I am reminded every single day of the life that I thought I would be living. I will be happily sitting at my computer reading some news and I will see a story about Madison, Wisconsin.
It is like going to washingtonpost.com and seeing:
8 Marines die in Iraq
Your girlfriend broke up with you
Redskins beat 49ers
It is inescapable.
Today was the 22nd anniversery of my birth. I was able to, rather sporadically, arrange to meet Rosa at a bar near Columbus Avenue. Her friend from work was scheduled to spin some rap and R&B.
I think I may have found a new “good” bar (although, *grumble*, they don’t make White Russians). Well, I suppose it was Rosa that found it, not me. I digress. I asked for two shots of “good” (I need to lay off the quotes) vodka. Some bartenders might have probed me for an exact brand name, but this one understood that I wanted him to figure it out for me. He returned with the best damn vodka I have ever had. I felt a little awkward downing two shots of vodka for no particular reason, so I explained that it was my birthday, and that drinking two shots was better than drinking 22 shots. What a great bartender! He gave me the premium vodka on the house!
Conversation was good with Rosa and her friend. Oddly enough, I think birthdays are best celebrated with people you don’t know well. I remember my 18th birthday. Two of my friends ditched me, and I celebrated my birthday with my friend Jamie, and three of his friends that I don’t even remember any more. Even though I knew only Jamie, that was one of my best birthdays.
I hope everyone else had a great day as well. As for me, only two more nights of sleeping without a mattress!
One of the things I love most about myself is my ability to make important decisions quickly and without fear.
I have been using Wikipedia a lot lately. I have been editing a lot of pages too. I have read stories about the extremely dedicated users who spend hours per day editing Wikipedia stories.
This got me thinking that there has got to be a way that people will make money from their Wikipedia skills. One way is, as Wikipedia becomes more popular as a reputable source of information, companies, political groups, or religious groups might hire a full-time Wikipedia expert to support their views and polish their image.
Scary, isn’t it?
One of my favorite websites is Cockeyed.com. If you have a sense of humor anything like mine, you will be amused there for hours on end (that is, if you haven’t been there for a while). The website’s owner/creator is Rob Cockerham. He usually updates the site once or twice a week.
Recently, Rob has decided to make a little extra dough from his site by sponsoring links and putting up ads. It started with the fatwallet ad at the top of every page. I guess I will let him slide on that, because they give him free hosting in exchange for the ad. Then came the “Websites that I Encourage You to Visit” page. Now, Rob is actually selling ad space on an actual Cockeyed content page through this auction.
We are molested every day by ads in everything we do. It would be rather unfortunate to see Cockeyed taken over by ads as well. I understand that Rob would like to make money off of his site, but I think there are better ways of doing so. He could sell Cockeyed merchandise (this is how homestarrunner.com makes money) or even just ask for donations. For now, though, I have appealed to Rob to stop the advertising, making the suggestions I have made above. To show my sincerity, I have bid $50 for the ad space. If you all are as big of cockeyed fans as I am, I implore you to chip in. Contact me at stu@fourmajor.com if you’d like to help.
The Internet brings about new grammar questions. A couple of examples are:
I have 3 listeners on my Internet radio station (FourMajor Radio), none of whom are me or my cousin. In fact, I don’t think I know any of them, just by looking at the IP addresses. I am playing some Yo-Yo Ma right now – maybe that was the secret.
It is amazing what a little Numa Numa can do to cheer a guy up.
Why is it such a social no-no to take off your belt in public?