Starting tomorrow, you won't see any links to the blog headlines in our daily newsetter. BUT you can still get into the blogs at MergeDigital.com, so don't forget to click thru and check out what's new.

Got something to blog about? Send us your info and ideas at comments@mergedigital.com and we'll consider you for our 2007 lineup. Seriously.

- Judianne

Well, the weather finally forced me to do it. I've officially switched from short sleeves to long sleeves.  I was holding out as long as possible, and I even wore short sleeves on Friday, but I changed before going out at night. It was just too damned cold.  Oh, sure, I'll switch it up and wear short sleeves when I finally take the extra step and start wearing a jacket, but while I'm still going jacket-free it's got to be warm shirts for me.

I know, I have strange wardrobe habits, but I hate change and I hate lugging around a jacket before I have to, so I wind up subjecting myself to unnecessary torture.  And really, when you're just shuffling from the house to the car to the job and back, does a few minutes in the cold make that much of a difference?

    -Tucker

I was playing Yatzee with a friend the other day and the only roll I had left to get was the Yatzee (five of the same number). I rolled twice and only had three of a kind. One roll left isn't much to get excited about so I just dumped the two dice down and... WOW... I got it! Now, if stuff like that would only happen in other situations - say the Powerball or being that 1,000th customer somewhere or even just winning a drawing for something good. It just doesn't happen that way. At least not for me - only in Yatzee.

- Judianne

I always thought I was pretty smart when it came to technology but I guess I'm just good at reading directions. Since I got my iPod I've been scrambling to figure the thing out. Apple has never been very good about offering detailed directions. Yes - I know what the basic functions of the buttons and scrolls are from the graphic, but beyond that I'm clueless. It took me two days to figure out how to stop my computer from just downloading anything and everything every time I plugged in my iPod. Maybe I'm losing my tech edge? Or maybe I'm getting old? AH! Or maybe I'm just making too much of all this and I should have simply paid more attention to the defaults and setups when I installed iTunes? Damn, I hate it when I'm dumb and right at the same time.

- Judianne

I have finally caught up. Who cares if I'm almost a decade late and possibly the last 20-something on earth to get an iPod? I finally got one (and I didn't even have to buy it) - it was a birthday present. When my boyfriend gave it to me he joked: "welcome to the '90s" about my late adapter status. Funny (too bad the iPod came out in 2001 - so HA!)

I have to say that now that I have one, I can see what all the fuss is about. It's so convenient to download every track and photo I've ever stored on my computer into one tiny (I got the Nano), portable, super-easy-to-use player/viewer... and that's my review after having it for less than 12 hours.

Now if these headphones weren't so freaking uncomfortable, I'd be set. How about a laser that just beams from my iPod directly into my eardrums? Laugh all you want... that's probably coming soon. Cancer be damned, let's go wireless with this baby!

- Judianne

There's something about zombies that makes anything they're involved in automatically cool.  Zombie movies, no matter how bad, are always fun. Zombies are always a good plot to throw into a cartoon or comic for a good time. Zombies are fun to kill in giant masses in games like Dead Rising.

Maybe it's a little sick, but zombies let us indulge some of our darkest, most sadistic desires. Rip a person's arm off in a movie and it's a little disturbing. Rip a few dozen zombies limb from limb in a movie, however, and it can be downright comical.

Case in point: in the Dead Rising game, there's a big outdoor plaza filled with zombies. In a corner of the plaza is an industrial-size push lawn mower. You can see where this is going. It's just plain fun to plow through dozens of flailing undead monsters. They aren't people - they're zombies, so it's ok.

Maybe we'll never really know why zombies are so undeniably awesome, but does it matter?

    -Tucker

Moving is hard in general but when you're moving across the country it goes from crazy to downright madness.

I've been trying to book a truck to ship my car across and deliver it to my new residence and that hasn't been easy. The deal is that I found a place on the internet, got a quote and then gave them my credit card for a deposit. Now, a "driver" will contact me about when they will be picking up my car and the rest of the money. Somehow, giving a total stranger my car and a bundle of cash doesn't settle well with me - especially because I am just supposed to sit and wait for that person to call me in a week (or two) to let me know when I can get my car back.

On top of that, I bought a plane ticket today and as I clicked BUY I got a notice that my price had been changed in the past few seconds to $20 more. I still bought, but that sucks.

Then, there's the parents - at least my parents.

They want to do anything and everything to help, which is great, but I feel really bad even asking. Turns out I don't HAVE to ask and even when I ask them NOT to do something they plan on doing it anyway. So, now my dad is taking off of work in the middle of the day on a Wednesday to drive two hours and pick me up from the airport, my mom is giving me her car and/or driving me around whenver and whereever I want for a week or so and they're both constantly offering me money. Geeze - maybe I should move more often (just kidding). Seriously, I feel stressed out about the whole thing but having my parents being so forcefully giving makes me even more stressed out. I want to just appreciatively accept everything they're offering but I feel guilty and  - to be honest - kind of insulted that they don't think I can do it myself. (I know... I know... there are more than a few of you out there thinking that I can just shove it for complaining about such great parents.)

It's just all part of the moving madness. I still have a few weeks for more drama to pile on. I just hope my blood pressure can take it all.

- Judianne

I'm usually a pretty big stickler for grammar.  That's not to say my writing is perfect, or that the occasional error doesn't slip through, but in general it really bugs me when people can't write or communicate properly.

I capitalize and punctuate most of my text messages and IMs. Sometimes I'll let the caps fall by the wayside (except in the case of "I"), but I've always got my commas, periods, and yes - even semicolons and hyphens - in there.  Part of it is strictly habit, but the other part is communicating effectively.  It's the old "man-eating dog" vs. "man, eating dog" issue. I'm sure in context people can figure out what you're trying to say, but it makes a person look dumb when they use incorrect grammar.

An article I read (though I forget where) was trying to make the case for e-mails/texts/IMs that the sending party conveys a sense of importance and "busy-ness" by sending out crudely constructed messages, but I wholeheartedly disagree. I'm all about computers and quick communication, but I'm one of these people who feels proper grammar is essential to proper communication. 

If we start ignoring our rules of language, we won't be much better than a bunch of monkeys taking random stabs at the keyboard. *LOLROTFLMAOWTFBBQSCUBA!!!!!!1*

    -Tucker

Great. It's been warm all week and now, today, the day I am supposed to take off on a camping trip, it's cold and raining. Super. The good news is the storm is heading South and I am heading North but that doesn't do anything for the temperture. We'd better have one hell of a camp fire for my California-winter-hating ass (oh, and a lot of beer will help too).

- Judianne

It's a good thing I'm not rich.  See, a few of my friends are the type who come up with crazy, half-baked ideas all the time.  They'll be really gung-ho about it for a week or so, then suddenly they'll never talk about it ever again. Sometimes they express intent to go even further, but for the most part the projects just fizzle out.

So why is it good that I'm not rich? Because they'd be trying to sucker me into fronting the capital for all these crazy ventures. Granted, most of them I'd just turn down and laugh at, but I'm sure I would latch on to an idea or two here and there. Who knows, maybe I'd get even richer with these cool ideas, but with my friends sometimes you just never know.

    -Tucker