Dear bloggers:

Can we all agree that the word “intertubes” has lost whatever snarky charm it once possessed and should be relegated to the place where overused web slang goes to die? We can bury it right next to “teh” and “ownz0r4ed”. Trust me, the world will be a better place.

Sincerely,

Mark

I’m giving some thought to doing some freelance work to supplement my regular income. Last year, a small magazine offered to contract with me to write an article, but I had to turn them down because work was crazy-busy. Things are more settled now and it might be interesting to take on some side writing projects. Grant writing is one possible avenue; I’ve done a fair amount of it and it’s something that always seems to be in demand. I have friends who do some occasional feature writing and that could be fun if the topic was interesting. Or I could combine a couple interests and try doing some disability-related consulting for technology companies.

My overarching goal is twofold: to further develop my writing and to put some cash value on all this free time I already spend in front of my computer. I don’t have much of a portfolio, but this blog and some of the work I did for the BBC should prove that I can at least string together words in a semi-engaging fashion. Any advice from other freelancers on how to hawk my wares?

I really should take down the string of Christmas lights I put up a few weeks ago. For some reason, a good third of the bulbs have gone dark, as if they’re suffering from a case of the post-holiday blahs.

The Borders bookstore in the downtown Minneapolis Block E complex is finally making good on its promise to close up shop. This news follows a string of other announcements from retail businesses stating that they would leave their downtown locations. The news about Borders’ departure is particularly troubling because it couldn’t find another tenant to sublet the space. The restaurants and nightclubs in Block E are thriving, but the city councilmembers who voted to subsidize the development probably didn’t envision that it would have tens of thousands of square feet of vacant retail space within five years of opening. And I have yet to understand why the city invested millions of dollars in a poorly lit, poorly designed structure that looks like something out of a cheap theme park.

Minnesota Monthly recently ran article on how Block E could be improved. Some of the ideas are questionable (giant video walls?), but almost anything would be an improvement.

Obama and Huckabee appear to have won their respective caucuses. A rather remarkable turn of events, considering that the dominant political narrative for much of 2007 had Clinton and Giuliani as the presumptive frontrunners. Expect to see a lot of establishment Republicans gnashing their teeth and doing their best to downplay the significance of Huckabee’s win over the next few days. Obama looks well-positioned for the New Hampshire primary. If he wins there, he will probably be the Democratic nominee for president.