Stealth Mode

There is something about RSS feeds that I find objectionable. What exactly it is I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that I don't like the idea of being tracked. Therefore I have, insofar as I understand the process, gone into the settings and disabled feeds. Whether or not this will actually do anything I can't really say, but at least for the moment it makes me feel pretty sneaky.

Did I do that?

While I was trying to install the language packs on my computer, so I could see foriegn language characters instead of those annoying boxes, something odd happened. Now everything on blogger is displayed in Japanese. I have to go by memory to figure out which buttons to push in order to post.

Most confusing.

Study shows man self-absorbed, mercurial, and filled with useless trivia

Having recently updated my blog template, I took the opportunity to use the new post labels (new may be relative, they are new to me, at any rate). It appears I mostly write about myself, a fact that should come as no surprise to anybody.

My second favorite topic is "miscellaneous", which in addition to being hard to spell, is just another expression of my characteristic laziness. I didn't want to make 30 different topics with one post, so I just threw them in the same category. Then later when I noticed that I could actually have made a few genuine, substantive labels, sloth prevented the necessary corrections.

Finally, my "monthly" Pointless Factoids come in third. At eighteen I only actually have one for roughly every other month, but even had I been more dilligent, the entire category would only have come in second.

My least favorite topics? Religion, writing, and women. Not quite sure what that says about me.

Polish

How much effort can it really take to code Blogger to alter the word "comments" based on the number of comments such that the phrase is grammatically correct? When I see something like "1 comments", it just makes me shake my head.

Yes it's a little thing, but being so insignificant one would expect the fix to be simple. These kinds of errors are seen in many different fields, and it betrays a level of quality control that boggles the mind.

New Model Diary

Well, after a brief period of hesitation, I decided to click on the "update" thing. This blog is now subject to whatever the new features are.

Hopefully nothing implodes.

Temporarily It

The dictates of social convention require a short divulgement of relatively insignificant personality traits, followed by a subsequent assignment of like responsibilities on other candidates.

1. Horror and post-apocalyptic movies truly, sincerely scare me (I suppose that is one of the drawbacks of an overactive imagination), yet I just can't resist watching them.

2. I like blue drinks. On those rare occasions when I go drinking with friends and actually drink, I ask for "something blue".

3. My favorite Transformer is Soundwave, although Star Scream is a close second.

4. In a role-playing campaign I once game mastered, a character was executed for his own murder.

5. I carry a torch for Mira Sorvino. So much so that I'll actually watch The Replacement Killers if it shows up on TV.

Because I feel it is more in keeping with the spirit of the game, I am tagging people I do not know in "real life". Apologies.

SKY, Doug, Gurn, Moon Goddess, and Guruh are now "it".

Little Favors

To preserve the sanity of my readers as well as the commentary of an issue of importance, I have made this "throw-away" post for people to indulge in their reciprocal commenting obligations. If you would like to read my long diatribe on torture, you are more than welcome, and to comment as well. But if you would rather avoid the novelette, I have provided this alternative.

Like a Seinfeld episode or The Crying of Lot 49, there's nothing to this post, but even I cannot be insightful all the time.

Somewhat more organized than before

I have now included a categories section in my sidebar, and have begun the process of organizing my posts. Most of them have been included in one or more of the listed divisions.

Unfortunately, the blogger tools themselves don't allow for any easy way to achieve this degree of categorization. If anyone wants to know how I did it, see the guide here.

The Whore of Blogylon

Am I the only one who thinks those Adsense bars are a little ridiculous? To my mind, they mar an otherwise excellent format for personal expression, a brash bourgeois intrusion into otherwise thoughtful narratives. Whenever I see one, I always wonder what the blogger was thinking when he or she signed up.

Now, I am the first one to admit that if I believed there was real money in it, I should abandon my artistic integrity and proudly peddle links of dubious utility. And of course, something is always better than nothing, especially since in this case the "cost" is somewhat ephemeral, and indeed to some perhaps non-existent. It is easy to put sign up for AdSense, and it's burdens are actually quite slight.

If it made me any money that would be more than I had before, and I would seem none the worse for it. However, I think in a real sense there would be a price to be paid for free money. I do not intend to criticize anyone who may employ AdSense, after all it's their blog to do with as they will, but I can't help but think that the pittance they offer is an insufficient incentive to become a tool of commercial advertising.

Relatively harmless, if somewhat demeaning, AdSense may be. Unfortunately, some other people have chosen less innocuous forms of advertising revenue. I hate to encounter pop-ups of any kind, and I have yet to encounter any truly malicious, but there are many blogs that trigger these unprovoked windows. Some of these ads contain brutal, vicious viruses or worms. Others, maybe, "merely" annoying adware.

But there is an injury even aside from technological inconveniences. I know it might seem strange, but I have it in me to be personally offended at the attempted usurpation of my attentions. After all I think I should be free to govern for myself the advertising content I consider. Each precocious pop-up just makes me want to leave the place that much sooner.

Of course, it should go without saying that the standards differ depending on whether the site in question is personal and professional. But even commercial sites, in my opinion, would do well to craft less obtrusive advertisements.

Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?

Way back in February of 2005, Carol left the following comment:

Your website is very interesting. You appear to be a very deep thinking person. What the heck does someone like you enjoy about a "mommy blog"?

As it happens, I'm actually just an exceedingly shallow thinking person, but the vast array of subjects I touch on provides the illusion of depth. Don't tell anyone though. In any case, it is her question rather than her appraisal that forms the basis of this post.

What the hell was I doing on your blog when I posted a comment?

