October 2010
October 15, 2010 at 8:00 am
When I was a kid, the UPS man used to bring me packages filled with Christmas gifts. Now he drops off my book proofs instead, but opening the manila envelopes they come in feels a lot like unwrapping presents.
Yesterday the doorbell rang and I dashed for the door as fast as any of my cats do when chasing ghosts around the apartment. (Mice ghosts, I’m sure.) I never know when book proofs are coming, so I’m always slightly surprised when they appear. The last set of proofs was for copyediting, so they simply contained the text of the book, double-spaced and printed like a really long term paper. Once we whipped the text into its most perfect version, it was handed to a book designer. The designer took that text and laid it out all nice and pretty like it will appear in the final published product.
The proofs I received yesterday are of that version which includes the copyright notice, the publisher’s logo, and all those little details that real books have. (I love [...]
October 14, 2010 at 8:13 am
I can’t get used to the year 2010 being pronounced as “twenty ten.” I’ve heard newscasters use it and radio announcers say it, and the new default WordPress theme is even called Twenty Ten. It’s everywhere, and it seems so odd to me even though it shouldn’t. I was used to saying “nineteen ninety” or “nineteen eighty-two” which use the same structure. But when we rolled all four numbers over into a new century we were suddenly saying “two thousand this” and “two thousand that.” It seems strange to go back to the old way now.
At least we’re in a decade that actually has a name. It’s the teens, right? Like how we had the nineties and the eighties and the seventies before that? I find it fascinating and sort of scary that when we entered the years 2000-2009—BOOM!—the word to describe the current decade disappeared from our language, and no one made a big deal about it. It was like someone had stolen all the forks in the world and we just made due [...]
October 13, 2010 at 8:22 am
I want to say that I support breast cancer research and admire anyone who has had to deal with that disease. Cancer is bad. Fighting it is good. However, every time I drive by this display on Franklin Street, I feel like the pink thing has gone way too far:
Pink pumpkins? My drive-by photography doesn’t quite capture the grossness of these gourds. Closeup they look like they were dipped in a vat of Pepto Bismol or coated in pink nail polish, neither of which sounds delectable to me. They are the very definition of BLECH. Pink is nature’s way of saying, “DANGER! Do not eat!” Pink pumpkins are as unnatural as a sharktopus.
In addition, the witch in the top photo was probably strung up to make it appear like she’s flying, but it actually looks like she was hanged by Puritans for practicing her dark arts.
To sum up, this yard display does not get me fired up about either Breast Cancer Awareness month nor Halloween. It does get me excited about using my [...]
October 10, 2010 at 1:41 pm
A few people (well, two to be exact) have contacted me recently to complain about ads that have been appearing in my sidebar. One was a political ad and another looked like a phishing ad or something similar. I don’t want those kind of ads appearing on my site. I have the power to block specific ads if I know they’re out there, so don’t hesitate to report a questionable ad here. If two people have emailed me, I figure there must be more of you out there who noticed but didn’t say anything.
If this continues to be a problem, I will probably drop the offending ad network, but I need your help reporting these ads so I can figure out which network they’re on. Ad networks are designed so they can target ads only to people in certain geographic locations, so I will never see some of the ads you see. (Unless you’re my next-door neighbor, and if you are could you please not play the bagpipes after 8:00pm? So totally not joking.)
I don’t [...]
October 6, 2010 at 8:01 am
I was rather saddened by the comments on a recent giveaway post which revealed that many of you don’t have gym bags. Instead, you’re using plastic bags or stuffing items into your athletic shoes which you carry into the gym. So, when Subway approached me about their Commit to Fit giveaway, I took them up on it if only because I have the chance to give another one of you an actual gym bag, and lessen the chance that you’ll confuse your groceries with your gym clothes. (Please don’t eat your sweat socks!)
The Commit to Fit program is based in part on the goal of Jared Fogle aka Jared the Subway Guy to run the New York City Marathon this year. I met Jared in Indianapolis a few months ago, see!
Not only is he tall, he’s maintained a massive weight loss for over 10 years, which is deserving of a round of applause. No, really, please clap for the man. If you’re reading at work, golf claps will do. I also applaud Jared for training [...]
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"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
