It's not every day that a highly acclaimed author specifically asks for your signature. And no, I wasn't just signing a check for one of his excellent books.
Palahniuk was in Louisville on June 8 during a book tour for his latest book, "Haunted." You may not recognize the name, but you may know him as the author of "Fight Club." Many of his other works are also in the middle of movie deals, including my favorite, "Choke."
It's mildly amusing to me how people -- the media, your next-door neighbor, the waving chicken mascot on the corner of your street -- will make it a point to remind you how right they were about something they predicted. Maybe they picked Florida to win the men's NCAA basketball championship, or maybe they picked Taylor to win "American Idol." But it's interesting to note how hardly anyone reminds you about a wrong prediction.
If you're a fan of "Fight Club" or "Choke," you won't want to miss Chuck Palahnik's appearance at 7 p.m. June 7 in The Clifton Center Reception Hall (2117 Payne Avenue). Carmichael's Bookstore is hosting the event, but due to the expected crowd, the venue has been moved just down the road. Palahniuk will be reading from his new book, "Haunted," and will be signing books as well.
I owe a bit to Palahniuk because after reading "Choke," I realized that maybe I could write "The Developers." Not that my stuff is as good, but it's a similar style ... at least, I'd like to think so.
Stop by any Krispy Kreme and pick up a free doughnut. If you need to figure out where to find a Krispy Kreme location, visit the website for additional details.
One of the best things about the summer is amusement parks. Maybe I'm slightly biased, since I worked at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom for eight years. Even still, I suspect most other people have fond memories of their trips to amusement parks. Unless, of course, you hurled every time you got off any spinning ride.
I finally have an RSS feed for my site available. In the near future, you will notice an RSS button just below the navigation on benwoods.com as well as thedevelopersbook.com for The Developers. For now, however, you can also pick up the feed by clicking here.
Amazingly enough, there are a handful of people out there who still have not purchased an iPod yet. It's too bad, really, because studies have shown that people who have iPods experience less back pain later in life, most likely because they aren't carrying around boom boxes on their shoulders during the formidable years of their lives. Haven't you wonder why chiropractors have yet to endorse the handheld music device?
How easy would it be for the United States government to keep tabs on people via the Internet? Soon, Congress could call a vote against Net Neutrality, which would allow ISPs to deliver partner websites faster than others. While this would be disruptive to the World Wide Web as a whole, this still wouldn't give access to data logs from all ISPs.
Today, I'm continuing to help clean out my dad's house. It is interesting to see all of the board games and random items I used to have 15 years ago, but in reality, there are a fair amount of things that I don't need anymore. On top of that, there objects that I'm not even positive I'll ever have a need for again, other than to take up space in my basement. And besides books and dust, I really don't like to collect things at my house.
In another move toward 1984, Congress continues to endorse ISP snooping, which could attempt to keep tabs on everyone's online activities.
As reported on CNET, government officials are working toward determining how best to aid investigations into child pornography on the Internet. Allowing ISP snooping, however, would leave open the possibility of the government to track everyone's information.