He we are at the end of another 30 days. I won't talk about how difficult it was -- I think I covered that last year. And I won't make any vague promises about how I will try to increase the frequency of my posting, because I did that last year too, and we all know how that turned out.

However, this year was not as hard as last year because I had started jotting down ideas to write about weeks beforehand, and I ended up with more than thirty, so you can look forward to seeing these surplus topics in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all my regular readers and commenters, and if you were a new visitor to my blog this month, I hope you found something interesting. See you next June! We now return you to your regular blog update schedule.

It's been a month of fits and starts, but our new patio is finally coming together, and yesterday offered a break in the ridiculous St. Louis heat, so we were able to enjoy it a bit.

We bought the furniture set at Sam's, but we almost didn't get it. We saw it there on a Friday evening, and we liked it, but we weren't quite ready to commit to buying it, so we asked how many they had in stock. Five was the answer. By the following evening, we were sure, so Dixie headed back to buy it and they were all gone! I never would have believed that they would have sold five of these sets in a 24-hour period. So we ended up with the floor model, which was even cheaper due to a few irregularities with the set.

Now we're just waiting for cooler temperatures. Hurry up Fall!

I don't go to the movies much (there are three reasons for this), and even when I do, I rarely take the time to write reviews of them anymore (I have people who do that for me). But every now and then a movie comes along that I just have to comment on.

The Hangover is easily the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Even funnier than Wedding Crashers, and that was pretty damn funny. The story is a bit derivative, but the comedy is fresh and well-written, and the raunch is kept to a minimum. It's just constantly funny throughout the whole movie. Mike Tyson's cameos are comedy gold (I heard he did his scenes in one take), and the rest of the cast is superb (especially Ed Helms). If you are looking for something to keep you laughing for two hours, this is it.

They never do explain where the chicken came from, however.

If you've ever gone through the process of getting a new phone number, you know that the previous owner's reputation and associations may haunt you. The phone companies are supposed to let phone numbers lie fallow for some period of time (usually a year) before they reassign them to new customers. This isn't always done, and in some cases a year is not enough time, so you may find that acquaintances or customers of the number's previous owner continue to call you. As I have recently learned, the same is true for IP addresses.

In the thirty or so years since the first spam email, the most successful method found so far to combat the problem is to blacklist the IP addresses of known spammers, and block any internet traffic that originates from these IPs. This works well. Too well. Especially if you inherit an IP address from a spammer, like I recently did. It is a serious pain in the ass to have your IP removed from all of the various blacklists that are maintained around the world. Some are open source lists that are available to anyone, some are owned by individual Internet Service Providers. But they all have one thing in common -- they all have their own unique way of administering their lists, and processing your appeal to be removed from them.

The most ironic and painful thing about this process is that I requested and paid extra for my own static IP address specifically because I was having a problem with some of my emails bouncing back as spam! Now, I'm running into this problem even more than I was before, so the cure is worse than the disease.

So let me take this opportunity to thank all of you assholes out there who feel the need to fill up people's inboxes with offers for penis enlargement, hot singles in my area, Nigerian bank scams, and Viagra. Like pissing in someone's pool, you've ruined it for everyone else.

Last year at this time, almost to the day, I was remembering George Carlin after his passing. Yesterday, the universe reminded me once again that I'm old with the passing of two icons from my youth.

Although I did watch Charlie's Angels, like all other pre-pubescent males did back then, I never had Farrah's iconic poster on my wall (I had Lisa Hartman's instead), and I wouldn't say I was ever a huge fan of hers. Michael Jackson was another story.

I, like millions of others, watched his supernatural dancing skills. I watched the world premiere of John Landis's Thriller video on MTV. Even back then when MTV still played videos, that was an event. I was crushed when his St. Louis concert date was cancelled during the Bad tour of 1988.

