Do you wonder if we all should have read this before starting to blog? One of the things this article tells you to do (so that you don’t start a blog) is read 5 random blogs for a month. I think this misses the point of the blog. You are supposed to read about stuff or people you are interested in! If I pick 5 random books to read I’d probably end up with some Romance, an Anne Rice book (boo…), and some crap targeted at toward young adults. Of course I’d be disappointed but that doesn’t mean the book medium is crap.
I need to comment on the DPL’s new book download program. The program is run by Overdrive and uses DRM handicapped WMA files. Now, I personally think that DRM is bad for business… and the Overdrive is a good example of why. Apple and Microsoft have competing DRM specification (both are proprietary) and neither is universially excepted. I doubt that Microsoft’s new portable media player will be able to play Apple DRMed media and I know that Apple iPod’s do not play DRM WMA files. Which basically means that we cannot use this new and potentially cool serve (unless we burn the audio files onto a CD then use those CD, or ripe the audio from those CDs and put them onto the iPod). It’s just annoying, especially when those things aren’t that cheap. (btw, the new iPod shuffle is very cool) On a funny aside, the DPL gave away a free iPod Nano this summer to some kid… I hope he doesn’t try to download any books! Maybe I get steal D14’s old non-apple MP3 player.
I’m tired.
In case you care, D14 has put up a blog for us all to read. I hope his typing improves…
Last night the scientist’s left for a conference and I didn’t really feel like sitting around on the computer (which I ended up doing) and the Anne Rice book I took out of the library is pretty boring. So ended I walked over to Jared’s last night to watch TV and play guitar hero. Nothing too exciting, but better than sitting by yourself. Here’s how I’m feeling right now:
- I’m tired of the news.
- I’m excited at the possibility of buying a house/condo.
- I’m waiting for something positive to happen here at work (i.e. the shit to hit the fan and a some sort of management system put into place) but doubt it will happen.
- I’m glad there are softball games tonight so I don’t have to hang out by myself tonight.
- I want to know if I’ll be offered that job I interviewed for but I’m concerned that I wont have any idea what I’m doing and will look like an ass (more so than usual).
- Heidi and I were telling my parents about our trip down to D.C. (to visit Ack) and I realized how fun it was to visit friends and just hang out. It made me want to try as hard as I can to get out to Seattle.
I added in a neat-O archive page that allows you to quickly browse through old crappy posts that you’d find here (I did this last night so don’t yell at me for doing it at work). It works okay but I haven’t yet got the thing to display without messing up the sidebar.
I really wish I could get the poll thing to work, because I want to ask what percentage of everyone’s time is ‘directed work’? For example, at “Google engineers all have ‘20 percent time’ in which they’re free to pursue projects they’re passionate about.” This would mean that 80% of a google engineer’s time is spent on ‘directed work’. I feel that about 25% of my time is directed work, but I’m curious what it is like for other people.
It’s raining. Anyone want to go running?
I added a few ads on the side but they only show ads for blogs. Is there anyway to get Gogle Adsense to show ads that people might actually want to click on? Shakespeare got to get paid. Or not, as I’ll probably never generate enough traffic to actually make real money on ads. Especially if I only post about this here blog.
So, I should post about something else right? Well I’m about to start reading an Anne Rice book about Jesus. I’ve never read an Anne Rice book, let alone one about a possible historic figure, so I don’t know what to expect. But from what I know of her writing, I can only assume Jesus will drink the blood of his helpless victims, while they beg for mercy. Maybe he’ll end up fighting mummies (the subtitle says Egypt in it so my guess is yes, Jesus will battle the undead. He should cast ‘Fire’ or ‘Holy’ as the undead dislike those spells). I can’t wait.
The real ultimate shitter?
I’d recommend that everyone see Syriana. It is pretty relevant considering the current middle east ‘crisis’. Who here feels that our President is doing the right thing? (Ad hoc poll. Haven’t figured out how to setup one of those.)
Add the ability to link to photos in our ZenPhoto gallery. (I also added this to the Scientist’s blog, if she wants to use it just press the 
button in the menu bar)
Also, on a side note if you want to put an image in one of your posts, go to the ‘Upload’ section in the ‘Write Post’ section area, browse to the file name it and then Upload it. To include it in the post, click on the image, then on ‘Send to editor’.
What I have I done tonight?
- Well the blog ’should’ look a little better (I referred to Heidi on aesthetics).
