I had Chinese-style food for lunch today. Needless to say, there was a fortune cookie at the end of the meal.

Well then. I'll just save My Insane Scheme for another time.

Yesterday, I found out that November is NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, which encourages all bloggers to post at least once per day throughout the month. There is a little contest being held here to encourage people to participate. I sent off my entry yesterday at about 9:30 PM, so due to time zones, I may or may not have been entered in the drawing. If so, great, but if not, that's also fine. It won't stop me from playing along at home, so to speak. I'm doing this for the best reason possible... because I can.

Many people don't realize that there were online communities before the rise of the Web. Indeed, there were the walled gardens, such as CompuServe, AOL, and The Source, but there were also Usenet, FidoNnet, WWIVNet, UUCP networks, and of course thousands of free-standing BBS systems . These were computers sitting idle, just waiting for someone, anyone, to RING and CONNECT 2400 (or 1200, or for unlucky people like me, 300.)

Once a month, BBS users in my general geographical area would converge on a particular pizza restaurant and hold a meeting of MORE, the Modem Operators of the Redwood Empire. It was a chance to introduce oneself to the "modeming" community and attach faces to the names that one may have engaged in thoughtful discussion and/or flame wars. In fact, it was through MORE that I made some of my oldest friends, some of which I keep in contact with to this day.

Back then, I went by the rather bizarre handle of Robomobozobodobot, which nobody else could be bothered to pronounce, let alone spell, but at least it was recognizable. Where, you may ask, did I come up with such a ridiculous name? Good question. My thought was since it seems like everything was robo- this, and -bot that, (which goes to show how long ago this train of thought occurred) just throw in the kitchen sink and go for the totally ludicrous jumble of syllables.

Funnily enough, this was long before anyone I knew had ever heard a motherboard called a mobo, and I've just been informed that Zobodo is a place in Haiti. So it would seem, that one could retcon the word robomobozobodobot to mean "robotic motherboard from the robot from Zobodo." But I would strongly discourage anyone from doing this. The magic, you see, lay in not knowing exactly what a Robomobozobodobot is, or does, or where it comes from, or what it will do next.

My point, and I do have one, arrogant though it may sound, is that I feel as though one post per day should not be a big deal. The only difference is that here, unlike bulletin boards, fora, and e-mails, there's nobody to directly react to except for myself. And that is the challenge.

Slashdot reports that the ocean will be empty of fish as well as bare of coral by mid century, due to Man's excesses of appetite and waste. Yet there are still those who choose to believe that a hoax is being perpetrated by a cabal of anti-industrial scientists for no particular reason other than these scientists hate Jesus or freedom or something. There are also people who may admit that signs of "climate change" exist but insist that a changing climate is part of some natural atmospheric cycle which cannot be changed by any kinds of organisms. Oh, sure. Tell that to the stromatolites .

I thought this was supposed to be the Twenty-First Century. Why are we still driving automobiles powered by internal combustion? For that matter, why are we even driving automobiles? It's not 1956, it's 2006. And yet I still have to haul huge bags of laundry to the coin-operated laundromat like it's 1986.

Where's my non-polluting antigravity personal transportation device? Nope, nowhere in sight. Talking computer wristwatch? Eh, not quite. Robot butler? Almost. Videophone? Just around the corner, but don't hold your breath. Virtual reality? Yes, but you'll have to use your imagination. Enhancing undergarments for men? Oh, but that we have.

As Saturday draws to a close, I seat myself before my computer with the intent to unleash my wit upon the Web in such a way that all will tremble before my greatness and shower me with gifts of chocolate and roses. Unfortunately, precisely because Saturday is drawing to a close, I find that I lack the energy for such an artistic undertaking. Should I, then, simply keep my thoughts to myself, and in doing so, silently fail the NaBloPoMo challenege after a paltry three days?

Never!

When I finished Machines that Kill , I made in the book's journal entry an obscure reference to an animated series, the Big O. As it turns out, Cyberkedi , who originally registered the book, is also a fan and sent me a message to that effect. So let that be tonight's topic.

Like most viewers, I was a little baffled by the ending of Big O. For those of you who aren't fans-- most of you' I'd wager-- the series ended with the Enigmatic Female Character presumably awakening a giant robot named Big Venus, which then proceeded to apparently delete the setting and all characters within. I, like many other viewers, felt a bit shortchanged by this ending since it didn't seem all that contiguous with what had gone before. I later discovered that this was because there had apparently been a miscommunication between the writer and Adult Swim, not to mention an internal power struggle at the latter, which left little chance of closure for the viewers.

Since the manga diverged from the TV series, its story and ending were somewhat different and offered little insight into this mystery. I visited Web forums, fansites, and Wikipedia, and found few answers that I liked. The psycho-symbolic analysis came closest, but I still wasn't really satisfied with it, because it didn't address the tomato subplot.

Tomatoes? Yes, the first leader of Paradigm City, Gordon Rosewater, grew tomatoes by implanting the "memory" of past tomatoes into present tomatoes. Rosewater apparently did the same thing with a group of children, implanting in them the memories of the founders of Paradigm City. The reasons for this were never fully explained.

So how can the tomato subplot and a robot with a fetish for deletion be reconciled into a framework of symbolism? Easily. Consider the final scene to be a statement on the state of Science Fiction. Nobody in Paradigm City could remember anything beyond forty years in the past. Since the Big O was produced at about the turn of the century, forty years previous to that would be about the Sixties, whereas the Golden Age of Science Fiction was the Forties to the Fifties.

Viewers of the show will note many homages to Science Fiction (and other genre) writers of the Golden Age. For example, many viewers are quick to note the similarities between Big O and Warner Brothers' animated Batman series, itself a reference to a comic book. The android Dorothy's name is certainly a reference to the Wizard of Oz, a movie that was based on a book. Dorothy's appearance is strikingly similar to Lal, an android daughter built by Star Trek's Data. Data's positronic brain is a direct reference to Isaac Asimov. (An homage to Asimov's Lije Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw is made in one Big O episode.) There are also numerous references to Blade Runner, a movie based on a short story. I could go on, but you should get the picture.

