Blog
Everyone has a blog these days, I just want to fit in. You never know, one of these days one of my posts will be linked by loads of web-famous people and I'll get tons if hits. That'll be sweet blog validation.
Posts in the "Random" Category
Someone much smarter than myself
Merlin Mann is the type of guy I'd like to be when I grow up. He's in the same club (in my mind) as Dan Kennedy, Jon Stewart and other painfully smart and witty people with their heads on straight. I'll stop gushing about my man-crushes and get to the point. Merlin wrote something this month that really smacked me in the face. I've been feeling this hopeless malaise with everything internet related and he wrote about this much better than I could have. This paragraph in particular made me want to stand up and belt out a 'hell yeah!'
"What worries me are the consequences of a diet comprised mostly of fake-connectedness, makebelieve insight, and unedited first drafts of everything. I think it’s making us small. I know that whenever I become aware of it, I realize how small it can make me. So, I’ve come to despise it." – Merlin Mann
So, in lieu of an actual 'blog post,' I'd like you to read the rest of Merlin's post. Just imagine me nodding my head and shouting the occasional "AMEN" while you read it.
A Farewell to 20s
There are only five days left until I leave my 20s behind. It's been quite a nice decade for the most part, I can't complain. In talking with people who had survived their 20s and went on to become functional and pleasant grownups, it seems that your 20s are a throw-away decade. Sure, there are some good times, a few laughs, a few weekends you can't completely remember, but it's entirely ephemeral.
So as a fun read for the nine people who subscribe to this internet web log, I thought I'd write a brief review of my 20s. If you're one of those people who don't read reviews and just want to cut to the chase and know what grade I end up giving my 20s, I give it a B+. There, I've just saved you and extra ten minutes of reading.
Cute ways to describe horrible weather.
I had a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish over this three day weekend. Take a wild guess at what percentage of this list was taken care of. I think we have officially entered the "lazy days of summer" because I don't feel like doing a damn thing.
Is that so bad, really? It was technically a holiday weekend and it's immoral to work, right? I wouldn't want to do anything immoral.
I've noticed that my to-do list has changed a bit now that I'm nearly thirty and own a house. For instance, instead of "shop for new Radiohead poster for bedroom," I now have to "saw dead branches out of trees." Which oddly was on my parent-imposed to-do list of my high school years.
So, on this, the hottest day of 2008 (thus far) let's talk about SUMMERTIME and WORK!
Blogging? Seriously?
I read a great article by Nicholas Carr about how the internet is ruining our attention spans. I couldn't agree with him more, in fact, I'm already bored of writing this entry. I'd rather go check my mail or see if anyone's posted anything new to Flickr. Plus there's this HUGE fly in my house that's just buzzing around and it's driving me insane. Oh, and I'm watching South Park while I try and write this. It's the one where Kyle has surgery to become tall and black so he can be good at basketball. I've seen this one but I don't want to turn it to Iron Chef because then I'll get all involved in the show and never finish this post.
*sigh* This post is going to be weird.
Twitter: Bigger than Jesus.
Everyone on the interweb is talking about Twitter. Now look at me, I've been sucked into the Twitter-related-post vortex. I'm drinking the kool-aid, feeding the beast, jumping on the bandwagon, et cetera.
One thing you'll hear people say about Twitter is, "It doesn't make a lot of sense until you just sign up and try it." I'll buy that, I guess. I signed up last December and I've found it to be another interesting internet diversion. But I really don't get all the hype about it being THE NEXT BIG THING.
I mean, let's be realistic, it's no Zombo.com. So, without further ado, here's another post about Twitter that the internet can add to it's collection. In the great Twitter tradition of keeping everything under 140 characters, here are my thoughts on Twitter in 140 characters or less.
A blog post with a cohesive and rational point.
I'll start off this post by saying that the title is a complete lie. If this post has any cohesive and/or rational point, it would be purely by coincidence. But seeing as how April is here and Spring has 'sprung,' I thought I'd do a little mental spring cleaning and get some ideas down in print. This will also be a good exercise in whether or not I'm able to write and watch the Daily Show at the same time.
