• 11:32 it makes me kind of insane when I can't figure out what device on my network is using a dynamic IP assigned by my router. OK, very insane. # [[Figured it out with Joe's help: it was my own TV. I forgot it could do Internetty stuff...]]
  

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:22 RT @mathewi Courtney Love sued in the first Twitter libel suit, says Indie on Sunday bit.ly/2BWQKK #
• 09:34 Reading 2 days worth of tweets in 20 minutes is like being the psychic with no control of power all you hear is noise MAKE IT STOP HURTING #
• 09:37 skype for iphone/itouch (YES I SAID iTOUCH, Dammit) -- another way for me to not use AT&T minutes. Horde them like GOLD. Unless it sucks. #
• 11:39 you can now twitter direct from a YouTube page, to more easily share that footage of skatekids jumping railings for even more genital damage #
• 11:40 TWOOSH. (www.tweet140.com/) I actually twoosh too much; makes it hard to get a retweet. #
• 11:41 If you follow that, and know it isn't (necessarily) dirty, then you spend too much time on Twitter. Go figure. #
• 15:05 interesting that direct messages on Twitter go to my phone and my email long before they show up on... Twitter. Bug or feature? #
• 15:31 Muppetstar Galactica tinyurl.com/66ejob #
• 15:32 in the end [SPOILER] Piggy and Kermit are angels. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

To commemorate throwing away my old pay stubs -- yes, I had ALL of them
-- I took this picture of my first ever paycheck from the radio station
I worked at during high school. The picture sucks as it came from
iPhone. Notice: 16 hours of work and I got paid 51 bucks (that's $3.35
per hour). But I felt rich. Dunno why there was no Fed tax taken out.
Was I too young? I can't imagine that was the reason.

• 09:57 today is my 14,361st day on Earth (see ping.fm/oqUSL). Seems like a lot. #
• 11:11 drinking the same beverage I suspect may have given me hives (plural) earlier this week. Gambling big at age 14,361 days. #
• 13:27 Guy kills his computer. is.gd/phpK NSFW. Or the kids. Or the computer. #
• 13:33 This is pretty great video "featuring" IE8. is.gd/phtz If it's really from Microsoft (doubtful) it makes up for the Seinfeld fiasco. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 16:25 Where the hell is the Red Cross blood bank? They confirmed this appointment LAST NIGHT. and they're NOT HERE. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 10:54 Carrying a laptop, even a netbook, that's crazy talk! Put your computing life entirely on a USB Thumb Drive. bit.ly/iQIMI #
• 11:50 remember when the Internet made things go faster? I just finished a chess game after TWELVE DAYS. slow but great. #
• 14:37 DVI-to-HDMI cable $9 on Amazon in two days... or $54 bucks right now at Best Buy. Once again, the delayed Web FTW. #
• 14:45 Another damn Fockers movie? Including Streisand? It's enough to make one hate entertainment. www.imdb.com/news/ni0722188/ #
• 14:46 Monsters vs. Aliens, however, restores hope. "Code Brown!" #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

Image by ecgriffith via Flickr

My choices tonight: watch some downloads, read The New Yorker article about vampires, write some of my novel... or blog a butt-load of info about my status in life.

"Butt-load of info" wins.

If you know me at all, you know I moved out of my house not quite three weeks ago, into an apartment about two miles away.

If it wasn't clear before, my wife and I are splitting. The paperwork to make it a legal separation is in the offing. We still talk though. Civilly, even. It does happen.

I'm still at my house almost every day, usually to feed the dogs lunch (3 squares a day!), often to clean, and straighten, and pack pack pack. I moved out, but even though I gave away more books than some small town libraries can hold, I left much in my wake. The Great Purge continues...it all must go. Well, not go go. I'm not giving away everything. Much of it is going into storage, and thankfully my brother has one-third of a garage available for that very purpose. (Hopefully, as his boys grow up, they'll want to raid the comics and books I'll leave. I want them to have them anyway. I plan to forbid the boys any access, so they'll be desperate to get into them.)

The alteration to my life by moving into an apartment has been... interesting. And by interesting, I mean, it was traumatic and depressing. I'm happy to say I've had good friends keeping an eye on me, from both near and far. The turnaround for me happened almost two weeks after I moved in, when I pulled my head out of my rectum and plunked down the deposit money necessary for me to be able to bring my dogs to the apartment.

Oh, the difference in life when one has a companion animal. It has made what was barely tolerable loneliness into almost enjoyable solitude.

That's the crux of my adjustment. Embracing that being 'by myself' as not a curse but, in some ways, a blessing. Not that want it to last forever. It's not always easy, even now. I'm still not writing much, despite having more time on my hands than any writer in recorded history. My head ain't in the game, but it will return. Oh, for an attack of hypergraphia to get one through the lean text times.

