Good news

Bad news sells. Newspapers, NPR, TV shows make the outlook seem bleak. Depressing.

Slashdot released an article tagging feature a few months ago, which causes user-generated tags to show up below the article summaries on the main page. The tags typically give you an idea of the sentiment surrounding the article. Some of the tags are positive.

Say you wanted to only focus on good news that comes across Slashdot. You could just browse the tags you consider positive, happy, humorous. Here are some I like: aboutdamntime, abouttime, funny, and especially suddenoutbreakofcommonsense. Also check out the entire list of recent tags.

Enjoy your good news.

Recommended movies

Here's my old list of recommended movies.

• 12 Angry Men
• Airplane!
• A Beautiful Mind
• The Bourne Identity
• Brazil
• Cube
• Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Fargo
• High Fidelity
• In the Company of Men
• Joe Versus the Volcano
• K-PAX
• The Man Who Wasn't There
• The Matrix
• Memento
• The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
• Moulin Rouge
• The Mosquito Coast
• The Music Man
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• Oleanna
• Ronin
• Run Lola Run
• Serendipity
• The Seven Samurai
• The Thin Red Line
• UHF
• WarGames

Sorry

Courtesy of Google's "retro" search (they put their January 2001 index online in honor of their 10th birthday), I found this gem:

just wanted to stress how annoyed i am with the feep.org thing... i wonder how
long he's been on the internet... odds are... i've been known as feep longer

Sadly, the Wayback Machine doesn't have a copy of the page with the rest of the post.

Sorry, man, I didn't do an exhaustive search of people using the word "feep" back when I registered the domain name in April 2000.

Moved

I've officially moved. If you need my new address, please email or call.

Weather, shoes

My calendar said "65-90-minute walk" for this weekend. I put it off on Sunday, and regretted it on Monday. Nancy and I headed out in Laurium on Monday afternoon, and braved the 35° blowing rain for a total of 10 minutes. Happy spring. Ugh.

I got the planned 45-minute walk in last night, though at a slower pace due to a sore ankle. The shoes I've been wearing, Adidas Boreal Trail, seem to be very wrong for my feet. They roll my ankles inward, which puts a lot of strain on the outside of my lower legs. They're okay for bicycling or walking on softer surfaces, but they're killers on hard surfaces.

I ended up switching to my trusty Vasque Sundowners. If I had to walk across the country, I'd probably choose these boots. They're really sturdy and comfortable, but probably weigh 3-4 pounds, which can be a little annoying for normal walking. So I'm doing research on walking/running shoes, and will probably buy a new pair soon.

Evening walk, Saturday

Great day for a walk. I meandered around Calumet and Swedetown, and included a short loop on the back of the ski trails. Nancy headed out earlier for her run, and I met her halfway into my walk.

I need non-100%-cotton socks, according to Nancy. Maybe my feet move around too much in my shoes, but there's a little chafing at longer distances. Of course, it could have something to do with my baby-soft feet.

Time: 1:09:09
Distance: 4.39 miles
Pace: 15:46/mile

Evening walk, Thursday

The weather was a little better tonight, and Nancy and I took a nice walk on a loop starting at my office.

Time: 45:10
Distance: 2.82 miles
Pace: 16:03/mile