Now that I think of it, this may be wrong.

The other day while shopping at a local, fairly groovy, market I purchased some frozen fish. Well, not so much fish as fish parts, some "wild caught" Sashimi swordfish steaks. I *love* swordfish, as I do shark, and this was a special treat because they've grown pretty expensive once it was discovered I like them. That happens, and I consider it the price I pay for being out front of popular culture.

But that's not the point.

I didn't notice the "wild caught" thing until recently. Now, my mind, naturally, brings up a picture of fishermen in boots and slickers, catching and struggling with fish with a rod and reel, but I have no doubt the reality is quite a bit different. Nets. Air conditioned cabins. Computer controlled arms. None of the romance of the sea.

Which brings up my dismay.

I had no until I saw the "wild caught" tag that there was any other type of swordfish, which I now see as naive of me. Of course they grow them, breed them! Anything upon which money can be made is probably an industry by now. If people will pay good money for swordfish, someone's gonna catch on and take advantage of that.

Which is my problem. No, not the money part, but if I'm going to eat swordfishes I think one that's been created for that purpose is better than catching one from the "wild." It's like the way I feel about steers or hogs: the ones specially bred for that purpose are *meant* to be slaughtered and eaten. Trapping and killing a wild one is worse, it's taking them away from a life they've known.

So next time I'll be sure to buy fish that isn't "wild captured." That's just rude, especially now that I know there's a difference!

Now that I think of it, this may be wrong.

The other day while shopping at a local, fairly groovy, market I purchased some frozen fish. Well, not so much fish as fish parts, some "wild caught" Sashimi swordfish steaks. I *love* swordfish, as I do shark, and this was a special treat because they've grown pretty expensive once it was discovered I like them. That happens, and I consider it the price I pay for being out front of popular culture.

But that's not the point.

I didn't notice the "wild caught" thing until recently. Now, my mind, naturally, brings up a picture of fishermen in boots and slickers, catching and struggling with fish with a rod and reel, but I have no doubt the reality is quite a bit different. Nets. Air conditioned cabins. Computer controlled arms. None of the romance of the sea.

Which brings up my dismay.

I had no until I saw the "wild caught" tag that there was any other type of swordfish, which I now see as naive of me. Of course they grow them, breed them! Anything upon which money can be made is probably an industry by now. If people will pay good money for swordfish, someone's gonna catch on and take advantage of that.

Which is my problem. No, not the money part, but if I'm going to eat swordfishes I think one that's been created for that purpose is better than catching one from the "wild." It's like the way I feel about steers or hogs: the ones specially bred for that purpose are *meant* to be slaughtered and eaten. Trapping and killing a wild one is worse, it's taking them away from a life they've known.

So next time I'll be sure to buy fish that isn't "wild captured." That's just rude, especially now that I know there's a difference!

The last entry didn't show up. I made the mistake of changing two things, so I'm not sure which one ruined it.

Never test by changing two things.

The last entry didn't show up. I made the mistake of changing two things, so I'm not sure which one ruined it.

Never test by changing two things.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before...

About fifteen years ago I met and, for awhile, hung around an old man whom I highly respected and admired. He had a full life without me, and I was merely one of a number who enjoyed his company. His name was Hal, not that that matters, and he was a gentle soul, lively and laughing and full of the wisdom one acquires after a long time looking, thinking, and experiencing.

One day we were walking along the street and I spotted a penny laying in the gutter. He saw it too, or saw me looking at it, and told me to pick it up. I think I said something like "it's just a penny" or something like that and he gave me a broad smile, stooped down and retrieved it, and handed it to me.

"It's not worth it," he said. "But you are."

About a week later I called him up and left a message on his machine. Two days later my phone rang, and the lady he rented his room from was calling to let me know he'd died. Mine was the last message on his machine, the last one he'd heard.

In our short time together he gave me everything any person can ever give another: support and caring. He didn't make a big deal of my mountains, just took them all in stride and assured me always that "it will be okay." I don't know how he never tired of me, but when i wanted or needed him he was there, if only for a moment. Just to let me know he cared, just to let me know I mattered.

