• i think i could make it as a relief pundit - i've been saving all my income for the internet pundit fantasy camp.
• if this is true, why vt? - usatoday article says leagues of 10 teams might get title games. if this is true and had been known a month ago, i think it's much more likely that only miami would have been extended a bid. also i think they may have taken it. the record $9.7 mil distributed to each school last year would be split only more more way, there would be the championship game revenues, and miami/south florida adds as a new media market.
• ari's real replacement - miller is definitely a better choice than ashton kutcher.
• where is the secret service? - i think it should be understoood that courtney love doesn't get anywhere near any family member of a president...or an athlete...or a musician...or a

• maur sickening - quite despicable how blatantly racist dowd is allowed to be. it's quite obvious she doesn't actually try to consider whether he's correct. she just demonizes and vilifies. update: i just came across volokh's post about dodo's view as guest blogger for glenn reynolds. it's definitely worth a read. on his own site, you can read a rather personal response to the post. i also found his empirical based response to the assumption that thomas just follows scalia and doesn't have his own opinions worthwhile.
• greene county is the place to be! - votes to lease ibooks for all middle & high school teachers/students. apparently the first countywide initiative of its sort in nc. did hill snow over?

• credible tabloid - what's the point? would that just require the addition of a page 6?
• one story does not tell all - since ashley posted a news story, i figured i'd post a rebuttal.
• gimmi moore and that 70s kid - i know they are hot, but i think people underestimate just how smart they are as well. in an unrelated story, she's got like 3 movies coming out next year and mtv just agreed to 20some more episodes of punk'd.
• four is the new three - the first two suvivors kicked off of the island complained that he only cared for his daughters. now he's talking about adding his other daughter. i'll bet miss williams is getting a little nervous.
• i thought the acc wanted to strengthen the conference - apparently ecu wants gov easley to provide pressure for the acc to include them in any expansion. this ordeal has been humorous, but this is just sad. imagine how bad it would be if only vt and ecu were added. i'd definitely be in favor of a recall if that occured.

the guys who fought over bonds' ball likely lost money after lawyers' fees

i think i'm in love

Want Diversity? Think Fuzzy

the latest beta of the google toolbar lets you make blog posts pointing to the page you're visiting. it's not a great feature, but it can be handy i guess. it also provides a popup blocker - which i find ironic as the blog posting feature uses a popup.

• tea guide - yet more fodder for argument.
• privacy down; applications way up - airport screeners may get xray vision. [example]
• no sir, i don't play for the titans. i'm only 12 - 12 year old kid stands 6 feet 6 and weighs 301 pounds and will likely grow at least another 5 inches.
• hey, it's better than half - recent repoort states that patients receive 55% of proper health care when visiting a doctor.

• she ain't no wannabee - you ever wonder what old middle school friends were up to and then just google em? i'll do it now and then. i have just come across something that i thought i'd have to share.
  preface:
  there were two top students in my class during my years at hebron - misty and johnna. (i'm indebted to johnna's sister for performing during a talent contest a dramatic performance of something which i'm guessing is entitled "i've got a pain in my sawdust" as it largely entailed repeating the phrase as if one has acute appendicitis. this gives me yet another reference that no one gets.) it's quite cool that mrs. white is now the principal. she was my fourth grade teacher and mom to my friend clay.
  so yes, it's possible i had a bit of a crush on misty during my time at hebron, and good for her for going to med school, but **this is hilarious**. (although to my chagrin, it does remind me of several that i wrote back when i spent all my time in witherspoon.)
• picked last for google - i just noticed that if one does a search for "charliekane" on (blogger's parent company) google, i'm absolutely last. i actually think it's better than being second to last.

• this is for you jerry - (and any other superman fans with high speed connections)
• the sports guy - i'm a big fan of page 2, largely because of bill simmons. here's his latest column.

• dick blockhead - democratic presidential hopeful mentions he graduated from university of michigan law school when there was only one black student. he then continues on to say:
  "when i'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the supreme court does tomorrow or any other day."
  maybe he was trying to show how a racially diverse class improves learning. he at least demonstrated that he never learned anything in constitutional law.
• the yellow album - 13 year old indian boy has beetles in his urine. (no. i will not make a "peetles" joke.) i was glad to know that "doctors were really surprised to see the beetles." that does make me more likely to visit the rest of the subcontinent.
• apple of my eye - g5 based powermacs announced. along with the leak of specs last thursday (was oddly disconcerting at the time) comes this little article saying there was yet another model on the apple store site momentarily. i think it might have just been a g4 model that they hadn't gotten off the main page (there were four g4 models as of yesterday on that page). the g4s are still available.
• use it or lose it - though of no surprise to regular readers, roseblog is now officially good for your health.

