Oh.... how I love David Sedaris.
So so funny! Seriously- if you've never heard of him, go read his books! STAT!
It's really no good to be around me when I'm reading his books because I can't go more than about a paragraph without cracking up and going "wait wait wait you have to hear THIS too!" and reading it out loud.

And, it was quite the peepfest!
myself, jbeatty, chico... I think I saw dragonlady but I wasn't 100% sure- but then a few minutes later I saw Holly- not a peep but a friend of a friend and a rollerderbygirl, thus reinforcing my hunch that it was indeed dragonlady I saw...

I was even a big nerd and took my copy of one of his books to have him sign it, but the line was pretty insane so I didn't wait...

Sadly (but maybe fortunately for you guys) it's not as funny in the re-telling, so I can't just transcribe the whole thing, but I will leave you with one funny quote (or rather, paraphrase)- and then get back to preparing my lecture for the interns tomorrow. [This whole "teaching" thing is hard work! Who knew?! But I have a secret weapon- snickers. I may put them to sleep and not get my point across at all- but they will evaluate me well since I will give them mini-snickers.]

But my quote is something like-

"So, like most couples, Hugh and I divide the work that needs to be done. He, for example, pays the bills and deals with the pile of papers and forms. I name all the creatures that come in and out of our garden. He replasters the attic. I dress dead dried up bees in suits of armor made of tinfoil."

[see other new post below this one]

Ok, so my bro-in-law sent me a mix he made a while ago.
And he warned me that the cover art was a little risque. He seemed a little embarrassed, but explained that he had made it for his friend, and he always teases his friend that all he uses his ipod for is watching porn on the elliptical.

The name of the mix is "Gym Titties"

And I thought, "oh please, it's hard to offend me."
So I clicked play in iTunes, and the first song started playing. With the following cover art-



I almost had a heart attack.

Not b/c of the titties, but because before I saw it more closely, I thought it was MY SISTER. And I just thought 'you sick bastard! you put naked pictures on your wife on a mix for your friend, and then sent it to her sister?!'

Fortunately, it is not my sister.

[Jim's post made me think of this, b/c his pic of James also nearly gave me a heart attack, b/c on quick glance I thought it was my ex for a second.]

Ok, here's my sister, for comparison. Am I crazy, or is there at least a little similarity? (one is from her prom, and one from her wedding)

My college roommate just had her first book published. It's a young adult, Harry Potter-esque, kind of thing, from what I gather. I just bought my copy, but haven't read it yet. But i'm so proud of her! Check it out.

Jack Perdu, a ninth grade classics prodigy, lives with his father on the Yale University campus. Smart and introverted, Jack spends most of his time alone, his nose buried in a book. But one winter evening, a near-fatal accident changes Jack's life forever. His father sends him to see a mysterious doctor in New York City--a place Jack hasn't visited since his mother died there eight years ago. In Grand Central Terminal, he meets Euri, a girl who offers to show him the train station's hidden places--the ones only true urban explorers really know about. Eight flights below the train station, however, Jack discovers more than just hidden tracks and mysterious staircases. He has stumbled upon New York's ghostly underworld. This, Jack believes, is his chance to see his mother again. But as secrets about Euri's past are revealed, so are the true reasons for Jack's visit to the underworld. Masterfully told, The Night Tourist weaves Classical mythology together with New York's secret history and modern-day landscape to create a magical adventure, full of unexpected twists and page-turning action.

Google Launches 'The Google' For Older Adults
SEPTEMBER 26, 2007 | ISSUE 43>39

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA-The popular search engine Google announced plans Friday to launch a new site, TheGoogle.com, to appeal to older adults not able to navigate the original website's single text field and two clearly marked buttons.

"The Google will have all the same information currently found on regular Google, but with the added features of not stealing your credit-card numbers or giving your computer all kinds of viruses," said Rick Tillich, The Google project director. "All you have to do to turn the website on is put the little blinking line thing in the cyberspace window at the top of the screen, type 'thegoogle.com,' and press 'return'-although it will also recognize http.wwwthegoogle.com, google.aol, and 'THEGOOGLE' typed into a Word document."

Tillich added that he hopes the site will soon replace Yahoo Internet Website.com as the most popular search engine for users over 55.

And another favorite-
Fucking Yankees, Reports Nation

Ok, so I'm in a bit of estrip withdrawal, since I basically haven't been online at all since friday.

AND, my email went down.
Didn't get any messages friday. Didn't get any messages saturday. Started to think "this is weird... usually I at least get some spam..."
Sent myself a test message- it didn't come through.
Sent the email server people a message...
Sunday got a couple messages dated friday...
Finally heard back from the email people "yeah, you're right, you weren't getting your mail. It's fixed now."
I asked "what about all the mail I didn't get?"
Their unsettling reply 'sorry, no way to get that back. The senders should have gotten bounce messages though'. Like that helps.

But to my point...

Now that my mom is gone, I can get back online, and play with the geek toy she brought me-

A heavily hacked/modified A ppleTV- courtesy of my dad and my computer genius friend at home.

Now A-TV is SUPPOSED to just play movies you own. And not ANY movie you own- just what you've bought from the itunes store. Which makes it of limited utility, as far as I'm concerned.

Well, someone figured a way around that- so it's now hooked to a 500gb drive, that contains 300+ full length movies.
All of the james bond movies, all of the harry potter movies... a bunch of HD stuff... and tons more I haven't even looked at yet. And I can add anything I want, more or less.

This is pretty sweet.