It’s a beautiful, sunshiney afternoon here in the SLC, with blue skies and temperatures in the high 60s, probably for the last time this year before winter’s cold, clammy hand closes its skeletal fingers around the valley (how’s that for an image of impending gloom?). I should be outside, making myself some vitamin D and raking up my leaves before tomorrow’s rain turns them into heavy, sodden mush. So what am I doing? I’m surfing the web, naturally… life in the 21st century. Sigh.
Can’t help it, though… I keep finding interesting stuff that leads me deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. So, just in case you, too, are not playing outside like the good kids ought to be, here’s a special Saturday edition of Drive-By Blogging linkage:

• Our online friend to the east, Brian Greenberg, works at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, and has decided to photoblog the decoration and lighting of the gigantic Christmas tree that goes in there every holiday season. His comments on this new project are here; the photos are here.
  I must admit to feeling some ambivalence about the Rockefeller Christmas-tree tradition… I thinks it’s sad, if not tragic, to cut down huge and ancient trees when they’re still healthy and growing. (There used to be a immense pine tree in front of the old Crane House here in my hometown; it kind of served as the town’s mascot, and every year when I was growing up, it was strung with lights that were switched on Thanksgiving Day and burned constantly through to the new year. Back then, there wasn’t much in the way of street lighting out this way, and the area right around the tree was dark in a way that I don’t think today’s suburban kids can fully comprehend, so the colored bulbs really stood out. It was most wonderful when the tree was full of snow, and the colors would spread out across its bulk in a kaleidoscopic blur. It broke my heart when they cut that old tree down and mulched it.)
  On the other hand, though, I really do love Christmas trees, and I can’t deny how beautiful the Rock tree always looks on TV. I imagine the Plaza must smell lovely, too. One of these years, I’m going to fly back to New York for a little holiday shopping…

• I’m not sure where I found this next one — stupid random surfing — but it’s cool, a new poster collage of characters from all six chapters of the Star Wars saga. I have no idea if it’s meant to be a 30th anniversary commemorative piece or what, but I’m thinking I need to get one for the Bennion Archives. There’s an idea if anyone out there is trying to think of what to get me for Christmas…
• Via Scalzi, I learned this morning that the novelist Norman Mailer has died. Mailer is one of those writers I’ve always meant to check out, especially his Pulitzer Prize-winning doorstop The Executioner’s Song — which is of special interest to me because of its local connection; Gary Gilmore’s name is still infamous in these parts, even though I was only six when he was put to death — but as with so many others, I’ve never gotten around to reading him.
• Another item from Scalzi, a matter of burning importance:
  

  Why, precisely, was she singing “do-wah-diddy diddy dum, diddy do” as she was there, just walking down the street? And it have something to with clapping her hands and shuffling her feet, or were those completely unrelated activities?

  A good question indeed… although it’s probably best not to search for too much meaning in pop music. I mean, what the hell is a “Safety Dance” anyway?

• And finally, Wil Wheaton’s “Geek in Review” column this week is a long one, but it’s a goodie, and it’s particularly applicable to this afternoon, and how I’m sitting here at the keyboard instead of working outside like ought to be:
  

  My limited time is the most valuable commodity I have. I can always earn more money; I can always eat more food; I can stay up late if I didn’t finish that load of laundry in the afternoon. (Curse you, Guitar Hero III: Thief of Daylight!) But I can’t get back time that’s already spent – in some cases, wasted (the time, not me) – on hollow pursuits, so I think very carefully about how I invest my limited free time, and my even more limited “me” time. Here’s a look at a typical afternoon spent in a twisty maze of options, all enticing . . .

  LOOK
  >A twisty maze of passages, all alike, is behind you. You face a wall with four doors.
  EXAMINE DOORS
  >There are four old doors: Movies, Television, Books, and Games.

As the line goes, you must choose… but choose wisely. And on that note, I’m off to rake my leaves and enjoy the last mellow flicker of autumn. Have a better one, everyone!