The blogging has been hot and heavy for a while here at Medary.com. But I'm in the process of shifting gears as summer recedes in the rear view mirror and we breeze through fall and head for . . . college basketball!

I'm also working on a few other projects which will occupy some of my time--I've accumulated a pile of books that are begging to be read; I've finally hooked up a turntable to my computer to finally convert my old vinyl LP's to digital iPod-ready tunes (which is what I happen to be doing tonight); my partially-written science fiction novel has been languishing and it's starting to get really lonely; and I've started writing a more politically-oriented tome as well. I've got a couple of pieces of lawn furniture to sand and re-lacquer. Go get a flu shot or two. Celebrate a wedding anniversary. Keep losing weight. You know, stuff like that. So much to do, so little time.

The bottom line is don't be worried if the rate of posting slows down here. I've got my usual Thought of the Day series queued up for a while, and my retrospective One, Two, Three, and Four Years Ago series will be there too to tide you over should I neglect things for a day or three. I'm around. But I'm probably busy.

Don't panic.

I have now turned off the automatic user request feature on the board, because it seems that the vast majority of users of that feature were obvious spammers. I don't like spammers very much.

So, the only way to get an account here is to ask via e-mail. Ask nicely.

The procedure:

1: Ask for a user id that might possibly be a real name, or at least a real word.
2: Use an e-mail address that actually works.
3: Send an e-mail to me from that e-mail address proving you're someone who has something more than spam on their mind.

You may mail me with your request at medaryrequest (clever user name, isn't it?).

Then the little curly-cue at-sign. This one: @.

Then yahoo.com.

Put it all together into an e-mail address, and send something coherent to me if you want commenting privileges here. I don't check that account all that frequently though, so you'll have to be patient.

And remember, I'm still picky about who my friends are.

I've neglected the "Sections" area over there on the left side of the screen. But I also had an idea--"those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

Since this iteration of Medary.com went live on February 21, 2005, a lot as happened. A lot.

So, I've decided, as an occasional feature here, to go back into the archives and present some "golden oldies," posts I've made about various things which, in my very, very humble opinion, have stood the test of time.

That's what the sections One Year Ago, Two Years Ago, Three Years Ago, and Four Years Ago are all about. Now, since I'm just starting this little project, those sections are pretty empty right now. But they'll fill up, soon enough.

It will be an interesting adventure for me personally, as I'll be seeing how my thoughts have evolved--or have remained consistent--over these past few years. And i'm taking you along for the ride, too.

I think that all sides of the political spectrum can probably agree that we don't really want to repeat what has happened in the last four years. So, let's try to learn together.

I've updated my software here at Medary.com.  It went much easier than I thought it would.

One thing I've been meaning to do for some time is to change the look of the site.  It currently uses a look (a "theme") called "Professional."  That's the one with the blue header bar, and left and right sidebars.

I've found another theme, called "pure" which has a black header, and only a right sidebar--no left sidebar at all.  I think it's cleaner than Professional and I've set it as the default theme for Medary.com.  If you don't see the new theme, just delete your browser's cookies, and that should take care of it.  If you actually log into Medary.com, then you'll have to go to My Account, pick Layout and Language, then pull "Pure" down from the menu and then hit "Save Information."

Enjoy, in moderation.

Much work has been happening over at SDSUFans.com.  There's a new forum for South Dakota State University athletics.  The new forum is here.  The old forum, here, will be around for a little while (until May, probably).

I've got a stack of papers from the last couple of weeks that I plan to crunch through this afternoon, while watching the Tennessee Lady Vols and then listening to the SDSU Jackrabbit women take on the Wyoming Cowgirls in the WNIT.  So there will be a bunch of posts, I imagine . . .

Well, it seems like the new version of my blogging software broke some links in my Conference Map Project, but that was easily enough fixed.  Now that I have a couple of free hours, I'll look around here but it looks like I'll stay on this version rather than trying to figure out how to restore my (upgraded) database to the un-upgraded version.

