Wikipoopin out?

I haven't been following the Gossip Girl goings-on that Wikipedia is supposedly running out of gas. But this story explains it pretty well:

Wikipedia, operated by the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation, is a volunteer enterprise. Writers and editors are not paid for their time. And now, ten years after Wikipedia’s launch, many of those contributors have moved on with their lives. (Another reason many Wikipedia writers have given for bailing out is that some of the site’s volunteer editors, displaying the all-too-common combination of ignorance and arrogance, clumsily compromise the quality of their work.)

An additional challenge is that the longtime contributors who remain, and the newcomers who have logged on more recently, are running out of things to write about.

Tough week

I got bit by a dog yesterday, and now this ...

I'm far from a computer geek, but I'm not inept. I self-published a book, uploaded it Amazon, built my own blog, in fact had one of the first blogs for a newspaper in SD, but I'll be danged if I can get this stupid Twitter link to appear on the side of this blog. I have the code. I copy and paste it in every place I can think of. But it doesn't show up except if I do it in a post like this.

Maybe I am inept.

So here it is: Follow @markhaugen

I've had the Twitter account for some time just to follow some people I'm interested in, but I've never actually Tweeted. Yes, a Twitter virgin.

But if I get a handful of followers I may just Tweet on occassion, if for no other reason than to frighten some people close to me. Follow me and I'll follow you and we'll get lost in the moment together.

I wonder if he's read Joshua's Ladder?

Like most of you, I have some guilty pleasures. For instance, I'll watch SpongeBob Squarepants any time, any day of the week. I also like Enrique Inglesias music, not nearly as much as I like Prince, but I don't feel guilty about loving Prince. I am proud to be the biggest Prince fan in South Dakota. Enrique? Eh, not something I brag about.

Perhaps my biggest guilty pleasure is being a Minnesota Viking fan, but I'm not sure if they could be described in any way with the word "pleasure."

None-the-less, I don't talk much sports here, but will in this instance mention the Vikings' punter Chris Kluwe and point you to this story in the Star-Tribune: Kluwe's a Renaissance man for the Internet age

He doesn't sound like your typical football player. One teammate says:

"When I first saw him punt, I thought he was phenomenally talented. Then I came over here from Green Bay and realized that football was just a means of supporting all of the other things he wants to do in life.

"I think guys know what you get with Chris, which is a very, very intellectual guy. So if people give him grief, they've got to be ready to take some grief back, because he's a lot smarter than a lot of the guys around here."

I can relate

"Every morning between 9 and 12, I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12, I am there ready for it."

- Flannery O'Connor

Some links and a review

The newest reader review on Smashwords was 5 stars and has all the astronomers talking:

"Really enjoyed this book. Joshua and his "climb" was really interesting and kept me wondering what would be next throughout the book. Joshua was easy to like and so were the rest of the characters in the book. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a quick fun read. Am wondering what will happen to Joshua next..."

And don't sue me for missing the last couple Haugen Hump Day Link-o-Ramas. Besides, there are much better reasons to sue me than that. So here are some link-worthy linky things:

I'm always up for a good war-buddy reunion story. So there's this from the Star-Trib:

The last time they saw one another was late October 1944. Marine pilot Lloyd Flynn and his gunner mate Dan Williams said goodbye on Engebi Island in the South Pacific after eight months of flying missions together in a two-person warplane.

On Thursday, the two World War II vets saw each other for the first time since that farewell, this time outside Flynn's home in Edina.

"Captain, how are you?" said Williams as he stepped sprightly out of a vehicle, saluted and stretched out his hand, laughing.

Flynn was too choked up to say anything at first, and the two buddies, stooped with age, just hugged.

"I told Bruce it'd be emotional, and it is," Flynn finally choked out. "Son of a gun, how are you?"

I ran across a list of 15 books your kids should read, according to somebdy I never heard of. I'm surprised ol' Harry Potter isn't on there. I've personally never read a Potter book, though I caught a couple movies, but I credit that series with getting my daughters into reading.

As for book series, I was big into the Encyclopedia Brown and Hardy Boys books as a kid. The series I also read which aren't on this list include the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series and bookshelves full of Louis L'Amour books my grandma Renli had.

Today's tweeners most likely only know of the Tarzan movie. Would be nice if they knew he wrote over 20 Tarzan books. Hey, tell somebody! Ed's first Tarzan book (his friends call him Ed) came out in 1912. That shows a good imagination, unlike milk, doesn't have an expiration date. He wrote over 70 books total. You can access the Tarzan ebooks for free at Gutenberg.

With L'Amour, a North Dakota boy, I felt like I practically grew up with the Sacketts and that series of books. All told, LL had 89 novels. It's amazing to me how prolific some of those writers were.

So next time your kid says" I'm bored!", introduce him to Barnabas Sackett.

Here's one guy's list and the link to the story:

15. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
14. Asterix
13. Charlotte’s Web
12. Childhood of Famous Americans
11. Encyclopedia Brown
10. The Hardy Boys
9. Have Space-Suit, Will Travel
8. Homer Price
7. The Mad Scientists’ Club
6. Mrs. Coverlet Novels
5. The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree
4. Tom Swift, Jr.
3. The Three Investigators
2. My Side Of The Mountain
1. The Chronicles of Narnia