It hasn't helped my writing that I've also re-embraced my one, true love; she who was there for me long before anyone else: glorious television. Oh, TV, how I missed your liquid crystal kisses, your high-definition embrace. It's a lot more work to watch without cable or satellite, but it makes it all the sweeter I suppose.

Now I get to watch it with a dog in my lap again.

So, I'm losing weight. I'm walking the dogs every day, even when the cold is so bitter it makes my eyeballs hurt. I'm working as usual, keeping in touch, and I swear to the higher power of your choice my novel will be finished by the end of April. This despite the other work to do back at the house. Because it's very likely that house will be on the market within a week. Less than a month, definitely. That's what happens when you move out. All the waiting goes out the window, and life takes on a momentum you can't even control if you want to. Which I think is a good thing. At this point, I'd rather be taken for a ride than sitting at the bus stop, waiting.

Another feature by moi for PCMag.com:

You can put an entire bootable operating system on a USB flash drive or customize your own collection of apps to run on any PC, anywhere. Here's how.

• 10:20 This is the only thing that would make me listen to rap regularly: a supervillian. tinyurl.com/d92vfw #
• 10:21 by which, I mean, he use some kind of mind-control ray that makes me like rap. Or makes it sound like music. #
• 10:22 (Wow, I sound OLD. You kids, get off my lawn.) #
• 10:58 just linked my Netflix account to my Facebook so everyone will know my feelings about Twilight (sparkle Draculas!) vs. Milk. #
• 13:35 I picked a terrible time to discover the joys of sodoku. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:27 for @StevenGould - i09 shout out to Jumper in '11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours' is.gd/obwS #
• 15:56 How have I never done a #followfriday ? Check out @DanAmrich, @bheater, @southworth, and @themediaisdying (that last one cures happiness!) #
• 16:26 If I'm willing to spend money to buy an episode of, oh, I dunno, say, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on Xbox, it should be available BEFORE 9PM. #
• 16:28 The Networks hate ala cart TV, which should be the norm by now-- by channel if not by episode. And thus, Internet piracy wins again. Balls. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

Caper considers the outdoors and his squeaky ladybug simultaneously.

• 13:05 as of 12:55PM EST, my apartment is no longer a dog-free zone. Thank Dog. #
• 15:30 i know I'm being productive when I realize at 3:30 I haven't visited Google Reader all day. Like a crack smoker not missing his pipe. #
• 16:23 Thunderbird can't auto-update to version 2.0.21 if you're running Logitech Webcam software. Annoying, but true. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

Image via CrunchBase

• 11:25 Retweet @AppScout: Twitter: A Job Search Cautionary Tale tinyurl.com/dg7yqr #
• 15:31 Retweet @AppScout: 20 Celebs Who Really Shouldn't Have Beat You to Twitter tinyurl.com/dc7mem [Me: Guess who I suggested.] #
• 23:24 Twitter has a MORE button now! No more multi-pages to see old tweets? This is made of WIN and dipped in WINNER SAUCE, people. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 10:22 orange juice doesn't go bad like milk, right? #
• 11:06 Twouble with Twitters: tinyurl.com/cx723z #
• 12:49 tonight will wear a blue t-shirt with a yellow shirt over it, hope for the best. Roy G. Biv, FTW! #
• 13:34 Meebo.com as native app on the iPhone. Sweet. Soon I'll never have to load AOL's crappy AIM interface on ANY system. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:15 for @wwwendyyy www.sheldoncomics.com/ (and for @bloggingmolly too, since the comic does feature a talking duck every day) #
• 10:22 "SciFi" (channel) is renaming itself "SyFy." The world will pronounce it "siffie." Viewers will be gone after Friday's BSG, anyway. #
• 10:29 Retweet @PCMag: Home Networking in 5 Easy Steps (In case you were having a hard time figuring it out...) is.gd/ny48 #
• 13:17 RT @DanAmrich: "My college profiled me. It's 85% true...I did ramble a lot during the interview, so it's probably my fault." is.gd/nzHM #
• 13:23 I think my roomba is stoking out. Full on gran-mal vacuum seizure. It's not pretty, especially when I jam the wooden spoon in its maw. #
• 13:23 its vs. it's FAIL. Story of it's life. #
• 13:26 Is it against a rule to retweet someone else's Facebook status update on Twitter? Is that a Re:status? A ReBook? A ReFace? #
• 13:29 RT JeremyS: I got some new pajamas with pockets in ‘em. Which is great, because before that, I used to have to hold stuff when I slept. #
• 15:46 Retweet @LanceUlanoff: "...confirmed news that iPhone software 3.0 will have cut and paste. Woohoo!" #
• 16:09 having donated so many books, my LibraryThing account is now utterly meaningless. Nutz. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 18:19 Everyone should shut up and stop bitching about the new Facebook. It's like Twitter, with threaded comments. That's GOOD. #
• 18:20 Plus, I can stop following status of inane people, and still be their friend -- so it's just like REAL LIFE, too. #
• 19:55 How does iPhone compare to 40,000 year old tech? Pretty well. tinyurl.com/5mjpfv #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

Cover of Watchmen

I'm a week late with this, but my friend Bill -- who's trapped in Iraq and has to decide whether to watch a DVD bootleg or wait and see the real thing (on a real DVD) -- wants my opinion. On Watchmen.

