The overzealous Internet filter wonks at my company have just implemented a filter that says the Bookslut site is pornographic. It goes on to ominously report my IP address and say it has been logged.

Now, really.

It's a figure of speech! It's not naked librarians, just people who love books. Is that so wrong?

Ironically, my own site is not filtered, despite having a quasi-naked librarian on it.

Now I get to convince the filter wonk to unblock the site. O, joy.

The soundtrack of this post is brought to you by Air Miami.

Germany edged out the US 1-0, and I can't say I'm surprised. I think 1-0 is a pretty respectable number versus Germany.

The US team's run this year is certainly a significant improvement over last World Cup's performance. One can only hope that the stellar performance of standout players like Landon Donovan and goalie Brad Friedel will earn soccer / football some additional attendance and viewership in this country.

Well done, US team!

Meanwhile, my rising fever continues apace, as the competition nears the final round. I hope I can watch the games while I'm in Princeton...

After all, you could be scarred for life.

If you scoff at that sort of risk and danger, then pop over to the Weblogger Meetup. It's part of a new service launched by Meetup.com which apparently aims to be the Evite of recurring group meetings.

Evite is great for parties and the like, and it works for recurring events, too, but it looks like Meetup is trying to steal some market share for things like the bi-weekly meeting of the Portland X-Box Players Association and the weekly pub outing of the Topeka Chess Club. We'll see how well that late-entry strategy works out for them. Don't hold your breath.

In any event, as part of the launch of their service, they're pre-arranging a bunch of "meetups" and encouraging people to join up and go. This includes weblogger meetups all over the world on July 18. So far, Austin is poorly represented, so if you can stomach the danger, go sign up.