Archive - August 2003

Yesterday, when my mom was giving me money for a ticket to see Pirates of the Caribbean, I noticed that one of the bills (pictured below) had a large stamp on it (click for a detail of the stamp). It appears to be an address.

The address, as stamped on the bill, is:

SUNOCO 7643
17100 W. COLONIAL DR.
OAKLAND, FL 34787

Sunoco is a large gas station chain which has recently started to invade Florida.

Finding a stamped bill is always exciting, because at first I may think it's a Where's George stamp. Where's George is a site that allows you to track where your dollar bills go after you spend them. You enter a bill's serial number and your location, and then mark it with the web site address (www.wheresgeorge.com). Then, someone may find your bill, go to the site, and enter it with their current location, and the site will e-mail you letting you know. (The serial number in the image above is masked to prevent fake entries at the site.)

So, what am I going to do with this bill with an address stamped on it? Easy... send it back! I'm going to pop it in the mail on Tuesday (no mail service today or tomorrow) along with a little note explaining the concept of Where's George. Who knows? Maybe they'll be interested.

Joshua McGee, whose blog I irregularly read, has come up with a great use for my Ultimate Cool Characters page: Diacritic Decoration, "for 'h4x0r' wannabees everywhere." I gotta admit, it's pretty cool. Check it out if you'd like to easily turn text into a diacritical mess!

My mouse is getting old and beat up. The ball kept getting stuck yesterday, and it was hard to do anything. Even when we took out the ball and dumped all the dirt and grime out, it was still out of whack. I need an optical mouse. They're cool. Maybe a cordless one. Even cooler.

I'm going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl again today. I'm accompanying my sister, who wants to see it for the seventh time. (Just so you know, it'll be my third.) I'm suprised it's still in theaters, actually.

Random thought: I've read that the world's most common first name is Mohammed, and the most common last name is Chang. So how come you never see anybody named Mohammed Chang?

The other day, South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter Liz Doup posted on the WoS message board requesting to interview me for an upcoming article on blogs. Well, I just got off the phone with her, and I have to say, it's going to be a good article. :) We talked about things like my experiences at Pompano High, the sort of things I will and won't write about, other people's blogs, and whether my sister minds or not that I write about her. She doesn't know when the article is going to run, but the newspaper is sending over a photographer on Tuesday. More details when I get them.

An update on the cancellation of The Brendan Leonard Show: I may have jumped the gun a bit saying that it would be no more. ABC Family is supposedly currently thinking about renewing the show. A petition has sprung up requesting the network to give BLS a second season. I've signed it. Won't you please do the same?

One of the few things I really like about high school is that there's a four-day week. It almost makes up for the 8+ hour day. Well, the first week of high school was pretty good, considering it was the first week of high school. I'm absolutely shocked that I have less homework than I did in junior high (at least, for now). At first I was nervous to the point that I was quivering, but now I only quiver in the freezing classrooms when I don't have a sweater on. The bad thing is that I haven't made any friends yet. (There is a girl I've had my eye on, though...) I figure if I make a friend or two, things'll be all right. Maybe.

Things are getting better in school... sorta. I still haven't made any friends, but when (if) I do, things will be much better... maybe. I sat alone at lunch, which is great because I sat.

On today's episode of The Brendan Leonard Show, Brendan announced that the show is coming to an end and that there are only a few episodes left. Even though I knew it already (and you should too if you're a regular reader), it made me sad to hear it come straight from the horse's mouth. Something needs to be done about this. We want more Brendan! BLS fans unite!

Day Two of high school wasn't quite as bad as Day One. This time I brought a sweater to endure the freezing classrooms, and I knew where all my classes were (which is good, since I've already lost my schedule). My sister and I had to take the bus today so we would be registered for it in case we ever needed to use it in case of an emergency. Come end of the day, stupid us, we forgot our route number. So, we waited in the Guidance Department and called our dad, who came and got us. It was a lot more frustrating and hectic than it sounds like.