I say on the DVD because the big-screen options will be few and far between by the time he gets home in a couple of months. The film lost 78% of its income in its second weekend of release. It's looking like Watchmen, the movie, is a flop. Chances are this is because it hewed a little too close to the book.

As a fan of the book from the days when it came out in floppy, monthly, serialized comics -- 12 glorious chapters which I still own -- I was very happy with the film. That it stuck with the source material so closely was a plus. But we're talking source material that every venerable geek has read and re-read, enough so that Watchmen is a multi-bestseller; people wear out their copies. I have it in both soft and hard cover, for instance. I've bought it for at least three friends, and been tempted many times more (but I hate people who push their religion). For me, to go in and not see Archie flying out of the Hudson River, extreme prison violence, and powder-blue dude-junk would have been tantamount to sacrilege.

Could the film have been shorter? Probably. Lop off 20 minutes, few would have complained. After all, the director's cut is coming.

Did the few changes made to the story's end -- especially the distinct lack of calamari! -- hurt the movie? Not at all. I'd say it improved things. I know I've read on at least one occasion that Alan Moore, the author of the graphic novel (and who made sure his name was not associated with the film after the horror of his other book League of Extraordinary Gentleman, becoming one of the worst films of all time), wanted to change Watchmen's story as he wrote it. I assume the ending in particular. DC Comics made him stick with his original outline, tentacles and all. Maybe, if he takes a gander at the DVD someday, he'll like the changes. Okay, no, he won't... he'll use some snakes to create a spell to cast on all of Hollywood.

So here's what it boils down to: Bill, if you, like me, are a fanboy of epic proportions for the graphic novel, then wait. Watch it when the quality is high and the enjoyment can be extreme -- like in a comfy chair with your sons. If you're not? Watch the bootleg, forget about the sand in your eyes for a couple of hours. Either way, you're not going to see something transcendent. It's not Star Wars, or Singin' in the Rain, or Pink Floyd: The Wall, or Goodfellas, or Terminator or anything life changing. That's partly because its not really new. (Remember when movies were new, not adaptations and sequels?) But it's a very, very well done film homage to a very, very great book.

And for those who hated it... the book is still there. It didn't ruin the original. Just like all book to movie adaptations. (Well, except for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That came close.)

• 10:02 The KGB vill vait for no one! (I hate being a day behind.) #
• 11:29 Linksys is making me repeatedly ping a dead router just to prove it's dead. I know that. It's why I called. Just let me send it back. #
• 11:32 Hey, what do you know! They agree with me; this sucker is bricked. AND still under warranty. RMA city, here we come. #
• 13:08 Google Calendar down? I'm getting server error with messages in about 400 languages... #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:55 Retweet @AppScout: GrandCentral Becomes Google Voice tinyurl.com/bdkufp (still waiting for mine to upgrade!) #
• 11:26 wait, so Shinola was a real thing? Guess I wouldn't know that from $#!+. #
• 11:58 At this very moment in time, my name is on the top of the sci/tech news page of Google News. is.gd/n4lQ this calls for a w00t. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 11:02 Retweet @steviechuckles: Try to respect my right to not follow you if I can't figure out who the hell you are. And you're boring. #
• 11:04 Reminds me... I should stop following some people who are boring. But there's more boredom (and more CRAZY) on Facebook than here. #
• 15:06 Playing with lots of self-contained portable apps this week. Question is raised: why aren't ALL apps portable? Oh, yeah. Microsoft. #
• 15:22 finally setup my brand new microwave. Tonight, there will be the popping... of CORN. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:07 Apt. Life, Day 3. Waiting for Verizon to show up and fix phone that should have been turned on Friday. Luckily, I'd be here anyway. #
• 12:05 wow: tinyurl.com/dgkjdy #
• 14:25 I have turned on my apartment thermostat for the first time. I've become my dad, circa 1979. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:48 Still got accounts on Friendster or AOL? Annoyed by Classmates? Want out of Facebook? Learn how to delete any Web account! is.gd/mwCY #
• 11:37 Apartment Life, day 2: repair guys are here looking at fridge. They're discussing books about the civil war. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

I don't really know for sure when my stories at PCMag.com will fail big or explode out of the gate, but I can't help but think this one is gonna be big. Seriously, who doesn't have an account with some online service they'd love to KILL? Find out how in How to Delete Accounts from Any Website.