• collesbianism explained? - apparently women are much more likely to be sexually aroused by both men and women.
  Heterosexual men were most stimulated by watching lesbian sex, followed by heterosexual sex. The gay men responded most to male erotica.
  But the women -- straight or lesbian -- tended to enjoy watching all the types of partners have sex. Only 63 percent responded most to sex involving their preferred gender, a much lower number than among the men.
• "real world"er moving to another house? - this one with 435 members who are even more screwed up and has its own 24 hour channel.
• if you're going to san francisco - they've just connected the airport to the mass transit system. you can now take a train from the airport to downtown for much cheaper than a taxi/bus. pretty nifty looking. i wonder how far away lisa was created.
• just unphair - what's with female singer/songwriters turning all teenie pop? first jewel; now liz phair. well i guess as long as they're hot...

harryed -> notposting - so i'm done with the book. felt i might as well get it over with. i'll post comments (and edit the previous post) after this headache dissipates.

crap you find at 4:30 am carnival of the vanities: http://www.realwomenonline.com/article.php?story=20030617213700535 further vanity: http://www.blogcritics.org/archives/2003/01/22/091548.php (mo?) jealous of this blog - particularly the filed by stuff: http://madhoo.realwomenonline.com/ turning lemons into - http://www.naplesnews.com/03/06/naples/d945350a.htm

• after the first question, i expected this to be much cooler - according to one of those online things which of course i wouldn't ever participate in - i'm "an irredeemably eejitous, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, relatively well adjusted human being!" || See how compatible you are with me! - by Rum and Monkey
• a monk who can't be left alone with children - but for a change it's because he's afriad of them instead. i love this show. yes i liked it even more when no one else watched it - how pretentious. it's nice to see that amy sedaris will be returning, but i am not at all pleased with the possibility of monk having a brother who has similarities. i think it works best if he was an only child. now that i'm back to being cableless, i do hope rerun continue to be shown on abc. i mean - what does abc have that's better?

this is going to be a mix of news and things of come upon today:

• disgusted at bush - president bush's continual mention of a broad expanse of americorps/peace corps and his creation of freedom corps would have one believe he was serious in his commitment to service. i have espoused my belief in this forum and elsewhere that the president is a man of his word. however i believe he has seriously undermined that credibility. i know he has with me. instead of increasing the number of participants in americorps from 50,000 to 75,000, the program will be capped at 50,000. while fault does lie with congress, his proposed budget for fiscal 2004 requests $40 million less in americorps grants than he did for 2003.
• looks like a shaker designed it - island church originally home of two separate congregations...well it still is.
• by george i think he's lost it - chef foreman himself is considering returning to the ring...again.
• cool chick - i think he should be referred to as mr. domingues. [hot chick]
• recommend reading - life of pi. don't follow the link. i think i'd have enjoyed it even more if i just happened to have been given the book and told to read it without having known anything about it.
• stein's back - i believe it's somewhere east of eden. oprah decides to deal with dead authors.
• most/least wanted songs - composers wrote songs based on the results of an online poll. despite the fact that they used "visitor's" as the plural form of visitor, i'm interested in hearing the results.
  most wanted song info excerpts:
  The most favored ensemble, determined from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening circumstance is at home.
  least wanted song info exceprts:
  The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and “elevator” music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs.
• a pax on both your houses - salem has yet another update and includes a picture of nytimes' real world baghdad house. edit: anyone know why mozilla displays the picture when included in a page, but when one tries to view the image it displays the data? ie seems to display it fine.

chuck e. cheapdate - buy a large pizza (18.31) and get 50 free tokens. i remember going there for birthdays when i was young. (no we did not pay to get their official birthday package, but they were usually kind enough to annouce it along with the other kids' birthdays.) we even brought our own (ice cream brownie - yum) cake.

• tokyo money away - cost of living survey lists most expensive cities to live. press release | top 50 cities (pdf)
• i only assualt coaches - william lique, the father who attacked kansas city royals first base coach tom gamboa, was spotted this weekend working at the us open with decent access. "i'm no security risk, i'm no threat to society," ligue said sunday. he faces sentencing wednesday.

