Today marks a new era – the era of a more streamlined site, with all the same performance and content as before, only less clutter. Mostly, the changes are subtle. For instance – the phrase “Browse” in all drop down menus, the removal of the countdown bar. Other changes are more noticeable.

Discarded are the ideas that decayed on the vine. Once I had plans for the store and feedback, but after 14 months with zero movement, it’s clear the development energies were elsewhere. So I ditched the dead stuff. To me, the specter of feature rot impacts site usability. Hopefully the site a more engaging.

If anyone has suggestions for the site, please comment.

Tomorrow back to the funnies. Or something.

When in Aurora, Colorado stay the hell away from the salad bar at Chuck E. Cheese. Trust me on this one. And not because that particular salad bar is more disgusting than the local Chuck E. Cheese. New Jersey has four of them, and all of them are pretty bad. Don’t keep out because the salad tastes like cardboard, or because half the bins are empty. Stay away because they might Taser you for lingering at the romaine.

It’s not clear why the restaurant summoned police, except for reports that a perpetrator “was seen loading” a plate. The perpetrator also refused to show proof of payment. Perhaps his hands were full. Or maybe when the 75,000 volts struck, he dropped his wallet.

Question: What is loading and why does it get one Tasered? Will Applebees and TGIF follow suit? Who’s never going to Chuck E. Cheese again?

A big shock from the Wheat State last week where police arrested a suspect in the 31 year investigation in BTK ( Bind, Torture, Kill ) case and everything about the guy is wrong. He’s active in the church, a solid employee, a Cub Scout leader and otherwise model citizen. Ten or more murders from a man with these credentials is ponderous.

Ironically, the matter nearly closed last year, chalked as a cold case. But when police and reporters received packages filled with details that only the killer would know, the prosecutors office reopened the investigation.

The reason I mention this at all, is it reinforces my firm belief that every serial killer wants to get caught. They want to stop. Either they brag to friends, write to police or the press, get sloppy or otherwise draw attention to themselves. Doubt my theory? Ask yourself how many serial killers escape arrest indefinitely.

I can think of only one, The Zodiac Killer, who possibly murdered as many as seven people between 1968-1974 before disappearing presumably forever. SFPD closed the Zodiac case in April 2004.

Perhaps even the most despicable of killers have a conscience.

…and failed.

Behold! Here’s the sound of an entry that says nothing. May this never happen again.