So yesterday, we were at the pool when the news broke on the radio. At first it was a shock, but I don't think it effected me like it has some people. One girl at the pool, who looked to be about 14 years old, said, "why isn't anyone upset that Michael Jackson JUST DIED?" Well, if this were 1989, I would have shared her grief. But for me, and the millions who grew up with him, who watched him on the Motown 25 special, where he defied the laws of physics and walked on the moon, that Michael died a long time ago. So this news just brings to an end a period of mourning that had, frankly, gone on far too long.

I usually save links to post to my other site, but these don't really fit that well, so I thought I'd share them here.

One is called Fantastic Contraption, and it is completely addictive once you figure out how it works. This will definitely appeal to any engineering types out there, and probably to a lot of others as well. In each level of the game, you have to use the tools you have and a rudimentary appreciation for physics, to build a machine that will accomplish a given goal. Check it out.

The other is a complete waste of time and Internet bandwidth called Upside Down Dogs. The site is completely pointless as near as I can tell, but if you're a dog lover, some of the pictures just have to be seen. Enjoy.

I like to periodically cover the topic of misconduct by law enforcement, and my story archive continues to grow (now over 130 stories). But a couple of stories since my last update deserve attention.

First, the year began with one of the most heinous examples of police brutality in history when multiple cell phone cameras caught the cold-blooded murder of Oscar Grant in a crowded San Francisco subway station. The officer responsible fled the state soon after the incident, but was apprehended and now faces murder charges.

A New Jersey woman named Sheila Stevenson was beaten in another instance of what has now become the iconic police dogpile, fists and batons flailing, all caught on dashcam video. Another example of the dogpile is Anthony Warren's beating by Birmingham police, also caught on dashcam video, and covered up by the department for over a year. This video is especially disturbing since the five cops viciously attacked the unconscious man after his body was thrown from his vehicle on the side of the road. Stay classy, Birmingham!

The latest taser saga has a relatively happy ending, since the family of 23-year-old victim Stanley Harlan were awarded $2.4 million in damages after police in Moberly, Missouri killed him with a taser gun during a suspected DUI stop. The lawsuit claims police refused to allow Harlan's mother or other bystanders to help him when he stopped breathing. Aren't tasers supposed to be non-lethal weapons?

If you have any examples of police misconduct in your local news that you would like to share, please let me know and I'll be happy to add these stories to my collection.

A survey by the Library of Congress in 1991 showed that Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was the most influential book in America, second only to the Bible. I run into very few people who have actually read it, and at 1,200 pages, it is daunting. However, in recent months there has been a resurgence of interest in this book. Hollywood has even responded with a fresh attempt at making a movie out of it.

The book explores what would happen when government intrusion into the free market becomes so onerous that the nation's entrepreneurs finally become fed up and go on strike, throwing the entire country into socio-economic turmoil. Earlier in the year, there was a flurry of news stories surrounding the book, as pundits and politicians alike made reference to it in comparison to steps being taken by the Obama administration. I think these comparisons were accurate, if a bit premature, especially since the intervention into the auto industry had not even begun yet. Today, the parallels have become even more astounding.

Rand's tale, published in 1957, seems to be somewhat prophetic. She escaped the oppression of the Soviet Union as a child, and came to America seeking a better life. Her novels were critical of any steps America took that she felt would lead us down the same path as her mother Russia. Fifty years later, we seem to still be meandering along that path. Sadly, Rand died in 1982, but her legacy lives on.

With the government now in direct control of most of the financial industry, the auto industry, and seriously discussing a takeover of the health care industry, how much further down this path will we go? The predictions in Atlas Shrugged have been eerily accurate so far. Read the book to learn one possible outcome.

I read recently that Pixar is 10 for 10 -- their last ten releases have opened number one at the box office, and their new offering Up is no exception. Noah took me to see this movie for Father's Day, and I enjoyed it, although I was a bit surprised by it. The trend in animated movies for kids is to sprinkle just enough humor for the adults into the mix that they enjoy it too, so that they have a reason to come back for the next one. I'm trying not to be too cynical about that, but you cannot ignore the fact that the kids aren't the ones paying for the tickets.