• i demand a recount - wilson, nc declared one of 10 all-america cities by national civic league [info about the all-america city program] yes. officials do hope this will increase tourism. yes. i think they will be liable for false advertising..
  the 10 winners:
  tempe, ar; new haven, cn; miami beach, fl; des moines, io; marquette county, mi; laurinburg, nc; wilson, nc; south sioux city, ne; corpus christi, tx; and greater racine area, wi.
• irant a new government - why aren't we hearing more about the student protests in iran? this is the sixth night in a row! isn't this what we've been wanting to happen? isn't it important for the world to be watching to give the government pause so as to avoid another tiananmen. (btw, june 4th was the 14th anniversary of the massacre.)

even muggles have to shout - transcript follows of excerpt of audio cd of new harry potter book available on amazon.com:

"Harry’s bewilderment deepened with every step he took. What on earth were they doing in a house that looked as though it belonged to the darkest of wizards? "Mrs. Weasley, why ---?"

"Ron and Hermione will explain everything, dear. I’ve really got to dash," Mrs. Weasley whispered distractedly. "There!" They had reached the second landing. "You’re the door on the right. I’ll call you when it’s over." And she hurried off downstairs again.

Harry crossed the dingy landing, turned the bedroom doorknob, which was shaped like a serpent’s head, and opened the door. He caught a brief glimpse of a gloomy high-ceilinged, twin-bedded room, then there was a loud twittering noise followed by an even louder shriek, and his vision was completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair.

Hermione had thrown herself onto him in a hug that nearly knocked him flat, while Ron’s tiny owl Pigwidgeon zoomed excitedly round and round their heads.

"Harry! Ron, he’s here, Harry’s here! We didn’t hear you arrive - ooh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have. I know our letters were useless but we couldn’t tell you anything. Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn’t. Ooh, we’ve go so much to tell you and you’ve got to tell us. The Dementors! When we heard - and that ministry hearing, it’s just outrageous. I’ve looked it all up. They can’t expel you, they just can’t! There’s provision in the 'Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery’ for the use of magic in life-threatening situations."

"Let him breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning, closing the door behind Harry. He seemed to have grown several more inches during their month apart, making him taller and more gangly looking than ever, though the long nose, bright red hair and freckles were the same."

• the two extra hours - usatoday spills the beans on some of the additions in the requisite extended version of two towers.
• the mirror has two phases - philips announced mirrors with lcd displays built in but act like a mirror when not activated. a very badass, expensive waste.
• all i need is the costume - i wonder how you apply for the job as the news bunny. that sounds like a great job.
• spiketv bumped - judge grants temporary injunction to spike lee in his bid to keep tnn from switching its name to spiketv.
• and i thought my voice was my passport - apparently either these people lied (like i would have) or they are really, really stupid. unless they tried to log in using the freely given passwords, how do they know if they were legitimite?

• fly me to the boom - looking for missing african 727. according to the article: "U.S. officials noted that many planes with murky backgrounds come and go across Africa because of the poor transport systems on the ground." amazing insights.
• the noclass network - about a year ago tnn dropped their top-rated show dukes of hazard from their schedule in order to try to upgrade the network's appeal. wow, they've done a good job. it appears they are going to rename themselves "spiketv." i'm shocked, shocked to find this bothers a certain someone. here's the wonderful lineup of top quality shows.
• rrock on orrin - senator orrin hatch's songwriting has netted him $18,009 in 2002. fellow members of the judiciary committee are reportedly meeting to determine if this should disallow him from continuing as chair. patrick leahy (d-vt) has been quoted as saying "he's made me listen to a couple, so i know it must be a crime for him to be making money."
• kiss that job goodbye - stupid love or money slimeball gets "disassociated" from his law firm.
• finding nemo in little pieces - i bet they enjoyed writing the press release. update: actual press release
• must protect the brand - cbs blocks survivor winner jenna from participating in a peta ad but playboy is a welcome association apparently. jenna as well as fellow contestant heidi are to appear in the august playboy.
• more to meet the eye - hollywood is considering a live-action transformers movie. apparently the original toys have also be rereleased.

a smorgasbord of articles:

• mtv late night - tom green is going to have his own hour long, late night talk show on mtv.
• one very long movie a while ago - i'm rather intrigued by this film. i guess i'll add it to the list of movies to watch.
• don't phone home - apparently cell phones can actually interfere with aircraft equipment.
• ImGone - waksal gets maximum sentence of 7 years 3 months. definitely sending a message. maybe they're hoping he'll now cave to get a shortened sentence. martha knows that she's risking quite a bit going to trial.
• wiemen's open - 13 year qualifies for us women's open on her third try. this girl is awesome. she's actually going to use a sponsor's exemption to play on the pga's development tour.
• petty's itti-dretti switch - christian fittipaldi replaces john andretti in the 43 car.
• quark, quark, quark... - the ironicly titled XPress finally arrives for os x. [apple's quark page] if hypertransport-enabled g5 based powermacs are released at wwdc, expect a rather big quarter for apple. one of the reasons for "the year of the powerbook" is because the powermacs aren't that great and many design houses have been stuck using os9 for quark. how long this little pent up demand lasts will be interesting.
• microsoft's great solution - instead of making more secure software, they're going to start selling anti-virus software. they've bought yet another company in order to do this. i guess they wanted some good secure software.
• hopefully not a trend - what if johnson sells the team to a richard? i'm sure "dick's cats" will be a big hit.

saturday was intARnetless, sunday busy/tired. so i guess i'll come up with some recent newsings.

• always wanted 2 review movies - my favorite article of late. it bemoans poor puns by movie reviews of 2 fast 2 furious. well that's just 2 bad.
• bad moons on the rise - a picture may be worth a thousand words however i don't think i would never speak these words. this guy would however.
• sultanna swatted - must pose for unveiled photo to receive license. thoughts of fla attorney general and of columnist in arab news. of course the arab news also includes an article entitled "special training for religious police."
• hello?scan - anyone know how often "server work in progress" occurs? i would say leave me a comment...
• a simple tale of androgeny? - flat stomach as modern day virginity symbol...or so says the greyt abs lady. in other news tom hanks has just signed on to a new tv show entitled "belly buddies."
• roll up that sleeping bag - israel removes 2 settlement outposts. abbas announced he won't use force against militants. settlers announce they won't use force against israeli forces. too bad the sides aren't always so accommodating.
• musharraf: psharia - we don't need no pakiban here. oh no! not the circuses.
• iwreck update - this is a quite necessary step for peace and stability. the average people are becoming frightened not by the us military but the dramatic increase in religious extremism. now if they can just get them to stop the new fad of using speakers to broadcast from the mosques. (this has been banned in many neighboring states.)
• how smart is our intelligence - us news details the questions about what we knew pre-war about iraq's wmd programs. seems that powell struck quite a bit of questionable material prior to his un presentation.

i have some nice articles about iRAQ and recent developments...but i've had too much of that whole region for a few days.

• unagricultured - meg scott "you say it like i was naughty at school - oh wait i was" phipps finally resigned today. [the letter] like i thought with martha, i figured she'd stay on and use her resignation as a bargaining chip. (although with martha she may have stepped down - she's still on the board - to keep them from adding additional charges of manipulating stock price by protesting innocence.) i think papa having to testify friday was likely the deciding factor. i guess she's finally come to the realization that she's not going to become governor.
• #*$% you, #*$% you, you're cool, #*$% you - amusing column about when trading spaces go bad...
• get down with oed - oxford english dictionary adds a few new entries - including "bling bling"
• i'm so high - high court judge fo shizzle could have used the new edition.
• make it a double scoup - i'm guessing someone is going to use it to make a float...and i doubt they'll use root beer.
• green with ivy - will ferrell as harvard class day speaker. 90 secs of will [qt] [real video] [2 hours of fun] - around 1:20:00 has a humorous student speaker. will ferrel is introduced around 1:27:00. definitely better than a washed up, unemployed 80s leftover.

when bush comes to shove - sorry for the delay. just hard to be witty or positive about this. here's a rough draft.

• sharonehead - he's really going all out. he's promised to "remove unauthorized outposts" - of course that doesn't say they will even stop construction of new settlements. so like they're talking about getting rid of a few tents. it's the new "campgrounds for peace" agreement.
• unsettlers v hamassgrave - these extremists are just ridiculous. this is what happens when your whole self-identity rests in impossible situations. most west-bank palestinians still think of their home as elsewhere - the young usually have never even seen their home. the settlers are acting out of a religous and political fervor. they are not looking for peace. so on one side we have a group determined to take all the land - and another group determined to take it all back. yet there isn't even the willpower for people to just take a break. i know the pictures were regrettable the last time the israeli army tried to shut down a settlement, but they need to show some backbone.
• jews don't kill jews - who said the settlers aren't optimistic about the possibility for peace?
• zinni - condi; condi - zinni. - it appears bush at least wants to hold them to their word as he's sending in a monitor who is going to take names of those who have been bad. i hope he brings gold stars. i think condi is the teacher's pet. but seriously, this shows that he intends to follow through with this. wolf seems decent, but it's rice that's important. while the wolfpack will likely be there much more often condi's participation always means that the president is involved, and both sides know this. we will see if they are willing to call out both sides for noncompliance as well as any consequences for such. sorry zinni, but you're no condi.
• a big arafat no - he didn't even denounce abbas privately and work to subvert the process behind the scenes.

• martha linc. - where she explains how to properly deny federal conspiracy charges with style. step 1) start a new website. step 2) publish "your" email address. step 3)... step 4) riches!
• clay and the fatman - yes, the info you needed to be able to sleep tonight. yes, this post is only for the headline - but lucky you it precludes me from using the planned "hate and the arafatman" headline.

end of a short raines - aka dumb and dumberer - nyaboutfrikin'times executive editor howell raines and managing editor gerald boyd resigned. this move was obvious. the amount of deception by blair and others, the management failures, the atomosphere in the newsroom, the public's lack of faith in the greyarea lady, made this move both expected and necessary. i know i almost felt like a sucker every time i read/linked to a nytimes article. for those with similar distaste - here's the wpost. (shouldn't the byline be solely mine since i did all this work to link to them?)

• ImDone - martha steps down as chairman and ceo. i'm not sure why she did this (other than if she was acting in the best interest of her company/stock price). i would think that resigning would be a good bargaining chip if she was looking for a settlement - to me this signifies her intentions to go to court and see it through.
• bring out ye dead - in biggest defeat of the guerillas since 2001, afghan forces kill roughly 40 taliban fighters. best part - did it without any international troops.
• en garde - salem pax's first column in the guardian - i wonder how they will figure out how to misquote him. (via instapundit)
• late day house vote allowed - bans late term/"partial-birth" abortion procedure 282-139. similar bill has previously passed senate. bush praises passage, promises signature.
• down with the ship? - nope - just being a little naughton.
• george washington outranked - eisenhower statue placed in rotunda in unprecedented swap - sorry gov. george w glick.
  

- look for a "when bush comes to shove" update tomorrow. i'm too perturbed by blogger right now.

the words - the words! (not properly closing the title tag makes for a very bare page)

Vail v Veil - i am interested in seeing examples of the "myriad of reasons" for exemptions to needing a photo for a license. is it fine with islam to abuse foster kids? (includes mugshot)

• frugal rock - smartest thing the riaa has done in a while. i don't feel like trying to find out what is a "larger audience."
• duo to uno - treo maker handspring is bought out by palm. palm seems to have fallen asleep; maybe the infusion of old blood will wake it up.
• Frankel: I've had it. - appears "the man" is tired of being kept down by the man.
• fla dsl: sol - earthlink decides to stop paying taxes for users of dialup and dsl. florida users get to look forward to a 18.37 percent tax on dsl.
• martha stewart livid - this has got to be the worst possible situation if you were a "well-informed" stock owner. you sell shares because the fda won't approve the company's new drug, then you're accused of insider trading, then another research study is released, and the fda now appears it will readily approve it, and then you are indicted. wasn't she a stockbroker in a former life? ridiculous
• Gwen musicians act! - no doubt front woman gets part as jean harlow in scorsese's upcoming movie "the aviator."
• survey, scoff, surrender - eu sends french-led peacekeeping force to congo. 2nd military action of eu - first outside europe - first without nato. this is the french dream - a europe of economic and military power might to equal the us. how far the eu states go to fund the eu military will be interesting to watch.

when bush comes to shove:

• french summit - to bush's position.
• peace primed - prime ministers of palestine & israel meet publicly for the first time - with gb of course.
• ask and you shall receive - bush lets me know what goes on behind the scenes...well him and an "accidental" recording. i think this is where detractors underestimate bush. he clearly isn't just going through the motions to appease those who think he should be more active in the peace process. he constistently gives the impression that he doesn't undertake something unless he believes in it. as he believes God has given him the responsibility to protect america and counteract terror, i think he believes this is another situation that he is to undertake. the religious undertones i believe were then inevitable. his effectiveness in military campaigns has been demonstrated, and i believe that the administration deserves credit that there have been no terrorist attacks since sept 11 in the us - while it's likely inevitable that there will be future attacks, that many, many have been stopped is undeniable and laudable. we'll now see how effective he is at starting peace.
• i'm guessing sugar's rather sweet - israel releases palestinian prisoners - including the refrigerator bomber who'd served 28 years - on eve of peace summit.

