Bill C. sent me this link a few weeks ago and I've meaning to blog about it. Go check it out.

I think he's got some good points there, specifically as to what advertising is when you boil it all away. It's an interruption wanting to sell us one thing when we're in the middle of doing something else. This is true. When you go to Needcoffee, there's a better than average chance you're probably not wanting to see an ad for singles dating service. So there's been a huge mismatch between what might be relevant for you to see vs. what you're actually seeing. I think this happens better online than it does in the real world–in "real life," I would constantly be amazed at the offers I'd receive via snail mail. For example, a special deal on replacing the siding on my house–while I was living in an apartment. It just takes a little bit of checking to know that my address was an apartment at the time–and yet here I was getting mail about an offer I simply could not use.

The internet knows where you are just by your IP, so I'm assuming you're not seeing the same ads I am in some instances. But still, it's not working the way it should. So while I agree with some of the author's ideas in that article, I think the answers are a little simpler and less advertisageddonish.

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So here's a free idea for you: there's money to be made in somebody who can make a full-on search function that works as a no-brainer, quickly addresses any issues or bugs, and doesn't scare the shit out of you with their privacy policy.

Basically, if there is somebody that does this, they need to fire their SEO person, because I sure as hell can't find them through Google.

Here's the deal: in general, everybody's got way too much crap on their hard drives. You can buy a USB stick that's 400 times the size of the first hard drive I ever owned for $10. You can literally have a terabyte of storage on your desktop for relatively nothing. Hell, the new mondo desktop I bought has 750GB of storage on it. And I have a 500GB external drive just for my music and other backup purposes. Bottom line: storage has gotten stupid-silly and we're all now digital packrats.

I don't know about you, but I can't find my bloody car keys. So the prospect of 750GB of potential space in which to lose something is rather terrifying. And let's face it: the stuff is in a sort of quantum lost state–we know it's in there. It's not like it vanished. But we can't possibly tell you where. It might as well be etched on a rock off the coast of Malaysia unless you can lay hands upon it. (And I can't tell you how much I want some smartass with a smartphone to send me a pic of them standing on a rock off the coast of Malaysia.)

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Yes, this is going to be the shortest list ever: ever time I turn around I see bloggers who blog about blogging blogging about ways to come up with things to blog about. They write these as though serious trying-to-go-pro articles really need them. And I'm sick to damn death of them. So.

Here's my one tip for people who need these articles: you're either not cut out to be a serious ("serious" defined however you like) blogger or you're not blogging about stuff you're passionate about. You're trying to talk about the wrong stuff.

If you're passionate about something, you'll never run out of things to say about it. Unless it's the most narrow subject matter ever. The mating habits of naked mole rats, for example. I could probably not write about that subject for more than a few days. But then again, I'm not passionate about naked mole rats. The naked mole rat expert from Fast, Cheap… could probably blog his ass off about them, though.

I mean seriously: I have a huge backlog of posts I want to do for Needcoffee that aren't done for lack of time. Because I'm passionate about pop culture, which might be sad, but blogging brings out the sad damn-i-need-a-life in all of us.

If you're blogging just for you–which is basically what I do on here–then yeah, blog whenever the mood strikes you. But if you're really trying to do Something ("Something" defined however you like) with your blog and you're getting writer's block, well…other folks might try and dress it up and make you feel good, but I'll give it to you straight. Either take a long, hard look at your tactics and change them up, or just face up to the fact that it's a hobby.

Okay, well, I had to work way too hard to try and help a guy on 43 Folders.

Anyway, here's what he was complaining about: tucking away songs that you don't want because they are tied to a particular event. Xmas, for example.

Real simple. It helps if you have everything tied with a genre like "Xmas" or "Holiday" or something.

Select all the songs you wish to tuck away somewhere else. Then right click and "Get Info" on all of them. Change the album to "Xmas Tunes" or whatever you want to call it, and make sure you check that this IS a compilation.

Now…go to your compilations folder, grab that Xmas Tunes folder and move it wherever you want it. Then just go back into iTunes and delete the songs from your library. When it becomes time to celebrate our favorite "reformed" pagan holiday, just throw the songs back into your library. Done.

Now, if you don't have everything fixed with a genre, then just use my previous tip about using stars to mark things needing action, and if you come across "Jingle Bells" when you shouldn't, mark it with the right amount of stars and then deal with it when you get home.

As to the comments on 43 Folders: I had to register, fill in my personal info, do a captcha, then wait for my password to show up. Then I put the password in and was told that I was denied access to the comment form after all that. No error messages. No whoops, you did something wrong. Just nada.

If I ever put in place a scheme so user-unfriendly as that bullshit, please promise me one of you will call me on it, okay?

So, Ken sent me this.

And while I absolutely agree in the concept of equal time for all candidates, I think the solution to this is to give exactly what is called for: equal time.

Comedy Central should be willing to provide a timeslot for a satirical talk show that any candidate is welcome to host, as long as he does so in character.

Same thing with Fred Thompson. Any candidate should be given a show on NBC where they play a D.A. There's enough cop shows where this would be possible. Hell, you could almost do that with Law & Orders.

See? Problem solved. Somebody pay me.

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of people clamoring for this show. It's an absolute no-brainer. Get Gaffigan to play the Alton Brown role. Why not?

I keep seeing this rubbish about cute little "atheist nightmares" that supposedly prove the existence of God, so fine: here's my latest TV pitch:

Now that Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares has hit America, it's time to take that concept and mix it with the success of The God Delusion, Root of All Evil? and others.

Thus, I submit to you:

Richard Dawkins' Atheist Nightmares.

Each week, Richard goes 'round to see if he can help budding atheists make that final leap and shed their unneeded belief systems.

Think about it:

Gordon convinces folks to use local produce; Richard convinces folks to find local groups that non-believe like they non-believe.

Gordon gets cooks to clean up their kitchens, which half the time are filthy; Richard gets people to tidy up their belief systems, basically showing them that they don't actually believe half of what they think they believe.

Gordon snaps people out of their culinary doldrums with tough love; Richard snaps people out of their spiritual doldrums with tough logic.

He's not converting the unwilling, mind you. It's just really hard to shed a belief system–take it from somebody who knows.

I think it would be a smash hit. Somebody pay me.