BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Some of you may have noticed a bit of a change in the footer section of Brainpan Leakage. If you haven’t just yet, feel free to scroll down, have a look, then scroll back up… I’ll be happy to wait…

Okay, done looking? Good deal…

Well, here’s a bit of an explanation for the changes…

Everyone knows that extra special stuff for your blog, AKA – Blog Bling, is important. That’s why there are all manner of plug-ins for displaying pictures and the like, or even stuff that is related to various causes, such as the pink ribbon for October, etc.

Well, in the interest of causes, awards, blog endorsements, and just general silliness, my brain elected to leak out some stuff for other bloggers to grab in case they wanted some Brainpan Leakage specific Blog Bling…

If desired, bloggers can simply download the image desired, then upload it to their own site. Then insert the provided html snippet, (being sure to change the www.yourdomain.com to the location of the graphic on their server, of course), into their page wherever they wish to display the bling. I ask only that the graphics remain unaltered and that the link to Brainpan Leakage remain intact.

If you decide to display any of this bling, let me know and I’ll add you to the appropriate rolls!

CAUSES NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART

Show the world you are a caring blogger. Let everyone know that no monkeys were harmed by your blog, and that your content is Certified Simian Safe!

<a href="http://www.mrsellars.com/mrblog">
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/simian_safe_trans.png"
 alt="Certified Simian Safe"></a>

<a href="http://www.mrsellars.com/mrblog">
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/simian_safe_001.png"
alt="Certified Simian Safe"></a>

BLOG ENDORSEMENTS

Endorsements for your blog are ever important. What better recommendation could you have than that of the Evil Redhead herself, E K! New visitors will be compelled to read your blog, because if they don’t, E K will hunt them down and hurt them! (Trust me, she’s evil like that…)

<a href="http://www.mrsellars.com/mrblog">
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/ek_approved_trans.png"
alt="Evil Kat Approved"></a>

<a href="http://www.mrsellars.com/mrblog">
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/ek_approved_001.png"
alt="Evil Kat Approved"></a>

A permanent link to this information can be found in the sidebar menu, under “Blog Bling”…

Yes.  I’m a silly bastage, but you already knew this… That fact, however,  shouldn’t keep you from tagging your blogs with the above displayed, most excellent Bling…

More to come…

Murv

I talked to my child’s principal today… But, we’ll get to that in a minute… Right now, the wayback machine is calling…

The last time I was called to the principal’s office, I was in high school. Yeah… Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and all that jazz…

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t a troublemaker by any stretch of the imagination. As it happened, my infraction had more to do with freedom of the press, and the administration wanting me, as well as a few other student journalists, to roll over on each other regarding a source from a news story. Fortunately, we had a hell of a staff advisor and the inquisition came to a swift end, minus the use of thumbscrews, detention slips, or suspensions.

Yeah… We were a regular bunch of Woodwards and Bernsteins back then.  I don’t even remember the exact story to be honest, but it probably had something to do with seriously hard hitting news, like some football player’s grades being fudged to keep him on the team, (because, of course, that so rarely happens). Or, maybe it was about a particular inferior brand of floorwax was being used by the janitorial staff.

Truth is, the story probably wasn’t even that “sexy”… We probably managed to get our hands on the lunch menu for the following week a few days early and broadcast it on the student radio station, KRSH, or something stupid like that… I really and truly don’t remember…

Suffice it to say, as you can see, the incident was so traumatic that I’ve simply blocked it out after all these years…

Yeah… Well… Saying it was traumatic  sounds much better than saying it was just so unimportant that I didn’t bother to remember… But, I digress…

Anyway, like I was saying, we took our Journalistic integrity very seriously back then… Last I heard, some of my cohorts even went on to become actual paycheck earning, byline having, Journalists, while I went the direction of writing Fiction instead… Of course, judging from the news I read in the papers and see on the tube these days, it would seem they went in the direction of Fiction too…

But, I suppose I should keep my opinion to myself where the integrity of today’s Journalism is concerned… Besides, this is really supposed to be about getting called to the principal’s office… So, let’s get back to that.

As I said at the beginning, I had occasion to chat with my child’s principal  on the phone today. Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything too serious. The reality is I had recently voiced a concern over the school district’s Internet policies. As it happened, the principal was kind enough to call me to discuss it.

Very cool… I was impressed by the attention to the matter, the timeliness, and the overall concern expressed… By the principal, that is.

The district’s policies, well, that’s a different story… But, we won’t go there right now.

The thing is, because of the subject we were discussing, I happened to mention that my feelings about the policies were partially driven by the somewhat ugly things I have learned doing research for my novels. I mean, given the subject matter about which I write, I’m bound to learn some pretty disturbing things about human nature and sociopaths, correct?

So, no big deal, right?

Well, if you remember one of my previous blog entries, (They’re Creepy And They’re Kooky… – March 2008), I don’t exactly run around broadcasting my profession to folks at my child’s school. In fact, other than Internet marketing and when I am actually “working,” (i.e. at a book signing,) I don’t say all that much about it at all, unless asked, of course. It’s not that I’m ashamed of it, but hey, it’s just my job. I mean, after all, it’s not like I would walk in to a parent-teacher conference and say, “Hi, I’m Murv, the plumber,” or “Nice to meet you, I’m Murv, the aircraft mechanic.”  Therefore, why would I go around announcing that I am an author? Again, unless asked of course.

My point here being, apparently the principal did not know what I do for a living. Or, at the very least, he didn’t know what the subject matter of my novels happened to be…

…And, by the same token, he probably didn’t, and still doesn’t, know what I used to do for a living… That being the fact that I was a Senior Level Electronics Tech and Internet Systems Administrator for 25 years…

“So, what does that have to do with anything, much less being called to the principal’s office?” you ask.

Well, you can take the Tech out of Geek land, but you can’t take the Geek out of the Tech… What I mean is, I still have my finger in the whole electronics and Internet thing… Including, analytics and IP tracking…

So, imagine my amusement when within an hour or so of hanging up with the principal I do a quick scan of my website logging and see, plain as day, that my legal name has been Googled, along with the tag “books,” all originating from an IP address registered to the school.

And, of course, Google dumped him right into my blog…

Given the sometimes racy jokes, unsavory words, and often tongue-in-cheek innuendo  my posts generally contain, I have to wonder how long it will be before I get called to the principal’s office…

Oh, do you think they’ll let me bring my notebook computer with me to detention? I have a lot of work to do and I could use the quiet time…

More to come…

Murv