I'm really surprised that Jakob Nielsen, in his newest Alertbox, Content Creation for Average People, doesn't mention Blogger or even weblogs, in his discussion of Average People getting content online. He makes many excellent points:
"Even when people don't have material that the world might find of interest, they often have content to share that is very important to a few people, such as their family and friends."
"Letting users create small bits and pieces of content makes the job less intimidating than having to create a whole site all at once."
"Although most may never be great, many will be able to produce good content that will appeal to small audiences."
And I like his solutions, especially to teach content creation, but his recommended approach is crazy. He hopes, "schools will soon begin teaching kids how to author hypertext ." Whoa, hold on Jakob, why? The problem, which he even admits, is that the content that's being created isn't very good ("The vast wasteland of Geocities confirms this"), so wouldn't it make more sense to spend time teaching writing skills? Why bog kids down with HTML? Does knowing HTML make one a better writer? I don't think so.
That's why tools like Blogger are so valuable. You can get your content online (and more of it, more often, easier, so you're writing more and improving every day) without needing to know HTML, without worrying about creating a whole page, a design, or a site. You just write, click a button, and your voice is online. It's as simple as that.
Ok, the blue was fine, I got used to it. The reddish-orange was actually quite nice, much like a shirt I admire, but this color? This horid, burning-my-eyes-out-it's-so-damn-bright-yellowey-green? No. At this color I must draw the line and say, Please, for the love of God, bring back the Yellow!
One should never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Speaking of, what is the history of that strange phrase? I'm sure it pre-dates the Monkees. Are its origins based in the wild west, when people would give one another horses as gifts? Was it considered impolite to look in their mouths? And if you got a gift horse, why would you look in its mouth? To see if it had teeth? Gingivitis? Braces? Fillings? Or maybe something in a horse's mouth indicates its overall health, so you look to make sure it's healthy? Because you sure as hell wouldn't want to accept a gift horse that's going to die on you. Then you'd have to bury it, and bury a gift horse is a pain in the ass. When my speculation ceases to amuse you, look here for the real answer.
I found out what the word is, it's more of a sentance: I see a camera, I take a picture. That's the word today.
Made some changes to the domain servers, shouldn't effect access, but it may, so consider yourself warned...
You know what I enjoy the most about a TWIX bar? The fact that it's a *cookie* bar. And cookie = tasty and fun. It's not a *candy* bar. Candy = bad and makes you fat and ugly and evil. Cookie! Woo hoo! What a treat. Be sure to check out the Mixed Trivia, FAQ, and Science(!) information.
Food and Drug Administration approves abortion pill Wow, after all this time, I never thought the FDA would approve RU-486, especially with the increasing fervor of the anti-choice contingent these days. A less-invasive, non-surgical abortion is an important option that should be available to all women, not just Europeans. Though I fear its cost of approximately $300 puts it out of reach of far too many.
What's the word? Please help me, I don't know. I really don't.
And because I'm thinking of poems, and poetry, and because it's autumn, and because I like to share the things I like with you, I offer this link: Keats' To Autumn. Enjoy this "[s]eason of mists and mellow fruitfulness" for we've only one month or so left, before the rains and snow drown us with winter, and all grows cold and dormant.
More links, to Auden (via Nick) at the W.H. Auden Society and to poetry (via Denise) at The Academy of American Poets. Get your fill of all things audenical and poetical at the sites, yummy yummy. I recommend this handy poem search if you're looking to send a special love poem to your web honey.
Got any Irish blood in you? You can search for your genealogical roots at this Irish Geneology page. I'd hoped to turn up more on my family names of Hourihan and Moriarty, but I don't really have enough information to take full advantage. If you know your Irish ancestors names, you can search for birth and marriage records. Of course, it costs money, but isn't that cheaper than flying there? Meeting Tom this past weekend's got me all thinking about Ireland, in case you're wondering...
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like a monkey, and smell like one too.
Hearing authors read their works aloud is one of my favorite pleasures. Unfortunately, with so many of my favorite authors dead and buried, it's one in which I seldom indulge. A site like mp3lit.com could help me with this problem, except the navigation on the site is poor and it's difficult to locate ones favorite authors. When I clicked on Poetry, I was given a big page full of recommended authors, and it wasn't until the bottom that I found a link to "click here for more authors in poetry," which lead me to an alphabetical listing by author. While I appreciate their effort to expose me to fresh new voices, I really just wanted to find Auden, to find out if I could hear him reading one of my favorite poems, Musee des Beaux Arts. Sadly, it's not one they offer.
Wowzers, I guess somewhere along the way, I forgot to uncheck a box at register.com asking them not to send me email. And in a way, I'm glad I did. Today I received this email in my Inbox:
As a valued customer, register.com is pleased to offer you a FREE, 1-year domain name registration of the domain names meghourihan.com, meghourihan.net and meghourihan.org to express our appreciation of your business!
