Didya ever see those Sony ads featuring a blue alien of sorts walking around in relatively juxtaposed environments, like a college campus? Dewd kinda looked like E.T., only a lot blue-er and fuzzier. I never learned his name but I watched those ads compulsively. Apparently, his name is?get this?PLATO. Wow, I just found this out. My question of many years has been answered through the Internet. So here's what he looks like and on occasion he even gets a trim. "He" being a very vague, unstable pronoun, mind you.

OMG THIS IS SO EXCITING, I JUST FOUND THE PLATO CREATION INFO PAGE TOO! Going to download those shorts and watch 'em in a bit?too enthralling! I miss him and I wonder if he's gone back to his whole planet. I don't generally relate to alien characters by themselves in the media, but when they're immersed in a kind of context and all looking strange and outta place, I feel this way too. Looking into an electronics store and fascinated by the blinky lights, or maybe a donut shop and watching how they make 'em. I liked to subtlely sit on a mall bench and watch many walks of life just do that?walk on by. Curiosity compells me. There are times I get the impression I am much more of an observer than a participant, but when I start to snake into a discussion, it is never as calm as I hope it'll be.

I'm seeing it this way: you know those puzzle games (there are some splendidly animated ones at PopCap) where it's a variation on a theme and you have to match X number of pieces to get Y number of points and advance to Z level??And sometimes you get a "bonus piece" that's hard to use or maybe stubborn or incompetent on the wrong light, but you can't waste it or you'll be the fool? And if you use that bonus piece wisely and position it at the right place, right time, it clears a whole section of the board?maybe even a majestic combo?and the screen explodes in a shower of glowing, sparkling crystal clarity. Color everywhere. You know about that? Well, this is me.

I'm not a general-purpose multitool, but for being a specialspecialist, I cover a wide angle of diverse terrain. I can't fix your sink, but maybe I can blow it up and structure it into a magical sucking pipe that reveals the civilization of molepeople living beneath your kitchen. I can't mow your lawn, but maybe if you come with me, we can both find buried treasure at the end of your yard. And no, that's not a euphemism…

It gets to this time where I'd like to share?if you haven't read it yet, as it's quite popular?this very harsh and funny article by Maddox about blogs. I find much truth in his assertations. Many blogs, I get confused on. There are many links and I don't know where to click.?It's often not sensory overload but visual stupidity. This is why I strive to keep my own linky, yet easy to find your way around. (Some limitations in the current Blog-City toolkit prevent me from doing as much as I'd like, so I look forward to upcoming revisions.) I also notice how homogenized many blogs appear, and it's not because they all use similar/same Blogger templates (I like Scribe meself). Sometimes it's the style of writing. Go Google this:

blog?"my life sucks"

There. See? A real pick-me-upper. I also don't see a need for huge margins (with tiny profit margins, as Donald Trump might say). In particular:

If the thousands of mid-sentence links don't annoy you, the long slender columns of text will. Most of the screen on a blog is blank for an imaginary populace of readers still using 640×480 resolution.

LOLEX! Me too. While I know there are websurfers out there using 800×600 and I used to too, into the future we go and 1024×768 is pretty "standard" as far as a commonplace resolution goes. This is why I picked it and make ample use of my screen. I chose one gutter instead of two because I find the latter confusing unless I had a really good sorting reason. But I couldn't think of one, and didn't want to squish body text, so there it is. I have tried to space and breathe on the text to make it more readable, and my use of Georgia stands. Still looking for little tweakin' improvements, always.

Like Maddox, I feel very deceived by the word "podcast". I'd like to take the time to mention that because itself is a nice word. However, what it actually means rankles me like "redundant" or "politically correct": that is,?a lowmind term which could be so much more. Before I knew what it was, I used to imagine it was a new way to use iPods as mobile broadcasting stations and envelope a designated area with a harmonious shower of "sound plants". Or maybe use magical wi-fi wands?no doubt to?come into the equation at one point?to aim music into almost organic hard drives like these game pods. But, to learn these were just MP3s or whatever uploaded to a blog for downloading later on a music player?how disappointing! The drug does NOT fit the face.