Sleepless in Midland

Navel Gazing for Bloggers

Here's an interesting question for bloggers to ponder:  Who knows you better, the people who read your blog?  Or the people who know you in the physical world?  [Found at Pull My Finger.]

And at the same site, the The Blogger Lifecycle:

1. "Start reading blogs."
2. "You start a blog."
3. "You become a stats whore."
4."You become really personal on your site as the online and real-life worlds start confusing you."
5."You faux "retire" from blogging."
6. "You cave back into blogging in less than 72 hours."
7. "You decide to "get serious" about blogging."
8. "You have a pseudo flirty im/blogging/flickr flirting relationship with another blogger whom you have never met."
9. "You decide that you must meet other bloggers."
10. "You take a step back and metablog about blogging and what blogging has done about your blogging."
11. "See step 5."
12."You decide that as a result of step 10 and having repeated step 5 more than 3 times in the course of your lifecycle as a blogger, that you need to sanitize or reinvent your blog."
13. "You either lose your job because of blogging, are afraid of losing your job for blogging, or join a company that builds blogging tools."
14. "You decide to start an anonymous livejournal blog."

Carnival of Skeptics

Just discovered.  However, it appears that there have been nine of these already.  And The 10th Skeptics' Circle is up for viewing.

Is your website gay?

Someone left a comment deep in the archives that said this:

This is gay!!!!  What kind of a site is this?????  U need games and music!!

Gee.  I thought this was a hetero site, but I had better check.  Turns out it's 20% gay.  I checked out a few other blogs to see where they stood, and the results were even more interesting (tee hee).  Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Check out your favorite website at How Gay is Your Website?

A Journalists' Shield Law in Texas - What About Bloggers?

Rodney Ellis of Houston has sponsored a bill in the Texas Senate that will create a privilege for "journalists" in the event they are called upon to testify.  Senate Bill no. 604 has gotten out of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee with some changes, and it basically says that a journalist doesn't have to testify about any information he/she got while acting as a journalist.

But there are a couple of exceptions.  First, a journalist will have to testify if the person who wants that testimony can prove that the testimony is relevant, material and essential to his/her claim or defense.  In other words, a journalist must testify if the person who wants that testimony can prove that it's necessary to make the case.  The original version said that the party wanting the testimony also had to prove that the information could not be obtained through alternate sources, but that line was eliminated by the Jurisprudence Committee over Rodney Ellis' objection.

And there's another very important common sense exception.  If the journalist is an eyewitness or if he/she participates in the crime or tortious conduct then the privileged goes out the window.

The new version doesn't sound all that bad for either side, however the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, as of April 16, still opposed it.

But there's another group out there that doesn't get attention.  A question for the Texas blogosphere is whether bloggers are covered.  Should bloggers be covered?  There are those who say "no."  In an article by Josh Gerstein in the NY Sun, there's this:

An attorney for the Texas Broadcasters' Association, Paul Watler, said he doesn't see bloggers posing much of an obstacle to press shield laws. "You can look at the function journalists fulfill and distinguish it from what a blogger does," he said.

Mr. Watler pointed out that most bloggers comment on facts reported by others. "I think there's a distinction in how they go about gathering information," he said.  [Emphasis added.]

Mr. Watler seems to be saying that bloggers don't need to be covered, and it is hard to imagine a case in which a blogger would be called upon to testify about comments the blogger made about facts reported by others.  But "most" is not synonymous with "all."  There are blog that actually do collect and report original material, and you are reading one of those blogs right now.

It's going to be up to judicial discretion whether a blogger would qualify for the privilege under the proposed law, because any blogger who wants to claim the privilege will have to be able to convince a judge that he/she is a "journalist" working on behalf of a "news medium" as those terms are defined by the pending statute:

"Journalist" means a person, or an employee, independent contractor, or agent of that person, engaged in the business of gathering, compiling, writing, editing, photographing, recording, or processing information for dissemination by any news medium.

"News medium" means a person who in the ordinary course of business publishes, broadcasts, or otherwise disseminates news by print, television, radio, or other electronic means accessible to the public.

