The poem was written sometime around 1806, so Wordsworth had plenty to complain about, what with the Industrial Revolution and all. But, he spent most of his life in the Lake District of England, which was still positively bucolic when I visited the place nearly 200 years later.

When I read this poem last night, I had a "back in my day" reaction, but in reverse. Seriously, how much "getting and spending" could the guy have seen back then in lovely Grasmere? I'd like to drop Wordsworth into the middle of New York City now and see what he thinks. And yet, the poem makes me wonder about the fever pitch of today's commerce and marketing and advertising and technology and communication. In another 200 years, will the breakneck pace of our lives look more like a gentle stroll through a quaint village?

What I do know is that I also seriously underestimated the effect the sale would have on our kids. When Edgar—that's the car's name, of course—pulled out of the driveway for the last time, the kids cried. They cried hard. They cried for 15 minutes until we managed to stop them with the bribe of watching a video during dinner.

Sara has been sad about Edgar's departure, too, with good reason. It was a very cool car—the last of the boxy Volvo station wagons, with a third seat that faced the back. Sara drove that car a lot and didn't seem to mind much that one door handle broke off so that nobody could open it from the outside and another door couldn't be opened from the inside and the CD player didn't work when the weather was cold and the driver's side speaker was sitting, unattached, in the front passenger's seat and the cruise control was busted and the air conditioner didn't work and the engine was weak and the car shook at high speeds. It was still, believe it or not, a fun car to drive.

I wish I had been more aware of the rest of the family's attachment to the car. We needed to get rid of it, regardless, but I regret not realizing that I needed to prepare the kids for it. Next time we sell a car, I'll approach it as if we're putting a dog to sleep. Maybe that way I'll act with enough sensitivity.

The thing I like most about XyliChew is its marketing. First of all, the name is brilliant because the mints aren't chewy at all (nor are they xyley). Next, they claim that the mints are "100% Xylotol" in the upper left corner on the front of the package, while on the back in fine print the ingredients are listed as "Xylitol, Gum Arabic, Magnesium Stearate, Natural Flavor, Carnauba Wax, Beeswax." Maybe they're just giving 110 percent.

My favorite example of marketing sleight of hand has to be the "DOUBLE BONUS: ORIGINAL FORMULA. MORE MINTS." Fine. I can see how getting more mints would be a bonus. But how in the world can anyone claim that not changing something is a bonus? It's like saying, "Hey, everyone, we're going to pay you the same this year as we did last year. Bonus!"

Did I mention they're made in Finland? Triple Bonus!

The plane launch was part of Grand Rapids ArtPrize, an "open art contest" offering nearly half a million dollars in prizes to the most popular entrants as determined by public vote. Sara, the kids, and I have been loving ArtPrize, discussing what we like and don't like, what effect certain pieces have on us, and even how we should, or wish to, define art. The contest has provoked a lot of discussion among friends and neighbors, too. Some people seem almost offended by it, as if it demeans art in some way, while others are reveling in the "anything goes" nature of the competition.

There is a lot more I could say about both the paper-airplane stunt and ArtPrize in general, but I haven't fully formulated my thoughts about them, so I'm going to hold off for now. Instead, I'll leave you with a few pictures of downtown Grand Rapids last Sunday. Click on the thumbnails to get larger versions (without leaving the page).

Ben eats an apple every night before bed. He never misses a night. Never. And who ends up cutting the apple for him? Sara. So one night, Sara told him that she was going to buy an apple corer and teach him how to use it.

Sara: Ben, I'm going to buy an apple corer so you can cut these things yourself. Do you know what that is?

Ben: What?

Sara: You know, an apple corer?

Ben: Yeah, I know an apple corer. I mean, I'm not best friends with it, but I'm "familiar" with it. [he actually did the air quotes.]

Sara: Oh, Ben. You're such a wiseguy!

Ben: [still riffing] I also know the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man?

That's often how conversations devolve in our household--with one person getting sillier and sillier until the other one gives up. Of course, I'm never the silly one.

