Maybe I should take Second Life seriously...

The avatar of Carl Bildt, foreign minister of Sweden, cut the ribbon to the Second House of Sweden, the Swedish embassy in Second Life. The Second House of Sweden is a replica of the Swedish embassy to the U.S. in Washington, DC.



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Alexis sets up her blog.

School rejects Duck tape outfits

Tux and gown crafted from duck tape, with a dragon motif that stretches from boy to girl, are deemed inappropriate attire for a school prom.



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Talking' 'Bout My G-g-g-generation

British septuagenarians covering The Who -- 'nuff said.



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Pervbots on the Prowl

Robotic paparazzi, that sense how much skin a celebrity is showing on the red carpet? Sure, it sounds like a great idea, but is anyone thinking about the hungry families of human paparazzi, who could lose their jobs to robots that can stake out trendy hot spots for hours, waiting for a pop tart to fall out of a limo?



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Smell the Cod

Am sitting in Eamonn's, waiting on fish and chips, seeing how easy it is to blog via Blackberry.

Things I learned at Brew U.

Things I learned at Shenandoah Brewing's Brewing University:

• The word "bridal" has its origins in the Old English terms for "bride's ale," for the ale that a bride made and served her wedding guests;
• Sake is technically a beer, since it is fermented from a cooked starch;
• Why do some like their peas porridge in the pot nine days old? Fermentation, that's why (mmm... pea beer...);
• In times past, a contaminant was sometimes added to jumpstart the fermentation; for example, a dead animal might be tossed in the brew;
• Germans stored beer in caves (lagering) resulting in the lager yeast, which thrived in the cooler temperatures, being naturally selected;
  
• English ladies-in-waiting were given a one-gallon per day ale allowance for breakfast;
  
• Why did the Pilgrims land when they did? They were running out of beer.
  

Violating child labor laws.

A pirate ship - the latest addition to the Scheeler fun (mad) house.

Twittering away my time

After attending this year's DigitalNow conference, the theme of which was Web 2.0 in associations, I've been trying to get up to speed on these technologies. One I've been playing with is Twitter, which I first read about in Steven Levy's Newsweek column. I could see it be useful for keeping track of colleagues at conferences, or for keeping conference attendees posted on events and happenings. I've set up two accounts for self-reporting my own activities, one for home and one for work.

National Nursing Home Week

The National Nursing Home Week blog was launched this week - traffic so far has been promising.

Well, now I'm depressed...

A psychologist has determined that January 22, 2007 is Blue Monday, the unhappiest day of the year...

Requiescant in Pace

People who have influenced our youths passed away this week:

• Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen;
• Iwao Takamoto, the creator of Scooby-Doo;
• Yvonne De Carlo, Lily Munster and the wife of Moses.
  

Indluge your sesquipedalian tendencies

Found this site in USA Today: Wordie.org (it is also the subject of a "Time Wasters" column in the Wall Street Journal). I'm not sure that it serves any purpose, but it is fun for logophiles. I've been racking my brains to come up with words that no one else has yet listed -- see the results of my efforts here.