Onward!

Well, if things look a little strange, it's because they are.  I was playing around with a new version of my software here and it apparently decided to upgrade my backend database.  I've got a backup, but I also need to take Snookums to supper tonight, so it will be a while before I can play with it further.

I might just decide to stay at the new version . . . what the heck.

Tanned, rested, and ready to rock!

Much more coming soon (as soon as we get a neighborhood garage sale this weekend out of the way . . . )

Posting will be light-to-nonexistent for the next month or so. Gone fishin'.

I don't blog in pajamas.  I'm usually in sweat pants and a t-shirt, although in the summer shorts replace the sweat pants.

I knew you'd want to know.

As my two or three readers may have noticed, posting has been light.

We've been out on the road watching basketball. Not necessarily good basketball all the time, but interesting nonetheless.

More posting ahead . . .

I had to put my dog Biscuit to sleep last week. She was a fifteen-year-old whippet and the sweetest dog in the world. She'd been slowing down for years though, and had gotten to the point where she could barely navigate the stairs to get to her doggie door downstairs. Probably blind in one eye, and losing her hearing, things were generally going downhill for the old dog. It was time to let her go. I miss her.

My el-cheapo 2-year-old laptop is dying. So I'm in the market for a power laptop suitable for gaming . . . 2 GHz processor, fast hard drive, lots of memory are the base criteria. Anyone have any ideas?

You'll see a new item at the top menu bar and the user functions.

I've installed a Forums plugin, just to play around with it.

I may introduce a forum to Medary.com's sister site, sdsufans.com, so I wanted to install the plugin and kick the tires a little bit.

I suspect most people are more comfortable interacting with a discussion-board format site than a blog-format site, so that's why I'm playing with the discussion board.

This latest extended hiatus from posting started with being snowed/iced in by a blizzard/ice storm after Thanksgiving in South Dakota. We lived by candle-light and generator at my sister's place for a couple of days, then escaped back home to Kansas City, just in time to board an airplane for Ft. Lauderdale and take a Caribbean cruise.

So, there are lots of pictures to post and stories to tell. Snookums and I are entering a (relatively) slow period travel-wise, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on some of those stories over the next month or so. That doesn't mean we won't be on the road--we've got a couple of basketball trips planned. And, generally, we'll also be catching up on some of the UT and SDSU basketball and sports news.

The Conference Map Project has been stagnant for far too long, too. I really need to crank out the 2005-06 Division I and Division II maps, preferably before the Final Four is completed. Sigh.

Home again after a trip with unusually poor Internet access. Watch for a Whip tomorrow, Shub-Internet, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, and/or the Flying Spaghetti Monster willing . . .

I've turned the Blog Directories and Blogroll blocks back on. This probably doesn't mean anything to you. Oh well. Tastes like chicken.

Because of performance issues with the blogrolling.com and the sitemeter.com sites, I have removed the Blog Directories and the Blogroll blocks from the left-side menu bar.

They'll stay removed until I have some confidence that performance issues on those sites won't blow Medary.com out of the water . . . again.

Medary.com continues its meteoric climb to the top of the blog charts, reaching the Adorable Little Rodent status in the TTLB Ecosystem.

I'd like to thank all of my fans, the Academy, and of course my friends and family, but most of all, my adorable Snookums, for making it all possible.

Once again, long pointless hours spent blogging and linking are paying off, as Medary.com has evolved into Flappy Bird status in the TTLB Ecosystem.

The money will come rolling in any minute, I'm sure. (crickets chirping)

Hmm, birds eat crickets . . .

Medary.com has achieved the not-quite-so-lame-as-before Lowly Insect status in the TTLB Ecosystem.

So, there's some small success to be had getting up far too early in the morning, drinking excessive amounts of coffee, and digging through RSS feeds.

Must blog more! Get link count up! (What's that, Snookums? I need to go pick up the dog poop in the back yard? Well, OK . . . )