Spring broken

Spring break was fun even though I was sick for a few days. On Tuesday night, I went out on my dad's boat, which was fun. I miss the ocean sometimes, so it was good to be back. Toward the end of the week, I hung out with Nick, Mike, and TJ more. We ate at a lot of restaurants, and I discovered that Hooters has delicious chicken wings. I wish I had hung out with more people and eaten more wings, but spring break must come to an end.

And so it did. After over a week away from school, I was actually... ugh... missing it. I mean, it's good to be back to being (supposedly) productive. People are counting down the weeks until the semester ends. (I think it's five or six? Oh no, I'm a bad college student because I don't know!)

Also, everybody got a haircut during spring break. Seriously, lots of people. I was going to get one myself, but I ended up not feeling like it. What is it about going home that makes college students want to cut their hair? I don't know about anyone else, but when I go home to get a haircut, my parents pay for it. And they know how much to tip.

Speaking of other people, I've decided to bridge the gap between The World of Stuff and a little web site you may have heard of known as Facebook. Some of my friends read this blog religiously, and some stop by once in a while, but a lot of them aren't blog-reading types. Still others don't know I have a blog at all. I think my friends and acquaintances would like my blog. How do I show it to them?

As it happens, Facebook allows you to import RSS feed items as "notes," which are what it calls blog-post-type things. Facebook will check back on the feed every few hours and post any new items as your notes. You can't edit them, though. To maintain control over my posts and keep comments in one place, I disabled commenting on my notes and imported a custom RSS feed (created with the help of Feed Wrangler) that just shows the auto-generated summary for each post followed by a link to the full post. Welcome, new readers who I'm already friends with!

A blog with tips on spotting Canadians: How to Spot a Canadian. (Via The Presurfer)

One year in the past, I discovered I could take 10 five-year-olds in a fight. Now I've found out how many ninety-year-olds I could take in a fight with this quiz called "How Many 90 Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?" at howmany90yearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com. Turns out I could take 14 ninety-year-olds in a fight. (Via The Presurfer)

I sometimes enjoy listening to Internet radio stations or radio stations on the Internet. So I was pretty pleased when my friend TJ told me about Split Infinity Radio, which apparently features DJs who work from their homes and pick a wide variety of tunes to spin. It's fun to tune in and see what they've got going.

Europe '09

A few months ago, my friend Mark mentioned that he wanted to go backpacking through Europe over the summer. Then he bought a plane ticket. The implication was that I was invited to come along. The more, the merrier, Mark said. Our friend Andy decided he would go along, and Dan did too. How could I resist?

Okay, I had to think about it a bit. It is a big decision to spend a lot of money traveling on another continent for two months. But it's the chance of a lifetime. Who knows how many people I'll meet and how many things I'll see and do? And when's the next time I'll be able to travel across Europe with friends?

So I made it official. Yesterday, I bought a plane ticket to London on the same flight as Mark and Dan. We're leaving May 26 and coming back July 31. Yep. Over two months.

Interestingly (I'm reminded of a professor I had last semester would stress the third syllable of that word), Mark, Andy, Dan, and I, are the officers of the Esperanto Club here at the University of Florida. We plan to do at least some traveling within the Passport Service, a hospitality network for Esperanto speakers. It'll be a great way to meet people, practice the language, and save money. We also plan on going to the International Youth Congress of Esperanto in Liberec, Czech Republic. As it happens, our club's faculty advisor teaches Czech and will be in the country then, so maybe she'll come along.

While I happen to be on the continent, I'd really like to visit my distant cousins in Croatia and see the beautiful town that my ancestors emigrated from. Also, if my friend Kevin happens to be with his family in Spain over the summer, I'd like to drop by and say hola. And if any of you want to put up four guys for a few nights, it would be much appreciated.

So, people who live in or have been to Europe: what should I see? I'll have two whole months, and I'd like to do as much as possible. What do you recommend? Do you have any tips? Also, I'll be celebrating my 20th birthday during the trip, so if you have any ideas for that, I'd like to hear them.

If you know me, you probably have a lot of questions: "What about this? What about that? What a horrible idea!" Obviously, I don't have all my arrangements made yet, but I am thinking about them. I think I want a travel-sized guitar because I obviously can't go without playing the guitar for two months. I might also bring my laptop, even though I nearly broke it last year when I took it to the dining hall down the street. If I don't bring my computer, I'll at least try to blog as often as possible. I'd also like to take hundreds if not thousands of pictures, so I'll pick up a larger memory card for my camera.

Wow. I can't wait. It'll be the experience of a lifetime.

