Life in the Real World

Here are some headlines of articles that I refuse to read, because they make me depressed and irritated:
"Bush Rejects Stem Cell Compromise"
"Court Lets Cheney Keep Talks Secret"
"Agriculture Dept. Paid Journalist for Favorable Stories"
"Evolution on Trial as Kansas Debates Adam vs. Darwin"

Here some headlines that demonstrate my commitment to keeping up to date with today's critical issues:
"'Sith' Fans Maimed in Light Saber Mishap"
"Jolie Claims No Pitt Relationship"

I don't give a damn about the United Nations or Darfur (is that a country or a city or what?) or North Korea. I just want to know what the hell happened with Brad and Jen!

Computers Suck

My on-line-bill-paying service went berserk and wouldn't stop sending payments to my utility company. I called their customer service line and a nice lady in India told me, in a polite way, that it was my own damn fault for clicking the wrong buttons. That may be true, but only a poorly-designed web site would allow me to click the wrong buttons without displaying a big red message that says "Are you sure you want to pay your electric bill 3 times?"

So now I have a $500 credit with the electric company. But on the bright side, I won't have to pay the electric bill for quite a while. Or maybe I'll leave the lights on all day while I'm at work to even it out faster.

20 Questions

This is the coolest. The Interweb can kick your ass at 20 questions.

UPDATE: I stumped it by thinking of "lawyer." :-)

Study Break #2

I wish I could program iTunes so that when it plays my "favorites" playlist, it would play each song 3 times in a row, and then go on to the next song, etc.

Final Exam Review

24 hour take-home exam. It's annoying that I will have to spend an entire 24 hours stressing about an exam. (Well, I guess I don't have to, but I will). But it does give lots of time for snack breaks and blog breaks.

So I have this coworker who doesn't read books. He reads computer books (because we're computer programmers) but he doesn't read novels. He says the only novel he owns is "The Da Vinci Code", which someone gave to him, and that's the only non-technical book he's read in years. He mentioned this on Wednesday and it's been bothering me ever since. How can someone never read books? Actually, I understand how some people can never read books; I have an ex-relative with a mild learning disability who never reads books because it's really a lot of work for her and she was happy when she escaped from high school and could give up that book-learnin' nonsense. But my coworker has a master's degree and as far as I know has no learning disabilities. I just think there's something wrong with never, ever reading books for fun. Books are good for your brain, right? Isn't there something about how you're supposed to exercise your neurons to keep your brain in shape for when you get old? And how would someone learn new things if they didn't read books? Maybe he watches a lot of public television.

I've been thinking about getting him a book I think he would like and giving it to him, but I don't want to get too involved in his freakish bookless life.

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Real Estate exam in 2 hours and 25 minutes. I'm going to fail. I'm going to fail and I'll never be a lawyer. I'm going to fail and I'm never going to be a lawyer and I won't be able to pay back my loans and I'll never own a plasma TV.

There's only one solution: watch the Serenity trailer over and over until I feel better.

Cats

My cat spends a lot of time licking herself. Like most cats, she's able to reach all sorts of places and give them a good lick. However, I'm pretty sure she can't lick the back of her neck. So why isn't the back of her neck all skanky and un-washed-looking? With all the licking that the other parts of her body get, there should be a noticeable difference.