The Irish Trojan’s Blog has moved from WordPress to TypePad, for reasons that are explained here.

The old blog archives — from April 4, 2002 to August 27, 2007 — are still maintained on this server via WordPress (though the pages you see have been converted from dynamic PHP to static HTML). But everything from August 28, 2007 onward is hosted on TypePad’s servers.

Click here to visit the new homepage!

As I mentioned before, I’m planning to move my blog to either Blogspot or Typepad (mapping the subdomain blog.brendanloy.com to the Blogspot/Typepad servers) so that I can drastically reduce the amount of traffic to my WestHost account and thus downgrade from a $260/month dedicated server to a $15/month shared server. I’m hoping to get this done by Wednesday, and I’m in the process of setting it up now.

Because this plan involves permanently severing the blog’s archives into “old blog” and “new blog,” I’m thinking of naming the new blog something other than “The Irish Trojan’s Blog.” It sort of makes sense to do this anyway, because although I’ll always be an Irish Trojan, that appellation is a less significant part of my identity now that I’m no longer a student at either ‘SC or ND. Anyway, my current tentative choice for a new name is “Ably Nerd On,” which is an anagram of “Brendan Loy” first noted here by Jay Johnson, courtesy of the Internet Anagram Server. I think it’s a pretty good name for the blog, as it’s a rather good description of what I do here in cyberspace — or at least, it’s a good description if you’re willing to treat “nerd” as a verb meaning “to be nerdy.” :) However, Becky hates it. So I’m wondering what others think. To wit, a poll.

Please note, this is a non-binding poll. I’m the dictator of my own blog, and as such, I may choose the name even if everyone hates it. :) However, I would like to know what people think. I’m also curious if y’all have any alternative suggestions for a new name. Feel free to leave those in comments.

UPDATE: Okay, so, everybody hates it. Inspired in part by the overwhelming negative poll results, I’m abandoning the idea. (Hey, even a dictator has to avoid being so unpopular that the people revolt!)

I’m thinking I may just call the new blog “Irish Trojan in Tennessee,” thus maintaining the earlier “branding” while still indicating that something has changed. But I continue to be open for suggestions.

P.S. While “Ably Nerd On” is an anagram for Brendan Loy, the anagrams for my full name — Brendan Loomer Loy — include “Blarneyed Lo Moron.” Heh! Maybe I should use that instead! ;) Or perhaps “Ambled Ornery Loon”… or “Blander More Loony”…

Embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales intends to resign, senior administration officials tell CNN.

Visit CNN for the latest.

Last week, I blogged about the total eclipse of the sun that will sweep across America in ten years. Well, it may be a lot less dramatic and a lot more common, but in just over 24 hours, we’ll be treated to a total eclipse of the moon!

The partial eclipse begins Tuesday morning at 4:51 AM Eastern time (that’s 1:51 Pacific), and totality starts at 5:52 EDT (2:52 PDT). West of the Rockies, the entire eclipse is visible. In the rest of the country, the moon sets at some point during the eclipse — the further east you are, the less of the eclipse you get to see. But everybody in the U.S. gets to see at least part of it. Here’s a map.

Here in Knoxville, we get to see most of the “good part,” when the moon is completely inside the Earth’s umbra, though the sky will be getting lighter toward the end. Totality, as I said, begins at 5:52 AM EDT, and mid-totality is at 6:37. Sunrise is at 7:04, and the moon sets at 7:09. (The closeness in time of sunrise and moonset is no coincidence. In order for an eclipse to occur, the Sun and Moon must be directly opposite each other from the Earth’s perspective, and the timing of their rendezvous with their respective horizons shows that that’s the case.)

The Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society is having an eclipse party at Blount County Library starting at 4:00 AM (seven minutes after the beginning of the subtle penumbral phase, and 51 minutes before first contact with the umbra). I’m planning to go — and as an added bonus, I’m hoping to see my first Iridum flare at 6:11 AM, directly in between the Big Dipper’s “pointer stars” and Polaris. After the jump, a map of where the flare should appear in the northern sky:

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Becky and I recently unpacked several of our boxes of books from South Bend — yeah, the unpacking process has taken a while :) — and filled up our bookshelf. I’m particularly proud of the “nerd shelf”:

Speaking of which, I recently re-read Half-Blood Prince, which I hadn’t read since the day it came out. I had forgotten a lot of its plot, so several things from Deathly Hallows suddenly make a lot more sense now. :) But I’m more perplexed than ever about one thing. So I have a question — but it’s after the jump, because it reveals a major Deathly Hallows spoiler. (I hear there are still at least 3 or 4 people out there who haven’t read it yet.) So… Warning: spoilers after the jump, and in comments.

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