One More Thing

Slightly related to the previous post, here is a cartoon that has been very appropriate for my life lately.

http://www.xkcd.com/386/

Having internet connectivity at home is half blessing, half curse.

As with all of the xkcd cartoons, let your mouse cursor linger over the cartoon for an additional punch line. They are usually twice as funny as what is actually printed.

I'm Kinda' Sorta' Famous!

Remember way back in my last post when I said, that Language Log was my new favorite blog, and I steered you all to the site to go enjoy the wonders of word-geekery that abide there?

Well, I commented on one of their posts recently, and had a whole subsequent post devoted to my comment!

The Article I originally commented on is here, and the follow up, entitled "May Contain Nuts" is here.

Go read them!

The last time something like this happened was when no less a luminary that Peter Sagal re-wrote his post to address my opinion of the movie "Unbreakable"

My New Favorite Blog

Wow. For a word nerd like me, this post is a treasure-trove of peeveblogging. (I just learned the word "peeveblogging" from there, and wanted to use it.)

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=368

Go check it out, and make sure to follow the links to "Lowercase l", "Apostrophe Abuse", and "Unnecessary Quotation Marks".

...To a DEEE- Luxe apartment in the Sky-y-y!

It has been a good week for mammon worship here at the Gibson house.

First- I got internet at my home. Internet at my home is one of those things I was going to get one day, when I had a little more money. It was something I would get "One of these days", when thing were a little easier and the car was all paid off, when my Ship had come in, and my Prince had come (or at least the artist formerly known as my Prince.)

Well, now, thanks to the creeping universality of wi-fi "hotspots", there is a wireless high-speed internet connection close enough to my house that I can plug my wireless adapter in to my long unused desktop computer and Voila! I now no longer have to put on pants to go online! (It's still a good idea, though, cause I don't have curtains on all my windows, and my neighbors are already complaining about my lawn.) The connection is not perfectly reliable, but it is totally FREE, so I will try not to complain about occasionally spotty reception.

It Gets Better! I recently lost my Altoids Tin of Goodness. It was lost sometime just after Father's Day, and I had been recently thinking about replacing some of the items lost along with it. Like the 2 Gigabyte Flash Drive that I used to carry around.

Well, I got an e-mail from my wife (which I could receive at home, thanks to my newfound connectivity) saying "Don't buy a Flash Drive - we might be getting one for free!" As it turns out, one of her students works for a big company in such a position as to frequently be given brib- *ahem* -complimentary gift items by people who want their people to be able to talk to his people. His office is apparently overwhelmed with "goodies" obtained in this way. So he decided to show his appreciation for his wonderful instructor by "regifting" her a Flash Drive with a whopping 32 Gigabyte capacity! That is 16 times bigger than the one I used to have, for those of you keeping score at home.
But wait... There's More!

Along with internet at my house, on the same list of things I have really, really wanted -slash- sorta kinda needed for years, is a decent digital camera. I have been armed with only the camera in my cellphone for the last year, and before that, I had no camera at all.

Well guess what came with the Flash Drive? If you guessed "An 8 Megapixel Canon ELPH digital camera, with a 2 Gig Secure Digital Memory card, adjustable wrist strap and rechargeable Lithium-ion battery", then give yourself a pat on the back, and hope that the government never discovers your paranormal psychic abilities.

All of these things were expenses that I just haven't been able to justify, because my wife's job, despite being very personally satisfying, and having wonderful perks (see preceding 3 paragraphs), doesn't actually pay much. So imagine my surprise when, in addition to all the above wonderful surprises, I found out today that My wonderful wife GOT A RAISE!

So what are we going to do now? We're goin' to Disneylan- what? We're not? Oh. We're goin' to Rock City! or maybe Ruby Falls. Or maybe Both! And we will be armed with a new 8-Megapixel Camera when we go!

Reboot (to the Head)

Well, Blogfans....

It was a year ago Yesterday that this Adventure in Bloggetry began. Since then the only thing that has been consistent has been my inconsistency.

In the last year my blog has featured a Daily-Haiku-a-Day, Weekly Movie Reviews, The ill-fated "Toonament", Introspective naval-gazing, Obsession with my own statistics, Not-quite-political commentary, Polls, Late-night Monologue-style jokes, Charity news, a diary of my personal conversion to Ubuntu Linux and loads of Nerdy Superhero stuff that most of you don't care about. All of these features, like a toddler's new Birthday Presents, were interesting for a little while, then discarded. (I did, however, enjoy playing with the box they came in. And the wrapping paper was prett... Oooh, Ribbons!!)

I am tempted to call it quits, say it's been a mostly good year, and just wrap it up, but I just saw The Incredible Hulk, and it was really good, so I won't.

Let Me Explain...

"The Incredible Hulk" was what they are calling nowadays a "Reboot". A not-quite-sequel that uses the same characters in a non-sequential story, often played by different actors. These stories can be one-offs, or the start of a new series. The latest James Bond movie, "Casino Royale", and Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" are good examples of this concept. Those two are also both Prequels, going back to the characters' origin stories, unlike "The Incredible Hulk".

Anyway, Ol' Mean-and-Green's latest cinematic adventure got me thinking about "Reboots", and I figure if anything needs a Reboot-to-the-head, it is my stale, unused and unloved blog.

I am enjoying Cartooning. I might one day be good at it. Over at FG Cartoons, I am committed to A Cartoon Every Sunday Morning.

Here, though... From This Point On... I hereby solemnly promise... Not to make any promises.

You, my readers, are my friends and family. (Those terms not being mutually exclusive.) If I am thinking about something interesting (while able to access the Internet) that I want to share, this is where I will share it. If I don't have anything to say, I will not beat myself up over not posting. I am still interested in environmental issues, fun computer stuff, superhero-y goodness, charities, movies, books, and whatnot, so I will probably keep posting on those sorts of things, but I make no promises. If I want to start blogging exclusively about Barbershop Quartet Singing, Then By Golly That's What I'll Do.

So If I am making no promises, then what about the name? "Daily" is kind of a promise, ain't it? Well, you got me there. So I am renaming it. To what? I don't know yet. Any suggestions?