Previously on Book of PDR:

When a webcomic mentioned an obscure physics term, PDR tried to use Google to find out what it was. He ended up with a computer version of a virus inside his computer. He cleaned his computer and got rid of the virus enough so he could still operate it for his limited needs, but he knew the virus was still there. He thought it would not matter. He did not realize that it was SKYNET!

Anyway, I just spent like four or five days without the Internet. I guess my virused-up computer was sending out spam or something, so my provider shut me down (without actually telling me, just for the record). Anyway, I seem to have cleaned up the thing now. Maybe next time I’ll try a little harder to prevent this sort of thing.

Now to get caught up on all the Internet I missed over that brief time.

Could I have a moment of your time to talk to you about Pluto?

Okay, first off, this right here is not exactly topical. Pluto’s reclassification from planet to dwarf planet happened last year or something, but I still hear the occasional reference to it, so I can pretend like it wasn’t just my procrastination that has kept me from speaking up.

But anyway, Pluto isn’t a planet any more. It seems like a lot of people had a problem with this. I, personally, didn’t see the problem. The reasons given by the scientists seemed to make plenty of sense to me (basically: If Pluto is a planet, then there’s plenty of other rocks in the system that are also planets). Now I doubt that everyone is just upset that what they were taught isn’t valid any more, but I bet that’s some of it. That, I can almost understand. But there are plenty of people who seem to feel that Pluto has been slighted or devalued.

I disagree. What makes planets so special that any celestial body that isn’t one is a loser? Nothing! I love them all! Comets! Dwarf Planets! Quasars! Nebulae! Moons! Asteroids! It’s ALL Good. You people are astronomical bigots or something.

There’s this graffiti on the sidewalk down the road from my apartment that has been there for as long as I can remember. It reads: “HULK HOGAN”

I have grown to love this bit of vandalism because I am amused by things like the random advertising of a wrestler’s name on a sidewalk for no reason. In fact the graffiti doesn’t even specify anything about the man, just his name. I like that sort of thing.

Years ago, it started fading away, but someone else must have also liked it because they were willing to spray over it again to freshen it up. As good a public service as this is, I do have to fault the artist for changing the slogan to read” “HULK HOGAN PART 2” because instead of simply preserving the original piece, they have instead felt the need to make themselves a part of the work, calling attention to their re-spraying. I felt that was unnecessary. Better to simply keep the piece alive on its own, I thought.

But anyway, the thing is getting faded again and I’m hoping that some civic minded individual might get around to keeping the tag alive, preferably just the original words. After all, this is our heritage I’m talking about.

So here I’m a more than a fortnight into the new year and I’ve just been forgetting to put anything on my little site here. That’s a sad little start, isn’t it?

But also I can’t think of anything to say.

I still have no idea what ever happened to Golden Grahams.

That’s all I got.

So the Dark Lord Char’Nagh has come and ended another year for us and we’re all a little older and a little wiser and a little littler thanks to his visit.

My posting irregularities prevented me from getting around to complaining about Christmas this year, but to be honest my heart wouldn’t have been in it. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m much happier ignoring Christmas than I would be complaining about it. At any rate I made it though all these holidays and now I don’t have to ignore them or complain about them for another year.

2008 was a good year for the PDR, especially in the sense that it was the year that he went from “Never having travelled anywhere” to “I’ve now eaten French Toast in three countries, in two hemispheres.” Let’s see if I can’t add some more travels to 2009.

So anyway, I have rung in the new calendar year with a viewing of both the Bill and Ted movies. I love those guys. I wish they were real. Ah well. Perhaps the future will bring them to me.

Station.