I think this trend may have been taken too far. That is, these are no longer kids movies with a few adult themes, they are adult movies with flashy graphics for the kids. The entire first act of Up is essentially a flashback, with very limited dialogue, telling the poignant back story of Carl, the hapless curmudgeon who turns his house into a makeshift dirigible, and his wife Ellie. The story is touching and overall very sad, and I'm not afraid to admit I shed a tear watching it. Pixar does fine work. Last year's WALL-E was very similar in its liberal use of adult themes and limited dialogue. It was also very good, and deserved the Oscar it won for best animated film.

But I believe it is increasingly becoming a stretch to call these kids movies. Someone could remake Schindler's List as an animated film, with enough eye candy to hold a kid's attention for ninety minutes, but that doesn't make it a children's movie. I'm not trying to be critical of Pixar's stories, just their marketing. Pixar makes great movies, they just aren't always what they seem.

Last year we bought a Wii. Shortly after we downloaded the Internet Channel for it, one of its biggest limitations became apparent. The Wii ships with an ancient version (well, ancient by computer standards) of Adobe's Flash player. This version works with some web sites, but most, like Hulu, require a more recent version. So it's impossible to watch flash videos from these sites. This is supremely inconvenient, and largely negates the value of having Internet access on your TV in the first place.

I am not alone in this sentiment. I really didn't realize how widespread this problem was until I did a Google search for "Hulu Wii" and saw how many sites are devoted to talking about ths conundrum. Forum posts, rants, online petitions. A huge number of people are interested in this topic. But the point was really driven home when I went to one site that promised a step-by-step tutorial and got rickrolled. You know an internet topic has a following when it becomes a target for Mr. Astley.

Sadly, Nintendo seems to be ignoring this tsunami of discontent among its users, and has not responded to two years of requests for an Adobe upgrade. At this point, it appears likely they will release a new platform before they make this seemingly small improvement to the existing Wii.

Allow me to introduce you to the Peterkins. If you've never been exposed to this book, I strongly encourage you to read it. Especially the first story in the book. As this article describes:

The charm of the story is not in the plot, but in the telling, building up layers of complication, and the affectionate fun poked at the not-quite-cartoonish characters.

The first story is about how Mrs. Peterkin mistakenly puts salt instead of sugar into her morning cup of coffee. The day is spent on an absurd quest (meeting with chemists, and herbal experts, and...) to neutralize the effect of the salt, all of which leaves the coffee undrinkable. The solution is obvious to the reader, you simply pour out the coffee and start over, but this eludes the Peterkins.

When I read the news, or watch the theater that passes for politics in this country, it always feels like I'm watching the Peterkins. The most recent stories about the financial meltdown and the government's response to it is just another desperate attempt to neutralize the salt in our coffee. The futility of this band-aid on top of a band-aid approach becomes obvious, as the government responds over and over again to problems of its own creation, due to the The Law of Unintended Consequences. When will this country wake up and realize that it's time to pour out the coffee and start over?

We all know what this law says, or at least most of us do. Why is it that so many people who work in government either forget this law, or believe they are exempt from it? I had to comment on this story which brilliantly illustrates this point. The State of Hawaii is ending its program of universal health care for children because it has become too expensive. The reason?

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

You mean if you give away something for free, some people will start using it instead of paying for it themselves? Oh yeah, would not have seen that one coming. Shocking.

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

Gee, ya think? Of course it wasn't the *intent* of the program! That's why it's called the Law of *Unintended* Consequences. How does someone make it to adulthood and remain this clueless?

Last winter I received a rather curious letter in the mail. It was from a company calling themselves RedLightViolations.com. I've seen other scams by mail, and at first glance, I thought that this was just another. It purported to be a citation, issued by authority of the State of Illinois, for running a red light. After further inspection, I became even more convinced that it was a scam, especially since they didn't have the right vehicle model, or even the right license plate. There was a photo on the notice of what they claimed to be my car, at a rural intersection that I'm pretty sure I've never been through, and the violation allegedly occurred on a date when I was, in fact, on vacation in Florida.

But if we ignore all of that, and further set aside the general legal issues raised by red light cameras across this country (a plague that organizations like the National Motorists Asssociation are currently fighting), we come finally to the point of my rant: what is the procedure when the system fails? In other words, when an innocent person is wrongfully accused, what is their recourse?

After a quick Google search, and verification that RedLightViolations.com was a bonafide agent of the State (which, by the way, does not at all diminish their scam status), I called the toll-free number provided on the notice to inform them that they had the wrong guy. The license number cited was very close to mine, but the 2s had been replaced with 3s. How this happens in our current Information Age, I know not, but explaining all of this to the bureaucrat on the other end of the phone left her completely uninspired. Her only response was the standard protocol: I would have to draft a written statement documenting this fact somehow, and mail it to the address provided on the notice.

So in a country where our justice system is supposedly predicated on the maxim of innocent until proven guilty, I had to literally *prove* my innocence. Not in a court of law. Not before a magistrate. But in a letter to some faceless Sheriff of Nottingham threatening to take my money if I did not comply. It did not matter that their mistake was self-evident. I still had to expend my time and energy (and postage) refuting this meritless charge against me. Is this what we've become? America, I think we can do better.

I told a few people last week that I was planning a reunion for members of my 8th grade class, and their reaction was something like, "8th Grade?!?" Is it that unusual? I don't know. Maybe it is. Is it unusual because people don't generally have reunions for that? Or is it unusual because it's the Class of '82 and we're all old?

One thing that I will recognize as unusual is that our school was K-8, so I spent 9 years of my life growing up with some of these folks, and a few of them I even went on to the same high school with, so they've been a part of my life for a significant number of years. Although it is sad that we lose touch with people over the years, life gets in the way, I suppose. And that's what makes reunions so fun, right?

Everyone brought their kids, and we had a great time reminiscing, looking at old photo albums, and telling stories. It's so interesting to catch up with people you haven't seen in such a long time, and see the different paths that people take in life. I am thankful to everyone who was able to come and make the day so enjoyable. I hope we can do it again sometime.

I hereby announce that I am organizing The Six Million Man March. Why? Because apparently a million isn't enough. If you really want to get the government's attention, it takes six million. Or maybe five million. But it's something more than three million. How do I know? Well, remember back in February when everyone was supposed to switch to broadcast Digital TV? You know, the thing that had been in the works for over 10 years? The Neilsen Co. was reporting back then that over six million people were still unprepared for the switch, and since the US Constitution guarantees us all a right to television, the government stepped in, led by the newly-elected President Obama, to protect the rights of six million Neo-Luddites, technophobes, and other toothless morons who couldn't figure out what they needed to do to not miss Deal or No Deal. Plus it was sweeps month.

Now fast forward to June. CNN is reporting that when the switch was made on Friday, there were still three million people unprepared. But wait, the government didn't step in this time? Nope. No love for the three million. Sorry, y'all are on your own. So the critical threshold for government intervention (at least under the Obama administration) is apparently somewhere between 3 and 6 million. Geez, how many detainees do we have at Gitmo, anyway?

This is the halfway point in this year's 30 Days of Blog, and I thought I would devote at least one day responding to the man who started all of this. The Numb Trolleybus is singing Congress's praises for finally making the move to regulate tobacco products. And I shared his surprise when I learned that the government didn't already regulate it. I mean, the feds tell you how much water your toilet can use per flush, how is it that they aren't already involved in this aspect of your life?