It's slightly less intimidating than the first day. I think, if I can find the right people to hang out with, I'll be all right. I'm pretty much okay with the whole high school thing, but my sister has cracked. The four eternities, I mean, classes, seem to be getting slightly shorter. Probably because we're now doing work instead of listening to the teachers lecture. I haven't made any friends yet (I have made an enemy, though). But there are a few people I can think of who I might click with...

Just in case you Canucks were wondering where you could feast your eyes on The Brendan Leonard Show after reading my little write-up, it's on Family at 6:30 ET, Monday-Thursday. Family looks like a cool channel. They play Disney shows, Brendan Leonard, and All That! That's my kind of channel. (Well, it would be if they played the older, better All That episodes.)

It was horrible. Just horrible, I tell ya. It was my first day of high school. And it went like this:

No, I didn't follow my tongue-in-cheek schedule, although I did say to my mom, "I don't want to go to school today! I want to stay home and bake cookies with you..." Block scheduling is the worst. Parents, don't let your kids go to a school with block scheduling. Each class, or block, is 110 minutes. That's quite a step up from the 45 that I'm used to! Suprisingly, I was only late to one class, and that was 4th (last) block. It might make a humorous anecdote someday. But not now. There were teachers stationed around the school to inform people of where their classes were (if they asked). The room numbers are printed on our schedules, but you have no way of knowing which building the room's in. Here's what happened when I asked a teacher where my next class was:

Me: Excuse me, sir, where's Room 280?
Random person passing by: Building B.
Me: Umm, okay, thanks.
I run to Building B, scanning the room numbers for 280. None there. I run around the building back to the teacher whom I meant to ask.
Me: Sorry about that, sir, can you tell me where Room 280 is?
Teacher: Umm... [points] That building over there.
I run to that building over there, which was strangely designed, but no luck. Then, the late bell rings. Darn it all! I run back to the teacher, but on my way there, I find the principal.
Me: Excuse me, Mr. Bell, could you tell me where Room 280 is?
Principal: [checking a map in his hand] That's the gym.

I hate high school. August 25, 2003 is a day that will forever live in infamy... with me, anyway. Stay tuned for more gripes.

Well, today is the last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow I step off the cliff into the real world. There's another band practice today. As usual, not everybody is expected to show up.

Paul, a brand-new Dvorak user, is writing a Dvorak/QWERTY comparison script in Perl. It will be based on the system I use on my QWERTY/Dvorak Comparison page. Words are scored by reaches off the home keys. The lower the score, the better. The comparison page uses the 100 most common words in written English. Of these, 76 are easier to type on Dvorak, 11 are easier to type on QWERTY, and 13 are ties.

Some of the cast of The Brendan Leonard Show, L to R: Brendan Leonard, Pat Mohr, Robbie Karver, Michael Carney, Kevin Carlson, and Paul Detjen.

Yesterday I read that The Brendan Leonard Show is going to be cancelled on September 11. For those of you who don't know, The Brendan Leonard Show is the first show written, produced, and directed entirely by teens. Brendan Leonard, 19, of Winnetka, Illinois, started his TV career when he got his own show on Chicago-area cable access at the age of 15. The original Brendan Leonard Show was planned to end earlier this year, until Brendan got a call from the cable network ABC Family. They were interested in bringing his goofy little show to a national audience! So Brendan rounded up his friends, who, at this time, were in college, and they filmed skits and other silly things like they had been doing already.

The show is original, inventive, and absolutely hilarious. They've tested how slippery banana peels are, played baseball left-handed, danced through the streets of town, formed a boy band, held a wig contest, and tried to do normal, everyday things with duct tape wrapped around their joints. In one episode (filmed in a single take with no edits), Brendan has to return a plate to his mom's store. (Of course, it ends up getting broken.) At the end of the one-take episode, Brendan sinks a three-pointer. To live by the adage "Don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes," Brendan and one of his friends walk a mile wearing women's shoes. In another one-take episode, Brendan and pals sneak into their old high school and have to avoid being caught by the janitor. BLS is a comedic gem.

The show, which premiered in May, was originally scheduled to end on July 11. However, the show was so popular that the date has been extended to September 11. What a shame that a show so good has to be so short-lived.

If you're in the USA, you can catch The Brendan Leonard Show weekdays at 5:30e/p on ABC Family. As for other countries, I have no idea.

[Update Sat Aug 23, 2003 20:56 UTC: Brendan has put up his own BLS site (complete with exclusive behind-the-scenes photos!) which he will update with news regarding the cancellation: www.brendanleonardshow.com.]

No way. It's only a matter of days before I am officially plucked from my safe, small private school shelter and dropped into the huge, bustling world of a real high school. Yesterday's New Student Orientation was... disorienting. I can't describe the feelings I have when I'm around that place. When I'm at home, I feel eager to go back to school and meet new people and all that rubbish. When I'm actually at the school, I know that this place can't be the right thing for me, that I'll never make any friends, and that I'll probably flunk and/or drop out. That description doesn't do justice to what I feel. The only way I could describe it accurately is to be at the school and write down what I'm feeling. On the way home from the orientation, I almost cried. The place has to be giving off bad vibes or something.

The saga culminates on Monday, August 25. Stay tuned...

A new article finally confirms what I've been saying all along: PowerPoint is evil. Microsoft PowerPoint allows people to create tacky presentations focused on design rather than content. Cheesy clip art, stupid sound effects, and hard-to-read fonts are anything but presentable, but the program almost seems to encourage this brand of communication. And schools are making students like me use the darn piece of junk! What's wrong with getting a pen and paper and writing a report? I guarantee anything would turn out better that way.

Today there's a New Student Orientation at my new school. I can't believe there are only a few days left in the summer. At least I'll be able to take it out with a bang. Shortly after the orientation, my friends and I are going to Boomers Arcade. It the cool place to be... if you're in the fourth grade. But I'm sure we'll have fun anyway.

Recently my parents announced they were going to start their own business selling stainless steel hardware - mostly things like bolts and hinges. They've asked me to design their web site. I've never designed a commercial site before, so this will be interesting... not to mention a good way for me to make some money. :)

Remember the slogan contest? You know, the one I didn't receive a single submission for? Well it's over and you're all losers! The official slogan of TWoS will henceforth be the one that I chose: "A World of Stuff to Enjoy." I've already made WoS wallpaper using this slogan. When I get around to making a page to put it on, you'll be able to download it.

Introducing the World of Stuff discussion board! Now you can discuss the daily blog entries or just shoot the breeze with me. I know, I know, the site doesn't have many regulars yet (there are only two that I know of - hi Becky and Katherine!), but hopefully a place to chat will keep people coming back for more. All entries will now have a "comments" link in the corner that will take you directly to the board.

One week till school starts. One week to finish my report on "Fahrenheit 451." (That may explain why the movie in my dream was Fahrenheit 451.) You know what's dumb? We don't even know what school supplies to get. They give you a list on the first day of school, and then you get your stuff after school starts. What are you supposed to do in school before you get your stuff? At least my old school provided a list during the summer of what to get. (It wasn't very accurate, though. For example, one year the list called for each student to have floppy disks. On the first day of school, none of the teachers had any idea why the students would need floppy disks, and no one even knew who put them on the list.)

Today I got new shoes. It may not be a big deal for you female types, but I'm not big on shoes. I don't see anything wrong with my old shoes that are falling apart, as long as they're comfortable. Shoe shopping with my family is usually a painful ordeal. Here's how trying to find shoes for me usually is: Go to Rack Room Shoes's cheap place in the mall. Find nothing. Go to Rack Room's nicer place in the mall. Find nothing. Drive to the Payless Shoe Source across the street. Find and buy good shoes. Why not just skip the first two stores and go directly to Payless? I don't know, but it would save a lot of time and energy.

