Five for Friday

I thought about doing a Friday High Five post, but since I'm not sure Angela is back often enough to host, I decided to let it slide for this week. Instead I'll ask the rhetorical question - Do you think there are enough computers on my desk?

Oops, sorry - I forgot that you don't have telescopic x-ray vision. Here is what my desk looks like tonight:

It looks a bit like the computers are mating and multiplying. The two little netbooks on the left are in the process of being prepped and loaded for use by the animal officers in the humane society. (I'm not only the executive director, but also the IT guru of the humane society.) Couple them with some antennas and mounts and misc. electronics added to the vehicles and we will shortly have brought the process into at least the 20th century and maybe even the 21st.

One neat capability will be almost instant load from the cameras to the netbooks to the back-end database and then to the web site so that found and captured animals can be spotted almost immediately by their owners simply by visiting the web site. Likewise, when animals are cleared for adoption, they are then visible on the site as well, hopefully decreasing the time to adoption.

The animal officers are in seventh heaven over the idea of the netbooks and computerized vehicles. We'll have to see how they feel in a few months when they have had time to hit the real warts.

Time to load some more software.

(Did you spot where the five in the title came from? Five monitors on the desk: 2 on netbooks, one on laptop, and two on the desk side server. )

I'm Better Off Without It

Time once more for the wonders of Mama Kat's Writer's Challenge. This week I take on the topic of:

1.) 10 Reasons why you’re better off without him….or her….or it.

My reasons why I am better off without it:

• It is slow.

• It is old.

• It generates enough heat in operation to warm the whole house.

• It generates more noise than a jet idling by your ear.

• It uses proprietary accessories.

• It is "No longer supported" hardware.

• It is "No longer supported" software.

• The optical drive is broken.

• The built in Ethernet is broken.

• It burns more electricity per year than the cost of a modern replacement.

• It weighs more than 150 lbs.

Have you figured out what it is? It is my old domain backup system manufactured by the no longer extant Sun Microsystems. It was top of the line back in the late 90's when I acquired it, but today its job can be done faster by a cheap Intel box. The only bad thing is that the beast has been reliable as heck. For the last 11 years it has had less than 10 minutes of unplanned downtime. Its replacement box averages that much downtime per month.

So long old friend.

The Case of the Disappearing Blogger

Do you ever wonder what happens to people you meet via the blogosphere when they disappear? Sometimes they seem to disappear from the face of the earth with no explanation or hint of impending disappearance.

I don't know about you, but I always start off for the first several weeks assuming that something in real life must have come up and then they will return.  But as the missing time extends to a month, I tend to actually visit the website {*gasp*} to make sure it is not a changed or missing RSS feed. And when it doesn't turn out to be that, I start to assume that for whatever reason they have decided to stop blogging. In the back of my mind I hope that they have not suffered illness or accident or other misfortune. By the second month, I have usually come to acceptance that I will never know what happened to cause their disappearance, and, in many cases, it is not long thereafter that their web design graphics hosting fades and the site becomes nothing more than ugly placeholders. Rarely is there a return from the prolonged heat death of the site.

But there are exceptions. One recent returnee after undergoing blogging heat death is Angela of Angel Eyes Adventures, the hostess of Friday High Five. It will be interesting to hear (or not) the tale behind her sudden disappearance from the web early last November. In any case,

Welcome Back Angela!

Today my mind was wondering and came to rest on quotes relating to mankind (or womankind or homo sapiens if you prefer). I thought of several quotes that seemed apropos, so here are a few remembered quotes on the topic:

1. Man: A creature made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired.
2. The earth has a skin and that skin has diseases; one of its diseases is called man.
3. Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's?
4. I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
5. I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.
6. I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.

And here is a list of the authors:

1. Friedrich W. Nietzsche
2. Oscar Wilde
3. Charles Schultz
4. Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. Friedrich Nietzsche
6. Mark Twain

Your challenge is to correctly associate the author with the quote without using Google or other search engine.

While you cogitate and work on the problem, I'll show you a picture of the icecles that have formed on the eaves from the freeze thaw cycle of the snow:

Cogitated long enough? Got your answers in hand?

Well, while we wait, let me ask another question: which of the quotes most resonates with you view of the world?

The correct associations between quotes and authors are given in the first comment. No peaking!

Oh, my world view resonates with either of

Man: A creature made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired.

 -or-

I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.

