I was thinking the other day (hmmm… yesterday, maybe) “What ever happened to the Britannica Boy?” Like always when I have questions like these, I turned to the internet, thinking somebody’s done a big fan page for the twerp. It seems he was too universally despised, as the only mention of him I could find was this page of taglines which includes “The Encyclopedia Britannica Boy must die!” Once for Halloween, my friend Matt did a spot-on impression of him and was threatened with beatings everywhere he went. Of course, in his day-to-day persona, he was also threatened with beatings everywhere he went.

Several news sources (mostly CNN) reported Tuesday that CNN.com was a victim of the recent denial-of-service attacks and was unavailable for some time Tuesday afternoon. At the same time, CNN.com underwent a massive redesign. Coincidence? I think not… I’m guessing the redesign had a flaw that forced it off-line. The redesign’s pretty bad, I think, and is fairly unreadable in some places, such as this article about the Handspring Visor / camera combo that features light grey text on a white background. I had to highlight the text just to read it.

Yesterday I lugged bookshelves, my futon, kitchen things, chairs, and other large items to the new house. Enough to let me stay the night there. I spent the evening watching the Blues lose to their rivals the Red Wings and building a fine Sauder TV stand. This morning, all my muscles are sore, my fingers are swollen (from the screwdriver), and I’m 15 pounds lighter than yesterday. Either my scale’s broken today, or it has been for the last two weeks (when it read the same value every day after weeks of steady loss). Things with the digital camera didn’t work out, either, so it’ll be a couple weeks before the virtual tour’s up. I’ll wait until after I get unpacked and next week’s play is over. I’ve updated the “About Me” page to show my new address and phone number.

From the Brunching Shuttlecocks, it’s Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth From An Asteroid: Project Jumping China – “What’s that racket!” “Why it’s those damn Chinese folk, jumping up and down to save the world. Again.” “Well can’t they keep it down? Hee-Haw’s on!”

Now that I’ve got garden space, I’ve circled $90 worth of seeds in my Seeds of Change catalog. My gardens have been square foot gardens in the past, and I’ll keep that style at my new place. I’ve already put plans down on graph paper for 430 square feet of garden space. I’m a happy, happy man.

No updates today, as I’ll be lugging furniture from here to there. Thanks for reading!

It’s been a while since I’ve lusted over a piece of electronics, but this could change my life. The Visor / Camera combo is definately a winner.

My weight loss has been stagnant the last week and a half. The first 20 pounds melted away with almost no effort on my part. Now, without changing a thing, I’m fighting for every ounce. Maybe moving a bunch of furniture tomorrow will get the fat burning again.

I caught her whisper
She is sitting cross legged on soft silky carpet
I laugh, numb with love

That was my submission to the Poetry in Motion contest, where you can make little word magnet poems for a $100 prize. Maybe because it’s February, the word choices were romance-heavy.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, who united Italy in the 1860s, was asked by Lincoln to run the army during the US Civil War. Garibaldi said he would if Lincoln officially declared that the aim of the war was to end slavery. Lincoln replied that he couldn’t at that time, and so Garibaldi moved on to other things.

While researching this entry, I’ve seen how much things could have changed had Garibaldi gotten involved in the war. There’s an anti-catholic page about him, the white supremacists seem to like him (why, if he was so anti-slavery?), the French hated him, the English loved him. Had he led the Federal troops, would France have jumped in on the side of the South? Would England have then jumped in on the Union side to counter? The Papacy would clearly have denounced the North (indeed, the pope was the only world leader to recognize the Confederacy). A whole different world history, perhaps, hanging on a yes/no question.