There was a band practice yesterday at my house (as is usual). Nick, the drummer, and Alex, the bassist, showed up, but Sean, lead guitarist, didn't. (Whooa, that sentence has a lot of commas.) Nick brought along his cousin Michael, who used to be in the band. If all of us agree, and Mike is willing, we might take him in again. But I'd rather sack Alex and get a new bassist instead.

A few days ago I had that dream involving a kid and my aunt in a large room full of people. I wasn't sure who the kid was at the time, but now I know. I realized today that the boy from my dream is an usher at my church. Ironically, he wasn't there today.

Last night I went to Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale. It's a bunch of restaurants and stuff in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I had dinner at Shirttail Charlie's, a nice restaurant situated on the New River. The place has two floors - the lower, more casual floor, and the upper floor, which has a dress code and a fancier menu. (I had to opt for the first floor because I wasn't wearing a shirt with a collar!) They also have a pool you can swim in. It's a nice place.

Goodness, I am bored. I can only wonder how I could go through the entire summer doing nothing much.

There'll be a band practice at my house tomorrow. At least two of the guys are coming over. I'ts hard getting four people together during the summer. I don't think the four of us have ever practiced together. I just hope tomorrow's practice isn't a repeat of the last three. Nobody showed up.

In some strange way, I actually want to go to school. Even though I'll have different friends, different teachers, and different expectations - a whole different life - something is compelling me to count down the days till August 25. Maybe it's because I've been sitting around most of the summer not doing anything. But can the need to do something be that strong?

I thought the first day of school was going to be the worst day of my life. Now I'm positive. Here's what my schedule for the first day is:

Yesterday I hung up a reprint of the British Help! movie poster in my room. (Movie posters were much simpler then, as you can see. It's a two-color ink job, not counting black.) As I'm a Beatles fan, the poster is perfect for my room. I bought it at Movie Market Movie Memorabilia, a British site.

I woke up at 10:02 (local time) this morning - I think that's a new record. I should be trying to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, so as to get ready for school. (School starts at 6:55 in the morning!) During all that time asleep, I had a few weird dreams:

1. My band was playing "Twist and Shout" on the stage in my old school's cafeteria. Suddenly, the bassist walked over and unplugged my guitar. I tried to keep singing and playing. The lead guitarist and the drummer then walked away. I finished the song by myself, and the only audience left was a group of third graders and their teacher.

2. I was in a sort of large room full of people. I could hear a rising orchestral score in my head. I said to my dad, "Someone is going to die. I can hear the music in my head." My aunt walked in. A boy who looked familiar was holding a plate of food. I knew whatever was on that plate was deadly. He offered the food to my aunt. She ate it and dropped to the floor. I ran over, pinned the kid to the wall by his neck, and started screaming and yelling at him. I was on the verge of tears. Then, suddenly, my aunt was up again and was perfectly fine.

3. I was at the local movie theater and bought a ticket to see some movie. I think it was called The Ace of Spades. My sister was there, but she was going to see another movie. I was waiting for someone (her?), but she told me to go ahead, so I did. Instead of the usual popcorn as a snack, I ordered a tray of scrambled eggs. (Hey, they were selling them there.) The boy at the counter said something like "What? No chocolate? No ketchup?" I said, "No, I like them plain." I walked into the movie theater but I had a hard time getting to the movie because it was completely dark, and the ticket didn't say which auditorium the movie was playing in. Eventually, I found it. During the movie, I walked out of the auditorium to get more food or something. On my way to the snack stand, I saw a mini-auditorium full of kids. They were watching some cartoon or something. I saw my sister at the snack stand. I don't think I got any more food, though. Anyway, I tried to go back to the movie, but I couldn't find it because the whole building was dark. I popped into an auditorium, but Fahrenheit 451 was playing. I tried another, but it was some movie called The Geeks Club. Finally, I passed by the mini-auditorium where the kids were. The cartoon was playing over. When I got into my auditorium, Fahrenheit 451 was playing instead of whatever I was supposed to be watching. However, the film was stuck and everyone was asleep. I asked someone standing nearby to fix it, and it seemed that they did.