Rejected titles for this post include:

• Go east, young man
• Eurotrip
• The World of Stuff goes to Europe
• The World of Stuff Live! In Europe
• The World of Stuff's European Vacation

Barack Obama wrote some books, and that means there are audiobook versions of his books. Here's your chance to hear the President utter some questionable quotations like "Sure you can have my number, baby!" and things you can't say on TV. (Via waxy.org)

In case you doubted it: the Top 10 Signs of Evolution in Modern Man. Pretty fascinating stuff. (Via The Presurfer)

Wikipedia has a long list of shibboleths. (There's also an article explaining what a shibboleth is.)

Zoo 2

Yesterday, while my friends were moving back to their dorms/apartments and getting ready for classes, I was still at home, checking out Miami Metrozoo with my mom and my sister and my friend Amanda. It brought back memories of the last time I visited, which was a few years ago. I didn't bring my camera then, but I did this time. I'm glad I did. I think this trip made me realize that I should have a Flickr account. I'll see what I can do about that.

I'm going back to school shortly, so instead of me writing stuff, here are a few pictures.

A white tiger and two regular tigers lick each other in the shade. Yes, my descriptions of animals are so majestic.

A zebra eats hay.

This is me standing in front of a giraffe. The original photo is pretty underexposed, but I managed to touch it up so satisfactorily that I think I'll write a tutorial about how I did it.

An African elephant. It actually was kind of red like that over most of its body. I guess it was dirty.

There were quite a few tanks of marine animals as well. This is a stingray or some other kind of ray.

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative mapping project. It's the Wikipedia of maps. It sounds like a cool idea, especially because the maps are licensed under a generous Creative Commons license, but I wouldn't rely on them for navigation.

Grooveshark is a site that allows you to listen to music for free online. It's slightly well-known at the University of Florida because it's based right there in Gainesville. Their PR guy spoke at a Florida Free Culture meeting last semester and explained how the site was run. It was pretty interesting. Now you don't have to go to YouTube to get that song you don't have a copy of out of your head.

2008: The Year in Review

Another year has slipped behind us. It seems like only yesterday that we rang in 2008, and here it's about to be 2009. At the end of every year I'd always like to say it's been a good year, but it never really has. There's always the world situation to consider, and that's never very rosy. Despite that good triumphed over evil, I can't help but be reminded about how bad 2008 has been if you have money or a house. But as someone who doesn't have much money or a house, it was pretty okay. Here, in bulleted list form, is what went down in '08.

