out of the blue

Last night was one of the most satisfying nights I've had in a while. I went to the dance class and did well by my standards. Then, Becky and I went back home and I read Anansi Boys through to the very-awesome ending. After that high, I tucked Becky in (in a rather stylish manner, if I do say so myself) and went out on the porch to wait for Aaron. Since I haven't done this ever, I surprised him when he saw me sitting there. We had a nice long talk (three hours or so) and then I cleaned my room in a good mood and went to bed at 3:45-ish. Every day should be like that.

I bought Anansi Boys on a whim last night. Becky and I drove out to get gas, root beer, and ice cream, and we just happened to be near Barnes and Noble. I thought to myself, "Hmmmm…." because I knew it was out. I mentioned it to Becky, and she said, "Well, let's stop there," so we did. There it was, sitting invitingly on the first table of books I saw. A particular sticker caught my eye, which proclaimed its 30-percent-off-ness. An instant later, it was swept up into my arms, and I didn't let go of it until we had to pay. I haven't read it yet, but I hear from Danko that it's excellent. It's on my lineup right after I finish Time Enough for Love. And after I finish my essay, of course.

I am looking forward to this :)

Can you trust the BBC?

What they have to say about Zombies

"There has been a small outbreak of “zombism” in a small town near the border of Laos in North-Eastern Cambodia.The culprit was discovered to be mosquitoes native to that region carrying a new strain of Malaria which thus far has a 100 percent mortality rate and kills victims in fewer than 2 days.

After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.” "

Jason's room was a mess. Suffice it to say, it was an adventure to eat cheerios there. Jason was particularly prone to dropping them on the floor, and was also particularly anal about making sure he picked them up again, when he noticed them at all. This had been going on for some time, and by now there was a random distribution of month-old disgustingly stale cheerios among the day old not-quite-as-crisp morsels already on the floor. It had become a minefield. An electric thrill drilled through his mind every time he picked one back up and put it into his mouth, for he never could tell what era it had wandered in from. If during a dig a paleontologist came upon a neolithic man, he could not have been more surprised as when Jason encountered an ancient piece of cereal; and no matter how many times it happened, his russian-roulette ecstasy lessened not at all. Jason doesn't notice the boxes piling up in his room; the game completely engrosses him, and he misses class after class and doesn't sleep. He doesn't note when the men come for him; they let him keep his cereal box, and they scoop up the solid foot of detritus from his floor. The doctors replace the old cheerios with new ones, all fresh and crispy, but he is surprised every time. Heads, heads, heads. Heads.

So I was walking back from Safeway tonight, you see, and this old car it rolls right on up beside me, and this ol' man he leans outta the car and he says, middlin' excited-like, "Hey, man, you want some jumpsuits?" I look over at him, and he's just a-sittin' there as happy as he can be with his two white jumpsuits folded nice and pretty next to him, and he's calling out to me "I got two jumpsuits for sale!" So, I'm not in the mood to buy no jumpsuits, and I tells him so, and he rolls on out around the corner and away into the city. I can't help but wonder, though. Jumpsuits?

Two things:

First, go read this amusing fake article concerning the blame game and Katrina: "Bush administration promises speedier response to national disasters"

Second, completely aside from being a practical article on writing sensible e-mail messages, this one wins oodles of points with two significant quotes…

One major piece of advice is "write a great subject line", meaning that you ought to summarize the e-mail or hit the high points in the subject line, to show the recipient that the e-mail is worth having. Here is the best subject line ever: "Thanks for the new liver–works great!"

When I read Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, I encountered the wonder of the word "Grok". This Martian concept is brilliant in conception and form, and ever since I immersed myself in that book I have wanted to encounter the word somewhere. This article realizes that dream.

Well, good news to everyone. Opera has gotten rid of the ads. What was hardly an incentive not to use their browser now doesn't exist. Go free software! Kudos to Opera! Opera!

Of course, this doesn't mean I'm switching. (Firefox still has extensions.) Just letting people they have options besides the devil. Who wants to sell their soul, anyway?

Have you ever been annoyed when people post images that are too wide on LiveJournal? Have you thought it rude for them to have the audacity to make you scroll horizontally through your entire friends page if you want to keep them as a "Friend"? Well, I haven't. But some people have. So, I programmed this Greasemonkey script to solve the problem. All it does is check each image on any livejournal user's friends page, and resizes all images that are above a certain limit. (The default is 900px, but you can change the variable max_width if you want it to be different.)

Here is the script: http://www.azureabstraction.com/code/friendly-image/imagewidth.user.js

To use it, you must be running Firefox, and install Greasemonkey. Follow the instructions on the web site about how to install user scripts (they can be found here: Using Greasemonkey). Then, enjoy never seeing any images bigger than you want to on your friends page.

I hope you enjoy it, if it would be useful to you.

Are You A Pirate?