Grendel's Cave

2004-05-15T08:36:00.000-04:00

Maybe You Could Use A Little Help
A very clever ad for a competitor to the 1600-ton gorilla in the Word Processing arena. Enjoy.

2004-03-10T09:10:00.000-05:00

Indian Ritual Dance
Theyyam is one of the most popular ritualistic dances India's southern state of Kerala. Theyyam is a rare combination of dance and music and reflects important features of a tribal culture. Pictures of the elaborate costumes and masks can be found here and here.

2004-03-07T00:08:00.000-05:00

A Little History May Clear Things Up
A tiresome argument claims that the Mac OS is merely a copy of the work done at Xerox PARC. This article examines the history of Apple's Operating Systems in detail.
For stories from people who were involved in the original Macintosh project, see Andy Herzfeld's Folklore Project.
For information on what Andy's been up to lately, see his paper on Vista, a prototype for a networked personal information manager.
For information on what Bill Atkinson's been up to lately, see his work at this site.

2004-03-06T22:56:00.000-05:00

Aneurin Bevan?

So, who's Aneurin Bevan? According to Welsh Heroes, the Vote, he's a "firebrand socialist and orator who is regarded as the father of the National Health Service." He also garnered 2,426 votes, making him the greatest Welsh hero, according to the poll. 41,223 persons were nominated and an additional 40,505 votes were received. This constitutes the "biggest online poll ever undertaken in Wales." Finishing second was Owain Glyndwr, who — according to the poll site — was a "Rebel leader and early exponent of guerrilla warfare whose popular uprising against English rule in the early 15th century lasted more than a decade."

Let's get to some people you may have heard of:

Tom Jones (#3) "twisting tiger Tom from Treforest", not the book;
Richard Burton (#5) the actor, not the writer and explorer who translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra;
Dylan Thomas (#7), the "Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive," author of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (audio clip of his reading), "A Child's Christmas in Wales" and Under Milk Wood;
David Lloyd George (#8), minister of munitions for England during World War I ("the man who won the war"), later Prime Minister of Great Britain;
Bertrand Russell (#12), mathematician, philosopher, and pacifist; and
Catherine Zeta Jones (#13), actress.
John Cale, of the Velvet Underground, finished at #93, with 55 votes. (55 is the 10th number in the Fibonacci sequence and the fifth square pyramidal number, according to The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field Guide by Bryan Bunch.)

2004-03-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

A New Format

As you can tell already, I've instituted a new format, which involves the squiggly line under links. That part of things 'cascades' back through all previous posts. However, the space between the lines will only be widened started with yesterday's post.
Why? You might well ask. Because I wasn't as rigorous as I should be. Now I understand; tag everything.
In case you're interested in web design, the article I got the information from is Custom Underlines from the excellent website A List Apart.

2004-03-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

Poetry

I just found this site, English Literature: Early 17th Century. I've spent too much time looking and listening to it to write much about it. A much-abridged list of the poets Robert Herrick, John Donne, John Milton, Margaret Cavendish and on and on and on. Herrick's list of titles (just the poems, mind you) is 10 screens long.

2004-03-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

Oooooh! Comics!
OK, I've just spent the last hour reading comics on the Internet. I could have been perusing the Great Works of Western Literature. Or I could have been examining Great Woks of Eastern Cuisine. No, I spent the time reading comics. Not checking the latest threat to Bill's World. Reading comics. Aaaaargh!!

2004-03-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Fairy Stories
From Wales, Ireland, Cap o'Rushes, an English fairy story by Joseph Jacobs, Cornwall, Buryat (from Siberia), Germany (Grimm Brothers, E.T.A. Hoffman, and Goethe), Indonesia, Lithuania, the Isle of Man, Mongolia, aboriginal Australian, and A Europe of Tales, a Flash site featuring tales from Iceland, Scotland, Finland, Brittany, and Italy.

2004-03-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

A Month in Yorkshire
Although it's only an excerpt, the photocopies of Walter White's A Month in Yorkshire are worth taking a look at for several reasons. First, it provides an example of the work of one of the mid-19th century's best travel writers; second, it describes an area of Yorkshire (Redcar and Cleveland, to be exact) in both social and geographic terms during a time of great transition; finally, it contains some quite interesting scenes.