Viewed in this sybolic light, Gordon Rosewater is trying to re-create the Golden Age by creating homages to homages. The question is, can he create a new L. Frank Baum, Isaac Asimov or Philip K. Dick in this manner? The answer is no. He creates only a watered-down soup that echoes their flavor and leaves him unsatisfied. This is why Big Venus destroys Paradigm City and the homages upon homages, so that something truly new can take its place.

I haven't done much with Rover this week. I've focused my attention on Clarise, the drawing robot.

The name was suggested by a colleague. Anyway, I had to replace the Teac 4510 stepper motors (salvaged from old 5.25" disk drives) with something a little more robust. As a result, the robot moves... mostly. The elbow joint works. However the shoulder joint just twitches about. I did get it to work right once, but once I showed it to a friend, it stopped working again. Reversed mechanic's syndrome, right? *sigh*

I suspect the problem is not so much the motor this time as it is the pulley you can see at upper right. The tension on the belt is so tight that it causes the gear at the other end to pull away from the motor. Of course if I loosen the belt, it slips like crazy. I think the correct approach may be to put the motor shaft on the opposite side of the pulley shaft so that it helps to hold it in place. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to set Clarise aside and work on Rover until some other solution occurs to me.

The Demon-Haunted World , by Carl Sagan

Posting a link to a book may literally satisfy the rule of one-post-per-day, but I and anyone reading today's entries will know better. However, Monday now draws to a close and I find myself without a topic upon which to expound.

However, since tomorrow is Election Day, I think I'll share the results of an online quiz I recently took.

You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (25% permissive)
You are best described as a: Democrat
Link: The Politics Test

How about that? It guessed correctly, although the results were phrased a little oddly. I do believe that citizens should be free to live as they choose as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. For example, I don't care who my neighbor does the nasty with, until the uneccessarily loud sounds of them doing it awakens me at three in the morning. On the other hand, I believe that economic anarchy results only in everybody getting ripped off. The role of the government should be to watch over the cookie jar and smack any hands it finds there.

Now, be sure and go vote tomorrow!

Today's post will take the form of a response to a questionnaire, which comes courtesy of Boogiemum . I discovered her blog while playing with the NaBloPoMo Randomizer this afternoon.

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 - in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

"So pseudoscience in America is part of a global trend. Its causes, dangers, diagnosis and treatment are likely to be similar everywhere. Here, psychics ply their wares on extended television commercials, personally endorsed by entertainers."

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?

Air, or the far left edge of a battered old desk that looks like it was made in the Seventies.

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?

Heroes

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.

About 3:00 PM. (It was 2:43. Close enough.)

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?

A printing press going clack-clack-clack.

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?

It was about 1:30 PM. I walked from my car back into to the building.

7. What are you wearing?

Brown corduroy pants, and a beige-ish-tan short-sleeved shirt. When I've reached this outfit, I know it's laundry day.

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?

I saw a woman walking down a typical city street past shops and brownstones. It could have been Sesame Street, except that it was dark and forbidding. A double-decker bus drove between us, and I looked up and saw that it had chain guns mounted on the upper deck for the passengers' use. It was also festooned with bushels of barbed wire here and there. I said, "That looks like something out of Road Warrior . "

When the bus passed, I looked back to where the woman was and saw that she was now surrounded by a bunch of thugs who were trying to rob her. They started to beat her down, when suddenly she reached within herself and found hidden knowledge. Incandescent white symbols filled the air around her, revolving around her axis. I could see she was casting a spell, but what I said was, "Ah, she has gained understanding of the matrix ."

When she was done toasting the goons, V (for Vendetta) stepped from the darkness of the alley behind her and supportively set his hand on her shoulder. I could see he was impressed and was going to enlist her help.

So, what do you think, Doc? Do I watch too much TV?

9. When was the last time you laughed?

This morning, when I was speculating as to the content of Disney's The Story Of Menstruation .

CHEESY NARRATOR: The story of menstruation begins when the ovary releases an egg to begin its journey down the Fallopian tube.

ANIMATED EGG: (In a Mister Hankey voice:) Hi, I'm an egg! (Prances out the door) Dum-dee-dum.

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?

Bulletin board, calendar, "Network Protocols Map," and this:

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?

The Banana Guard.

12. What do you think about this meme?

Initially, I was excited, but now I'm bored.

13. What's the last film you saw?

The Prestige

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?

Same as everyone else, I imagine. Pay off student and auto loans, buy a house to be sumptuously furnished, and then shrewdly invest the rest of the money so I wouldn't have to work anymore.

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.

I had a dog named Duke and a cat named Buttercup.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?

I don't like this question. First of all, everything has been made political. Suppose I said I wanted to stop the erosion of the rain forest. Or suppose I said I would get rid of the ozone hole and greenhouse gases? How could that be accomplished in a non-political way? Miraculously? Maybe the question should read, "What miracle would you perform for the world?" In that case, I would give everybody telepathy, so there would be no more misunderstandings or secrets, and perhaps we could all finally live in peace.

17. Do you like dancing?

No.

18. George Bush?

I'm afraid you've dialed the wrong number.

19. What do/did you want your children's names to be, girl/boy?

Well, unless a miracle happens, I don't foresee any children. However, I always thought a girl's name should be beautiful and exotic, so perhaps a girl should be named after a moon of Jupiter or Saturn : Ganymede, Callisto, Rhea, Mimas, etc. A boy, on the other hand, should have a name that connotes not only strength, but respectability, so perhaps a boy should be named after a president: Franklin, Grant, Theodore, Benjamin, etc. (Yes, I know Benjamin Franklin was never a president.)

20. Ok, so I decided to make this a 20 question meme instead of the longer version. Does it still count? I am thankful for…

The Universe for having parameters hospitable to life.

While googling for other items, I discovered this robotic jacket, "a mesh jacket [for stroke victims] that uses sensors to detect muscle movements in the patient’s healthy limb and then mimics the same movement via the suit’s artificial muscles."

"With these powers, I could be a super hero! "

Next, Make: brings us the case-mod to end all case-mods. I give you the telecalculograph !

Paging Doctor Brown .

Finally, if you combine these robotic tentacles with these awesome grippers, you might just end up with Bender Bendingunit Rodriguez.

I, for one, welcome our new alcoholic, flame-belching, kleptomaniac overlords .

