A random power failure hit campus minutes ago.

By power failure, I mean everything is pitch black… and by campus, I mean not just my apartment building or block, but the entire university. It’s oddly tranquil.

While there are a lot of dissatisfied customers streaming out of the library murmuring about unsaved papers and tests tomorrow, this moment seems to be a unique chance of hitting the snooze button on stress. There’s not much to do besides look at the stars and the moonlit ocean. Perhaps we should make this a monthly event.

So how am I writing this with no power? That’s the most intriguing part: I decided to hop on my PowerBook to burn some battery power on unfinished writing assignments and thought, just for grins, to try the wireless Internet. And, as sure as you are reading this, it works.

How odd is this world of ours? I can’t turn on my lights to see across my room… yet I can still instant message friends across two oceans. Pretty darn spiffy, if you ask me.

One last check to Google News before hitting the hay tonight caught my eye when two out of three top stories in the technology section concerned Apple, thus prompting this, the second post of the day with the word “Jesus” in the title.

Salon does a comprehensive job expressing the sentiment Google is picking up in an article entitled, “Hallelujah, The Mac Is Back.” It appears that nearly seven years after the original iMac, the mainstream media has finally decided Apple is Apple again.

One lesson that can’t be over-emphasized from Apple’s turnaround: things change. Big time.

A few moons back when Apple was still turning out beige boxes and hemorrhaging cash in the billions (and I was proudly repulsing the opposite sex with my Mac OS 8 T-shirts and “ApplAddict” AIM screenname), the Mac’s future looked about as bright as Tom Daschle’s prospects were on Nov 3, ‘04. Now Apple owns its invention of the digital video and music markets, is selling most products faster than it can build them, and sells its stock above $70, up from about $7 when the bubble burst.

So, when considering any issue involving people, opinions, and behavior–whether it’s as polarizing as abortion or as fluid as Iraq–remember “the times they are a-changin.’” There’s something vindicating about being a true believer.

I ran across a stunningly brilliant application of technology tonight: the mother of all web page counters, VisitorVille. As they pitch it, “VisitorVille is like website stats meets The Sims®. It’s the coolest thing to happen to traffic reporting … ever.”

As of this writing, I haven’t coughed up the greenbacks to see if the service actually works, but the concept astounded me in the simplistic but useful application of common technology (simulation games) to a data intensive tasks (website stats). I realize that well-adjusted folks who are acquainted with the living, breathing outside world may not get too excited by this product… but for my inner-geek this discovery was like waking up to a snowfall of TI-83 link cables on Christmas morning. A big “Why-didn’t-I-think-of-that?” moment.

On a related tangent, I thought I’d take this opportunity to reassure you: you’re not the only person still reading this. You, too, may have shared my inner-angst in recent weeks as this site’s ranking slid substantially lower in the Alexa rankings (as tabulated in the right column). Ironically, regular readership of this blog has actually been on a steady rise, but since I’ve stopped posting new travel pictures, the photo gallery has become understandably less frequented, thus leading to a sharp decrease in overall pageloads.

Don’t you worry, though. You and I are still here, and that’s all that counts. (Just for reading, here’s an added bonus: a new JibJab is out.)

Another life lesson courtesy of my Padre.

Perhaps we can both remember this one the next time an “expert” tells us what the future will hold… whether that future concerns topics ranging from Iraq, to career paths, to stock trends.

(Click to enlarge)

Well, team, I have to hand it to you. You guys rock. Thanks for showing up today. And for the past two months.

Thanks to your continued clickage, and much to my surprise, today I learned that this page–yes, these very words on this very background!–is ranked within the top million sites on the Net, according to the trusted geeks over at the Amazon-subsidiary Alexa.

Now, you’re right: being one in a million usually isn’t anything special. But, as Google currently spiders 4.28 billion web pages, I feel like this little virtual nook that you and I have come to share has earned a titch of bragging rights. After all, we’re now in the top .02% percent of websites! (If I didn’t make any mistakes punching in that 10 digit divisor…)

Think of it this way: if websites were a distribution of Powerball tickets, ranked from “most-winningest” to “least-winningest,” we’d all be walking away with at least $7! Okay, so maybe that example didn’t really highlight my point about this cyber-achievement, but file that illustration away as a good lesson in why we shouldn’t pay the idiot-tax known at the Multi-State Lottery Association.

Anyhow, to make way for the crush of new traffic I expect this revelation to unleash (traffic I expect to come primarily in the form of dazzling college co-eds eager for a man who knows how to please with long walks on the rice pattie and candlelit tea sets, might I add), I did a bit of sprucin’ up tonight. Modifications include: on the mainpage, Google search and headlines from the Web’s largest independent news site; on the blog page, new theme (Not sure if I like it, yet–what do you think?), links to blogs I frequent, and a way to monitor our new global virtual glory with an Alexa traffic ranking badge. Your feedback on any or all of the above “improvements” would be appreciated.

So there you have it. You didn’t even know it, but you’re on a winning team. (And I’m not just referring to Nov. 2nd… )

(Today’s bonus thought: does it floor anyone else to realize that there are still more people on Earth than webpages in Google’s index?)