- I added an Ajax comment thing… meaning you can see your comment getting posted right before you eyes with out having to reload the page. Wooooo. Try posting a comment because it is kind of cool. Sorry Dan, your comment probably wont show up as every single on of you posts has been caught as ’spam’. I always knew you were full of shit.
- Add links to other blogs for Weird Old Guy.
- Got rid of the sidebar and went with a horizontal set of links (similar to Heidi’s), because it looks less stupid.
- Added little images next to links so that tell you if you are (1) about to leave the site, (2) watch a movie, (3) read a Wikipedia article, (4) read an IMDB article and (5) other things.
- Also, if you are into any social bookmarking I’ve added nice little icons you can press add any of my posts (check out the comments section). I use del.icio.us, apparently Xumbi diggs.
I still can’t get the goddamned spellchecker to work. Is anyone else using a spellchecker? If so, which one? Also, the sidebar looks like poop. I was going to fix it but I got distracted by plugins… did you know there is a plugin that lets you list all the plugins you use?! Anyone have any fun plugins? Argh, again. Anyway, I need to figure out the PHP functions that are being called and see if I can (1) use a different one, or (2) change them to do what I actually want. We’ll see.
I would like to say that I can supply as interesting updates as Dan, but all I can say is I had an interview at a Public Library today for a System Admin job. I think it went well, but I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think they asked me enough questions to deduce whether or not I would be a good candidate… maybe they already have someone in mind. Also, I think this is the first system admin job I’ve seen where Unix/Linux experience is not necessary. Silly billy.
Woo. Riding high on coffee! Woo. Maybe the second cup was not a good idea but I was thirsty for something warm and happened to be walking by a full coffee pot with an empty cup. Only one thing could be done.
I’ve not really got much to say but I felt I need to post that I changed the little icon that appears next to the URL and on the tap (in Firefox). It’s the lobster from Heidi’s page. I probably wont keep it (as it is pretty difficult to tell what it is) but I don’t know what image to use! I found this nice site that makes any image into a 16×16 pixel icon image. So if Tizzom is reading he no longer has to display the bluehost icon. Just replace the favicon.ico in the public_html directory and you’re good to go! But if you have any ideas for images I can iconify send me a link and I’ll give it a shot! (I wonder if I can post all the images and setup a poll so people can vote on them! Not that it’d matter. There are only two votes that would count, but polls are fun! I could do a weekly poll! After the icon one I’d do names for James and Jen’s new child. Mwah haha hah ah, cough.)
ha.
So I figured out how to make your comments show up. Yeah! Life is study!
I scored another goal at our hockey game last night (3 on the season). It was almost a set play; I won the faceoff to Heidi, who passed it back to the D (Matt), while I charged the net. Matt took the shot, which richocheted to me and I shot it far post. But we ended up losing 2-1 in a back and forth game. At least I don’t have to take another week off before the next game, though I’m not really looking forward to play Red again.
It’s now about to rain on my bike. Stupid (needed) rain.
So I was hoping that France would beat Italy today but this did not happen. France dominated Italy it just could not find the back of the net. Even a man down (after the headbutt) they controlled the ball and put shots on goal. Then there was the shoot out. Sigh. Neither of the goalies made one save. Can’t they play until one team drops
Now we are watching the tour highlights on CBS, but I really have not watched much cycling since Comcast decided to turn off our free cable. A la carte cable? Please? Stupid monopolies. I thought they were illegal in this country.
The website has not gotten any better this week. And I still don’t think anyone knows that I am posting here, even though I posted here that I was. Or maybe I just haven’t said anything entertaining. Most people probably don’t care what I do with this site.
I just finished a book about the filling of back bay (Boston’s Back Bay: The Story of America’s Greatest Nineteenth-Century Landfill). Interesting factoid: Storrow Dr. is named after someone whose wife fought against it being built. The book had a lot of interesting information (see previous sentence) but I can’t say it was well written. The authors seemed to jump from topic to topic without nice transitions, but if you are interested in the history of Boston it is a good read… and quick. Now I will read a trash fantasy novel. (Is Fantasy/Sci-Fi the male Romance novel?)
Speaking of bad transitions, how did you like this post?
I messed around a bit with the look of this thing and it’s starting to look a little better. These things always take a lot longer to do than you would think. I really need to come up with some sort of logo or image to put up on top. The monkey knife fight is nice but it’s not mine and I kind of want something that is. I know dan was looking for something to fill up his time.
I am stopping for the night… maybe tomorrow I will have something none blog related to post.