• January 1 - After watching the Florida Gators lose their bowl game to Michigan, I have dinner at my friend Mark's house.
• January 4 - A new article at TWoS: Free Your Computer with Linux.
• January 6 - My suitemates and I go on a Geocaching mini-adventure.
• January 7 - The first day of my second semester of college.
• January 15 - I go to a lecture by Jack Kevorkian.
• January 17 - Cameron, Adam, and I visit our other suitemate in the hospital.
• January 17 - I make a new friend and get the idea to start an Esperanto club with her.
• January 29 - I vote for the first time ever in my life.
• February 8 - I hand over control of flipacoin.net, the oldest part of TWoS, to a new owner.
• February 12 - I go to Free Pancake Day at IHOP with my sister and our friend.
• February 16-17 - Our new suitemate Evan treats us to some revelry in his native Tampa, and we spend the night at his house.
• February 20 - I watch a lunar eclipse with my friends.
• February 29 - I document the leap day by taking photos throughout the day.
• February 29 - Evan puts a kiddie pool in the bathroom, fills it with hot water from the shower, and invites his friends. We have a pool party in our dorm.
• March 4 - My not-yet-formed Esperanto club is mentioned in my local paper.
• March 13 - While on spring break, my friends and I visit the old high school.
• March 20 - I go to a pretty awesome orchestra concert.
• March 21 - I go on a non-date. We go to dinner with one of her friends and then see Kimya Dawson with some more of her friends.
• April 3 - I volunteer at Lifeapalooza, Get Carded's end-of-year event.
• April 5 - I go tubing on the Ichetucknee with friends and friends' friends.
• April 6 - TWoS turns 5 years old.
• April 11 - I'm Get Carded's Volunteer of the Year.
• April 12 - I go to the spring football game.
• April 12 - I get inducted into Phi Eta Sigma honor society.
• April 18 - Ask... date... ugh.
• April 30 - Agh... again...
• May 2 - I come home from my first year of college.
• May 9-11 - Family vacation at the family vacation spot.
• May 18 - I discover that I closed my window on a snake several days before. Awesome!
• May 26 - I go canoeing with my friends on Memorial Day.
• May 31 - My grandmother finds an old Hanoverian coin and gives it to me.
• June 3 - I visit my old high school again and find out that this site is censored there.
• June 4 - I go to the Rapids Water Park with some friends.
• June 14 - I create a family genealogy page.
• June 21-22 - I read a whole book (George Orwell's Animal Farm) in Esperanto.
• July 4 - I hang out at my friend Nick's house for a barbecue and other fun.
• July 9 - Nick and I get together at my house to jam.
• July 12 - I invite my friends to a barbecue restaurant for my birthday.
• July 13 - My 19th birthday.
• July 19 - I see The Dark Knight at midnight with my friends. It's a big deal to everyone.
• July 28 - It's official: I'm farsighted.
• August 16 - I go to South Beach with Nick and TJ.
• August 21 - I move back to Hume Hall for a second year.
• August 24 - I go to the Student Honors Organization's beginning-of-the-year barbecue (I sure have been doing a lot of barbecue-related things) with friends new and old.
• August 25 - On my way to my first class of my second year of college, a Christian guy encounters me, and I handle the situation well.
• September 5 - I visit the Alligator's office to talk about the possibility of being an editorial columnist.
• September 9 - My friend Mark and I teach people Esperanto phrases outside the student union, and I get interviewed by a journalism student.
• September 17 - I interview for the webmaster job at the Dean of Students Office... and I get the job.
• September 19 - I find out that the faculty at my high school read my blog for at least a year and cited it in meetings.
• September 26 - I write a letter to a Marine in Iraq.
• October 6 - My first day on the job.
• October 9 - The journalism student's article about me and my Esperanto club is published in the Alligator.
• October 16 - For the Esperanto club's first event, I give a presentation introducing the language to people who are interested.
• October 24 - I participate in an unsuccessful attempt to break the world record for the largest water balloon fight.
• October 28 - 1,000th post.
• November 4 - I voted!
• November 11 - I go to Lake Wauburg with my friends. I have a wonderful time.
• November 21 - I go to a volleyball game with some of the same friends.
• November 26-28 - I spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house.
• December 3 - I participate in an unsuccessful attempt to break the world record for the largest human green ribbon.
• December 4 - I go to another orchestra concert with my friends Mark and Andy.
• December 5 - The Esperanto club's end-of-semester event, Esperanto-Vespermanĝo (Esperanto Dinner).
• December 9 - I wake up sick and late for class for the first time ever.
• December 19 - I return home to my newly semi-redecorated room.
• December 25 - I spend Christmas at home with family and friends.

I plan to ring in the new year at my friend Nick's. As you can see, I tend to go to his house on holidays. It's like the Holiday Inn or something. But I know I'll have a good time there.

A year ago, I asked (or, rather, you asked),

Where do I see myself at the end of 2008? I'm glad you asked. I don't really know, actually.... I'll still be in college, hopefully, and I'll probably be working on that computer science major. I hope to be in a relationship, or at least to have been in a relationship. Actually, just to be dating would be nice. We'll just have to see, I guess.

This wasn't the year. All I can say is maybe next year.

Anyway, have a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. May you keep your new year's resolutions all year, and may 2009 be a world of good stuff.

Oh, and one more thing: a site called Change.org is collecting ideas to submit to the Obama administration. Anyone can register at the site and vote ideas up in various categories. The first round of voting ends tonight. Please vote in favor of citizens' funding of the nation's elections, net neutrality, and teaching Esperanto in schools. I'm very pleased to see how well that last one is doing.

Christmas '08

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? We started by opening gifts. My grandparents are staying over too, so they were there for the opening of the presents. I got another Florida Gators shirt. (Everyone gave each other Gators everything.) I also got a Swiss Army knife, a real Victorinox. I remember saying that I wanted one, but I don't remember where or when. Those parents are good. Now I have knives, screwdrivers, a bottle opener, a can opener, a wire bender, a wire stripper, tweezers, a toothpick, scissors, and other things I can't identify handy at all times.

(There's a short manual, but it doesn't explain what everything is. I had to look up online that the thing that looks like a tiny blade with a hole in it is a reamer with a sewing eye and that the thing that looks like a hook is a hook. Then I had to look up that a reamer is "a tool used in machining to make existing holes dimensionally more accurate and to improve surface finish." Now I can improve holes and sew with the same tool!)

But seriously, this thing will be handy. I always need something sharp to open letters or boxes that I, a college student, eagerly await, and my scissors just don't cut it. (Har har.) I already used the Swiss Army knife scissors to cut the tag off my new Gators shirt. Full circle?? Of course, it's also occasionally useful to have a screwdriver, Phillips or flat. Also, every once in a blue moon, I need a bottle opener... because I like my soda that way.

Also, I got $20 in Taco Bell Bucks. I didn't even know there was such a thing, but I'm glad there is.

For dinner, we had over not only relatives but also friends of the family. I'd never spent Christmas with friends, but it was nice. We had a good time. We kids ate outside. Oh yes: we ate Christmas dinner outside in the beautiful Florida weather. Be jealous.

If Christmas is all about giving, then I'm in the Christmas spirit. I made a donation to Wikipedia the other day. They're trying to raise US$6,000,000, so I figured I'd do my small part. Of my 670 posts since 2005, 431 contain a link to Wikipedia. For the more mathematically inclined, that is 64.3%. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not more. I go to Wikipedia every day for all kinds of information (today I learned that Switzerland does have an army and that they're issued Swiss Army knives), so I know it would be a good thing to give back. Also, the fact that Wikipedia is free to redistribute means that the knowledge it provides can go a long way.

Also, I just realized that I've accidentally introduced CrossBrowserTesting.com twice. I explained the concept of the site the day before yesterday, but I had forgotten that I had already explained and linked to it on Thanksgiving. Is the holiday season really that long? Oh well. You're welcome for the publicity, CrossBrowserTesting.com.

And now, here are some links that aren't Christmas-related but happen to be presidential:

Here are some details about what life will be like for the new US President.

Collected from Google Maps Street View, it's a gallery of other 1600 Pennsylvania Avenues throughout the United States.

Extreme room makeover

My ride was going to leave this morning, so I had signed up to check out of my dorm room at the earliest opportunity: 9:20 AM. Later, I found out that this wasn't early enough for them, and they absolutely wouldn't wait an hour for me. I found out about this yesterday, when it was too late for me to change my scheduled check-out time. It was night, and I was waiting for my RA to come around so I could explain my dilemma and ask him to check me out early. But he didn't show for hours and hours. Finally, I found another RA who I knew who gladly checked me out and agreed to tell my own RA that I had left early.

So I spent the night at my sister's; I'm glad the buses run that late. And in the morning, long before 9:20, our ride came, and we were on the road. Someone else who came along was Michael, who played Sherlock Holmes in a video I was asked to be in a few years ago. We'd seen each other every so often since then. That reminds me, I want to watch the movie again. I got a copy of it eventually, and it's pretty good.

Anyway, I am home for the holidays. I had been looking forward to see how my parents redid my room. They were going to surprise me because they know how my room always collected dust and made me feel sick, but they decided to tell me last week. It basically looks exactly like they said it would. There's new carpet, drapes instead of blinds, and new paint on the walls. They asked me what I wanted to do with my entire bookshelf's worth of National Geographics, a collection I'd accumulated a few years ago (partly seen here). I asked them to put the magazines in boxes and put my actual books back on my bookshelf. Not only did they do that, but they put my amp there too. What a nice use of space.

So, everything's good. My room smells like paint, which is nice. The walls are nice and clean. So are the shelves in my closet. It will probably never be this clean again.

I notice that there are some textbooks I didn't sell last year. I'm going to put those on the market now. Also, I'm not sure what to do with 425 National Geographics. (Yes, I insist on italics.) Nobody wants to buy all of them, but some people want them for free. I'm thinking of giving them away at this point, but I'd really like to make a buck... which is probably the most somebody would pay for these. I could try selling them individually or in small groups, and I'd probably earn a pretty penny eventually, but it would just be too much work. What should I do with these things?

Oops! Read about the Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History.

Here are 50 facts you might not know about Barack Obama. They're fun facts.

Find out How 10 Famous Technology Products Got Their Names.

End of fall

A few weeks ago (Thursday, the 4th, to be exact), I went with my friends Mark and Andy to an orchestra concert. Yes, I could have mentioned it earlier, but I forgot. Apparently I am all about going to orchestra concerts and then forgetting them and then writing about them later. Anyway, this performance was very good. It was of Dvořák's New World. I had never heard it, but they did a good job. After an intermission, they played Respighi's Pines of Rome, which was about half as long. I liked the end. It was really loud.

Oh, and exams. Yes. They were pretty intense. I had to write a paper that I really should have started writing months ago. I think I'll still do okay, though. And what else? An exam in my Indian Ocean class, a programming project. It's all over now. I'm done. Actually, I have to tie some loose ends like picking up my project grade for tech writing and returning some books to the library. I also decided to work today and tomorrow to make up for time I missed when I was sick last week.

