This morning, on the way to work, I suddenly got a craving for a cigarette.

The problem: I don’t smoke. Not unless you count the annual two or three cigars I indulge in. And no, I’m not qualifying by excluding the puffing of any other substances; when I say I don’t smoke, I mean I don’t smoke anything.

So how did I get hit with a need to light up? Beats me. I could blame the usual media-imagery scapegoat, as there’s a fair number of outdoor cigarette ad displays along my walking route. But I really doubt that would trigger a false-positive biochemical reaction.

Anyway. I’m kinda looking forward to having my first-ever phantom nic fit!

A unique word I came across today: “Mathlete”.

noun. A person who competes in a mathematics competition.

I imagine it can be extended to someone who has some mathematic aptitude, which is the context within which I encountered it.

That link’s been in place since 1999, so I guess I’m late to this party. Hope I don’t get pummeled by some steroid-crazed arithmetic jock who wields a mean slide-rule.

Yes, Lonelygirl15 is still around. And now, her vlog entries feature blatantly overt product placement advertisements.

I guess it’s official: There’s nothing left to believe in.

I haven’t kept up with LG15 developments since the entire concept caught fire, and subsequently was outed as a viral-entertainment production. I had caught wind of the series move from YouTube to ad-supported Revver — a predictable monetization move. (The original YouTube space is still there, and appears to be regularly updated, so I’m not sure just how the new arrangement is supposed to work; I guess it’s key to maximize YouTube’s preeminent position in the Web video market.) Product placement is the next step.

I guess I’m not surprised by this webcast’s continuing popularity. I am flabbergasted by how people somehow still wonder about the series being “real”. The plotline appears to be so obviously goofy that I can’t believe anyone would mistake it for reality; the zoom-in product placement camera angles should put a fork in the whole charade. And yet, to this day, I still get visitors to this blog via Google search queries asking, “Is Lonelygirl 15 real?”. Really amazing.