“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

- George Orwell

There'll be light blogging here during the holiday weekend as most of what I'll be doing that is blog-related will be behind the scenes. There's plenty for you to read, however, in The Manival #10 (The Independence Day Edition) hosted this week by Brett at The Art of Manliness.

There are several posts from regular Manival contributors, plus a lot of material from others who are new to the fraternity. This week guy's are trying to answer questions such as "What Does Religion Mean to Your Marriage?", "Why Doesn't She Want Sex Like I Do?", "Is Chivalry Dead?" and whether it's okay for a man to wear Crocs or clogs.

There are also posts on how a man can be a lighthouse for his children, how to help your kids develop decision-making skills and a humorous look at how one guy is trying to establish family traditions. There's a lot more than that as well, so celebrate your independence from the man-numbing popular culture by going to the Manival link above seeing what these guys (and a gal) have to say!

Wouldn't you just know it, it's the shortest night of the year and I'm hosting Manival #9. What does the summer solstice have to do with anything? Well, since I'm the Night Writer, that means this is the shortest window of opportunity for me all year — and there were 36 entries into this week's carnival to be read, reviewed, accepted or rejected!

I've tried to make it easier for readers to sort through these by organizing the posts into categories and providing a brief description of each article (or maybe just to prove that I read them all). There are 22 linked here; the ones that were excluded were also interesting and well-written but were eliminated for one of two reasons. 1) Multiple submissions from the same blogger (I didn't know until I hosted that the Manival limits you to one post per person per week). 2) The topic was interesting, but not "manly" enough; that is, the topic was general enough to be relevant for a large audience, but not specifically geared toward men. That sounds arbitrary (because it is), but hey — my week, my call.

EDITOR'S CHOICE
I was having a tough time picking a favorite from so many worthy entries but, wouldn't you know, the last entry under the wire blew me away. Man Up: Power by Corey at The Simple Marriage Project. Read it first, or read it last, and see if you don't agree.

PARENTING
On the parenting front, David B. Bohl examines The Difference Between a Dad and a Father on his Slow Down Fast blog.

Tony Chen gets "in the zone" with Tiger Woods and I are Pretty Similar over at SavvyDaddy.

Charlie Kondek goes from Thomas the Tank Engine to "Infinity and Beyond" in examining how his son is learning to distinguish good and evil in Daddy, What Does Evil Mean? at Virile Lit.

Totally Consumed is totally touching in Father to Son: an open letter on leadership.

Dad of Divas offers the thoughtful post Time In a Bottle, reminding us that no one has yet figured out how to get that time to stay in the bottle.

Babbo examines the dark twists on the path to enlightenment in his post Was Buddha a Schmuck? over at Daddy Brain.

Oh boy, just in time for the Solstice, Derek offers 10 Things To Do With Your Kids This Summer from the Man Page. (The article link works fine, just don't try to go directly to his blog's home page because the stupid Bill Engvall audio file will crash your browser - or at least it did to mine, repeatedly. But I'm not bitter. Update: Derek fixed the site, click away).

Inspired by these, I'll link to one of my older posts about a painful, but valuable, lesson my daughters and I learned in Duty is Ours. Results are God's.

GUY STUFF & MANLINESS
Looking to beat a manly retreat from the hustle and bustle of daily life? James Hills has a series of posts on "Man Trips" or "mancations", including a review and interview regarding a Stogies and Sticks golf package at the Arizona Biltmore, on his Man Tripping blog.

Dr. Awesome keeps the Male Bag, I mean, Mail Bag, open with another advice column, this time on the topic of what qualify as manly Careers. (Advance warning, male hairdressers may want to start calling themselves "hair wranglers".) You can check it out on To Every Man a Manswer.

I think you can expect Russ to fully accept any bouquets or brickbats that might come his way from his Accepting Responsibility post over on Escaping Enlightenment.

Doug Rutter asks a question: do you want to "have" kids or "raise" kids in his post Koke has Man Shoes on his self-named blog.