Now, years later, I still remember him. Whenever I see a penny on the street I pick it up and it's a reminder of him, of what people can be and how they live on even after death.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before...

About fifteen years ago I met and, for awhile, hung around an old man whom I highly respected and admired. He had a full life without me, and I was merely one of a number who enjoyed his company. His name was Hal, not that that matters, and he was a gentle soul, lively and laughing and full of the wisdom one acquires after a long time looking, thinking, and experiencing.

One day we were walking along the street and I spotted a penny laying in the gutter. He saw it too, or saw me looking at it, and told me to pick it up. I think I said something like "it's just a penny" or something like that and he gave me a broad smile, stooped down and retrieved it, and handed it to me.

"It's not worth it," he said. "But you are."

About a week later I called him up and left a message on his machine. Two days later my phone rang, and the lady he rented his room from was calling to let me know he'd died. Mine was the last message on his machine, the last one he'd heard.

In our short time together he gave me everything any person can ever give another: support and caring. He didn't make a big deal of my mountains, just took them all in stride and assured me always that "it will be okay." I don't know how he never tired of me, but when i wanted or needed him he was there, if only for a moment. Just to let me know he cared, just to let me know I mattered.

Now, years later, I still remember him. Whenever I see a penny on the street I pick it up and it's a reminder of him, of what people can be and how they live on even after death.

Okay, I'm leaving the auto-generator off. If anyone's aggregator displays the comments, let me know. Since mine don't, I'd prefer manually creating my feed after making an entry to subjecting you to validation messages.

I looked at a number of alternative blogging softwares yesterday, but I still like this one. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I can't yet leave Greymatter, not when its writer is such a good guy.

Once, when I was in court for some traffic violation or other, the judge allowed everyone to plead "guilty with an explanation." I never heard of that before, and it was pretty funny hearing everyone's excuses. They were all about as reasonable as mine.

Anyway, here's the promised joke (with an explanation):

One day Schrodinger was very late returning to his office from lunch. He's speeding down the street, attracts the notice of a cop, and gets pulled over. The cop comes up to the car and asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
Schrodinger replys, "No, but I know exactly where I was."

Yes, it should be Heisenberg, but Schrodinger is funnier.

Okay, I'm leaving the auto-generator off. If anyone's aggregator displays the comments, let me know. Since mine don't, I'd prefer manually creating my feed after making an entry to subjecting you to validation messages.

I looked at a number of alternative blogging softwares yesterday, but I still like this one. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I can't yet leave Greymatter, not when its writer is such a good guy.

Once, when I was in court for some traffic violation or other, the judge allowed everyone to plead "guilty with an explanation." I never heard of that before, and it was pretty funny hearing everyone's excuses. They were all about as reasonable as mine.

Anyway, here's the promised joke (with an explanation):

One day Schrodinger was very late returning to his office from lunch. He's speeding down the street, attracts the notice of a cop, and gets pulled over. The cop comes up to the car and asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
Schrodinger replys, "No, but I know exactly where I was."

Yes, it should be Heisenberg, but Schrodinger is funnier.

Now, I've turned the auto-generator off.

Last time I did this, even manually running the feed generator failed to generate a recognizable entry (never did see Aggravator Aggrevation, which I thought a clever name).

Also, comments don't appear in *my* aggragators, so maybe it doesn't matter if they auto generate or not.

Now, I've turned the auto-generator off.

Last time I did this, even manually running the feed generator failed to generate a recognizable entry (never did see Aggravator Aggrevation, which I thought a clever name).

Also, comments don't appear in *my* aggragators, so maybe it doesn't matter if they auto generate or not.

I'm not sure what's going on with this feed generator.

I may be doing many tests today, so that may explain all the entries. It looks as though when I have the feeds generated automatically, everyone gets the validation lines The Angler mentioned. If I generate the feed manually, I'm not sure any comments would be visible through your aggregator, but I'm not sure how important that is. I'm thinking it's not a bug...it's a feature!

