Colbert's Lightsaber; Practice Splog; Corporate Blogs; Ego Surfing; WATIV

A few things:

• These Stephen Colbert Green Screen Challenge entries are awesome! For instance, check out this Colbert/OK Go mashup:

• My friend SSMW and I are trying to convince a friend of ours to start a blog in conjunction with her proposed on-line soup-selling business. She was skeptical, so I made her a pretend soup blog (splog) to try to convince her.
• Speaking of blogging and selling things, you think this is only for people sitting around in their jam-jams? Au contraire, Pierre! Here is a woman named Debbie Weil, who wrote a book about how to start a corporate blog. And of course, she has a blog herself.
• I liked this article from the front page of the Chicago Tribune today: Ego Surfers Count Their 15 Seconds of Cyberfame. Excerpt: There is even a term--ego surfing--to describe the phenomenon of people who constantly monitor for new responses to comments posted on a message board, or who check over and over to see how many viewers have logged onto their photo display at Flickr.com.This infatuation over one's standing in the digital age is an outcropping of the most unique and basic attributes of the Internet--its ability to count. It is also a reflection of how the Web has evolved into a culture in which participation is encouraged and opinions matters.
• This will be an interesting CD: Baghdad Music Journal by WATIV. WATIV is William A. Thompson IV. Mr. Thompson is an active duty national guardsman in Iraq. All About Jazz excerpt: My name is William A. Thompson IV. I am a jazz pianist and composer from New Orleans, La. But much has changed for me. I have generated a project that will be of interest. In April of 2004, I was activated in the La National Guard to serve one Year in Iraq as a Counter Intelligence Agent. I’ve been in Baghdad since October of 2004. I was at first horrified by the notion of this deployment and the seemingly, end of my music career. However, I have come to view this deployment as a unique musical odyssey. Since my deployment I have put together a sizable portfolio of compositions, which I’ve recorded with various software and my fully weighted, 88 keys, keyboard. I mainly use Logic 7, Reason, and an I pod for sampling. The music is unique considering that I have included samples, which I have recorded here in Baghdad. These samples include Iraqi dialogue concerning political issues and all else. I have transcribed the pitches of such samples and composed music based on their contents. There are many other “war samples” to be found in my music. NPR interview here. This guy doesn't seem to have a Wikipedia page yet; Maybe I can make him one this weekend.