My attitudes about self-revelation have changed quite a bit over the years, and the change, I admit, has coincided with the Internet Age and its ubiquity of online information about everything and everyone. But here is one thing I know I'd want to shout from the rooftop of my house if I didn't have this virtual rooftop:

Sara, marrying you eighteen years ago was the best thing I've ever done. I love you now more than ever. Happy anniversary.

1. Adolf
2. Lucifer
3. Goliath
4. Genghis
5. Onan

Did I miss any obvious ones? Let me know in the comments. Who knows? If we get enough of a list going, it could be a real public service.

In other news, I finally updated the rickety old blog software that runs this site. It was a painstaking process, and I'm not sure it was completely successful, so if you run into any problems, please let me know. For now the site is using a barely modified canned theme for its design. It feels a bit too "corporate" for my taste, but I wanted to make sure things worked before I started trying to dress it up again.

The first musician in my series of "Music I Like" is Josh Rouse. I've never met a Josh Rouse album that I didn't like, but my favorites are "Nashville" and "Subtitulo." He's an amazing songwriter with a smooth voice and pop hooks that are extraordinary for how close they come to being cheesy without crossing that line.

Here are the Josh Rouse albums I listen to regularly, in rough order of preference:

I'm still debating whether to shut down the word of the day officially or to keep it going with a random new word from time to time as guilt overtakes me.

The site as a whole feels like an old jalopy to me now. Most of it is running on an old, outdated version of a blog publishing platform that hasn't kept up with the times. I'll probably update the software within the next month or two, rather than switch to a snazzier new engine, because I'm afraid I'd lose most of what's already here. Regardless, things will break, even if I stick with the same software and just do a version upgrade. Things always break. Once I have the infrastructure in place, I'll start thinking about a new design. I'd like to say that I'll start posting entries more regularly, too, but I don't want to set unreasonable goals for myself.

In Other News

Lately, when I'm not contemplating the sorry state of this blog, I'm usually immersed in web development work of one form or another, much to the chagrin of my non-technical Facebook Friends who have suffered the onslaught of my esoteric Twitter posts, which are then automatically posted to my Facebook status, where they are invariably mocked, but all in good fun, I'm sure. My buddy Jonathan and I just had the second edition of our book published. The publisher gave it a new title, just to confuse people. It's now called Learning jQuery 1.3. Overall, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, and I'm quite relieved by the first few reviews of it on amazon.com, which seem just as complimentary as those of the first book. In May I'll be conducting a three-day training workshop on jQuery, which should be fun and stressful.

So much for getting a good night's sleep tonight. If I had a brain, I would have stopped this nonsense hours ago. But I knew if I didn't finish this and post it tonight, it would probably sit in draft mode for another couple months (like the seven or eight other entries I've started but haven't finished). Good night.

So, I made up a rule for myself: No eating sweets, Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays I could eat whatever I wanted. And I did. And I do. Surprisingly, though, I don't eat any more junk food on the weekends than I did pre-diet.

Admittedly, it's not much of a diet, and it's not about losing weight, which is a good thing, because I haven't lost any. It's not even about willpower, though. Maybe it was in the beginning, but now it's more about something else.

Did I mention I have a sweet tooth?

This little non-diet is ultimately about having one less decision to occupy my mind four days of the week. Before two years ago, the mere sight of candy would spark an internal battle. And I'd usually lose. Or win, depending on how you look at it. But however I looked at it, I ate the stupid candy.

Now there is no struggle because there is no decision to be made. Every Monday through Thursday the decision has already been made. And it's a huge relief. The other relief comes each Friday when I can eat whatever I want without perseverating over it or feeling guilty about it. If I didn't have the eat-free weekends, I wouldn't have made it past week two.

Sure, I've "cheated" a few times, but it doesn't matter, because I'm not a slave to it and I can still count the number of times I've "cheated" on my fingers. Also, holidays (the ones I celebrate) and vacations are exempt from the M-Th rule, as they should be. Otherwise, it's four days on, three days off. Rinse and repeat.