Kevin submitted a couple of good selections for this week's Manival, but I chose his tribute to Tim Russert, not because of it's timeliness but because the inspiration Kevin received is timeless. (While you're on the Return to Manliness blog you might want to look around for his "Top 10 First Date Conversations.")

With a blog named Stormbringer's Thunder, and his own straight-forward manly name, you can be sure Bob has little time for sissies in his post What About the Guys? (Bob seems like the kind of guy who never got in touch with his feminine side, probably because of a restraining order it took out on him).

Dustin at dBlogit gave me two posts to choose from and I selected Why Men Hate Chick Flicks And How to Avoid Watching Them. Though some of his criticisms of chick-flick cliches could also apply to more manly buddy-type action flicks, the clincher is he also offers great escapes for when a chick-flick appears inevitable.

There's a reason the classic TV show Home Improvement featured tools prominently: tools are manly. Andrew from Primer magazine submits a list of the 10 Tools Every Man Should Have, so make sure you've got what it takes.

MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS
The Manival has a fine tradition of including "How To" posts. This week Cory Huff has some great advice on "how to shoot yourself in the foot" with The Ultimate Guide To Winning An Argument With Your Spouse at A Good Husband.

A wise man I know often says, "You can be happy, or you can be right." Hayden Tompkins carves a trail for you over similar ground in How to De-Escalate Your Marriage at Persistent Illusion.

I beg your pardon; may I suggest you read Use Your Manners by A Husband on the I Am Husband blog? Thank you.

OTHERS
Andrew Scotchmer has to literally walk the talk (or talk the walk) as he uncovers the benefits of becoming bilingual in Do You, Parlez-Vous? at Complete Kaizen. (And no, GSL - Grunting as a Second Language - doesn't count).

GP offers a great photo and a reflection that dreams — and grace — do come true in a post entitled Zen of the West.


If you'd like to be part of Manival #10 submit your blog article using the Manival submission form.

I've been asked to play host to Manival #9 next week. Use the link here if you have a post from your blog that you'd like to share that has insight, humor or edification (or all three!) on the ways of men. You need to send these to me by Monday, as the Manival rides on Tuesday!

I've found a lot of new and interesting blogs by participating in this carnival. It's been surprising and encouraging to see how many men are using their talents and keyboards to inform, entertain and encourage other men and women. Apparently I'm not the only one that has noticed. The Pioneer Press ran an article this week about "Daddy Bloggers" as a contrast to "Mommy Bloggers". It didn't mention any of the blogs I've been reading lately, though, so I thought I'd throw some links out here. Some of these have been added to my blogroll and the rest will be soon.

The Art of Manliness
Dad Gone Mad
Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life
A Good Husband
The Man Page
The Simple Marriage Project
DaddyBrain
To Every Man a Manswer
I Am Husband
Stormbringer's Thunder
Manmail

You may have heard a guy being described as a real "man's man", but a regular and insightful contributor — wise in the ways of manliness — to the weekly Manivals is actually a woman. Hayden Tompkins at Persistent Illusion lays things out in a direct and refreshing manner. As to why she spends so much time on this particular topic, well, I think I'll let her explain it:

People wonder why, as a woman, I am so dedicated to topics of ‘manliness’ and being a man.

Chances are if you aren’t a man, then your life partner is a man. Whether you want to be a better man - a more inspired husband, an involved father, a successful businessman - or be with a better man, you are probably aware that there is a lack in this country of material on what it means to be a man.

As being a 50’s era breadwinner and head of household is no longer what it means to be a man, so too is retreating from responsibilities and letting the woman of your life handle everything. Being a man today means strength coupled with flexibility; self-knowledge, without ‘forcing’ this self on others or sacrificing it for the sake of your partnership; and fully experiencing life with an open heart, authentically, without cutting your beloved out.

Support of the ‘menaissance’ is critical in creating the breathing room needed for men to take chances and transform their lives and their relationships.

And with better men come better women and with better women come better men and with better men come better women and with better women…

Amen.

The 7th Manival is up and running this week at The Simple Marriage Project. There are four categories this week, and there are several very interesting sounding posts under each. The categories are Fatherhood/Parenting (which includes my own "Dad to the Bone" post), Marriage/Relationship, Recreation, and How-to Guides for Men.

