Have updated the site to ClassicPress using the migration plugin. As far as I can tell, no problems. Please leave a comment if something is terribly broken. Or even a little bit broken.
Cupcake has opinions
Cupcake is our resident movie critic. I don’t think she cared for tonight’s movie.
Resolutions for 2023
Here it is, finally, the last day of 2022. None too soon. As the meme says, I’m going into 2023 real quiet-like and hoping for a better year.
I’ve set aside the idea that a new year means a new me, or that I have the ability to embark on a massive self-improvement campaign just because the odometer has rolled over on another year. But I like to reflect on some things I’d like to have done come this time next year.
The obvious ones: get more exercise, read more, eat better. No specific numbers for those goals except “do better than I’ve been doing.”
My home computer lab is in a sorry state at the moment, so I want to whip it into shape this year and complete a few projects that are worth writing about.
Today will mark 41 days into my 100 day blogging challenge. I aim to complete that and maybe even keep it rolling past day 100.
A major goal for 2023: Help Nora get a driver’s license. That means teaching a 17-year-old how to drive. Have mercy.
As always, try to be a better person and ask “What Would Mr. Rogers Do?”
Nothing fancy. How about you?
“Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo” by Aimee Mann (No. 54)
Bachelor No. 2 is the album that, if Interscope had its way, wouldn’t have been released at all. Instead, Aimee Mann bought the rights back and released it on her own through her website – a gutsy move in 2000, but it paid off for Mann and her fans.
Most of Mann’s albums make me unreasonably happy, but Bachelor No. 2 is wall-to-wall awesome. Let’s start with the opening track, “How am I Different?” It’s a perfect album opener, starting just with acoustic guitar, light drums, piano, and Mann’s voice. After a couple of verses, the music swells and carries you away. I love everything about this song, the melody, the bluesy guitar, Mann’s voice, and the lyrics. “Just one question before I pack, when you fuck it up later, do I get my money back?” Continue reading ““Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo” by Aimee Mann (No. 54)”
In Which I Finally Install AdBlock
For years, I’ve resisted installing AdBlock or any other type of ad-blocking software. Not because I love ads, but because so much content is ad-supported (including content I used to write) and there wasn’t a clear way to support “free” content otherwise.
What finally drove me over the edge wasn’t an actual “ad” at all, but the affiliate network run by Taboola. You know the ones, you can’t visit many popular sites without seeing something like this:
Ads are annoying enough, but the Taboola stuff is linkbait too far. I’m not shocked to see it on sites like Newsmax, but when it started popping up on Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo, I decided I’d had my fill. (That, and the “one weird trick” ads had also just gotten too damn annoying as well.)
I keep wondering when, or if, we’ll hit the point when people are willing to pay for quality content online and obviate the need for these crap-festooned banners.
(Post rescued from the dustbin of history courtesy of Archive.org. Originally posted on zonker.net.)