Google

pronounced "gYOOGle".

if you don't have a google account, find someone who does and get an invite. they're cranking out the best web services available and it costs nothing to use. one such service prompted me to make this post:

i was on my personalized start page which has different widgets like weather, news, etc. mine consisted of a couple news outlets, weather for several US cities and The Onion headlines. they have it now where you can add multiple tabs within the page, so i added a new tab and named it "News". my plan was to go in and add a bunch of news widgets, right? when i clicked in the newly created tab, it was already full of all things news. cable news headlines, newspapers, AP, etc. so i created one called "Sports"...same thing. then i did "Entertainment"...same thing. it's quit a time saver. check it out. this article, of which i have read 1/2 of the 1st sentence, says it much better than i.

i won't go into all the other neat things you can do while on google, like gmail, analytics, calendar, shared documents, etc, etc. i think for $50 a year you can have a business account which ups your mail storage, removes ads and a few other features.

i'm out.

Scoutin'

that 12 year old Boy Scout who was missing for 3.5 days in the hills of Western North Carolina was found today...alive! i was all worked up about it and was worried he would turn up dead. thank God he is alright! what a great, feel good story. of course, that means i am now free to make fun of him with impunity.

here are a couple quotes that caught my eye today when reading about this little boy:

from Spokesman Review:
Michael had stayed behind with an adult leader Saturday morning while the rest of the troop went for a hike "because apparently he wanted to sleep in," said David Bauer, a ranger with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Michael was there when the troop returned for lunch, but the group of about 10 Scouts and their three adult leaders soon noticed he was missing, Bauer said.

[His father said] "He ate lunch, chatting with the boys. He was walking around with I think some Pringles and a mess kit. The next moment, sounds like a blink of the eye, he was gone."

Searchers found Michael's mess kit late Saturday within a mile of the camp site, and White said they had also found a candy wrapper and a potato chip bag.

after being found, the first words out of his mouth, from CBC News in Canada:
"He just said, 'I'm hungry,"..."He wanted peanut butter crackers and water."

and perhaps best of all, from FoxNews:
A two-year-old dog named Gandalf from South Carolina led search-and-rescue officials to Michael's location, which was about a half-mile northeast of the campsite where he was last seen.

i apologize for being insensitive and would he have perished in the woods, i would never state these things publicly, but come on! he skipped the hike to sleep in and hooked back up with his buddies for lunch...then he wondered off with a can of Pringles and a candy bar...got lost for 3.5 days, and when found (a half mile from the campsite!!!), immediately requested peanut butter crackers!!

wow.

if i've learned anything from this story, it is: this kid is a litterbug. and it saved his life. he left a trail of cellophane and cardboard in his wake so thick, all 'ol Gandalf had to do was follow it straight to him. so i ask you all to litter. litter like there's no tomorrow. it may be our only hope.

Readin'

i don't read nearly as much as i should. every now and then i'll try to motivate myself to get back on it. sort of like college when i would voluntarily choose an 8am class over a later one thinking, "it'll be good! it'll be different this time! i'll get up and get going, be done with classes by noon and have the whole rest of the day to kick ass!!". makes sense. good theory. except that i'm not a morning person and however good my intentions, i would skip that class more often and put myself in a much worse situation by having to catch back up. the only ass that got kicked was mine.

2 years ago, i decided to ask for books as Christmas presents. i specified Patriots, on the recommendation of a great friend (and patriot) Bob Hutchins, as well as Ben Franklin's Autobiography and yet another book about Benjamin Franklin. that was apparently during my American Revolution kick. that kick has since ended, but not before reading none of the books all the way through.

the friggin' Autobiography of Ben Franklin is tiny, people. it fits in your pocket. literally brochure style. didn't finish it. the other two are mammoth. started Patriots, but it had so many names and dates...the other BF book was very intimidating. huge.

i even got a library card late last year. of the 3 or 4 books i checked out, all were returned late, but none were not returned unread.

i'm back on a reading kick. this time, i'm starting with small and realizable goals. Thurston loaned me "V for Vendetta". it's a comic book. i finished it. a friend from work loaned me "Marley and Me". it's a 'Man and his dog' type book. after a few months, i finally started it and it's pretty good.

why do i want to be "a reader"? it's cool, i guess. people say, "hey have you read such and such? no?" and they turn away to go find somebody who's read it. it's neat to talk about cool books you've read. the coolest i ever felt was when somebody saw a movie and i was able to honestly say, "yeah, the movie was pretty good but i read the book and it was much better". who cares that it was "The Firm" by John Grisham? i was finally able to say those words: The Book Was Better.

in conclusion, i see that i'm not so much "pretentious" as "wanna-be pretentious". that's much worse!