Author: cosmo

03/04/2006

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the grocery store, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

— Douglas Adams

03/04/2006

“Civil liberties do not mean much when you are dead.”

— Sen. James Bunning (R-KY)

It looks like the Patriot Act is going to become permanent, since the Senate just approved the latest bill. The only significant changes deal with warrantless searches in libraries and the ability for people to challenge a national security letter gag order. Everything else– all the horrors and stupidity– will be extended indefinitely.

As evidenced by Sen. Bunning’s comment, Congress apparently thinks there are only two possible futures for our country: a police state, or a massive terrorist invasion. Scary.

03/03/2006

As I’m working and rocking to tunes on Friday afternoon, I just hit U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, which is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Good stuff.

03/02/2006

For some reason this photo reminds me of the time me and the Magnificent Seven filmed a ten-minute video for Mr. Ricker’s history class, in which we traveled through the mysterious forest to speak with the Oracle of Delphi… who was, not surprisingly, dressed like a hippie.

The best part was when the magic candles almost set the forest on fire, and there was screaming and shouting in the background of the video.

Good times.

03/01/2006

I had a surreal e-mail message in my box this morning. In it, some woman I don’t know wrote to me asking if I could help her buy a home computer. Quoting from part of her note:

Well it seems that when I talk about this computer to several different people – they have all told me the same thing which I quote  ” Why are you buying a computer from HP – Don’t you know about Neobox – They can build you a computer for the same price that would be a better computer”  I have talked to a gentleman named Brad (Conductor for  the railroad)  He said yes – ask for Jeff he is great.  Also the guys at the furniture store in Willis – Mike Attkins, Gene said Jeff will hook you up he is great.

Wow. Such glowing recommendations from… people I don’t know. Brad, the conductor for the railroad? Mike, the furniture guy in Willis? Where the heck is Willis?

But, since I’m generally a nice guy, I wrote back explaining that’s just not what I do, gave a few recommendations about how she should go about finding a nice cheap home computer, and wished her luck. Hopefully she’ll end up with a great system, and hopefully Brad, Mike, and Gene will stop recommending me…

02/26/2006

Here’s an actual photograph of some generic potato chips. The caption for the photo:

The chips taste exactly how you’d expect grey chips to taste.

Mmm, tasty! Sometimes it’s just better to spend the extra sixty cents (forty cents with your Safeway Shopper card!) and go for the Lay’s.