My blogging here has been slow as of late. Here are my pitiful excuses:

• First, I watched Lord of the Rings, director’s cut, no catheter installed. Maybe one of soda can helmet would have been nice, too. Why that movie isn’t at least an R for violence, I’ll never understand. Takeaway: you can depict any extent of graphic violence to a humanoid without hurting your movie’s rating, including beheadings, impalings, and severed body part catapultings, as long as they have non-European facial features and dark skin.
• Second, I’ve been practicing my guitars a little more. I was losing my calluses (okay, I had lost my calluses and my limited talent, to boot). To inspire myself, I bought a Buddy Guy live album.
• Finally, I’ve been helping my brother get his blog Treowth “prettified.” He wanted a new color template/color scheme, advertisements (I made them match the color scheme), and some counters on RMBS stock purchases and litigation costs ($1.2 per second!). They’re all up and working for both IE and Firefox, without or without JavaScript enabled. Go take a look.

I have a few topics rattling around in my head. Civil unions is one; it’s a hot topic in Oregon. Another is Nepal. My oldest daughter almost decided to go on a mission there this summer. Interesting place… I’m also looking for additional information on class mobility after reading either a post or a comment on the topic by Jasper Emmering and then reading a disappointing chapter on it in James W. Loewen’s, Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.

Update: Treowth’s sidebar ads flicker when viewed using Firefox. There appears to be a solution, but it looks painful. Advantage, IE?