So I says to myself, "Self, why do you check these same 20 blogs when there are tens of thousands of them out there?" With that I went to find those diamonds in the rough, as it were, chock full of great links and neat insight into the lives of people out there. That's when I found that most blogs are crap for general interest. Check for yourself -- try any five recently updated blogs at Blogger and see if you are entertained. Four will undoubtedly be BOOOOORRRRRING.
Here's why:
a) Many sites are technically proficient with zero content. I don't care how many polls, pictures, or cgi scripts you can do, if you don't have good links or funny insight you aren't worth going back to.
b) Many sites are narrowly focused on subjects that are not interesting to someone not employed by a dot com firm, like preference for browsers (yawn), Mac vs. PC systems (snore), or desirability of flash or shockwave or other plug in features (still awake?).
c) Many sites have boring links or no links at all. And the lives of the authors aren't so interesting that by themselves they hold your interest. With that in mind, here's the usual linked narrative. . . .

Ever wonder about those lyrics you can't understand or are sure you heard wrong? Check them out at this site that explains commonly misheard lyrics. Allow me to save you some trouble looking for "Wrapped up like a douche, another roller in the night". (Via some blog to the left. Boy, I really suck at this blog etiquette thing. I find links, I bookmark them and I blog them later. I found this a couple days ago and really don't know where I got it. I think it was Random Walks. I'm not sure.) While I'm on the subject of songs, ever wonder why you get songs stuck in your head? Me too. I found this article on the subject but don't expect any explanation out of it because there really isn't one. I do get certain associations with songs, but never any I hear on the radio. Usually I associate weird or obscure songs with events or people. It's kind of like the smell associations bit I talked about last week. I know that's why oldies stations are popular, because those baby boomer types remember going to their prom and dancing to the Doors or something like that. I'm just glad they don't call 80s music oldies yet. One last music link: This review is the virtual definition of "pan."

Looking for a good reason to start drinking? It may make you smarter. On the other hand, this article might also very well demonstrate the fallacy of correlative versus causative value (ie, most people that do heroin also smoke, therefore smoking must cause heroin use). To the author's credit they did mention that problem in passing. Looking for a reason to raise beer taxes? This article suggests a 20 cent rise in beer prices would cut gonhorrhea rates by 9%. I can't believe drinking demand is that elastic. I'm sure it's not in Oregon -- the bottle bill means 20 cents is only equivalent to 4 bottles or cans found on the ground.

Random, bonus, hilarious link of the day. Via the Null Device, a fine blog. Whew! Remembered where I found something!