Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - Spent altogether too much time yesterday and early today reformatting pages to the new website style sheet. These changes are reflected with the new site/menu navagation box in the upper-left corner of webpages, as well as centered content (more on this later) and consistent header format.
Update 1 @ 9:15 A.M. - new entry to Search Funnies.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - Four and a half months ago I wrote that it had taken two years to reach 10,000 page loads for this site; eight months more to hit 15,000; and five months after that to hit 20,000.
When checking the site stats this morning, I found another milestone had been reached: 25,011 page loads. The stats also show totals of 12,364 unique visitors; 10,638 first time visitors; and 1,726 returning visitors. That's up 2,750, 2,576 and 174, respectively, from just four and a half months ago.
I remain grateful and thank you very much for visiting and being "a part of."
Friday, December 26, 2008 - Added Andorra to the Visitors page. It's a tiny country with a population of roughly 83,000. Click the link to learn more!
Friday, December 26, 2008 - Added Andorra to the Visitors page. It's a tiny country with a population of roughly 83,000. Click the link to learn more!
Christmas Day, December 25, 2008 - Wishing all a merry Christmas! Do something nice for someone less fortunate today.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - Regarding this new page and Microsoft's Internet Explorer: if you're using IE, you shouldn't. It's a standards non-compliant browser and is insecure. I strongly suggest using either Firefox or Opera.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - Added three new entries to Search Funnies and two to Overheard.
Did some troubleshooting and code hacks on the new menu system to accomodate Microsoft's apparent refusal to make Internet Explorer adhere to W3C standards. Please use the "contact" button to report any problems.
Sunday, December 21, 2008 - After much contemplation, here's the new home page. There may be some bugs to work out, notably for folks who use Microsoft Internet Explorer. Use the "contact" button to report any anomalies, and please elaborate. Thanks!
Other pages on the site will be updated to the new style as time allows.
Friday, December 19, 2008 - While waiting for the big snow storm, moved 2007 entries on this page to its own, dedicated archive. I should have something new for the site later in the day, as the storm is going to virtually marry me to the apartment for a while. Check back later.
Thursday, December 18, 2008 - First update at 11:22 A.M. - there's a humorous new entry to SEARCH FUNNIES. Also broke spartan tradition by adding a related image file to this particular entry.
Renamed THE SEARCH FUNNEHS to simply SEARCH FUNNIES after considering that not all surfers are familiar with AOL-speak.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - First update at 7:30 A.M. - added to the Vistors page, as a surfer from Qatar happened upon this humble website.
Update Two: reformatted Visitors page. Comments to: "alienjeff AT charter DOT com"
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - Will Camelot rise from the ashes? Read the latest - Kennedy Eyes Hillary's Slot - on the Overheard page.
Saturday, December 13, 2008 - Just got home from a day in Rhode Island. It was refreshing to get a bit of a change of scenery.
Added two new entries to the webpage that writes itself. Check 'em out on THE SEARCH FUNNEHS page.
It has been a long day. No guarantees on more updates today, but tomorrow for certain.
Do I hear someone muttering, "Yeah, right. Famous last words ..."?
Friday, December 12, 2008 - New England was hit with a lot of ice the past day or so. Though Winsted fared better than many towns, my humbled quadrant of town was without power for a while. In the desolation of no AC mains, I started a piece on the laptop and drank coffee brewed courtesy of my Coleman camping stove.
That's my excuse for there not being a more substantive update.
Since power has been restorated, I've just been reformatting and reloading some prehistoric pages on the website and catching up on the news.
Thursday, December 11, 2008 - Added a new piece, The Right to One's Rights, to the Essays section.
Perhaps more later. Until then, enjoy!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - Updates:
Visitors as we've had a visit from a Gulf stream surfer from Hamilton, Bermuda.
I put country flags on the Visitors page. Bermuda's flag image has the filename "bm.png" which affords me a most cheezy segue ...
... speaking of bms, check out the addition to THE SEARCH FUNNEHS from a British visitor.
Added "The King of Babylon" to the Satire page.
QUITE POSSIBLY MORE UPDATES LATER - I feel like I'm on a roll of sorts ...