Whenever anyone casts tobacco as the bad guy, I always reflect upon the fact that our country would not exist but for tobacco. The Virginia Colony was founded to make this product more affordable (and to make its growers rich), and for the first 100 years of our history, next to cotton, tobacco was our biggest export. But for my entire life, we as Americans have had a love/hate relationship with this lowly plant.

I'm certainly not advocating smoking, and I'm no fan of sitting next to a smoker, if I can avoid it. However, I am a fan of freedom, and I recognize that person's right to put whatever they want into their own bodies. The argument is that allowing them to use this dangerous product will "inflict enormous drains on the health care system." That may be true, but the first question to ask yourself is, why am I paying for the health care system? Since when is it the job of goverment to provide me with health care? The answer: it isn't. And despite the attractiveness of giving away health care to every American, it creates just as many problems as it solves. Entitlement spending always creates or exacerbates problems like this, or immigration, to use another example.

When you agree to pay for something, you should have some say in how that something is used. The logic behind that is unassailable, however, it's based on a flawed premise: that you have the authority to pay for that something in the first place. Health concerns are certainly a valid reason for shunning tobacco, but don't blame the plant for the problems caused by our attempts to implement socialism.

Since we've been talking about planting a garden for quite a while now, my Earth Day gift to myself this year was a new compost bin from Envirocycle. This bin has a fairly unique design in that it's a tumbler, but the base incorporates a set of rollers that make it easy to spin the tumbler right where it sits. Some others that I've seen require you to remove the bin from its base and roll it around the yard.

We bought the unit from Amazon, and if you are thinking about purchasing one, I'd recommend you read the user comments there. I share their general concern about the flimsy latch on the door of the bin. This is a very poor (and cheap) design. I also wanted to thank one commenter for their suggestion that you keep your kitchen compost container in the freezer. This is a great idea! It keeps the smell in check and plus freezing the food accelerates the composting process.

I will say that there is an art to making compost and you have to be especially watchful of the moisture level inside the bin. Start off with equal parts dry (grass clippings, leaves, etc.) and wet (food waste) matter, and don't put any straight liquids (like coffee or tea) in the bin, or you will wind up with a soggy mess inside.

Last week I wrote about our new trees. We bought them from Schmittel's Nursery in Maryland Heights, and paid them to install the trees. The installation was complicated by the fact that two of the trees were 5-inch maples that are very large and very heavy. They could not use the normal wheelbarrow or hand truck to move these trees -- they required heavy machinery, like a Bobcat, to get them into place -- which meant that I had to take down a section of our fence to get the machine into our yard.

After one false start, when they postponed the install due to weather, they came out a week later to walk our yard and see if it was still too wet. At the time, I was impressed with their concern for our yard. The gentleman who came out said several times that they didn't want to tear up our grass. He also said that they would use a piece of equipment that had tracks instead of wheels because it wouldn't leave ruts in the yard. He decided to delay the install two more days just to be sure the ground was dry enough.

Well, that was a Monday, and I was at work when they showed up. As it turns out, they did not use the tracked vehicle. They used a plain old Bobcat instead, and it did, in fact, leave ruts. Everywhere. There were a number of places where the grass was completely torn up. They acknowledged the damage, and offered to make a followup visit to fill the holes with topsoil and grass seed, which they did. Prior to this, I called to tell them that the two big trees were starting to lean, so they staked them and put ropes on them to keep them from settling crooked while they were there.

The worst part of the install, however, was that they dumped a couple of yards of soil from the holes they dug over our fence onto the creek bank. This is not an unreasonable thing to do, however, out of the hundred or so feet of fence along the back of our yard, they chose the one and only gate as the place to dump the dirt. Yeah, the gate. You know, the one place where someone is likely to walk? What kind of moron does something like that? And it just so happens that I have constructed steps into the creek bank below that gate so it is easier to get up and down. So when I called, I complained about that too, and I asked them to clean up their mess. Somebody showed up that day and scraped a bit of the dirt around with a shovel, but most of it is still there, and my steps are completely buried.

