Slightly more activity than is usual snuck up on the blog in February. Not that there was a whole lot of activity here to begin with, so there’s your comparison. Here’s what folks have found interesting when they came my way.

• February was olympic month this year, and the resulting metal haull was kicked off in style by miss Jennifer Heil. There’s confirmation now we won’t be seeing her in future olympics. Hell of a way to go.
• This blog, and nearly everything else public-facing I’ve got my hands in, is hosted by DreamHost. Every so often, they’ll pull a very minor oopsy that leaves me kind of scratching my head. Or, in some cases, scoring a discount. Hey, not my fault I already bought what they were advertising.
• Everywhere you turn nowadays, seems something either made by or hosted by Google’s cropping up. First search, then email, then their own IM service, their own answer to MS Office online, their answer to Map Quest, you name it. I made a crack or two about Google being pretty much all over the place. And, almost as though they were just proving me right, they went out and bought Aardvark–a realtime search engine I’ve been known to use that actually forwards your questions onto other users who might have an answer. Hey, Google, I’m still sorry about that. Seriously.
• Skipping back to the olympics, because we do that, our record breaking amount of gold metals was contributed to by Maelle Ricker. I wrote about it a few minutes after it happened. And she’s still a popular–well, as popular as can be expected for a blog this size–search term.
• I live in either a very tiny city or a very large small town, depending on how you look at it. I still had no idea exactly how tiny, or how slow, we were–until I learned there are actually still places here–big places here–that don’t have DSL yet. Or cable. That they’re still stuck with dialup or nothing. That… scares me. Still.

Fortunately, the month of technical issues has also come to a very conclusive end with the month of February. Although, there’s still the pesky little issue of a laptop that doesn’t quite work the way it should. But, can’t have everything. There’s your look at what we did have in the month of February. I’d say hopefully March ends up a litle better, but I know better. STill, I’l keep blogging. Interested? Keep reading.

January’s been an interesting/exciting/entertaining month, to be sure. Definitely more entertaining than I figured it could be, what with mom’s unplanned trip to the hospital and all–she’s very well recovered now, by the way. Other folks found things interesting in January, too. Have some highlights.

• Every geek should have a netbook. It’s a rule or something. They’re smaller, lighter, cheaper, and damn near as powerful as your average laptop nowadays. Not to mention they can probably take a hell of a beating. Still, to say I don’t have my reasons for not owning one would be a lie. I like my machines to last for, say, more than a year.
• Mom’s unexpected trip to the hospital started at a casino in Quebec. And promptly lasted over 3 days. Most of that time was spent waiting to figure out whether or not she’d need surgery. Fortunately, the surgery she did need was hardly anything major and her recovery was quick.
• I like the theoretical idea of the iPad. I don’t like its design on quite a few levels. No multitasking? On a portable computer? Really?
• I get all kinds of spam in my inbox. Some of it is just plain moronic. And some of that, even, still fools people. I wonder just how many username/password combinations this one actually got out of people.
• If I’m ever in the market for a new machine, someone please remind me about this post. I refuse to look at it right now, on the grounds that it may distract me from writing. But I still want those machines. Apparently, so do a few other people.

might be inclined to say there was a fair bit of at least semi-useful to someone content posted in January. Except this would be my blog, and I very rarely post anything semi-useful here–so I know better. Still, it’s an interestingly nice thought. Now, back to posting bits of randomness that constitutes my life in a nutshell. The content may improve, but don’t count on it.

The month hasn’t been as active on here as they probably should be. I’ve been skipping back and forth across the border, plus with Christmas and all the preparation for that folks in general just haven’t been browsing as much. Still, those that did browse were quite interested in what I had to say this month.

• We’ve been having issues with our web host, DreamHost, a fair bit this year. I ranted about that, and actually got a possible decent recommendation out of it. Might be useful in the event I don’t feel like self-hosting everything I use.
• Folks in Rochester don’t do Thanksgiving quite like I’m used to. comparing the two was interesting in a few ways, and not something I thought to do before.
• Sometimes, relaxation comes in all sorts of odd forms. And sometimes, disability services–yes, even in Canada–try to screw folks over when they least need it done. Like, for example, all the time. I wrote about both.
• All kinds of things get said about us as Canadians. We’re overly polite. we’re fans of our beer and poutine. Hockey is to Canadians like Christianity is to the right wing of the political spectrum. And sometimes, we stumble across proof. It’s then that I get amused.
• Jessica’s birthday went off without a hitch. There was plenty planned for it, much done, and a post written particularly for that occasion.

It’s been an interesting month, for sure. And an interesting couple months since I started getting back into blogging. Hopefually that says a whole lot about 2010, and maybe I might actually find a point for this thing beyond random personal and sometimes trivial facts about stuff that doesn’t matter to anyone else but me. But until then, random personal trivialities it is. Stick around this month if you like. It might be fun.

On average of about once a month, I like to try and capture a snapshot of things of general interest people have been pointing to here. Mostly for my own curiosity, but also because sometimes if they find it interesting, they might not be the only ones. Since the thing’s only been online for a little less than a month, the interest level’s probably gonna be through the floor, but oh well, I’m doing it anyway.

Since the blog came back from the dead in the first week of November, 275 unique visitors ran across these posts, and probably pointed a friend or two to reading them.

• The truth behind the Canadian stereotypes
• On why I’m becoming a Linux convert
• Winter makes a drive-by of the Ottawa valley
• On Christmas shopping, and the brain damage that results

There you have it. Bits and pieces of my life, documented and found interesting by folks. Hopefully it’s as interesting a read as it was entertaining when I was doing it.

Disclaimer: statistics may not be accurate, as this doesn’t count those of you reading this on Livejournal, which for the moment I’m unable to track. Hey, LJ, if you’re reading this, fix that. Also. MY ability to spell, and my ability to actually remember to link to the posts in question, seem to have taken a vacation. Here’s hoping next month’s is better.