iBeth

Wordles are cool

Here's mine:

HT Mimilou (whose wordle is more interesting, I think).  Get your own wordle here.

Best Resolutions Site Ever

Got New Year's resolutions?  Check out SparkPeople.  You'll find more goal-achievement tools there than you could possibly use (especially if your goals include eating right and exercising more).  My exercise streak is now 24 days and counting . . . .

A Sign That Christmas Is Around the Corner

Once again, the kids are debating "Is Santa Real?" in my blog comments.  Cute!

I heart my PC

My husband and I have been saying for awhile that John Hodgman's PC character is much more appealing than Justin Long's Apple character on those ads.  Turns out that we are not the only ones to think so.  Hodgman says he uses a Mac, though.  Wikipedia claims that Long uses a Mac, too, but that he didn't own a computer until after he was cast as the Apple guy.  I find that claim to be completely believable. 

My favorite ad from the series is the one called "Self Pity."

Gratuitious M v PC note: Awhile ago, I bought my first Powerbook, and it is way cool . . .  but I still use my PC more.  Well, partly because a PC is on my desk at work.

iBeth is Back

There's nothing like returning from a long blog break to give one writer's block.   But heck, let's face it, I'm not terribly witty, so my chances of coming up with the perfect return post are slim.  So I'll just say . . . I'm back.  Expect more of the same.

You cannot NOT communicate

In the case of my blog, I hope that what I've been communicating is that I'm taking a break!  I didn't originally intend the break to last all summer, but now that I've been gone for so long, I'm just going to wait until the fall semester starts before I pick things up again.  I'll be back in September.  Hope to see you then.

Buried under trackback spam

What is up with trackback spam lately?  I guess the rel=nofollow trick has worked for comment spam, because I rarely get spam comments anymore, but I'm getting a dozen or so spam trackbacks every day!  I like trackbacks--valid trackbacks--but if this keeps up, I may need to eliminate trackbacks from my blog.   (Reminds me of Clifford Stoll's long-ago lament that abuses would destroy what makes the internet wonderful--and if you haven't read Stoll's Cuckoo's Egg account of catching an international spy via 'net while he was a grad student, you've got a treat in store.)

Anyway. I've turned on Typepad's moderation feature so I can at least quarantine the spam before it does any good, but I really resent having to do that.

I Heart Web Clips

Sometimes I'm too busy to read blogs, even with Bloglines.  But thanks to gmail, I can keep up at least a little bit because of google's web clips feature.  Every time I check  my gmail inbox, a linked headline from a blog or news service floats on top.  Just from these clips, I know that Jo(e) has been visiting a monastery . . . Dylan is writing for his school paper . . . Scrivener's daughter told her first chicken joke . . . Lori is moving.  What a great feature!

However, I was thrown off a bit by Collin's Bracket Season.  I assumed he was talking about CCCC (lots of brackets in academic papers--can anyone guess which work I have been obsessing over), but no, he was talking about basketball.  And I never would have guessed what Raccoon meant by Tragicomedy with Every Bag of Fries, a post that ends with one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" stories that you really must read.  (Really. Go. Read.)  But at least the web clips keep me where I can see that something interesting is happening, even if I don't know precisely what that is, until I am able to read my favorite blogs again.

Now if only gmail could just use the feeds I've subbed at Bloglines so I wouldn't have had to enter them manually . . . if only gmail could handle ALL the feeds I've subbed at Bloglines and not just a selection . . . the synergy would blow your socks off.

Yes, Virginia, You Can Google

Not long ago, I blogged about 5yo Emma's asking me, "Is Santa Real?"  Since then, my hit counter has spiked--mostly from people googling "is santa real."  Judging from the charming comments on my blog, many of those google searchers are children.  Clearly, today's Virginia O'Hanlon wouldn't bother writing the editor of the New York Sun, she'd just hop on the internet, an aspect of children's use of the internet that I'd never considered before.  Go read for a sample of Christmas spirit.

Accordian Guy Online

Just learned that Barry Mitchell, Accordian Guy Extraordinaire, has a new website:  www.barryfunny.com  Alas, the fabulous "World News Polka" is not available for download from that site--I suspect ABC must be jealously guarding the rights, as would be perfectly in character for The Mouse.

But you can hear the polka in .rm format at the Network News Music site . . . and Barry's site features the polka lyrics and other great stuff, including his new "Parking around the Shopping Mall" music video.  Of the latter, Barry tells me:

Are the words on the screen? Yes. Is there an accordion? Of course. Do I sing off key? Definitely.

It's a trifecta!  Now . . . everybody sing:

Politics and foreign wars / All the weather, all the scores / That's the World News Polka.

Business news from Tokyo, / Stuff you saw on Koppel's show / That's the World News Polka.

It's late at night, you're wide awake / And you're not wearing pants.

So grab your World News Now mug / And everybody dance! . . . .

Who cares what the bosses think? / They're a Goofy crew.

And if your neighbors call the cops / Here's all you have to do:

When they yell, "It's half past three!" / Tell them, "Hey -- it's news to me!"

That's the World News Polka!