What to do with unwanted things.

I’ve got several dozen floppy discs on my desk at the moment. They all have stuff stored on them. None of it is stuff I’ve any need for. I think. But what if it turns out I do need it? That always happens about a week after I throw something out.

All is not lost. At least I could finally find it in myself to throw away the 5 1/4 inchers.

Did I mention I’ve got Dar Williams tickets? I fear that this time The Socialist will be less than enthusiastic about going. After all, I just dragged him to a Dar concert three months ago. Pity a Texan friend of mine isn’t going to be around on the 18th. Or an antipodean friend of mine. I strongly suspect either one would be more than happy to take the other seat. *grin*

I’m finally over the cold that has held be hostage for the past week. Well, mostly over it, anyhow. There’s some funny business going on in my left ear that may well end up being Coldster’s Last Stand. So far, an antihistimine is keeping it in check, so I figure it’s just a blocked tube. With luck, the damned virus will finally get tired of hanging out and go off to infect others soon.

Speaking of being finally over things, I’m finally done submitting my taxes this year. I knew I had money coming back, so there was that added impetus to get them done. My capital loss that I took in 2003 is being spread out over three years. I have to say, the cash back it represents on my taxes has taken a lot of the sting out of the reinvestment strategy my broker implemented for me back then. I celebrated by hitting a nearby dress shop and poking around the sales racks. Must have been my lucky day: I came across a dress that had been majoryly reduced and then marked another 70% off. I tried it on and it fit me rather stunningly. So $20 later I walked out with a dress perfect for a wedding in April of two friends of mine. I’ve seen the bride’s dress, and she’s going to be gorgeous. I’m glad I’ve found something suitable so that I won’t prove to be too much of an embarrassment on the big day.

OK, anyone who made it down this far is either a complete fan of drivel or desperate for something to do. As a reward, I’ll give you something meatier to chew over:

Google’s No-Google tag blesses the Balkanized web

This won’t work at Dear Diary, since active links aren’t possible in our comment sections. Fortunately, very few people use the comments sections in DD to plug their own personal web sites anyhow, and I’m not yet aware of any “commercial spammers” taking advantage of our comment section for publicity.

What this new “nofollow” tag does enable a Dear Diarist to do however is link to something they feel is important for others to read without pumping that site up in the search engine standings. I can now give you the link to Save Toby with impunity, knowing that I can give people a good chuckle without giving this chucklehead any further boost to his illness.

What I can’t decide is whether or not this is a good thing. It’s just as important to read things you don’t agree with as it is to read views that confirm your opinions about something. So perhaps even NeoNazi and KKK sites deserve to float to the top of search engine results if they do indeed inspire the most traffic. “Know thy enemy” does have its practicality.

At the same time, too many interpret the number of hits on their site as a measure of their acceptibility (this is akin to mistaking one’s popularity for how much they are liked). And it does stick in the craw a bit that by simply linking to a controversial item I might be encouraging the author of said drivel to continue a questionable campaign. It’s an interesting situation, and one that I’ll probably end up devoting more thought on. It comes back to the question of what to do with unwanted things.