Book Nine has moved

Effective immediately, this blog is moving to WordPress. Please update your bookmarks to point to: http://booknine.wordpress.com/.

Stuff you don't care about

No, really... I'm just putting this in here just for me.

I finished the migration from the old blogger style to the new one, after accepting that I wasn't going to make the modifications to the old-style template that I said I was going to. I would still like a more plain-jane sort of reading experience that isn't constrained to 380 pixels across or whatever insane limits most of the new Blogger templates have, and this one appears to stretch entirely across the page. Maybe I'll get a bug in my bonnet enough to do something about the template to learn how to well-form XML. For now, and for as much time as I'm willing to invest in this particular little project right now (read: very little), this will have to do.

I've started going back and retroactively adding tags to entries.

On the to-do list:

• Get the day-counter back online.
• Get a blogroll or linklist online.
• Try to get a different font for the body text (probably means tinkering with the new Blogger tools.

And yes, it's not a dream: I've changed the title of the blog. For the first time since November 6 2003, the title of my blog / website is not "This Side of the Universe" or some variation or abbreviation thereof. That's not to say that the name is gone forever. In the long history of my website (now in its tenth fabulous year!), it didn't get the name "This Side of the Universe" until several weeks into its inception. The name choice lasted about a year and half, until I revampled the blog in the spring of 1999, opting instead for the long-lasting & never-updated GCT design. I revived the name in November 2003 when I changed the blog design again, moving from a predominantly red design to something more reflective of what I was feeling at the time: black & blue. (That said, don't read too much into my blog design choices this time around, as I feel really constrained under this new system.)

Um, that's all.

Moving Day!

For the third time in its long history, my blog has moved. If you're reading this entry, congratulations. You've successfully located its new home for the forseeable future. Please bookmark this address: http://booknine.blogspot.com/

The Move: FAQ
Q: Why the move?
A: I was running out of space on the Earthlink server. I'd stemmed the tide last year when I started posting my pictures over at Imageshack, but it was only a matter of time before I just plum ran out of space for new entries. That time was approaching rather quickly, so I just opted to bite the bullet and be done with it. The upside is that using Blog*Spot as my host has made the blog more speedy (moving all 280+ entires took about 15 seconds, whereas republishing the entire blog when I made template changes on Earthlink took several minutes, and often would fail from timeout errors).

Q: Are you a truck?
A: No.

Q: Will anything be missing from this new incarnation?
A: Yes. Specifically, the links to the Brown/Milner 2000 election page and the previous verison of the non-blog site will disappear in a few weeks after I've cancelled my Earthlink account. So get your fill of those places while they're still available.

Q: What about Save the ¢?
A: Sadly, Save the ¢ will be one of the casualties of the move. After a long campaign (se7en.5 years!), keyboard manufacturers seem no closer to moving the cent sign back to the keyboard than they did in January 1999. St¢ may not have breathed its last, but it's going into a period of suspended animation for now.

Q: Well for Pete's sake, does anything still work?!?
A: Yes! The blog itself works fine. I've tested most of it, and that which I have tested works very well. Some embedded images have broken, and absolute links to previous entries have broken, but I will get to those as I find them. If you find something that doesn't work, please let me know.

Q: Where does a general keep his armies?
A: In his sleevies.

Q: Are you just movng the blog into cold storage?
A: No. I'm actively working on a new template design that will overhaul the look of the entire blog. In the meantime, you can expect new improvements on a smaller scale. The new look will roll out in its entirety this summer. It will be, at the very least, more colorful.

Q: The address of the blog sucks.
A: Syntax Error. Not a question.

Q: Arg.
A: Syntax Error. Not a question.

Q: Fine. I'll play your stupid little game. O great FAQ, what is up with the Blog*Spot title? What the hell is Book Nine?
A: Much better. The distant ancestor to this blog was an 8-volume, 1500+ page handwritten journal which I kept during the 1990's. I got robbed, and the journal disappeared. After six years of resisting calling this an extension of the handwritten journal, I'm knuckling under and calling it just that, retroactively. The title, "Book Nine" is a hat-tip to the old blog journal.

And the hits just keep coming...

So many spaces on the internets

And I have claimed yet another one. I knuckled under and signed up for MySpace.

It's not out of a sense of "I'm better than MySpace" why I'm not thrilled about it. I just hate being a "joiner," yet this particular event in my net life was instigated by someone telling me, "I hate to tell you this, but Friendster is so over."

Anyway, over there they play lots of Flash ads, including this one that had me sort of transfixed for a good three or four minutes.



If you don't intervene, Bush keeps getting pummled senseless until he is eventually knocked out. Then it starts all over again. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM KNOCKOUT.

Is it wrong that I got some kind of perverse enjoyment out of that? I mean, it says, "Help Bush Win," and I don't wanna.

I did actually help him win once, but I felt icky afterward. The image of Bush pounding a black man into the ground doesn't sit well with me (see: New Orleans).

No point here. Just a mindless moment in my day I felt like sharing. Deal.

MMMM

That's Roman-Numeralese for 4000. As in, the number of visitors I've had since November 2004. Huzzah.

Congrats to visitors 4,000 (read her blog here), and 3,999, who is half of a superb duo from the great state of Colorado, and to whom I send nothing but the fondest of wishes.

Spring Cleaning, 'net style

Got a little project for those of you in the know.

The email address I've been using for the past six years has become positively overrun by spam in the past month. I can't cope with it anymore. So I'm asking you to send me a message to my Earthlink address and let me know that you'd like the address I'll be moving to. I'll send you a message from the new account. Some of you may have the address, some may not. I just ask that even if you're certain you have the new address, email me at Earthlink anyway. Then I know to add or keep you in my address book.

This blog will also be moving, but I'm nowhere near ready for that, and there will be all sorts of fanfare when that move approaches.

So, yeah, shoot me a message at my Earthlink account, and help me purge this spam out of my life.

Deleting old email accounts is the only true spam filter.

Thanks a million.

Happy Festikwanzahannuticemas

The girl and I are headed for All Realms Familial in a matter of moments. I'll be back in a week or so to provide a recap of 2005.

Or something.

Turkey Lurkey Doodle

I'm off for a week with the girl's clan in NY, so I'm now wishing you all, early, a very happy, safe and fulfilling Thanksgiving.

As for me, I am particularly fond of this holiday moreso than in other years. I'm thankful for all of you who have been so unbelievably supportive and caring. Most of all, though, I'm thankful that I'm here and have the chance to have another Thanksgiving.

Be well.

So Much to Say

There's been a whole lot of stuff to write about over the past week: a trip to New Jersey, profit statements from Big Oil, a very bizarre comment, Miers, Plamegate... it's just a lot to process.

It's tempting to let it all sort of slide by as other stuff pops up a little closer to home... MRI in a few hours (routine, not because of anything else that's happened), potentially some job news in the next couple of weeks..., but I really want to sort it all out for myself. I think it's worth it when on October 26, 2005, the conservative right gave over six hours of their prime radio broadcasts talking about... any guesses? Bill Clinton getting blow jobs in the Oval Office. Honestly, from where I sit, they've gone from a deep, nearly pathological denial into full-blown delusional behavior.

I want to get to all of that stuff this weekend. It remains to be seen what I actually end up writing about.

Note to self... remember to set up albums for the Colorado trip as well... you finally have some pictures to show off... you really should do that.