Well, as a few people who actually come here may know, I’ve started using Twitter and Facebook.  I held off for a long time, but I got curious, so I set up accounts.

Twitter…not much happening there.  I have a few followers, most of them spammers.  I only have two legit followers.  Facebook, however, has exploded.  No more than an hour passed before I had friends on FB…family I haven’t seen in years.  Now, most of my high school classmates, and many friends, co-workers, and acquaintances are now on my FB friend list.  It’s amazing.

But I started having issues when I went to post links.  A lot of links (especially blog and article posts) have extremely long URLs (web addresses).  Since Twitter can only have 140 characters per post, I started looking at URL shorteners.  The problem was one of stability and longevity.  The shortener services out there are having scaling problems.  Too many people shortening too many URLs.  So I rolled out my own.  I picked up a short domain name, and downloaded a shortener script called Lessn.  The domain “smlnk.us” (short for Small Link Us) was available AND on sale!  So now, I can simply create a short link for some of those ginormous links out there.  An example is http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/.  I used this as a test.  It’s very large.  Now, the short link:  http://smlnk.us/1.  Not bad, eh?  If you already have a nice webhosting package, it really makes sense to roll out your own URL shortener service.  It removes the problem of a third party site going down unexpectedly, or removing your links.

Confirmed number of flu cases jumps to 331 – CNN.com.

Oh my God.  What the hell are these news people on, anyway?  This article reads like we’re all about to catch the new Black Plague.  Everywhere I look, people are almost panicked about this swine flu.  If you read that article, you’ll find out that the 331 cases aren’t in Arkansas.  That’s not the number even in the U.S.  That’s WORLD-FRICKIN-WIDE!  That’s right, folks.  Out of 6.77 BILLION people worldwide, 331 of them have confirmed cases of swine flu.  That’s about 0.000005% of the world’s population.

So, tell me this.  WHY is everyone freakin’ out?  The Black Plague killed MILLIONS.  This looks to kill less than the yearly flu that we deal with every single year!

Auto accidents alone kill about 40,000 people every year in just the U.S.  Stop the panic!  Be smart, take care of yourself, wash your hands, and get on with your lives!

If anyone actually knows me IRL, I’m a definite bookaholic.  I love reading.  Always have.  From the first time I read “Seven Chinese Brothers” in my Granny’s biiig storybook when I was six or seven, to the horror and sci-fi books of adolescence, I’ve always read.  I haven’t completely catalogued my current collection, but I am up to 603 books.  That’s only the ones in print.  I have hundreds more in ebook format.  Heck, I even have a few comics stashed somewhere.

Thing is, I don’t stay with one genre.  I’ll go from high fantasy, to horror, to military sci-fi.  Currently, I’m on an Urban Fantasy kick.  Urban Fantasy, if you’re not aware, is a fairly recent genre that puts supernatural, magical, or mythical characters, powers, or situations into modern (not necessarily “urban”) settings.  A good example are the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.  Wizard in Chicago?

I’ve recently started reading several new (to me) authors.  Among them Kim Harrison, author of the “The Hollows” series.  I’ve also started reading Rachel Caine, author of the “Weather Wardens” and the new “Outcast” series.  Also Patricia Briggs, Devon Monk, and Stephenie Meyer.  Now, all of these authors have something in common that I’m curious about.  No, it’s not that they’re all women.  I have many authors of both the male and female persuasion that I love.  It’s close to that, though.  All of these authors have their main protagonist as women.  Usually strong, kick-ass women.  All of these series are worth reading.  They’re all well written stories, with excellent character development.  Looking on the bookshelves right now is almost like going to a Buffy the Vampire Slayer convention.

I’m just a little curious why the genre seems to be skewing that way.  Just a kind of offhand observation.  I really am into the “Alpha and Omega” series by Patricia Briggs, and I’m going to get her “Mercy Thompson” series as well, since the two are set in the same world.  Also, the new “Outcast” series by Rachel Caine is turning out to be pretty interesting.  I haven’t even finished the first book yet, and I’m already feeling good about the series.  Very emotionally charged so far.

Ok, I suppose I didn’t really have a point to this post, except for this:  Don’t read the Gormenghast trilogy unless you WANT to gouge your eyes out with a grimy spoon.

I loved George Carlin. The old Late-80’s to Mid-90’s Carlin. He had this skit where he’s talking about the “Automotive Harassment Squad”. “Here’s a woman pulling out of a bush”, and such. Hilarious stuff…until you actually meet them.

I swear, there actually IS an Automotive Harassment Task Force, who’s only job is to drive YOU crazy on the highway. I mean, what POSSIBLE reason could someone have to cut right in front of your bumper, slow down to ZERO mph, then turn off into a side street, when you have TWO BLOCKS of empty street behind you? Or sit completely through a green light, only to take off while it’s yellow, leaving you at a red light? The only rational reason I can think of is that they’re out to get me. That’s right, every driver out there…INCLUDING YOU…is out to stop me from getting to my destination.

Well, watch out, world! Cause I found an application to the AHTF. As soon as I’m admitted, it’ll be ME harassing YOU!

I hate this part. As most of you know by now, the bank I work for has been bought. Now, if I was a teller or in customer service, I wouldn’t be worried. But I’m not. I’m in IT. I’m currently in limbo, in that I don’t now if I’m going to have a job or not. It really sucks not knowing one way or the other.

Add to the fact that I have three kids all under the age of five, and you start to see my worry.

I got to meet the Network Administrator of the company who will take over our bank’s IT.  Nice guy, knew his stuff.  Though he made me feel old.  He was in his twenties.  He went to the same university I did, but I was out in the world for several years before he got there.  He’s pretty knowledgeable, but he doesn’t have “the bug”.  I work on computers all day, then go home and want to play on them at night, too.  Not so for my new acquaintance.  Still, it’s always much better to work with someone who knows what they’re talking about, despite not knowing how long a Star Destroyer is.

Well, I will meet the CEO of the same company this week.  I think he’s the guy who’ll actually decide my fate.  Or at least be one of the main players.  Here’s hoping he likes me.