Ab ovo usque ad mala

Just found out the same people who make Virgil's Root Beer make ginger "brews", I guess they're like ginger ale or ginger beer. It's a company called Reed's. I'm going to conduct some scientific experiments to determine if they become my new favorite company. But they are hereby nominated.

I was at orientation yesterday and the Dean of Students mentioned a couple things about rumors, mainly that one should not believe them. That being said, even if all rumors were false, that would not mean that rumors are useless or should be ignored. Rumors seem to start in an atmosphere of either boredom or fear. And even boredom is a type of fear: (often collective) fear that one's life has come to a place where meaning is fleeting, where one is not content with things as they are but is reluctant to venture anything to make them better. Few ever seem to know where a rumor begins. Perhaps this is because the beginning of a rumor is so small that one does not notice it as such. It is a pine nut, a mustard seed. A seed of rumor grows because it finds fertile ground. A rumor can confirm our worst fears. It can incite us to anger, or shock us in ways that the truth rarely does. I find rumor in the times when those around me are in a state of uncertainty and want definite answers that...

I've been synchronizing my phone with my PC for a while, and because of repeated exposure to something I've concluded is counterintuitive, I feel I must cast my vote on the proper spelling of the abbreviated progressive tense: Synching. Here are three reasons why we should be synching and not syncing: 1. The pronunciation of "syncing" would naturally be "sin-sing." 2. "Synching" has been in use in print and online in the "lip synching" sense for decades now. 3. "Synching" more closely points back to the word it's abbreviating. And here's a bonus reason: 4. "Syncing" just looks retarded. Now, I know people would be tempted to read it "sin-ching" like they're celebrating monetary success ("I just won ten bucks at slots! Sin ching!"). They may even start classifying it as a homonym to "cinching." But I think there are enough words in the English language that use "ch" f...

I will join the consensus on the Internet and cast my vote that Paul Graham is a genius. Samples of his essays: Stuff Identity .

David Carradine (72), Ed McMahon (86), Farrah Fawcett (62), Michael Jackson (50), Billy Mays (50). And I am not the only one to have noticed this. Gentlemen, start up your conspiracy theories...Seriously, I kind of want to propose one of my own. They weren't really young...some had health issues, some didn't. Man, man, woman; man, man: should we be expecting another famous woman to die now? In Robert Ludlum style, I can't really imagine a plausible theory that these deaths would really fulfill some evildoer's devious plan. Depress the American public, so that...? Plus, I think that Michael Jackson alone would be enough. Well, my money is on a famous woman to die. Some bloggers say Elizabeth Taylor. Who knows? I won't wish it on anyone. No one should have to go before their time.

So a lot of people have already blogged about this but I still think it's weird. Being born without a uterus disqualifies you from joining the Army. I would think it a plus. Weird.

When I was in Iraq, the locals used to bring their lunches to work in these super cool lunch pails which consisted of 3 or 4 round pans about 2x7" that nestled on top of one another in a frame that held them tight...so like they were able to have bread, yogurt sauce, meat, tabbouleh or whatever, nice and separate. The stuff they brought was always tasty and they always shared. I tried looking for a lunch pail like that on the internet. I couldn't find it. Guess I don't have the right keywords...

The things that are most challenging are often the most rewarding. But if you think about it, this is kind of self-evident because if we didn't think something challenging was going to be rewarding, we might not do it in the first place. Sure, holding your breath for a long time is challenging, but not terribly rewarding. That's why people don't do it a lot. Ha ha.

6 billion people and counting. I give birth to a son hoping that he will be able to support himself in this world. I give birth to a daughter believing that she will be smart enough to get by. I instill in them a moral sense that guides them to do unto others... (In my heart I assert that they are better than those poor people) (In my heart I know that my kids can beat them to the food) (In my heart I realize that it cannot but come to this) God, how possible is it to feed myself without taking food from someone else's mouth? God forgive me!

To whom it may concern: I just received the notice of rate increase for my card. Shame on you. This 25.65% APR is usurious in any sense of the word. This is an unabashed attempt to make profit off the economic circumstances of the people to whom you are lending money. Not only are you perpetuating the economic crisis by stealing purchasing power for your unreasonable rates, but you are taking blatant advantage of the bailout funds you just received from the government—funds paid for by the very persons from whom you are squeezing outrageous interest rates! Instead of reorganizing the company to promote more efficient and responsible lending and banking practices, as the American public which is financing your rescue from failure would expect (and should demand!), you are continuing your state of denial of the measures you must—MUST—take in order for Bank of America to even continue to survive, let alone have the smallest chance of hoping to be competitive again. This rate increase cann...

I think this speaks for itself. "BUFFALO, N.Y. – Police say an upstate New York television executive who sought to improve the image of Muslims in the media beheaded his wife after she filed for divorce. "Muzzammil Hassan is charged with murdering his wife, Aasiya Hassan. Police say she had an order of protection against her husband and he had been kicked out of the house they shared in Orchard Park, near Buffalo. "They accuse the 44-year-old Hassan of cutting off his wife's head at the TV station where he launched his Bridges TV network in 2004. In an AP interview, he said he hoped the network would balance negative portrayals of Muslims following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. "Hassan surrendered at the police station after his wife's death."