"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

You, too, can blog like shiny! It's fun, rewarding and simple - and you can start blogging just like shiny does in a matter of minutes!

You see, shiny is rather predictable when he blogs. I mean, just take a look at his 500+ blog entries and you'll see that they all fit some sort of pattern. There are specific themes included in each of his blog entries. There's certain language used. Specific content. All which make reading his blog mundane and predictable.

All you have to do is include each of these themes in a blog entry, and you'll be blogging like shiny in no time!

But wait, you may ask: how will I remember the many themes I'll need to include to blog like shiny? It's quite simple when you remember the themes presented in this simple acronym:

Profound, short introduction - A one sentence paragraph to garner audience attention.
Self-absorbed declaration of self-promotion and self-worth
Yiddishkheit - insert something Jewish into the post, explaining it thoroughly for everyone
Current events cited with accompanying opinion
Humor which Shiny thinks is really funny but only to the elite few who can understand the obscure references
Original twist on a theme which has already been talked to death in the Mindsay community
Tales of Shiny's relationship with his son, aviblog, and wife, arrrgylesocks 
Innane trivial facts about some cultual medium which was only popular in the 1980s.
Cute pictures of MSNBC News Anchor and Shiny's love queen Alison Stewart on display.

Remember: If you want to blog like shiny, you have to think "PSYCHOTIC!"

Here's a fine example of a typical blog entry from Shiny. I've highlighted and color-coded the appropriate themes per the legend above so you can easily identify them. If you read through it, you can learn by example and blog like Shiny sooner rather than later!

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October is over, What did I miss?

Yes, I actually did it. After spending "A kinder gentler September" coming up with a month full of positive comments about President Bush, I took the opportunity to outdo myself and provide "An October of Tranquility," during which time I abstained from blogging as shiny. I wanted to see if I could. And I pretty much was able to. Of course I blogged on my wedding anniversary as a shameless promotion. It was also interesting to see that, on every single day in October I received visitors to my blog. I guess it goes to show how popular I am even when I'm on hiatus...

Regretfully I didn't have the opportunity to blog about the many Jewish holidays which fell in October - and my experience with them. This year (Hebrew year 5766 for those of you keeping track) had me leading Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year) services in Southern Florida and building our family's first ever sukkah (tabernacle) for the holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles). I'm sure I'll be posting more about that - and posting pictures so I can brag about building something with my bare hands.

I also missed the chance to share what I thought about the news in the past month. And there was a lot of it. I missed the whole Harriet Miers ordeal! From her nomination to her withdrawal from the process! Wow, that's gotta hurt the administration. Mark my words -- this is going to hurt Bush enough that I can guarrantee that he won't win a third term in office...

I also missed Halloween and the ensuing debates about the controversy of the potentially "Satanist" holiday.n Personally, It isn't much of a big deal to me. Av dressed up as Steve from Blue's Clues today; he looked absolutely adorable! In fact, take a look at this picture of him:



Isn't that great?

I myself, decided on a rather obscure "costume in a costume": I dressed up as a syringe full of purified water dressed up as a flu vaccine. (See accompanying story here if you don't get it.)

October was also a busy month for Mindsay in general - as Adam and Brian worked hard to give us some new features - including a new "blocking" capability so you can restrict content from specific individuals whom you don't want reading your blog. Interestingly enough, I tried this on myself to find quite a bit of success. While others were questioning whether the advent of "blocking" would produce a spike in the number of blogs registered (so people could log in with different personas), I was actually creating different blogs with a totally different motive in mind.

You see, I found a script online which creates random blog content. And I decided to start elizadrone as a blog where I would simply spout out the random nonsense which would come out. Some people actually read it and replied! But then, in usual Shiny fashion, I got bored of it rather quickly. But instead of having multiple blogs so I could spread out and diversify content, I had created a blog with no content at all! It's either quite genius or evidence of how sick in the head I am.

As usual, I've been a couch potato when it comes to TV. "I Love the 80s - 3D" appeared on TV last week, and I was geek enough to get the free 3-D glasses for socks any myself from Best Buy. The show itself was kind of lame, but they mentioned some great stuff - for instance, I was just thinking about the collection of "Penny Racers" I had as a kid, and boom! They did a segment on Penny Racers! What are the odds? Although I have to admit that Harry Anderson (as Judge Harry Stone from Night Court) really hasn't aged all that well.

You know who has aged quite well - especially for an accomplished woman who is 39 years old? Check out this news goddess from MSNBC...

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You see? It's that easy! You , too, can blog like Shiny!