Expect my blogs to be quieter in the next few days, maybe longer depending how long the union employees at the company I work for go on strike. I’m scheduled to work long days until the contract is signed. Just one of those perks of being an management employee. Thanks for all your support and eyeballs.

Been busy reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves and trying to get the sites from the old CSS design over to the new. I’ve gotten four pages of sites moved over to the new plus added many more new sites. To get to the new, add index.php to the end of the URL: http://www.meryl.net/css/index.php otherwise it defaults to the old index.html.

Man, Eats, Shoots & Leaves has done very well in the US (#2 on New York Times best seller list and #1 in my hometown paper’s list). The publisher has retained the author’s use of her native English (UK) complete with UK punctuation standards. This is a great move — it would’ve been nice if there is a summary of the differences in punctuation between US and UK English (at least, I have not seen it yet).

I am taking it easy because if my company’s union employees go on strike, I’m going to be putting in long hours every day (weekends, too). So I am just doing what I need to do to get by and spend time with the family.

My daughter got a telescope for her birthday from her grandparents two years ago. Paul and I may forget things in the midst of the family craziness, but he manages to remember and follow through on astronomical-related events. Last night’s sighting is the most memorable as we got a threefer.

Spent a bit of time thinking of how to describe this, but the words don’t come. First, we see Jupiter with vertical lines, two moons above, and one below. I couldn’t imagine Venus coming close to that amazing sight. Surprisingly, Venus held her own. When I first glanced at Venus, it looked like a crescent moon. Big deal. We have the moon with us all the time. Then, Paul switched eye pieces. There it was! A purple glow around the crescent, which is a reflection of Venus’ clouds.

We couldn’t find Saturn. After putting the kids to bed, Paul ventured out with telescope in hand to see what he could find. He waves for me to come out. I look in the telescope and just see a fleck of light. I am not impressed. The stars with my own eyes are just as exciting. He looked again and adjusted it for me. Concentrating and again, I saw a speck… but I stay focused and finally a crystal clear view of Saturn appears with its famous rings! It was tiny, but WOW!

Keeping Found Things Found is a survey of how people track information they find on the Internet for when they needed it again later. When I find cool sites, I admit I’m reluctant to bookmark them today because I know when I want them… I won’t remember the name or where I placed it in my well-organized bookmarks file. I’m freakish about being organized, but even it doesn’t help me keep found things found like this great site about Greek mythology.

AOL Jumps into the social network craze with ICQ Universe. No, I won’t do it. I am not going to register and bug people again. Orkut was the last straw. [ Via Smart Mobs ]

It’s time to work with the ones you have signed up for and make the most out of them. Ryze has been the winner for me although I find its usability needs help.

Dave Pollard offers 15 tips for making the most of reading and writing time as a blogger, but the advice can apply to reading and writing anything online. Since writing is also what I do for a job, the advice is useful there, too. This one is worth reading closely.

This blooper from BBspot is a winner.

You know I love learning about names and their origins. It’s also interesting to see what people name their children and wonder whyyyyyy. There was a special on TV years ago that talked about real people with names most of us wouldn’t dare name our children. Moon Unit Zappa (surprise!) hosted it. Ridiculously Large List of Silly Names also has a few links at the bottom to more silly names. [ Via >a href="http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001116.php">Languagehat ]

You know you’re a geek when viruses and worms invade your dreams. Last night’s dream involved my battling the Bagle (aka Beagle because it’s pronounced as such) Worm among other computer problems. Not funny!

Update: Originally, I posted “Beagle,” but Simon wrote thinking I meant the dog. The Bagle worm is known as Beagle, too, because that’s how it’s supposedly pronounced. Either way, worms suck.

Mazel tov to Christine and Mike on their engagement! I’ve had the honored of being Christine’s roomie at sxsw ‘02 and meeting Mike and sxsw ‘03. They’re great individuals and a delight together. Heartiest congrats!