Now the people at Schmittel's that I talked to, either on the phone, or in person, were very nice, and seemed committed to customer satisfaction. The people who actually showed up to do the install, well, that's another story. It is very disappointing, and for this reason I would not recommend Schmittel's to anyone.

In addition to the updated spice rack, we also recently remodeled the basement door. Dixie has had the idea of turning it into a chalkboard ever since we moved in, and it's finally a reality. She sanded and primed the door and then painted it with chalkboard paint (that you can get at most home centers). Then I cut trim for the border and put a new doorknob on it. It looks pretty cool and the kids love it!

I've written about electric cars before, but for a while now I've been following what I consider to be the most promising entry into this market. The current offering from Zenn Motors is little more than a glorified golf cart. Classified as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV), with limited range, and a top speed of 30mph, it is intended to fill a fairly small niche market.

However, their new car, dubbed the City, has the potential to be a game changer. The reasons, as I see it, are the price point (in the mid 20Ks) and the powertrain, which relies on some groundbreaking technology from a company called EEStor. The company's name rarely appears without the obligatory adjective 'secretive' and they don't even appear to have a web site. But I guess when you claim to be developing a new ultracapacitor that will revolutionize energy storage on the planet, rendering batteries virtually obsolete, there is some incentive to play your cards close to your vest. Either because you have trade secrets you want to protect, or because it's an elaborate hoax.

I don't want to believe it's a hoax, and neither do Zenn Motors, since they have purchased a significant stake in the company and the future of their own company is riding on this. I want to believe they can do everything they say they are going to do. And I, for one, will be among the first in line to buy one of these new cars, if they ever come to market. How can you resist a car with a top speed of 80mph and a 250 mile range that recharges in under 10 minutes, and never needs gas? All for about the same price as a conventional gas-guzzler? I want one. Will it ever be a reality? Only time will tell...

If you were born within the last forty years, chances are good that you share a healthy skepticism when it comes to claims by our government that the Social Security system can be repaired. We've been hearing the gloom-and-doom predictions for at least the last ten years that when the Baby Boomers begin to retire, the demand will far exceed the supply and the Social Security trust fund will become insolvent.

We always hear Social Security called the "third rail" of politics -- meaning that anyone who dare touch it can count their political career as good as dead. While this may be true, just sitting around waiting for the calamitous end isn't doing anyone any good, either. Especially when you read stories like this. The Fountain of Youth has been a quest for mankind for as long as anyone can remember. In fact, if humans could both live forever and fly, there would be little reason to get out of bed each morning.

But when you are a politician, learning that scientists have made breakthroughs in slowing (or stopping) the aging process is not welcome news. It means one of two things: you are either much closer to the end of your political career than you had hoped, or you are much closer to having to admit what an unsustainable Ponzi scheme Social Security really is. The band-aid fixes that have been proposed in recent decades would do little to stem the tide, when you are suddenly talking about a population that may live well into their 120s. When 60 becomes middle age, there is little you can do to fix such a system.

So even if no politician ever musters the courage to dismantle Social Security, requiring Americans to take full responsibility for their own retirement planning, the relentless march of technology is likely to force the issue anyway. I predict this will happen within a generation. Better open up another IRA.

In case you thought the Politically Correct (PC) craze of the 80s and 90s was over, better look again. Paulo Serodio, a New Jersey medical student born and raised in Mozambique, who happens to be white, and is now a naturalized American citizen is being penalized for identifying himself as a white African-American.

What does it mean to be African-American in this country? Unfortunately for Serodio, it means your skin is black and if you are actually from Africa and happen to be white, that term is off limits to you. Because you might offend someone who takes pride in their African heritage -- even though, I'll surmise, they have never been to Africa, and probably couldn't find it on a map.

During the 2004 presidential campaign there was some discussion about the fact that Senator John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz (also from Mozambique), was a white African. And Charlize Theron is perhaps the best known white African in America (she is from South Africa), and, according to her bio, is the first African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. So this specie, while rare, does exist.