Happy Birthday To L

Happy Birthday to L

Happy Birthday to You

(You look like a monkey

And live in a zoo)

I just can't leave that last stanza off. Must be all the bad influences when I was growing up. As I mentioned before, today is the lovely L's birthday. The five day span of me being the old coot to her young damsel is now over for another year. You can help celebrate by leaving a happy birthday comment for her. I have it on good authority she will not see this until tonight.

First up in our celebration, a Monkee video. The Monkees were/are one of L's favorite groups and a teenage heart-throb of hers. In fact, a revival with three of the four Monkees is one of the few occasions that L ever successfully drug me to a teeny-gum concert. So here they are in their heyday:

You know you are getting up there when this cartoon applies to you. (Nudge, nudge, hint, hint.)

Happy Birthday L

Many Happy Returns

The Weather Outside Is ...

Remember yesterday when I mentioned the snow was continuing. Well guess what? It snowed and flurried all day today. Around noon today, this was the view out to the back patio:

Yep, that is about a foot of snow sitting on the table. That doesn't include the  snow that blew off the table in the wind Thursday and Friday.

I spent a few hours shoveling the drive and the sidewalks (yet again) this afternoon. L proclaimed that I would be sore tomorrow when we spoke on the phone - we'll have to see. It was a very wet and heavy snow and has continued to flurry this evening, so we have gotten another inch or two since 4pm. Molly is truly enjoying it. She sprints out and buries herself in the snow and then pops out to try and scare me. She also loves to eat snow - I wonder if that is the doggie equivalent of human iced drinks?

Time to get on with the fun and games.

Let It Snow, ...

It has been snowing since early this morning and has picked up a bit this evening. I thought it was about through snowing and shoveled the walk and drive before I headed over to mom's for supper (and to fix her phone and computer). During the few hours I was there, my truck got covered with another 3-4 inches of snow and it is coming down. Of course, the under sheeting of ice from Thursday is still in place and it is like ice skating on invisible ice in places.

All of which brought the Olympics and Curling to my mind. There is something magical about watching one of the curlers skate on one foot down the ice. So now I am ready to become a curler - I can skate down my driveway on one foot sweeping with a snow shovel. Or at least waving my snow shovel.

In preparation for some Olympic snow shoveling in the morning, I bring you some other sports for guys my age from a belated birthday card:

Belated Friday Rant and Rave

Due to the press of real work and getting material ready and packed for the precinct caucuses, I fell behind once more. So here is a belated Friday Rant and Rave for your perusal and edification.

Rant - the weather Thursday. After raining most of the afternoon, around 5pm the mercury began falling and the rain turned to snow. Of course, all the earlier moisture on the ground froze into to sheet ice underneath the new snow. It made the journey to deliver the precinct materials an adventure. Nothing is more awe inspiring that watching the semi beside you passing you while sliding with all wheels locked. It was slicker than snail snot for a while.

Rant - the utter confusion at the central committee meeting as they tried to go over the precinct captain instructions. Why someone doesn't make the by-laws and rules more uniform so that there could be a simple set of printed instructions I do not know. Oh wait, I take that back - if that happened there would be less room for back door politics.

Rave - the nice clean snow covering all the brown grass. After weeks of dry and relative warmth, it is good to get snow and more normal temperatures.

Rave - three security fixes for programs I often use released on the same day.

Rant - three security fixes for programs I often use released on the same day.

Huh? Moment - Why does Molly like to sit in the snow? She will use her nose and paws to create a snow hill in the yard, then climb up on the hill and sit, surveying her domain. When you call her to come in, she will disdainfully turn her head, give you the doggy eye, and radiate the "Why would I want to leave my throne to go in where it is warm?" vibe. I suspect she is waiting for this friend to come over and join her.

Maybe it is just innate to Border Collies?

Happy Birthday

In honor of my birthday today, allow me to present the Beatles and "Happy Birthday". Here's hoping it is your birthday too!

I'm Back ....

Now that Valentine's Day and President's Weekend are over, I can safely return to the web. You never can tell when an errant rose thorn will attack. {*grin*}

L was down from the mountains for the weekend. It was the first time a few years that we have been able to spend Valentine's Day together. Being the uber romantic that I am, I took her to the Republican Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday. (What? You can't picture a more romantic setting than listening to different misinterpretations of the remarks of others for a few hours? You have no sense of adventure and romance! {*grin*})

It looks like the primary for county sheriff will be the exciting race this year. The former incumbent who lost 3 years ago is back and running via petition to avoid the party entirely. The sitting incumbent who beat the him is re-running too. And just to make sure the pot is stirred a bit more, the former under-sheriff is running too. It was one of the nastiest and muddiest races in local history three years ago; this time around looks to be even worse. My opponent for county commissioner and I joked that the sheriff's race looked like so much fun that maybe we should have stood up and announced we had decided not to run for commissioner, but were both going to enter the sheriff's race instead. It would have been worth it just for the brouhaha it would have created.

