Our work is done here. We've found a better place to store this dreck.
Come on over to anytownusa.wordpress.com for the continuation.
Why? Well, I like it better. I hope you will too.
Thanks to all the good folks at Blogger (from the pre-Google days, even) for basically creating this phenomenon.
See you at the new place. Update your bookmarks. Housewarming party soon.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Speaking of redesigns ...
My favorite news site, MSNBC, launched its redesign this morning. It looks like nothing so much as a ... well, it looks like a newspaper.
That said, at very first glance, I think I like it. Very functional, uncluttered, and accessible. I'm a fan, so far.
That said, at very first glance, I think I like it. Very functional, uncluttered, and accessible. I'm a fan, so far.
Friday, November 09, 2007
When all else fails ...
... change the template.
One of these days, I'll remember how I once had this thing "designed."
(It's true. I did. Really.)
Seeking inspiration. Results to come.
One of these days, I'll remember how I once had this thing "designed."
(It's true. I did. Really.)
Seeking inspiration. Results to come.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Nail, meet hammer
Those of you who have been listening know that I said this five years ago. Not the "newspapers should embrace online" part, necessarily, but the "institutional arrogance will be our demise" part.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Leave all your money here, please. All of it
LAS VEGAS -- What's the first thing you see when you emerge from that jetway into McCarran International Airport?
Slot machines. Of course.
Now I don't mean like, "Well, it wasn't exactly the first thing I saw -- that was the gate agent's butt -- but it was the first thing I actually noticed." The First Thing I Saw was the slot machines.
And not just one or two, like you see with those video poker machines in convenience stores in Louisiana. Hundreds of slot machines, right there at the gate. Come on, man. Leave some of your money here. What comes to Vegas stays in Vegas, if it came here in your wallet.
(And, I'm guessing, that voice might be exactly why Otis stopped carrying a wallet.)
Anyway ...
I walked. After all, it's just an airport, just like the 60 or so other airports I've trudged through in the last four years, right?
So I trudged. Down in baggage claim, billboards. Huge billboards. Come on, man. Come see our show. Penn & Teller, man; who can resist Penn & Teller? Tickets start at $74.95. Toni Braxton, Rita Rudner, Celine freakin' Dion ... and aren't Celine Dion and Toni Braxton a little young to already be sentenced to Vegas? I thought that's where obsolete performers went to die. I'm certainly not arguing Toni Braxton's obsolescence, but I thought there was an age minimum.
I'm here for business. Have a meeting tomorrow, home Friday morning. I'm not here for fun; I'm not here to drop a huge wad of cash in hopes of becoming really rich. I'm not here to drink myself to death.
I'm staying in a hotel way, way off the Strip. However, as it turns out, if I wanted to have fun, lose a lot of money and look for somebody to be Elisabeth Shue to my Nicolas Cage, I could do so. Right here.
I purposely did very little pre-trip research before this, my first trip to Vegas. So imagine my surprise to discover that my hotel has a casino right here. And a liquor store, right here. Dammit, that voice again: Come on, man; get the fuck off that computer and come downstairs. It's only 11:33 p.m. here, and really, what is time, anyway? Give us some of your money.
Well, my body and my computer think it's 2:34 a.m. I have to be in front of customers tomorrow. I have to be coherent. I have to go to bed.
Tonight, anyway.
Slot machines. Of course.
Now I don't mean like, "Well, it wasn't exactly the first thing I saw -- that was the gate agent's butt -- but it was the first thing I actually noticed." The First Thing I Saw was the slot machines.
And not just one or two, like you see with those video poker machines in convenience stores in Louisiana. Hundreds of slot machines, right there at the gate. Come on, man. Leave some of your money here. What comes to Vegas stays in Vegas, if it came here in your wallet.
(And, I'm guessing, that voice might be exactly why Otis stopped carrying a wallet.)
Anyway ...
I walked. After all, it's just an airport, just like the 60 or so other airports I've trudged through in the last four years, right?
So I trudged. Down in baggage claim, billboards. Huge billboards. Come on, man. Come see our show. Penn & Teller, man; who can resist Penn & Teller? Tickets start at $74.95. Toni Braxton, Rita Rudner, Celine freakin' Dion ... and aren't Celine Dion and Toni Braxton a little young to already be sentenced to Vegas? I thought that's where obsolete performers went to die. I'm certainly not arguing Toni Braxton's obsolescence, but I thought there was an age minimum.
I'm here for business. Have a meeting tomorrow, home Friday morning. I'm not here for fun; I'm not here to drop a huge wad of cash in hopes of becoming really rich. I'm not here to drink myself to death.
I'm staying in a hotel way, way off the Strip. However, as it turns out, if I wanted to have fun, lose a lot of money and look for somebody to be Elisabeth Shue to my Nicolas Cage, I could do so. Right here.
I purposely did very little pre-trip research before this, my first trip to Vegas. So imagine my surprise to discover that my hotel has a casino right here. And a liquor store, right here. Dammit, that voice again: Come on, man; get the fuck off that computer and come downstairs. It's only 11:33 p.m. here, and really, what is time, anyway? Give us some of your money.
Well, my body and my computer think it's 2:34 a.m. I have to be in front of customers tomorrow. I have to be coherent. I have to go to bed.
Tonight, anyway.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
We're all gonna be 40 soon -- but you're first
Insomnia sucks, but it gives me an opportunity to make note (once again) of the Young Daughter's seventh birthday. (At one point in the evening, when she felt like someone else in the house was getting a little too much attention, she said to no one in particular, "Don't you have something to say to me?" Yeah, kid, nobody has said "happy birthday" to you in the last five minutes. Sorry about that.)
The crushing inability to sleep also, however, gives me a chance to say happy birthday to my friend TLC -- who is the first of my high school classmates (at least, the first of the ones who matter) to turn 40.
(The dateline above suggests I'm a day late. Screw that. As I write this, it's still Oct. 23 in her time zone.)
She was the first to get a driver's license; she was the first to turn 21; and now, she's the first to peek behind the door of the Fifth Decade. Which makes her Older than Us. But not much.
Ain't nothin' but a number, y'all. Happy birthday, TLC.
The crushing inability to sleep also, however, gives me a chance to say happy birthday to my friend TLC -- who is the first of my high school classmates (at least, the first of the ones who matter) to turn 40.
(The dateline above suggests I'm a day late. Screw that. As I write this, it's still Oct. 23 in her time zone.)
She was the first to get a driver's license; she was the first to turn 21; and now, she's the first to peek behind the door of the Fifth Decade. Which makes her Older than Us. But not much.
Ain't nothin' but a number, y'all. Happy birthday, TLC.