2004-02-28T09:14:00.000-05:00

Double Entendre
Some examples from British television and radio:
Mostly Sports
3 clips from Are You Being Served?
Mrs. Slocombe Pussy Collection
British Radio. More a bloopers collection than double-entendre, but entertaining nonetheless.
Blue Peter. Video clips.

A Language Lesson
Beginners French for Residents of Middle Earth. Enough said.

Today's Writing Lesson
How to Write Good. Why? Well, according to the Willa Cather quote at this site:

And above all, never forget that the pen is mightier than the plow-share. By this I mean that writing, all in all, is a hell of a lot more fun than farming. For one thing, writers seldom, if ever, have to get up at five o'clock in the morning and shovel manure. As far as I'm concerned, that gives them the edge right there.

2004-02-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

Found Fiction

Mars
or, Mappa Mundi (the vague direction thereof)

is one of the most impressive pieces of short fiction I've come across in quite a while. Take the best of Thomas Pynchon and Jorge Luis Borges (linked at the site), whip well, add a touch of a slightly addled, obsessive-compulsive library lizard, and top with chopped Photoshopper.
Read the story. It's good enough on its own.

But then, read through the comments. At the bottom of the comments, you'll find links to all kinds of fabulous realms, including "Carolinian (a member of the Trukic [not a typo] subgroup of the Micronesian group of Oceanic languages)," "Papago (a member of the Utoaztecan language family [once] spoken throughout the central and western United States and northern Mexico)" and Cornish (one of the ‘p’ Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Breton)" and "a random Indonesian phrase book". Each of the language names above is linked at the site; I don't repeat the links here, because you might skip right to them -- and then you'd miss the story.

When you're done, go to the home site, City of Roses, for even more. Bookmark this site. It's more than can be savored in a single evening.

2004-02-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

Harvesting xBlog
Today, we harvest xBlog: The visual thinking weblog.

QuickColor is a Flashlet version of the original JavaScript version, redone so it would work on more platforms and in more browsers. This helped me find a variety of color schemes for various websites I have done designs for. Using it in conjunction with CSS, I was able to quickly demonstrate a range of 'looks' and let the clients pick their favorites.

The Phrase Finder provides meanings and origins of over 2,000 English phrases and sayings. It's browsable via an A-Z index, or searchable.

The prize of the day, however, goes to Visualizing Statistical Concepts, a huge jumpsite with hundreds of links organized by topics in statistics. Each link I tried led to Java applets which visualized a particular topics. I was particularly impressed with Student's T Distribution, which allowed me to see the difference between the t distribution and the normal distribution as degrees of freedom varied. Note: Some of the links, particularly those to University of Alabama at Huntsville, suffer from linkrot. Follow your browser's link to the level above (the Math department) and, from there, click Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics. Or, you can use this link, but that doesn't appear on the Visualizing Statistical Concepts jumpsite.

2004-02-25T09:04:00.000-05:00

Archie Online
No, not the red-headed high school kid! The cockroach. You remember, the one who wrote in the middle of the night at the newspaper office. The one who couldn't make capital letters because they require two keys to be pressed at the same time. The one with the cat friend, Mehitabel. Yes, that Archie! Some of his writings are available online. Enjoy.

2004-02-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

Gorey Book Covers
The illustrator Edward Gorey, a cult figure for such books as The West Wing and The Unstrung Harp and more recently known for designing Broadway sets, was also involved in designing covers for paperback books. In 1953, Doubleday books introduced their Anchor Books line, which produced paper editions of books for college use. Gorey was selected as the cover designer. These are collected at Those Gorey Covers!
Additionally, The Gashleycrumb Tinies is available online.

2004-02-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

Animals in the Underground
Near the end of the '80s, Paul Middlewick stood in the London Underground, staring a the Tube map. Suddenly, he realized there was an eleplant on the map. Since then, many other animals have been spotted lurking in the map.
Feel like exploring? Here are links to other maps, distilled from Edward Tufte's discussion of the Tube map as a model for information architecture.

2004-02-24T21:04:00.000-05:00

Sagas and Tales

James Stephans' The Crock of Gold,
the national saga of Finland, The Kalevala,
Germany's The Nibelungenlied the source of Wagner's Ring series (or the version with illustrations by Arthur Rackham),
the Mabinogion from Wales, and
Firdausi's The Shan-Namah from Persia.

2004-02-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

Tales of the Struggle
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, our nation changed radically. It recognized, not always willingly, that the rights of citizenship were not based on skin color. Some of the names remain in our memory: Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown. Others are not so well known. These are the stories of the foot soldiers.

