Category: words mean things (Page 123 of 223)

When was the last time that you stumbled on a weblog you’d never read before, and just sat there for a long time, reading more and more? Where each new page was something fresh and engaging? When was the last time you wrote a post just to recommend another weblog?

Give a gray box with words inside a try. The fisheye photos on the current front page knocked my socks off, and the rest is just as good. Gives you hope that there’s all kinds of good stuff out there we just haven’t stumbled on.

Looking through some old e-mails pertaining to words mean things tonight, I was reminded:

I miss Top Ten Blog.

I was going to write a nasty post about this story, which outlines how celebrities have been getting fees from pharmaceutical companies to talk about their medical problems on talk shows, while simultaneously mentioning the drug or surgery or whatever that made their life so much better.

But then I thought, why am I even surprised? Why should I rail against something that seems so obvious? Did I think that celebrities appeared on television anywhere without some ulterior motive? It’s much less the celebrity’s or the drug company’s fault than it is my own. In the age of infomercials, is there anything anymore that can be considered a public service announcement?

I got the coolest birthday present yesterday from my good friend Becky. She and I had talked about how one of our favorite movies was “Local Hero,” where the oil exec from Texas goes to Scotland to buy up a town for a new refinery. Turns out, she and her husband have visited the location of the film several times. So as a present, she gave me some shells from the “Local Hero” beach.

An amazing present from an amazing person. Thanks again, Becky.

The best-laid plans…

So I sent out my first issue of the newsletter yesterday. Much to Mr. Mosey’s derision, I decided to use Topica to manage the list. I thought it would be easier than managing it myself with a bulk e-mail program, or by writing something custom in Cold Fusion.

So I send out the first issue, only to find that they place ads not just at the bottom of the e-mail, but at the top as well. And for things like online dating services. Ugh. I should have known something was amiss when no ads appeared on my test e-mails.

Then, the Topica site went down yesterday afternoon, and was only back up this morning. So those few souls who actually wanted to subscribe were turned away.

I’m seriously thinking of just downloading the list from Topica and putting it into the bulk e-mail program I was planning on purchasing. I’ll have to manage the list by hand, but people won’t have to register to subscribe, and there won’t be any ads.

Damn technology.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday, an occasion I share with Brett Somers and Richie Sambora. In honor of this auspicious day, 7-11 is giving out free Slurpees. Have one on me.

And there’s still time to get me a belated birthday gift. If you want.

Not a rhetorical question:

Who do you think is smarter, George W. Bush or Dan Quayle?

I vote for Quayle.

I keep debating about whether to change the focus of this weblog. I’ve tried to make it about words and politics and pop culture, because those things interest me and I can write reasonably intelligently about them.

I don’t have much personal stuff, or stuff about my day, on this page. I don’t know if it’s all that interesting, and I find the other stuff more compelling and easier to write about. And then I go to other people’s weblogs, and they get 25 comments on a post about problems with their catbox or something.

I’m sure comment numbers don’t really mean anything (Wil Wheaton gets 94 comments when he blows his nose), but I keep wondering if the stuff I go on about is interesting or entertaining to anyone. And I’ll admit, despite myself I get a little jealous when I see high comment numbers on other people’s pages.

People always say, oh, I do this for myself. I don’t care if anyone reads it. But are those of us who say those things just lying to ourselves? How much are we writing to please ourselves, and how much are we writing to please an audience – one we don’t know much about? This blogging thing is strange. It’s like performing in a play through a virtual reality suit.

Just a mini motivational crisis. It’ll pass.

As many of you already know (since I’ve bugged you mercilessly about it), I’m starting a free weekly e-mail newsletter on web topics, called Web Common Sense. I’ve posted a sample article so you can get a feel for it. If you’d like to subscribe, I’d be grateful. If you tell anyone else about it, I’ll be extremely grateful.