• was never in jeopardy - you ever watch jeopardy and feel in the zone? that happened to me yesterday. i had to know at least 80% of all the questions, and i knew all of the daily double and final jeopardy questions. felt good. btw, they mentioned afterwards that they are searching for participants in the kids, teen, and college versions. so i get 5% finder's fee.
• salem pax trials - for all you loyal readers of salem (if you're not one, you should be), this might quash any lingering doubts of his existence.
• hey this part is really good - i guess they got the right guy to review it.
• duh, it's a one time use teleporter - i'm a fan of ole buffy, but i have to agree with his sentiments.
• getting on the talibandwagon - islamibad is going to have to come up with some better arguments than "uh, how can we oppose it?" or Shariah will likely spread. this is not a good sign for continued cooperation in rooting out islamicists in the northwest.
• tennis volley - roddick fires coach after losing first round at the french. yeah that's the problem. hasn't he learned from pete/andre/mac? Top us male tennis players cannot date actresses! I was surprised that venus lost in the 3rd round - she'd played a rather strong match in the 2nd round, but i am much more surprised that agassi and guga lost so soon. (like andre to the old/bald guys, watching kuerten play is inspirational to the skinny guys worldwide...)

i don't know how i forgot to post about the review on osnews of zeta. i'm rather glad to see there is something substantive happening with the old beos code. rumor is that they were able to license it before be sold its ip to palm. i'm rather sad to see a few things are no more (particularly tab sliding...alas). i figure since i'm in the midst of nerdy news, i'll post some more.

• it appears the year of the powerbook continues - price drop of $300 on the 15" and $200 on the 12" powerbooks.
• imac, ipod, and powerbook designer wins designer of the year from the design museum in london. [news article] quote: "The prestigious prize from the Design Museum in London is worth £25,000 for 'the UK designer that made the biggest contribution to design in the past year'. " good for him.
• "ichat on crack" - this is actually kinda cool. i'm no big chatter, but i particularly found chatting to unknown people around the world rather dumb. starting to chat with the hot chick across from you in the coffee shop...not so dumb. he says he's looking for word of mouth to up the number of users from 6000. being on the front page of slashdot won't hurt.
news inserts:
• just saw a report on tv about carolina investors - they went bankrupt and owe people in the small town of perkins, sc over a quarter billion dollars. greenville online has a rather extensive online report about the debacle.
• the overnight news is sometimes less professional - but this one was just inaccurate. it was about the advent of cameras in phones and the prrrivacy ramifications. they went to a health club and took pictures of people to show that that they could. they ended with mentioning how in asia cell phones are being banned from health clubs and night clubs, but that it is not happening anywhere in the united states. did they actually check? i mean, c'mon - just because they hadn't come upon it, doesn't mean it's not happening. i've read about cell phones being banned for this very reason in locations in the us at least 3 months ago. idiots.

mo strikes back with her own summer blockbusters.

dude, that's like so totally cool. maybe they'd let me tag along.

actually he does write 2nd person. i wasn't confused as to the meaning of 2nd person (until she corrected me). I was just mistaken - i really thought he was writing first person. you'd think i would have remembered. reading it reminds me of reading a choose your own adventure book. i wanted to avoid the fiery death by turning to the end and working my way backwards. anyway. crazy stuff.

• maybe these folks will use the refrigerators to keep this cold. i'm sure tucker max would try it and then write about it...unless he can't. i'll bet miss vermont wishes he'd do this.
• i guess if one fell off the wagon, they wouldn't get up for a while.
• nytimes summer reading list. i don't think i've read any of them.
• a rather positive step for the german economy...but a rather dramatic change nonetheless. i think the german economy is most important in the eu (particularly with the bundesbank and having such a large effect on the eu economy and eu money policy), so this is rather interesting to see the ramifications. the unions are very powerful and have historically been a part of policy decisions - even sometimes have a say in companies' decision making.
• New York Philharmonic Agrees to Move to Carnegie Hall - sounds like a good idea to me.
• i'd give norm much more credit for this.

i think this deserved its own post: Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights - go ahead take a minute. (if you thought i was kidding...) yeah, well what i'm really waiting for is grease 3. but it won't get it since i've been thinking about something else for quite some time now. what do leaders do with other world leaders? (it's sorta like how i wonder what a president does the first couple of days on the job. he doesn't know the layout of his new office/home. he doesn't know all her staff. he doesn't know the routine, etc. i just see the new president sitting in the oval office, looking around...and then wondering what to do. i once thought this was the reason why early in the clinton administration interns would actually participate in policy discussions with cabinet members and the president.) so back to the world leaders. it's rather obvious what they do when the press is around. they sit/stand about 4 feet apart looking in a parallel direction with intermittant side glances and nods. i am more interested in those "willbe meetings" that are always mentioned (as in "the president willbe meeting with chirac later in the week...".) okay, so are the two of them alone? does condi come? are there translators present? are they doing shots of vodka? i have an image that i hope is true. it's like bush, blair, putin, gerhard, and old jacques are shooting the breeze/playing cards/laughing and then bush turning all goodfellas on chirac for "bustin his balls" while everyone laughs until it gets a little out of hand. but really? what do they do/talk about? how formal? i am really interested.

holy crap - i just saw on pbs some ape washing laundry. maybe i can teach my bathroom monkey to become the laundry monkey!

• these opening weekend numbers are getting annoying. i believe it's the 3rd weekend in a row with a 70 mil plus movie. i think it's time to switch to reporting tickets sold. it appears 22% of nemo's audience was young adults. this surprises me. i (and it was a concern of theirs) thought it wouldn't appeal that well to males.
• is there some linkage between intelligence and guinness? (i find that first picture pretty.)
• mo says robbins writes in 2nd person...which is first person if you're the other person...which means i should have used 2nd person...duh.
• i guess i'll post this before my computer crashes.

weekend update (links will come):

• state won in 14 innings. game winning homerun (not a walkoff like the night before, but still nifty). too bad florida couldn't beat miami twice - wilson could have hosted a super regional game. alas
• matt and i have been playing tennis. for some reason it was i who had to buy the racket. i found a can of balls in the garage - unopened. they were from brendles' and had an instant win game piece inside. maybe we'll win tickets to a 1996 tournament!
• apparently all of wilson's non-latino population missed out on a great sunday afternoon in the park. on the way to the rec center, we were stopped by some girl as a truck was attempting to back out of a driveway. that girl? - yes, you guessed it - karen alger. i believe this is the second time i've seen her since her wedding - maybe the first. it seems rather uncouth to contact a married ex.
• back to working on the closet - i need to put some more join compound on the ceiling and attach the door. after that put up the shelving. i am looking forward to vacuuming. (a thick white film is on about everything in my room. rather unpleasant.)
• i've been wondering what the implications are of attending a wedding. are you required to be friends? are you saying that you think the wedding is a good idea? i'm thinking yes to the last one with that whole...dramatic pause by officiator moment (though i've been to some without that portion). one could argue that by attending and staying quiet, you aren't saying it's a good idea - just that it's not a bad idea.
• finished egger's latest book last week. a significant disappointment in comparison to the joy that is his first book, but still quite readable. [weird - just read on McSweeney's that there is an updated (and renamed) version with 60 more pages written by the protagonists compatriot and more pictures.] started to read the rest of lucky (read the first 20 pages online only to get cut off in the middle of a paragraph) - then gave it to mom when she was in search of material. so now i'm reading tom robbins' half asleep in frog pajamas (not a "night suit"). i find it somewhat disconcerting to have a male writer write in first person for a female character. i'm not sure why.

news roundup:

• at last...something to do in wilson - go pack!
• the detroit coaching situation seems somewhat reminiscent of tampa bay last year. if they don't hire brown, will they resort to buying off some other team's coach?
• it seems the british may actually be the cowboys... and maybe the policeman, construction worker and the indian as well.
• at least clinton is a big fan.
• for some reason, the more i read about the g8 summit and his trip...the more i want to go to st. petersburg.
• do they not realize that toddlers are messy?! see parents blame kids for ruining everything - even their own genuine leather baby seat.
• i guess iu thought no one would check. i wish they'd blame everything on myles brand. he just seems so smarmy to me.