I love it when my readers comment on my blog. I installed a threaded comments plug-in so that I can converse with my readers and turn posts into a more forum like setting. The interaction lets me know what you are reading. What you like, what you think I should stop talking about and most importantly: when I make embarrassing typos.

I do not use a spam filter. I do, however, moderate each and every comment. Spam will never get through. I also do not approve comments from people who are obviously just trying t leave an outgoing link on my Do Follow blog. I know I have been added to a couple of the different Do Follow lists out there, despite not asking to be added. I also know that there are those who would exploit the Do Follow list. I’m no sucker. I catch on pretty fast.

Comments with value will be approved, but spammy links may be stripped. I invite you to contribute. Say what you are thinking, even if I won’t agree with you. Just please, don’t use my blog as a cheap way to add links to your resume.

Back when I was a kid, things like houses with solar panels were for quirky fringe people and part of the collective belief that society would be running on new kinds of power when I finally grew up and was on my own.

Well, I’m all grown up and on my own and we are still grappling with energy sources and running the good race to not be dependant on fossil fuel. The good part is that solar panels are now more common and absolutely not just for the aging hippie that lives on the edge of town. More and more people are designing new homes that use “green” energy. I’m in an older home and doing my best to add features that use renewable sources. For now, I’m on my one-woman quest to help in the water shortage. I installed some really cool rain barrels out back. I water all of the fruit trees and veggies with pure rainwater now.

Energy costs continue to skyrocket and people really start to feel the pinch when it comes time to use heat. Winter will be here in now time and fuel prices will reflect the needs of the nation. There is no better time to look at the Federal and State renewable energy incentives and tax rebates for things like solar energy panels.

I’m in Florida and God knows we have more than our share of white, hot sunshine. I’m super interested in solar air conditioners. It’s absolutely doable and would make me feel a lot better about keeping the house nice and chilly in the summer months. Yes, it is about the environment, but it is also about saving money in the long run. I am a girl who likes to live a frugal life. An up-front investment to install the equipment can mean money saved for the rest of my life.

I wrote yesterday about my feelings when I hear that Nick Bollea (aka Nick Hogan) had claimed that Polaroid was his new top sponsoring for his car racing team. I was steamed, to say the least. Well, dear readers, here is the final word on the topic.

Polaroid says they are not backing Bollea’s 2008 race season, according to the company’s VP of Marketing. This, despite the fact that Bollea listed Polaroid Drift Team as a new sponsor on one of his latest website updates and a blog entry on his MySpace page.

On the other hand, locals have said they have indeed spotted Bollea’s car and that it does have Polaroid all over it. All I can assume is that Polaroid reacted to the outcry on the issue and pulled out of any deal they may have had with Bollea.

By the way, the reason I repeatedly write about this issue is that it is local news where I live. The Hogans are right down the road.

I’m coming up on my 20th high school reunion. 20 years! Can you believe it? OK< so maybe YOU can believe it, but my own jaw is still slack from the recognition that time is speeding along like a demon. It’s a tad more than frightening and absolutely boggling my poor mind. Anyway, I’ve been even more driven to round up the contact information for as many of my old (and I say that respectfully) high school classmates as I can lately. I have used some of the more conventional means, like traditional search engines and the more established social networking sites. I’ve found that the contact info on the larger sites that have specifically been designed for classmate reunion issues are troublesome, because both members have to be paid account holders in order to make final contact and 99% of the time, that is a miss.

In my quest for a unique people search, I came across the Spock.com beta search. It’s a new people search engine where you can either search by an exact name or a “tag”, like “New York” or “likes the Ramones” or “maybe even the name of a movie. People can vote on the tags.

I thought I would go with a more common search to test out the system, so I began with the name of one of my favorite comedy groups, The Kids in the Hall. The results returned the entire cast and anyone else n the system who had worked on the show, so that let mew know how the results filtered. I added “likes” to the beginning of my first search query to see what it did to the results and that narrowed things down nicely to people who were fans of the troupe.

So, I moved onto searching for people from my old high school and I was met with a little less success, since filtering by year was harder. None the less, I have to keep in mind that this is a Beta program and it really does rock for what it can do already.

The cool thing about Spoke is that it is not a social network or a traditional search engine. It’s a whole other animal. You can sign up and add to your own profile and tags, but additionally, the system combs multiple other sites bio pages, social networks, news sites, blogs, and directories to compile info.

I’m not naming names. That said, I will now tell you about a most pleasant experience I had this afternoon. I had an appointment with a government agency at 1:30 today. I have an appointment at the same agency about every three months. Usually, I get there early, sign in, wait for a VERY long time and then wait some more. Today I went in early, signed in, got called right to the desk and immediately serviced, so to speak. It was lovely! And, it was an absolute first for me.

I worked several years at a small publishing house. About halfway through my time with the company, we hired a new president. He came from a government agency in town. Upon his start with the publishing house, he stopped hiring anyone unless they came from his old agency. He basically just cherry picked the best of the best from his old office. Now, these were indeed great individuals with a lot of talent, BUT they worked at a snail’s pace. It shocked each and every one of them to see salaried workers staying late to meet deadlines and working as fast as possible to up our productivity. Talented or not, they were just not used to working at the pace of most public sector businesses. I find that most government workers are just conditioned to draw things out to fill the hours. And, any of my family or friends who worked in government jobs blithely admitted as much.

Anyway, kudos to the unnamed government agency who served me today.