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thursday, 24 june, 2004

ado

Sorry if I kept anyone waiting, but seems my watch has been running terribly slow lately. Kind of scary, actually, seeing how long it's been since A Boy & His Blog's last entry. (What? Neither Netscape nor Explorer supports cuneiform any longer???) Still, not caring to beat myself over the head too hard, I guess there was no way—mere mortal that I am—to keep blogging at my blistering former pace.

No getting around it, though, a lot's happened since my last post. As a result, we've got plenty to catch up on—from the appearance of that new-fangled digital device, the opposable thumb, to up-to-the-minute frontline dispatches from the war. (Flash! Dewey takes Manila!) Yes indeed, Yours Truly has been away for quite a spell. Getting up to speed on current events could take a while, I'm thinking, so without further ado...

gmail

Thanks to the largesse of Marin County, California's premier goth librarian, Sarah at LibrarianInBlack.net, I'm now having fun fiddling with a trial Google email account. I was doing the usual aimless surfing the other night when I happened upon her blog, and saw that she had three Gmail accounts for the first three readers to drop her a line. Turns out I was Number Two, and thus a lucky winner. (As opposed to Number Two, and a scatological euphemism.)

So far, no significant Gmail bugs to report. Still, I suspect for me the downside of nagging privacy issues will ultimately outweigh the perceived value of a 1 gig email account, and the resulting ability to keep a zillion messages without ever having to trash a single one. Hey, I've never been that housekeeping-averse.

My biggest concern is that individuals who email Gmail users will unwittingly (in most cases) expose themselves to Google's intrusive new data mining. Since I wouldn't want that happening to friends who email me, I may well ultimately pass on Gmail. In those cases when I need webmail, I'll likely stick with Yahoo, which has generally proved adequate for my limited webmail needs. In the meantime, though, as I say, it's fun being one of Google's short-term beta-testers.

Return of the Lindy Hop, West Coast style! June, 2004 meeting of the Laguna Beach chapter of the A Boy & His Blog Fan Club. Seen here are preparations for the quarterly ritual sacrifice, performed to ensure timely postings of A Boy & His Blog. Minutes of the meeting record that a good time was had by most.

a boy & his blog at half-staff

A towering giant of Western Civilization, that two-term colossus of the Free World who gave us the astrology-driven, jelly-bean-fueled Oval Office, has left us.

Gone is the inspirational leader who "made America feel good about itself again" by steering its trickle-down economy into record budget deficits. Gone is the statesman who demolished the Berlin Wall—not to mention the rest of the Evil Empire—with nothing more than his trusty teleprompter and some uncommonly catchy bloviation. Gone is the steely-eyed Commander-in-Chief who saved the nation from the menace of a blood-thirsty, world-domination-obsessed Grenada. Gone, too, is the original Compassionate Conservative, that busy American icon who still found time to lend a compassionate hand to the death squads of Central America. All that, and avuncular, too.

Alas, impossible shoes to fill, those—unless, perhaps, those shoes be filled with the visionary feet of The Pride of Yale himself, George W. Bush: moral exemplar, American Everyman, and self-annointed torch-bearer of the Great Communicator. May God (together with the requisite number of swing states) bless America.

Me, I'm voting Kerry.

No, it's not the new Olympic trial event that's got everyone talking, the mixed formal 400-meter hurdles. It's just another typical pair of satisfied customers, enraptured readers of A Boy & His Blog. Become a regular reader yourself, and put a spring in your step, too. (For an extra lift, don't forget to check out the official A Boy & His Blog Anti-Gravity Cummerbund, seen above...and for the ladies, the AB&HB Zero-Gee! Stole.)

pure fluff

Went out for the daily constitutional again this morning: another five-miler, to help atone for some very serious pigging-out last weekend. (Mom and Dad hit town for Father's Day, and major over-indulging ensued—including making short work of some unbelievable ribs on Sunday.)

Anyway, most of today's five miles was logged in the park, where, despite its pushing 80 degrees, there appeared to be a full-fledged snowstorm in progress. Turns out it was a blizzard of fluff from a pair of majestic old cottonwood trees. OK, maybe technically it wasn't a blizzard, but it was thick enough that the robins were flying on instruments.

The surprise summertime flurry was pretty to look at, to be sure, but it posed a minor nuisance, too: it seems cottonwood fluff adheres amazingly well to a sweaty body. Try glueing a couple dozen cotton balls to yourself sometime, and you'll get roughly the same interesting effect. Go public with your new look, as I did, and I can vouch for its being an unfailing conversation-starter.

OK. Don't laugh now, but a few fleeting seconds ago I actually thought there might be a point to this story. (Beware falling fluff??? Beware pointless stories about falling fluff???) If you can come up with anything even remotely resembling a point (and if you care to admit you were reading this in the first place), please feel free to call collect, won't you?

howdy, i must be moseying...

...to paraphrase the dauntless Capt. Spaulding. Admittedly, it feels good to be back, but if I babble on any further today, I run the risk (albeit a mighty slender one) of committing the ultimate transgression: letting honest-to-gosh content creep into these humble pages. So, to avert what would be a catastrophic blow to this little corner of the blogosphere, I'll apply the brakes at this point. Hope to see you again in a few days, but in the meantime, here's wishing you a fun and fruitful rest of the week.

Now, time to get back to catching up on a fairly massive backlog of work around here, all of which I'd dearly love to have wrapped up by the Fourth. For starters, maybe I can finally get to work on that letter for an Amnesty urgent appeal I've been letting slide. Case involving a couple of guys—Sacco and Vanzetti, or something like that...

posted 7:21 A.M.