This is for all of you who are thinking of joining the class action suit against McDonalds for ruining your figure.

What a misnomer. This game does end — albeit at 3am after you have listened to Law & Order and two episodes of X-Files, NASCAR has come on TNT to appease sleepless race fans and your husband has sat up in bed 34 times and shaken his head at you — but it does finally have to end.

The Game Neverending is a web-based massively multiplayer online game of social, political and economic interactions. And you know I can't keep my hands off those. Apparently the prototype is only 5% of the projected game structure. There's a long line to become an alpha tester, but it can't hurt to pop your name on the list for the future.

Ludicorp is my new favorite company. Fancy a move to British Columbia, Dave?

This morning was awesome. I stepped out onto our back porch, the air catching the moisture from my breath and holding it in place. Tiny crystals arched arcoss the hood of the car, and leaves rustled along the side of the house.

The temperature of this morning was short lived and had already warmed to a normal level by the time I got off of the train, but the message was not lost on me. Autumn is here, and before long we will be raking leaves and carving pumpkins. If only this could last longer than the few brief months we are allowed. In an effort to get myself in the Fall mood, I am reading Ray Bradbury's October Country. Dark, evil, disturbing.

I don't know where this came from, but this forward was too funny and seasonal.

Last night I was assisting an older gentleman in the bookstore locate a book. He must have been in the range of 85 or so, and looked pretty worn out. After completing his order, he began to walk away and then turned back to me. He said, "When I came in, the alarm went off. I don't know why, I didn't have anything on me and I hadn't bought anything yet."

I responded to him jokingly, "Don't worry about it, that thing goes off all the time. It starts beeping every time I walk through because of the metal plate in my head."

He nodded and then a look of realization came across his face. In a totally serious tone he says, "Oh, really? That must be it then, I have one too!" Thinking that he is pulling my chain, I started to chuckle at his joke, at which point he turns his head, to SHOW ME THE SCAR!!! I was floored. I mumbled something to him in response and kept quiet until he left. Then the next customer stepped up to the desk and I asked her if she thought he was serious and she agreed that he was. We laughed for about 2 minutes before I could get it together to help her out. Man, being a wiseass is a dangerous thing.

For those of you that enjoy our always changing pithy taglines, you can now check them out via our Previous Taglines link. Let us know what you think!

I caught a bit of a Discovery Channel show on sewers (no, really) and learned about the fascinating role that sewer balls play in the Parisian sewers. They're huge, wooden spheres (10-feet in diameter isn't uncommon) that are slid into the round sewer tunnels to push solid waste through the tunnel and toward the treatment plant.

Here's a picture I found. It's from someone's vacation pictures, which explains Bob and Marvin in the foreground.

 
 

 

Have you met Karyn? If you don't know Karyn yet, let me fill you in:

Karyn was spendthrift. She needed the trendiest clothes, the most excusive purses, a fast computer. She charged it all.

Karyn ended up with $20,000 in credit card debt and a pink slip from work. She created a cyber-begging site and the cash started rolling in. Revel in the eloquence that is Karyn:

"It was kind of like, when I couldn't color my hair, couldn't do all these things, I kind of got depressed for a while. I couldn't go out and buy cute clothes, I just felt funky every time I went anywhere, in like old clothes, stuff like, ugh." This smart girl is almost finished paying off her debt thanks to online donations. Good for her.

Along comes Jennifer. She's got Lyme Disease. She'd like some money too. And she got it.

Enter the Suburbanites. This anonymous couple would like to quit their jobs and travel for a year and they want to use your money to do it.

And poor Penny, she'd like to leave her husband. It appears that they have nothing in common and she'd like some cash to make the divorce easier.

If all of this Internet begging makes you sick, come back tommorow when we'll be talking about something else. But for the rest of you who were in the least tempted to donate to any of these people; I have an offer you can't refuse. Why choose between debt, sickness and a yen for the Alps when you can have it all?! I have found the all-in-one super charity. I offer you... me. I've got Lyme Disease, debt, no house, I'd like to take a year off to travel AND I'd like to leave my husband.

Okay, so the last one isn't 100% true, but it takes just a simple caculation to realize that I'm the charity of choice. Each of those people have only one (1) reason to need money. Me, I have four (4). Any grade-schooler knows that four is greater than one. Look they have even invented a way to express my need mathematically:

4 > 1

Can you possibly doubt the power of mathematics? I have numerical logic on my side!

I've had Lyme Disease for ten years - can Jennifer beat that? I don't think so. And unlike Karyn, my debt is made up of college loans. I have two degrees to show for my debt, not a Gucci bag that will go out of style next season.

So, send me money for all of my good reasons. Or no good reason whatsoever.

I went to go see The Who this past Friday with Adam and some of his friends from college. It was an unbelievable show. Apparently they were taping a DVD from portions of this concert, and due to that they rocked. The show started off a bit slow with some of their less intense songs, but this didn't last very long. For the last hour they belted out some incredible music. I am glad that I was able to see them live, as Pete Townshend joked that this may be the last time they tour in the US.

It is finally here! Cool weather, falling leaves, pumpkin pie! Are you ready? I am, bring it on!