L and I spent the remainder of the weekend taking walks with Mollie, watching the Olympics, and just hanging together. Even occasionally holding hands and other such things. Truly the most romantic way to spend the long weekend with your loved one. Monday night our mothers brought over the ingredients and we cooked dinner and had cake in honor of L and my upcoming birthdays. Mine is tomorrow and then five days later it is L's turn. (Yup, I am perpetually the "older man" in L's life - a whole whopping five days older. And you will notice I resisted disclosing my age since it would reveal L's as well. Actually, I'm turning 24 since I started counting backwards a few years ago.)

Tomorrow looks to be busy. I am invited down to fill the air-waves at the radio station with my political hot-air stylings in the morning, then I have to get the precinct material ready to be sent out for the campaign, and then in the evening I have another installment of the webinar from hell to attend for my job. (Think home land security meets animal welfare during a disaster. 3 hours of material that can make FEMA certification courses look exciting.) At least there will only be another pair of webinars and then I will be certified.

Baby, It's Cold Outside ...

Time once more for Mama Kat's Writers Challenge. This week I like

2.) Describe your worst winter weather story.
(inspired by Alisha from A Day In The Life Of Okie Rednecks)
3.) Tell us about that scar.
(inspired by Katie from Rooftop Harmonies)

 as the prompts to follow in my writing for the nonce.


#2 - The worst weather story is a toss up because the prompt could be taken in several ways: the worst weather experienced in winter, the worst story involving winter weather in some way, or the worst story heard during winter weather. So after 3 microseconds of deliberation, I settled on this one:

Part of my research work when I was at Argonne National Laboratory involved giving academic seminars at universities. One fine February I was scheduled to give a Friday seminar at Iowa State University in Ames. What followed was a real nightmare.

I caught a flight out of O'Hare mid-day on Thursday. The weather called for snow later in the day at Ames, but it was not supposed to cause problems. Now at this point you need to know that I am one of those fortunate people who had two complete sets of wisdom teeth grow completely in. As the last pair rose to full height, I started not being able to close my jaw fully and so the extra teeth were scheduled for removal.

(Have you figure our where this is going?) Mid way to Ames, I hear a crack and suddenly have a mouth full of what feels like gravel. When I examine the detritus, I have a sneaking suspicion that one of my extra teeth had broken. A few cursive probes of the tongue quickly confirmed that I suddenly had a really jagged stump in the back of my jaw.

My first thought was the standard "How long before this bugger really starts to hurt?" That was followed by "What else could go wrong?" I should never have asked that second question. At that point the pilot comes on the intercom and explains that Ames is in the midst of a blizzard, but we may still be able to make it in. So we all are ordered to strap in and the pilot guns it to try and beat the closure of the airport.

We come barreling in for a landing, bobbing and weaving in the winds like a leaf in the autumn winds. It is snowing so hard I can't even see the wing out the window to my right. The pilot comes on back on the intercom and announces that they have closed the airport just as our wheels touched down. We are the last plane that will make it in or out that day. But wait, there is further good news. The Ames airport is connected to the rest of civilization by a number of miles of isolated road. Guess what is also closed - you guessed it, the road to/from the airport.

So let us recap. I have a tooth that has shattered and which I deeply fear will begin to hurt shortly. I am trapped in a closed airport for an unknown length of time in a huge blizzard miles away from the nearest dentist. A few hours of stewing and pacing insures an increasing state of anxiety.

Finally, after eight hours of stewing and fretting and pacing and dreading, the snow plows finally got the road to/from the airport opened enough for a caravan from the airport to town to follow then. At about 1am I get to the hotel and collapse. I have decided that it the tooth hasn't started hurting by now, it might not start until I can get back to Chicago. At least I sure hope so.

Bright and early I had breakfast with some of the faculty from ISU, with fewer in attendance than planned because guess what - there is a blizzard still blowing and snowing out there and they can't make it to campus. Throughout the day several people asked me if I was distracted about something. If only they knew.

