Gnorb.NET

Check out the Sandbox to get a taste of the changes coming to Gnorb.NET. Cleaner design, faster response, and less scrolling. Also there’s a special treat for those of you who go check it out, an article you’ll only see there. (Alright, so you won’t just see it there, but you won’t see it here. And it’s pretty funny, so go read it.) [Edit: FYI, the new design won't work in IE6 or older. Don't want to use IE7? I highly recommend Opera. And then, of course, there's always the memory hogging awesomeness that is Firefox].

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Taking a short hiatus from blogging. I’ll be back by the end of the week. As of late I’ve been trying to juggle a bunch of things (all of which are important) and they’re all zapping my blogging juices.

For the record, currently my brain is being filled with financial information, how to increase my asset base, how to evaluate a business (as well as my own finances better), and whether or not The Wife and I will be moving out of town, whether we’ll be buying a house soon, and whether that house will be in Florida or somewhere else. (We know we’re moving — our apartment complex is giving us the runaround, we have a squatter living below us in a complete pig sty, mold is in the walls, and these people are moving no faster than slugs on pot — the question is where. Another apartment? A house? Tampa? North Carolina? Texas? The dark side of the moon? Ten feet to the right? Two steps forward, one step back?)

I actually have a couple of incomplete stories in the back end, and since I’ve been working on fiction recently, I may publish some short stories here (between 4,000 and 10,000 words), but for the moment, I’m pooped. In the mean time, go out to 9Rules and check out the Commentary section. Lots of good reading there. (You can go to 9Rules by clicking on the leaf image on the sidebar.)

You may be wondering why I haven’t been writing all that much recently, at least not the deep, well thought out works of non-fiction literature you come here to enjoy. (At least, in my imagination you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing.) I feel I owe an explanation of that, and finally I feel like I can actually talk about it.

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You’ll have to pardon the lack of updates as of late. A recent set of events, including travel, family, and other personal (health-ish) issues have drained the writing juices for the time being. I’ll be posting a few educational videos and a few links for the next few days, maybe even a few punny jokes, at least until I can get the juices flowing again.

FYI:

• Currently reading: A Secret Atlas (Michael A. Stackpole); I, Robot (Issac Asimov) [Edit: Finished! Phenomenal book.]; The Anti-Inflammation Zone (Barry Sears)
• Currently watching: Nothing, surprisingly, although I think The Wife wants me to watch The Illusionist.
• Currently studying: Ray Kurzweil.
• Currently writing: Fiction. Been writing some as of late. May actually publish some of it here, if I don’t think I can sell it. Most of the stuff I’m producing now I’m not entirely sure I can, if for no other reason that I don’t yet have the tools to put a good fiction story together.

That about does it. Anti-climactic? Thought so. Go enjoy some out of season Christmas music (which I caught on the YouTube front page), done by people to whom the Internet has sadly enabled with the ability to share their singing voices. It’s painfully hypnotic. Painfully… hypnotic… painfully… heh… hehe… hehehe… puppet bird…

*ahem*

Actually, after a while they don’t sound all that bad. Not all that good, either, but not all that bad. No worse than people I normally live my life around at any rate. And some holiday music is always welcome: there aren’t anywhere nearly enough good Easter songs.

This is just a quick note for any regular readers: I just came back from out of town (was in Philly), so if you commented sometime after Thursday night, your comments have finally been approved and let out of the moderation queue. While I had Internet access out there, once I got there I realized I didn’t want to spend time doing that when I could be taking in the sights (and taking care of the business for which I was actually there, an educational conference).

For those of you in Philly, I gotta tell you: you folks have a spectacular city, with every sort of folk (most of which are actually friendly, if they bother to notice that you exist) and almost anything to do at any time. One of the funnest places I’ve been in, really. Unfortunatelly, it’s uglier than sin, beautified only by the ultra-large murals painted outside of buildings (especially the dragon one visible from 8th Street, in the Chinatown area) — which serve to accentuate just how ugly the city is at times. I couldn’t help but think of the descriptions of Dickens’s Victorian-age England, an interweaving of majestic, storied cities (or in this case, neighborhoods) and seemingly derelict areas.

Don’t you just love these modern day paradoxes? Best of times, worst of times… you get the idea.