Here’s a few favorites I’ve been holding back. Friday the 13th seemed an opportune time to share them. Enjoy!

Finally, the truth about Batman ….

I want to get this picture made into a name tag and wear it at work …..

Always wondered what old Smokey was doing out in the woods with a shovel. Now we know. If you should go into the woods today, you better go in disguise ….

At long last, ultimate power has fallen to me! True, it has only taken fourteen long years of faithful service and the temporary absence of most other higher ranking employees with signature authority, but finally I have been named the acting department head. For the next two days. (Never has the term “power vacuum” been more significant ….)

Just had the plumber go tripping through, measuring things and looking at the ceiling tiles in an alarming way. Apparently, they need to run cooling water over to the vault on the opposite side of the floor and they can’t use the water source over there ’cause the water is more pure over here. (Hey, that was my take away from the conversation).  The term “impending disaster” suddenly seems very signficant as well ….

I was down and out with a nasty sinus infection that turned into bronchitis so I wasn’t able to post ’til now. Here’s a few LOL cat pictures I’ve been saving up:

The Strange Incident of the Dog in the Night Time–Solved:

Holmes: Then there’s the strange incident of the dog in the night time.

Watson: But the dog did nothing in the night time.

Holmes: That’s the strange incident.

–Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “Silver Blaze”

And, further proof (if any was needed) of why cats will never run the Iditarod–trouble keeping the booties on:

Here’s a set of LOL pictures that amuse me because Fridays are no time to be serious.

Some days you just shouldn’t show up for at work at all ….

He who fights and runs away doesn’t wind up on the grill ….

Sax: unsafe at any note.

This would be me during yoga class. Help! I’ve extended and I can’t get up ….

46.) It’s been two years since Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenberg Counties put together a handy self-study guide to Web 2.0 applications for the librarians at her place of work. Since then, this tutorial has burned a path across the English-speaking library world like a comet. But like the real world, the virtual world never stands still which is why the current Learning 2.0 webmistress is updating the original lessons.

It was fun to revisit the first ten lessons although Zoho Notebook doesn’t want to scroll down more often than not. I made it a point to recheck my blog address in Technorati and I’m pleased to report that “If This Be Method” is now ranked 2,124,756th. Yes! My journey to world domination continues! I’m also pleased to report that Technorati’s indexing is much more on the ball now. My blog entries are caught up to the present although some of the images are not.

If you just can’t get enough of LOL Cats–and honestly, who can?–then you’ll enjoy this slideshow on Slate.com written by Michael Agger. He talks about the LOL Cat phenomenon, interviews Cheezburger, the moderator of “I Can Haz Cheezburger”, a LOL Cat mega site, and even follows the tale of the LOLrus and his lost bucket.

Here’s an article from the New York Times on book scavengers–people who troll the trash looking for books that people have thrown away and then resell them, either on their own as sidewalk peddlers or to the Strand, a used book store.

In Hobbiton, used books can’t go into the trash and stay there unless they are a) badly damaged in some way or b) disguised as something else. Snagging used items from the trash is a contact sport and people play to win. Show up at the dumpster with something that still looks vaguely useful and other people will happily unload your car for you–possibly before you’ve gotten the trunk fully open. Of course, our passion for recycled goods has less to do with ecology and more to do with economy (as in stretching every last dollar).

So I got back from holiday break, expecting to find a modest trickle of hits, and was astounded to find that the blog had scored an unbelievable 111 views. What could people be looking at given that my trademark witty banter was absent? The answer: LOL Cats. Yes, friends, people in search of their LOL Cat fix search WordPress or Google and find my blog. Apparently, the key to getting a lot of hits is to post photos and if those photos happen to feature cats with amusing captions, so much the better.

A closer look at the search terms people have been using to find my blog revealed the following gems:

• “How to be a nazgul”–Well, first you take a ring of power from a dark overlord. Then you fall in shadow and after that it’s really just an eternity of screeching and chasing after short people with jewelry.
• “Corona research biased”–We’re either talking about beer or the auroras and either way I have no idea what this searcher is actually looking for.
• “Slave girl/Orion slave girl (s)”–A very persistent search term. Guys, just go buy yourselves some Boris Vallejo calendars and call it good.
• “A good cheerleading method”–Rah, rah, boom, bah?
• “Banner administrative software bad”–Won’t be getting any arguement from me.
• “Motivational/Motivational poster”–You won’t be finding any motivation around here, people.
• “Cat bonzai”–You let your cat prune your bonsai by having them sharpen their claws on it?

Ah, it’s good to be back.

Day of the Dead Skull photo by Green Thumbs (Flickr). Skull lights up and sings “I Ain’t Got No Body”. Yeah, I know. Sick.

Too late for this year, but just in time to give you ideas about next year’s Halloween is this book by Tom Nardone. To find out what really scares the bejezus out of the author, click here.

Of course, you’re also going to want this really cool, cross-stitched sweatshirt. She got the pattern from here.

Finally, what has to be the cutest LOL Cats picture of all time:

Just let the “Awwww” come out. You know you want to. I won’t tell.

Captain’s log, stardate 100107: These are the voyages of the Starship Method. Our mission: to explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Feel free to start humming the Star Trek theme song now. No, not this one.

Learning 2.0 has a sequel–Learning 2. 1 (check it out here)–so I’ve been working my way through the lessons and thought I’d give a short recap of where I am so far.

First off, a big thumbs up for #24 Zamzar. This application rocks! If you have a file on your hard drive or on another website and you need to have it converted to a different format, you simply upload the file (or type in the URL), indicate what you want it converted to, and input your e-mail address. Zamzar converts the file on its site. They then e-mail you and voila! you can download your reformated file. I converted YouTube video into mpg (a format you can play in PowerPoint) and it works like charm.

Thumbs down for the following:

#25 Letterpop. This site allows users to create full-color newsletters and announcements on-line. To print out any of your creations and get the benefit of the colorful layouts, you would need to have a color printer. If you were going to send the newsletter or announcement as an attachment, then that wouldn’t be a problem. “Why do this when you could just send an e-mail, plain and simple?” was the question that went through my head when I was looking at this site.

#26 YourMinis: To be fair, this isn’t a bad site. It’s just that after looking through all the widgets in their galleries, I still couldn’t find one I thought would be worthwhile to download.

#27 Photobucket: Not as impressive as Flickr.

#28 Magazine cover fun: More magazine cover image generators. If you played with the one at Big Huge Labs, you know how they work. Again, no bad sites. It’s just that I’ve already done this.

Skipping ahead a lesson, you should be able to tell by now how much I like #30 LOLCats.

I have also discovered that there are other, much smaller sites dedicated to themed captioned photos such as LOLBuffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel):

And one for librarians. [Note: there is some use of the f-word on this site]:

I was impressed by LOLTrek which is less of a collection of captioned Star Trek pictures and more of a photo story. If you liked “Trouble with Tribbles” (the original series episode and Deep Space Nine’s homage to it), you’ll enjoy this bit of comedy from fan and physicist Stephen Granade. Stephen, by the way, aptly describes LOLCat pictures as “‘Hang in there, baby’ posters gone feral”.

James T. Kirk really says it best, though:

Cap’n Scratchy reminds the rest of you lubbers that tomorra be Talk Like a Pirate Day! What’s that, mess mate? Ye’ve never heard of Talk Like a Pirate Day? Then click here at once. Rated “Arrrr” for naturally pirate-y goodness.