I'm sure by now everyone with a Blogger account has noticed the new text ads that have recently replaced the banner ads that previously appeared at the top of our blogs (or rather appeared at the top of the blogs of us too cheap to upgrade). The content of these ads is determined by the content of the blog it appears on. Presumably this system works by way of an algorithm like the one that powers the text ads that appear down the right side of the page at Google. Here's where things get odd. The ads that appear at Google are determined by the specific search request. So my question is, if someone hits my blog by searching Google for erotic grannies or "Communist Porn" (which has happened recently), because my blog contains words like "erotic", "grannies", "communist", "porn", etc., is my blog going to end up with the same kind of porno text ads that you'd see at Google if you searched for erotic grannies or "Communist Porn"?

Mr. Rogers has died. When I was little I loved Mr.Rogers' Neighborhood, but my parents absolutely hated the show because they thought Mr. Rogers was "too prissy".

For one brief shining moment my comments actually worked. And now they're down again. [Sounds of uncontrolled sobbing.]

We've been getting lots of freezing rain. I hope the power doesn't get knocked off. I remember the power being off for several days during a few winter storms when I was little. My mother would actually cook on our wood stove. Yeah, I know it sounds quaint, but it sucked not being able to flush the toilet or take a shower.

We're snowed in again. It started pouring down sleet a little after two and night classes were canceled. No accounting class! And next week's spring break.

Hmmm....my comments are gone again; I could have sworn I saw them a couple of hours ago. Haloscan should lay off the trained chimps they have running their servers and hire some actual people. Or maybe lay off the actual people and hire some trained chimps. Either way, changes need to be made.

Here's a repost of the stuff I accidently deleted during Monday's extended disaster:

OK, I admit it, I can't think of a damn thing to write about. I've been putting this off all day. No, actually I've been putting it off since yesterday because I couldn't think of anything to write about then either. All I had to offer were a couple of depraved links. Unfortunately for this entry I'm falling back on links again, but these aren't quite so depraved. I found them by desperately typing in random words at Google. Sad, I know, but oddly enjoyable.

This is what my blog should've been.

This is the one and only (Or at least I hope) Poop Thesaurus.

This is Japanese. I think it's a videogame. Or something. I don't know.

This and this are sites done some kinda artist. I'm going to dig deeper into these myself when I have time. Or maybe I won't. Sue me.

I was going to drop Haloscan for YACCS, but I found out YACCS isn't accepting any new people. Bastards! One comment hosting outfit that looks promising is Squawkbox. And there's that other one, Eneration, Enetatation, Enterology... Or something like that.

It's official: Haloscan must be destroyed, or at least consigned to the landfill of forgotten online services. I know I shouldn't complain about free services, but these humans are bringing unreliability to untold new heights.

This morning, to cheer myself up, I bought a lava lamp for $10 at a discount store. It's a little slow warming up, but when it finally gets to optimal temperature it's hypnotic. And gloriously pointless. So I encourage each and every person reading this (which these days, according to Sitemeter, is about two people) to go out and buy a lava lamp. Do it for your mental health. Do it because it's enjoyable watching globs of unidentifyable crap undulate in a glass container.

OK, repairing my screw-ups was easy enough using Internet Explorer, but I still need a better reason to stick with Blogger.

Can someone give me a good reason why I should stick with Blogger? I can't think of a reason. I've been playing around with Diaryland and Blog Studio blogs over the past week or two and I'm really considering moving. Blogger's interface is so dependant on Internet Explorer that it's virtually unusable if you aren't running that particular browser.

And can someone remind me why blogging was supposed to be enjoyable? I seem to recall enjoying once before...

This really sucks. I have half a goddamn post on my blog and now I can't get rid of it. Safe mode doesn't work. Nothing works. And then I accidently deleted yesterday's post trying to get rid of this stupid, messed up post. All this because I accidently left out closing quotation marks in a link. The rest of the larger paragraph is gone and none of the following paragraph showed up. It's all combined in one nonfunctioning link. Fuck!

