teamgrondul.blogspot.com?

Longtime readers know that the official title of this blog changed from Industrial-Strength Science to Team Grondul to better reflect its content. The blog's web address, however, has remain its original industrialstrengthscience.blogspot.com. It appears that I can change the address to teamgrondul.blogspot.com to match the title, but that would result in broken links for you, our readers. So, I'm soliciting opinions on whether this "rationalization" of our blog's web address is a good idea.

And It Goes On

I apologize for the light posting of late; we are still busy rebuilding the house. On the upside, Ketan suggested I take this opportunity to run both networking and coax cables throughout the house, so that's my new plan.

Back in Red

I've returned the blog to (a version of) its classic black/white/red color sheme.  I liked the green, but it just didn't say "Team Grondul" to me.  Your opinion?

Team Grondul Powers, Activate! Form of a Blog!

I'm experimenting with a name change for this blog. I think the new name more accurately represents our content. Plus, the word "Grondul" almost doesn't exist outside of our little family, so the new name is more distinctive.

I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying...

This is one of the funniest blogs ever! Enjoy!

Popular Blogging: Nerf Modding, Alyson Hannigan, Mazdaspeed Miata

I looked over Industrial-Strength Science's hit history recently and several trends have emerged:

• One trend that is decidedly not new is that searches for phrases like "Nerf Maverick mod" produce the largest number of hits.
  
• Another trend is both new and surprising: We receive a lot of hits from Google Image searches for Alyson Hannigan. I find this surprising because no images of Ms. Hannigan appear on the blog, though I did link to numerous photos in this post.
• The third trend is also surprising. Searches for phrases like "Mazdaspeed Miata tire size" and "MX5 2004 tire 16 inch pressure" not only have pointed numerous folks at the blog, but also place us as the first result. Hunh.
  

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Whedonites in the readership are probably aware that Joss Wehdon's next TV project, Dollhouse, will hit the air in January. Those same fans may not know that other audio-visual Whedony goodness will be available much sooner.

You see, during the writer's strike, Whedon wrote a story called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The cast and crew volunteered their services in the hopes that Joss would somehow figure out some way to make money off the project. The movie that resulted will be streamed live from its website in three parts on July 15, 17, and 19. After that, it will be available for download, then on a DVD with extra material.

By now, I hope, you are interested in the cast and storyline. The movie follows would-be supervillian Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) as he is foiled by superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan "Captain Tightpants" Fillion) and works up the nerve to talk to a cute girl (Felecia Day). So, the hero is the villian, and the villian is the hero. Oh, and it's a musical.

So, I encourage you to check out the trailer, read the comic, and watch the full story once it becomes available.

Are We Boring?

Acivities not on our weekend to-do list:

• Brew beer.
• Shear a llama.

I think we must be boring.

A Record Year

The interweb has been burdened with Industrial-Strength Science since November 2005. In 2006,the first full calendar year of this blog's existence, Team Grondul published 330 posts. This year puts the previous one to shame, at least in terms of quantity. As of this entry, Alison and I have put up 349 entries in 2007. This prolific output results from a period at the beginning of the year when I was posting lots and lots of links. We don't have to do that now, since I've added the "Tales of Interest" section to the right-hand column. Since about the middle of the year, we've been posting less frequently, but I've been making an effort to post a higher percentage of entries with original content. I plan to continue that trend in the upcoming calendar year.

Nerf Maverick Revolver Cylinder and Limiter Mods: The Belles of the Ball

I occasionally poke around on the SiteMeter page for Industrial-Strength Science. It gives me a heady, Big-Brother-like sense that I know way more about what people are doing on the internet than I really should. I find the By Referrals page (under Recent Visitors) to be the most interesting. It shows on what page a visitor clicks to be directed to The Official Blog of Team Grondul. There are many referrals from our friends' blogs, like ToddUlmer.com, briBreakfast Blogger, Diving into the Wreck, and, recently, Atomic Nerds. Additionally, there a numerous visits resulting from Google searches for assorted, seemingly random phrases. None of that surprises me.

What does surprise me is that, for the past few months, the single largest source of hits are searches for phrases like "nerf maverick mod." Apparently, a lot of people are interested in modifying their brightly colored and huge-but-harmless revolvers to reload more quickly and shoot slightly further. Who knew?

Economic Consequences

Brian posted a link to this interesting and educational article on the economic ramifications of the Bush presidency. I suggest you check it out.

Fire, Schmire

I'm no Potterian,* but I really enjoyed this John Scalzi post on the big news of the weekend.

* Or whatever fans of the Harry Potter books and movies call themselves. Potterites? Potters? Potties? Pots?

It's About Style, Man. Style.

I've mentioned before that I think Alison and I have very different writing styles. I can't help but wonder if you agree, gentle reader. So, when you read a post here on ISS, can you immediately determine it's author? I mean, without reading the byline. Your comments are encouraged.

Light Activity is Good For You, Right?

I apologize, gentle reader for the lack of activity on the blog lately. I have five different hobby projects going on at home, plus all my CrossFitting. Oh, and I've been busy at work, too; it's the end of the fiscal year. I'm hoping to put up some more posts in the near future. Thank you, gentle reader, for your patience.

It's Quiet. Yeah, Too Quiet.

I must apologize, gentle reader, for the lack of new content over the last week. I've been preoccupied with working on my various hobby projects and reading The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, so I haven't devoted adequate attention to the blog. I hope to put some new material up over the next few days, however. If nothing else, Alison should finish her latest knitting project soon, and I'm sure she'll post some photos when she does.

Ouroboros

Do you think there's much point in this link?

Google Reader News of Interest

I agree with Brian that Google Reader is pretty slick. In fact, I've become something of a Google enthusiast recently. In addition to using the Reader to aggregate my feeds, I switched to Gmail on Nick's recommendation, use Google Notebook to store my GTD lists, and pull it all together with iGoogle.

Anyway, I've copied Brian and added a feed of my Reader shared items, called "News of Interest," to the sidebar on the right. It should be a great time-saver for me, since something like 75% of this blog is links. (I'm working on putting up more original content, really.) Now, instead of describing a link, I can just add it to the feed, from the convenience of Google Reader. Come to think of it, it should be a great time-saver for you, since you won't have to read all my blathering before getting to good stuff: the stuff written by someone else.

Blog News

Lots of news from the blogosphere lately:

• Nick has returned from his European vacation.
• Brian has updated the layout of his blog.
• I've been busy with some other projects lately---I may post more about that later---so I haven't been posting with my usual frequency. I hope to get back to my old rate in a week or so.
  

News from Toddrick

It appears that Todd has returned to his old ways. In addition, he's posted a touching tribute to a canine companion.

An Improper Axis of Rotation

Nick has joined the Dark Side. That's right: he's started a weblog. So, if you don't get enough geeky self-expression and unasked-for pet photos from Industrial-Strength Science, you should surf on over to An Improper Axis of Rotation.

The sad part is, now the source of about 10% of my blogfodder has been sucked away to it's own blog.