zesticle.com

So the new site is up, and as readers of the previous site are keenly aware of, with the new site comes a new name. A few years back, some very good friends of mine started calling me Zesty in reference to a Taco Bell commercial that was being run a lot, and that I often made fun of because of their disdain for it. I started using it as my player name in some online games, and it ended up sticking. When it came time to have a new name for my site, “zesty” seemed like a great choice. However, zesty.com was taken, so I had to improvise.

In an effort to maybe get a little more reader traffic to the site (and thusly make me feel like my efforts in putting it up are worthwhile) , I signed up this morning with Technorati, which is sort of like a Grand Central Station for blogs (see link in the menu). While completing my profile on that site, it asked me to provide a picture. Rather than post an actual picture of myself, which I’ve never actually done on this site, I decided to do a Google image search for “zesty” and just use something from that. Two interesting/disturbing things happened during the search.

1. In the newest version of Firefox, while typing a word into the search bar, it pulls down list of suggested search terms. When I typed “zesty” this is what I got:

   

   Zesty crab meat? THAT’S that the number one search recommendation? When people are doing a search with “zesty” in it, it most frequently is followed by the words “crab meat?” If you say so, Google. And don’t worry, I promise you’ll never see pictures of Zesty’s manayunk on this site.

2. There’s apparently a terrible webcomic called Zesty!. I guess I’m kind of a comic snob, because I think the vast majority of them suck these days. When I read the comics from the Sunday paper, it takes me about thirty seconds. I read Dilbert, Fox Trot, and Speed Bump, and I don’t even think the last one is funny. That’s it. Six pages of comics, and I read three of them. This is the cover of a recently published collection:

   

   The blonde girl with the eyes big enough for her to fit her fist inside of is Zesty. I suppose I have no business calling a comic terrible, especially if anyone remembers the ones I drew a year or so ago, but come on. I don’t want people trying to Google me (a longshot, I know) and stumbling upon that crap. It’s quite possibly worse than Family Circus, and that’s really saying something.

In unrelated news, I finally finished Bark At The Moon on Expert in Guitar Hero last night. All that remains is Cowboys From Hell, which I recently completed 97% of before snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

At roughly 1:15 am EST this morning, Allyson Grace Swearingen came into the world at 20½” long and weighing 8 lbs. 10 oz. She and her mother are both happy and healthy, and I’m an uncle for the fourth time. Congratulations, you guys.

After a small (but undoubtedly painful for my readers) downtime, I’ve got a new site. The old stuff has all been washed away for the time being, though I may choose to host it in an archive at some point down the road. Don’t hold your breath, though.

Let me know what you think of the new layout, site name, etc. via email, as I’ll probably stick to leaving comments off for the most part. I hope everyone likes the new hotness. I’ll be rappin’ atcha shortly.