Put on "Fade To Black"

(I know, it's a cliched exit and it was probably cliched when I did it on the radio back in the day...but whatever.)

If we are being completely honest with ourselves, and we are, my heart has not been in this blogging "thing" for a while. I'm not sure when that started being the case, but it is the case.

I haven't been daily for a long, long time. I don't think I've been terribly interesting since long before that. It was bad enough when I was CNN's most loyal reprint site, but I think day after day of "Ooh, look, a meme!" really killed it for me.

So rather than continue to update sporadically with mildly pithy tales of stuff that happens and stuff I'm thinking about, I'm hanging it up and walking out of the building for the last time.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you around.

Have a laugh, on me!

Someone at work pointed me at this video by Barats and Bereta.



Which led me to this video by Barats and Bereta...



...which led me to THIS video by Barats and Bereta.



I had a good lunch hour the other day.

As a matter of fact...

• Yes, I did fail to write a single word for this year's Script Frenzy. Just overtaken by events, I guess. I don't even feel guilty, which is either a good thing or a bad thing.


• Yes, I did purchase Grand Theft Auto IV on launch day, and yes, I am playing it. Verdict so far: not as strong a beginning as GTA: San Andreas, but it's good so far. I have a feeling the Bad Things are about to happen.


• Yes, we did watch "This is Spinal Tap" this weekend (The Child was at a sleepover), and yes, it's still funny. "I'm just as God made me, sir!"


• Yes, I do miss CompUSA. Sure, they had high prices and a fairly lousy selection, but it was the only place a person could go in this town for components. If your computer blew a fan or something on a Saturday afternoon, you could always go to CompUSA and be up and running again. Now, at least around here, there's nowhere. Best Buy doesn't sell parts, and I only use Circuit City for the short-term rental program. This isn't prompted by any purchase I needed to make; I was just talking to someone today and we both realized that it was true.


• Yes, we watched the Kentucky Derby this weekend. Amazing race, tragic outcome. Even though I was sitting there saying, "At least show the horse collapsing!", I have to agree with NBC's decision to show none of it. There were some very nice articles about Eight Belles today.

I actually went to the mall

It's something I try not to do; the last time I was in the mall was a couple of years ago, I think. I often get mildly humorous stories out of the mall, so I should probably go there more often, but it's so...mall-like. What exactly is at a mall that people need, anyway? Clothing stores, I guess, but what's the point of a "Sleep Number Bed Store" or a Cinnabon?

And the mall kiosks. I don't understand these. $100 Oakley knockoffs? Cheap, crappy weaves and hair extensions? Hermit crabs? Do people buy this stuff? What's the target market here--people with too much money and too little sense? (Don't answer that, I know the answer.) ("Yes.")

The Apple store is in the mall, and since I had my "Genius" appointment, the mall was where I had to go.

What can I say...it was a mall. And the mall is a perfect place for an Apple store: obsessed with outward appearance, expensive, ostentatiously "hip". All of the male employees had a certain look: skinny, short hair, meticulously-trimmed beards or goatees, small rectangular glasses with black frames. (When I went back this morning, I almost wept at the sight of a dumpy guy in an ill-fitting Apple t-shirt because he totally didn't fit "the look" and was, at last, a welcome breath of humanity.)

I shouldn't complain too much; my computer is fixed, and free, since it was still under warranty. And they definitely had some nice-looking external drives. Maybe I'll have to hit newegg.com after lunch...