It would be hard for most bloggers to meet the definition of "news medium" because, for whatever reason we might have for doing it, it probably isn't a "business."  Main stream media is carving out a privilege for themselves.  And they want to be the exclusive beneficiary of that privilege.  Jonah Goldberg, addressing the jailing of the reporters in the case of the outed CIA employee, Valerie Plame, summed it up nicely:

What's particularly ironic is that the big-media lawyers fear the courts will allow a blanket shield for journalists because there's no way to exclude one-man-band web journalists — bloggers — from the new right. And what's the point of giving the nobility a new privilege if any peasant can take advantage of it, too?

By lobbying for legislation which would make it tough for a blogger to claim the privilege then main stream media are acting very elitist.

Surviving life

You can read a blog for a period of time and begin to feel as though you know the person at that keyboard.  And, though I've never met the author of Yellow Bug News, I can tell that  she must be a very kind and likeable person.

So, last week she began writing about an upcoming medical procedure.  It turned out to be a colonoscopy.  And, according to her telling of the event, it went well.  That's great news, and I for one, am grateful that she'll be around for a while longer.

Sooner or later we all end up admitted as a customer into the medical industry for a determination of whether we've got cancer.  Big business, those biopsies.  Men are especially susceptible due to the inaccuracy of those darn PSA tests they keep telling us we need.   And, when the bills come it we tend to wonder, did I just get snookered?  Remove your wallet and bend over.

And, there's the emotional cost.  There was a Woody Allen movie - one of the older, funny ones - in which he becomes convinced that he has cancer.  He goes in for a test, and he turns out to be cancer free.  But, then a strange thing happens.  He gets very depressed about it.  It was funny at the time, but I believe it's a real and common phenomenon.

A person who is told he/she needs a biopsy can convince him/herself that nothing's wrong, almost.  There's that tiny little voice way back there in the brain saying "Don't get too comfortable.  If you're wrong, it can kill ya."

So, when the news comes back good, the desire to celebrate is mysteriously absent.  I suspect that the whole affair causes a person to feel very vulnerable.  We had worked up a great deal of  anticipation and dread.   And when we get the good news we realize that there will be no battles to fight, no enemies to conquer.  But, the joy is fleeting. Athough our life won't change that day, we are still so very small and helpless.  Perhaps the battle has just been postponed until another day.

What am I saying?  How depressing!  If you've read this far and haven't yet done a Hunter S. Thompson number, then don't.  There are too many good things to look forward to.  And, while I know I won't live forever, I want to relish the time I've got.  And, Julie at Yellow Bug, congratulations on the successful completion of the procedure.  May you have many years of happiness left in you.

Blogging and Texas Bloggers

Here's something that might be of interest to Texas bloggers,  Texas Blogfest 2005 to be held in Addison, Texas, on March 18-20.  It might be enlightening just to see what other bloggers look like.  I've never actually seen another blogger face to face  - do they really wear pajamas?  Found out about this at Stuff About, a blog coming out of Port Lavaca, Tx.

Also of note, Wallace at Streams has alerted the other local bloggers about Texas Bloggers which looks to be a blog collective with postings by any approved Texas blogger who wishes to have input.  In top form it could be something like the Corner with lots of insightful people keeping it current.

Finally, an article about blogs in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal last week described a conclave at Harvard which was to address such issues as whether there should be a code of ethics for bloggers.  Dang.  Don't you know there are people who just can't have fun unless they are enforcing rules against someone else.  The blogosphere is a freewheeling information playground where originality and honesty should be the goal, and everyone is a referee.  The academic elitists should just start their own darn blogs and leave the rest of us alone.

However, the part of the article that got my attention was a couple of stats the writer threw out.  She said that "at last count, an estimated eight million people in the U.S. are doing so," i.e., publishing blogs.  Then she says "the number of Americans reading blogs jumped 58% in 2004 to an estimated 32 million people...".  So, if that's accurate, and assuming that the 8 million bloggers are included among the 32 million readers, then there is one blog for every three non-blogging readers.

Gulp!  To the three who might be reading this blog, thanks for visiting.  Please come back soon!

Firefox browser

Eric over at Fire Ant Gazette points out that the new Firefox browser now accounts for 20% of browser usage.  The browser hasn't been available for very long, so that means that internet users must have really been hungry a change.

