Tag: blogs

A dog’s life

Those who know me know at least two things: I love my dogs and I love reading dooce. The best of all worlds is when Heather talks about her dog Chuck on her blog, and of course, Chuck Friday, when I know there’ll be a photo of Chuck.

I won’t go into all the reasons why I like Heather’s blog. She’s got a zillion readers, and probably all of us think we “know” her (I think we only know what she wants us to know, and that’s just good writing).

Let sleeping blogs lie

I just checked my list of bloggers. I have 28 blogs on the list (these are separate from my LJ friends). There are another five or so nationally known blogs (usually on politics or popular culture) that I check from time to time to keep up with what’s being talked about. Then there are around ten that are linked on some of my favorite blogs that I also read occasionally.

When I first got online in 1997, I was all about my chat room. Actually, there were two chat rooms–the one where I met my writing partners and made some other good friends, and one that was for authors that I visited from time to time but where I rarely talked and made no friends. About four years later, my main “room” had changed a lot, and my focus shifted to message boards. There were four of those that interested me and where I made an entirely different group of online friends based on shared interests.

About 18 months ago, my interest shifted to blogs, and around that time, I followed Tim to Live Journal. I don’t consider myself to be a blogger. I like what I’m doing because it’s no pressure and random. It’s not a problem, but reading all those blogs can be. As a person who’s always shunned TV as a time thief, it’s deplorable how much of my time and energy I’ve given to this computer monitor. So I’ve cut back on blogs–and cut back again. I may go a couple of weeks and read only my top two or three favorite blogs, then rapidly skim some of the others for anything of interest.

So I was doing well with my online time management. I’m not an e-bay, craigslist, myspace, or online games person (although the games thing was a passing interest for a while), so except for keeping up with Live Journal, I’ve been using my Internet time for research.

And then… in the middle of that research–I swear!–another blog sneaked into my online world. I’m not going to link to it. I’m not going to promote it. Not because it’s anything that’s weirdly out of character for me. It’s not porn. It’s not Republican. It’s not dogmatic. Far from all of that. This blogger seems to be a regular person. A working man. A very articulate working man with a distinctive voice and an unapologetic attitude that is so not politically correct that it’s… refreshing. And I’m so jaded by liars and posers that I can’t believe he’s real. I keep waiting for the “Gotcha,” and until I’m certain it’s not coming, I guess I plan to keep him my reading secret.

It’s murky, this online world.

The beauty of trees

In spring of 2004, when James found out that Tim and I were making a research trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for THREE FORTUNES, among the things he told us to do was visit the Friendship Oak on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast in Long Beach. Legend has it that friends who stand together under the oak will remain friends for life.

The live oaks of the coast, including Friendship, became part of the story in our novel, and after Katrina, I knew some of them must have sustained terrible damage and others would be gone. In attempting to get photographic details of the coastal towns, I found Shawn Lea’s blog, Everything and Nothing. (Shawn’s family’s homes in Gulfport and Waveland were among those destroyed.)

This “bliendship,” as bloggers call the friends they make through their blogs, has progressed beyond just getting my Mississippi updates. I enjoy Shawn’s selections of poetry, photos, cultural events, T-shirts, family news, travel accounts, recipes, and oh, the many cool gadgets and products she finds.

Yesterday, she linked to a Sun Herald article on “Before and After,” which includes the paper’s photos of specific sites, buildings, and homes before and after Katrina. The paper has compiled them into a book that can be purchased, but they are also available to see individually online.

Of course, the photos are heartbreaking, but many of the articles that accompany them present the stoic attitude of coastal residents and their determination to rebuild what has been lost.

But you can’t rebuild a tree, and when I saw an “after” photo of Counselor, a famous Biloxi oak, my heart sank. I had very little hope for Friendship, because I knew the college campus was badly damaged.

Then, down the list of photos, I saw Friendship Oak in Long Beach. According to the article, calls asking about Friendship are the first they get after any hurricane.

Here are photos from the trip I took with Tim. I read that although the tree has been damaged, it still stands. I dream of the day when Friendship’s limbs will once again be hidden by a rich profusion of leaves; its acorns sent into the world to replenish the tree population; and beneath its branches, friends will whisper secrets and vow their lifelong loyalty.
see photos

Stephen McCauley

I’ve been impatiently awaiting the arrival of the new Stephen McCauley book that I ordered. If you’re not familiar with this author, he’s written several novels. His debut title, which you might recognize, was The Object of My Affection, a delightfully amusing book about a gay man and the people in his life. Of course, if you saw the movie, you probably think it’s about a sweet/sassy woman negotiating love and single motherhood who–oh, yeah, happens to have a gay friend/roommate. In other words, a vehicle for Jennifer Aniston.

I always enjoy his books, and I’m sure Alternatives to Sex will be good. Meanwhile, I was mighty amused by his blogs about his booksignings. Oh, the glamour. At least in his case, he gets to regret that his book has so far only gone into its third printing.

Excuse me, I have to scream now.

…in the jungle…the mighty jungle…

I had no idea there was actually a term for this until I read Hot Toddy’s blog: earworm

‘Earworms’ Bother Women, Musicians Most
by Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News

Feb. 27, 2003 — They bore into your head. They won’t let go. There’s no known cure. Earworms can attack almost anyone at almost any time.

No, it’s not an invasion of jungle insects. It’s worse. Earworms are those songs, jingles, and tunes that get stuck inside your head. You’re almost certain to know the feeling, according to marketing professor James J. Kellaris, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati.

Nearly 98% of people have had songs stuck in their head, Kellaris reported at the recent meeting of the Society for Consumer Psychology. The 559 students — at an average age of 23 — had lots of trouble with the Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” Jingle and with the Baha Men song “Who Let the Dogs Out.” But Kellaris found that most often, each person tends to be haunted by their own demon tunes.

“Songs with lyrics are reported as most frequently stuck (74%), followed by commercial jingles (15%) and instrumental tunes without words (11%),” Kellaris writes in his study abstract. “On average, the episodes last over a few hours and occur ‘frequently’ or ‘very frequently’ among 61.5% of the sample.”

Here’s the students’ top-10 earworm list:

Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” jingle.
“Who Let the Dogs Out”
“We Will Rock You”
Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle (“Gimme a Break …”)
“Mission Impossible” theme
“YMCA”
“Whoomp, There It Is”
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
“It’s a Small World After All”

Stuck song syndrome annoyed, frustrated, and irritated women significantly more than men. And earworm attacks were more frequent — and lasted longer — for musicians and music lovers. Slightly neurotic people also seemed to suffer more.

Kellaris hasn’t yet found a cure. Women are more likely to try to get rid of the offending ditties. Men are just as likely to do nothing as to fight their earworms.

What helps? Kellaris doesn’t know. But he found that when people battle their earworms, nearly two-thirds of the time they try to use another tune to dislodge the one that’s stuck. About half the time people simply try to distract themselves from hearing the stuck song. More than a third of the time people with songs stuck in their heads try talking with someone about it. And 14% of the time, people try to complete the song in their heads in an effort to get it to end.

They’re coming to take me away

Apparently, when the Feds asked various companies who provide Internet search engines to turn over their records of all searches made during an “unspecified week,” all of them (including Yahoo) bleated a little lamblike noise that sounded remarkably like, “Okay!” Except Google, who expressed concern about protecting customer privacy (but who I suspect is probably more concerned with protecting proprietary information about how they do that thing they do).
Continue reading “They’re coming to take me away”