2004-02-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Sing Out!
In 1939, John and Ruby Lomax travelled around the South, collecting music recordings, photographs, and interviews with people. That's it; just people who sang. They didn't think of themselves as folk singers, because Columbia records hadn't figured out that Folk Music was a genre that could provide a revenue stream. So these were just people who sang (much like today's filk singers). According to the Library of Congress's American Memory Southern Mosaic website, "These recordings represent a broad spectrum of traditional musical styles, including ballads, blues, children's songs, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes, field hollers, lullabies, play-party songs, religious dramas, spirituals, and work songs" as well as the ever-popular humorous songs. It's an amazing collection. You can browse by photo subject, audio subject, song text, audio title, performer, or photo.
I particularly liked "Julie" by a Group of Children from Liberty High School and "Lighthouse Blues", by Roger "Burn Down" Garnett (whose guitar work reminded me of a young Lightnin' Hopkins). Fans of Shuk Richard and Marie Falcon (Cajun music) may enjoy Naranja dulce by Two neighbor children. Fans of Cream's "Train Time" will no doubt be interested in "Train" by Ace Johnson.

2004-02-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

Tales from the Wild
True stories of the horror of real tech support. Brought to you by the good folks at User Friendly.

2004-02-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

History Today
Think of the great debates: Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon, Steinbrenner-Martin. History Today follows in the grand tradition. Two highly educated gentlemen take on premier issues of history -- and each other. Unfortunately, the episodes are in RealVideo with a very small window which cannot be resized. Still, they are worth watching.

2004-02-19T08:42:00.000-05:00

Kitten on the keys?
You've been working for hours, getting that document exactly right. The phone rings. You go to answer it; it's nothing important. You get back to the keyboard, chase the cat off -- and discover that your document has been changed, or locked, or the system has crashed -- is that what's troubling you, friend?
Well, don't give up the ship! Check out Pawsense, "a software utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard." I've actually heard that this works.
Now, do they make a similar product for the recyclables and dogs?

2004-02-19T07:33:00.000-05:00

Communication webs
Decades ago, a close friend and I investigated what we called metacommunication: we observed groups of people conversing and noted the patterns which emerged from the interactions. At a conference in Amsterdam in November 2002, Marco Susani made a presentation entitled Mapping communication. The words are well worth reading, but pale next to the diagrams. This one's for you, Greg, wherever you are!

2004-02-19T07:29:00.000-05:00

Disney's plan for the Muppets
Disney in the news this week: rebuff the Comcast offer and purchase the muppets. The Muppets?
What will they do with the muppets?

2004-02-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

Philosophy according to the Comic Page
Yep, philosophy. On the comic pages. Metaphysics. Epistemlogy. Aesthetics. Logic. All of it.
Well, maybe the Objectivist Theme Park is more your style, or the Floating Head of Ayn Rand.

2004-02-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

New review of tools
Today's tools reviewed in Cool Tools are:

FreeConference.com, a free dial-in teleconferencing solution;
QuikClot, a topical blood cotting agent;
Steger Mukluks, to keep your feet warm, and
Gahn Bros., old-fashioned Amish clothes and goods.

2004-02-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

Can you get out?
An old-time text adventure puzzle brought up to date with Flash: The Crimson Room. As #!/usr/bin/girl sez: Everybody's doing it.

2004-02-17T12:04:00.000-05:00

The cat is OK!
Yes, the cat survived, but read about the night the cat got his head stuck in the garbage disposal.

2004-02-17T11:55:00.000-05:00

Skippy the Soldier
Here is the canonical list of The 213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do in the U.S. Army.

2004-02-17T10:20:00.000-05:00

Christian Orthodoxy
As in Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox, and the like. This entry was inspired by an entry on Orthodoxy: the Faith and the Church in The Russian Dilettane's Weblog. In that post, the author mentions "three great 20th century Orthodox priests:" Anthony Bloom, Alexander Schmemann (check the writings page), and John Meyendorff, some of whose works are available online.

2004-02-16T22:54:00.000-05:00

Look out, here they come!
"CNN's" new look, featuring World Terror, U.S. Terror, Weather Terror, Business Terror, Sport Terror, etc. Looks like the campaign is heating up.

