I'll be in Blacksburg for most of the summer. Anyone who wants to visit is welcome to the more-than-ample floorspace. My lease runs through the end of August and has been paid up to that point, so pretty much I'm just sitting around until fall, working enough to keep me fed. Pretty much everything is fluid. Yup. Super exciting.

Psst! I have a secret. I just told you what it was, but you weren't looking hard enough. It's not so very hard to find. Also, one more thing which actually isn't secret, but I haven't gotten around to mentioning. Steve and I broke up a few weeks back. I'm OK. He's OK. We still talk. If you're my family, he'll probably still pop in for a visit. I'll pop in to visit some of his family still too.

Grape Juice is Great Juice - I've been saying this all along! Grape juice is the best juice in the world, but cranberry is a close second. Apple juice is just gross, but cider is good. The article is actually about antioxidants, though. Quoth British researcher Alan Crozier, "Purple grape juice made with Concord grapes contains the highest and broadest range of ployphenols as well as having the highest antioxidant capacity. Other high-ranking produces include cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice drink."

Ballmer says Google is insane - So is that what he calls his reflection? I've always just addressed myself as "self." I'd say something like "It'll be smooth sailing from here, Self." Ballmer, scary-looking CEO of Microsoft and really crazy dude, is all up in arms over Google (again) over their development plans for the new Docs & Spreadsheets product, among other things. That man is going to have a heart attack, mark my words.

The Problem, in A Fundamental Nutshell: 'Is Your Baby Gay?' - I tried to think of something for this one, but Southern Baptists just aren't funny. Mohler, "one of the leading voices of the... Southern Baptist Convention," asked on his blog what Christians would do if there was testing available to detect imminent homosexuality in fetuses and a hormone patch that could prevent it. It's sort of an interesting question, after you get past the disgusting bigotry of the way it's asked.

By the by, the new dog is named Abigail, and she was spayed on Friday. I haven't gotten any pictures because the light has sucked for the past couple of days.

I acquired an ipod over break, and have subsequently become addicted to podcasts. They're nice for passing the massive gaps in my schedule. I have replaced those awful white earbuds though. They don't stay in, I don't particularly like the look of them, and I don't feel like looking like an ad for Apple. I have replaced them with a pair that stays in, have a black cord so as not to look like a silhouette advertisement, but are still reasonably ugly. Two out of three ain't bad.

I'm moving to a different host. They offer a better product for the same price. I'm hoping the transition will be pretty seamless, but we will see. In any case, that's why I've been reluctant to post new content.

Unfortunately, my content just isn't very Web 2.0, nor is the site in general. That's why I was forced to create my very own starbursts that didn't have any new-fangled technological references.

They were created using PS CS2, and a couple of Web 2.0 button Photoshop tutorials.

As an aside, I do believe this is the most categories any one post has ever belonged to.

Just for reference, even if Microsoft did fix all the things I'm complaining about I still wouldn't switch from Firefox. Also, I'm being nitpicky. If I was forced with a red hot spork, I could probably come to tolerate using IE7, at least moreso than IE6.

Ok, first thoughts: it's ooglay. The interface doesn't take up any more room than it does in Firefox, but it just draws my attention right to it. The menu bar is off by default, which bothers me. It breaks my expectations of how a browser should behave. Even when I turn it on, I can't manage to make it go above the navigation bar! It appears that browsing must be my top priority, and making IE work how I want is secondary.

The navigation bar Is another issue. Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, Home, Address, Go. These are the things that live on my navigation bar, at the very least. They belong in that order. IE7 puts refresh and stop after the address bar, and moves home to a totally separate area. More on that later. The forward and back buttons are where I expect them to be (approximately) and are very pretty, but they just seem sort of lonely.

Actually, after a bit of poking I can't seem to affect the navigation bar at all, aside from changing which search engine it uses. It is so merged with the title bar that right clicking in empty space on the navigation bar actually gives the same menu as right clicking the title bar! That would explain why I can't wedge anything in between them. It's got the basics, and as I say it is pretty, but not being able to change it frustrates me.

My last issue is with the tab bar. First off, it's always there. If I'm only viewing one tab I don't need you to show which tab I'm on. If I need another tab, I'll be sure to ask for one, thankyoueversokindly. The reason that you can't feasibly get rid of the tab bar is that there's a "command bar" on the right side of it. This contains all those buttons that used to live along side the navigation buttons in IE6, when the address bar lived on its own line. I don't really like them there, because I tend to have loads of tabs open, but given the layout they're going with I don't see a better place to put them.

Ok, I'm done griping. There are some good things going on here, too. For one, Microsoft is finally adding a lot of features that power users have had for years. Kudos! This isn't going to change the browsing paradigm overnight, but when users can efficiently manage five or six websites at the same time, it will change the way they use them.

The feed reader is basically beautiful. I don't know how it fares on the technical side of things, but from my end it is nice to look at, easy to use, and effective. I recognize that this is excluded from Firefox as a matter of policy, and there are feed reader plugins, but it is still very nice.

Also nice is the anti-phishing scanner. This is a new feature for IE7 and FF2.0, to protect users from fraudulent websites. If you practice careful browsing it won't offer much change, but it's nice to see both browsers keeping an eye out on the oft-overlooked security threat of social engineering.

So I hate the new interface, but I gotta tip my hat to the IE team. Overall, it was a substantial improvement. Sure, it was a lot of catch-up, but at least they're recognizing what users want.

No, this doesn't mean that I'll be switching over to use IE.

On an unrelated note, rule 34. I have no idea what most of the first thirty-three rules are. The first two are "Don't visualize" and "No, really, don't visualize!." Rule 34 is NSFW, so you'll have to click below to read about it.

Rule 34 states that "If it exists, there is porn of it." Also known as the "Ow! My childhood!" rule. A Google search for "there is porn of it" points overwhelmingly towards that fact being rule #34. A similar search for rule 34 is not as decisive, but this usage still occurs on the first page of a result. I don't know if this is tells us about Google, namespaces, or just that I'm really bored.

"sex is a thirteen letter word"

Let's see. One, two... thirteen! Awesome! I learned something new about sex today.

Me

This is why there are no pictures of me.

Ashley

Well if you didn't make a face—

Me

I'd still be wearing a purple wig.