Until recently I used Netscape 7.2 browser, but I've been using Firefox for a week or so.  And, it's pretty good.  In some ways it's better than the Netscape browser, and in some ways it's not as good.  I understand the Firefox browser uses the same Mozilla engine as Netscape, and that should explain why the appearance is so similar.

The Netscape browser would develop a bug that wouldn't let me fully utilize the Yahoo mail site, so every few months I had to redownload Netscape and reinstall it to exterminate that bug.  So far, the Firefox browser hasn't developed that problem.  Here's hoping it won't.

The Netscape browser has a better integration with the email program.  The Firefox doesn't have an email program built in, but the Firefox user can use one of his/her old email programs or download Thunderbird from the Firefox site.  I've been using the Thunderbird email program, and it has some features that I haven't quite worked out yet.  For example, if I click on a link someone sent me then an old generation Netscape browser that's still on my computer tries to open.  Both the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email program allow the user to download "extensions" that supposedly help.  But, so far I haven't found one that helps my problem.

I haven't used a Microsoft browser in a long time, so I really can't compare them.  And, the Firefox browser is very similar to the Netscape browser.  But, Firefox is worth trying out.  It's free, and it's a seamless transition, mostly.  This may seem like a luke warm recommendation, but if you haven't tried it yet then give it a whirl.

Saving lives - all in a day's work over at GruntDoc's

One of my regular internet visits is the weblog of an emergency room physician working in Fort Worth.  He tells a simple story of a guy who came in with chest pains.  Excerpt:

As the interpreter is going back through the complaint, allergies, etc., I'm scanning the most recent admission history, and realize this was my patient three weeks ago. Not just that, this patient required CPR twice while in the ED, and I spent about an hour at the bedside then, working hard to keep him alive. No wonder he looked a little familiar.

It's a touching story, and short, too.  Check it out at GruntDoc.

Should you be so inclined, be sure to vote for GruntDoc for "Best Medical Blog" at Echo Journal.

Update:  if the permalink above for GruntDoc doesn't work, just go to the GruntDoc main page and scroll down to "Doctor, I'm having chest pain...".

MSN weblogs: Spaces

Microsoft has entered the blogging business with the introduction of Spaces.  Anyone who wants to accept the Microsoft's terms of use can start his/her own blog, and to see some of those blogs simply click on the link and then click one of the links under "New spaces" or "Updated spaces" where you can reach new blogs such as Welcome In Hell or The Law School Technology Space, to select two at random.

But, scroll down to the bottom of any of those blogs and you'll see something interesting and familiar.  Alerted to this issue by Boing Boing, a visitor to any of the Spaces blogs will see the following:

©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.   Terms Of Use MSN Privacy Statement GetNetWise Anti-Spam Policy

So, Microsoft is copyrighting anything you put on a Spaces blog.  Surely they are simply copyrighting the technology and not the users' content.  Well, the Terms Of Use certainly don't make such a distinction.

All contents of the MSN Web Sites [previously defined in the agreement as "any Web site or Web page operated by Microsoft"] are Copyright © 2004 Microsoft Corporation and/or its suppliers, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved.  Bracketed remarks added.

Golly, Mr. Gates, don't you have enough stuff already without claiming the rights to whatever writings or photos these unwitting bloggers put up?

But wait, there's more.  See paragraph 4.

You will not use the MSN Web Sites in any way that is unlawful, or harms Microsoft, its affiliates, resellers, distributors, service providers and/or suppliers (each, a "Microsoft Party" and collectively, the "Microsoft Parties") or any customer of a Microsoft Party, as determined in Microsoft's sole discretion. Microsoft may tell you about certain specific harmful uses in a code of conduct or other notices available through a MSN Web Site, but has no obligation to do so.

Since this post that you are now reading is not friendly to Microsoft, and enough people read it, then Microsoft could construe the text as harmful to Microsoft.   And, if this blog used Spaces, then Microsoft could delete it or modify it.  See paragraph 6.

For materials you post or otherwise provide to Microsoft related to the MSN Web Sites (a "Submission"), you grant Microsoft permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission. Microsoft may remove your Submission at any time. For each Submission, you represent that you have all rights necessary for you to make the grants in this section. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Microsoft may monitor your e-mail, or other electronic communications and may disclose such information in the event it has a good faith reason to believe it is necessary for purposes of ensuring your compliance with this Agreement, and protecting the rights, property, and interests of the Microsoft Parties or any customer of a Microsoft Party.