I haven't followed any of the links yet, but how can you resist titles such as "You Don't Mess Around with Dad", "The 'I Don't Want To' Trap", "Things You Don't Scrimp On" and "7 Vital Characteristics of a Man"?

These past seven weeks have been very encouraging and enlightening for me as I've seen the depth and wisdom of men are pouring into the blogosphere. Just when you think the culture, and perhaps even yourself, have become totally self-indulgent and gratuitous you discover that there is a well-spring of wisdom, humor and a desire to serve if only you know where to look. I suggest you go take a look at the Manival series.

The previous Manivals can be found at the following links:

#1 @ The Art of Manliness
#2 @ A Good Husband
#3 @ Schaefer’s Blog
#4 @ The Art Of Manliness
#5 @ The Care & Feeding Of Man
#6 @ Building Camelot

There's a site called Grab.it TV that has collected the top 20 music videos from every week starting when MTV debuted all the way through Napster. If you go to the site you can check out what the most popular videos were for any week of significance to you in this time period and click on the links to watch these.

For example, my wife and I were married on October 10, 1986 (the week of October 4), and by checking out that week I re-discovered that the number one video just so happened to be "Happy to Be Stuck With You" by Huey Lewis & the News.

Not only that, but the weekly top 20 also included "Friends & Lovers" by Gloria Long & Carl Anderson, "When I Think of You" by Janet Jackson, "Two of Hearts" by Stacey Q, and "Love Zone" by Billy Ocean. There was also a song by my wife's favorite actor at the time, "Heartbeat" from Don Johnson.

Also on the charts was "Heaven in Your Eyes" by the appropriately named Loverboy, "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin and "A Matter of Trust" by Billy Joel.

That was certainly an auspicious beginning for us, even if the list that week included "Throwing it all Away" by Genesis, "Walk This Way" by Run DMC/Aerosmith and "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" by Robert Palmer!

What was shaping up as a pretty strong weekend of blog traffic here, thanks to Manival #5, disappeared, literally, in a puff of smoke. My web host service suffered a fire in their facility, damaging its infrastructure but not the servers. This took all the served blogs off-line for (at least in my case) about 27 hours. I have not heard if there were any injuries or further details on the amount of damage to the facility (and I'm trying to find out), but I commend the team for devoting their weekend to getting the business back up and running.

Ben has been on a bit of a G.K. Chesterton binge of late, so this is for him, via The Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the novelist and essayist G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton, (books by this author) born in London, England (1874). He's remembered today for his detective novels about the bumbling, crime-solving priest Father Brown, but during his lifetime he was primarily known as an essayist. He wrote constantly, about politics, society, literature, and religion. He was one of the first critics to argue that Charles Dickens was a great novelist, after the decline of his reputation in the early 20th century. He was one of the first people to argue that the influence of religion on public life would be replaced by the influence of advertisements.

Enjoy.

Uncle Ben has finished his gruesome semester, the Mall Diva has the WHOLE weekend off of work, and my brain could stand to dwell on more trivial matters for at least one night so you can expect the three of us at Keegan's for the Thursday Night Pub Quiz. Rumor is that the patio is open as long as it doesn't snow again tomorrow. On top of that Chief reports that Barb Davis White, candidate for Congress in Minnesota's Fifth District, will be there as well. Trivia question: what is the name of the incumbent she will try to beat out?

Hope to see you there.

There's a meme going around that somehow or another has missed me so far (as far as I know). The "Message to the World" meme states: You have 150 characters to send a message to the world. Punctuation doesn't count.

Ok, take a memo, Ms. Jones...

TO: World

FROM: The Night Writer

DATE: Today and forever

RE: Need I remind you

"He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8

I'm not going to meme anyone else with this, but I will offer this assignment: Try to imagine what the blogosphere, not to mention the daily newspaper, cable news networks and nightly news, would look like if everyone followed this instruction for one day. Submit your descriptions in a comment below, or on your own blog. Extra points for writing sample scripts or articles demonstrating these elements.

