I dislike cable companies: link

I distrust cable companies: link

Eh, why watch TV anyway? link

Grumble.

I was about to post this message to my under-used myspace profile:

On rare occasions I find it more convenient to have a myspace account than not have one. However, I have neither the time nor the inclination to look through all of the ten or so friend requests I get weekly on the remote chance that one of them isn’t from an ersatz 22-year old in her underwear. If you are someone I know, then you already have multiple other ways of getting in touch with me that don’t involve what may very well be the most poorly designed major web site in existence.

Henceforth, friend requests go to /dev/null. Now get off my lawn.

But at the last minute I decided to cancel the account altogether. I’m going to go be awkwardly old and unsociable on facebook instead.

So tonight on NOVA is a 2-hour program about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the ‘Intelligent Design’ trial in Pennsylvania which ended just shy of two years ago. I’ll have to watch, but this topic almost always gets me irritated. (That said, the judge’s ruling on the case is a really good read, considering that it’s, well, a court ruling.)

Meanwhile, I came across a new review of the Creation Museum in Kentucky complete with a Flickr photo album. It’s an interesting review, if maybe a little long. Really the whole thing boils down to one, highly appropriate, word. I wonder if you can guess which word that might be.

Another Fark Photoshop contest entry.

The clutter on my desk is 100% genuine.

When I moved off the dotMac space, all the images I’d stored there went away. Of course, I still have copies of them on my hard drive, but there are plenty of links to them scattered around the web here and there, none of which I can update. The result: dead links. Broken URLs. It’s all very sad, really.

OK, nobody’s really going to miss my past visual contributions to the web, but once in a while I may post the occasional image here just to have ’em back online. Most of the dead links involve posts at the Straight Dope Message Boards or Fark Photoshop contests.

I’ll start with my first Fark Photoshop entry, which was very very late because I got in near the end of the contest, had to register and then wait 24 hours before posting. Hence nobody saw it. The source material was pretty low quality, but it’s still one of my favorites.

The theme, inspired by a news story: Terrorists use Google. Photoshop other unlikely groups to use Google.

My entry:

Aside from a better source image, the only other thing I would have done would be to rename the search engine to “Q-gle”.

So here’s the story.

It’s about time for my dotMac subscription to renew, and I’ve been thinking for some time that it’s not really worth the 99 bucks a year. And this is from me, your favorite Mac freak.

But really, I don’t have my very own music to share, I don’t have photo albums to share, or movies, or calendars. And if I did, I’m sure I could find much cheaper options.

Meanwhile, I’d like to play with some CGI and some AJAX tech, neither of which I can do with either dotMac or a blog hosted on blogger.com. And for practically the same amount of money, I could have my own web domain and web hosting service, with all sorts of neato toys to play with. Even if I never get around to making this site any less dull, it’s a better deal all around.

And so we come to this unfortunate URL I’ve chosen.

Although the name of this site will probably remain the same, I’m not feeling like ‘extending the brand presence’ of my old ‘drewbert’ moniker. A quick google search for drewbert turns up me, along with all sorts of other people I don’t feel like sharing with. And a drewbert domain name? Drewbert.com and drewbert.net are already taken and the best I could hope for would be drewbert.info. Not interested.

So what else could I choose for my new home on the web? PoorExcuse.net is available at the moment. It’s memorable, if overly self-deprecating.

I spent a good portion of last night trying out random phrases and seeing if anything good was available. Nothing good was available. On a late-night whim of desperation, I actually tried randomphrase.com and found a site that generates, well, random phrases. Not only that, it checks to see if that phrase is registered anywhere as a dot-com.

TouristMuffler.com? Still available.
TrafficMartini.com? Still available.
KingOfTheLosers.com? Taken.
PissyCups.com? Still available.
ObliviousSombreros.com? Still available.
SexBombsEtc.com? Still available.
DentureBoyRacer.com? It’s yours for the taking.
PurpleHouses.com? Sorry. Not available.
EndlessErection.com? Astoundingly, still available.

None of these being at all intersting, I settled on a randomly-generated phrase which has been rolling around in my head ever since I got it as the subject line of a spam a year or two ago: Circumspect Fiesta. I can’t exactly explain why, but it has an arcane oxymoronic quality that appeals to me. It’s utterly meaningless. Kinda like this blog! And with my dotMac subscription about to expire, time was of the essence.

Anyway, if none of this makes sense, don’t worry. I don’t get it all myself. And I’m sure I’ll come to regret this move soon enough. It’ll be right after dotMac inevitably lowers its price and adds way cool new features. Which with my luck will occur in about three weeks.

It’s finally happened. I’ve got my own .com domain, and this here blog is moving to it. If I understand correctly, the drewbert.blogspot.com site will retain everything up until this post for at least some time. Therefore, I must direct you to the new site which is, regrettably, known as:

A rational-sounding explanation will be forthcoming as soon as I’m sure the new site is all working properly. (And by the way, if you click on that link within a day or so of my posting this, the link probably won’t work. Patience, my friends.)

Anyway, the migration is about to begin. Cross your fingers, and I’ll see you on the other side.

I wanted to state for the record, not that it matters, that this was my idea first. Who needs lights on the airplane to tell you when it’s OK to smoke when it never is? Why not replace them with lights that tell you when you can use electronic devices? Actually, this article is just about cell phone use, so my idea is better, anyway.

And just while I’m on the topic, Professor Frink stole my idea for mood pants, which I came up with years earlier.

I’m still quite bitter about that one.

I need something fun to blog about instead.

Suggestions happily accepted.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060727-12.html

Sigh.