Heck, they could do all of that under the agreement even if it wasn't harmful to Microsoft.  And, in the event they liked it and thought it was worth something, they could sell it without giving the author a thin dime.

I suspect that many users will simply click an acceptance of the terms without reading the agreement.  After all, it's long, and if you want the service, it's not optional.  Besides, there are always more pressing things to do, like attending protests of the Patriot Act.

Then there's always a venue clause.  Suppose a user wanted to litigate this agreement.   It's off to King County, Washington you go.  Take your check book.  And send a postcard when you get a ruling.

For me, I'm still a huge fan of Typepad.  It costs a nominal fee, but it's a small price to pay for what they provide.  Speaking of Typepad, here's a Typepad site containing comments from some Spaces users:   The Social Customer Manifesto.

Real Men Cooking Real Food Outdoors

Yummmm!  Check out this meatfest at Hog On Ice.

Blog Turns One Year Old Today!

Today marks the one year birthday of Sleepless in Midland. And, it's been a fantastic blogging year.

This blog had been a mere idea for years, hampered by some technical issues, but when Typepad came along there was no excuse for delay. Sleepless in Midland began on September 1, 2003, and it initially dealt with some issues involving a local recreational club. But those issues soon resolved themselves.

And, in the early days the hits to the website were so few that I didn't want to pull up the page myself because my own hits would skew the totals. But, eventually that period passed.

The first entry that got some major attention from search engine searches was one titled Bear killed with .40 caliber handgun - Alaska. There had been an AP article in the local newspaper about an incident in which two people had been killed in Alaska by bears, and upon arriving at the scene park rangers were attacked by the same bears. One of the rangers drew his service pistol and dispatched one of the bears. Well, the article lacked some very crucial information, i.e., the caliber and make of the handgun. So, I phoned the ranger station in Alaska and found out that it was a Glock .40 caliber handgun.

That post accomplished two things. It dispelled the notion that bloggers don't do any original reporting. And it confirmed that blogs can fill in the blanks left by main stream media quite nicely.

Former Midlander, David Smith, was Joe Millionaire 2, and I wrote a few items about that excellent tv show. Unfortunately, David Smith is still riding the rodeo circuit and has not yet made it into big time entertainment. But, "The Next Joe Millionaire, an International Affair," was shown on British tv in August, and it was a huge hit there. Don't believe me? Just take a glance at the comments left at David Smith, Joe Millionaire 2 - Post Show Update. I was preoccupied during the month of August and didn't have an opportunity to do much blogging. But, it seemed that the site was getting a steadily increasing flow of hits due to our British friends checking in to see how the series ended. Lesson learned: stop writing, get more hits.

Then there was filming of "Friday Night Lights" last Spring in Odessa. Hot dang! What a blast! Once again, this blog was doing what no one else was doing at the time and that was to provide first hand reports, with photographs, of the making of the movie. And, what fun it was! In case you missed it, click the "Friday Night Lights" hyperlink. Thanks to Teressa McMahan for a lot of hard work on that.

Don't forget the water wars. Folks in far west Texas were in an uproar over a proposal to lease the water rights under Texas state land. But, there was no news of that locally - odd given that many of the partners of Rio Nuevo, Ltd., were residents of Midland. And, my entry of November 17, 2003, titled Selling West Texas' Water (1) helped to remedy that lack of information.

Well, it's back to the grindstone here at the Sleepless in Midland sweat shop. There's no money in it for me, but that's all right. It might be cute to say "all work and no pay makes for a dull blog," but it sure is nice not to be beholden to anyone but the voices in my head. So, thanks for visiting. And I hope you come back soon.

Oh yeah, one more thing. For you score keepers out there, the Typepad stats for this blog say that as of 2:29 PM CDT today it has received 73,226 total page views since its inception.

