I collect links of interesting things all week with the idea to post them here. I leave them open in browser tabs and, eventually, it takes forever for my browser to load because of the number of pages it has to open. I think that's a good system for forcing blog updates, and also causing some judicious selection in what actually makes it.

First, there's the election of the Pirate Party to the EU parliament. I think that's pretty awesome. The message is loud and clear: intellectual property legislation is out of control and people actually care.

In other pirate news, Pirate Bay Nemesis Has Name Changed By Pranksters.

Yes, it was immature, and yes, I laughed. I'm just not real long on sympathy these days for the kinds of lawyers that make a living working on behalf of organizations that would rather sue consumers into terrified submission than engage in dialog about consumer rights and fair use. I also wonder if he's now legally required to put down "Pirate Pontén" on any forms that ask for other names he has used.

OneSpin is URL shortener that works from the address bar without installing buttons or browser plugins or registering accounts. It just works. (Watch the video.) I'm kind of loving it for Twitter.

After repeated requests and two months of waiting, ComHem has finally given us back "The Awesome Channel"http://history.viasat.se/. The caliber of my choice in viewing material has greatly increased as a result. No more Momma's Boys for me. Now I'm hooked on The Edwardian Country House (and kind of irked that I forgot it was on and missed episode 2).

Fried Chicken and Coffee is looking for rural literature. Make Rusty happy, send him your stories.

The 'Blog' of 'Unnecessary' Quotation Marks - Kind of like FAIL Blog for grammar people.

McSweeney's: Comments written by actual students extracted from workshopped manuscripts at a major university

"You talk about pregnant raindrops and chaos and auditory canals and 'the passing of time' as 'an orifice,' when you could really just be talking about humidity and ears."

Words to live by.

The Republican Budget Molecule

I laughed until it hurt. I wish my macroeconomics class had been that much fun. (I got an A, by the way, which disqualifies me for membership in the Republican party.)

Yet another plagiarism scandal rocks online writing communities. On a side note: apparently sending an email an administrator at Literary Mary asking to have plagiarised work removed makes you a 'cunt' and responsible for all that is wrong with the internet today.

If you're posting your writing online, even in closed workshops, it's important to know how to find your work reposted online.

Trying to eat healthier around here. Part of that is trading the chips and cookies for healthy snacks (or something a little fancier). It's a good time of year to swap homemade limeade or iced coffee for all those sugar-bomb sodas and chemical drink mixes too.

It's like Battle of the Evil Internet Titans. I think I need popcorn. Also, Google's obsessive drive to monetize everything probably explains why their search engine actually kind of sucks these days.

In the time of blogs and tweets and being able to pour out every random thought to an audience of millions at the click of a mouse, does anyone actually keep a private journal? Maybe we should: Why Good Writers Keep Journals