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Someone needs to start an online gigantic cake business

Every once in awhile, there's something I cannot find on the Internet. Usually it's either something to do with lists of people's credit card numbers or food, and this item is no exception.

Melissa, a somewhat concerned reader, wondered where a person could purchase a cake that could be jumped out of. I had mentioned a cake like this in a previous column, thinking it was funny, because it never actually happened. I guess I didn't understand at the time the repercussions this could have.

Search engines are funny

Since I put my site up in July, I've been keeping track of how many people visit, including what pages they view, how long they stay on the site, the color of their hair, etc. Looking at the web statistics report is pretty funny sometimes because you can also see what people searched on to get to your site.

First book excerpt available

As you may or may not know, I'm in the process of writing a book. It was fun, but I'd like to finish it, get it published, sign some books and start working on the next one.

In the meantime, I'm going to provide you a few excerpts so you can see what I'm working on.

To set the stage for the first one, one of the book's main characters is meeting a blind date who happens to closely resemble her favorite celebrity.

Read the excerpt

Finding the email of a potential date

The Good Advice Committee had to answer an interesting question this week: Is it OK to email someone you are interested in dating, even if that person didn't give you his/her address personally? The committee members outlined a couple scenarios where this would be OK, and some that would be totally off limits.

The final decision was close, but in the end, the committee voted no, 3-2. Click here to read their opinions.

GAC: Finding the email of a potential date

QUESTION

Is it OK to email someone you are interested in dating, even if that person didn't give you his/her address personally?

AMANDA: NO

My opinion is no, unless you want to look like a stalker. The obvious response to the email will be, "So, how did you get my address?" And what will the reply to that be? "Oh, I decided to look at member directories at every email service I could think of to try to find out how to contact you." Talk about scaring someone off!

From the Archive

'Get Real' book release tonight!

Fellow Baltimore writer Spencer Compton will be sharing commentary from his new book, "Get Real" at 7pm tonight (Oct. 26) at Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffee House.

Chat programs in style

I must be way out of the loop.

It seems as if everyone I know is using a chat program. What's worse, it seems as if they are all using different programs.

Plagarism wasn't just invented yesterday

I thought about writing an article about plagarism, then I decided I would first see if I could copy it from someone else.

HA! That was supposed to be funny ... or maybe just sad.

There is a recent report from the BBC saying that the Internet has made copying sources easier. Furthermore, the professor quoted in the story says that the new generation of students see nothing wrong with copying material found online.

Book review: "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Writing a review for Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is sort of Catch-22. If I don't tell you enough about it, you probably won't be interested in the book. But if I tell you too much, you won't have to read it because you'll already know what it's about.

But I suppose I should try.

Say yes to CSS

If you navigate through as many Web sites as I do in a day (approximate estimation: 341,307,121,980), you've probably wondered the following things one time or another:

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