A National Sales Tax to replace the Income Tax

The Blind Hen has an interesting discussion about speculation of a proposal to eliminate the IRS and replace the income tax with a national sales tax. Excerpt:

I think the biggest attribute of the national sales tax is that it is collected at the point of sale. You buy a stapler and the tax is rolled in and you walk out the door with it. Bingo. You've just paid tax on the income you had to earn to buy the stapler. Sure, it jacks up the cost of the stapler, but by how much I can only speculate. Perhaps there is some equation to be calculated whereby the amount of money to run the national government is divided by the total of the GNP which will be subject to the tax. The resulting percentage will be the tax rate. How often will this be adjusted? Sadly, that will be up to the politicians.

/snip/

A national sales tax would make the burden of taxation visible instead of invisible. (This could be a good thing for those who want taxes cut, since the more aware the public is of how high taxes are, the more likely they will demand tax reduction. Hmmmm . . . do you think this is what the Republicans are really after?)

Interesting observations.

Midland expat blog

When I get around to updating the blog roll I'll be adding a category for Midland expats. Take for example, Aunti Cracker, a former Midlander who's now living in Oregon, the poor dear. But, not to worry, she can hold her own. Here's a sampling:

So Madonna wants to go by the name Ester. I guess if you concert tour gets no attention and no one buys your CD and everyone hates you video's. You gotta do something to get some attention. So why the HELL not change your name. I guess the riverdancing to pop music was not working out foor her.

If people don't already think you are a total whack job, why not convince them that you are. It seems to me that Madonna, I mean Ester has a few too many Yes, people in her life and she needs to get one or two No, people in her life. Somebody needs to tell these people when they have stepped over the edge. Some one should of stopped her long ago. Like say when she was dating Dennis Rodman.

And another thing why would Courtney Cox name her baby after a dog. Cocoa is a dogs name, come on folks get a GRIP. Now the poor child has to go around be called like a dog. I guess at least the did not name the kid Apple or Orange. When you are naming your child you have to consider is this a name that they are going to get made fun of for the whole time in school. Why didn't they just name the kid D.O.G. Permalink.

And this:

Is Theresa Heinz sexy and cheeky. if cheeky has anything to do with having a poofy funny looking face. Well then she's cheeky. She is definitely not sexy . ARRGH. Every time Dean sees her he screams. I hear Stevie Wonder thinks she's sexy.

A recent poll by a radio station in Boston showed 80% find her unattractive.

And just to let you know Kerry is funny looking too. Permalink.

I'd say "good luck" to you Aunti Cracker, but I think you're doing all right without it.

You talkin' to me?

Apparently, the easiest way to get a bunch of people together for a street fight is through the internet. Talk about a meet-up!

Reuters is reporting via Yahoo News:

Teenage street fighting entered the digital age in a Dallas suburb where 33 people have been arrested for slugging it out in a massive melee arranged on the Internet and videotaped by participants, police say.

Police in Garland said Wednesday several people were injured in the fight and those arrested included 27 high school students. Police were able to make arrests in this case earlier this week after reviewing a videotape of the brawl.

And, there's this astonishing bit of info:

Those arrested could face between two to 20 years in jail if convicted of second-degree felony relating to the fight.

Whew! That's a mighty stiff sentence! Imagine the conversation in the prison yard. "Whatcha in for kid? Murder, rape, armed robbery?" "Naw. I got in a fist fight with a high school rival."

Another Sasser worm?

Yup, it's the Sasser-F. That's what they are saying at PC World:

"It makes sense that this is a variant of the [Sasser-A] source code. It's been out for more than a week and made the rounds of whatever computing underground [Sven Jaschan] was connected to. Now somebody has had a chance to play with it," [Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel at Microsoft] says.

And there was this from InfoWorld :

[Patrick Hinojosa, chief technology officer of Panda Software U.S. ] called the changes to Sasser-F "child-like." The changes include a switching the name of a process created by the worm to "Bill Gates," and the addition of new comments containing expletives, Hinojosa said.

Microsoft's Sasser (A-E) Worm Removal Tool (KB841720) hasn't yet added the "F" variation.

Hale and Hardy after a Hearty Meal

Bob in Houston sends this link to Common Errors in English which helps with common questions such as whether the word "hearty" or "hardy" is more appropriate for the situation.

The owners of that website would prefer that you go to the cover page first to help move their site up in the Google ranking. So there it is.

Hiroshima today

"Hiroshima." That's a loaded word. It certainly conjures up images in most people's minds. But, to see some photos of present day Hiroshima go to this Typepad Photoblog. Life does go on.

