If you're reading this silly journal and I haven't ever heard from you, leave a comment and say hi! (This is postdated so it'll always be at the top, and comments are screened so you are free to say anything you like.)

"United Breaks Guitars". This is awesome. Also, I like his voice.

Natalie's pretty good at making up voices for inanimate objects that we talk to. If I say, "hello, tree!", the tree will often reply, in a surprisingly tree-like voice: HELLO, MOLLY! But it wasn't until today that I learned that her pretend parrot voice was spot on, "braaaawk!" and all.

If you wanted to get a bike frame repainted, who would you go to? People with actual experiences of actual frame painting are doubly appreciated.

Did you know that "June" does not come from the Latin iūnius but rather from Old Norse jånig meaning "grey"? This is also where the word "young" comes from; grey and young like a baby cygnet. See, look:

Sleepy cygnets:


Today's weather:


See? Obviously true. And, as if to prove it, what did I see just 20 seconds after taking the river photo? GEESE.


Of course, I also dreamed that the hottest new clothing designer around was named Ass Pantsley, so perhaps I am not to be trusted.

Is it just me, or are carnivorous robots kind of unsettling?

Background to my dream, the main plot of which I have forgotten: we live in the near future, and all driver's licenses have little chips in them which can be scanned to determine whether your license has been suspended or revoked. Maybe half of all cars on the road have sensors to scan and verify that the driver has a valid license before starting up. Most new cars have it built in.

The chips were introduced to make it safer and easier for the police to scan your license and pull up your information without making you reach into your pockets; there is a big controversy about the car thing, but the chip-sensor cars seem bound to make it in the end.

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I remember when driver's licenses in Maine did not have photos on them. I don't think I'm making that up, but I'm not 100% sure. Time plays funny tricks.

Hi! Do you have any recipes that you really prefer to make with lard? Would you share them with me? Right now I plan to make fried eggs and maybe a pie crust, but then what?

I seem to have kicked the biking into -- well, if not high gear, seeing as how I have no 400k rides planned, then at least into medium gear. ( body and exercise navelgazing )Raaaar!

I don't particularly miss my Pepperland apartment, but I'm thrilled to find out that I once lived in a BIG GAY SOCIAL HUB.

Most of the time when I say "I'm sorry" what I really mean is "thank you".

today, like all days, I miss my mom.

I haven't seen Up yet. I probably will. But when I first read the synopsis, something snapped: AAAUUUUGH YET ANOTHER ADVENTURE MOVIE ABOUT A BOY OMFG. I think I bored everyone that day with my blah blah no movies about girls blah blah blah. But all I've seen so far are people talking about how good it was, or how sad, or possibly both. Nothing new there, really. So it was wonderful to catch this on twitter: "Ask Pixar to make a movie about a girl? Why, that's just P.C. B.S.!", referencing this open letter on NPR.org, entitled "Dear Pixar, from all the girls with band-aids on their knees". Read them both. It won't take long. (Also of note: a column about the Bechdel rule, and how hard it is to find movies that fit it.)

No point here, just life as usual.

Last night, I was wandering through the woods and found a mysterious little box. It was not a geocache, but it did prompt vespid_interest to mention geocaching as something I in particular would get a kick out of, which several different people have done over the years. Anyway, it made me curious:

Poll #1414358
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Have you ever gone geocaching?

I just ate two perfectly boiled eggs. Perfect -- not quite soft-boiled, but with a smooth, slightly gooey yolk, and the firm white of a duck egg. I just peeled them and dipped them in a dish of the good salt and ate them whole, and now I feel full and round and happy in a way I possibly never ever precisely have before.

Here. But I'm warning you -- really, don't even try.