Yesterday was Left-Handers Day, so I challenged my sister to be left-handed for the day in order to see how hard it is for us lefties to live in a right-handed world. Okay, I paid her to do it. Whatever. She was doing some cutting, so I let her use my left-handed scissors (although, to get the full effect, she should have used right-handed scissors in her left hand). She went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and spilled salsa on herself. I hope she learned that lefties are people too and not everyone is right-handed. I'll be giving her $10 today for her valiant efforts.

Happy Left-Handers Day! Today is the day we lefties should be proud of our left-handedness. It's been proven that we are smarter, more creative, and very adaptable. Show your right-handed colleagues what it's like to be a lefty living in a right-handed world. Who knows? They may see lefties in a whole knew way. After all, we have in our ranks some of the greatest people of all time, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain, Julius Caesar, Alan Thicke...

The first Left-Handers Day was celebrated on August 13, 1976, by Left-Handers International, a now-defunct (?) group headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, USA. However, the Left-Handers Club, which was started in England in 1990, claims it celebrated the first Left-Handers Day on August 13, 1992. Go figure.

Today my sister, Kristen, will have to be left-handed. (Well, she doesn't have to, but I'm giving her $10 for it.) She's going out for dinner. That should be fun. :) But the point isn't to spill things and stuff, it's just to see how hard it is for lefties to use right-handed things.

You may notice something different about the site, if you're a returning visitor, which you're probably not, because no one ever goes to this site, so you won't notice anything different, because you've never been here before. I changed the font and size on all pages carrying the World of Stuff header. I also made these blog entries really cool and bloggy looking. Very cool.

I got a reply from Michael. Here's what he said:

Very thoughtful of him, I must say. That's actually one of the better bits of advice I've received recently. I sent this reply:

Have you seen Pirates of the Caribbean? How about reading the puppet theatre version? (There are spoilers, but they're funny.) There are more hilarious puppet show versions of movies and such at The Hand Puppet Theatre!.

Only 13 days left until school starts. I can't believe it. This has been the longest summer vacation I am ever going to have, and in 13 short days, it will all be over. No more TV all day, no more ice cream for lunch when there's nothing else to eat... Did I mention that it will be my freshman year of high school? I cower at the thought. It's not likely I'll get beat up, as I stand at about 6 feet (about 183 cm. Do you metric people measure people's heights in cm?).

I wanted to go to a nearby school with an IB program, but "Noooo," my parents said. "You'll still have lunch and P.E. with all the stupid, mean, stoned kids who will beat you up." (Okay, they didn't say that exactly. I read between the lines.) So, instead of getting the best possible education I can get, I'm stuck somewhere else against my will.

The good thing about that somewhere else, namely, Pompano Beach High School, is that I'll actually have friends there. A few of them, anyway. They're building a new building (right) to replace some of the really old buildings. That picture is from May, so I would imagine that they've done a lot more by now. The building is scheduled to be finished in October (read: March or April).

What's so great about this building? There's a section for us wimpy, whiney, timid freshmen ONLY! And, if that weren't enough, they're building a new cafeteria. It's not just a cafeteria, though - it's a food court! Like at the mall! Too awesome. Of course, four years of fattening and cholestrol-laden foods will probably kill me earlier. I hope they have a Subway.

Left-Handers Day is tomorrow! I challenge all of you right-handers out there to be left-handed for the day. It's not to make you clumsy, it's to show you how we must survive in your world with your right-handed stuff.

No reply from Michael yet...

I never knew much about my dad's side of the family, until I got this e-mail yesterday:

My grandfather, Emil Kalilich, invented and patented a game called Ping-A-Ring-A-Pong. I knew we had to be related, because no one else could possibly have known about something like that. So I sent this reply:

What? I gotta plug my site, you know! :) I also mentioned the names of others in the family, and things like that. Anyway, he sent this reply:

His mother is right! I am a twin. I sent him this reply:

More updates when he replies.