My body aches all over and I've felt lethargic all day and barely able to keep my eyes open. Not from strong drink, mind you, but as part of the "come down" from the last few days of work. And yes, those days did include both days of the past weekend as I prepared for a sudden request on Friday to do a 30-minute presentation on Monday afternoon. That also happened to be the Monday immediately before one of our big marketing conferences of the year that my assistant and I have been working on for several months. I finished that late last night and came home and basically crashed — but never walked away from the wreck today for some reason or other.

I wanted to write something but found it hard to get motivated, so I decided to just do some browsing tonight for some laughs. Lately that means heading over to Are We Lumberjacks, and Rodger didn't disappoint. First he suggested that polar bears have got it coming after he found proof that they aided the Nazis in WWII.



Then he helped me decide what I want for Father's Day:

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

The scenario has happened countless times before. A pesky fly interrupts a dinner party. Brad, the club's resident tennis pro and notorious alcoholic, takes to his feet, Prince racket in hand, and smites the beast violently into a wall with a few tottering swings. OK, so it doesn't happen exactly like that, but you get the idea. Fly swatter, tennis racket or bare hands, the end result is the same. Boring. Enter the misnamed, but nevertheless brilliant, Bug Bat.

The Bug Bat is shaped like a tennis racket, but the similarities end there. Anything that touches the strings on the racket face receives a powerful electric shock. Gizmag got their hands on one and said the shock is enough to sting your finger if you touch it, and packs more than enough juice to end the life of an insect. Fittingly, the insect's death is punctuated with the satisfying crack of an electrical discharge. And a smile. Your smile.

The rechargeable Bug Bat retails for about $20 (or $3, if you happen to live in Bangkok).

Man, that's just what I need around the house. Having one of those might even put me in the mood to get another cat!

Ah, I'm feeling lighter. Maybe I'll post more thoughtful stuff tomorrow.

Katie is pulling the plug on Yucky Salad With Bones. Why? Well, like her header says, "for no good reason."

I started this thing what, about 4 years ago, for no other reason than I thought it would be fun. I never paid any attention to how many hits I got, not because I'm some counterculture goth girl or anything, more due to the fact that other issues were more pressing, like the kitchen was on fire or a kid was hanging off a precarious ledge or something. Oh let's see, the other day I got home from a run to find them all out in the front yard, trying to dislodge an arrow from a second story shutter by heaving various heavy objects at it. Hmm. Nothing like coming home to find the troops throwing rocks and footballs at the windows.

But I wanted to make a formal goodbye, so long and thanks for all the fish. Really, I can't tell you how much I appreciated y'all reading.

Stay classy, San Diego.

Obviously the woman has issues, which is what made it such a fun blog to visit anyway, even if the name never made sense. But what did you expect from someone who'd name her kid Finbar? Still she made me laugh. Hard. So hard that peanut butter would come out of my nose, that's how hard. Who now will give us those riveting, streams-of-subconscious reviews and endless paragraphs about the Oscars and American Idol, who will stand Culture Watch and bring back the report? People like me laugh easily in our homes at night because we want people like her on That Wall. There's probably some Irish blessing to use in a time like this, something about 'may the blogs rise up to meet you' or 'may you be in heaven 30 minutes before Technorati knows you're dead' but I'm not Irish, or Katie, so then Adieu and bonne chance to the Salad. Not that I'm French, either, but using those words saves me from having to type what I really want to say but don't usually allow on this blog, which is "Damn."

I found the link to Square America, described as "A gallery of vintage snapshots & vernacular photography", while browsing commenter Charlie's blog, Virile Lit:

I've been loving Square America for some time now and want to urge you to check it out. It's a web site wherein the curator chronicles the history of the U.S. in snapshots he has obtained by combing resale stores, estate sales, and other dusty archives for random, found photographs he then assembles into themed web-based exhibits. The results are simply fascinating. Text doesn't even enter into it, only the images and you.

It's a fabulous site that sucks you in as you browse the casual, even amateurish, old snapshots that still can't help but communicate a sense of time and place. Beyond that, I often found myself thinking, "I almost know these people — and I know I've seen those curtains before." Cruise on over and spend a few minutes going back a few decades.

