At the beach

A long day at the beach. Cooked burgers on a grill. What a great day.

I Think I Just Started A Meme…My Apologies

What I’m into now:

Music: Neutral Milk Hotel.  Though, last night I went on something of a Billy Joel & U2 buying binge on iTunes.  I have no idea where that came from.

TV: The Wire, Entourage

Movies: I have four little kids.  The last movie I saw was when I snuck out to see Iron Man.  I’ve also been waiting for a few movies to come on iTunes, so I can buy them: Network.  The Replacements (yes, a Keanu Reeves movie that I actually liked).  Keeping the Faith (about 25 minutes too long, but a really funny movie).

Books: I’ve been reading old books because I haven’t found anything new that I like.  I’ve been re-reading my old Anita Blake, Vampire Executioner books.  No, I’m definitely man enough to admit that.  (See the part about having four kids, above.  I’ve found that after 3, I feel I have nothing left to prove to anyone, except my children.)

Photograph: see the new banner?  I took that.  My two sons.  Yes, the one on the left is a boy.  Long story.

Really, photograph isn’t on that list, I just wanted to point out the new banner.  And I hate self-promotion, so I had to work it into a post.

OK, I really don’t hate self-promotion so much.

On Blogging

Two interesting (OK, to me) things about my blog.

I’ve gotten several hits from random blogs because they’ve activated a feature that automatically generates posts that are “like” the one you just posted.  Weird.

The other thing I thought you’d like to know is who refers to me.  My top referrers—blogs that send people to me—are:

mythoughtsdm.blogspot.com	101
valancyjane.wordpress.com	51
lisabindacity.com	37
shoeism.blogspot.com	9
shoeistlikes.blogspot.com	9
jandjacres.com/blog	8

But that’s misleading, because, for example, Veaj has also sent me people from particular posts, and the log page doesn’t aggregate.

VJ actually sent me 71 visitors.

Seeing that…damn, I have to be nicer to Melina.

Oh, for the next few weeks, starting every Monday morning, the top referrer for that week will get a free iTunes song.

Teej Loves That Tomato, I Guess

So I’ve found three blogs in the last three days for you.  I almost feel like I’m back to my BR days.  A lull in the work, you see.  Calm before the storm, really, because next week is a nightmare, and it only gets worse from there.

But I’ve got another for you.

I don’t quite know how to feel about this one.  Hang on Little Tomato.  A 25-year-old woman named Teej writes it.  Maybe I like it because her name reminds me of my absolute favorite blogger, Veaj.  If so, I think it’s enough.  But I do love the title.  It’s cute and touching.

Which is a good way to describe the blog.  Maybe also, earnest.  That’s a good word.  Teej is young, and her writing feels young to me—of course, maybe because I’m still sore from that workout yesterday I just feel old—and it’s a little simple at times.  But she’s sincere and earnest.  I’ll take that any day of the week.

And she just started a few weeks ago, and it’s always nice when you find a good blogger early.  I think this one has potential.

By the way, speaking of potential, has anyone heard anything about MooCow recently?  I haven’t heard or seen him since he got back from New Zealand.

Life Does Indeed Go On

Paige Jennifer.

Go read.

Free Music

I’ve seen that you can gift iTunes.  So every once in a while, instead of a Toblerone, I’ll have a contest for free music.

Today’s…

I’ve been grooving to this song, I really like it.  It’s K’naan, “In the Beginning.”

I’ll gift the song to the first one who can tell me (without looking in IMDB or Google) what movie I first heard it in.

A Big Mistake

Huge.

Have you ever worked out, and then right after—I mean, immediately after; still-in-the-gym after—said to yourself, “oh boy, I just worked out too hard?”

Because oh boy, did I just work out too hard.

The Crossing

So I might have mentioned in the past about the snails on my front walkway.  The walkway is bordered on each side by plants.  On each side lives what I’m sure are two colonies of snails.  On rainy days when I come outside, I find a virtual sea of snails on my walkway.  I never even knew snails came in different sizes.  But they do.  For the small ones, even the shells are tiny.  It’s really cute.  I must look like an idiot to my neighbors because when I walk out I avoid stepping on the snails (what kind of monster steps on snails?)  I jump around to avoid them.  On rainy days, there must be 50 of them out there.

So the other morning I walk out, and it’s not raining, so there is maybe just 1 or 2 snails out there, and a huge slug.

I think to myself about how slowly the slug moves.  At a snail’s pace, so to speak.  Really, really slow.  I think about this as I bound down the walkway, about how for that snail, just crossing the walkway to the other side is a huge trip.  And how in human terms, that trip across the walkway for a slug is probably the equivalent of a couple of months for us.

And I think, hey, maybe these are two completely separate colonies, one per side of the walkway, and that these slugs I see crossing over, they’re the adventurers of their society.  They’re the Magellan or Christopher Columbus of snails.  Crossing the great divide.  Unafraid.  Braving the dangers of crossing.  Except they probably use capital letters, right?  The Crossing.

And I think about the first one to do it.  Do the snails venerate him?  Are there little snail statues of Xibit, the first snail to successfully make “The Crossing?” Did little Xibit come back after telling the East Side Snails about life on the other side?  Is what I see in the morning their version of immigration?  Snails who want to find a better life for themselves.  Snails who just want to go where no one knows them, to start over?

I can certainly say one thing: no more escargo for me.

Distracted

No, not me.

Jane.

I just found her through a comment she left on a blog on my blogroll.

Go read Distractible Jane.

She has this map of where people have visited her site from.  What I want to know is, who visited her from the Cape of Good Hope?  (Extra credit if you know where that is).

She just posted her 100th post.  Go congratulate her.  Plus, she has both Diary of Why and Georgia on her blogroll, so how cool is she?

Can We Please…

Stop—in the name of all that’s holy—using Barack Obama’s last name to begin new words?

Obamanation instead of abomination.

Obamapologists for Obama apologists.

It’s worse than the whole “TomCat,” “Bennifer” thing we had going a while back which blissfully seems to have run its course.

I don’t like him either, but enough already.

Another Surgery

Youngest son came through heart surgery well. All are relieved.