When searching for the proper usage of the words "in to" and "into", I found a useful reference site called Dictionary of Sound-Alike Words. You wouldn't believe how many emails I receive (and write) every day that use basic English words incorrectly.
Here's how the Dictionary of Sound-Alike Words lists "in to" and "into":
in totwo words, an adverb and a preposition, as in: Even though it was supposed to be her day off, she came in to finish her monthly report.
intoentering or changing form, as in: She drove into the parking lot and found a space.
I've been using a Norelco Maverick T-1000 beard trimmer for several years. It is a durable, battery-powered trimmer that has an easy-to-clean trimmer head. You just press a button and the trimmer head swings open to allow for trimmings to be brushed out. I use the trimmer once a week to keep the Grizzly Adams ![[WikiPedia]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
effect in check.
A couple of weeks ago, I pressed the cleaning button and the trimmer head flew off in to the sink and a giant spring bounced enthusiastically in to the next room. Ah well, time for a new trimmer. I didn't have time to go to the store right away, so my beard kept growing.
Eventually, I picked up a new Wahl brand trimmer. Upon opening the package, I knew that I picked the wrong replacement. Instead of a single adjustable trimmer, it seemed to include 17 different attachable comb-things and big tube of machine oil. When I tried to pull off the default comb-thing, it broke into a dozen tiny shards of cheap black plastic. Buyer's note: Wahl offers a 30 day money back guarantee. I got my money back. My beard kept growing.
I then purchased a Philips Norelco T-770 Accuvac trimmer, that promises to suck the whiskers right off your face… or something to that effect. It looked like a modern upgrade to the old Maverick, except that instead of a button to swing open the trimmer head for cleaning, you need to grasp both sides of the head and firmly pull it off. I grasped, pulled firmly, and cleanly snapped the head in two distinct pieces. Norleco's money back guarantee is a generous 60 days. I used just one. A small squirrel built a nest in my now bushy mustache.
Finally, I bought a Philips Norelco T-765 AccuTrim beard trimmer. This thing is the clear descendant of my old reliable Maverick, only now it has a lighter weight and uses a rechargeable battery. They've even improved the head cleaning - instead of pressing a button to swing back the head, you just give it a little kick with your thumb. I'll be giving it a gentle kick as I spend the next several hours mowing my face anew.
I launched the MikeyP.com blog one year ago yesterday. MikeyP.com and mikep.net have had live web sites since 1997, but this blog is my first attempt at having frequent dynamic content.
My original goal was to post one new entry per day. Alas, crunch mode [crunchmodelifestats, crunchmode3] has taken its usual toll on my free time, and the number of posts has dwindled as we get closer to final. I'm looking forward to getting back in the posting groove soon enough.
In the mean time, how about reading something completely different? My friend Ronbo has set up life in the boondocks of Washington state...
Sure enough, as soon as I began pinging weblogs.com and Technorati.com, I started receiving comment spam on this blog. I figured it was time for me to implement captcha authentication or maybe an email verification scheme, but I became curious: are the spammers humans or robots (automated computer programs)?
To find out, I decided to add a simple Turing-type test to the comment form [writebacklfbug, writebacks, writebackformatting, writebacklfbug-fixed] on my blog. I ask every poster to play and win a game of Rock Paper Scissors before they can post a comment. The comment page simply asks, "Let's play Rock Paper Scissors. I choose ROCK. What is your choice?" Since even a two-year old can answer that question correctly, the minor inconvenience of playing RPS shouldn't trip up anyone posting comments - even spammers. But I figured it would trip up your average spam-bot, at least until someone took 5 minutes to write some trivial code that would play and win the game. (Since MikeyP.com is an insignificant blog out in the boondocks of the internets, the odds of that seemed fairly slim).
As if on cue, the day after I added the RPS game, a spammer posted a comment. They had played the game, entered the correct answer, and posted a spam. The spammer was a human, not a robot. As I wondered how I could make the test game a little more challenging, things took an interesting twist. Over the next four days, I got three failed post attempts. All three were spammers who failed to win Rock Paper Scissors (!), and thus were not allowed to post a comment. And then… none. I haven't had any comment spam since.
So what happened? Did the spammers find the RPS game too much of a waste of time to play, and they moved on to other blog targets? Perhaps they can't read English? Or maybe my crummy Perl programming skills simply introduced a bug in the comment form.
I'm sure I'll get some comment spam again soon enough, and I'll likely just shut down the comment system rather than hassle with it. But for the time being, I'm pretty smitten with my "win a game, get to post" approach. Maybe in a few years I'll require posters to win a level of Arkanoid before they post comments. 
When I was a kid, A&W was the pinnacle of root beers with "that frosty mug taste." But today you can find dozens of specialty root beers and other sodas at places like Beverages and More.
The best root beer of the bunch by a mile is Virgil's. Instead of the syrupy thermonuclear sweetness found in your typical high fructose concoction, Virgil's has a sugary spiciness that goes down smoothly with just enough carbonated bite. The ingredient list is as natural as it can get: purified carbonated water, cane sugar, and over a dozen spices, including Anise, Clove, and Oil of Cassia (!).
What could be better than a cold bottle of Virgil's on a Saturday afternoon? How about this:
An actual keg of Virgil's root beer spotted at a local Cost Plus. That ought to be just enough for a weekend of fragging in Quake 4... 
