Footnotes, Misquotes, and Ice Cream Floats

I saw a spider in my office this morning. I'm not talking about a garden variety black spider or daddy-long-legs, either. This bastard was brown and thick, probably the approximate size of a fifty-cent piece. I find spiders creepy enough to be fascinating when they're on television or behind glass. Otherwise, they cause me much distress. I managed to find someone to spray it with some substance and bear away its carcass. Now each time I come into my office I scan around for more. I'm a little paranoid. Hopefully by Tuesday I'll have forgotten about it.

It should be noted that "The Spider Incident" is the most exciting thing that has happened around here for weeks.

I'm always looking for ways to improve my blog. I have a couple of ideas that I'll be trying to implement shortly. I like this new template, for the most part. It's more pleasing to the eye than my old one was. One thing I don't especially like is the wasted screen space. On my screen, I'd say less than 50% of the horizontal screen space is actually used once you scroll down past the sidebar. Unfortunately, this template is harder to customize than the last one was, due to its reliance on graphics. I like it well enough the way it is, though.

Since I have a lot of free time on my hands, I check out quite a few blogs. I am stunned and appalled at the lack of writing skill demonstrated on many of them. Why is it so hard to learn proper writing technique? Poor spelling, punctuation, and grammar abound. The function of writing is the communication of ideas, and having poor technical skill just causes the message to get lost. It's sad. And yet, with so many people out there who obviously have trouble writing, I can't find an editing job.

On the other hand, there are at least a few people out there with interesting things to say and the skill to say it well. It is these people that make me grateful for the blogging phenomenon.

The NBA playoffs last too long. I don't know offhand when the regular season ended, but it feels like forever ago. I'm tired of hearing about the NBA. It's baseball season now. On the other hand, hearing about basketball of any kind is preferable to golf, horse racing, or NASCAR. Oh, and the Lakers, for all the talent on their team, are simply dreadful to watch. Too much trash talking and thuggery. Much of the respect I gained for the NBA by watching the Cleveland Cavs and Lebron James over the course of the regular season has been drained by the terrible exhibition of basketball that has gone on during the playoffs. Yuck. I'll continue to watch the Cavs for years to come, because Lebron is a joy to watch, but other than that, give me college basketball. Hell, give me high school basketball.

A long weekend is coming up. That'll be nice. I'm looking forward to sleeping in until at least noon each day. I think there should be at least one three-day weekend per month. Is anyone against this?