Required reading

Book title: Lives of the Great Bloggers

via flickr.com

In some far distant time, perhaps, when people want to learn about the hardships and tribulations of the past, they may wish to dip into a book about the great forgotten pioneers of our time.

I am not sure that Lives of the Great Tweeps passes the suspension of disbelief test, however.

Posted via web from Poor Poor Thing

Why blogs are being pushed out by microblogs

I put up a new post on my sadly neglected writing blog Frabjous Times and noticed this odd development on the Feedback area of my admin screen.

One post from last February had 2790 comments on it, all of it flagged as likely spam. It is not that Twitter and Friendfeed and the like are free from spam, as any active user of those will tell you. It is that the spammers have not yet figured out how to crank up their engines of war just yet to trash them utterly. I give them a couple more months before they come up with a way to make those services nearly unusable. And then maybe some people will end up going back to their blogs.

More action saints

The venerable Cracked magazine's website has a post up about six saints who had astounding physical prowess. This fits in nicely with my previous video game proposal, on which I have heard exactly zero reaction from the hierarchy. An opportunity is being missed, one which could feature St. Olaf swinging a great big two-handed broadsword in 3D, and it is a pity. As far as I know, the only video game saints one can play with today are the ones based in New Orleans.

Odd that there's no mention of St. George drilling a dragon. It's just that ugly "legend" label keeping that boy down.

Zippers have all the fun

On Boingboing, they are having a discussion about tritiated zipper pulls mostly concentrating on legal issues.

Maybe one could buy up a bunch of these (and rifle scopes, etc.), burn them up, and condense out the heavy heavy water?

Shouting fire in a crowded blogosphere

At Problogger there's a competition for the best blog post title. Here's my list of suggestions - titles only, no posts yet.

1. When the redhead said 'jump,' I jumped


2. Psst! A time traveler has a business proposition for you


3. It's not just for date rape anymore


4. How to crochet your own parachute


5. Awesome video: Chuck Norris vs. Dick Cheney!!!!


6. Become an A-list blogger the lazy way


7. In defense of the N-word


8. Something naked this way comes


9. Spoil your baby for success


10. Learn to grow something I'll just call 'grass'

If one of you out there appropriates one of these, writes a post, and enters the comments, I would appreciate a note in the comments. (Especially if you win.)

Accio Cliff Notes

According to Statcounter, over the last several weeks there has been a shift in the nature of search terms used to land on items on my old blog . As you can see from the results from the last 100 searches as of today, over 80% of all search queries are one variation or another on Harry Potter Cliff Notes. Over 60% of my visitors are from the U.S. Yesterday, we tried to see the new film, but it was sold out at the one theater we tried to get into. I expect it will still be possible to go see it in a couple weeks anyhow.

I once was blocked, but now can save

The blogger/Google spam-prevention robots have withdrawn and it's back to blogging as usual. Or, I hope, better than usual.

Just this once

Mary of Mary's Great Ideas has cut me to the quick with this meme originally generated by Electric Venom. I'm only doing this because I just happen to have the answers handy, not because I make a habit of mem propagation.

My Me Meme

1. My: You’ve heard the saying “I’d give my right arm for…”. So, what would you give your right arm for?
   
   
   A super-powerful cybernetic tentacle. Plus plenty of batteries.


2. Me: What’s one word that describes how you want people to see you?
   
   
   Beatific.


3. Meme: If you could be any blogger, which blogger would you be… and why?
   
   
   Geoffrey Chaucer, who maketh mikle merry with the langage Englysche, ond giveth not a fygge for whoso think him freakisshe.

If they equal to the challenge, I hereby tag Pupski, Daryl, and Kelley.

It pays to blog

Molar Graffiti,
originally uploaded by henrier.

...and not necessarily in the way you might think. My recent experience at the dentist was still fresh in my mind because I blogged it here, when one day I received a bill from the dental insurance company saying that I owed them some money. They claimed that one of the two fillings was a redo of previous work covered some years back, when in fact I distinctly remember the offending filling being in between the two that were put in during this last go-around.

I called the dentist office today, and sure enough, the old work was on #19. So this bill is being lobbed back into their court, and maybe I'll get off scot-free.

So, perhaps it isn't a totally crazy idea to set up a something online wherein one writes about all the stuff that has been worked on, in case you're dunned for the same thing a while later. No reason to stop at teeth, of course, I could enumerate the widgets inside my vehicle which have been put in, medical procedures in general, bill payments. I'm not terribly eager to have people online know all this stuff about me (and it would likely not be a compelling read), so either I would want to set a blog up anonymously but with keys to prove when the time comes that it was I who posted the items, or not set up a blog at all, but submit the items some kind of online notary service.

Ditch the black

Time for a new look now, using a template from Dented Nerd Designs. It feels a little skinny to me right now, like new clothes which are a little tight, but I'll wait a while and see how I think of it in a little while. Your comments are of course welcome.

On blogger

I wrote: How many blogs exist only to allow the blog owner to post without pain?

I'm reconsidering that idea now, instead planning to reposition this as my very own idea blog. If you feel you need to appropriate anything I post here, I ask that you at least drop me a comment, thanks!