Something there is inside me that doesn't love a variable, which is why at least 200 out of the 365 days of the year I eat the same Clif Bar for breakfast, the same mix of nuts and raisins for snack, and the same turkey sandwich for lunch. And it's why my brain feels just a little less cluttered when sweets are out of the equation.

Who knows how much longer this will last? I don't. But I don't feel the need to stop any time soon.

My resolution is less noble, and it also requires no work: I will not engage in any wingsuit base jumping. Watch this video to find out why:

[wingsuit base jumping on Vimeo]

How about you? Have you made any good new year's resolutions this year?

Crazy.

Of course, I jumped at the chance. And, of course, I panicked soon thereafter. The workshop (3 1/2 hours) and presentation (30 minutes) required a lot of preparation in a short amount of time. But somehow I managed, and the workshop went better than I could have hoped. The presentation didn't go quite as well, but that's okay. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that it was a terrific learning experience (and if you're really interested, you can read all about it on my techie blog, Learning jQuery).

After Tuesday's conference, I was too exhausted to join the rest of the speakers and attendees at the "after-party," so I took a long walk back to my hotel, checked out early, and took the F train to Queens, where I stayed overnight with my dear friends Nicole and Julian and baby Dash and watched the election results come in. It was such a treat to be able to unwind with friends and share this amazing moment in our nation's history with them. It couldn't match spending that time with my family, but it was the next best thing.

Here are a few pictures I took during my brief visit. Click on them to see a larger version.

Give up? It's Grand Rapids, Michigan, the city where I live. According to the article, "Grand Rapids leads the nation in the number of LEED-certified buildings per capita. In 2005, Mayor George Heartwell pledged that more than 20% of the city's power would come from renewable sources by 2008; it hit that target a year early… And here, in the heart of the Rust Belt, manufacturers are leading the greenification charge. Office-furniture heavyweights Herman Miller and Steelcase both have LEED-certified buildings in the area, as do industrial firms such as Cascade Engineering. " It's nice to see that Grand Rapids is doing so well in this area, and it's gratifying to read something positive about this place from a national publication.

If it weren't for my father-in-law, I'd have no idea that Ralph Nader is running for President of the United States. That's right, folks: Nader is running again, he's on the ballot in 45 states, and my father-in-law is a supporter. After reviewing the Vote Nader web site, reading about his views on a number of issues, and watching a handful of videos of him speaking, I have to admit that Nader almost has my vote. He at least has me thinking more about some of the issues that I care about, such as civil liberties, education, healthcare, and opposition to "preventive" war. That's more than I can say about the two major-party candidates, who either speak in platitudes or try to peddle fear and lies.

Don't get me wrong. I admire Barack Obama and am generally supportive of the general themes of his campaign, at least what I've been able to ascertain through the media filter. But I was deeply disappointed that he chose to vote for the FISA legislation granting "retroactive immunity" for telecommunications companies who broke the law on the government's behest—after he had said he would support a filibuster of it. And I respect what John McCain did for the country 30-some years ago (in Vietnam as a soldier, not afterwards when he traded in his first wife for an uninjured model). But I'm not impressed with his voting record over the past eight years, and I don't respect his sleazy, lying campaign ads, and I'm not interested in having four more years of a fear-mongering, bellicose president in office.

So, how is it that Ralph Nader, who has gained enough supporters to be placed on the ballot in nearly every state in the country gets absolutely no press coverage at all? Why did the mainstream media completely ignore Nader's 3,000+ rally during the Democratic Convention but still manage to mention Ron Paul's gathering? Why won't the two major parties allow him to participate in the presidential debates? Nader calls it "political bigotry," and I'm inclined to agree with him.

For those who like to claim that a vote for Nader is a "wasted vote" or that Nader is responsible for Gore's loss in the 2000 election, you ought to watch this (running time 2:45).