How to 5t read a blog;

Sam sat down at his PC terminal on the distributed processing digital web, and decided to do a little research. He had an ongoing list of Google projects that seemed to grow like a weed. If he took a project day and researched two or three, he could get a lot of information out of online data, but converting into knowledge in his head limited his speed to... well, let's just say that his Academic career had progressed 3 subjects at a time, even back then; he filled out full-time requirements with phys-ed. His lesson on life's little problems for today was that every time he struck three off the top, he discovered that he had inevitably added more than three below it out of interest. He took a few minutes to copy it to Notepad; you never knew when you were going to be convalescing and have time on your hands. He reflected that, actually, if he scanned the list for relevance before researching, normal life would be selective of the areas of effort: if he never actually got to a particular entry, that entry might not be relevant to real life.

Today, Travis' recommendation of the Tom's Hardware web site was the subject of his inquiries. It was different from a blog: To read a blog, you had to use the archives to find the link to the very first article and click "newer link" for each successive entry until you EITHER got tired and wrote down (or bookmarked) where you were OR got to the top and subscribed. Hmmm... he didn't subscribe to _that_ MANY, but he STILL didn't have time to read them all. Ursula could be relied upon to tell him that if he didn't LIKE it, it wasn't that good, but he suspected she was just prejudiced.

He held down the control key and typed "F." This put his cursor in the box for searching content on current instance of any open Microsoft application: He typed "BIOS" and initiated the search. He used the repeat feature to keep searching new instances until he got to the end and the browser started over. Apparently the elite world of BIOS manufacturing had no late breaking headline news for all the world. Next he chose the search filed on the web site and went about his business, reading what there was available for what he needed to know. He'd come back later for all he wanted to know. Travis had a way of trying to tell him all there WAS to know, and that was too much. Nope, Tom's Hardware was good, if you could read and had a brain.

Ursula called from her chosen spot in the den. Her laptop's wireless connection had been reliable, but perfect performance on the part of the machine did not stop most users from seeking human intervention from a source outside their person. "What you got there Care bear?" He stopped and listened for response. "I was Googling for Dog shit, and look what I came up with!" she asked.

While not specifically a question, Sam understood that his presence was desirable, and left his station, maneuvering around a pair of bunny slippers on his way to her. He reflected amusedly that if Ursula was of a mind to, she'd put his hat rack right in the middle of the living room and hang her robe right there, where he couldn't miss it, but she would NOT leave it lying on the floor. Oh well, it was not imperative that she be without her robe this early in the afternoon.

Ursula had a dark and stormy blog up on her screen, and appeared to have followed his instructions correctly without a problem. "What seems to be the problem?" he inquired. "The problem SEEMS to be that I can't read the part that the author seems to think is most _important_! Oh, it's English letters alright, but it ain't ENGLISH!" Sam smiled at her look - she was stern in her speech, but she was smiling at him too. "That's LATIN," he exclaimed. "Where did you find THIS?" he asked with interest. Ursula's pause warned him not to expect too much from her reply. "Well, it wasn't in the living room, because YOU were in there, and it wasn't in the kitchen or the dishes would be done. Hmmm... I guess it must have been right here on the computer!" She didn't dwell upon his lack of specificity, and he played along carefully. "OK, if it wasn't already here when we got up this morning, you must have found it on the internet. I already taught you about Google, so we'll dispense with the formalities. What topic was it under? -Dog shit- isn't descriptive enough for me to find it on my own!" He transfixed her with his gaze, and she cocked her head coyly in response. "To tell you the truth Sam, you'd have to prove you're dumb to worm it out of me against my will, you're that smart, but I was really searching for stuff on Pedigree's for a dog to give as a gift." Sam knew Ursula's intellect AND her ability to prevaricate, and so he put himself on continual alert for puppy love, and looked at the site.

Sam was a fan of dictionaries, and this looked like an excellent opportunity to employ one. He directed her to use the cut and paste feature to store the relevant Latin phrase on the clip-board. Then he showed her BOTH how to open a concurrent browser session AND how to use alt-tab to swap between applications. As soon as she was back at the keyboard, she didn't wait, but pasted the Latin directly into Google and hit "Search." To Sam's surprise, a list of translations from a multitude of Latin translators and phrase collections immediately popped up; he didn't even have to show her Google's translation capability. Her next action reflected exactly how practical Ursula could be. She grabbed a piece of paper from the printer and alt-tabbed back to the blog. By the time Sam figured out what was going on, she was handing him the URL, and shooing him back where he had come from. She called her gratitude to his retreating back. "I love you Sam, but not as a substitute for my brain!"

He grinned. "Just don't forget about Disciplinary Barbecue and all the company later... how long do you think it'll take to get to Golden Corral?" "If you're trying to ask if I'll get ready on time, I will Sam, but I really don't know how far it'll be. I've been to our local Golden Corral but not this one." Sam acknowledged he hadn't shown enough foresight with the comment, "Tell you what, I'll remind Travis if you'll remind Bubba. I can't imagine the Nippons won't be there, but if they aren't it'll be for good reason. I'll GOOGLE a map on Mapquest, deal?" Ursula was a good listener, even if she'd prefer to be at her own entertainment. "Deal," she called back. It would be a while before Sam honestly thought he was smarter than she was; "book smarts" were not the only kind there were!