I really messed up things. I posted something with some slightly messed up html and now I have this post I can't edit or delete.

Woo-hoo! I've got my site's daily traffic down to the low single digits! If I keep this up it'll be in negative numbers, if that's even possible.

Has anyone ever had their blog made into a movie? I hope not.

Are there any blogs in weird, obscure, almost extinct languages like [insert the name of a weird, obscure, almost extinct language only known to linguists whose job it is to know about such things]?

Ever notice how people who use one blogging service tend to mostly read and link to other blogs who use that same service? Look at my links; out of 22, half of them are Blogger sites, there's one Diaryland site, and I think the rest are independents who don't use services. And if you go over to a blog hosted by one of the other blogging/journaling/whatever sites like Live Journal, Diaryland, Interactive X, Blog Studio, etc., etc., etc. you'll find that most of the links on them are other blogs hosted by that service. It's like it's a rule: If you have a Blog Donkey blog, you may only link to other Blog Donkey blogs because you're now part of the Blog Donkey blogging community and we want to keep out the riff-raff. But there are no rules as far as I know, besides the kind of stuff Live Journal has with friends lists (which isn't really the same thing--I don't think).

So why do we cluster with our own kind? My guess is that it's mostly laziness and maybe an unwillingness to seek out something new in unfamiliar areas. (It also may have something to do with the fact that some of these blogging services host sites that seem to be ignored by Google. And if the site's invisible to Google it might as well not even exist.) Since I use Blogger, I have to go to Blogger's home page whenever I want to post stuff in my blog. At Blogger's home page they have a list of recently updated blogs, so if I look at new blog, just out of convinience, more than likely it'll be hosted by Blogger. (If this isn't making any sense you can blame it on the fact that I'm all cranked up and bouncing off the walls on caffeine. God help anyone who wants to talk to me on the phone anytime soon.) And when I go to these new Blogger blogs, more than likely they'll be linking to mostly other Blogger blogs also. It's self perpetuating. We build our own ghettos and don't even notice.

Last month, I think, I jokingly made a comment about starting a porn blog. Well, this morning, I found a real one. The first link I hit was this abomination (and this link isn't safe for work--or anywhere else). I hope it's a joke. Really, I do. And be sure to check out the FAQ for the helpful illustrations.

In the eighth grade I knew this guy who'd just moved down here to Virginia from someplace like Wisconsin. In class one day he told a story about a grocery store in his home state that suddenly became very popular because they started selling beef a lot cheaper than their competitors. Everyone was buying this cheap meat. After an investigation, it turned out that the stuff wasn't beef at all (surprise!), but was instead illegally imported kangaroo meat. I have no idea if the story's true or not.

Earlier this morning I stopped at a railroad crossing, the barrier things were coming down because a train was on the way. A guy strolled across the tracks and said to me, "Come on. Go. The train's way down there." He pointed down the tracks to an area I couldn't see because of the trees. I waived him off. I probably could've slipped through with no problem, but I don't usually take risks like that when I'm not enraged. But then again, considering how I feel, I should've just parked my car on the tracks and let the train knock me into the next county.

I botched my accounting test last night. At one point I seriously thought I was going to have to leave the room and throw up. There's a possibility that I might squeak by with a D. I've already dropped this class once before, which means that I can't take it again if I screw it up this time. And if I can't take it again I might as well find another major because two semesters of accounting are required for my useless degree.

I have an accounting test tonight I need to be cramming for instead of wasting prescious time doing my usual slack-jawed cyber-wank. My PC at this point is basically just a substitute TV. I just sit in front of it and look at web pages. Sure, I could say I'm doing research, but I'm not. Nope. I'm just goofing off.

A little while ago I blundered across the fairly amusing BigBlueBlog, and while reading it, I found this link. It's mildly naughty, but I suppose it's safe for work. Maybe. I don't know anything about your workplace. OK, don't look at it. I don't want hear about you getting fired; I don't need that on my conscience.