2004-02-16T08:02:00.000-05:00

Sea Dragons!
Lurking on the ocean floor off the coast of Australia are thousands of leafy sea dragons. Click the picture to open a new window with more pictures, and five video files, of these amazing denizens.

2004-02-16T07:22:00.000-05:00

One for the Kids
If you've got young children, know young children, know someone who's got young children, or think fondly of the time when you were a young child, you'll probably get a kick out of the Real Mother Goose. It has not only the familiar (and some startlingly unfamiliar) rhymes, but also a wonderful series of illustrations. Now pass me my blanky and leave me alone! I wanna just read.

2004-02-15T08:53:00.000-05:00

Tales from 'The Big One'
WW2 People's War from BBC provides personal stories from the people who lived the War under attack in Britain. Stories about the war you won't find in the history book. Ida Menard tells the story of watching a Spitfire tip a doodle bug. Montague Trout remembers the Snaefell Disaster on the Isle of Man, and Norman Burgess finds humor in his mother and the earplugs.

2004-02-15T08:14:00.000-05:00

Holy 'Chute!
Why George doesn't jump out of airplanes!

2004-02-15T08:05:00.000-05:00

Balls
A visual treat. Click and play.

2004-02-15T07:56:00.000-05:00

A Valentine Message
A little late, but still ...

2004-02-14T17:28:00.000-05:00

Stalin on Language
I was aware that Stalin was regarded as somewhat of a philosopher by the early Marxists, but was unaware that he had written anything about language and linguistics. Here, in Marxism and Problems of Linguistics, he discusses changes in the Russian language which can be attributed to the Revolution.

2004-02-14T17:04:00.000-05:00

The Trials of Joan of Arc
During the trial of Joan of Arc by the English in 1431, all the proceedings were recorded. The record has made its way to the Web, as has the proceedings of the nullification trial, in 1455.

2004-02-13T07:45:00.000-05:00

Hold the Line, Python
AETCON, the CTO of Nokia confirmed that new Nokia phones could run python scripts. Screenshots and some commentary available.

2004-02-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

Lipstick at Bergen-Belson?
Take a few minutes to read all of this riveting story. It is an extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO, who was amongst the first British soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

2004-02-12T09:12:00.000-05:00

First Earth Creatures on the Moon
I thought of Neil Armstrong, didn't you? But, according to To the Moon: Our Journeys to Luna (and Back), Soviet turtles got there first. The site provides a variety of information about all 105 attempted lunar missions (46 successful).

2004-02-12T08:45:00.000-05:00

Garrison Keillor on Writer's Block
The writer explains why he is never afflicted with the problem. From a series of short radio pastiches, The Writer's Craft.

2004-02-11T23:34:00.000-05:00

The Tao of Programming
From the sacred text:

Hardware met Software on the road to Changtse. Software said: "You are Yin and I am Yang. If we travel together we will become famous and earn vast sums of money.'' And so they set forth together, thinking to conquer the world.

2004-02-11T23:21:00.000-05:00

Find the Hidden Meaning
Crytographever will find the coded message in an extended piece of text. I tried three samples.
Input: Genesis 1

Output: Egg is broken

Input: Richard III's "Now is the winter of our discontent" speech from Shakespeare

Output: The plan is ready. We can go.

(Note: This took some coaxing, and ignoring the "Can't find a hidden meaning" message.)

Input: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Output: I am good.

2004-02-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

Seen Any WMDs?
If you've seen anything that looks like a Weapon of Mass Destruction, let the CIA know.

2004-02-11T23:02:00.000-05:00

Content Management: An Opinion
From Boxes and Arrows:

“Where’s the disconnect between what’s possible and the too-often failure of CMS? Content management systems suck. Or so you would think from the strife heard from analystsand practitioners alike. And yet, many websites regularly publish vast amounts of information with superior control and ease compared to manually editing pages. So where’s the disconnect between what’s possible and the too-often failure of CMS?”

Click here for the complete article

2004-02-11T08:26:00.000-05:00

Tools You Can Use
Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools explores the world of tools, considered broadly. He includes "books, gadgets, software, videos, maps, hardware, materials, websites or gear that are extraordinary, little-known, or reliably handy for an individual or small group." A quick scan of the February listings seemed to turn up a lot of camping and hiking tools, but there was a great deal more than just that. Also, he only reviews things he likes, so you don't get the rants of some other "review" sites, which seem to be little more than Schools for Invective.