(Original title, as suggested by Joe: "I Wish I Could Quite You." Sadly, that does nothing for search engine optimization, except for attracting gay cowboys.)

I went through the steps on 23 different services,  figuring out how to take them out of my life, and yours, if you want. Get rid of those old AOL and Friendster accounts. If you're over-dosed on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, delete 'em. Want to stop sharing your videos on YouTube and pictures on Flickr and PhotoBucket? I've got the steps you need to cancel those relationships.

• 08:57 greetings intertubage. Griffnet is back online. Miss me? (Well, eff you very little, if not.) #
• 08:58 I have no damn idea how to set up my office and living space in this L-shaped monstrosity of a room. I'm at the mercy of a cable modem jack. #
• 21:26 how many failed movies does Clive Owen have coming out this year? #
• 21:27 Now that Watchmen is out, time for that other seminal 80's graphic novel to come to screen. Sonic Disruptors by Spring 2010! #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:47 Sitting in my bathrobe & socks, waiting on dryer... All my other clothes are packed. (last load o' laundry!) #ListOfLasts #
• 13:24 early access! Moving commences. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 09:15 Less than 31 hours now until the move. #
• 09:25 31 hours until move; 34 hours until Watchmen. (That's how I'm paying my "movers." Oh, and beer.) #
• 10:22 I will soon be rid of the gigantor G5 Mac tower the office sent me years ago. I haven't used it in months. #
• 13:07 Thanks, @DirecTV ! Apparently you decided I didn't wanna watch any TV on my last night in my house. Nice of you. #ListOfLasts #
• 16:28 "NiteOwl is the Leader, and he Loves to Party Down" tinyurl.com/aqupbs #
• 16:52 Another sign of TV Execs with their fingers unable to find the pulse: "Heroes to Return for Fourth Season" #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 07:28 Retweet @AppScout: Breaking: Amazon Kindle iPhone App Appears tinyurl.com/bvwqm8 #
• 07:29 A tech company has heard my prayers! #
• 08:19 First Kindle for iPhone book purchased! (Fool, by Christopher Moore.) #
• 19:28 Had two full meals today. I'm relieved to say, it was too much. (The old me would say: Only 4,679 calories? MORE. #
• 19:51 sometime between the summer of 2007 and now, I lost my passport. So much for escaping the country...legally. #
• 23:28 I thought Caper was starting to realize my move out is imminent. Turns out he was being clingy cuz he needed to go outside and take a dump. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 11:33 Re-tweet: @Southworth: Just got three "unfollows" after ragging on "Twilight." Good riddance, sparkle Draculas! [RTing cause i LOLed.] #
• 11:34 "Sparkle Draculas" just became my new favorite, contempt-filled epithet. #
• 12:26 RT @DanAmrich: An open letter to Barenaked Ladies: bunnyears.net/dan/?p=693 [me: I will apply to be BNL roadie.] #
• 13:28 happier.com has a "gratitude journal" app for iPhone. i think I'll stick with Twitter... my own "ingratitude journal" #
• 13:53 DirecTV operator sez I'm so loyal a customer, I should "look for a fight" as I try to cancel. Now on hold with "customer retention" dept. #
• 13:58 So much for a fight. Guy didn't even shed a tear at my turning off satellite. Perhaps I couldnt hear him over my weeping. #
• 14:00 And that was the last utility call I should have to make from here (assume more calls when they don't turn on at the new place) #ListOfLasts #
• 17:19 Blockbuster contemplates bankruptcy is.gd/lEBX #
• 20:29 Pack-rat report: Just threw away my graduation gown. From HIGH SCHOOL. (Not tossing mortar board. Don't judge my nostalgia.) #ListOfLasts #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 08:01 Time for the #ListOfLasts (example 1: last time I drag recycling to the curb in 12 degree weather!) #
• 08:03 Last Monday I'll wake with two blond Labradors in my bed, one with butt dangerously close to my face. (they can't all be happy) #ListOfLasts #
• 08:51 Last day I deal with the DMV or insurance. At least for a while. #ListOfLasts #
• 08:57 Woman here in insurance office has something hanging in her hair. Maybe a dead bug. Torn on whether to say something, nothing, or grab it. #
• 10:22 That should be the last trip I take to the old alma mater for a long time, if not ever. Fingers crossed. #ListOfLasts #
• 10:42 "about to scratch myself" is.gd/lp4O #
• 12:37 My last Monday in my basement office. Will working while not subterranean make me more productive? #ListOfLasts #
• 15:46 Retweet @MichaelSinger: China crashes satellite into moon -- tinyurl.com/djf9jn [the moon: orbiting landfill of the future] #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr

• 22:08 i'm wired on diet pepsi. i would take advantage of this to spackle holes in the walls... but all my spackle is frozen. #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter and Blogmailr