A Bloy and his Blog

Good Idea: Getting a domain name for your company.
Bad Idea: Not realizing the domain name can mean something else…

Leave the kids at home when you buy flowers or trees at the Mole Station Native Nursery. www.molestationnursery.com

Who Represents is a website where you can find the agent that represents your favorite celebrity. Just don’t forget the gifts when you visit. www.whorepresents.com

Get a custom-made pen from Pen Island. www.penisland.net

And last but not least, the website for an Italian Power Generator company. www.powergenitalia.com

Yes, these are actual domain names. Visit the Top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs for the full list.

This afternoon I decided to walk around downtown Madison and see some of the Cow Parade sculptures.

read the rest of: Cow Parade

I was telling some friends about my Mom’s situation (currently in hospital), and they asked about her name (which is Allegra). When they asked me where the name came from, I didn’t know.

So today when I stopped by to visit Mom, I asked her if she knew how her parents chose her name. Mom said she believed it came from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who had a daughter named Allegra.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

Mom told me she heard this story much later in life, from her sister. Apparently there is some question as to how true it is. Nevertheless, I thought it was an interesting story and worthy of posting here.

If you’d like to read the entire poem, here’s a link to The Children’s Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I’ve got running water in my kitchen! This is not a bad thing (it only runs when I want it to). Four days ago I wasn’t so sure that would be the case.

A while back I decided to get rid of my 23-year-old kitchen counter. Of course you can’t have a new counter and keep the 23-year-old sink and faucet. The disposer was also in serious need of replacing. So, I purchased the new stuff, and signed up with a contractor to install the counter. In order to save some money (I hate to think what a plumber charges per hour), my brother and I ripped out the old stuff, and had planned on installing the faucet and garbage disposer ourselves. After all, Steve and I have both watched a lot of This Old House episodes, and the two of us replaced his garbage disposer last winter.

read the rest of: Adventures in kitchen remodeling

I do all of my bill-paying online. The one downside of accessing your online accounts are passwords. Passwords should be strong, and also unique for each account you have. I keep mine fairly strong and unique with a system — basically I use a series of letters and numbers that is different for each website. I don’t want to go into details (for obvious reasons), but as long as I know the sequence, it’s a pretty easy system to use.

This morning I was reading an article about identity theft, and a specific case involving a stolen laptop. As I was reading the article, it occurred to me: even though I have that password system, I keep a file with that information my computer. That file has links to the websites, login names, and passwords for ALL of my accounts (including bank and credit card accounts). If someone were to break in and steal my computer…

I just finished removing all password information from that file.

How secure are your passwords?

Yesterday I returned home from a camping trip to northern Wisconsin. My goal for this trip was to explore some of the bike trails in Vilas County that run through the Northern Highland - American Legion State Forest.

read the rest of: Biking the north woods

Right around this time of the year I often get a sense of emotional dread with the end of the summer. Dread probably isn’t the right word… melancholy might be more appropriate.

I think a number of factors contribute to that feeling. The darkness of the evening is arriving noticeably sooner every day. My summer vacations are over. Nights are starting to feel cooler. At work, we are gearing up our plans for the upcoming school year.

It isn’t so much that I don’t like the change of seasons. In a lot of ways, autumn can be my favorite time of the year. I don’t think it’s the fact that I’m getting closer to bitter cold days and nights of the winter. Although work is a little less hectic in the summer, I do enjoy the challenges the academic year brings.

Perhaps it’s the noticeable passage of time that bothers me. Winter is on it’s way, and the joys of warm weather will soon be a memory. The world is changing and there isn’t a thing I can do about it. I can only ponder how it makes me feel.

Yesterday was Blog Day. A day that was designated so people can get to know other bloggers and other areas of interest. To celebrate, bloggers are suppose to post a recommendation of fives blogs, so their readers can discover previously unknown blogs. I thought it would be a good idea to participate, even if I am a day late. So without further ado…

Mixed Signals: an NPR Blog - The tagline for this is “News breaks, music plays, technology advances, art happens, people think.” A good summary for a blog that has the quality you would expect from the people at National Public Radio.

Sierra Club Compass - Explore, enjoy, and protect the planet.

My last three blogs are written by people who can be very inspiring to me in my job (as a Web Services Librarian). All three write about the library technology field.

• What I Learned Today… by Nicole Engard
• Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology by Michael Stephens
• Information Wants To Be Free by Meredith Farkas

Keep up the good work folks!

Do you remember paperboys? (Sorry I know that’s not a gender neutral term. If I use it again, just think child who delivers newspapers).

These days, adults deliver newspapers while driving in their car. They throw the paper out the window and you’re glad if it lands in your driveway, much less close to your house. During rainy weather, you’re lucky if the paper isn’t thrown at a velocity that makes it scrape along the concrete and tear the bag open, leaving you with a soggy mess.

Back in the day (when I was a kid), newspapers were delivered by 12-14 year olds. I never had a paper route when I was that age, but I did have some friends who were paper carriers.

read the rest of: Where have all the paperboys gone?

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers stopped in Madison last night in the middle of their 30th Anniversary tour (they’ve been around 30 years already?). They played an outstanding show here at the Dane County Coliseum.

Because of the busy day I had at work yesterday, and the gloomy weather we’ve been having for the past week or so, I really had to drag myself off to the show. However, when Tom and the band walked out on stage and started playing the opening riffs of “Listen to Her Heart,” I was instantly glad I came. Judging by the crowd’s enthusiastic welcome, I wasn’t the only one.

read the rest of: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers