5-28-07

Swans sing before they die; 'twere no bad thing
should certain persons die before they sing.

-- Coleridge

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On the congratulatory card she gave me, Marina outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of moving to Madison. Among the advantages:

possibility of        (HEAD)
realizing your dreams

Thanks, Marina. I love you too.

5-27-07

Electric cars are awesome.

5-26-07

Best Scattegories answer I have ever seen:

D, things that bounce: "D-cups"

5-25-07

A spiffed up version of Geometry Wars is coming out for the Wii.

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The last time I mentioned Geometry Wars in this blog was November, to say that my new record was 2.1 million. Pshaw! I'd have to be drunk and missing one arm to score that low now! I was in the 3 millions for a while and a couple of weeks ago I scored 4.9 million.

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I "bought" a new car today -- it's a Hyundai Sonata. I'm paying for a little under half of it.

5-24-07

The Relationship Terminator. I think this is my preferred way of getting dumped.

5-23-07

Torrent clients aren't all the same. If you want to download a torrent and not have it take a century, use Azureus.

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eMule blows.

5-22-07

Lawyerbear. A lawyer who is also a bear.
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Janet Reno is 6'3".

5-21-07

It is illegal to torture squid in Britain.

5-20-07

The word ambidextrous is twelve letters long. The first six letters (A, M, B, I, D, E) are all in the first half of the alphabet, while the last six letters (X, T, R, O, U, S) are all in the last half.

ambidextrous: Able to use both hands with equal facility.

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Tassels are annoying.

5-19-07

Richard Lederer, the linguist and punster who will speak at my commencement, is the father of famous poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

5-18-07

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.

Italian Proverb

5-17-07

A board game joke, compliments of BGG:

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Einstein arrives in heaven. A gamer approaches him and says, "I have an IQ of 145."

Einstein replies, "I look forward to playing go with you."

Another gamer approaches Einstein and says, "I have an IQ of 115."

"I will enjoy playing Carcassonne with you," responds Einstein.

A third gamer comes over and says, "My IQ is only 65."

"Mind if I be the racecar?" says Einstein.

5-16-07

Team Fortress 2 is actually coming out!

5-15-07

Jerry Falwell is dead, finally.

5-14-07

Strawberries are the only fruit that has seeds on the outside.

5-13-07

In Wisconsin, it's illegal to operate a gas-powered grill inside of an apartment.

5-12-07

I've made a new blog for the purpose of hosting longer entries that would look really out of place in this one (e.g. Online Wisdom). This blog will only be updated on occasion and is called, fittingly, On Occasion.

The inaugural entry is a short story I wrote for the fiction workshop this semester.

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If you like the ability to edit the HTML template of your blog, don't switch to WordPress. Installing my StatCounter code was a pain in the ass, and even then I could only use the Ultra Gimped version.

5-11-07

The SuPuzzle is impossible.

5-10-07

A "ponderosa" is a type of pine tree, which presumably explains the restaurant in Columbus of the same name, because most people would rather eat a large chunk of pine wood than any of the food there.

5-9-07

You've thirty girls at your command,
    and thirty slave-boys too,
but just one cock, which doesn't rise.
    What are you going to do?

-- Marcus Valerius Martialis

5-8-07

A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

-- William Blake

5-7-07

“The belief that logic will substantially reduce misunderstanding is widely and uncritically held, although, as a matter of common experience, we all know that people who pride themselves on their logic are usually, of all the people we know, the hardest to get along with.”

-- S.I. Hayakawa

5-6-07

People with college educatons, the student said, know more, and hence are better judges of people. But aren't you assuming, I asked, that a college education gives not only what we usually call "knowledge" but also what we usually call "shrewdness" or "wisdom"? Oh, he said, you mean that there isn't any use in going to college!

-- Francis Chisholm

5-5-07

The phrase "the exception proves the rule" does not mean what everybody thinks it means. The saying comes from Latin -- Exceptio probat regulum -- at a time when "prove" had a different meaning than it does today. The true meaning of the phrase is "the exception tests the rule."

5-4-07

Fun with obscure alternate definitions:

Mother: "a stringy, mucilaginous substance consisting of various bacteria ... that forms on the surface of a fermenting liquid."

5-3-07

Robert Browning (the poet who wrote My Last Duchess) had his voice recorded by Thomas Edison in 1889. Browning died later that year and the recording was played for the first time in 1890, making Browning the first person in history to have his voice heard after his death.

5-2-07

Jim is 21 years old and about to graduate from college, and he still doesn't have a driver's license.

5-1-07

My former roommate's middle name is "Bonar," pronounced "Bonner," though you are welcome to ignore one of the N's.

4-30-07

Marina's blog is pretty good.