Who do I still think I am??

This one's about the week in news, kinda.

30DBC PROMPT: "Provide your thoughts/opinions on a newspaper/magazine article or a radio/television news story from the past week. And if you feel inclined, let loose and blog about your week. Also, feel free to comment on your favorite blog entries from your fellow challengers from the preceding week, though this is not required."

Good evening kind readers! I never really know what to call Sundays. They're part of a weekend, but they're at the beginning of the week on most calendars, or at least they were when I was a kid. Monday's like the "official" start of the week for many people with regular day jobs and such, and then there are those people out there that say things like "I'm off on Mondays and Tuesdays, so today's like my Friday"...I used to be one of those people, but I never added the "it's my weekend" in reference to it being my days off, because it sounds kinda douchey. It comes off as forced conversation, like you're trying to justify what you do for a living that doesn't conform with the normal idea of workweek boundaries.

All of this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, mind you. I'm probably the last person who should be complaining about people turning phrases and worrying that it makes them sound like d-bags. What I do know is that it's Sunday, and that means it's time for the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 's Sunday News, which is always a good time.

Today's article comes from a little newspaper outlet you might've heard of, USA Today. I have their app on my laptop and I've mentioned that before...when I'm not actually connected to the internet I can still use it to look at articles from the last time I opened it up, which is kinda neat. I am a little confused though, because I went to look at it today to see what was happening on the greatest planet in the universe, but all the stories were from March 21st, so I refreshed the app to get to stories dated for today. Nope...everything's still dated the 21st. I'm gonna keep telling myself that nothing newsworthy happened this weekend, while preparing myself mentally for an onslaught of articles tomorrow. I mean, Rob Ford had to do something stupid, right? And this whole Russia/Ukraine thing still has legs. And March Madness is in full swing.

Anyway, I went with this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2014/03/21/twitter-8-is... because I enjoy technology and stuff, even if I'm not as up-to-date with it as I used to be and this happened to be the first news story I came across that I cared enough to read today...it's amazing what passes for news versus what's just another Buzzfeed article from 2011 shared by a third party Facebook spambot.

So this article...yeah, Twitter turned eight years old on Friday. Eight years of this technology! That's, like 77 in human years. And what I like the most about this bit of news and the accompanying video are the people who don't seem to care about Twitter, with almost a snobbish disdain. Like they're really trying hard to sell you on the notion that they can't be bothered to see how people can cram so much into 140 characters, or how the mere suggestion of the website is cause for their very real need to tell you where it can go.

Hey, look...eight years is a long time for anything, and I don't care what it is. Some cars don't even last eight years, and that was a damn revolution, the automotive industry! But just like everything else in the world, out come the people who have to shit on whatever they don't like as soon as you shove a microphone in their face. That's just like society to not know how to appreciate technology or say something nice about an accomplishment.

Personally, I use Twitter. I like it for what it is, and it's certainly changed the way people exchange information, but I could also live without it. I probably spend less than five minutes a day scrolling through tweets (and that's assuming I've even gone on Twitter that day), unless I also happen to be watching a sporting event at the same time. For some reason I prefer to use Twitter as my social network of aggression choice in conveying my feelings during football season, even though my tweets are linked to my Facebook account anyway. Occasionally I'll tweet a link to the latest blog entry I've written, but I've gotten away from that ever since WDC changed the "Share" tool and made it less convenient (in my opinion) to do so.

I know it's there. I know it serves a bigger purpose than other websites and social networks, and I also get that it's not for everyone. And if you've never used it and plan not to, your life won't be affected one way or the other. News will be disseminated in various forms; it's not like major things people are gonna wanna know will be handicapped by "Twitter Exclusivity". There's no premium for using it over anyplace else, unless brevity is your thing and wanna zip past a lot of info in a hurry. If you're leisurely scrolling and wanna take your time looking at all the pretty pictures, stick to Facebook (or be an internet hermit and don't join any of the many different ways you can kill time with a high-speed modem...your choice). Me? I'm content with what it is and how it serves my purposes. I think that's really all we can hope for.

BCF PROMPT: No prompt today...but congrats to AnotherDreamer on being named the most recent "Blogger Of The Week"! How exciting!

To recap my own week...let's see: I started out with no internet access, finally got confirmation of my ankle procedure, and there was no news yesterday or today, according to USA Today. I think that pretty much covers it on my end.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

This has to be some kind of a pop culture hall of fame, class of 2010.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

Crazy that this entry almost didn't get written today. I need to learn to take it easy on the Honey Nut Cheerios. And when did the plastic bags inside the boxes become so cheap? Usually I just open a little corner so I can pour them directly into my hand for snacking purposes, rather than shoving my entire arm in the box. Nope. The hole split the bag a few inches down...on both sides of the bag. Pouring from his box is gonna be a mess, and it looks like I'll be eating Cheerios like crazy the next few days to they don't get stale and go to waste. But Cheerios don't really ever go stale, do they? They kinda start out life being a near-tasteless, crunchy, bland GMO-laden nightmare for people with tricky stomachs as it is. I'm pretty sure you could find Cheerios buried under your couch cushions from pre-Twitter times and it would taste nearly identical to a Cheerio purchased in 2014. Not an experiment I'll be attempting to replicate; just sayin'.

Speaking of snacks, I was initially planning on using this article (http://mentalfloss.com/article/24691/10-snack-foods-originally-sold-medicines) for my Sunday News contribution, until I realized it was written almost four years ago. And that four of the ten items are soda, which smacks of lazy storytelling or whatever. Surely soda could've been listed once and three other foodstuffs could've been worked in there.

I do, however, like Mental_Floss little "Amazing Fact Generator" in the corner though...sweet find with the "Twitter's bird logo is named Larry, for Larry Bird." I did not know that. I should just keep hitting the AFG button over and over and copy/pasting my findings on my own Twitter page (where you can follow me at the very practical handle of @Fivesixer if that's your thing).

And finally, while trying to Google something I vaguely remember seeing recently with a search phrase of "ten things that no longer exist on the internet", I came across this gem (and you can thank me for it later): http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=330770.

That's it for me folks...gonna try and cross over and get some sleep. Got another freakin' doctor's appointment in the morning and I don't wanna feel too rushed or anything. Peace, I'mma do the things that I wanna do, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!