Hey, why not talk about the spam? I used to complain about the spam in my comments all the time and I don’t want people wondering what happened to that plot thread. So here’s the deal: Back in the day I was manually fighting the spam myself, deleting the comments as they came in. When it got to be hundreds a day, I was goin’ nuts. But then Marq, my man behind the scenes, hooked me up with Akismet, some sort of program thing especially designed for the dealing-with of spam! How convenient.

So anyway, it seems to be working super well. As of the moment I am writing this, it is telling me that it has “protected (my) site from 22,643 spam comments already.” And the really impressive thing, to me anyway, is that the spam is slowing down. The robots behind it all are finally getting the point that I didn’t want them doing it on my web site. Isn’t technology grand? And also ungrand since it caused the problem in the first place?

Haiku!

I smell the ganja.
It’s wafting through the window
from some other realm.

Is that how “ganja” is spelled? My spellcheck seems to think so, but I’m no expert on the reefers and my spellcheck has steered me wrong in the past. It doesn’t even recognize the word “spellcheck”.

In other news, Marq is working harder than ever on the site. He’s got buttons and banners coming and going. Basically, just accept any changes you see over the next while for what they are, the hard work of one of the people on the site, but not the other.

Okay, so, with the release of the latest Swartzwelder novel, the Million Dollar Policeman, I have declared National Bookorderin’ Day in the Nation of PDR. But this year I have a complication: I already bought my books for this year. I did it months ago.

So, in addition to my new Swartzwelder, I’m getting the Black Panther Masterworks, which collects that characters appearances in Jungle Action. I’ve read these some time ago and they were quite excellent. Even saving a bit for a sale price, I’m paying more than I ought to spend these days, but owning this is going to make me happy, so there’s that to consider as well.

On top of this I got the cheapest of the used copies of the Space Quest Companion, which as far as I can tell is a prose retelling of the Space Quest games narrated by Roger Wilco. I would like to read that.

I will not be buying more books this year. This is all the money I can spend.

First this:

Then this: