… and good luck

Filed under: Meta

Good morning.

As some of you may recall, once upon a time I started a blog called “schoolblog” based on my progression through the educational system. It was a tiny little side project, and really, it stayed that way all along. Now, or more specifically, yesterday, that process came to its conclusion at the U of A convocation ceremonies.

So, I’m done.

And, as has been increasingly obvious, so is this blog, at least as it currently exists. I don’t seem to have the impulse to write, and if the comment rate is any indication, what little I do write is not spurring conversations either. Given these two strikes, I cannot see myself having anything to say for a while.

I’m not getting rid of the domain, so it might come back at some future date, but in the meantime…

Good night.

A Catchup, Catch-all,

Filed under: Events, Friends, General Thoughts and Meta

and I wanted to work Catch-22 into that title, but couldn’t.

So, in response to some vigourous prodding last night, I felt it was time to dust this off and get back to keeping people apprised of my life.

Here’s the skinny, since… holy shit! November 6! It’s been almost four weeks!

Since then, I have:

• Travelled to the Dominican Republic (where we were all amiss in not posting to Morruz)
• Dislocated my shoulder… again. That sucked. Worse? I was just playing volleyball in a pool, not even doing anything interesting. Funny thing is, though, when I went to a medical supply store to get some foam to pad the horrid sling I took home with me, the lady running the store told me that my injury seems to be quite common in volleyballers, at least anecdotally.
• Got my performance review at work, for which the term “glowing” might be an understatement.

And you wonder why I don’t post? My life is dull, dull, dull.

It hasn’t even been that interesting of a time, politically. I’ve kept my eyes on the news, but there’s been little out of the ordinary to spark thought or discussion, either north or south of the border.

Um… I’ve read some good books, lately. Is that interesting?

Expect more later. I’m just barely awake, and Char just fed me coffee.

Oddly Appropriate

Filed under: General Thoughts, Internet and Meta

/me blows the dust off

Wow. That’s gotta be a record.

I couldn’t say why I’ve been so blasé about the whole ‘blog’ thing the last while. I’ve just had little to say, and less inclination to spew random junk onto the web.

So, in a sense trying to get back into the swing of things, here’s something fascinating I found on Metafilter today: Coping with Autism. It’s a bullet-pointed self-help guide for people with autism that offers an interesting insight into what differs in their approach to the world. Autism is one of those things that fascinates me, as something that is not quite a disability, but is often viewed as one.

Anyway, hope you all find this interesting.

On Names, and Nano

Filed under: Internet, Meta, Rants and Science

This is a two-pronged posting:

Domain name change

First, as you probably failed to notice when you clicked into the comments on the pages, there’s a new name for this site, in terms of ways to get to it: www.offby1.net. The old offlineblog.com address won’t stop working, so worry not, but offby1.net is now the preferred URL, and all links on the site will point to it, as soon as I figure out how to walk my MySQL database and convert all of the old URLs.

Anti-scientific idiocy

Second is a pointer to some more ludditism: The New Internationalist, a newsmagazine recommended to me by Char is a mostly-interesting alternative view on the world; not one with which I agree on most points, but nonetheless a refreshing perspective, but subject to some of the common flaws of its kind, including this example of total technological paranoia, calling for a small, but scary, symbol for nanotechnology, and demonstrating a complete inability to distinguish means from ends. This mini article is analogous to calling for a warning label on all products made with screwdrivers.

Why can’t people pull their heads from their asses and ensure that they know what they’re protesting? I want to ask if it’s too much to ask for people to inform themselves, but the ‘protest movement’ is an adequate demonstration that I needn’t bother; it is too much to ask.

A choice quote:

Yet invisible nanomaterials are already being used in our food, cosmetics, pesticides and clothing, even though they are not labelled and we do not know what their health and environmental impacts might be.

Uhm…

You do know that your “invisible nanomaterials” are completely indistinguishable from atoms, right? It’s almost like (gasp!) matter is entirely made up of some “invisible nanomaterials” whose characteristics are not completely understood.

Dust gathers…

Filed under: General Thoughts and Meta

Expect a slowdown in posting until I can type again.

Sorry, all.

Lockouts

Filed under: Meta

I’ve had cause to password-protect a post for the first time since I started this blog, and I thought I’d make a note so that you dedicated (five) readers can get in.

Just email me and ask, I’ll hook you up with the password. It’ll vary for each post that I protect, so don’t expect the one from this post to carry over. If the post is one which I wish to share with you, I’ll send it to you. If not, please do not be offended. Seriously. I don’t know how to make sure you’re not, so I’ll just tell you not to be

Wallpaper For The Slow

Filed under: Meta

Sorry, Dad, I looked at the sizes and decided that it wasn’t TOO bad to use this theme.

For faster loading, if anyone feels that this loads too slow, pick a wallpaper that’s tiled (from the row of squares on the top of the page, below the title) — as of this writing, there’s just one, a grey stripes sort of dealie.

Those load faster, and it should persist between visits. If it doesn’t, well, uhm…

This is an experiment, and I can go back to the other one later.

Update

Thanks to my lovely beta tester it’s clear that this theme does not work in Internet Explorer, that sack of crap browser still used in a few primitive corners of the net. Well, a few primitive corners that comprise 90% of all browser use.

So, no go. Back to the BlueMoonlight theme for now.

An aside to readers

Filed under: Meta and Projects

If you happen to be a reader of either of this site’s child blogs, Morruz or MildIllSon, they’re sort of moved now.

Oh, the content already moved, but the blogs themselves are best reached at a slightly different address:

Where, before, there was “http://www.offlineblog.com/morruz” and “http://www.offlineblog.com/mildillson”, now there are “http://morruz.offlineblog.com/” and “http://mildillson.offlineblog.com”. The sidebar links are updated, and feel free to head over there at your convenience, although somebody doesn’t update often enough, and another somebody isn’t traveling at the moment. Still, it bore mentioning.

In addition, I’m trying to convince Beau to upload something of his own to the web. This something will NOT be work-safe, which should surprise nobody who knows Beau, and might well be offensive to some, if I’m lucky.

Moved, at last

Filed under: Meta

Please, watch this space again for interesting commentary.

The move is complete, I’m now on a faster, more congenial host.

Hopefully, this goes smoothly. I’ll be ensuring that Morruz and MildIllSon are moved cleanly, as well.

I don’t know how well all of the infrastructure survived, so comments would be a good thing to make sure it’s all there.

Philosophizin’

Filed under: Events, General Thoughts, Media and Meta

So, I spent the greater part of yesterday evening ploughing through, or more accurately, slogging through John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism.

Yeek, that’s a workout. It might be the circuitous sentence structures, it might be the content. But either way, it’s hard going.

So, of course, I grabbed some Lagavulin 16-year scotch to sip as I educated.

Life is pretty good.

Oh, and in other news, my local hockey team beat their local hockey team. And what a game, it was. Wow.

In yet other news, did anyone notice the geographically-relevant link list down and to the right? I’ve added “Sites near me” to the sidebar. It’s possible that there’s even a useful community of bloggers in Edmonton. Although, odds are slim.