Something's gone screwy with my DNS and it looks like I'm not getting email at my usual address. If you need to email me, please use mhourihan -at- yahoo.com instead. This site may also disappear, and depending on what the problem is I may move my DNS, meaning everything will be down/broken/not working for a couple days. If possible, I'll keep you updated. Ugh. Sometimes I hate the internet.

Update: in the meantime, you can always access megnut at http://megnut.metafilter.com/.

Second update: UltraDNS deleted my account (thereby removing my records from their nameservers) through a series of billing and invoicing "errors" that are hard to believe (apparently their payment system and invoicing system are not intergrated?!). Suffice to say, I've left them. What that means in plain English is this: megnut.com will become unreachable for a period of time (24 – 48 hours) and then it will come back. If you're trying to send me email, it will probably queue on your mail server but I won't get it for a few days. By the end of this week, all should be well again. Damn you UltraDNS! Damn you!

Dear Abby addresses weblogs in today's column. And you can guess the issue — because it's one we've all faced — writing about your friends on your blog.

I am a 14-year-old girl about to start my freshman year in high school. Most of my friends (including myself) have Web logs — or "blogs."… I have several friends who have stopped speaking to each other after reading not-so-nice things about themselves in the blogs.

Too funny!

Something went kaput with the web server yesterday while those who were able to reboot it were unavailable, hence no megnut. But I'm thinking about moving the site to a more substantial server whose uptime should be more reliable. Hopefully at some point in the next month or two I'll find the time.

Videos of each speaker's presentation at Reboot are available online for your enjoyment. I haven't watched mine — too painful — so I'm not sure what you'll see if you do. I suspect lots of fast talking, excitement about weblogs, and flailing of arms. I do recommend checking out the other speakers though, there's some good stuff in there, especially if you haven't heard any of them present before.

Following Matt's suggestion to find pictures of people with your surname, I searched Google images for 'hourihan' and came across some interesting photos. The weirdest is this photo of Chip Hourihan from the Exeter facebook of 1979. I don't know Chip, but the photo oddly looks a bit like me. Perhaps we're related? Also I found a reference to Hourihan of Ireland in this photo from a clothing catalog. Hourihan of Ireland makes, "[c]apes and wraps in luxury blends of precious fibers." This is one of those times I just love the web. I want a cape from my kinfolk.

There's my Lafayette Project — bringing weblogs to a wider audience, improving the reading experience, etc. And then there's The Lafayette Project, a genealogy site dedicated to the French soldiers of the American Revolutionary War. Who knew?

There's a New York Times article, A Blogger's Big-Fish Fantasy, that looks at the issue of weblog audience and how to grow yours. It features some quotes from me, in which I use the ridiculous word, "complainy." I'm sure there's a better word to have come out of one's mouth when speaking to the New York Times, but I don't have that sort of luck. Or skill.

There's a new version of IndyJunior available from Bryan. IJ is the Flash app I use to create a map of my travels. The new version offers a regional level of zoom, so that if you go between two continents (as I will tomorrow), you can see just the areas where you'll be travelling. Way cool. I continue to [heart] IndyJunior.

I haven't been following BlogShares too closely — though I think it's interesting, given my new-found interest in all things market — so I was very surprised to see that megnut is trading at $1,186.79. Does anyone have any idea why the share price has climbed so much? On June 2 it was only trading at $358.33, what happened? While you're at it, could you also explain to me why megnut is the #1 blog in the gay category?