Scars? What scars? Just because I have scars from head to toe doesn't mean they are special. I know where my scars are because I suffer from a condition where my scar tissue will not stop growing. When I have surgery, the scar usually has to be irradiated to stop the excess tissue growth.  So I'm going to talk about one of my non-surgical scars.

Many years ago when I was a pre-schooler, my brother and I shared a bedroom and set of bunk-beds. Being the older brother, I had the upper bunk. One day as I climbed the wooden ladder up to my bunk, the ladder broke. The sharp end of the bottom half of the ladder hit and skewered the side of my head, barely missing my eye.

A lot of crying and bleeding followed. There was enough blood that mom couldn't see where the cut was at first. I knew it was serious because it was one of the few times I ever saw my mom even slightly rattled. A lot of wet cold towels and ice later it quit bleeding. A nurse friend of mom's came over to look at it to see if we needed to journey the miles to the hospital. The nurse said that it might not hurt to get stitches, but that since the bleeding had stopped, etc. they'd just dress it and see how it was the next day.

That is how I got the scar to the side of my left eye. Yeah, the scar that becomes more and more obvious the older I get and the further my hairline sprints from it. That scar.

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag Now

Today was the day. I issued the official announcement of my candidacy for {*gasp*} partisan office. So now the real fun of getting through the cacuses and the primary to the election begins.

The gist of the announcement went:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Sterling, Colorado. Dan Jones, a fourth generation Logan County resident and former Mayor of Sterling, has announced his candidacy for Commissioner of Logan County - District 3. The District 3 seat is being vacated at the end of the year by Jack McLavey who is term limited. Dan desires to bring transparency to the decision making process along with openness in budgeting to the commission. He hopes to serve the people of Logan County by focusing on fiscal responsibility, common sense in local government and a balanced approach to economic development that includes agriculture and industry.


Dan is currently serving as Executive Director of the Logan County Humane Society during construction of their new facility. He recently completed his third term (term limited) as Mayor of Sterling, Colorado. First elected in November 2003, he was re-elected without opposition in 2005 and 2007. As Mayor he led economic development initiatives such as Sterling Ethanol, Safe Auto and others which resulted in direct investment in the community of more than $100 million and the creation of 500 new jobs. Through a campaign to encourage citizens to “give back to the community”, private donations resulted in construction of parks, an outdoor pool and recreation facility, and expansion of the library. In addition, Sterling was named 2006 Best Small City of the Year by the Economic Development Council of Colorado.


Dan’s work experience includes 30 years of developing technologies and applications for the computer industry in the New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles areas. He has held senior scientist, technical, and management positions with Sykes Enterprises, Working Woman Network, Cyber Networks, Peripheral Systems, Affine Sciences, TRW Defense Systems, Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of California.


A staunch advocate of rural community economic development, he was recognized (along with his wife L) as the first recipient of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year Award in 1992 for their success in founding Jones Technologies. Returning “home” after almost two decades to raise their son, Dan and Laurie created a technology business that would utilize the under-employed, well-educated local work force in Logan County. In 1990, they created the first college/private industry training program in the U.S. for computer support technicians in partnership with Northeastern Junior College. These pioneering efforts were the focus of national media and research foundations as models for rural development. Jones Technologies was acquired by Sykes Enterprises and became Sykes’ entry into the customer support industry. Sykes first support center was built in Sterling and today employs 320. Sykes Enterprises is a worldwide leader in customer contact management services with 81 centers and 51,000 employees.


Dan’s other community service includes Vision 2020 Committee, Re-1 District Accountability Committee, Northeastern Junior College Foundation Board, Boy Scouts of America, founding board member Logan County Humane Society, Ivy League Mentor Program, and interviewing prospective students for Dartmouth College. He has been an invited speaker for professional conferences, community service clubs, and state legislative hearings.


Dr. Jones is a 1972 graduate of Sterling High School, 1975 graduate of Dartmouth College, and received his PhD. in Physics from the University of California, Davis in 1979.

The real question is whether you would vote for a floating head like this:

It will be interesting to see how the press mungs it.  At least I only look moderately insane in this picture versus some the papers have run of me in the past.

Odd Question

Do you ever come upon something so odd and unusual you wonder "What the heck was that?" Today I ended up on answers.yahoo.com and stumbled across this queston:

What should I say to my boyfriend as I shove my dirty gym sock in his mouth and break up with him?

Right off the bat I'm wondering what is going on. Is the poser the long lost mother of this baby?

I suspect the traditional break up procedure lacks a dirty gym sock to the mouth.