Only 2 days till Left-Handers Day! Can't wait to see how the bet goes. :)

Screen resolution is the bane of every web designer's existence. Some people prefer 800x600, others 1024x768, and still others choose 1280x1024, 1152x864, 640x480, or 1600x1200(!). When designing a page, you have to be able to accomodate for all of them, or at least the big two (800 and 1024). That was mistake #1 when I designed The World of Stuff. I use 800x600, and so that's how I designed the site to look good with. But I've changed that now. If you're using 1024x768, TWoS should be really skinny with wide margins along the sides, just like any other blog. It may not sound aesthetically pleasing, but it actually looks much better, especially when you consider that the title graphic can only stretch so far. Here's how the site previously looked:

800x600	1024x768

Yeah, it looked just plain icky on 1024x768. Luckily, all is well now.

Only 3 days till Left-Handers Day! But you should know that already. :)

I updated the About Me page, so now it actually has information about me. :) And a picture, too! Yeah, that's me. Don't laugh.

Only 4 days till Left-Handers Day! I've decided to make it interesting. I bet my sister, Kristen, $10 that she can't be left-handed for a day. She reluctantly decided to take me up on that bet, but only because there was money involved. All day Wednesday, she's going to see how a lefty lives in a right-handed world. We'll see how things turn out...

Random thought: Ever notice how people who say "gnarly" can't spell it?

Take a look at your keyboard. (No, this is not a QWERTY/Dvorak rant.)

You've got a lot of keys there - probably over 100. (Go ahead and count. You probably have 101 or 104.) Lots of them, like Esc and the F keys (F1-F12), are seldom useful. But there are three keys you probably never use at all. On most keyboards this trio can be found right next to F12. They are Print Screen/SysRq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break. What do these keys do? Not much, actually. But on really old computers they did a whole lot.

Print Screen (sometimes PrntScrn or Prt Scr) is the one you might actually use. In the days of things like mainframes and terminals, the Print Screen key would make a screenshot of whatever was on the screen and send it to the printer. (I'm too young. Did terminals have printers?) This application of the key was carried over to DOS. Today it just does a screen capture that you can paste into an image editing program. Pressing Print Screen will capture the entire screen, but Alt-Print Screen will capture just the current window. Pretty handy, eh? You don't need to buy software to get screenshots of your desktop. Just hit Print Screen!

SysRq (System Request) unwittingly shares the Print Screen key. It was used on really old computers to get the attention of a central computer. I think, if you wanted to try it, you could try pressing Ctrl-Print Screen for it to work. Good luck finding a terminal and a mainframe to use it on, though.

Scroll Lock operates the Scroll Lock light. :) Actually, on old computers it would pause scrolling text.

Pause would actually pause the program, not just lock the scrolling.

Break dates back to the days of the telegraph(!). When a telegraph key was not in use, it would send a steady signal. If the signal was temporarily interrupted, it usually meant that the operator was about to send a message. Likewise, on old computers, Break was used to briefly disconnect from the system and, thus, get everyone's attention. If you wanted to try it, you might have to hit Ctrl-Pause.

The histories and functions of these keys are muddled in obscurity, so I can't say for sure if this information is 100% accurate. But it should give you an idea of how relics of the past live on in today's computers.

I saw the re-re-make of Freaky Friday yesterday. It's pretty good.

When you get something in your e-mail such as a virus warning or a notice that Bill Gates will give you $50 if you forward the e-mail, verify if the e-mail is true. The Urban Legends Reference Pages shatter all kinds of rumors and myths, including many of the e-mail variety. Yesterday, a forward-happy woman I know sent me and a ton of other people this message:

"It Takes Guts to Say Jesus" is not new (the e-mail has been going around since 1998) and is not a virus. It's tooootally bogus. How did I know that? I looked it up at the Urban Legends Reference Pages. Their virus info section is the one thing you want to check out before you forward a virus "warning," because it may just be a hoax. (Click here for more info on the It Takes Guts to Say Jesus hoax.)