New Midland Blogger

There's a new blog in town - Rancid Poncho. It contains a link to Sleepless in Midland along with the other Midland blogs which he refers to as "Road Kill." So, maybe he's going to leave us in the dust and produce some spectatular things over there. Hey, go for it!

He's got a description of his dealings with a local auto repair shop, and that's the sort of thing that can really pay off big time for blog readers. The next worse thing to having your car break down is trying to get it repaired.

He's a bit harsh on the local tv news programs, though. We all want the most accurate news reporting possible, but I would give them a break if he's referring to the appearance and presentation. There's probably not a lot of money to be made in a market this size, and they are probably doing a decent job for what they are paid. After all, a talented person who aspires to be a big time tv news person is probably not going to have this region at the top of his/her list of stops along the road to fame and stardom.

I'm partial to Big 2 News, but I didn't really know why until Saturday. The Midland Shooters Association hosted a Women on Target program to acquaint new women shooters to the sport of recreational shooting. (More about that later.) And, a Big 2 News camera man came to the event, and sure enough, that night there were a couple of minutes on the news show about it along with some footage from the scene. The camera man told one of the organizers that he saw the notice about the event in the newspaper and came out to report on it. So, that tells me they are trying to keep track of what's happening in the community and not just waiting around for someone to call.

And to Rancid, there's plenty of room in this ocean, so dive in. And keep those consumer reports coming!

Sleaze Marketing - product placement in blogs

Anyone who has ever watched a "Seinfeld" episode was been bombarded with exposure to dozens of products strategically placed on the scene as a form of product placement advertising.

And there was another type of advertising I read about a few years ago which involved hiring people to mingle with strangers and somehow expose them to a new product. For example, a person at a crowded bar might say to someone about to place an order, "Would you order me a Zima?" Product exposure complete. (Of course, we can look around now for a Zima and suspect that the tactic didn't work all that well.)

So, now we find out that some people want to try to exploit blogs:

But we belong to this community because of our substantial knowledge in the field, our love of the ideas or genre, and our beliefs of ourselves as amateur experts. In any case, we're in good – albeit possibly annoying – company. It's become fun to find folks we would never have met, who we can immediately bond with.

But, others are using the blogging world for fame and gain – and we have no way of knowing the difference between opinions and sleaze.

SLEAZE MARKETING

I've just learned of a company that markets itself as an internet marketing company. It hires people who have expertise in a specific area – say, video games – and hires them out as net-based stealth marketers. Here is what they do: they insinuate themselves into a blogging or chat community. They hang out in the community until they become /trusted contributors and likeable personalities with some expertise. And then they 'mention' a product they've just 'tried'. They don't pitch it – oh no, that would be too obvious – they just mention it kindly with a bit of excitement. Just a bit. [Source: webpronews.com]

Well, I going on record right now saying I certainly won't engage in this practice. And, it's depressing to think that we now have to wonder whether another blogger is being paid to wax eloquently about some new product he/she has just used. So, if any blogger who sees this wants to try it, just remember that your credibility is your most important asset. And, if you do decide to try it then full disclosure is a MUST! But, after all, you are probably so eloquent that you can make a full disclosure and make the sale.

Via techdirt.

Typepad is Great!

How's this for service? Typepad has been experiencing some hardware problems for the past 24 hours which caused sluggishness in loading the weblogs they service. And, they are working to remedy the problem. But check this out, they are going to credit all Typepad customers with three free days of service! It's not going to be much money for any one customer, but it probably adds up to a pretty big sum.

Anyway, it's just one more reason why I really appreciate Typepad and the service they provide.

Crossing 10,000

Sleepless In Midland started on 9/1/03, and it has been loads of fun. The host, Typepad, is great! I recommend it to anyone who wants to start a blog. Typepad provides some statistics to its customers, and one of them is the total number of hits a web log has received since its inception. And, this morning that number for Sleepless In Midland crossed over the 10,000 mark. Now, I know that may be pretty small potatoes when compared with the big league bloggers, but for me it's very rewarding. And, I want to express a heart felt "thank you" to all who visited this humble blog.

Oh yeah, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed over 10000 today, too!