Fortunately, there was additional information given by the question poser:

Need something witty... he has a major sock fetish so I need something humiliating. He is going to be tied to a park bench


if you want to know why so cruel, i found out he has been cheating on me for 2 months with 3 girls

Of course, yahoo answers came up with a winner from someone named Brian:

Let's see the girl you've been cheating on me with treat your fetish as well as I do!


-shoves sock in his mouth-

My question to you is twofold. First, is a sock to the mouth now a standard part of breaking up? Second, can you come up with a better answer to this inane question?

At least it wasn't this sock:

A Hard Days Night

Molly had a busy day today. We went out for our walk early in the afternoon so that football could be watched with concentration later. About four miles into the walk, we ran into my friend Bill. Shortly thereafter, we started being followed by a Samoyed that had a collar but no tags. Bill got a catch halter while Molly and I  talked to the Samoyed until Bill could put the halter on. Then we  called one of the animal control officers (who work for me in my position with the Humane Society). As Bill and I figured, the animal control officer recognized the dog and knew where it belonged. It apparently has a habit of roaming on its own. So Molly got the excitement of meeting a new friend and someone to share the doggy equivalent of the masonic handshake - the butt sniff. That kind of excitement just doesn't happen every day.

Molly and I finished our walk and then I got ready to go to the Super Bowl party. Along the way I talked to L in between interruptions by other calls. Molly decided to take a nap since I was ignoring her.  She was still napping when I got back after the game. Entertaining her new friend must have exhausted her.

As I was putting away the laundry, I noticed she was already sacked out in the master bedroom just waiting for me to come to bed. I hate to tell her it will be a while before that happens. What can you say to this:

Especially when Molly then flops down flat when I try to explain:

Guess she'll just have to get over it. It's either that or she was a Colts fan and can't face the final outcome of the game.

It's Official

Today there was an article by Mark Hatchman that summarized the latest Pew Research report on the web. It confirmed what I have suspected for a long time: blogs are the domain of old farts and fartettes. OK, OK, Mr Hatchman didn't refer to old farts and fartettes, nor does the original report, but they may as well have.

The report was a result of the Pew Research Center's ongoing Internet & American Life Project effort. The key finding relevant to blogging was that the number of teens that said they blogged dropped from 28% in 2006 to 14% in 2009. Contrast that with the constant 10% of adults that say they maintain a blog. The real kiss of death amidst teens is that they consider blogging to be un-cool. 

Other interesting numbers pointed out that teens prefer myspace while adults tend towards facebook. No real surprise there. One glimmer of hope - teens don't tweet. Less than 8% of teens use Twitter compared to 19% of adults. Twitter was also rated an un-cool amidst teens. 

So looks like the old farts and fartettes have it - we can blog and tweet to our hearts desire - the kids won't be reading so we can say anything we want about them. {*grin*} 

One factoid that we all are probably already aware of is that there was a decline of roughly 5% in the number of homes with internet/broadband in 2009. Pew made no explanation, but I suspect the economy. For interesting reading, take a look at the full report from Pew Research.

Ahhh, I Don't Hardly Know Her ...

Once more dear friends, into the breech we go. Time for Mama Kat's Writer's Challenge. This week I have choosen to do only one topic:

1.) A song you can’t escape.
(inspired by Stefanie from I’m not much into health food, I am into champagne)

My take is a bit different than the standard lyrics rattling around the skull driving me to distraction. The other night I was listening to music as I finished working on some work work. What to my wondering ears should appear but

followed by

I was struck, in that off-hand stunning way that coincidence slaps you up side the head, by the fact that these songs are associated in my mind with two milestones in the journey to adulthood.

What milestones you ask? Well, Louie, Louie was the first rock song I ever heard performed by a live band. Granted it was a group of fellow junior high classmates playing at the first school dance of my seventh grade career, but it is cemented forever in my mind as the epitome of live and music. To this day more than 40 years later I cannot hear Louie, Louie (or Sitting On The Dock In The Bay by Otis Redding) without casting my mind back to the excitement and sheer joy the live sound brought me. The body throbbing bass, the impact of the drums, the crisp drone of the electric guitars - there is nothing better in the world.

A couple of years later it was 1969 and Crimson & Clover was dominating the AM airwaves. It coincided with the time when I was first seriously entranced by the idea of feminine companionship. Yup, that was when I suffered my first crush on a {*gasp*} girl. Heck, it was the first time I even seriously thought of girls as truly desirable to hang out with for reasons different than guys. Every time I hear Crimson & Clover, I am immediately back in the heady brew of feelings and desires and hormones and melancholy thoughts from that time. Not to mention all the drugs and hallucinogens that were rampant in the world as the 60's came to a close.