The second Manival blog carnival is up and hosted this week by A Good Husband. Following Uncle Ben's advice, I submitted last week's post about the discussion (or lecture) from our last Fundamentals in Film class to the carnival, and it was accepted.

There are some other very interesting-looking posts in this week's collection that I'm looking forward to reading. In particular, "Is It More Important to Be a Good Dad or a Good Husband", "Thou Shalt Get a Job", "7 Reasons Atticus Finch is a True Gentleman" and "Man Up: The Art of Marital Conversation" plus several more.

Check it out, and if you'd like to submit a blog post to next week's Manival you can use this carnival submission form.

I mentioned yesterday that I had had a post accepted into the first Manival. I didn't realize how popular something like that can be, but by the time I went to bed last night I had received more than 500 visitors yesterday, the vast majority of them coming from the Manival or from StumbleOn links through the Manival. A quick check of today's Site Meter shows it's still turning over briskly. Wow!

Though I've blogged for more than three years I've never participated in a carnival, and I'm virtually ignorant of how services such as StumbleOn, Digg and similar other entities work. I think I need to get better informed!

The Art of Manliness website today launched its first Manival, a carnival (collection of blogposts) focusing on various aspects of what it takes to be an honorable man. I first learned of the Manival while surfing Sunday night and saw that the deadline for submitting a post for consideration was yesterday. I quickly emailed a link to one of my posts that came immediately to mind, and learned today through a surge of traffic that I had been included.

Browsing through the Manival page I see many worthy and interesting posts such as "The Man's Manual to Being Manly" and "Too Many Guys, Too Few Men" as well as tips on how to avoid creating additional housework for your wife and how to make your own moustache wax. I'd happily link them all, but I'd rather you go to the Manival page and browse and read for yourself.

I am honored to be among such august company and encouraged by the number of people engaged in such a worthy topic. I look forward to future Manivals, which appear to be scheduled for every Tuesday. Next week's Manival is hosted by A Good Husband. Go to the site to get information or use the Manival submission form to submit a post of your own.

Here's a really fun little video posted in honor of noted cat blogger Gino:

An Engineer's Guide to Cats.



When you are finished watching the video you will know all about "corporal cuddling", fun games to play with your cat (and - if you're an engineer - with unsuspecting women), and experiments in renewable energy using static electricity. The clip also notes that no cats were harmed in the making of the video, though they were annoyed.

UPDATE:
Comments have been enabled! I'm not sure why they weren't on initially.

I think I could have scored better, but it's an audio test and sometimes it was hard to get the previous song out of my head when the next song was playing.

I scored a Far Out
85% on theQuiz by SheGoddess: Lose Weight Fast

I discovered another blog with an appreciation for Courtship: iPandora. Blog founder Matthew has been joined by co-blogger and future bride, Grace, aka American Texan.

Currently at the top of the page are their two stories of how they met, became friends, then reached the decision to court and now, ultimately, are engaged. An "engaging" story indeed, told from two viewpoints but with a common vision. Check it out.

It was a grand time last night at Keegan's, and not necessarily because my team - "Fifty Sense" - ended up tieing for first place in the 8:00 p.m. challenge.

Really, what was special was seeing so many MOBsters back at Keeg's for the traditional Thursday night match - man, was the place LOUD and HAPPY last night. I'll probably miss someone or some-two, but those in attendance included Learned Foot (or was that Joe Tucci?) from Kool-Aid Report, Derek and Guy from Freedom Dogs, Swiftee (Pair-O-Dice), Barry (erstwhile Watercooler Wisdom), John LaPlante (Policy Guy), Dan Stover (Northern Alliance Wannabe), Leo (Psycmeister's Ice Palace - all the way down from St. Cloud), AAA (Residual Forces), David and Margaret (too many blogs to mention), Mitch Berg (Shot in the Dark) and Brad Carlson and his gal, Jen. Of course, Ben was there from Hammerswing, along with the complete Night Writer contingent of the Reverend Mother, Mall Diva and Tiger Lilly, plus special guest and commenter Princess Flicker Feather.

