Nattyware: Pixie

This is a tool every blogger should have...a small (62Kb), free program that is perfect for webpage design. Its a colour picker that includes a mouse tracker. Run it, simply point to a colour and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that colour. You can then use these values to reproduce the selected colour in your favorite programs. Pixie will also show the current x y position of your mouse pointer.

Here's the link.

Villian Supply: For all your evil needs

This joke website is a pretty fun place to poke around. It has an online store where you can buy uniforms for your henchmen or weapons fit to put serious dents in the plans of the good guys. They even have good deals on evil lairs such as Skull Island. According to the opening page, "In the battle between good and evil...evil will always win...because we cheat."
Here's the link.

Richard Simmons cited for assault

This is hilarious. CNN is reporting that exercise guru Richard Simmons was cited for misdemeanor assault in Phoenix for allegedly slapping a man who joked about his videos.

The man apparently recognized Richard Simmons and said "'Hey, everybody. It's Richard Simmons. Let's drop our bags and rock to the '50s". Richard Simmons then, according to witnesses, walked over and slapped the man. Here's the link.

Bypass Compulsory Web Registration

I don't like websites that force me to register for free. The information that I fork over in my registration is obviously being used for something, and I would be happier if that personal information remained personal. My solution until a few weeks ago had been to create dummy accounts at each of these sites. However, I found a much easier way to get around this problem. Much easier than remembering all of the different account names and passwords. The service is called Bug-Me-Not and it acts as an online storage place for dummy accounts. The best part is that you don't have to do the legwork. Simply enter the url of the site you want to visit and chances are really good that someone has already stored a dummy account at Bug-Me-Not for that site. Want to get on the NY Times site? Your account is "cypherp" and your password is "cypherp". Voila. Here's the link.

The Most Annoying Phrases

The english language is littered with thousands of irritating phrases. As the Plain English Campaign publishes a list of the language's most annoying phrases, Mark Oliver wonders what might have happened had one of history's great orators used them. Funny stuff. Here's the link. Pulled from Guardian Unlimited.

Trip to the Bookstore

One of the most exciting (and potentially expensive) events of my week happened today. That's right, I went to the bookstore. I'm consistently amazed by how many books there are to read. I feel like I could spend the rest of my life reading and not get through half the things I want to read. But, I managed to narrow my wishlist to just a few. So I've added a Literary Wishlist to my sidebar and also started a wishlist at Chapters.ca. I love books.
Read anything good lately? Why not tell me about it.
I'm currently reading "The Curse of Chalion" by Louis McMaster Bujold. It's a really fun, easy story with a lot of adventure and a smattering of theology. Here's the link.

Check Your Blind Spot

This left me with a slight headache and some blurry spots, but I still encourage you to try it.

Not bad. Here's the link.

No-go on the trackback

It seems I am unable to explore the wild and fascinating world of trackback links. Due to the very free nature of my blog I have no way to permanently link to any post I make. I have archives, but they are different. So, no trackbacks for me and I'll remove them. Just thought you'd all be dying to know the smallest details about my blog...

HaloScan

This is the service that allows me to have comments and trackbacks for every entry.
Pros:
Free,
Easy to set-up,
Comments and trackback capabilities,
More control for me to manage comments (I can erase things that are mean and nasty),
Good troubleshooting help (including a forum for discussions)
Cons:
Confirms suspicions that no one actually reads my site or cares what I write.
Here's the link to HaloScan...there's also a button on the bottom of the page.

New Layout

This is the new layout I'm going to try out. I am morbidly attracted to the colour scheme because this combination of greens has no right to be anything but disgusting yet somehow manages to reach a level somewhere between not bad and tolerable. I'm also off and running with a new comment service provider that will allow me to experiment with trackbacks. All the links are still active and I'm still in the process of fine-tuning the google search. For now it is good to go for searching the web, but my site remains a mystery.
So, leave me your comments. Tell me what you think of my new colour scheme and offer any advice you have.