Blogging Brians

If something is worth doing, it is worth doing to excess.

A person named Brian commented on one of my pictures in a photo meme. I wrote back thanking him for the comment and it was nice to get to know a fellow blogger named Brian. It reminded me of the webring I was in on way back in 2003 called Blogging Brian’s. The person who formed the ring has fallen off the face of the Internet, so that little scheme can’t be resurected. Instead I went back and grabbed all the still working links and made a little section for them on the right side of the page. Hey I have a list of blogs over there that are written by Miata owners….

Then I went a step too far. I Googled Brian Blog and then Blog Brian. Came up with 11 more active blogs written by Brians, including six with the startlingly original name of Brian’s Blog.

I am reserving the right to winnow out a few of these, Sturgeon’s Law definitely applies to blogs written by Brians too.

Time In A Bottle

Man, I would like to bottle today. Mid 70s, low humidity, 5-10 mph winds and a sprinkling of fluffy white clouds. The pine pollen is still on the trees and the insects aren’t out yet. Bradford Pear trees blooms are still hanging around, the dogwoods are just starting and a couple of the early azaleas are out.

Radio Paradise is hitting all the right musical notes as far as I’m concerned. It is almost enough to make me want so send them a few bucks. Recent play list:
Joseph Arthur – Can’t Exist
Porcupine Tree – Mellotron Scratch
Deus – Sister Dew
Richard Thompson – Turning of the Tide
Patty Griffin – Change
Ian Anderson – Panama Freighter
Nik Kershaw – Wounded
Maria de Barros – Mi Nada Um Ca Tem
Bob Marley – Is this Love

Also, I’m reading a female PI mystery book called In Big Trouble by Laura Lippman that is hitting all the right words. Sample (she is in San Antonio):
     “I’ve never had anything like this. Most Mexican food in Baltimore is so…perfunctory. I mean, you know you are in trouble when the best place in town has something called ‘Los Sandichos’ on the menu. And the Mexican place near my house has a wait staff of Estonians. Here, I could make a meal from the tortillas alone. They’re incredible.”
     Rick looked puzzled. “They’re flour and lard. You could make them yourself. Anyone could.”
     “Theoretically.” She could also solve simple physics equations if she put her mind to it, but that didn’t mean she was going to start anytime soon.

A chunk of the day in the middle was taken up by that pesky work thing, but all in all, very nice.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 67

The Paint Is In The Mail

Messing with the look and feel of this blog isn’t the only thing I can’t leave alone. The Emperor gets it’s fair share of tweaking as well, as evidenced by the 38 changes I’ve made since I took ownership in November ’03. Numbers 39 & 40 are on their way in the form of a spray can full of Garnet Red Mica paint. That can will be used to paint the currently black interior rear view mirror the exterior car color, ala the new Mazdaspeeds. The other mod I have planned to come from that spray can is body colored brake calipers. I did this mod on the old Laguna Blue Miata, but those calipers I painted extrovert yellow, to go with the shiny aftermarket wheels on the bright blue car. This car is a little more subdued, so it will get a more appropriate quieter color on it’s toenails.

I bought the paint from a place called PaintScratch.com (thanks Rick) and it is coming via UPS truck all the way from California. They are charging me $5 for shipping and with the current cost of gas I think I’m getting a bargain.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 67

Now This Was Slick

Like the Cold War before it, the Spam War is a place in which the top minds in the field are battling for world domination while we, the little people, watch in horror and disgust.

We use a spam killer service here at work, called Postini, and it does a very good job of separating the wheat from the chaff. A few slip by, sometimes I can’t see how, but this morning one made it to my in basket and I just had to smile at the ingenuity of it:

spam.jpg

This is what the V in Valium is composed of:
v.gif

A bunch of letters and spaces using the <pre> tag and a small font size, ASCII Art if you will. I might have bought some of those medz if they had enough style to use all Vs to make the letter V and As to make the A and so on…

Jeremy Again

Heee’s baaack! I got one of these via gmail last October and this one came to the mr-miata account. This time it is baseball, not basketball, but it is nearly word for word otherwise. The snail mail addy & phone are the same. Both the phone number and ip address are from Norman, OK. I think, but can’t be sure, the email address is different. Still not sure what this is really about, but if you want in on this email me and I’ll forward you the email…

Hello,

I was browsing through the results from a search engine when I came across your site. It has a lot of good, relevant information and I was hoping that we could exchange links. Doing so would not only help our regular visitors find other useful pages, but it would also make our sites rank higher in search engines like Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. Exchanging links would be free and beneficial for both of our sites.

The site has links at the top of every MLB team page which would give you access to local traffic and out of town visitor going to and from the games.

My web page is over 4 years old and receives more than 2,000 visitors a day. I try to offer the best information available on any topic I think my visitors would appreciate.

If you’d like to exchange links for our mutual benefit, I’d be happy to discuss it with you over email.

Sincerely,
Jeremy
MLBPlayers
2215 West Lindsey
Suite 102
Norman, Ok 73071
4053212922 (please no phone calls)

Another Free Cool Blogging Thing…

…that will probably be killed by it’s own popularity in the not to distant future.

In my never ending quest to bring you a blog reading experience that ranks right up there with winning a buck on a lottery scratch-off, I give you Gravatars! That is if have signed up for that service and deem to leave me a comment. When you do, your gravatar will appear right next to your words of wisdom. Mine is made from my image du moment, Bend. What’s yours? Leave a comment and show the world (well, at least this small slice of it.)

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 65