It appears my humble abode on the Web is finally getting visitors. Good, good! (cackle cackle).

Upon analysis, it would appear that most of the visitors are new and are arriving from the NaBloPoMo list at fussy.org and also the randomizer at pinkelephants.org. But, a few visitors have arrived via search engine, seeking a "Ballbot VCR" and "UCN5804B Scrounging"

Well, I can't tell you how to build a Ballbot from an old VCR, but I can tell you what I know about the UCN5804B. This discontinued chip is apparently rather elusive. Unfortunately, I have no idea what devices these stepper motor controllers were ever used in. I got the few I had from Newark Electronics quite some time ago. Now, if one wants only to drive a few stepper motors, might I point out that most of the floppy drives I've dissected so far use Darlington array chips to drive their stepper motors. One might be able to use one of those, a latch and a shift register to mock the functionality of a stepper driver. It's just a thought. But if you're trying to repair a particular device, ough. Best of luck to you.

In other news, on Monday, I got yet another electronics book from paperbackswap.com . If you haven't heard of this site, (and you'd like to swap your boring old books for some interesting new ones) do check them out. It's rather like netflix for books, and your only cost is postage.

The only problem with this particular book is that its last owner was apparently a smoker, so it was a bit smelly. I thought maybe slipping some dryer sheets between a few of the pages might help. It did. Now the book smells like a motel, rather than an ashray, which is a slight improvement..

If it weren't for NaBloPoMo , I'd be keeping my figurative mouth shut about now, posing in a wise and mysterious fashion. However, a challenge is a challenge. Unfortunately, nothing newsworthy happened today. I went to work, mailed out a resume, bought six guppies for my aquarium, ordered chinese food, tried to fix a stand mixer, browsed through Flickr, and here we are.

Since Saturday is rapidly appraoching, I have three choices to make tonight's deadline.

1. Ramble incoherently for two more paragraphs, even though that apparently makes Baby Jesus cry.
2. Take another online quiz and analyze the results.
3. Post another photo and add a humorous caption.

Now, I hate to repeat myself, so I'll save options two and three for a little later. That leaves option one. I hate to see anyone cry, but this is for a good cause.

The post I keep mentioning has a few things to say about newspeak like Leet and textanese. I don't care for them, either.

I have a quite a few pet peeves when it comes to language. I have no sympathy for bad spellers, and I will ruthlessly mock anyone who misues an apostrophe or quotation mark. However, there are a few expressions that people use that stand my hair on end just as well as if they had scraped their nails against a chalkboard.

Number three. Using "$$$" as a shorthand spelling for "money." It's only two more characters. Sheesh.

Number two. Pronouncing "www" as "dub-dub-dub." Just say "triple-double-you." It's only two syllables longer, but it's more precise, and you won't sound (to me) like a caveman.

Number one. Spelling "because" as "b/c." No! This is wrong, as the latter means "b or c" or perhaps "b divided by c." We have plenty of perfetctly good punctuation marks that can already be used to indicate an abbrevation. For example, the apostrophe can make "International" into "Int'l," "Association" into "Ass'n," and "Forecastle" into "Fo'c's'le."

More importantly, the humble period can be used to change "Number" into "No." and "Ounce" into "oz." and "Pound" into "Lb." A period could certainly turn "Because" into "Bz."

Looks like I forgot to post yesterday. It would be ever so easy to cheat and change the time backward by, oh, thirty minutes, and who would know the difference but myself? That, however, would be cheating. I would prefer to be honest. No, I duly failed this challenge due to my own forgetfulness. I'm not going to blame the enthralling demo of Lego Star Wars II that I'd been playing for the last few hours.

It is a fun game. You start out as Lego versions of Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, See-Threepio and R2-D2 and must make your way to the Mos Eisely cantina. Along the way, you encounter Lego stormtroopers, which you must defeat by reconstructing Lego obstacles and vehicles, including the AT-ST walker as seen in Return of the Jedi. For me, nothing makes a video game as entertaining as allowing the player to take control of an overpowered vehicle, especially one with a blaster. Once you reach the Cantina, Lego Han Solo and Lego Chewbacca join the party. You must guide them to the hangar, where they join the Jedi and the droids in a shootout with a mysterious, hooded figure. When the shootout ends, so does the demo, however, you get the opportinuty to try it again with a custom-designed Lego figure.

Now, am I going to run out and buy it? Nah. Don't get me wrong, it is a fun game, but I don't really see myself playing such a game often enough or long enough to make it worth the asking price.

I decided to set Clarise aside for the time being, as I was unable to solve the mystery of the twitching shoulder. I think, perhaps, some sort of worm-gear arrangement might be the ticket. I recently came into possession of a short-circuited electric mixer that has a set of gears that may be suitable. However, that's a project for another time.

I decided to return my attention to Rover, and build a bicore head unit that would sit in the empty area just fore of the motor controller. The idea was that as the head tracked light sources, it would also turn a cam which could close switches telling the robot to turn either to the left or to the right.

So I followed the diagrams shown in Bugbots, Junkbots, and Bots On Wheels . Unfortunately, the circuit I ended up with seems not to be able to supply enough current to the motor to move much of anything. I now see that this is likely due to my using the 74HCT240 instead of the 74AC240. So I think I'll visit my neighborhood electronics store tomorrow and see about getting the correct part.

If that doesn't work, I found another design that looks intriguing. A diagram in that article calls to mind an exhbit that I saw ages ago at the Exploratorium. There was a large paiper-mache head with lightbulbs for eyes that somehow tracked the movement of visitors. I've searched their site and didn't see any mention of it. If anyone else remembers this device and how it worked, I'd be interested to hear it.

Today's post takes the form of answers to a questionnaire, which was shamelessly stolen from dwq online .

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?

No. Should I have been?

2. Do you close your eyes on roller coasters?

Yes, sometimes. I don't particularly care for roller coasters.

3. When is the last time you went sledding?

It was 1982. There were no dogs involved, however.

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?

Does this person snore? Hoard the blankets? Kick? Sleepwalk? Sleep talk? Fart? Fidget? Get up very early? Sleep in? Would this person be offended by my doing any of these things? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then I choose "alone."