Turnout has been kind of sparse of late (and I've been missing-in-action as much as anyone), so it was great to see a lot of the gang in person again. With warm weather perhaps finally upon us and the return of the Paddy O'Furniture and the great outdoors to our favorite Irish pub, I hope to see similar gatherings in the near future. When I started blogging 3 years ago, coming to Keegan's and meeting so many different people was an important to feeling like a part of the community, and led me to make some great friends (but you didn't have to kiss me last night, Strommie). I may ultimately even get a son-in-law out of the deal.

Notably absent last night were representatives from Fraters, Nihilist in Golf Pants and Anti-Strib, and it seems like forever since I've seen Bogus Doug, Doug Bass or DrJonz. Even so it was a prestigious conglomeration and I hope the Thursday night regulars will soon be returning in force.

Also, for those (Marty) who mocked my "Toads" answer to a question about what animal South Africa is trying to exterminate, I'll have you know my answer was based on having read this article during the week (Africa, Australia, who can tell the difference?).

I think this means that there isn't a lot of cussing on this blog. Either that or the on-line rating tool had it's wires fried while analyzing The Kool-Aid Report.



Around 1% of the pages on your website contain cussing.
This is 88% LESS than other websites who took this test.

Created by OnePlusYou

HT: The Llama Butchers

Back in January Mitch Berg had a post likening the abortion issue to a ribbon in the middle of a tug-of-war rope, with each side trying to move the ribbon (i.e. public opinion) closer to it's position. Mitch thought he was seeing signs that public opinion has pulled more to the right of late. That naturally triggered a comment string that centered around the role of faith in one's view and of legislating belief. Surprisingly, it actually turned out to be one of the most civil debates I've seen on his site, and one I was proud to have participated in.

I've thought about that discussion several times since then, and while the topic at that time was abortion, I've realized that my comments then pretty well encapsulated my thinking on many issues and, unintentionally, provided an explanation for one of the reasons for why I blog, limited as my contribution may be.

I've extracted the main portion of my comment from that day (addressing another commenter, not Mitch) and posted it here to help me remember, on nights like these when I'm really tired, why I keep doing this.

... I merely want to address your view that the abortion issue is an issue of faith. It is a matter of faith, but not necessarily “faith” as in being Catholic, Evangelical or Humanist, but in terms of “belief.” The underlying point I took from Mitch’s post is that what people “believe” about human life appears to be changing, and ultimately what a society believes is reflected in its laws (for good or ill). Inevitably some beliefs are going to be in the minority. Thank goodness the vast majority today believes it’s wrong to hang people from trees, though a few still say it’s okay to threaten to do so, while even fewer would be willing to do it. (At what point prosecution should enter into that example is a topic for another day).

It’s not a process of legislating faith (or belief), but of faith/belief affecting legislation. The fact that some will disagree or be offended by the result is not reason in and of itself to not act on the greater will. Thus the ribbon, as Mitch says, is moved. That does not mean, however, that the minority doesn’t have the right to protest, or to work continually to change the beliefs of the majority, even to the point of risk and sacrifice (since risk and sacrifice are what differentiates belief from emotion). Though I may be in a minority on a number of issues (or because I’m in the minority on a number of issues), I thank God (not goodness) that we live in a society where these beliefs can still be contested.

After three years of doing this blog thing I don't know that there are six little known facts about me left undisclosed, but I'll see what I can do with the meme that Jroosh tagged me with.

Six Little Known Facts About Me:
1. I hate most vegetables, especially green beans, beets and brussel sprouts. One time I was grievously deceived when I what I thought was a bowl of fried, diced potatoes was actually parsnips. I still shudder at the recollection.

2. I couldn’t wait to sign up for band in 6th grade because I really wanted to play the trumpet. Somehow or another I let the band instructor talk me into playing the tenor saxophone. Five years later I finally quit (probably about the time my parents finished paying the damn thing off).