Skeptical of what one site says? Convinced that your brother's friend's nephew's half-sister's aunt's uncle's neighbor actually got this virus and it destroyed their computer? Symantec and McAfee, two authorities on e-mail viruses, should set you straight.

So, what did I do upon finding that the warning was fake? I did the right thing to do: I e-mailed everyone who my friend sent it to and told them it was a hoax. Of course, I also provided links to Symantec's and McAfee's reports on the hoax, so there would be no doubts. I hope, if you get a virus warning, you do the same: look it up at the Urban Legends Reference Pages, and if it's a hoax, tell everyone that it is.

Reminder: Left-Handers Day is Wednesday, August 13! Show the lefties in your life that you care!

On August 6, 2002, I decided enough was enough. I was going to finally learn to touch type. I was learning it at school, and I wasn't very good (only around 30 WPM), but I finally mustered the motivation to touch type at home instead of hunt and peck. But I wasn't going to use QWERTY. I was going to try the Dvorak keyboard.

Why would I want to abandon the century-old de facto standard QWERTY layout? There's a simple answer: QWERTY is not designed for touch typing. The Dvorak keyboard is designed for touch typing. On Dvorak, the most common letters are on the home row, which is where your fingers rest. There are lots of other reasons I won't go into here because you can find them at The Dvorak Keyboard and You.

So, how am I doing after a year of Dvorak touch typing? Well, I must say, I pity the people who still use QWERTY, because no matter how many people say Dvorak is a "myth", and no matter how many phony studies refute Dvorak, most people don't know what they're missing. I can't type lightning fast, but I can do about 60-65 WPM, which is a decent speed. The layout is very comfortable, which promotes better speed and accuracy. I imagine if I used QWERTY, my fingers would be aching by now. But they're not, and it's because I use the Dvorak keyboard.

I've added a link on the main page with information on how to bookmark The World of Stuff and how to make it your home page (that is, the page you automatically go to when you start your browser). I'm going to be updating the site fairly frequently (at least until school starts), so checking back often will be a must.

Since I was really bored today, I decided to implement the archive idea I proposed earlier. All posts will now have a "permanent link to this entry" link at the bottom, which will take you to that post's location in the archives. Keep in mind that I'm doing this all manually, with no blogging software.

At my house I have a ship's bell clock that belonged to my great-grandfather. A ship's bell clock is a clock that uses ship's bell time. Ship's bell clocks chime every half hour, with one bell struck at 00:30, two at 1:00, three at 1:30, going all the way to eight bells at 4:00. The cycle continues all day, until there are eight bells at midnight. This system was devised so that ships' crews, who usually worked in four-hour shifts, could know the time just by hearing the bells. Upon eight bells, their shift would be over and others would take their places. It's interesting to note that, according to tradition, sixteen bells greet the new year.

You can find a better explanation of ship's bell time here. You can also buy ship's bell clocks online or at most clock or boating stores.

Coming Soon: Revised About Me page, maybe even with a picture. Also, an improved archive of posts (as soon as there are enough posts to make it worthwhile).
Under Consideration: Message board, The WoS Store.

Voice your opinion on the message board and The WoS Store (and send me submissions for the slogan contest) by e-mailing me: . -Jordon

I originally made this for my own personal use, but I thought it would be useful for others, so I added it to the site. It's the Minor Scale Chart Thing. (I play the guitar, you know.)

In other news, I've been flooded with about 0 e-mails with entries for the WoS Slogan Contest! Wow! Keep 'em coming, folks! This contest might not last much longer. When mulling over a potential submission, ask yourself, "Self, does this really represent the spirit of The World of Stuff? That is to say, a web of pages that have little or nothing to do with each other but are all equally entertaining and informative, connected together by a blog-type thing maintained by the author?"

Well, just think of something good and send it to me. My e-mail address is .

Jordon