2004-02-10T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Odds Against Hamlet
British literary scholars debate the odds against the Prince of Denmark in the duel at the end of the play.

2004-02-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Some Silly Quizzes
Which famous artist most reflects your personality?

Fantastic!! You are GEORGIA O'KEEFE.
You are a true spirit of nature, and it shows in the flowing floral paintings for which you are most famous. You feel the beauty of all things around you, and your friends appreciate you for your ability to share that extraordinary beauty with them.
Which early '70s rock band are you?

You are Black Sabbath. You take too many drugs, which fuel your paranoia. You try to mask your Christian fears with Satanic imagery, but you're not fooling anyone.
Which fantasy race are you?

You're a Dragon!! Intelligent,
graceful...and..rather big... But not always! You can change your form into human.. or elf.. though your hair will generally match the colour of what your scales are as a dragon... That's fun.. You're one of the oldest and wisest races alive....
Which pre-1985 video game character are you?

I am Centipede. I wander back and forth minding my own business, changing directions only when things get in my way, but I always seem to be persecuted. It's as if people want to hurt me, to cut me in two, to laugh at my confusion. Can't you just leave me alone? Stop shooting me!

What kind of Krispy Kreme doughnut are you?

Original Glazed
Which Princess Bride character are you?

You are the albino. You spend your days keeping the lab neat and organized for Count Rugen's research. Your bedside manner is impeccable. However, all those years in the underground laboratory have had a pronounced effect on your complexion.
Which Winnie the Pooh character are you?

2004-02-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

Good Quote
"I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here."
- William Gibson

2004-02-10T08:12:00.000-05:00

Fun From Hell -- From Poland
An amazing collection of pictures and movies, many of which I can't really appreciate because I can't read Polish. But here's a set of those that I can.
Turtle Challenges Japanese Chef MPEG; in Japanese but you'll understand it anyway.
The Case of the Stressed Penguin MPEG; dealing with noisy kids.
Domino Effect WMV; it's an ad. Can you guess for what before the end?
The SysAdmin's Got A Gun JPG; Nerd humor.
How Do You Open A Beer? Streaming WMV; safe for work.

And that's just from 5 Feb 2004. Check out the whole lot. All the way back to 2001.

2004-02-08T08:19:00.000-05:00

Psych Tests
No, not the kind with questions like "Did B.F. Skinner have a significant influence on the work of Sigmund Freud? Explain why or why not." More like "Spot the fake smiles," "Can you guess someone's personality from their face?" or "What style of work suits your personality?" The BBC has posted a variety of multimedia psychology tests.

2004-02-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

New Kind of Science Available Online
Some time ago, about two years, Stephen Wolfram self-published A New Kind of Science, which explains nearly all phenomena in the universe in terms of cellular automata. Now, the entire book is available for free online, allowing you to calculate the first person pronoun to page ratio for yourself. Another interesting game would be to calculate the "new kind of science" to page ratio.

2004-02-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Brush Up Your Latin
Here you thought you were safe. Latin is a dead language, right? Wait! What's that movement?

2004-02-05T08:04:00.000-05:00

Andy and His Amiga
In the mid-'80s, Amiga magazine interviewed Andy Warhol about his relationship with his Commodore Amiga 1000. In the mid-'00s, someone found the article, scanned it in, re-adjusted the colors, and turned it into this pdf file.

2004-02-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

Online Toys
For sheer entertaining time-wasting, Ze's Page ranks near the top. If you have a high-speed connection, the film clips teaching "How to Impress Your Date" are worth a look. Then there's the inspirational A Better Way. But there are many things here: explore, enjoy.

2004-02-04T10:47:00.000-05:00

Stolen Code in Linux
Click here to see the 'stolen code' SCO is talking about.

2004-02-04T08:04:00.000-05:00

FBI on Computer Security
From The Register, an informative article entitled A Visit from the FBI, which summarizes a talk given by the fomer chief of computer intrusion investigations at FBI headquarters to a technology class at Washington University. One of the more interesting pieces of information from the lecture: "many of the computer security folks back at FBI HQ use Macs running OS X, since those machines can do just about anything: run software for Mac, Unix, or Windows, using either a GUI or the command line. And they're secure out of the box."

2004-02-03T08:35:00.000-05:00

We Decide, You Believe
Fox News reports on the BBC-Iraq report.