I suspect there are significant numbers of white African-Americans in this country. Is it fair for the PC movement to deny them their heritage? Especially when they are more deserving of it than a lot of others? The fact that Paulo Serodio was harrassed, vandalized, and eventually suspended from medical school for correctly classifying himself is unconscionable, and there is nothing correct about that, politically or otherwise.

A couple of months ago, I posted this photo of Noah. We took an old laptop (and I mean *old* -- the screen is hanging on by one hinge, and it won't close anymore) and installed the latest edubuntu load on it. For those not familiar with it, edubuntu is an educational version of the ubuntu Linux operating system. It comes with a variety of educational games and puzzles for kids, and that, combined with PBSkids.org, is about all you need to keep a three-year-old happy for an hour or so each day.

Noah has already gotten remarkably proficient at using a mouse, and knows how to type his own name to login. So beyond the computer skills he is learning, I spent some time reflecting on what it means for my child to be on the Internet now. He will grow up never knowing a world without the Internet. That is not terribly unique, of course, there are a lot of teenagers running around now that fit that description. But the internet he grows up with will be vastly bigger, more advanced, and presumably more sophisticated.

I can't even imagine what the technology will look like when he is my age. But my kids, and the kids of their generation, are the ones that will build that technology. They will stand on the shoulders of the giants that preceded them and change the world. Not all of that change will be good, but I look forward to seeing what my little ones will contribute.

Between increasing state tourism and boosting consumer confidence, we were already doing our part to stimulate the economy, but now we are funding infrastructure projects too! Eat your heart out, Obama!

We have talked about it ever since we moved in, and now we finally have our patio. It still needs some steps and and some furniture, but we are waiting for our federal bailout to be approved before we do any more.

I just want the record to reflect that I coined the term "Facebook guilt." A couple of months ago when the term first occurred to me, I Googled it and got nothing. Nada. Zip. Today, in preparation for this post, I Googled it again, and there's a whole slew of blog postings that now include it. Doesn't matter. It's mine, interwebs. Back off.

Like everything in life, there are aspects of Facebook that I like, and aspects that I don't like. But I will say that the things I anticipated not liking about it have not really presented themselves, while the things I don't like were completely unexpected. For instance, it's been nice reconnecting with people from my past with whom I've lost contact. But the flip side of that coin is that there are people from my past with whom I am perfectly happy to have lost contact, but there they are, nevertheless, staring me down on my request page. There are also people I barely know who want to be my friend. I'm not sure this represents an actual breach of etiquette, or just my personal policy, but I don't add anyone that I don't actually know. If I've never met you face-to-face, or if I couldn't pick you out of a police line-up, I'm not likely to add you as a friend. Sorry.

The guilt comes in with the seemingly endless parade of games, quizzes, gifts, doo-dads and widgets that I find myself assaulted with. If it were Facebook sending me these things, I would have no problem deleting them (indeed, I would have closed my account by now). But it's my friends who send me these things and I can't tell if they are being sent directly to me, as you would a thoughtful gift, or blasted to their entire entourage, like a form letter. Either way, I don't like to say no to my friends. But it's time for some tough love. No, I don't want to join your gang and help fight your Mafia war. There, I said it.

The last bit of guilt comes from simply not checking in often enough. Sometimes I go a whole day without logging in, and I feel like I'm letting my friends down by not observing their online antics. Sorry everyone, I'll try to do better. It's not you, it's me.

It was finally time to replace Dixie's tired old TV that she uses to watch her workout videos, so for our anniversary this year, we went shopping for a snazzy new flat screen. We went to American because they typically have the best selection in their store, and we ended up choosing the Nexus NX3203.

I had never heard of Nexus, and I was a little apprehensive about buying a brand with no reputation, especially a Chinese brand. But they apparently make computer monitors, and I couldn't find any negative revews online. You definitely get more TV for your money -- the Sony and Panasonic TVs of comparable size were at least $200 more. One curious thing about this TV is that the space on the back where the model number and serial number would normally be printed or stamped is blank.