Monday, December 8, 2008 - There's a lecher loose in Old Greenwich, CT. FMI, check out THE SEARCH FUNNEHS.
My sleep schedule is AFU again. Actually it's not AFU, instead FUBAR - so there should be more updates later in the day (it's 4:15 A.M. right now).
UPDATE: added Bose blows to the Overheard page.
Sunday, December 7, 2008 - Please take some time today to remember those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor on this day in 1941. And consider selling your Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Isuzus ...
Reformated "who is" page. Work continues on the third installment of The Bug Lake Expedition. With any luck it will be up on the site later today.
UPDATE: completed and uploaded the third installment of The Bug Lake Expedition! I trust you will enjoy.
Saturday, December 6, 2008 - The experiment is working and the Bug Lake Expedition is taking shape. If you didn't read the original opening piece, start here. Otherwise, pick up where the story left off here.
And yes, I'm working on page three ...
Thursday, December 4, 2008 - What some are calling the new "666" I ponder in Google: the new Microsoft.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - Added Where e're thou be and Half empty or half full to the Overheard page.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - The Washington Post is accepting resumes for the position of Photo Caption Editor. Details are on the Overheard page.
Saturday, November 29, 2008 - Added The ODD Reader to Essays; and Diabetic Hypnosis, Eye in the Sky, and Black Friday Earns Its Name to Overheard.
And RIP, Jimmy Damour.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - Updated Visitors page as we've had a visitor from Nigeria.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - Added an entry to TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS.
Work continues on the essay, The Odd Reader, and it may make it to the website later today.
Please stay tuned!
Sunday, November 23, 2008 - I'm going to try something different here. Instead of waiting to post a new essay in its entirety, I'm going to break it down into pages, or at least sections. This serves two purposes: one for you and the other for me.
For you: more frequent updates to the website and new content to peruse.
For me: more frequent updating the website without the insanity of getting lost in a larger project (aka "divide and conquor").
Please don't misread this as baiting or teasing. Repeatedly promising is baiting and not delivering is teasing. Know the difference.
So without further ado, check out Expedition to Bug Lake. And "stay tuned."
Thanks!
Saturday, November 22, 2008 - Added a new entry to Overheard. Work continues on two new essays, tentatively titled The ODD Reader and The Bug Lake Expedition.
And freshly made whole cranberry sauce is cooling on the counter. Yum!
Friday, November 21, 2008 - Updated Visitors as we've had a visit from Trinidad and Tobago.
As noted in extra large font size on the main page, it has been an interesting few days with Charter Communications - my ISP and host for this website. When attempting to change the password for website maintenance, Charter's server didn't seem to remember I had just changed the password, yet inconveniently cancelled the password I had just logged in on. Can you say "electronic catch 22?"
Without getting into every bloody detail, after three and a half days of cycling between trying to register a new password and calling tech support for assistance, I finally was connected to an Ed from tier two tech support. He and I spent the better part of an hour going through various processes and methodically troubleshooting the problem.
Ed really knows how to communicate and is an excellent troubleshooter. As an electronics technician with 25-years experience in component level troubleshooting, it was a pleasure working with Ed and tossing ideas back and forth.
The problem was diagnosed to be on Charter's system and not mine, which offered me whisper of relief. Though the "for the time being fix" is a metaphorical BandAid®, at least I'm now blessed with access for website maintenance.
Thanks, Ed! You're a champ.
This very page, What's New, had grown more than a little long in the tooth - what with the website rapidly closing in on it's sixth anniversary. The file had grown to a corpulent 186K: immense for mere text and some HTML.
Considering it's rather doubtful many people look at anything too far back, I decided it wouldn't hurt to archive 2003 through 2006 in yearly files. So for the historically curious, links for these archives are at the bottom of this page.
Now to do some writing ...
Thursday, November 13, 2008 - Added a couple of chuckles to THE SEARCH FUNNEHS.
I've made some significant progress on a new essay related to my September trip to the Adirondacks. It should hit the site within a week. And I really think it will be worth the wait!
Thursday, October 23, 2008 - Updated Visitors as we've had a visit from Venezuela.
Thursday, October 16, 2008 - New item for THE SEARCH FUNNEHS.