The powerful associations formed by music with our emotional and mental state when we first heard it is spooky and wonderful. Hearing the music brings the memories flooding back. But I wonder if the additional social element of community commonality that my generation had continues today. (Stick with me here - you'll soon understand what I'm blithering about!) When I was going through adolescence, we all heard the same songs at the same times on the AM and then FM radio. You and all your cohorts heard the same music at the same time, sharing the same music with a common set of experiences. It was only in college that non-synchronous introduction of different music via {*gasp*} vinyl records began to separate out tastes and preferences.

Contrast that experience with kids of the same age today. Each of them tends to listen to their own collection based more on the intesection of exposure and their social networking. Even a group as small as two is likely to have two separate iPods in their individual ears, listening to different sounds. Thus, I suspect that the common music/experience phenomenon is lost in the generations of today. The commonality is no longer in the experience of and while listening, it is the selection of what to add to the collection and to play. A very different set of memories.

What do you think?

My Name Is ...

My perusal of my Google reader today pointed out that Facebook was pushing the inanity of people looking up their names in the Urban Dictionary and then reporting the results. Given I don't facebook (and don't care for Lost which seems to be filling the twittersphere at the moment), I figured I'd follow the Facebook lead.

1 Daniel - This is a difficult name to define because it defies many boundaries of human perception, let alone various languages. One of the closest translations that experts give is God or many other variations of that general idea. Despite the fact that various names have been pinned to Daniel, its seems that all of the above examples (including that of God) cannot even withstand the magnitude of Daniel.

... Daniel is so powerful, it defies all laws of this or any other universe. Recent studies have shown that people who have attempted to comprehend this name have either disappeared, died spontaneously, or driven themselves into a pertinent state of insanity and/or catatonia.

One common belief is that Daniel is possibly the grounds on which everything and nothing is based. It seems to surpass the idea of infinity. Quantum physicists report that this Daniel is Everything and Nothing. It or He is said to have unexplainable connections with the String and Superstring Theories as Daniel resonates within every single layer of the multi-dimensional complex and yet still exists beyond that point which is where scientists have lost the trail. Various theologists and spiritual leaders believe that Daniel is one who is, as they say, "The Answer". All attempts to understand this idea of Daniel have failed.

3 Daniel - word used for guys who confuse chicks beyond confuzzlement. When a guy is referred to as a Daniel, he has probably confuzzled a chick by saying that he likes her, while he also likes another girl at the same time, and does nothing about the situation.

6 Daniel - a guy you can always go to with any of your problems. He is sensitive and caring. He will try his hardest not to give up on you but sometimes he does. He's a good guy with the best personality. even when your upset with him he can still put a smile on your face. His love is unconditional. Don't make mistakes with him, because he's strong enough to leave. he's a great singer and if you'll ask he mostly sings to you. He wants to be a musician. His ex-girlfriend is amazing and crazy at the same time, but loves him with all her heart...

I can certainly go along with the first definition! {*grin*} The third is just plain wrong - I don't think I have ever confuzzled a chick in that manner. The sixth has some degree of truthfulness, but I'm sticking to my godhood from the primary definition. So what does the Urban Dictionary say about your name?

Do You ....

Do you have people who read your blog but then comment via snail mail (the USPS kind)? I do.

It never fails to crack me up when I get a snail mail commenting on the blog. Why spend $$$ to mail off a comment when you could simply type one in online? Or email me directly through the published email address? I understand the local readers who either call me on the phone or stop me on the street to comment on the blog - they feel it is more personal and polite to comment directly. I can understand the additional sense of connection that comes from the face-to-face or mouth-to-ear interactions. But to mail off an epistle about a blog post seems to me to be a bit odd.

So far most of the snail mails have come from people I know because we went to school together close to 40 years ago. It isn't like they aren't computer literate; they are. It isn't like they don't occasionally send an email; they do. So why the snail mail epistles? I'm hoping one of them will choose to answer, be it via snail mail or email or blog comment or ....

It is pretty funny in a way. I read other bloggers complaining that their friends don't read their blog, their family doesn't read their blog, etc. I have a different problem, a number of people who read my blog but don't comment in the standard ways. I've decided to treat it as an honor to me that they have found a channel to convey their comments to me - what more could an itinerant scribbler hope for?

What's your comment oddity of the moment?