5. Do you believe in ghosts?

Do things happen at certain locations, things for which we have no logical explanation? Yes. Are these things caused by the dead? I doubt it. I believe that the universe is a far stranger place than we so far realize, with many surprises awaiting us.

6. Do you consider yourself creative?

Yes.

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?

I don't know, but he was found not guilty. Our justice system may not be perfect, but it sure beats a lynch mob.

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?

I'm pretty sure O.J. didn't kill either of them.

9. Can you honestly say you really know anything about politics?

Of course, I listen to AM radio.

10. Do you know how to play poker?

Uhm... what is this "poker" you speak of? Is it by chance a game of cards? And is money perhaps involved? Yes, I should very much like to learn this game, heh, heh.

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?

No. Should I have been?

12. What’s your favorite commercial?

The Bacardi & Cola commercial in which this girl spills something on her dress. "A little club soda will get that out." They spray her with the seltzer water, but it's like Splashdance or something. Now soaking wet, she cheerfully goes back to dancing. "I'm dirty, too!" someone says. Cola says, "Who's dirty?"

13. Who was your first love?

No, I'm not telling. What if he's reading this? But if he is, then... hello, how have you been?

14. If you’re driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around, do you go through a red light?

No. That light is red for my safety. Besides, it's probably got a camera.

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?

Doesn't everyone?

16. Boston Red Sox or The New York Yankees?

That wouldn't be much of a secret, now would it?

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?

No. Should I have been?

18. How often do you remember your dreams?

Whenever my stupid alarm clock doesn't wake me up,

19. What’s the one thing on your mind right now?

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. I am the modern man with parts made in Japan. Secret! Secret! I've got a secret! Machine or mannequin, I am the modern man. (Etc.)

20. Do you always wear your seat belt?

Not always, just whenever I'm in a moving vehicle.

21. What talent do you wish you had?

Hypnotism.

22. Do you like sushi?

No.

23. What do you wear to bed?

Most of our culture's ills come from acting counter to our nature. For example, why are we so obese? It's because we don't go outside and walk around, although that's what our bodies are clearly evolved to do, and it's because we eat refined sugar and saturated fats rather than the nuts, berries, bugs and rodents we had evolved to eat. Clothing is likewise not in our nature, and so I think it important to let the skin breathe as much as possible. Does that answer your question?

24. Do you truly hate anyone?

There is one individual in partiuclar I'd like to cast into the pit, but to call it true hatred would be an overstatement.

25. If you could meet one famous person, who would it be?

I would like to meet Linus Torvalds or maybe Jon Stewart or Bill Clinton.

26. Do you know anyone in jail?

Not to my knowledge.

27. What food do you find disgusting?

Sushi.

28. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?

Doesn't everyone?

29. Have you ever been punched in the face?

Yes, but it wasn't for making fun of friends.

30. Do you believe in angels and demons?

I believe Angels and Demons was a much better book than than Da Vinci Code.

Whose theme song is even catchier than Mister Roboto ? Why, that super fighting robot, Mega Man! (Am I crazy, or can the "ding" from Everquest be heard during the opening credits? Maybe I'm crazy.)

Suicide Bots brings us the sad tale of Robosapien's sex scandal. Those with delicate sensibilities and/or delicate stomachs should excersise discretion! In fact, I strongly urge everybody to just move right along and not gawk.

On that note, I present this artistic juxtaposition:

On the left is a dress made entrirely of condoms by Adriana Bertini.

On the right is a suit made of baby dolls by Phillip Toledano.

Some of you may wonder why I'm still making the effort to post every day, when faced with the truth (as told by that little calendar up there) that I'm a proverbial day late and dollar short. Well, although I may have failed the letter of the challenge and allowed twenty-five hours to elapse between posts, I feel like I've still upheld the spirit of the challenge by posting anyway.

Yes, I know that is like running one stop sign and promising to stop twice at the next one. After the buzzer sounds, it doesn't matter if the ball goes through the hoop. But do the other runners in the race stop where they are when the first one breaks the tape? No, they don't.

I'm not going to stop, either, because right now, that feels too much like quitting. Perhaps later this month, I will reach the point in which I'm ready to admit that I have no desire to participate further. When I reach that point, I will be satisfied to quit.

On the other hand, I will cheerfully admit that I may be taking this all just a bit too seriously.After all, they say "it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play." If playing to win requires writing post after post wherein I complain that it's 11:57 and that I don't have anything to post about, then I don't want to win.

Correct me if I am wrong, which I may well be, but based on a random sampling , I would estimate that 98% of the participants of NaBloPoMo are female. I am certainly not saying that this is a bad thing in and of itself. But the overall subject matter does tend to get a bit monotonous after a time. Kids, husband, pets, husband, kids, pets. Oh, and new tampons. Yes, I randomly landed on one blog, I don't remember which one, that began with the statement, "So I tried out these new tampons today..." At that point I decided I'd best take a break and fired up an instance of GrowCube .

I'm certainly not saying that posts about your kids are a bad thing. Amazing Journey had a particularly amusing one yesterday. And I'm certainly not saying that it's wrong to tell us how your particular husband is or isn't a pig as the case may be, or that your dog or cat is or isn't the cutest thing in the entire world. It's just that with over 2,000 participants, I had thought to see a little more variety. *shrug*

This is something of a follow-up to yesterday's post.

Since we know that a larger sample size will make any survey more accurate, I'll point out that Rashenbo and friends have made it a task to visit each and every NaBloPoMo blog. I'd certainly be interested to know what their findings are in this matter.

Meanwhile, I present a list of the bloggeros that I have thus far discovered though the randomizer :

• deanpence
• Dylan's Adventures
• dwq online
• Everlasting Truth
• infinite bob
• Innocent Bystander
• notastute
• Purple Twinkie (which I already knew about)
• Radioactive Jam
• Turkey Dinner ( great layout)
• Web Log: a20261

Now if you find that you have been a) not listed or b ) listed by mistake, please do not be alarmed and/or offended. In the case of a , I've probably not discovered your blog yet. (But it's also possible that I wasn't paying attention and overlooked it.) In the case of b , I've definitely paid insufficient attention. Please leave a comment at the beep and I'll be happy to remedy the situation.