Friday, October 10, 2008 - Update 1: New Quote of the moment on the home page and updated the Quotes page accordingly. It's an anonymous quote relating to backsplash and controversy generated by the latest episode of South Park. In case you missed the show, here's related linkage:
Thursday, October 9, 2008 - Update 1: updated Visitors as we've had a visit from Saudi Arabia.
On another note, it has been a number of weeks since the header on the site's homepage was changed from the Clockwork Orange still shot to the "screwed in the head" image. Though both are apropo, at least in my mind, I grew more and more fond of latter.
If you wish, comment to: alienjeff AT charter DOT net
Thanks.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - New entry to Overheard.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - A new entry to TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS that's definitely worth checking out!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - Updated Visitors since someone from Denmark finally stopped by The Fringe.
Thursday, September 18, 2008 - New entry to TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS and Overheard.
Friday, September 12, 2008 - After an incredibly fun and invigorating weeklong vacation camped out in the middle of the Adirondack State Park, I turned onto Main Street in town here at 6 P.M. Tuesday. Film has been sent in for processing and I'm sifting through both digital and hardcopy notes. I'll be adding something substantive about my travels shortly.
Saturday, August 30, 2008 - New entry to TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS.
Monday, August 24, 2008 - New entry, Cutting Irony, to Overheard.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - Finally! Someone from the State of New Mexico visited the site! That leaves Montana and Wyoming as the last two holdouts from A View from the Fringe from making it to all 50 states.
Friday, August 15, 2008 - Thanks to you all, another milestone! It took over two years, but on July 16, 2007, the site reached 10,000 page loads. Roughly eight months later, on March 10, 2008, it hit 15,000. And now a relatively short five months later, it hits 20,000! The hack statistician in me is saying, "I note a trend."
The "humble by any other web ruler" numbers show 9,614 unique visitors; 8,062 first time visitors; and 1,552 returning visitors. And here's the graph:
What I said back on March 10 still holds true, so I'll quote instead of plagiarizing myself:
I've questioned why anyone would bother visiting this little personal project of mine. Apparently there's some redeeming value to it, though this completely baffles me. But a sincere thank you for doing so! It warms my heart.
Hey, if one plagiarizes oneself, is the person guilty of auto-theft? heheh ...
On a related note, added Latvia to the Visitors webpage.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - FLASH! The long teased about essay on fishing is done - or as done as it's ever going to be. Check out Fish Fishing in America on the Essays page!
A visitor from the general area of the world's most recent "hot spot" visited this humble website yesterday: Azerbaijan gets added to the Visitors page.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - Been a while, eh? Let me explain:
I was testing a hot rod tweak on the main computer which guaranteed to improve performance and virtually blow the hair off my forehead. That's what the documentation said it would do. What actually ended up happening was a catastrophic, or so it felt, and huge loss of personal hard drive data. And my back up files weren't exactly crispy fresh ...
For quite some time now I've been growing increasingly disappointed with the development direction of Puppy Linux, the operating system in use at A View From The Fringe. A good friend on IRC has been benevolently badgering me to test drive Arch Linux, a full featured yet very fast operating system. Though digging in my heels with an odd sort of nearly religious devotion to Puppy Linux, this aforementioned data loss loosened the soil, my heels slide and the big move was on.
So for the past ten days or so I've been installing, tweaking and customizing my new Arch Linux operating system. As promised, it's full featured, nimble and fast. And it looks like it's a keeper for long term use! Thanks to David, aka DigitalCrypto, for the persistent prodding. This is the first website posting utilizing Arch!
Thanks for hanging in here with me. The long-promised essay on fishing will be posted later this afternoon or this evening.
Thursday, July 31, 2008 - The site was visited by someone from Mauritius, so the Visitors page was updated accordingly.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - New entry to Teh Search Funnehs.
Saturday, July 26, 2008 - Changed "Quote for the moment" on main page and updated "Quotes" page.
Thursday, July 24, 2008 - Broken record: more added to Teh Search Funnehs, though it's still early in the day, and there are several files open in the text editor that should make it to the website later on.
UPDATE: Two new entries to Overheard!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - Further work on Teh Search Funnehs.
