I finally found the perfect netbook (to replace my ancient laptop), but it hasn’t come out yet:

The Samsung NF310 is at heart a 10.1-Inch netbook but it will feature unique styling [and] various performance advantages over currently available netbooks. The netbook’s HD LED back-lit display for starters features 1366 x 768 pixel resolution… Also the NF310 when launched will make use of the 1.5Ghz Intel Atom N550 Dual Core processor. [» Netbook Planet]

I’m hoping I’ll be able to get it for myself as a Christmas present, although that might only be possible if everyone else on my list gets coal. So if you’re on my holiday list, please be very poorly behaved between now and Christmas.

I’ve upgraded the blog software on this site to WordPress 3.0. I figured I should get used to it on my personal site as soon as possible, because at some point we’re going to have to upgrade the blogs at work too. The new version has multi-user (and multi-site) capabilities built-in by default (instead of having a separate multi-user version), so it’s more useful for businesses now. It has a host of other new features, so hopefully I’ll either implement some of those here (if applicable) or at least learn to use them for the blogs at work.

One of the best new features: wp.me links! Just like the blogs on wordpress.com, my blog now has a “short link” for each blog entry, which is especially useful for Twitter posts. For example, the short link for this entry is http://wp.me/pYpK0-fM.

In other news, my Twitter feed in the right column is periodically not working, but that’s Twitter’s fault. If you’re a Twitter user, you may have noticed frequent “fail whale” appearances. Apparently they’ve been having server troubles.

As a registered Starbucks cardholder, I received a birthday coupon for a free drink of my choice. Now I’m sitting in the Starbucks on the east side of the Orange Circle, where I can easily judge the suckers who chose the Starbucks on the west side of the Circle. Those fools! Their Starbucks may be open later, but it’s not in a historic building.

Using my phone to type this post, I’m reminded of an Android app that I’d like to see: an app that automatically logs me into WiFi hotspots with web-based authentication, like Starbucks or Coffee Bean. It’s annoying to have to launch the web browser to log in and use the WiFi. Then again, unless I’m doing something particularly intense like watching YouTube videos, the 3G is fast enough.

So anyway, I got a white mocha.

The lemon tree stabbed me with one of its thorns today while I was trying to water it, which was especially rude considering that a) the temperature was 105 degrees today, and b) much of the state, including this county, was declared a “drought disaster area” today. No respect, I tell ya.

I noticed a new section on my Amazon.com homepage (I assume it’s different for every customer, but perhaps you have this too) called “Food Oddities: Products Tagged as Odd.” There are three products listed, and they’re not the sort of product suggestions I’d like to see right at dinnertime:

Fresh Whole Rabbit $38.50

Pork Chocs – Sugar Free Chocolate Dipped Pork Rinds $12.95

Booty Sweat, 8.4oz. Can (Pack of 24) $44.99

I’d like to point out that the Pork Chocs use sugar-free chocolate, for those of you who are health-conscious or have special dietary needs.

By the way, you need to click on the Fresh Whole Rabbit and check out the customer-uploaded images. Be sure to roll over them for their “notes.”

Ashleigh and I are going to Paris in November, and we’re working on a list of must-see places, must-do attractions, and most importantly: must-eat food. If you’ve been to Paris and can recommend a specific restaurant, be sure to let us know! If you have a strong opinion about a museum/monument that we simply must see–or mustn’t waste our time seeing–let us know about that too!

I’m specifically looking for places to have fondue, recommendations for Seine sightseeing, fun little shops and boutiques, fancy dinner that won’t gross me out, and places to sit and drink coffee and people-watch.

It was announced today that Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford, is going to be released from prison on August 16. The other would-be Ford assassin, Sarah Jane Moore, was released back in 2007.

Both were members of the Manson “family,” and are featured in the musical Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.

Someone needs to immediately start writing a fictional sequel (also a musical, of course) in which the two women reunite, and conspire once again to do what they failed to do 34 years ago: to assassinate Gerald Ford.

I imagine the two senior citizens will go on a long journey to accomplish their goal, only to fail at the very end, when they reach President Ford’s home and realize that he passed away in 2006.

My new plan for getting through the recession is to enter a lot of sweepstakes in the hope of winning free stuff and thus saving money. Today I entered (or re-entered) two contests for free mobile phones, one for free household appliances, one for a vacation to New York, and three for free computers. Granted, in the time I spent entering those contests just now, I might have had just as much luck walking outside and waiting for a free phone, computer, or household appliance to fall out of the sky.

I was looking through old bookmarks in my web browser, and it made me reminisce about useless web pages from yester-decade.

Some pages I enjoyed, which are still around, include:

• The Really Big Button That Doesn’t Do Anything
• Surrealist Compliment Generator (“Your hair is reminiscent of a self-digesting yak in heat.”)
• How to Keep an Idiot in Suspense
• Bert Is Evil!
• 101 Uses for Extra AOL CDs
• The Godot-Cam (“still waiting…”)

I searched and searched for an existing mirror of “The Page That Turns You Into a Chicken,” though, and I can’t find a single one that’s still up. How sad is that?

I started thinking about the bands that I’ve seen live in concert, thanks to a LivingSocial meme on Facebook (called “Bands I’ve seen live in concert”). Until I tried to list them, I didn’t realize how many I’d seen! Here’s the list, as far as I can remember:

Barenaked Ladies (many times), Guster, DEVO, David Bowie, Reel Big Fish, Kool & the Gang, the Offspring, Lit (were awful), Save Ferris, Offwhite (fronted by a friend of Ashleigh’s), Nothing Special (fronted by my friend Amanda), Cake, Alanis Morissette, the White Stripes, Hot Hot Heat, Hot Tuna, the Other Ones, Semisonic, Moby, Violent Femmes, Counting Crows, the Pixies, They Might Be Giants, the Aquabats, and Busta Rhymes.