Category: Life

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The two of us and our friend Daniel were wandering through Borders last night, looking at the Harry Potter display. Oddly, it was right next to the sections on Astrology, Speculative (I guess New Age is too passé), two whole shelves on Magical Studies, Christianity, Metaphysics, and finally Self-Help. (How’s that for an interesting combination?)

Among them we found some frightening titles, like Dreams for Dummies (they don’t already have them?), or The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Psychic, which made the claim that everyone is psychic, as opposed to the book we found down the shelf, which proclaimed merely that All Women are Psychic. Wiccan Feng Shui seemed like an interesting idea.

Daniel found the real kicker: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Self-Esteem. Just think about it.

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Got someone’s virus-generated email today (though that’s far from unusual). The mail server strips out known viruses and obvious subterfuge, but this one still had a huge HTML file attached… containing, oddly enough, the complete lyrics to Rent. (Incidentally, some idiot decided to make the show’s entire official website appear in a popup. If you have popups disabled, all you see is a message telling you to install Flash, even if you already have it.)

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Noticed a couple of articles that are cause for at least some optimism. Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle have introduced a bill to remove restrictions on fair use from the DMCA, and the US Copyright Office is seeking public comments on the same issue.

It’s just ridiculous for e-books to have restrictions that make it illegal to read them out loud or lend them to friends, or for music to be set up so that you can’t even move it to another room of the house. And if it’s illegal to write or use a program that lets you transfer your music from your old computer to your new one, what are you supposed to do?

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I read this morning that Congress has voted to let President Bush attack Iraq. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I suspect that even if we win, and win quickly, it will likely accomplish only two things: cement other countries’ view of us as a bully (the satirists at The Onion have a great article on that subject), and ensure that new middle-east-based terrorists will be gunning for us for a really long time.

Maybe I’m cynical, but I just haven’t seen much to be optimistic about lately.

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Given that most of us think we are above-average drivers, you’d think people wouldn’t expect other drivers to be telepathic.

Turn signals prevent other drivers from hitting you! (Or at least reduce the chances of it.)

I am amazed time and time again as I see people driving shiny new Mercedes, Lexuses (Lexi?), and BMWs dodging in and out of traffic without signalling, trusting those below-average other drivers to have above-average reflexes and precognitive abilities.

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Mwa ha ha! Guilty as charged.

Beware the summer cold, my dear,
The nose that blows, the throat that hacks!
Beware the Sudafed, and fear
The Kleenex pocket packs!

….And now for some lemon tea. *snif*

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