me: I just received David Sedaris/Sarah Vowell tickets.
me: I waited too long, and as a result got better seats at a cheaper price.
me: procrastination pays off…. eventually.

ug: the second mouse gets the cheese.

me: and all the fresh mouse meat his little stomach can carry.

Over at favoritearchitecture.org you can view and vote on what you believe to be the 5 most representative examples of architecture in the United States.  There are the standard buildings, some I’ve never heard of but which are quite impressive, and then there are a few choices that are downright confusing.

“If you want to play the arrogant asshole and call people pedophiles I respect that. I really do. I’ve been overcompensating for my low self esteem by calling people names for twenty years. I know how it works and the only rule is if you can’t take it, don’t fucking dish it out.”
– Mike Krahulik (AKA Gabe), from here.

Though I’ll be the first to extol the virtues of open source software, it’s easy to see how the suits get scared off when I find comments like this in a prominent location in the kernel:

723         /*

724          * Tell the world that we're going to be the grim

725          * reaper of innocent orphaned children.

726          *

727          * We don't want people to have to make incorrect

728          * assumptions about where in the task array this

729          * can be found.

730          */

731         init_pid_ns.child_reaper = current

Lauren and I have been planning on traveling to the eastern hemisphere after my graduation for a while now, but it wasn’t until recently that I fully comprehended that a round trip ticket to any of these locations would cost more than I recently spent on a motorcycle.

Now left to my own means I would have at this point probably have given up on international travel as simply not worth it, I’d rather have a motorcycle collection than a photo album.

When I pointed out that air fare to these foreign countries violated several stipulations of the Geneva Convention, the much more worldly Lauren looked me sternly in the eyes and said “get over it.”

23:44 <me> Does anyone else have “message in a bottle” stuck in their head?
23:44 <anon> now I do, ass

… 11 minutes pass

23:55 <me> There are quite a few songs about prostitutes.
23:55 <me> Why are so many musicians tight with prostitutes?

23:56 <anon> are you listening to Roxanne?

23:56 <me> NO
23:56 <me> NO I AM NOT

“Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes.”
– From here.

This is just one of the many facts I did not know concerning Bruce Schneier…

From here.

“I know very well that some atheists can get downright annoying in their insistence that they have have objectively demonstrated the nonexistence of God using simple algebra and a household magnifying glass.”
– From here.

I recently ran across a statement Frank Zappa gave to congress in 1985 on censorship among other topics. While the whole statement is certainly worth reading, I found the following particularly interesting:

Many people in this room would gladly support such legislation, but, before they start drafting their bill, I urge them to consider these facts:

(1) There is no conclusive scientific evidence to support the claim that exposure to any form of music will cause the listener to commit a crime or damn his soul to hell.

(2) Masturbation is not illegal. If it is not illegal to do it, why should it be illegal to sing about it?

(3) No medical evidence of hairy palms, warts, or blindness has been linked to masturbation or vaginal arousal, nor has it been proven that hearing references to either topic automatically turns the listener into a social liability.

(4) Enforcement of anti-masturbatory legislation could prove costly and time consuming.

(5) There is not enough prison space to hold all the children who do it.