2004-02-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

Lord of the Rings -- by Others
Do you like Tolkien? Do you like parody? If the answers to both questions are "Yes," stop by If 'The Lord of the Rings' had been written by someone else. There you will find more than an evening's worth of entertaining parody, arranged in the following categories:

The Lawsuits (2 documents and a memo)
Literature (including A.A. Milne, Robert Frost, P.G. Wodehouse and Thomas Pynchon, but there are more than four screens in this section, so look around.)
TV Shows (including Green Acres, Dragnet, and Scooby Doo)
Music (including Ian Hunter, John Cage, Arlo, and -- of course -- Gilbert and Sullivan)
Movies and Broadway (including Duck Soup, Pulp Fiction, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)
Miscellaneous (including Rush Limbaugh, Office e-mail,and C++)

The "includings" are only a scratch on the surface of this site. Truly worth a visit.

2004-02-02T00:47:00.000-05:00

Want to See the Ads Again?
Yes, the one-name singer tradition continues: whenever a singer with a single name (Cher, another whose name I can't come up with, and — now — Beyonce) opens the show with the national anthem, the AFC team has won. The game was well worth the time, but perhaps the ad everyone's talking about took place while you were out of the room. What to do? Ifilm has a collection of all the ads (barring the CBS house ads for programs on their network) here.
If you want the see the ad the CBS censored because being critical of the White House is an "issue," look here. The five other winners, Overall Best Ad, Overall Best Ad Runner-Up, Funniest Ad, Best Animated Ad, and Best Youth Ad, can be found here. But don't let Rush catch you looking.

2004-02-02T00:36:00.000-05:00

Urban Legends and Viruses — The Real Information
Tired of wondering whether that e-mail you got from a "trusted friend" is something you really need to worry about, or just another one of the thousands of band-wasters endlessly being passed from one to another.
purportal may be what you're looking for. From this one site, you can check:

the two most authoritative urban legend sites, Snopes and About.com Urban Legends;
CIAC, which reports on currently circulating hoaxes;
CERT, the source for computer security threats, and
Symantec's virus encyclopedia.

2004-02-02T00:12:00.000-05:00

What is a Weblog?
A friend of mine recently asked, "What is a weblog? You talk about them often, but I don't know what you mean." Since this person is intelligent and a fairly long-time user of the Internet, I realized that I needed to provide more information than "It's like a kind of personal journal on the web," which only led to the question, "So it's a webpage, right?"
Further searching produced this more complete answer.

2004-01-31T18:21:00.000-05:00

Periodically Speaking
The periodic table of the elements has been a mainstay of high school chemistry since Mendeleev devised it. But it's not the only period table there is. Here are a few more:
Periodic Table of Condiments
Periodic Table of Mathematicians
Periodic Table of Desserts
Periodic Table of Music
Periodic Table of Dances
Periodic Table of Web Comics
Periodic Table of the Presidents
Periodic Table of Funk
Periodic Table of Mystery Authors

Finally, for the diehard geeks,
Periodic Table of Motif 2.1 Widgets

2004-01-30T10:34:00.000-05:00

From Under the Editor's Hat
The National Geographic Style Guide is available online as a pdf. It's worth a look; I'm printing a copy now in case it's been made available by mistake and the link goes away. Everybody should have a friend who's a little bit paranoid.

2004-01-30T08:46:00.000-05:00

Flash! The Year of the Monkey
In the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the monkey. This provides a thin veil of an excuse for googling "+'monkey' +'flash'" and presenting a selection of the results. Here goes:

Four Gibbons presents the antics of the title characters to the music of the final song from The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away".
There is an ancient tale told in India called Ramayana, the Adventures of Prince Rama. Considered the greatest work of Eastern literature, Ramayana is the story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita, their exile to an enchanted forest, the kidnapping of Sita by the demon king Ravana, and Rama's ultimate victory over Ravana in an epic battle.
There's also the ever-popular Bush Is a Monkey, but we don't want to make fun of our illustrious leader, do we? So don't go there. Do you hear me? Don't go there!
This next one's a bit different; it's called Desperado but with Monkeys. Sound track by Johnny Cash, who sings the familiar song, but the visuals provide a new point of view.
In the e-cards category, Spike Jones subdivision, we find the Funky Monkey Hug.
On to the games. Try Monkey Lander to sharpen your key-pressing skills.

