I’ve used MT-Blacklist to block 1356 comment spams (so far) from my blog since I installed it. At the time of this posting, over 54% of the attempted comments on this blog have been spam, but they have all failed to slip through my defenses. My fortress stands against you, spammer! I shall crush your efforts like the dozens of Diet Pepsi cans I consume each month! Do your worst!

But MT-Blacklist is old news. I’ve already written about it. I’ve decided it’s not enough to simply block comment spammers silently. I want to mock them publicly as I’ve done in the past, while also mocking them more permanently. To that end I’ve included a little footer at the bottom of this page that keeps a live running total of the number of comment spams MT-Blacklist has blocked. That number will just grow and grow, and I will laugh and laugh.

Do you feel lucky, punks?

In my never-ending quest to stalk you, my reader, I’ve compiled a list of the things you were searching for when you came to my page from a search engine during the month of July (with a tip-o-the-hat to Mike Zornek for the idea, which I think he got elsewhere…).

These are the top 20. There were 699 others. You can see how many times people found my site using each, and it’s pretty obvious the list is top heavy.

#reqs  search query
-----: ---------------
144: cool band names
88: josh lewis
32: videlectrix
21: straight pride
11: Cool Band Names
11: "cool band names"
9: ANLDEGN scramble
8: pc load letter
8: rapper names
7: "I feel great" commercial
7: i feel great commercial
7: surreal music
6: nintendo pinata commercial
5: I feel great commercial
5: word scramble ANLDEGN
4: anime chick
4: "Mario Kart" Baby Park Record Video
4: cool blog names
4: ugly fish
4: ANLDEGN

Apparently people come here quite often either looking for cool band names or looking for me! You like me! You really like me! And yes, my entry about the Straight Pride flag is now the #6 result for “straight pride” on Google.

About a month ago I heard of Iron and Wine while buzzing around on iTunes. I just picked up their (debatably?) most well-known song Naked as We Came, and it is absolutely hauntingly beautiful. I actually got tears in my eyes the first time I heard it because it talks about things that I’ve thought of and, honestly, feared for many years.

It’s only two and a half minutes long, and I cannot recommend checking it out any more highly than I currently do. You can get it on iTunes too if that makes it any easier.

If you pick it up, let us know what you think of it.

Update: Have I got a deal for you! It’s available for free through a link on their site.

As Steph already said when she stole my thunder, I’m really looking to get one of these babies if they come out in time for Christmas. It’s looking like the Nintendo DS will come out in mid-November in America, or at least that’s the way the wind is blowing. No one knows for sure yet.

The DS looks like a handheld party with all the geeky drool factor you could ever ask for. Its primary feature is its dual screens (which is where the “DS” comes from) which open up interesting new possibilities for game design, creating new ways for the gamer to see and interact with the game. It’s got built-in Bluetooth, so you can wirelessly connect to other DS owners within a few meters of where you’re standing and play games with them on the spot. It also has WiFi (802.11b, I think?), so it can get on the internet from any wireless hotspot (including the ones in my house and at my work) and play games that way too! Oh, and you can do text chat with it.

It’s got a microphone, so programmers can make games that use voice recognition. I’m assuming the mic will have uses far beyond that, too. It also has a stylus, so you can write on it, use the stylus in games if the game is made that way, and chat with handwriting and doodles over the ‘Net as well.

It has so many interesting features, and Nintendo has never released a system I didn’t like, so I think this one is going to be a big hit with me. I mean, imagine playing Mario Kart: Double Dash!! with a few other people live over the Net totally wirelessly from the couch in your living room. Or imagine playing Animal Crossing live over the ‘Net. (They haven’t announced that the Animal Crossing game the DS will have will actually have online play, but it seems so obvious to me…) And the graphics are going to be more high-powered than the Nintendo 64, but on two tiny screens in the palm of your hand. That’s pretty sweet. If you’d really like to drown in way too much Nintendo DS information, check out this article on TooCubed.com.

It’s sounding like they’ll cost about $175. I’m hoping that’s true. I’m going to be permanently carrying a towel with me starting in late October because I won’t be able to stop drooling.