That's unfortunate. Now that you mention it, I have a friend who thinks I collect toy goats, and my wife's mother thinks—and neither one of us knows where this idea came from—that she collects mermaids.

Many years ago I had a very large collection of ketchup packets. I didn't start it on purpose; it just sort of happened.

I switched from MS Office to OpenOffice about 10 years ago, and then went over to LibreOffice because it was the default office suite when I switched to Linux. I find the free options work beautifully for my personal use, but every once in a while someone sends me a Word document with elaborate formatting that…

I had this one custom made, and I'm quite fond of it.

...into another bucket.

I um, actually use Print Screen, Pause/Break, and Insert on a very regular basis. I'll grant that Pause/Break hasn't had much purpose since the DOS era, but I seriously don't understand how other people can get through the day without Insert. For that matter, that whole block of keys — Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete,…

I remember that one! One of my former roommates was the local Comic Book Store Guy, and he got a copy in some giveaway or other. I never watched it, and he claims he didn't, either. I know that's what you're supposed to say when you get caught with porn, but I'm pretty sure I believe him.

"a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind."

What I'm saying — or trying to say, anyway — is that consumer broadband has been around for longer than most people have had Internet access. I don't think that even a third of the kids I graduated high school with had used the Internet by the time we graduated, and when they finally did, it was in college on a…

Convenience, price, DRM-free. Let me purchase my content online at a reasonable price, and let me listen to it on the device of my choice. That's it. I don't pirate or share my media, but if I can't purchase it online and listen without device restrictions, I'm probably not aware of it.

Regarding dial-up, I have no problem believing that a 23-year-old wouldn't remember it. An Internet connection wasn't a must-have utility for most people until about 10 years ago. I'm 31, and I know plenty of people whose first Internet experience was on a cable modem in 1997.

The point is the sharp bit at the end.

Pfft. Not one of those people has ever played Doctor Who.

Other suggestions:

Livejournal, actually.

You'd have to expand beyond Mountain Dew, but now that you mention it, that might work. He who controls the caffeine controls the universe, as they say.

Do check it out. There's a lot of material in the original radio version that didn't make it into the books. The BBC also adapted the later books in the series for radio in the year or so leading up to the release of the Disney movie. The later stuff assembles everybody from the original cast who's still alive…

The ballpoint planet theory is detailed in chapter 21 of HHG (thank you, Google). It's in the radio version, too, which you should listen to if you have the chance. Listen to the whole thing, including the new episodes from 200 and 2005. Your ears will love you forever.

This short was first available online a couple of months ago, and I'd been following it for some months prior. I was underwhelmed when it finally showed up, but I was surprised to see just how polarized other people's reactions were. Either they adore it, or they're borderline hostile. I dunno, though... I don't…

You must've seen Mr. Nanni's other Lovecraftian shorts, yes? The Casting Call of Cthulhu, The Necronomicon, and (especially) Elder Sign are all pretty great. Not uh, not the same feel as this one, though.