my Find Your Spot results:

Little Rock, AR -it'll never happen.
Sacramento, CA
New Orleans, LA
Portland, OR
Alexandria, LA
Honolulu, HA

other than Baltimore, MD (#6) and Washington DC (#11) everything else was California or Gulf coast. i didn't think my preferences for high crime rates and few educational opportunities would weigh so heavily. (actually, i think it was my preference for warmth, lots of rain, and very little snow that did it.)
[a double attribution of Max and Keithers.com]

i tried to send a thank you to someone, but, because Hotmail sucks, i don't know if it was sent. if it didn't go through, i'm going to seem like a rude bastard, something i'm not (no, seriously, usually i'm not). on the other hand, i did try to send the email twice, so if both went through, i'll seem like a dumb-ass. bastard or dumb-ass, which should i prefer to be?

been messing around with my sidebar. made some minor changes.

added a link to Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, Jean's sorta-daily second blog chronicling life with ADD.

returned Grazing Reality. she was there before, but dropped out of site for a while. now she's back, with her own domain, and a new look, so she goes back on the sidebar.

had to drop one of Brad's links to make room for Grazing Reality. only ten of my multiple-time-daily reads go on the sidebar (Jean's three don't count in the total. to find out how to be eligible for such exemptions, email me. if you're male, include nude photos of yourself).

Helms says he won't run again. though this makes me happy, i'm still thinking about the remaining 16 months of his term.

incidentally, the reports and articles that celbrate Helms for sticking to his values need to stop. clinging to the wrong answer is not a virtue, and the man was wrong on a great many things.

let's talk federal budget.

or let's talk about not talking.

i think management shouldn't leave reports marked "Confidential" lying around on the copier.

"What makes you such a bitch, Emma?" snarls Jean.
"Breeding, darling," she replies coolly. "Top class breeding."

the new New X-Men must be out.

here's my wishlist of recent and upcoming PC games:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard
The Sims: Hot Date
Zoo Tycoon
Simsville
Cult

i really hate that classes have started back up. no updates during the day.

k, here's a guy who's posted a couple of cute cat photos (his permalinks aren't working or i'd link directly to the cats. i like cats, except when they're living with me and shedding all over everything like Black Cat, or vomiting a couple times a day like Orange Cat). i think everyone should be posting cute cat photos.

Short-lived Tropical Storm Dean downgraded. bloody hell, when are we gonna get a good, strong hurricane to come slamming into the coast of Texas or Louisiana? the weather here in Oklahoma is so nice afterward.

when the corporate email server fails, the best way to notify everyone probably isn't with a mass email.

this would look soooo good standing on my desk.

the two online-exclusive Enterprise TVGuide covers are available for $20. they're "individually numbered, polybagged and packed as a set." please buy many.

thank you, dear, for:

1) yay! more action figures! dunno why i get happy about them since i haven't bought any, but yay!

2) lightening the links. i would run my cursor over every word in your posts looking for links, 'cause i couldn't see them. don't take it personally that i don't wear my glasses while looking at your site. i never wear my glasses or contacts anymore. i've decided to grow blind gracefully.

i'm still trying to figure this out: "The Japan Times newspaper reports that Pabuk also caused the final game Tuesday of the national high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium, Hyogo Prefecture." the storm caused a baseball game? gotta be some storm. how often do such natural forces cause sporting events?

from Killer storm heads for Tokyo.

from scifi.ign: "Come September 2, though, the [Cartoon Network] will set aside a block of shows specifically marked for adult consumption -- Adult Swim, a three-hour cavalcade of programs that are decidedly not for the kiddies. The block will air Sundays and Thursdays from 10 pm to 1 am." how about, among other shows, some new episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast? or maybe Harvey Birdman, an attorney who, in the first episode will be "dealing with a contentious custody battle between Benton Quest and 'traveling companion' Race Bannon for kids Jonny and Hadji"?

coming to a VCR near you: Megiddo: Omega Code 2. actually, according to AllBiehn.com website (Michael Biehn is one of the leads), it'll be in theaters on September 21st. limited release, i'm sure. i'm pushing for the direct-to-video path, mainly because it "was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, whose credits include Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun 3, BMX Bandits and Night of the Demons 2." do i need a stronger argument for skipping theaters? (in all fairness, AllBiehn.com says the first Omega Code "earned over $12 million in the USA, opening at only 300 theatres and still it managed to make it into the top 10, with the highest per-screen average of those on the list.")
[whore of Babylon employeed by Dark Horizons]

oh, and: eeww! Justin Timberlake auditioned for film Rent?

i started out reading AICN Harry's response to Matthew Lillard, who gave a rebuttal (at the end of the article) to Harry's response to Freddy Prinze Jr.'s thoughts on Harry, who has been a critic of the upcoming Scooby Doo film, in which Prinze Jr. and Lillard are staring. (phew!)

after that, i ended up at Film Threat. there's a transcript of Harry's appearance on "Turn Ben Stein On," along with links (all in the first paragraph of the Film Threat link) to "a series of three articles examining the sometimes questionable behavior of Harry Knowles and others at Aint-It-Cool-News.com." they are: part one - Deconstructing Harry: Ain't It Unethical?, part two - The Geeks Strike Back and part three - Ain't It Criminal. Film Threat led to Coming Attractions' Director's Cut article titled "A Question of Ethics."

in the convoluted cross-linking, i've visited a half dozen sites, and i've decided that i now know WAY more about Harry Knowles than i wanted. i've also decided that he sucks. i've never been a regular visitor to AICN (in fact, i think i've only referred to it twice here), so it's no big deal if i never visit again. the Talkbackers on AICN say 'Harry can post whatever he wants to because it's his site'. yep, he can. just don't expect me to read it. the Talkbackers also say, 'if you don't like what Harry's doing, then go to another website." i think i will.