2004-01-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

Sounds! Marxist Fairy Tales
During the early '70s and '80s, Erik Olin Wright had the foresight to leave a tape recording running running while he told his Marxist fairy tales to various groups of giggling children.

2004-01-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

A Nice Piece of Art
I like this painting.

I'm not sure why. It was scanned by Tongas, who over the years has provided me with hours of enjoyment by emailing her scans.

2004-01-27T23:08:00.000-05:00

How to Pronounce the Name of the Author of "Gravity's Rainbow"
The way he pronounces it, of course. Listen here, from his appearance on The Simpsons. I was surprised by the decidedly City accent, since his family is from Western Massachusetts.

2004-01-27T13:21:00.000-05:00

Feeling Listless?
You could visit World and Regional Rankings and find out national rankings for, among others, Highest Electrical Consumption, Mobile Phone Users, Carbon Dioxide Emission, Cleanest, Most Beautiful Women, Life Expectancy, and Most Airports. There's lots more. If you're one of those people who used to pore through the World Almanac, this is your cup of tea.

If you want still more, here's a selection:
Top 10 Presidential Websites
Top 10 Lost Love Quotes
Top 10 House Names in Middle-Earth
Top 10 Overused Euphemisms in Romance Novels
The Best Untold Tales of Sherlock Holmes
10 Reasons You Know Your Pet Isn't An Altruist
Top 10 Lists Omitted from the Millenium Voting Process

2004-01-26T08:57:00.000-05:00

How Do You Say That in Armenian?
A short essay on The Armenian Language, acquainted me with the fact that the alphabet for this language was invented by a person whose name is known. That name is St. Mesrop Mashtots. The alphabet he created, in both upper and lower case, together with the name of each letter, in Armenian and English, and the sounds of the letters, can be found here. Using those glyphs, later authors wrote the story of "David of Sasun", a picture of whom can be found on this page. Should you be interested in trying Armenian food, here are some recipes from the webpage of a student exploring her ethnic heritage.

2004-01-26T08:08:00.000-05:00

Where's George Got To?
Here's the answer:

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

2004-01-26T07:14:00.000-05:00

Victorian Fantasy
Fantastic, Mysterious, and Adventurous Victoriana is a collection of instructive essays about characters from works of the Victorian age; each is detailed and informative with links, where available, to online texts of the authors discussed.

2004-01-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

RPI Opens Classes
On this day in 1825, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opens, becoming the first degree-granting technological university in the English-speaking world. It was founded by Stephen Van Rensselaer. Among its many famous graduates is George Ferris, inventor of the Ferris Wheel.

2004-01-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

A Fateful Marriage
On this day in 1533, Henry VIII, king of England, and Anne Boleyn were married secretly by the Bishop of Lichfield after returning to England from a visit to Francis I.
The marriage anticipates a ruling on the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The divorce caused the British monarchy's great break with the Church of Rome and made Anne extremely unpopular.
It was said that she was a witch, and in the eyes of a superstitious public, the fact that she had six fingers on her left hand and an extra nipple only served to confirm these rumors.
On the day of her wedding she was already pregnant, and gave birth the following September. To the royal couple's dismay, the child was a girl — but she turned out to be one of England's greatest rulers, Queen Elizabeth I.

2004-01-24T23:44:00.000-05:00

The River that Runs Both Ways
A Hudson River Portfolio provides a "representative range of nineteenth century materials for the art of culture of the Hudson River and its region. Of special interest is a Quicktime digitization of William Wade's ten-foot long panorama of both sides of the river between Albany and New York City. (Warning: don't try this on dial-up.)

2004-01-24T23:35:00.000-05:00

Flash! James McNeill Whistler: Dangerous … Failure … Insanity
In his years in London, Whistler (best known for the black and white rendering of his mother) and his works were not universally admired. James McNeill Whistler Interactive, a Flash presentation, provides a quick introduction to the man and his art.

2004-01-24T22:56:00.000-05:00

Emblem Books
Emblem books were a popular means of education in the 16th and 17th centuries. These books, consisting of a moral (or epigrammatic saying), an illustration (usually a woodcut or engraving), and a poem or other related text.
Some online sources of emblem books:
The English Emblem Book Project at Penn State University
Emblemata Online at the Herzog August Bibliothek
Glasgow University Emblem Website; specializing in French emblematic texts
Alciato's Book of Emblems at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Emblem Books from the Virtual Museum of Education Iconics at the University of Minnesota.
Emblem Project Utrecht, whose goal is the digitisation of Dutch love emblems.
German Emblem Books from the University of Indiana at Urbana-Champagne

2004-01-24T12:14:00.000-05:00

What would that look like in Sabon?
For those who are interested in text fonts, Twenty Faces gives you a quick look at the alphabet in upper- and lower-case, Roman and italic, in 20 different faces. Each face has a short introduction explaining its history and use, with a link to obtain further information about the style.