All I had to do was click on a link and bam! they were all mine. It was that easy. Of course, they're hoping to upsell me on all kinds of services, which I don't need. Come to think of it, I don't need all those domain names either. Oh well, I guess I'll just point them to megnut.com for now.
A whirlwind weekend of friends and stories and beach walks with sunshine and stone-skipping, the Sunday Times in bed, sunset from a warm new house, summer's last days and sad goodbyes, a whirlwind weekend indeed.
Today is Fray Day. Will you be there to share your stories with me?
I've listened to Kid A many times over now, and I have to say: I am not disappointed. For the first time, I think, ever, a follow-up album isn't a let down. Running through albums I've loved, albums I've played over and over and over again, I can't recall a time I wasn't let down by the follow-up. Until now. I want to get in a fast car with a great stereo and drive on a long straight road, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, maybe with mountains off in the distance, maybe through the dessert, with a sky full of stars, just listening and driving on and on and on. I don't even know to where, just on and on and on, with this album filling my ears.
Today I'm treating myself: I'm listening to the new Radiohead album over at the BBC (it's only up until Friday). I'd been holding off until the album was released because I'm scared. I loved OK Computer so so much, probably more than almost any other album ever. And I don't want to be disappointed. I've been waiting so long for this new one, and I fear a let-down. But I couldn't resist when I saw Judith's link, it's just the thing to get me through the next, and final, hour here at work.
On envelope window standards:
We've got standards all over the place, why don't we have standards for which side of the envelope the clear window goes on? Sometimes it's on the right, sometimes it's on the left. If it were always in the same place, companies (mine for instance) could order a whole slew of envelopes with windows all in the same place, with our return address pre-printed on it, even pre-stamped perhaps. And then the bills with their pre-printed address would line up perfectly in the windows. Instead of windows all willy-nilly all over the place.
On the Eminenya MP3:
Back in May I wrote a little something about combining Eminem and Enya's music. A dear reader made it happen. It's been written up all over the place, it's been receiving air play all over the place. It's funny and that's all there is to it.
On this site:
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On the women's gymnastics finals last night:
Matt talked about the incessant fault-finding by the commentators in gymnastics last month during the Olympic trials in Boston, and last night it reached absurd levels. The Russians lost the gold by .205 and as the camara zoomed in on the face of a dejected Svetlana Khorkina, one announcer said, "She lost it for Russia when she fell off the bars." While that may be true, it is unfair to place the blame on one woman.
The women's *team* final gold is awarded to the *team* with the highest score, based on the contributions of all the women. While it's true that Khorkina's fall from the bars was costly, so too were two other Russians' falls from the beam. Also costly were all the deductions for less-than-perfect body position and hops on landings. Each one of those women "lost it for Russia," or if you'd rather be nice about it, "won a silver medal for Russia." This continued obsession with being number one is disgusting. There are six Russian women who can look back on yesterday for the rest of their lives, and hopefully they will do so with pride rather than regret. Being an Olmpic medalist, having the honor to represent one's country, and being recognized as one of the best gymnasts in the world, if only for a sliver of time, is something to be treasured. Not callously demeaned by statements such as, "the Russians want gold or nothing at all."
On Chavo's Mexican Restaurant (4th and Bryant):
I don't want to go there anymore. Every time I go, I get rude treatment for ordering vegetarian tacos. First of all, if they offered their Tofu Ranchero every day, I'd get that, happily, and I wouldn't have these altercations with the mean man behind the counter. But they don't. I'm not crazy about flour tortillas. I *am* crazy about corn tortillas. So instead of ordering a vegetarian burrito (which Matt and jack order without any trouble what-so-ever), I order vegetarian tacos. This is not on their menu, though they do offer tacos a la carte, under which label I presume my vegetarian tacos fall. The mean man (MM) always feigns confusion when I order this. "What?" "Huh?" "Just beans and rice?" YES! I want to scream, YES! How can this be confusing? It's the same as a veggie burrito, but don't wrap it up, just place it on a corn tortilla!
Yesterday was the final straw. After I ordered, the woman with whom I spoke confirmed a vegetarian taco with the MM (in Spanish, but I understood, since I speak Spanish) and he turned to me and said, "Oh, that's a Made in the USA taco," as if to accuse me of making up Mexican food or something. Hello?! Since when did his restaurant turn into any sort of authentic Mexican eatery? I don't see mole poblano on the menu, or menudo, or huachinango a la veracruzana, or ceviche, or any of the traditional Mexican foods I enjoyed when I lived there. And what happened to the customer is always right? I guess Chavo's operates under some sort of "The customer is always right unless she wants something that's not on the menu and isn't considered authentic Mexican food by us." And from what I recall of Mexican culinary history, it was the Aztecs who were pummeling maize into round patties *before* the Spaniards arrived with flour to make those other tortillas anyway.
On TiVo:
Some people are so funny they win TiVo's. Some people are so lucky the winner gives them the TiVo! Woo hoo!
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