my preference for film news/rumors sites is apparent by my frequent attributions to Dark Horizons. it's not the most visually-stunning site, but it provides the information in a manner than makes it easy for me to pick out what i want to read.

also, i'd like to note that i am no fan of Freddy Prinze Jr. i'm hoping Sarah Michelle Gellar will have some kind of psychotic episode in which she thinks she's actually Buffy and that Freddy's a vampire or demon or something, and it all ends badly with a piece of wood shoved through his chest. anyway, i'm not a fan of FPJ, and don't care particularly for Matthew Lillard, but i am going to give Scooby Doo a chance and actually see the film before i make any proclaimations about it's coolness or suckage. if i seem to be babbling, blame the hypercaffeinated state i'm in. and yeah, i know this is all old stuff, but i just read it for the first time. quit making fun of me. thank you.

TVGuide's feature on Enterprise. and, because the Enterprise article mentioned Joss, here's my chance for a Buffy link: TVGuide's summary of the show, with lots of links to news and gossip from past issues of the rag.

Marvel Comics has taken to making Flash trailers for current and upcoming projects. most recent: Banner!.

even niftier, Marvel has some Flash comics available free online, including Banner! and Ultimate X-Men.

i figured out a way to use binder clips to make an antenna. now my cell phone can get a signal in my cubicle. yay me!

on the subject of cellular processes, here's the Kreb cycle. i think it's nifty.

Microbe has Midas touch.

"They use dissolved metals like iron, uranium and gold the same way we use oxygen," Lovley said.

The conversion that takes place in the extremophile is a simple process: a dissolved metal is absorbed through an enzyme that coats the microbe, and then is excreted as a solid.

doesn't sound like the gold is being used in cellular respiration, so it's not used the "same way we use oxygen." this guy's a scientist? no wonder the world sucks.

had nightmares again last night. that's 4 consecutive nights. i'm a grouch.

Scholastic Assessment Tests "are a measure of the braininess of the entering freshman class, and by extension the braininess of the student body," he said.

ugh.

bwahahahahahahahaha! (Buffy related) dunno why it made me laugh so hard, but i think it's fucking hilarious.

someone used the Bleh feature to search my archives for "Buffy." to save time, i'll just tell you that almost every day's entries will include something about Buffy. Bleh isn't going to narrow it down for you.

laughed at by Stormtroopers.

a Muskogee, Oklahoma committee of teachers and administrators has voted to remove To Kill A Mockingbird from the required freshman reading list at Muskogee High because it may make some students uncomfortable.

Steve Largent will be resigning his Congressional seat at the end of November to begin running for governor of this state. Cathy Keating, the wife of the current governor of Oklahoma, will run in the special election to replace him. politics are incestuous. anyway...

last night, i dreamed that i campaigned for and was elected to Largent's Congressional seat in a heated battle with Cathy that essentially ended when it was revealed that she was also an international porn star (i'm not sure how she planned on hiding her other career, but hey, no one ever said she was bright. besides, she may have been elected if she'd campaigned *as* a porn queen). i never made it to DC though. i spent my term on an archæological dig in the middle of Mohawk park, just outside the zoo entrance.

believing that my dreams are prophetic, i'm thinking of filing as a candidate when Steve resigns. i'd really love to be an archæologist.

Sci Fi Wire's current poll:

The Freddy vs. Jason movie has
received the go-ahead. Who do you
think will win this fight to the death?

¤ Freddy is Jason's worst nightmare.
¤ Jason will carve Freddy up.
¤ Neither: Buffy kills them both.

so far, 72% choose Buffy, with Freddy a distant second.

According to ToonZone (which appears to be having problems now), Paul Dini confirmed at this past weekend's Wizard World that some scripts for a few BATMAN direct to video/DVDs have been greenlighted by WB. Also the uncut 'Return of the Joker' disc is still quite likely to get a release. [found via Dark Horizons]

i caught the Discovery Channel's feature on Allosaurus last night. it made me want a brood of baby Allosauri of my own. they were native to my area (get a quick and short list of the dinosaurs that once roamed your ZIP code).

i also watched some Animal Planet last night. i know i've mentioned him before, but i really like watching Jeff Corwin. he oozes goobness and intelligence, which is sexy (yes, i know i'm contradicting my post from last week in which i said i like 'em big and dumb. can't i have layers?)

School strip search not actionable. A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that a strip search of elementary school pupils was unconstitutional but that a teacher and a police officer involved could not be sued for conducting the search.

The appeals court said she was correct to rule there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal, and those officials were protected from liability because they acted to fulfill their duties.

so, these police officers didn't know that a search sans warrant or probable cause wasn't legal? they also didn't think that maybe, before stripping elementary kids down, that a parent or two should be notified or present? i realize it's only Georgia, but aren't the days of Rosco P. Coltrane over with?

(this post is actually from Friday evening, but the great Blogger gods were displeased with me and wouldn't let me post it)

ack! he defiles everything he touches! from the unlinkable sidebar at Sci Fi Wire: Freddie Prinze Jr. told E! Online that he has signed a deal with Marvel Comics to write a few books, including a storyline for one well-known superhero whom he declined to identify. "I can't say who, but he climbs walls," Prinze told E!

and from E!Online, Wanda says ""Takes More Than Studio Tricks and Cease-and-Desists to Slay Our Slayer." the first page is clean, but after the first paragraph of the second page, it gets a little spoilery (but Wanda-spoilery, which, i'm told, isn't all that reliable. still i'm warning you).