One of these days, I'll write a proper "About the Author" page. Until then, you're going to have to infer your facts from the questionnaires to which I keep responding. This one has been brought to you by I Don't Want To Be Normal .

1. If you were a Muppet and had to pick ANOTHER Muppet to be your best friend, who would you pick?

Oscar the Grouch. He's mean, he's green, he lives in a trash can, and enjoys nothing more than telling his neighbors to scram. Why I would want a friend like this, I don't know, other than that we'd have so much in common.

OSCAR: Scram!

ME: No, you scram!

OSCAR: I was here first!

ME: Bite my shiny metal ass!

OSCAR: Come over here and say that to my face!

ME: *fiery belch*

And a good time was has by all.

2. Would you rather live on Sesame Street, with the Muppets on the Muppet Show, or down at Fraggle Rock?

At the Muppet Show, of course. Things don't blow up or turn into cheese as often at Sesame Street, and I think the Rock would be a bit cramped for one of my ginormous stature, and I fear I'd just become a sideshow attraction. "Come one, come all! Step right up and gawk at the Silly Creature! Never fear, he doesn't bite!"

3. If you were forced to date a Walt Disney Character (human or animal), who would it be?

Do the live action movies (Puff the Magic Dragon, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, etc.) count? Even if they did, I'd have to, for purely pragmatic reasons, choose the Genie. Hello, three wishes!

4. If you could only eat one vegetable ever again, what would it be?

The versatile squash. It's full of vitamins and can be prepared in so many different ways.

5. Do you have any recurring dreams?

I used to dream about being trapped in an evil elevator that would rocket up and down at random. Yes, just like the Tower of Terror, except that it's a seemingly normal elevator, and it doesn't stop after thirty seconds

6. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Let me tell you a little story. The other day, I was at Jack-in-the-Box. There was a short line to the counter, maybe three people long, and I took my place at the end, a respectable four or five feet away from the guy ahead of me. In walks this girl, who walks right up to my back as though she's magnetized. She's standing about two feet from me, practically breathing down my neck.

Now, some of you may be giving her the benefit of the doubt, wondering if perhaps I'm being a jerk by standing too close to the door, leaving my new "friend" the choice of either standing outside or cramming her ass into the restaurant I assure you this was not the case. This was a giant Jack-in-the-Box. There would have had to have been forty people in line for that to have even been able to have happened, and if that were the case, I'd not have stayed. No, there were now only about five people in line altogether.

Yes, I was indeed in front of an Urger , someone who believes that urging people in a line to stand closer together makes the line shorter. That it may well do, but it will not make the cashier move any faster. I sighed loudly, but this was only the beginning! The Urger whipped out a cell phone and began to yell directions to the restaurant into it-- and also into my ear.

Now I had no choice but to step away from her and cut into my other neighbor's personal space. Being an Urger, though, she quickly followed, until I was as close to my other neighbor as she was to me.

Now, if I'd had the power to fart on demand, we wouldn't ever have made it to this point. Oh, no. Once the phone had come out, I'd have unleashed the loudest trumpeting ripper you'd ever had heard. I would bet you she would have kept her distance after that.

7. Did you rename your Cabbage Patch Kids, or keep them with the name Xaiver Roberts gave them? What were they called?

For your information, I played with Transformers, not Cabbage Patch Kids.

8. First Concert you ever went to?

I saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers at the Warfield.

9. Does it bother you that Sebastian Bach from Skid Row was acting in Gilmore Girls?

No. I care for neither Skid Row nor the Gilmore Girls.

10. What are the Best 3 Simpsons episodes?

I don't really watch the Simpsons. Any three of the "Tree House of Terror" episodes, I guess.

11. BONUS QUESTION (since Sara didn't include a #11). What was the last book you read?

Bait and Switch.

12. Who do you tag?

You!!!

Not having enough pictures makes a blog look boring, especially when there's no fancy graphic banner. I should probably post an image of some type every other entry or so. So here's one from this weekend's Geocaching expedition.

This weekend's find rate was a paltry two out of four, and I had to call the search off since it was getting dark. If I hadn't gotten off to such a late start, I might have done better. But, I think the four-day weekend will provide an opportunity to try again.

I was also invited to a friend's to watch UFC and play some video games such as Gears of War, Perfect Dark Zero, and Table Tennis. Guess which game I had the most fun with? Yes, Table Tennis. In other words, Pong 2006. If this is the most entertainment that Microsoft has to offer me, no wonder I'm tempted to buy a Wii.

On the way there, I stopped at the Panera Bread in Vista to get a snack and check out the BookCrossing shelf they have there. Although I was kicking myself for not having brought any books to release there (or in the large, empty Geocache I found), I was pleased to see that the books I had released there long ago had been apparently been caught, just not journaled.

Since I engaged in almost all of the activities in my Diversions sidebar this weekend, I would consider this weekend a success.

Well, I finally got the 74AC240 I needed to build a bicore head. So I did. Of course once I finished it, I found plans for a more advanced version .

The light sensors are a pair of phototransistors with plastic lenses that I've been saving for just such a project. The motor assembly originally came with my tracked vehicle kit, which was replaced by the dual-motor gearbox. Really, what's the point of a tracked vehicle that can't maneuver? Anyway, the next step is to to mount the head on Rover, add some switches to signal the brain in which direction to turn, and, oh yes, install the brain.

The post that I had been working on failed to satisfy my exacting criteria. It has since been canceled with extreme predjudice. The Electronic Replicant will resume its regular programming tomorrow. In the mean time, please enjoy this trio of quizzes brought to you by Write Coast, who was surprised by their accuracy.

You Are an Irish Coffee

At your best, you are: wild, spontaneous, and outgoing At your worst, you are: too extreme and reckless You drink coffee when: you want to keep drinking booze Your caffeine addiction level: low

The Movie Of Your Life Is Film Noir

So what if you're a little nihilistic at times? Life with meaning is highly over-rated. Your best movie matches: Sin City, L. A. Confidential, Blade Runner

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

Analysis: I am apparently a drunken, spontaneous, cutting-edge private investigator who has to deal with personal demons as well as a hot redhead who will probably betray me in the end as I recklessly explore a wacky new culture. Therefore, if I were a genre of writing, I would probably be cyberpunk.