I may play around with it, or not.

I'm assuming that everyone's aggregator is better than mine, and that nobody is old fashioned enough to open this blog in a browser any more. Browsers are *so* twentieth century.

One thing about my blogging software: it doesn't, really, allow you to delete entries. If I do much testing there may very well end up being multiple entries, which may appear as if I've been blogging like mad. If I can't delete them manually, I'll at least put a joke or link in the entries.

This entry is set with auto generation (I think)

I'm not sure what's going on with this feed generator.

I may be doing many tests today, so that may explain all the entries. It looks as though when I have the feeds generated automatically, everyone gets the validation lines The Angler mentioned. If I generate the feed manually, I'm not sure any comments would be visible through your aggregator, but I'm not sure how important that is. I'm thinking it's not a bug...it's a feature!

I may play around with it, or not.

I'm assuming that everyone's aggregator is better than mine, and that nobody is old fashioned enough to open this blog in a browser any more. Browsers are *so* twentieth century.

One thing about my blogging software: it doesn't, really, allow you to delete entries. If I do much testing there may very well end up being multiple entries, which may appear as if I've been blogging like mad. If I can't delete them manually, I'll at least put a joke or link in the entries.

This entry is set with auto generation (I think)

Grrr.

This RSS aggregator and feed-generating thing want some work. I'm not sure if it's better to have the process automated, not considering what it does to comment addition. Then again, I wonder if that's the kind of thing that would hamper ad bots from spamming me...

I'd hoped, this morning, to change the look of Crennalated Flotsam. Actually, since my mood isn't all that crucial, I was hoping to change the heading and parse the current Rapture Index. That way we'd all be informed just how close to DOOM we were (it's currently at 150). I also considered some other changes, but got stuck looking for help and nearly ruined the whole damn thing.

Backup is your friend.

Then, tired of that, I began looking for a better aggregator. I believe part of the problem is the RSS-Atom distinctions. Some aggregators will only display the content of some pages (but all of the article headers), others display the content as HTML text files, which just looks poor.

So I considered talking about corporations, something that's been on my mind a lot, but haven't yet reached a conclusion. Which led me, on my bike ride to the market, to consider a lecture on degrees of knowledge, or about picking up pennies, or about writers. In the end, I sat down and watched a show TiVo had captured about imploding hotels in Las Vegas.

Those people who do that for a living are worthy of the term "expert." I've been called that, and some people consider medical doctors to be that good, but the term's overused.

If I *were* an expert, though, with a salary to match, I'd be getting these.

Grrr.

This RSS aggregator and feed-generating thing want some work. I'm not sure if it's better to have the process automated, not considering what it does to comment addition. Then again, I wonder if that's the kind of thing that would hamper ad bots from spamming me...

I'd hoped, this morning, to change the look of Crennalated Flotsam. Actually, since my mood isn't all that crucial, I was hoping to change the heading and parse the current Rapture Index. That way we'd all be informed just how close to DOOM we were (it's currently at 150). I also considered some other changes, but got stuck looking for help and nearly ruined the whole damn thing.

Backup is your friend.

Then, tired of that, I began looking for a better aggregator. I believe part of the problem is the RSS-Atom distinctions. Some aggregators will only display the content of some pages (but all of the article headers), others display the content as HTML text files, which just looks poor.

So I considered talking about corporations, something that's been on my mind a lot, but haven't yet reached a conclusion. Which led me, on my bike ride to the market, to consider a lecture on degrees of knowledge, or about picking up pennies, or about writers. In the end, I sat down and watched a show TiVo had captured about imploding hotels in Las Vegas.

Those people who do that for a living are worthy of the term "expert." I've been called that, and some people consider medical doctors to be that good, but the term's overused.

If I *were* an expert, though, with a salary to match, I'd be getting these.

I'll edit this later, when I figure out what to talk about.

