Brought back from a months-long blogging hiatus by an email trick? Well, you gotta start somewhere.

Just learned that you can append your Gmail address with a plus sign or a period and some text to create your own external filter of sorts.

An example probably makes this easier.

In effect, “bvankat@gmail.com” is the same as “bvankat+twitter@gmail.com”, which is the same as “b.vankat@gmail.com”. The email all goes to the same place. The sweet part is, you can use these “separate” email accounts to register for things online, then route the incoming mail based on the address to which it was sent.

Another side effect: Multiple twitter accounts!

Twitter only allows you to sign up for one account per email address. That’s fine. Most people don’t need more than that. But for people interested in additional identities (say, in the newsroom, where we manage multiple multi-user accounts) it was always hard to remember which email address was tied to which account. Not any more.

Granted, this was an extremely nerdy problem. But it’s still a problem.

The annual Society for News Design awards were handed out last weekend, and a secret ballot determined the winner of the contest’s “best in show,” known as the World’s Best Designed Newspaper.

Some years, multiple papers win, some years none do. Here’s a bunch of pages from this year’s lone winner, Portugal’s “i”.

Some truly beautiful ideas in there.

Also, Stephanie started her own blog! Turns out Tumblr has just the right mix of features and simplicity that was preventing her from posting more around here. So, until I find a way to pull those posts into this blog, definitely bookmark her new spot on the web: stephanievankat.tumblr.com

We’re sitting here watching the Nebraska game and a commercial comes on in which we kind of recognize one of the actors. Trying to identify the guy is driving me nuts. Chris says to “ask the internet.”

So I did.

Typed “Who is that guy in the Lowe’s commercial?” in to the search box.

First result is a page on answers.com where someone asked the same question.

Answer: “His real name is RJ Kelly and he’s the same guy who rips off the kids in the Ally Bank commericals.”

No context. No clues. I didn’t even specify which Lowe’s commercial I was talking about. And in 10 seconds, I have the answer to my question.

Love it.

After skipping out on visits to the gym for the past, oh, two months, I finally got off my TV-watching recliner for some exercise.

Some time ago, I downloaded the workout DVDs for P90X, the loud infomercial screamer videos that basically scare you into getting into shape. Then, I promptly ignored them until last night.

The first video is an hour-long arms and back workout. And granted, I the “X” in P90X stands for extreme, but I wasn’t quite ready for 10 million pushups in the first 40 minutes. Yikes. Brutally sore today.

At work, I told someone about the different options for the workouts, which allow you to choose how vigorous of a program you want to follow. Basically, there’s one for “maintaining fitness” and another for “tearing off the sleeves of all your shirts.”

Then I got home and looked in the mirror.

Brilliantly timed coincidence or proof that P90X makes people stronger than the Incredible Hulk on Day 1?

You decide while I drink my creatine shake.

If you listen to NPR, I don’t need to tell you how amazing it would be to have Nina Totenberg and Robert Siegel doing a Lady Gaga singalong. Behold:

Managing editor walks over by my desk with two coats slung over his shoulder.

Me: Hey there. What’s with the coats?
Him: Oh, nothing. Just holding the mayor’s coat. He’s in the bathroom.

Then Jim Suttle comes out and they go to lunch.

Mom and Dad called us tonight to meet for some drinks at the Homy Inn after dinner. And, while they were waiting for us, they struck up a conversation with a guy sitting at the bar.

Friendly guy, a little intoxicated. He added talked Dad’s ear off and hit on Mom for a while before finally getting up to leave. But before he walked out, he gave one of the greatest drunken speeches I’ve ever witnessed.

He went on and on — probably three minutes — about how in love the two of them seemed. No matter what happens in the universe, they were always meant to be together, he said. (Which of course led both Mom and Dad to make a wisecrack about trying to get rid of the other.)

Here’s the guy’s kicker, directed at Mom. A classic:

“Even if you die and he’s still alive, you’ll still be together eventually, happily ever after. It’s just meant to be. You can both live on in another life in another universe. He’ll be the horse’s ass and you’ll be the jockey.”

And with that, he bid us adieu (no really, he bid us adieu!) and walked out the door.

You’re probably doing yourself a disservice if you don’t watch this in full screen.

Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro from Szymon Weglarski on Vimeo.

[Vimeo - Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro]