I’ve been thinking for quite some time about changing the URL structure at Mostly Muppet Dot Com to be a little more human-friendly. You know, taking out all the “archives” and date-string bullshit and just getting to domain-slash-post-title.

I’m also toying with the idea of moving away from the whole vanity domain and getting something that is actually my name or approximates my name. As much as I love Mostly Muppet Dot Com I covet after folks who have theirname.com. Of course, some domain speculator has my all-time favorite domain, no doubt hoping to get a big payday from Miller Brewing, so that’s right out.

My main concern in all of this is maintaining whatever scant amount of Google juice this blog has. I realize I’m an expert in next-to-nothing, but I do receive a trickle of traffic and a modicum of cash (from AdSense) and I’d hate to see that all go away.

So when Dave Winer posted about shortened URLs - his focii were on usability, portability and sustainability - I knew I had to take action. Or at the very least blog about taking action. ;-)

One of Dave’s commenters left a link to his blog post from over two years ago talking about the danger of URL-shorteners, mostly from a user’s perspective. Where does the link lead? How fresh/relevant is the content on the other end (if the link works at all)? Will I be inundated with spam or porn?

All good questions that I don’t know if I can answer. All I can do is make my own site better for folks who visit, most of whom come from search engines (so I can’t lose my edge there).

First things first, I’m going to change the permalinks structure of the site. I’ll likely remove the “archives” designation at the very least. I kept this as a hold-over from a previous blogging platform, but it’s only legacy is that it’s legacy, so it’s gone. I’m pretty tied to WordPress (and I like it) so I’ve got several options for solving my problem:

• Advanced Permalinks
• Permalinks Migration Plugin for wordpress
• Dean’s Permalinks Migration
• Permalinks Moved Permanently

I’m still a little scared to make the leap seeing as I may not have much internet access over Thanksgiving (I’ll be in Knoxville, TN; write you own joke) and I don’t want to completely hose things and lose my ability to monitor the situation. So, far now, my plan is to implement one of these plugins over the weekend or early next week and just pray. I think users (and I) will both be happier when we don’t have to do so much scanning and pasting of the bigger URLs.

Look for a new domain name potentially in 2008 (it’ll be a Christmas gift to myself). I have no idea how I’m going to square the circle that is permanently re-directing an entire site, post by post, but I’m willing to try. Of course, I’m probably going to drop in the rankings for some of the more Muppet-centric keywords, but I’m OK with that.

I’m ready to be more than Mostly Muppet and, simultaneously, less than all these characters (both Muppet and letters).

I’m a couple of days early on the whole giving thanks/national holiday meme, but I think my post from yesterday needs a little balance.

Things aren’t all bad.
My life - on balance - is pretty lop-sided towards the positive.
I have a TON to be thankful for.

1. My wife

She doesn’t just tolerate me of put up with me, she LOVES me and that’s even more powerful when you have to type it out. I’m amazed.

2. Owen’s smiles

What is it about a child or a baby’s smile that can just totally melt your heart? Maybe it’s the fact that they’re so earnest and joyous and real. I love that kid.

3. Raelyn

When you’ve gotten to the point where you’re making people, you can really appreciate it when they love you back.

4. A new high score on brickbreaker

If anyone who reads this blog has seen me in a meeting, you know I stave off sleep by playing the OEM game, Brickbreaker. I have now topped 12K points and reached level 25.

5. UGA caskets

I can now rot in peace upon my demise. Go Dawgs!

Have a happy, safe and reproductive Thanksgiving!

I want to kick my own ass for referencing Office Space only to be the douche that acknowledges that Monday affliction that must-not-be-named, but it has to be done.

Not that the weekend was horrible, but there’s a ton of action packed into the 2 1/2 working days this week and a lack of sleep will really get to a person, you know.

Anyhow, I managed to write our Christmas letter last night, finish up my self evaluation this afternoon and get several minor moving parts better oiled throughout the day. Still, I’m plagued by that lazy malaise I always get this time of year.

The blahs.
Nondescript depression.
A case of the Mondays.

Jenn has me pegged as someone who will never be happy because I don’t “want” happiness, but that’s not it. I’m not a pessimist, but I do enjoy the other guy’s side of the fence. Maybe I’ve just got a meandering eye for the longview. Who knows?

So I’m helplessly (not hopelessly, yet) behind on the novel, but I may yet get back to even over the holiday.

No real point in posting today - I’m actually not that down, at least not as far or as hard as I was last week - but I think it’s worth noting that I may be stuck. Maybe.

Hopefully a happy turkey day will help me gain some perspective, which is never my strong suit. I prefer to pine for what I don’t have yet than appreciate what I’ve attained.

Work is never a picnic, that’s why they call it work.

Fortunately for me I have an active fantasy life, one in which Jenn and I actually see first-run movies in theaters. With popcorn. Lots and lots of tubs of buttered popcorn.

So in the event I ever see the interior of a theater (or feel it’s welcoming stickiness underneath my feet), here are the previews that have whet (whetted?) my appetite:

No Country For Old Men
Coen Brothers, terrific cast, creepy villain who looks like a genetic splice of Lurch and Dora the Explorer. Sign me up.

There Will Be Blood
P.T. Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis

I Am Legend
Post-apocalyptic Will Smith and Zombies. Sure, “I, Robot” sucked, but maybe if Smith doesn’t have cast-members to mug against, it’ll be OK.

Show me the way to the box office.

I had the opportunity today to sit in on a group lunch/informal conversation with Google’s VP of Search Products & User Experience, Marissa Mayer.

Not only was she incredibly well-spoken and technically-grounded (she is, after all, an engineer) she was also Google employee number 18!

She had great insights on search and technology but her real strengths, and the reason we were assembled to hear her speak, were her insights into corporate culture and innovation, two areas where Google is the envy of most other companies.

We also got the straight dope on the genesis of the phrase/guiding principle/corporate tenet “Don’t Be Evil”. I’ll be updating Wikipedia (or at the least engaging folks on the talk page) post haste.

Basically, Marissa shared an office with Amit Patel, another engineer, back in the early days of Google. On the eve of Google meeting with WashingtonPost.com to discuss site search (a google search box on WashingtonPost.com), Patel was very concerned, from an engineer’s perspective, that the sales person would promise WashingtonPost.com work that he didn’t want to do because it would be divergent from Google’s goals and personality.

Given that Google was and still is an engineer(ing)-driven business, he took it upon himself to devise a solution. The night before the meeting/presentation, he left a small note in “Patel Sans-Serif” in the lower right corner of a whiteboard visible only to the sales person. The message: “Don’t Be Evil”.

Two standout quotes/thoughts:

1. Trusting people/employees is the first step to innovation.
2. Good (consumer) products stand on their own two feet.

Two questions I didn’t ask (but should have):

1. Given other entertainment companies are suing Google (Viacom v. YouTube), what should our networks do, short of giving you all of our content to sell ads against, that we aren’t already doing? What are the opportunities we’re missing?
2. Since Google recently de-llisted some sites from it’s index and lowered the pagerank of many others, how much SEO is good SEO and will you ever just tell site owners how the algorithm works so we’re not guessing and “being evil” ourselves?

Truly one of the more interesting folks I’ve heard speak. I could fill up a dozen blog posts highlighting every single part of her speech.