3. As an adult I also took banjo lessons for awhile. I concluded that banjo players aren’t really as happy as they look.

4. The greatest days of my life were October 10, 1987; August 18, 1988 and February 10, 1994.

5. So far I have only discovered three games in which I have a natural aptitude: football, bumper pool and Trivial Pursuit. Now I’m too old to play football, I haven’t seen a bumper pool table in 35 years, and no one who knows me will play Trivial Pursuit with me anymore.

6. I will turn 50 on Thursday, April 3. Coincidentally, this “little known fact” also lines up with Trivia Night at Keegan’s, which I will be attending. Show up and see if an old dog has learned any new tricks.

Last Friday was the third "birthday" of this blog. Wow, talk about time flying by, and in that time there have been 1,028 posts, totaling more than 530,000 words. So, yes, I could easily have written a book during this time, though it should be noted that Tiger Lilly, the Mall Diva and the Reverend Mother have contributed some words as well. There's also been more than 133,000 visitors according to Site Meter. I have to say I'm surprised by all those numbers, especially since I generally don't have any idea what I'm going to post about from one day to the next (or even if I'm going to have a chance to post from one day to the next).

The discipline has been good for me, though the main reason I've kept it up is that it is so much fun and because of the wonderful people I've been able to meet (including a prospective son-in-law). It's been a great hobby, and one I'm planning on continuing. I'm even thinking about a new look which you may see shortly. I've also gained a lot of confidence in my writing over the past three years, to the point where I'm seriously thinking about making some money at this. No, not in terms of blogads, but in using some of the posts here as samples to pitch articles or essays to publications. In preparation for that I've been going back through all the posts and categorizing them in greater detail for easier access (you may have noticed a much longer category list on the right side of this page). I'm about a third of the way through this process and then I'll turn my attention to a new look.

By the way, for the past three months I've gotten two or three emails a day from Go Daddy reminding me that my domain was due to be renewed (quite a change from last year's fiasco with Registerfly). Naturally I was fully aware of this and intended to renew but I deliberately was stringing this out as my own personal protest against Go Daddy's Super Bowl ads. Then last week I got a call at work from a GD customer service rep wanting to know if it was my intention to let my domain lapse. I wasn't expecting such diligence, but it was a great opportunity for me to explain why I had been delaying. The rep was a bit taken aback, but apologized and said that he would pass my concerns up the line. So I've got that going for me.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by.

I saw this meme over at The Far Wright, by way of Steve at Careful Thought. The premise is simple and fun in a weird kind of way. You insert your name into the following sentence on a Google search (be sure to include the quotation marks): "[your name] is a". Collect the sentences that come up in the search and put them in the meme, then do use the same sentence in a Google image search ) and list the results. Then do the same in Google Image Search and post the result.

This generated a lot of interesting hits for me since I share a name (if not the spelling) with a well-known talk show host, a popular (at one time, anyway) folk singer and a second-tier superhero. I'll post the image (found here) later as I'm having trouble uploading it right now, but below are the sentences that I found.

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of any of them, or their application to my life:

John Stewart is a comedian, he just happens to have a flair for politics.

John Stewart is a legend in the music industry.

John Stewart is a builder. He became an architect because he wanted to build things.

John Stewart is a comparatively unsung performer whose number of albums and quality of music challenges the redoubtable Gordon Lightfoot.

John Stewart is a national treasure.

John Stewart is a muleskinner for hire and "Rogue Freighter".

John Stewart is a great singer and songwriter and one of Nanci's heroes.

John Stewart is a great advocate FOR democracy, not against it.

John Stewart is a fictional comic book superhero in the DC Universe, and a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.

John Stewart is a veteran of the comedy community, of course I'm going with him.

Some say that John Stewart is a CIA experiment that went wrong and that John Stewart only eats cheese.

john stewart is a tiny god.

John Stewart is a great character, but he's by no means my favorite.

John Stewart is a heavyweight.

John Stewart is a very smart man.

In fact, John Stewart is a fresh face.

John Stewart is a great example of character growth.

John Stewart, is a biophysical scientist, psycho-spiritual teacher and a defining voice in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality.

John Stewart is a member of an elite club.