Robot Magazine brings us this simple test to determine whether a robot is real or vaporware. I took the test myself. Clarise scores a negative two and thus is PURE VAPOR! Rover scores quite a bit better with a five, but is still PURE VAPOR! I guess just having wheels or legs of any kind counts for a lot.

Newscientist reports that Ubiko, a Japanese "greeter robot" is now available for rental at a cost of $445 per hour. Twenty companies have so far agreed to hire the robot. Here in the US, though, we like to pay as little as possible for labor, which means paying (possibly illegal) immigrants cash under the table. However, the Ubiko-- which not only issues greetings, but can answer questions, carry baggage, and guide people around buildings-- can be purchased for $255,000. A robot can work twenty-four hours a day, 365 days per year, so even if the robot only lasts one year, the Ubiko costs $30.00 per hour. Sure, that's still something like five minimum-wage, no-benefit employees. Of course, if the Ubiko is engineered as well as the Mars rovers , then it should last quite a bit longer than a year. Then again, I'm pretty sure there are no vandals on Mars.

Aieee! It's the paper replicant! Make : has an article on a man who is replicating himself on paper. His site even has a PDF version of himself that you can download, print, cut and glue into something that looks just a bit like that guy from Red Dwarf...

Make presents its Open Source Gift Guide. If you're wondering what to get the geek in your life, look no further. Now, a few weeks ago, Computoredge, our local advertising delivery device, also published their take on what to get the geek who has everything. Their answer? Products that don't exist. :-P

Lockwasher recently added some new robot sculptures to his robots set. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go check it out. It's okay, I'll wait.

Since you can't have a true Link-o-Rama with less than three links, here's a tasty new blog I discovered via the randomizer, The Candy Blog, which, as you may guess, is about candy of all kinds. I'm looking quite forward to perusing the archives.

I hope you are all having a nice Buy Nothing Day. Since today officially marks the start of this year's Orgy of Consumerism, I thought it would be appropriate-- not to mention a courtesy to those close friends and relatives that may feel obligated to buy me something-- to post The List, which is basically just a list of movies, etc. that I liked enough to want a copy of, but not quite so much that I did buy. So, for all three of you, here it is:

• Doctor Who - The Complete First Series
• Mr. Roboto
• Mystery Men
• Nightmare before Christmas
• Office Space
• Robocop
• Star Wars Original Trilogy Non-Special Edition
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

I'm sure it would have been easier just to link to an Amazon Wish List, which I've never bothered to set up. (Or I could maybe have set up one of those "style monitor" things. You know the ones I mean? They look almost like the Flash version of the Flickr badge, but are apparently something like del.icio.us for shopping.) I might do that in the future, but I probably won't, as it would seem too much like soliciting gratuities from the Internet at large, and that's just tacky.

For the rest of the world, don't worry. This whole mess will conclude in four weeks and two days. Then the wreathes of fake pine, the fake snowmen and the fake snow, the fake Santa Clauses and herds of light-bulb-nosed reindeer will all be gone, and in their place will suddenly be cupids and pink hearts.

Oh! And I have just got to get me an animatronic Santa or two during the clearance sales.

Magpie Musing recently discovered many things about hot dogs . Most interestingly is that they are classified as emulsified forcemeat . Now, I'm okay with emulsified , since lots of tasty foods are emulsions. But forcemeat? Ignoring my first thoughts on seeing the word (which I'm sure some of you shared,) forcemeat sounds as though it's a food that one must be forced to eat. For me, this is pretty accurate when it comes to hot dogs. Of course I've ever only been fed the supermarket 'why bother' variety, so it's quite possible that I'm prejudiced against what could otherwise be a fine dining experience. I doubt it, though. I dare someone to present me with a hot dog that makes me ask for seconds, and mean it .

The sharp eyed among you will notice that this is my second late post this month. I am quite irritated about this, and it probably shows in the above paragraph, which was supposed to come across as light hearted but may sound rather sulky. I'd been begged and cajoled into playing Dungeons and Dragons Online, even to the point of having received an early Christmas present to bring my 2002-era system up to par. So I finally had no excuse not to join my friends online. Knowing, though, that these MMORPG sessions can run a half-dozen hours at a time, I also set up the notebook with a current copy of my Thingamablog database, and figured I'd write my post while the others were shopping, training, or otherwise picking their noses.

Unfortunately, at some point the notebook decided that it'd had a long day and went to sleep. Trying to revive it only made matters worse and the machine shut down completely and wouldn't return. At about that time, the game crashed on my partly new PC, so I decided I'd just start over on the post and then call it a night.

I guess the lesson here is save early and save often. If I had done that, I could at least have pulled the thumbdrive from the comatose notebook and posted a much better, longer, and less bitter version of the first paragraph just in the nick of time. Still, I manage to post every day at about the same time, which unfortunately is midnight, and I don't see how that's different from someone who habitually posts at noon, except for that nonsense about the date changing.

Molly Bawn Chronicles brings us the Five Book Meme.

1. Take five books off your bookshelf.

   Randomly? Or should I choose my five favorites? Nah, I enjoy randomness. Where are my dice?

   

   Okay, there they are. I'll select a shelf by rolling 2d12. Then I will select a book on that shelf by rolling 1d100. I will then find the book resting at that percentage of the shelf's width (from left to right.) Ready?

2. First book---first sentence.

   At 9th shelf, 52% of the way across, is Games People Play. "Once, there was a man named Gordon." Gosh, that deserves a limerick, doesn't it?

3. Second book---last sentence on page fifty.

   At 14th shelf, 25% of the way across, is Guinness Book of the 20th Century . "Birth control, n: Deliberate control or prevention of conception through artificial or natural means; term publicised by Margaret Sanger."

4. Third book---second sentence on page one hundred.

   At 23rd shelf, 73% of the way across, is Tyrant's Test. "'I have something,' the sensor master shouted."

5. Fourth book---next to last sentence on page one hundred fifty.

   At 20th shelf, 52% of the way across, is Robot Building for Beginners. "There's also a problem if the meter displays a voltage rating around zero (see Figure 10-16)."

6. Fifth book---final sentence of the book

   At 8th shelf, 57% of the way across, is Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man. "Thanks for reading."