Tueday, July 22, 2008 - More additions to Teh Search Funnehs page. I'll be adding to this over the course of the day (a clean up project), so check back from time to time.
Friday, July 18, 2008 - Added an interesting collection of recent oddball search paths folks took to get to the site. Also changed the Quote of the Moment on the main page. Check both out. I believe they're both worth a look!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - Changed Quote of the Moment on the main page and updated Quotes page accordingly.
Yeah, I know ... big deal.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - I seem to have painted myself into a literary corner here.
I just uncovered a notebook and have been perusing the entries. They date back to late summer-early fall of 2007, when I was camping in the Adirondacks. Lo and behold, there's an entry dated September 14, 2007, that sports the exact working title of a "new" essay I've been fiddling with for the past week! So for the time being, I'm working on these two essays in parallel with the hope of ultimately weaving them together.
Somehow.
I know the following sounds like a broken record, but please stay tuned.
Thursday, May 7, 2008 - Changed Quote of the Moment on the main pages, updated Quotes page accordingly, and added a new entry a couple new entries to Teh Search Funneh.
Friday, May 2, 2008 - Started work on a new essay with the working title, The King of Babble On. Stay tuned.
Added a couple three a few several five new entries to TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS.
Thursday, May 1, 2008 - I'm a bit concerned over something.
Last night I bought a casserole dish and cover at WalMart. No biggie, right? Right! But to tell you how much my life has devolved, when I got home I was actually excited about this new purchase.
While thinking about this and feeling excitement build again, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or call the crisis intervention hot line.
So instead I made a casserole ...
Thursday, April 24, 2008 - An Internet surfer from Baghdad, Iraq, of all places, joins the visitor list on A View From The Fringe! Wait 'til you see how they found us.
Added a "quick maneuver links" sidebar (for lack of better terminology) to Overheard...
Work does progress on a piece about recent fishing adventures. Stay tuned.
Having lunch with my father this noon at either Cappy's in New Britain or Ted's in Meriden. Good times!
Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Today was opening day for the 2008 fishing season in Connecticut. The weather couldn't have been nicer with the temperature in the low 70s up here in the northwest corner. So for the first time in probably 40 years, I went fishing on opening day and celebrated the event by casting a few lures out into Highland Lake. There might be a follow up "shorty" of a story about this.
It was good to escape the confines of this most humble slum hovel and get out into the world for a few hours.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 - New quote on main page courtesy of Jay Leno. Hey Jay! Why the long face?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Have you gotten your taxes done? Tick, tock, folks. Thanks to the expert help by my "Tax Lady," I was able to get my return in the mail last week - which has to be a first for this lifelong procrastinator.
Test driving a new main page. Your thoughts? Email alienjeff AT charter DOT net, please. Also have been doing some "under the hood" tweaks on a couple of pages. I'll spare you the geek-speak.
Added a fresh entry to Broadside Commentary.
Friday, March 21, 2008 - This truly Good Friday brings not only a full Moon, but an addition to Faves.
Thursday, March 20, 2008 - Celebrate this year's vernal equinox. Happy spring!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - Added the following:
Sunday, March 16, 2008 - New website feature! TEH SEARCH FUNNEHS will give you a peek at where some website visitors are coming from - and in some cases where they should go back to. Enjoy!
Saturday, March 15, 2008 - Added an exclusive picture to SANDAL IN A SANDY SNOWBANK in Overheard. Also grouped all the recent out-of-sequence additions for the cell phone voice memo purge into one entry. Working on a new piece, which I can't decide whether to add to Overheard or make into an essay. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - More cellphone voice memo purge: added even more to Overheard - specifically:
Monday, March 10, 2008 - Added to Overheard - specifically:
As similarly detailed in the July 16, 2007 entry announcing reaching 10,000 page loads, this past week marked another "humble in the grand scheme of things but HUGE in my world" milestone: 15,000 page loads!
I've questioned why anyone would bother visiting this little personal project of mine. Apparently there's some redeeming value to it, though this completely baffles me. But a sincere thank you for doing so! It warms my heart.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - The election campaign frenzy finally hits A View From The Fringe. Check out reportedly unintentional vandalism in the lead story on Overheard.