For now, I'm just wondering why the feeder has stopped working. Maybe having one here and one on the news is just too much for his ancient, crickety blog program to handle.

As they said on the site where I got the RSS Feed generating program:
"Greymatter is now fairly old technology, it has been surpassed by many other blogging software packages. Before you install Greymatter and gm-rss it is worth considering either installing Wordpress, or converting to Wordpress if you already use Greymatter"

But, someone who knows dislikes Wordpress. I wonder how easy (hah!) it would be to convert this old stuff to Movable Type...

UPDATE: This entry fed (from what I can see), but poor old Animal Troubles must have an error. Like that wouldn't be expected. For the nonce, I think mangling the existing program is a better way of generating the feed then running the manual update. Also, now that it's done, less work for me!

I'll edit this later, when I figure out what to talk about.

For now, I'm just wondering why the feeder has stopped working. Maybe having one here and one on the news is just too much for his ancient, crickety blog program to handle.

As they said on the site where I got the RSS Feed generating program:
"Greymatter is now fairly old technology, it has been surpassed by many other blogging software packages. Before you install Greymatter and gm-rss it is worth considering either installing Wordpress, or converting to Wordpress if you already use Greymatter"

But, someone who knows dislikes Wordpress. I wonder how easy (hah!) it would be to convert this old stuff to Movable Type...

UPDATE: This entry fed (from what I can see), but poor old Animal Troubles must have an error. Like that wouldn't be expected. For the nonce, I think mangling the existing program is a better way of generating the feed then running the manual update. Also, now that it's done, less work for me!

Nobody knows, not even the Internet, but there may be ten million different species of insects on this planet, many of which have bitten me.

The other night, in an effort to stretch my brain and intellect, I watched Nova. The show focused on some part of the world I also don't know and some animals who live there. Among the animals featured, and becoming extinct, was this guy, a fossa or foosa.

Now here's the thing. They're pretty cool / weird looking things, fairly doglike and catlike both, long, and numbering only around two thousand or so. This bums me out, but then I get upset with myself. At the start of the show I didn't even know they existed and here I am, twenty minutes later, worrying about their survival. If they were already extinct I wouldn't feel too bad, but what's disturbing is that I wouldn't feel bad if I'd never heard of them, either.

If I hadn't watched that show and in twenty years they were all gone it would have zero impact on me. Now, just because I know, it seems more relevant. Funny how learning causes pain.

Nobody knows, not even the Internet, but there may be ten million different species of insects on this planet, many of which have bitten me.

The other night, in an effort to stretch my brain and intellect, I watched Nova. The show focused on some part of the world I also don't know and some animals who live there. Among the animals featured, and becoming extinct, was this guy, a fossa or foosa.

Now here's the thing. They're pretty cool / weird looking things, fairly doglike and catlike both, long, and numbering only around two thousand or so. This bums me out, but then I get upset with myself. At the start of the show I didn't even know they existed and here I am, twenty minutes later, worrying about their survival. If they were already extinct I wouldn't feel too bad, but what's disturbing is that I wouldn't feel bad if I'd never heard of them, either.

If I hadn't watched that show and in twenty years they were all gone it would have zero impact on me. Now, just because I know, it seems more relevant. Funny how learning causes pain.

I think I've got it...

The RSS Feed generator for this site is working! Well, it's kind of working. My icon doesn't show up yet, but that's small potatoes.

Now if only I had something to say that anyone would want to read. I need to get out of this self-censoring mood I'm in, and the best way to do that is to banish the thoughts I have that no one wants to hear about.

For this entry, by the way, I'm just rambling, to see if the feed thing works.

I think I've got it...

The RSS Feed generator for this site is working! Well, it's kind of working. My icon doesn't show up yet, but that's small potatoes.

Now if only I had something to say that anyone would want to read. I need to get out of this self-censoring mood I'm in, and the best way to do that is to banish the thoughts I have that no one wants to hear about.

For this entry, by the way, I'm just rambling, to see if the feed thing works.