bendogg.monathecat.com

I awoke today to discover that Google has released Google Analytics, free tracking and data analysis for all your site traffic. For someone who has sites and blogs, this is very exciting. Also, I check on MLB Rumor Central and there are more and new rumors that Theo Epstein may be the next Dodger GM! I’m still frustrated that Paul DePodesta was fired (and how it happened), but having Theo as GM would be awesome. It would also be cool if the job went to Kim Ng, which would make her the first female GM in baseball (president can’t be far behind). Anyway, what a great start to the day! Um, and to follow the analogy, if the internet is christmas, google is santa (or aunt and uncle who always deliver the goods with sweet presents) and bloglines my stocking!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexerde/62238943/

This kid is pissed.

Noooo! The show came back from the brink of cancellation to be renewed for the 3rd season — but now that season will be shortened and the show cancelled!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051111/en_nm/shows_dc

Arrested Development is probably my favorite show on television. Definitely my favorite comedy sitcom. It’s brilliant! I can re-watch the shows and discover new layers of comedy that I had entirely missed. Just the other weekend a friend of mine said that it was “even better than the simpsons!” EVEN BETTER THAN THE SIMPSONS! Do you hear that fox? Please don’t cancel the show!

Ok, now I need to get up off my knees and go buy the show on DVD. I don’t know what else I can do, maybe start a site like neverevercancelarresteddevelopmentoriwillbereallysad.net (.com is clearly already taken, good domains are scarce). I’m too tired to do that know, maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

. . . as luck would have it, I get to go see Lewis Black live at the Wiltern! Some friends had extra tickets and I couldn’t be more excited! (well, my excitement is currently enhanced by a killer sugar-high, but even so! w00t!) I expect to be laughing so hard my stomach will ache. My only wonder is what his routine will be, will it be similar to his recent HBO special? Or all new? The show is titled “Nothing’s Sacred” — I guess that’s new, eh, either way, I’ll love it. Anyway, if you’re going as well, I’ll be one of the many people ROTFLMFAO. Yes!

The Wiltern Event Detail Page

Oh, and this reminds me, I also want to see John Leguizamo live if I ever get the chance.

Sweet (literally), we just went on a Candy Run! Now we’re all stocked up and ready for the next sugar high. The great thing too is that we’ve hidden it all away from ‘ol w00t’s McGee! hee-hee-hee-hee. The candy has already shifted to be xmas/holiday themed. And, sadly, the giant, fuck-all (thanks to Lewis Black for introducing me to this great use of the f-word – which has long been in use by the British) bags of candy only come out for halloween time. We were limited to buying candy in whoop-dee-shit (thanks to w00t’s for this great curse phrase), 3lb bags or less (no more 5lb bags).

Do I think I can sustain two blog posts a day (one here and one at another blog)? A sweet lychee gel will be my reward if I succeed! Well, at least one post a day, for two weeks and then I have my lychee gel. (In case you don’t know, I am, in fact hording lychee gels. I have about 4 more (of the awesome kind in the banner picture that are currently banned by the FDA). I’ve been very amazed at my ability to not eat them all immediately. Very amazed.

view of avalon

Originally uploaded by benchristen.

I just wanted to post this . . . I saw it come up in my sidebar and thought, “now, that’s a nice pic, I wish it had more views on flickr.” Also, I need to spend more time doing photo! I haven’t spent serious time on photo in quite a while (actually taking my camera out for the purpose of getting some nice shots vs. random shots with my cell phone).

Yes! bendogg.monathecat.com now featuring a 3rd column completely full of ads! Hopefully I can get about three-fitty a year in ad revenue off this site!

. . . Suck. I get really frustrated working on the crossword puzzles in the magazine on Southwest flights. The puzzles are not witty or clever and I feel less smart for having worked on them. The worst part is, I usually can’t complete them, get to a point where I think the puzzle has an error in it, and then look at the answers to see that they’re doing something lame or have some trick about the puzzle that was too obvious for me to get. UGH. These are the puzzles that also appear in the LA Times and your other crap newspapers around the country. Oh NY Times xword puzzles, how I love you so! (Southwest is great otherwise, I LOVE that they still give you peanuts! how many airlines have stopped doing that? and Southwest seems to have pretty reasonable leg room (and what is this trend lately of airlines not cleaning the planes between flights? at least a plane equivalent of a whore’s bath, come on!))

A must read if you’re starting down the xword path:
WILL SHORTZ – How to Solve the New York Times Crossword Puzzle

An excerpt from the article:

A crossword puzzle is a battle between the puzzle maker and editor on one side and the solver on the other. But unlike most battles, both sides here have the same goal — for the solver to win. A perfect puzzle may put up lots of resistance. It may, in fact, seem impossible at first. Ideally, though, in the end the solver should triumph and think, Oh, how clever I am!

After the Southwest Crossword puzzles I just feel cheated.

Which reminds me, I should do another xword puzzle (right now!)! (NYTimes, of course)

I got really excited in the Oakland airport today when I saw that the entire terminal has WiFi. So excited, in fact, that I b-lined for a seat and got out the lappy (laptop) to try and connect. Well, I don’t know why I got the impression it would be free – cause it wasn’t. And, I should have known better. Anyway, good to know if I need to send an urgent email in Oakland and I don’t mind the $9.95 then I’m all set. Also, it’s a Sprint network — wouldn’t it have been great to find out that they offer the service free to pre-existing PCS customers? A passionate user I would have been.