Relations

On this day, I declare that Dr. Nibbert does not like Button. These are our two cats that my housemate and I are trying to introduce to each other. I'll await the days that I can declare "Dr. Nibbert no longer hisses and growls (as much as a small cat can growl...although, she doesn't really purr, so maybe she's a large cat at heart) at Button" and "Dr. Nibbert tolerates Button" and "Dr. Nibbert loves Button."

No Schmidt!

NRG crisis2: sentiments at the pumps

More personal

Oh, heck yes, Diddy is mos def more personal. Before it was like, "P. Diddy...I feel so distant from him," but now it's like I know he's always going to be there for me. Thank you, Diddy. Remind me again, how does talking in the third person make anything more personal??

From CNN.com, Aug. 18, 2005:
Now he's just plain 'Diddy'
Sean Combs drops the 'P.' from his name
Thursday, August 18, 2005; Posted: 1:12 p.m. EDT (17:12 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) — P. Diddy wants to get closer to you. And something was getting in the way.

Namely, the P. in front of the Diddy. So from now on, just call him Diddy, please.

"We had to move the P. We had to simplify it. Diddy is more personal. We are entering into the age of Diddy. It's a new era," the rap mogul said in a recent interview with "Access Hollywood" to promote his upcoming hosting duties on MTV's Video Music Awards in Miami on August 28.

Diddy—whose monikers have included Puff, Puff Daddy and Puffy, says Diddy is "a little bit more personal. I've let down my guard. I'm fully exposed. We are going to have a lot of fun with it. It is the return of hip-hop, rock 'n' roll superstars and they call them Diddy. I'm going to start talking in the third person everything."

Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, is working on a new album for the fall.

NRG crisis

Toyota planning 10 more hybrids: By the end of this decade, Toyota plans for 25 percent of U.S. sales to be hybrid vehicles. posted on CNN.com.autos, Aug. 3, 2005

Let's hope they're right. Not because I have stock in Toyota hybrids or anything, but because I fear for the state of our world...more specifically, country. The good ol' U S of A, where we're always right and the oil will never run out. At least not if you're willing to pay over $60 per barrel. And luckily our buddies over in Congress just passed an energy bill that cuts support for energy conservation and efficiency programs. Whoopee! At least the rest of the developed countries will more or less be able to hit the ground running when oil finally gets too high to buy. MOSH!

Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon

Huh? Does that even sound like a real Harry Potter book? Does it even make any sense? Is it like about HP and another character or something? "Harry, I'd like you to meet Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon."


Excerpted from CNN.com:
Potter posted in full on Chinese site
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Posted: 9:35 a.m. EDT (13:35 GMT)

BEIJING, China (Hollywood Reporter) -- Less than 24 hours after the English edition of the latest Harry Potter book went on sale in China's capital on the weekend, the full text of the 672-page tome was available for free on the Internet as an unauthorized e-book, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

The Shui Mu Tsing Hua bulletin board service posted the full text of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Sunday, according to the Chinese language daily.

Author J.K. Rowling has long warned readers against unauthorized electronic versions of her work. Her fantasy series enjoys vast popularity in China, however, spawning in 2002 a copycat adventure, "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon," by an unknown Chinese author who attributed the work to Rowling.

Oh, the pain of the triceps

So I went water skiing last Saturday, and boy were my triceps sore for a few days after that. Today is the first day that I don't really mind doing those large windmill circle things with my arms (and goodness know I like to get in my daily dose of windmill circles...am I in middle school P.E. again?). I got to thinking that water skiing is a strange sport. You get pulled across water behind a boat going 25 mph. Of course your arms are going to be sore.

Water skiing: Ripping your arms off since 1922.

Wonka Donutz.

They look so nasty, but they taste so good. They also create a good feeling when you work out and then eat one and then look at the "nutrition" information and find out that 69% of the calories you just spent 30 minutes burning were immediately restored by one Wonka Donutz. How does that work grammatically? I realize that "Donutz" isn't exactly the proper way to make "donut" plural, but it indeed connotes that. One Donutz.

Funniest discovery of the day yesterday

So I went to Orscheln (farm/country store) in search of some cheap jeans I could wear while riding along on harvest. I had looked at Alco earlier in the day thinking that would be a prime place for such a thing. I had found some $10 jeans there, which was a pretty fair price, but they totally tapered. I probably would have bought them had I not found anything else, but I am glad to say that I am not the proud new owner of a pair of tapered jeans. And that is because Orscheln came through in a big way. Immediately when I walked in, I was greeted by a table of jeans, all being sold for $8.49. What a steal. I selected several pairs and took them to the dressing room (which, by the way, is kept locked with a chain and padlock, and the key to unlock it is stored on a large hook—the kind you'd find attached to a large chain). Anyway, the "brand" of all of these jeans was American Legacy, complete with a nice fake leather patch on the back waist seam and a nice cardboard eagle-framed-by-American-flag stapled—yes, metal stapled—to the back pocket. So the funniest discovery of the day is that the original brand of these jeans was not American Legacy but rather many varied brands, evident because some of the original tags and whatnot were still on the jeans. The ones I got are all Gap jeans. So not only am I not the proud new owner of tapered jeans, but I actually got some decent looking jeans. In fact, I'm wearing a pair today at work. And if slapping the name American Legacy on jeans that are (1) originally other brands and (2) made in Taiwan isn't the American legacy, then I don't know what is.

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