2004-01-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

Flash! Here comes the math!
A quick Flash-based explanation of how the Fibonacci sequence ties together the golden mean and spirals. Be ready to hear about self-propagating spirals and reciprocal squares. It's all work-safe, though.

2004-01-24T11:53:00.000-05:00

Shocking! My own recording studio
If you've thought about how cool it would be to be able to mix your music, Weebl provides a Mixomaix and Samplopad on which you can put together your own spin on Memphis Soul Stew. Sure, the samples a limited, but it gives you an idea.

2004-01-24T00:09:00.000-05:00

Too Busy to Read?
Try The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature. If fiction's not your thing, try The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation instead.

2004-01-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

Quick! What's the National Folk Instrument of Norway?
Knit up the raveled sleeve of care by learning all you can about the Hardanger Fiddle. Should your studies there not provide the relief you expect from sore labor's bath, you can visit the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America to learn even more about this amazing instrument and the related traditions of Norwegian music and dance.
Listen, for instance, to "Summer Moonlight" performed by composer Karen Solgård and singer Carol Sersland or the "Waltz of the Hardanger Fiddles" performed by Loretta Kelley and Bruce Emery. Top off your evening with "Blues for Hardingfele" performed by Dan Trueman. Or, perhaps you were thinking of being hungry; the "Lutefisk's Revenge" might cure all y'all's ills
By the way, none of this is brought to you by MPR, Minnesota Public Radio.

2004-01-23T15:07:00.000-05:00

From '0 dark 30' to 'zoomie' ... and beyond
Can't understand what that Marine is talking about? Go to the Unofficial Dictionary for Marines and your knowledge will no longer be "tango uniform". That is, if you GAF or haven't gone dinky dau.

2004-01-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Don't get all tense, now
Confused about the indicative second person singular perfect tense of the verb "swim"?
How about the conjunctive third person singular pluperfect of "do"?
Worry no more, just plug "do" into the On-line conjugator and you'll have your answer.

2004-01-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Photographs
Fish
Nemo and his friends swim for your amusement.

In keeping with the Burns Night theme,
Photos of Galloway Forest, Scotland, by Duncan Hoyle,
Edinburgh Castle,
autumn in Scotland,
a cottage on the North Sea (it looks drafty),
views of Aberdeen, and
St. Michael's Church in Linlithgow, Scotland (established in 1242 and still holding weekly worship).

2004-01-23T13:32:00.000-05:00

Sunday is Burns Night
And here come the links:
Burns Night
From the BBC: Poetry, Text and Audio, Supper, Recipes, and a Web Guide
Burns Supper
From the Scotland On Line website: a description of the format for a Burns Supper.
The Bard: Your Complete Guide
"The complete guide to Robert Burns the man, his poems, his travels, haggis, whisky and much more."
Burns Country
Includes the words (and Karaoke!) for Auld Lang Syne from the "Official Robert Burns Site" (it sez it right there at the top of the page) which offers "everything you wanted to know about Robert Burns, Scotland's national bard (and lots more besides).

2004-01-23T12:09:00.000-05:00

Flash Fun #1
6+1
Six interactive Flash items from Shinichiro Sato. from Metafilter

Tinygrow
Another from Sato.

2004-01-23T11:16:00.000-05:00

Leading Economic Indicators Report ...
What Is Its Relative Value?
This website presents five ways of making comparisons in US dollars between any two years from 1789 to 2002: the CPI, the GDP Deflator, the unskilled wage rate, the GDP per capita, and the GDP. One or more of these may be appropriate, depending on the nature of your query.

2004-01-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

Interesting Graphics
Very Important Things
A daily comic featuring ad-type photos from the '50s with smart-ass sayings.

Creatures in my Head
Another daily comic

Grendel's Cave

Mars or, Mappa Mundi (the vague direction thereof)

Mars
or, Mappa Mundi (the vague direction thereof)