Today my registration of areasofmyexpertise.com expired, and so you learned my terrible secret: it is registered via GoDaddy.
The domain was registered 7 years ago on my behalf by the web-fellow at my publishing house. At that time I did not know that GoDaddy would become controversial for supporting SOPA and shooting elephants.
These were not things that thrilled me about GoDaddy, and as my renewal notices piled up in my mail box, I voiced my displeasure by THINKING about switching registrars and also LAZILY DOING NOTHING until my registration expired.
THAT SHOWED ‘EM!
Honestly, it’s hard for me to evaluate how strongly I feel about GoDaddy. I hate SOPA and love elephants. And their logo is TERRIBLE.
But we are all sinners, and I don’t know if there is an alternative registration service out there that would not simply have some other elephant skeletons in their closet. Searching for purity on the internet is like searching for a PENCIL WITH A PERFECT POINT. It’s endlessly elusive, a job only for fierce saints like David Rees, and there are meanwhile so many adequate and cheap pencils lying around.
Anyway, now the registration is expired, and GoDaddy painted up my website with their dumb 80s Keith Haring knock-off dude with the weird waves of heat coming off his head.
I renewed for another year with GoDaddy this morning hoping to at least get the site back up and retain ownership of the domain so that I could explore other options. But GoDaddy won’t “activate” the domain until I buy some more products from them, and now that I have criticized their logo, maybe they never will.
So if you have any suggestions of other registrations services, leave them in the comments, or drop me an @ mention to @hodgman.
If you’re reading this at all, you know that you can access this site via the tumblr address: http://areasofmyexpertise.tumblr.com/ THANK YOU, TUMBLR AND TWITTER for keeping me in the game!
SPORTS METAPHOR!
That is all.
Sometimes I ask my friends this question: “If you were offered the role of lead Ghostbuster in Ghostbusters 3, but you knew that if you took the role that Bill Murray would never speak to you… you knew that if he ever saw you he would just shake his head and walk away, would you do it?” Because it’s hard for me to think of a worse thing.
Three pieces of news today in the expanded Judge John Hodgman universe, recorded here order of increasing bittersweetness.
1) The Dead Milkmen TWEET our latest verdict about “Bitchin’ Camaros,” which makes the court exceedingly amazed and glad. (Original verdict=HERE)
2) “Rashomom” Grand-daughter Rebekah has finally solved the secret of the GREY HOUSE UNIVERSE, but as per court order, she will not reveal it. The court regrets this order. (Original verdict=HERE)
3) Awesome Cone of Portland, OR has CLOSED. Amy (photographer and model in the photo above) had hand-sewn an awning for her friend Gus’s savory-food-in-a-waffle-cone food truck in Portland and was suing him for payment. (Original verdict=HERE)
A-Cone was the first of many times we have dispensed justice to Portland, and one of our first truly contended, and contentious real world cases that did not hinge on whether one nerd agreed that a gun could be a robot.
I’m not sure the court handled their dispute well. I recall I ridiculed Portland pretty hard, and to some degree the defendant himself. And while I watched A-Cone’s progress from afar, I missed my chance to visit it last November, and I never heard from Gus or Amy again.
I hope they were not upset; and even if they weren’t, I apologize for my judicial unnecessary roughness. It was early days, and I was learning.
I also hope that though the Awesome Cone has closed, Gus and Amy are on to new, exciting, Portlandic adventures.
(May I suggest: PENNYFARTHING MOTORCYCLES?)
But most, I hope that they are still friends, and that they are happy.
I am convinced that this Peter Serafinowicz rock video for Hot Chip is secretly an episode of Doctor Who. I strongly suspect that I think that this means that Reggie Watts should be the Doctor. Unless it means that Terence Stamp should be the Doctor. (Or is Terence Stamp the Master?)
This is me, your JUDGE, telling you that:
JUDGE JOHN HODGMAN VERDICT No. 60 is now available for public review.
It is called “CHEVY CASE,” because it largely revolves around a man in Portland who fears that his girlfriend is purposefully running his Camaro into the ground OUT OF SPITE.
And hey, if you like the Judge John Hodgman podcast, it apparently is very helpful if you rate and review it on iTUNES. That’s all there is to say about that.
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because…
Outtake from the PAUL F TOMPKINS FULLY POSABLE FASHION-IN-ACTION DOLL photo shoot for Sears Wishbook 2012.
How to Sharpen Pencils” is very funny—it’s the work, let’s not forget, of the guy responsible for “Get Your War On”—but it’s no April Fools’ joke, and it’s no bathroom book. It’s a literary oddity that, even as it gleefully pursues the comic possibilities of its premise, subtly gestures towards its own secluded seriousness.” —Mark O’Connell
“
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DO YOU REALLY THINK I AM THE ONLY IMPECCABLE ONLINE SOURCE TALKING ABOUT DAVID REES AND PENCIL SHARPENING?
Oh, sorry. I guess you never heard of THE NEW YORKER?
