I wanted to throw a few things out there about this here blogging bit. Seeing as how after next week I'm off from school for three months and may actually be able to read a book that lacks the "text-" prefix, I'm hoping I can exercise my brain more and catch up with Kelly's entertaining, prolix masturbation. But before I do that, I want to address some of the features that this site is lacking that will really make it a blog that fits well within the blogosphere.

As Chris Penn says in Reservoir Dogs, "Okay, first thing's fuckin' last": COMMENTS. This site really needs to allow you to leave comments and discuss this crap. I'm a little apprehensive about doing it, though. The comments feature built into Blogger is completely unmoderated, meaning any ol' schmuck can post any ol' incendiary bullshit they want. I can't ban someone who posts a ton of hate speech. It's a no-man's-land of discussion. However, to bring in mediated discussion -- I'm especially fond of the Slashdot model -- would require a lot of work to establish, not to mention a dedicated webhost instead of piggybacking Defiant like I am now. Time and money are two things I always lack. I'm feeling that I should instantiate comments and see what happens. If all of the comments are "You pinko faggots," then I should -- actually, that sounds entertaining.

The BORED? section is lackluster. It's not really a blogroll as much as it is sites I frequent. I frequent plenty more than that, and I have not created a way for Kelly to add his own. That's a high priority for me.

One thing that our posts lack are TITLES. I was never a big fan of titles on blog entries until I started using a news reader. (I'm an early adopter of Pulp Fiction.) News readers have changed the way I web browse. I can be more selective and get through more sites quicker. And that posts are titled make it much easier to navigate. It'll require a redesign of this template (more on that in a bit), but soon our posts will be titled. We'll also have an Atom feed and I can hopefully work out a way to e-mail new posts automatically to those who want to receive them.

I'm also going to start doing little things to PROMOTE this here blog. So expect some link exchanges, some downloadable stickers you can put up on places, maybe a Cafepress t-shirt or two. Hey, Kelly and I write it, why shouldn't someone read it? I took five minutes today to add my profile to Technorati (see link in left-hand column) and discovered two blogs that are linking to here -- Practical Sarcasm, operated by a classmate I met two years ago who I haven't seen since; and Israfel ? Scorched Angel Films, who I don't know but, by the looks of his/her most recent post on June 7, deserves our thoughts and prayers. And Practical Sarcasm supplied this entertaining Flash movie.

I'm also going to REDESIGN the site again. Including the aforementioned titles, we really need a third column on the right for ancillary information (and maybe a future location for blogads), and a style sheet that doesn't misbehave if I try to upload an image or incorporate a table. It's very limiting. And I have a huge stack of early 60s electronics repair magazines from which I'm sure I can find something cool.

I've got plans, and by the end of this summer, this will be a better blog. Do you have suggestions for what we can do here, besides become Republican pole smokers? If so, drop me a line.

Thank you for reading. It always warms the cockles of my heart when I run into someone who comments on something they read here. This blog is, like, totally for real now, and it's time to take the next step.