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During the past couple of days, I've been taking mini-breaks to read Basketbawful, a blog about the worst of the worst in the NBA. If you know me, you're probably wondering why I would be reading this, considering that I follow college basketball exclusively, not the NBA, the NBA development league, European leagues, Upward basketball, etc. If you don't know me, I'm not sure how you ended up on this site, but feel free to look around and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.
As a writer, I am usually sitting on a few mildly interesting ideas for books, articles, etc. Last year, I wanted to create a children's book about the winter holidays, but I wanted to avoid writing about Christmas or any specific religious holiday.
In the past, we've seen an octopus blend in with rocks, run on the ocean floor and solve a maze. That's not all they can do. Apparently, some octopuses pick up coconut shells and hide in them, the first evidence of an invertebrate using tools.
Wow, I just realized how far behind I was in posting tidbits about good local writers. I met author Mohamed Mughal last year at a writers' conference, and we shared opinions and the like on our writings.
Microsoft continues its march toward competing with Google by launching Bing Maps. I took it for a quick test run, and in general, it's pretty comparable to Google Maps. There's hardly a discernible difference between the two, honestly. You can change routes pretty easily, look for local businesses and email links to friends. Probably the strangest thing I noticed, however, is that the base URL turns into bing.com/maps, instead of remaining maps.bing.com.
From the Archive
In 2007, I had my first taste of the Baltimore book scene at the CityLit Festival. Last year, I was a part of the event, so I figured I might as well join in again! The festival takes place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 18 at the downtown branch of the Enoch Pratt library. I'll be there with colleagues Sean O'Connor and Brad Samuelson.
If you are at the very least familiar with pop culture humor, you are probably know about Chuck Klosterman. I'm not insinuating that you've read all of is works or anything like that, but perhaps you've heard his name before.
George W. Bush is trying - yet again - to slash funding for NPR and PBS. This week, Bush proposed a new budget with devastating cuts to public broadcasting. "Sesame Street" and other ad-free kids' shows are under the knife. So is the independent journalism our country needs.
Enough is enough. We've fought this fight before and won - but we can't afford the risk anymore. With the new Congress, we can make sure this never happens again. We need Congress to insulate NPR and PBS from the political winds.
I bet you $100 you've visited an online gambling site.
Ha! What a trick. See, if you said no, but I had to pay you, then it would be gambling.
Online gambling, much like the beginning of this column, seems to be frustrating and silly. For the sake of every potential column reader, I've looked at a few online gambling sites and come to a simple conclusion -- I am sick of blinking Web sites.
If you're like me, you receive a large number of forwarded emails from friends;
many of them are funny, many are factually incorrect and many are just pointless.
Then again, if you are like me, you have worn an eye patch for the eighth consecutive
year at Halloween, but that's beside the point.
Another popular email forward are those in which people list a bunch of questions
about themselves. They might mention their favorite food, their middle name,
their favorite smell, anything that could help you understand who they are,