Blogs fascinate me. I like to read them. There are many things in this world I will never get to experience for myself, and what's more, anything I do encounter I can only do as myself. For all the class, intelligence, style, and grace that perspective may hold, it is in the end, finite. A few clicks enlarges my range exponentially, alien snapshots conjoined into a gallery of dizzying diversity. So if you maintain a blog, thank you. It can be a lot of work, but you do more good than you know.

If you are newly come to this site, or if you have thus far engaged already in reciprical commentaries, allow me to reassure you that you needn't leave a comment just because I did. Of course, you are welcome to comment. I enjoy reading them, and it helps me find your blog again (as I just click the "Next Blog" icon on the top bar or check the most recent updated), but if you are doing so solely out of a sense of obligation, rest easy in the knowledge that I won't be offended.

Standard Deviation: Now with 20% more posting regularity!

Well, I'm back. For how long isn't quite clear at this point, but I stumbled across the old blog and felt like maybe trying to post again. You'd think with most of a year off I'd have something to talk about, and I guess I probably do, but I don't feel like launching into the particulars of my life right now. It's enough for me that I've started posting again.

More to come another time.

New Features! Aren't they shiny?

As you can see, there is now a little letter icon down at the bottom of every post. This useless feature allows you to send my mindless prattling to anyone you feel is in need of help falling asleep. The other neat addition is a comment-spam prevention tool.

Much as I'll regret cutting off this free source of stock advice, it had to be done.

A More Perfect Union

We bloggers are, in a sense, all in this together. We make up this nebulous thing called the blogsphere, where we all try to muddle our message across as best we can. With this in mind, I humbly submit a small list of suggestions that, if followed, I believe would greatly improve our little union.

Now, in offering these suggestions, I in no way mean to stifle anyone's creativity or otherwise offend their blog. Anyone willing to put themselves out in blog form has my respect, if for no other reason than that they've put something out into the world. Nor is it my intention to dictate to people the proper way to blog. I am unwilling and unqualified to undertake such an endeavor. Nevertheless, I do offer these suggestions, and I do it from the standpoint of someone who enjoys our new medium.

1. No more of this: It Is ReAlLy AnNoyInG aNd PrOlOnGeD ExPoSuRe MaKeS yOuR eYeS bLeEd!

2. Please, do not include crappy midi files of your favorite songs. Not only, in all probability, will your musical tastes completely and totally blow, but even were you broadcasting a masterpiece it would be of such poor quality and subject to the vagaries of the internet as to add nothing save frustration. If a particular piece of music is that crucial to understanding your blog, note the title on the side. I promise I'll play it if I have it.

3. Skool. 1337. Cuz. @. b4. These are not words!

4. Can you read this? Not very well. Neither can anyone else in the freaking universe! Please keep in mind that if you are using a design with tables that the text will often be smaller than usual.

5. Paragraphs are your friends.

This is just a modest list of suggestions. But if we all took them to heart, we'd be five steps closer to a more perfect blogsphere.

Ichiban

On a whim, I decided to do a vanity search on google for LeperColony and interestingly enough, the first result is my blogger profile. I have been seen, and I like it.

Titular Distinction

I know it sounds kinda weird, but I put a lot of thought into the titles of my posts. Until I can get down a title I like, I can't really proceed with the rest of the entry. This is even more unusual, given that I don't put any thought at all into most of the ensuing text. By that I mean I don't need to think about what to write; rather, the words just seem to flow on their own, and I just type until they run out. That would account, too, for some of the abrupt endings one may occasionally find here and there.

Personally, I think the art of the title is somewhat rather neglected. A good title, in my opinion, should draw a direct connection to the body of the post, but it should also draw a reference to something else the reader might know, a point of reckoning to which he or she may use to examine the entry. This isn't really a very high standard, what with the wealth of phrases our culture generates (or copies), but even so it can be a difficult to practice to follow.

I've tried my best to come up with neat titles, some of them I think are a little clever, but that is my own personal conceit. The degree to which I have actually succeeded may be debatable. Fortunately, the irrelevance of the whole subject would make any debate an unlikely occurrence.

The weakest link

Well, I've linked to a new blog. It's maintained by one of my friends, an old roommate from UCSC. There's not really much I can say in his favor. He's pretty dumb, shallow too, and yes a Dragonball Z fan to boot, but for all that I guess it's a little late in the day to renounce him. You can see his new blog here, if you really have nothing better to do.

The Ardship of Cambry

I thought I'd take a break from serious stuff to address something that's been bothering me for a while. I'm new to blogging, so with a novice's enthusiasm for the novel, I often peruse some of the other journals. Blogspot has a nifty list of recently updated sites, which I scan at my leisure, clicking on names that happen to catch my attention. Many of the blogs are written in foriegn languages, though their titles are in English. There are a subset of blogs, however, that appear to be written in a kind of degenerate English indicative of something out of Riddly Walker. When the host of words "to, too, and two" became replaced by a multipurpose numerical expression I couldn't say, but thrown in with the other shortcuts and you'll think you've got literature from the Mole People.

Now, I know what many of you are thinking. I admit it isn't really that big of a deal, and that I am probably just overly sensative to linguistic violence. On the other hand, this is the language of Shakespeare and Mark Twain. We were left with great works of literature, expositions on the nature of humanity and existence. We'll pass on 1337.

These dismal substitutions are finding their way out of the internet too. No longer is terrible English to be restricted to the inner city or the internet. At law school I heard someone respond to an amusing anecdote with "lol." Lol! Come on people, we can do better than this!