Obsessed With Stats II: The Reckoning
A few months ago I wrote an entry about how I have OCD when it comes to checking my site stats. I'm happy to report that I still open up Google Analytics and AWStats every single day and see how my little web children are doing. I can stop any time I want, seriously, I'm fine.
My favorite type of stats for the816.com are the search keywords. I thought they couldn't get weirder than the list I posted in the last entry, but I was wrong. So here are some of my new favorite search terms that landed people on my site. I've also added my theory as to the circumstances of each particular search.
Let's Bring Back Website Jingles
For those of you as old as I am (Nearly 30 now, sheesh.) You may remember that a site called newstoday.com used to have a jingle that played each and every time that you went to the site. Unfortunately they no longer have this awesome jingle. I was thinking that in 2008, we should bring back this fantastic practice of imposing audio on unsuspecting viewers. I've created a few jingles for humble submission to a few of my favorite websites.
Kansas City (Where it's at)
Since I enjoy making websites, getting attention and making things that are funny, I made a little joke site. The joke was inspired by this thread on a KC message board. It's 34 pages long, so I won't blame you at all if you don't read it. Long story short, people from Kansas City proper can get irritated when they encounter people who assume they live in Kansas. Herein lies the comedy gold.
An Embarrassment of Riches
I finally took the time to adjust the truss rod on my ancient 6-string acoustic guitar. The poor thing is as old as I am and it's coming apart. I managed to stretch it into playable shape and it got me in the mood to play some old school R.E.M. and Son Volt. Driver 8, So. Central Rain, Windfall, Tear Stained Eye, etc. I've been trying so hard lately to force myself to be creative and actually make stuff, but I completely forgot how nice it is to crank up the stereo and just play someone else's songs.
Vegan Week Summary
I like challenges. Nothing kills boredom better than attempting something you've never done before. So, in the spirit of pushing myself, I wanted to see if I could be vegan for a week. I'm certainly no health nut and even though animals are great, I really don't have a problem with eating them. Veganism isn't something I'd consider doing permanently, I just really wanted to see what it was like. The rules were simple, no meat or any animal-derived foods for a solid week. It was definitely an interesting week but I'm a bit glad that it's over.
Musical Voyeurism
I've worked at BR for just over a year, yet I have now officed on three different floors. First five, then fifteen, now nine. If you're unfamiliar with BR, nine is where all the cool kids work. Yep, I'm hangin' out with the cool kids now. One of the great benefits of hanging out with the cool kids is that all their cool kid iTunes libraries are now available to me. So let's see what we have here.
Obsessed With Stats
I have both AWStats and Google Analytics monitoring the traffic on my site. I'm a little obsessive-compulsive about checking them both. It's a serious, diagnosed disorder that affects thousands of web developers worldwide. I might as well turn my crippling disorder into a blog post, so I thought I'd share some interesting stat-related findings I've noticed. Parental Advisory: The term "free live porno" is used in this post.
Insert Blog Entry Here
I'm a crappy writer. There's just no getting around this. I've wanted to post a lot to this site since there's honestly a lot of things I'd love to write about. I have a library of typical excuses and for now, that's going to have to be my blog topic du jour. It's been a LONG week and I have the attention span of a gerbil, so here is a collection of random thoughts.
Snow Problem at All
Like that title? Clever, eh? I crack myself up. I need to rant, it'll be quick, I promise.
Ow. Ugh. Blurg. *Burp*
Living with a vegetarian means that I don’t get the chance to eat a lot of meat. It’s not that this is a bad thing, but it has certain side-effects.
College Days
Want to feel instantly old? Get invited to your alma mater to speak to a class.
Debate?
I’m watching the latest democratic debate on CNN right now. The election is slightly less than a year away and I’m already sick of these people.
Food Network. Unintentionally hot.
What I imagine to take place at a food network internal marketing meeting:
Marketing VP: People, our Q3 ratings are slipping. I need ideas people… ideas! Let's hear 'em!
Junior Exec 1: I'm on it boss. my people have already instructed all cameramen to get extra closeups of Giada de Laurentiis' mouth. We've also instructed her to moan 50% more when tasting something delicious.