Mobility is a wonderful thing. It’s one of the best things about living in a free country, I think. If you really wanted to, you could drop everything and move to Alaska tomorrow. Now that’s freedom, baby!

The new Internet, what some people are calling “Web 2.0” is kind of a collection of web-based services that cater to people on the go. Here are my picks for most useful websites.

Gmail
Gmail is an awesome service. You get a free e-mail address that is accessable through any modern web browser anywhere in the world. The best part about Gmail is the storage–you get so much that you never have to delete another e-mail. Everything anyone sends you from now will be saved and can easily be searched for–and quickly found. Do you move around a lot? Do you often change Internet providers? Are you sick of new e-mail addresses that you must inform your friends, family, and co-workers of? Maybe it’s time you tried a web-based e-mail service like Gmail. No client to download, no IMAP SMTP POP settings to fiddle with. It just works. Windows, Mac, Linux… all you need is a web browser and an Internet connection. [Currently still in beta. If you want in, let me know.]

Writely
Writely is another web-based service. This happens to be a collection of Microsoft Office type applications like Word, Excel, etc.–all online. Your web browser is now your word processor! All your documents are available for you to work on from any computer in the world with a web browser and an Internet connection. Oh yeah, and it’s free.

30 Boxes
My buddy Phil introduced me to this web site. It’s an online calendar and it rocks. Add your appointments, birthdays, reminders and so on in an easy to use interface. Who needs a PDA? With 30 Boxes you can access your calendar at work, school, home, a cafe… all with a good ol’ browser and Internet.

Blogger
Many people have expressed an interest in starting their own blog to me over the past couple years. There are many free services, but I think Blogger is the best. It’s fast, it’s easy to set up, and of course it’s free. I think it has the best selection of templates. No software to run on your computer, everything is accessable over the ‘net.

So there you have it, my current favorites. I’m sure as time goes on more and more stuff will be available. Eventually we might even go back to the ol’ UNIX days with servers and dumb terminals. Wouldn’t that be something?

I don’t give a shit about sports. Football, basketball, baseball (especially baseball)… you know, all those team sports? I don’t care. I just. Don’t. Care.

I don’t memorize stats and player names and where they went to college and where they played their rookie year and their batting average and hoo-ha and what-hey. Worthless waste of time. I mean, what’s the point? How is Slippy McBaseball making the world a better place by playing baseball? And furthermore, how can anyone watch baseball, the most boring game ever invented? It boggles the mind. I just don’t get it.

I was bartending one afternoon years ago when Sporty Sportsnut A #1 Team Fan walked in and took a seat at the bar.

“So, can we get the game on?” he asked.

“The game? What game?” I replied.

You should have seen the look on this man’s face. Such incredulity. He simply could not comprehend that a bartender, of all people, didn’t know what Game he was speaking of. He tried to speak but no words came out.

I can’t remember the last time I watched ‘the game’. I can think of a bazillion other things I’d rather do than watch ‘the game’.

I’m just not a sports guy. My father gave up on me years ago. He used to ask me what I thought of this or that team, if I’d watched ‘the game’ the other night, stuff like that. I never knew what he was talking about. So now he never brings up anything sports related with his only son.

How disappointing that must be for him. I mean, I know I’ve given him plenty of things to be disappointed about in the past 34 years, but come on. Sports? What father doesn’t want to discuss important topics, such as sports, with his son; his only son at that?

I’m a terrible human being. Perhaps I should memorize some stats or something just to humor my father. Hmmm. Maybe not. He’d probably know I was faking it. In fact I know I would be very bad at faking being a sports guy.

And now a cartoon for you to enjoy that pretty much sums up how I feel about sports in general, courtesy of http://www.penny-arcade.com/.

[Click on the image to, like, make it blow up all big and stuff]

And no, I didn’t watch The Foot Bowl on Sunday. Not even the commercials. Not even the half-time show. And honestly I can’t even tell you who played, let alone who won.

Go Team!