So far we have been pleased with the operation. This model has a generous number of inputs, including HDMI, and VGA, so if you needed that kind of screen real estate, you could actually use this as a computer monitor. The picture quality is very good, although the colors don't seem quite as vibrant as some other models we looked at.

An internet meme is like the ultimate inside joke. There is usually some prerequisite knowledge you must have before the joke is funny. I like the knowyourmeme.com site, because if you haven't been following a particular meme (or don't know what a meme is), they do a good job of explaining it all.

One meme that I find particularly funny is the Xzibit Yo Dawg meme. You'd have to watch the video to understand it. I can't explain why it's funny to me, other than the sheer absurdity. But just looking at the photos submitted by users usually has me in tears laughing. So I had to submit my own.

I don't usually post teh funny here (I have a whole other blog for that), but I just had to mention the recent craze in literal videos, and one in particular that had me rolling. I added it to my favorites on YouTube, so you can check it out there.

It's been a year since I last wrote about the torturous sewer project that transpired in our back yard. There is one final chapter in this saga, however, that I wanted to document here for the benefit of anyone else who might have to deal with MSD.

A few weeks ago we replaced the trees that MSD took from us, and foolishly hoped that they would honor their verbal agreement late last summer to pay for one of them that was not in our original contract. When my wife contacted Steve Welnick on April 27, he had nothing but spiteful comments for her about how difficult we had been to work with during the entire episode. I responded to this inappropriate behavior with this letter to his supervisor, Allen Muehlher.

I don't know why I expected anything different from a bunch of government bureaucrats. If you are unfortunate enough to have MSD schedule a project on your property, I hope your experience is better than my own. (But I wouldn't hold my breath.)

So I was probably ten years old the last time I was in Branson, Missouri. Everyone that I've talked to has told me that I wouldn't recognize it, that it had become like Las Vegas. I guess maybe my expectations were too high because I can't say that I was overly impressed. I can see the comparisons to Las Vegas, if it's the aging, retro, Fremont Street Vegas to which people are comparing the Branson strip. But that's not necessarily a good thing.

We stayed at the Hilton on Branson Landing, and this is a great place for families to stay. This was our first family vacation since Josie was born, and our condo suite was just right for us since we could pull out the sofa bed and put the kids in one room, and we still had access to the balcony from our bedroom.

Overall we had a good time, but there were some disappointments. Our food experiences were, in general, not good. We ate the first night at a little gyros/pizza place just a short walk from our room. I would recommend you avoid this place like the plague. The pizza tasted like it was a day old, and the gyro did nothing for me. The Cantina Laredo was good, although the entree I ordered was a bit too spicy for my tastes. Our best meals were at the Chateau on the Lake, and, sadly, at Backyard Burgers, a fast-food chain we tried because they don't have them in St. Louis.

The kids (especially Noah) had a blast at Silver Dollar City. The rides in the kids area were just right for him. He especially loved the roller coaster. We also went to see the Titanic museum, which is well worth seeing, although it's not a great attraction for young children. Photos from our trip are now available in my album.

I'm probably going to regret this, but I signed up for another 30 days of punishment. Last year was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, but this year, I have taken the precaution of jotting down ideas in the weeks leading up to today, so I am hopeful that I won't be struggling for topics towards the end of the month.

I would love to have the time to pontificate here every day, but it's not in the cards. I really admire the folks who make a living at blogging -- I know there are a few out there. Once you have established an audience, and are actually generating revenue from your writing, it's not that bad. But you have to spend a long time writing every day for free, before any of that happens. I can't afford to commit that much time to it. But one month out of the year, I can live the dream, and pretend that I have millions of readers out there. So if you're with me, leave me a comment, and I promise you will enjoy the next 30 days.