Muddled Ramblings and Half-Baked Ideas

Words and pictures and stuff

Web Search updates

Posted on May 2, 2004 by Jerry

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Over the last couple of days there have been several search-engine-related hits, notably:

Google: indulgence hunky jesus contest pictures
aol: half baked idea
Google: squirrel guts
Google: Polkaholics

Lots of interesting things come up when you search on squirrel guts.

Just thought you might like to know.

Exciting Addendum!
This morning, got a second hit from a search on “squirrel guts”. This from a completely different domain. As a service to those who arrived at this entry because you were looking for squirrel guts, what you really want is Suicide Squirrel Death Cult.

Big Day in Blog-Town

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Jerry

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I’d like to say ‘hello’ to anyone who is happening by here because of the very nice things said about me (or at least the idea of me he has formed) here.

Hello!

For my regulars (Yes, I have regulars too! That hit counter didn’t get over 300 all by itself!), Dr Pants is someone who checked “other” under Plan. We have a lot in common. Except the Norwegian girlfriend – I don’t have one of those. Damn you, Dr Pants! There I am thinking I’m scoring pretty high on the footloose-o-meter, spending my days pondering the American Road Myth, and then you happen by, and sure you’re footloose and everything, but on top of that you have me 1-0 in the Norwegian Girlfriend competition. Someday, buddy, when you least expect it…

You’re probably wondering who I am, but really, I’m the last one to answer that question. If you take my word for it, I’m exactly the right height, IQ in the 300+ range, ridiculously fit, raconteur, philanthropist, and poet. And modest. Modest like you woldn’t believe. You should probably ask someone else.

If you’re looking around, you’ll see that right now almost all the posts are about my homeless tour. It started April 2th, my 40th birthday (purely concidence – really. That’s the day the sale of my house became final. Absolutely coincidence. That you would doubt my word hurts me.) The starting point of the tour was San Diego, the end point is Prague. In between, it’s kind of hazy, but I’m doing a bit of work along the way, so I have to stay close to the Internet for the nonce.

Besides the homeless tour, there’s politics (I’m running for president), Get-Poor-Quick Schemes (if any of you know much about robotics, I’d love to get poor with you. I need a robot nuclear reactor on the moon.), and a bit here and there in the other categories. Once I’m in Prague, there’ll be more in the Writing category especially.

As a side note, I am approaching public beta with a word processor I created for writers (specifically novelists) who suffer from the same deficiencies I do. Currently just for mac. There’s a link over on the side there somewhere.

If any of you have more information on the explosive exposé Suicide Squirrel Death Cult please be sure to leave a note. The sooner this tragedy sees the light of day, the more innocent lives can be saved.

So that’s it. Welcome to Muddled Ramblings and Half-Baked Ideas. If you lose the link, you can always search for “elevator ocelot rutabaga” and you’ll come right here.

Tweaking the ‘ol blog today

Posted on April 24, 2004 by Jerry

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So I just noticed that on my Windows machine the titles don’t have the cool shadows under them. How’s it working for you guys out there?

And hey, was that gap underneath the category icon always there in IE? *sigh*

Work Sucks

Posted on April 18, 2004 by Jerry

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He has a point. There have been few posts lately because I have a release due Wednesday which is standing between me and the open road, adventure, and all that. Of course, getting paid is nice – if only LeapFrog had an address to send my checks to.

So unless you want to know what I had for breakfast yesterday, there’s not much to add. Now it’s Sunday morning and I’m sitting down in my command center trying to face fixing the last of the defects I have any control over, implement the latest design changes, etc. It’s not bad work, as work goes, it’s just that it’s work.

Now Playing

Posted on April 15, 2004 by Jerry

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Kind of a slick little thing, if I do say so myself. Useless, but slick. I wrote a script to update the blog with the current song that is playing on my Powerbook.

There may still be some kinks to work out, and if I’m not on the Internet obviously it won’t update. If I remember to shut off the music first, an appropriate message should display.

Right now I’m just playing randomly through the small portion of my music that’s not in a box to be shipped to Prague. What are you listening to?

As long as I’m discussing the sidebar, I added the “Cool Robot of the Week” link over there only to realize that the weeks apparently ended last November. Get a good look at it while you can, I’ll be taking it back off soon.

Elevator Ocelot Rutabaga

Posted on April 11, 2004 by Jerry

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As of this morning, I am at the top of the Google search for “elevator ocelot rutabaga”. It took somewhere between 3 and 4 days for Google to record that entry.

Just thought you might like to know.

Searching on just the word rutabaga didn’t bring up my blog anywhere near the top, but it did bring up this. Let’s hear it for National Rutabaga Month!

The Google Has Landed

Posted on April 7, 2004 by Jerry

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Feel free to look around, leave a comment, or whatever. Leave your mark – who knows, it may be worth something someday.

Searches for the last couple of days have included:

“Half Baked Ideas” (came up 10th) was used twice today from two different ip addresses
“build motorcycle contest” (came up 2nd)
“iblog hit meter” (came in first!)
“La Dolce Vida” (came in first in an aol search) has been used more than once
“la dolce vida” (also came in first on Google)
“tomash czech” (came in fifth)

and it goes on. Misspelling vita certainly helped my rankings among similarly impaired searchers. Now, of course, since I have used all the key words again, google will send even more people here that really have no interest in what I have to say. I think variety is the key. If you put in enough unrelated topics, you’ll get some odd matches. And who knows? Maybe out there is someone who is really interested in building a hotel on the moon or a robot race vehicle.