I've never really thought about it, but is 25 shelves a lot? Does that make me a book snob?

Apparently so.

I have to play Dungeons and Dragons Online again tonight. I feel as though I should at least see the ten-day trial through to the end since I did get a computer part out of the deal. I'll definitely post my thoughts on the game soon. But in the meantime, since I am not eager to repeat The Notebook Incident, here's a fine Questionnaire, brought to you by Comical Misadventures of a Rambling Mind.

1. Explain what ended your last relationship?

Distance.

2. When was the last time you shaved?

This morning.

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?

Sleeping.

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?

Reading blogs.

5. Some things you are excited about?

Soon I will present a special birthday present to somebody special.

6. What is your favorite flavor of JELL-O?

Green.

7. Your prom night, what do you remember about it?

Nothing. I didn't see the point in going, so I didn't. I don't even know what date that would have been on.

8. Do you have any famous ancestors?

Most likely. Famous for what, I wonder?

9. Last thing received in the mail?

A Clockwork Orange

10. How many different beverages have you had today?

Let's see: Coffee, Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi and Diet Dr. Pepper. That's two, three, or four depending on how you count.

11. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machines?

Yes. In fact I prefer to reach the answering machine. You must get right to the point. You do not have to deal with any small talk, pointless interruptions or protests that sidetrack the conversation, and you also do not have to figure out how to wind up the conversation or go through an awkward farewell sequence.

12. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?

That thought had not even occurred to me.

13. Any plans for Friday night?

Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, and the presentation of the birthday gift, in no particular order.

14. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to, unless it's the stickiness that the salt and plankton leave. Sure, that's kind of annoying. But I find the grains of sand that get stuck deep in the hair to be more annoying.

15. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?

Yes. The caramel popcorn was relatively good, the "cheese" flavored popcorn was silty and tasted like the smell of socks, and the plain popcorn was stale. I don't much like popcorn. The husks tend to wedge themselves between tooth and gum.

16. Do you re-use towels after you shower?

As opposed to what, throwing them into the trash? Anyway, washing seven towels a week would be a bit too much laundry to do as I don't have servants or anything. I don't think I even own seven towels.

17. Describe your keychain(s)?

Okay, it's a group of keys strung on a metal ring. There's a metal clip attached by a leather strap, and there is also an advertisement for the UPS store.

18. Where do you keep your change?

A plastic bucket.

19. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?

June.

20. What kind of winter coat do you own?

It's not a coat, it's a jacket. This is San Diego, after all.

Before I can tell you what I think of Dungeons and Dragons Online, I first want to tell you of my previous experiences with Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games.

1. Asheron's Call. I played in the beta test of Asheron's Call. It was my first MMORPG, so I didn't have much to compare it to other than text MUDs. The nice thing about this game was that the world seemed to be one big contiguous area, and if it wasn't, the transitions were hidden pretty well. Except, of course, for the portals one used to access dungeons. Those were a bit of a bloody giveaway. One bad thing was this. If your character happened to die, others could loot your corpse. This led to a rash of unscrupulous adventurers leading bands of unsuspecting victims into certain death. I wasn't interested enough in this game to play it after the beta concluded.

2. Everquest. After being talked into it by friends, I played Everquest for a long while. This game had several glaring weaknesses. First of all, there were only a few adventures to go around, but there were many adventurers wanting to adventure. Most of the quests were too hard or just plain broken, leading would-be adventurers to just hang around certain landmarks, slaying the monsters that inevitably spawned and respawned there. Because the loot thus found never decayed, even the rarest of items eventually became commonplace, and many characters also had more money than they could possibly carry. And because of that, many low-level characters soon realized it was easier to beg for loot than it was to go find it.

I quickly got bored with this game because it took a lot of dedicated monster-slaying to rise up in level. It seemed that there was a "baby boom" of characters that were twenty or thirty levels higher than myself, and they were the ones to which all the new content was being targeted. And since the level cap was continually rising, there was no incentive for any of these folks to go back and do it all over again.

In Everquest's favor, at least it was not possible for your character's corpse to be looted by anyone else. But, you still had to run naked through hostile country just to get your loot back.

3. Anarchy Online. I played Anarchy Online during their beta test. I liked the idea of a Science Fiction MMORPG quite a bit, and the character creation screen was pretty good for its time. But the most important feature of Anarchy Online was the introduction of the door mission. A character could be issued a mission that was his and his alone! There would be no earlier bands of adventurers camping in his dungeon, eagerly awaiting the respawning of some rare monster that may or may not be carrying some coveted piece of loot. Instead, the promised boss monster would certainly be there waiting.

Unfortunately, once I left the relatively simple (and deserted) newbie zones, my computer could not handle the processor intensive 3-D graphics, so Anarchy Online stayed on the shelf.

4. City of Heroes. I played City of Heroes during the beta test and beyond, up until about March or April of this year. I could tell that the developers of this game were players of other MMORPGs and definitely considered the weaknesses of the other games when formulating this one. For example, the problem of "ninja looting" (quickly grabbing loot from someone else's vanquished enemy) was made irrelevant because the game assigned loot to players automatically. The problem of loot devaluation was solved by making "enhancements" (items that improved your character's powers) permanently attach to a character, and the related problem of "twinking" (giving overpowered hand-me-downs to one's low-level character) was solved by making an enhancement useless to a character too high or too low in level. Although a fixed level cap and new alien races encouraged players to make new characters after maxing-out, most of the new content was still targeted toward the highest levels.

Although the game concentrated on randomly-generated door missions granted to characters by special NPCs called contacts, for those players that preferred the old style camp-and-hunt, there were still plenty of villains wandering the streets causing trouble. This was also handy for those casual players who may want only an hour or two of mild amusement. Unlike Everquest, which more or less forced players to group to accomplish anything, grouping is optional in City of Heroes. But to make finding a group easier, City of Heroes implemented a group search menu, so that it became unnecessary to squander most of one's gaming time in begging to join a group.

The character generation screen was excellent in that it gave one unprecedented flexibility in the creation of your character's appearance. There were also costume shops that one could visit later in the game to create a wardrobe of alternate costumes.

