented events. And during an Entertainment Weekly pop culture survey, Obama said Batman and Spider-Man were his top superheroes because of their “inner turmoil.” (John McCain picked Batman.)

In the story by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck and Frank D’Armata, Spider-Man stops the Chameleon from spoiling Obama’s swearing-in. At one point, Spider-Man says he mistook Vice President-elect Joe Biden for the Vulture (a vintage Spider-Man villain).

One thing I can tell you that USA Today didn’t is that the transition team knew that this was going to happen and gave it the thumbs up. I won’t tell you who told me that, but maybe you can guess. :-)

In any event, here’s the cover…

And some inside pages…

Congrats Zeb!

The real fun starts around the 3:45 mark.

Now, let’s remember that this is a Ford.

So the question now…why don’t they sell this one in the states?

Want your Google Reader to look like this?

Then follow Megan’s advice…

Press the “up” arrow twice
Press the “down” arrow twice
Press the “left” arrow once
Press the “right” arrow once
Press the “left” arrow once
Press the “right” arrow once
Press the “b” key
Press the “a” key

This, of course, is the famous Konami code for the Nintendo game Contra that gave you 30 lives at the start of the game instead of 3. That’s why you see 30 displayed everywhere on the left hand side in that screenshot.

By the way, if you want to turn off ninja mode, just do the same sequence and it returns to normal.