In closing, I would just like to say, “elevator ocelot rutabaga”.

Exciting Addendum!
After talking about google so much, I did a search on the word “Google” and found this. Somebody’s stealing my ideas over there.

Tomorrow the adventure begins

Posted on April 2, 2004 by Jerry

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First, the posts will (hopefully) be more interesting as I spin for you the story of life on the road, unfettered by good judgement. Second, the updates will be less frequent. I’ll keep writing stuff, but there may be periods with no updates then all of a sudden, wham, several days worth of fascinating drivel.

Keep the comments going! That way you’re giving the next viewer new things to read even when I’m not around. Remember, this isn’t just about me, it’s about community. (*sniff*)

On another note, moving sucks. Took the second truckload of crap to the dump today. Got a nostalgia twinge when I was throwing away some old dog toys, but I’m ready to be gone.

Panicing

Posted on March 30, 2004 by Jerry

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But I have to kick back sometime, right?

A Note About Site Meter

Posted on March 26, 2004 by Jerry

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I like it. I like it a little too much. Sometimes I reload the page to see if the number has gone up. As in golf, the rare success carries you over much disappointment.

I have it trained to not count me, which means it may not count other roadrunner customers either. So if you’re on roadrunner and you’ve hit the site fortyleven times in the last few days, My statistics are blown. Still, as of this writing, there are 24 confirmed visits to the blog by people who aren’t me.

The counter has a “traffic prediction” feature which I just know will come in handy. You know, so I can, uh, justify my advertising rates. Yeah, that’s it.

Interestingly, when you walk across the Internet, you are not walking in sand, your footprints to be washed away with the next tide. You are walking in plaster of paris; it’s soft and receptive but it doesn’t forget. I worry that this is going to be creepy for you guys, and if it is I’ll remove the counter, but for me it’s great fun. If you click on the number over there you will see the same statistics that I see. At least I think you will.

For instance, today someone who had his or her computer set to Western Australia Time dropped by because of a trackback link I left over at Haloscan. He looked at the main page, and didn’t click any links. Not that there was any reason for him to do so unless a category name caught his fancy.

The stats never show enough to pin down the exact person, but with a little knowledge (now, just who could it be at hearthnhome.com? And Bob, don’t you have better things to be doing while you’re at work?) you can make a pretty good guess.

So, like I said, if this bugs you I’ll stop, or if you don’t mind me seeing the stats but don’t want the whole damn world to know I can fix it that way as well. I just thought you would find it interesting to know just what THEY know about every page you load.

Damn! I didn’t want to end this on a paranoid angle. I like seeing who’s visited, and I have no current plans to use the information for nefarious purposes. But anyway, it’s you guy’s call.

Under Construction

Posted on March 23, 2004 by Jerry

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Tweaking the appearance of the blog, so things will probably be ugly ugly ugly off and on today.

Well, not done tweaking yet, but I’m done for now. I think I need to improver the contrast of some parts.

I added a web counter to see how many people visit this blog. Not sure I’ll be able to take the disappointment.

Comments Enabled

Posted on March 22, 2004 by Jerry

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Free is my favorite price.

Please take a moment to tell me how to say “two beers” below!

About ready to hit the road

Posted on March 22, 2004 by Jerry

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Except for the fact that I am completely unprepared for the move, I’m pretty excited about getting Jer’s Homeless Tour underway. I’ll try to put regular updates here, but I’m not going to put endless minutiae here just to hear myself talk. Or so I promise now.

I have instructions around here somewhere telling me how to add reader comments to iBlog, so at some point I’ll try to get that going, along with jerssoftwarehut.com/. Lots of work to do there as well.

Two Beers

Posted on January 5, 2004 by Jerry

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French – deux bières
Spanish – dos cervezas
Polish – dwa piwa
Czech – dve piva
Romanian – doua bere
Afrikaans – Twee Biere
Redneck: Cheap date!
German: Zwei Bier
Italian: Due birre
Russian: dva piva
Serbian: dva piva
Malay – “Dua bir”, or “dua gelas bir” although that’s rather clunky.
Mandarin Chinese: Liang ping pijiu (“lee-yang ping pee-jee-you”)
Danish – to øl
Swedish – Två öl
Latin: Duo cerevisiae
Finnish: Kaksi olutta
Portuguese: dois cervejas
Pig Latin: ootay eersbay
Canadian: 1/12th of a two-four.
Dutch: Twee bier
Flemish: Twee pintjes
Irish: Dha Beoir
Japanese: Ni-hai biiru
Esperanto: du bier
Swahili: pombe mbili
Turkish: Iki bira (ee-kee bee-rah)

Just thought you might want to know.

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I’m Baaaaaack…

Posted on December 27, 2003 by Jerry

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We’ll see if I can get my momentum back. I’ve had thoughts about things to write here; I just haven’t done it. Now that there is no way on earth that anyone is reading this, maybe I can get somewhere with it.