The scale of the game worked well, also. The game took place more or less within the confines of a sprawling metropolis. Buildings were building sized, cars were car-sized, and parks were park sized. On the other hand, the world of Everquest supposedly spanned several continents, but would really have been only about the size of a large national park.

5. City of Villains. This was the sequel to City of Heroes, which I beta-tested as well. Although the graphics were a level above that of the earlier game, this game seemed only to be its predecessor wearing a fancy costume. Rather than being hero versus villain, it was now mostly villain versus villain, with a few meddling heroes here and there to deal with. On the last day of the beta test, I participated in a huge hero versus villain war in one of the new player-versus-player areas. It was great fun. However, when I reached a high enough level to venture back into this area in the production game, there were few other players about, and those that were there were simply sniping off the opposition near their starting points. So much for PvP.

I played and played, looking for that new cool feature that would make me feel as though I really had seen something new, not just something shiny. I did get to rob a bank, which was also great fun. I also tried making a super base, but couldn't raise the funds to do anything interesting. To build a real super base (as opposed to a super broom closet) would have required a large super group with many active members.

A side track here. What is up with this fad of room-decorating minigames? Okay, I'll excuse The Sims, as that was the point of the game. I'll allow the super-base building in City Of... because the idea is for other super groups to raid the base while your group fights them back. But what is the point of decorating a virtual room when nobody else will see it? Such as in a single-player RPG such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion?

That's all for today. Join us later for our next installment, when you'll hear me say, "A wizard, huh? I throw my drink at him!"

Today concludes the fifth day of my ten-day trial to Dungeons and Dragons Online. As I am now halfway through the free trial, I feel as though I should, by now, have bitten the hook and resolved whether to convert to a paid account. Alas, I can say that I have as of yet not done so. I have not yet seen or done something so amazingly awesome that I'd have been instantly converted. Of course, I am still in the Newbie Zone. Still running errands and mucking about in the sewers. Is there more to it? Or do I simply graduate to more elaborate and perhaps less sewage-filled tunnel systems?

For me, the question is not whether the graphics are flashy and make use of the latest hundred-watt, freon-cooled graphics adapter. It's not about how exotic the loot is. It's not about gaining the most Experience Points. It's about whether the game is fun. Fun, for me, is strategy and puzzles, and perhaps some large explosions. What is not fun is a contest of reflexes between myself and the computer, because guess what? The computer will probably win!

I started out by making a fighter character, because that class is recommended for beginners to the venerable pen and paper version of the game. Why? It's a simple class to play. You do one thing, and that is to fight. Unfortunately, playing a fighter in DDO means that all you do is turn to face the monsters and right click until they are all dead. Walk around until you find more monsters. Lather, rinse and repeat for the rest of day one and day two.

So, the third day, I next made a wizard character, because gosh darn it, I like to blow things up. And that I did. Bandits, skeletons, spiders and zombies in the same three dungeons over and over again. My adventuring companions assured me that this was the best way to gain enough Experience Points to become powerful enough to survive the adventure that would permit exit from the Harbor, aka the Newbie Zone. It seems RPG Cliche #94: Franklin Covey Was Wrong, Wrong, Wrong is still as true as ever.

Now I mentioned enjoying a good puzzle. Two of the adventures did indeed involve puzzles at the end. But, when everyone already knows the answer to the puzzle is (say) to push the red button, it's no longer a puzzle, just a formality.

On the fifth day, I didn't meet my adventuring companions. But, in their absence, I dutifully spoke to the NPCs sprinkled around the Newbie Zoney and ran a few more errands for those NPCs, such as rescuing dogs, wives, and children from the sewers, the sewers, and the sewers. Yay sewers!

So, how does DDO compare to the games I listed yesterday? Well, it takes a few cues from City of Heroes, in that the game randomly assigns loot to the players. However, none of the loot comes from monsters, but is instead found in special containers at strategic points in the adventure. Lesser loot can be found by breaking urns, boxes, and coffins, but this is rarely worth the trouble of picking up. Unlike City of Heroes, equipment can be sold, traded, and given away, although some items do have a minimum level requirement for use. Learning from Everquest's shortcomings, the designers of DDO implemented an auction house menu to make player-to-player sales of items more convenient. Yes, shouting your wares to all and sundry does add a bit of Renaissance Faire flair, but it mostly just clogs up the chat channels.

And speaking of chat channels, the party channel is basically obsolete if you have a microphone. This is the first MMORPG I've ever seen to support audio chat. Of course, it only works among the members of the adventuring party so far. (That may be a good thing.) That means that you don't have to drop everything to type instructions to the other members of your party, only to have them charge into battle (and perhaps even be defeated) before you can finish your thought.

Gosh, is November over already? It seems like just yesterday I was bragging about how easy this whole National Blog Posting Month experiment would be. For those of you unfamiliar with this challenge, it was meant to encourage bloggers to post more often. For those that could manage to post once per day, a drawing for fabulous prizes would be held at the end of the month.

For me, the real challenge was finding something interesting to say every day. Those of you that may know me in person know that I am not one to gossip about others, gush about celebrities, or volunteer detailed analyses of my feelings. So why even blog?

Well, first of all, I want to share information that I may have had to learn the hard way. There are so many times where I've Googled for hours for a particular bit of information, only to find the edges of it. After puzzling the answer out for myself, I often think, "I ought to post that on the Web so that nobody else has to go through this!"

Another reason for blogging is to keep in touch with friends and hopefully even to make some new ones. I don't know if any of my real-world friends do visit my humble abode on the Web, but I do know that a lot of other NaBloPoMo participants and spectators have stopped by on a trip through the master list, or were brought here by the fabulous Randomizer . Thanks to all of you for visiting, and I hope you stop by again soon. I know that I'll be visiting many of you again in the future.

If that was the bright side of this experiment, then the dark side was this. I rather feel that in the daily rush to think of something to say, quality was overruled by quantity, and my good posts were crowded out by my mediocre ones. Never did I resort to complaining about writer's block, but how very often indeed did I resort to the weary crutch of the questionnaire. I think I'll steer clear of those for a long while, at least until I've finally written a proper "About the Author" page.

On the whole, this has been a very positive experience, and who knows? Perhaps we'll all try it again next year.