Anyway, I'll be out of here on Friday, and I'm looking forward to it. My parents told me last week that they were redecorating my room to make it less allergenic for me. Whenever I'm home, I end up feeling sick because the place is just a trap for dust. I don't know what it is, but hopefully a change of carpet will do the trick. They put in drapes too because they know how much I don't like being woken up by the sun in the morning. I can't wait to see what they've done. I bet it looks pretty awesome.

Phun photo of the day: Horse gets head stuck in tree.

From Wales: E-mail error ends up on road sign.

And now, some science: Ten things you don't know about black holes.

Thanks given

I'm at my grandparents' house, and it's Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holiday that may or may not be about gluttony. Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, which means that people get the Friday after off and sometimes the Wednesday before also. Even if they don't have the day before Thanksgiving off, they act like they do. I'm talking about everyone at my school, which was basically abandoned yesterday. I had one class on Tuesday which was dismissed early because I was one of the only people there. Yesterday, one of my classes was canceled and the other one wasn't. There were only 8 people there when there are normally 50.

What can I say? People love their Thanksgiving. They love the four-day weekend, and would love to have a five-, six-, or nine-day weekend if they could. That leaves me. I wanted to go to my classes, and I also wanted to work and make that money. With my job as webmaster for the Dean of Students Office, I've been working on updating a web site for a biennial event that will be held in the spring. The person in charge of the event keeps telling me that Google's listing for the page hasn't been updated. Hey Google, go check out the Florida Hispanic Latino Collegiate Forum 2009. You might also want to see how I replaced an ugly JavaScript drop-down menu system with a beautiful, mostly-CSS, screen-reader-and-search-engine-friendly drop-down menu system. Don't ask me how long it took to make it work on Firefox, IE7, and IE6. Please don't.

Ah, Internet Explorer 6, the bane of every web designer's existence. Fortunately, the percentage of IE6 users visiting the Dean of Students Office web site is at 15% and falling. (For this site, it's about 12%.) But that's still a significant number. Most of the computers in the DSO now have IE7, so what is a web designer supposed to do when he needs to test a site on IE6? I once resorted to going to the conference room and kicking someone off their computer to use IE6. But it turns out there's a better solution. CrossBrowserTesting.com has saved my life. You can get free access to various testing environments for five minutes at a time, usually with little waiting. (You can also pay and skip the wait.) Java is required, but that's no big. Except it doesn't seem to work on my Ubuntu Linux setup at home; I think it's the Java check that makes Firefox hang. Does anyone have a fix? (Please, nothing involving Wine.)

Anyway, right. Yesterday was quiet. The campus was practically dead. I could hear every footstep I took. In class, I could hear every stroke of my pen while I was taking notes. I hardly had to overtake anyone on the sidewalk. There wasn't even a lot of traffic when there normally would have been. It's a good thing, I guess. Everyone is with their families, enjoying Thanksgiving. And that's really what Thanksgiving is all about.

Here's a blog that's counting down 1000 Awesome Things. It's up to #886 right now.

Talk about quiet: the quietest place on earth is unnervingly quiet.

This article gives some insight on why cell phones work the way they do: Peering Inside a Mobile Phone Network.

The far side of the Hume

A soft rain fell in the parking lot. Nearby, a girl was on her tiptoes trying to put a garbage bag into a dumpster, only to have it fall back on her repeatedly. My parents carried boxes from the rented trailer. Finally, but with some embarrassment, the girl succeeded in her task. "Epic fail," she said apologetically to the passersby.

I was back at Hume Hall, the honors dorm at the University of Florida, for my second year of college. Known as a haven for geeks and nerds who do nothing but play video games, the truth is more complex than that. Some of them are in fact ordinary people. And they know how to have a good time.

Tropical Storm Fay has been a bother. First it crossed over Florida, drenching South Florida in the process. While it moved toward the Atlantic Ocean, my family decided that yesterday would be a good time to make a run for Gainesville through the center of the state. We encountered some rain, but nothing really bad. The storm was forecast to move west, hitting Florida again. But before it did that, it stalled out. The storm was stationary from last night till about midday today, which bought me some time to move into my dorm room. Now it's been raining for hours, but the storm's large eye should be coming soon.

It is nice being in the same dorm as I was in last year. I haven't been at good old Hume Hall (East) in almost four months, but it's easy to get back into the swing of things. Everything is pretty familiar. I've already seen some of the same faces (my RA from the spring checked me in, and I had a chat with one of the cleaning ladies). I have a connection to this place. In fact, when I was thinking of things about last year I had forgotten to mention, I forgot to remember that my roommate and I wrote our names in cement that was drying outside the entrance of the building. Now that's a connection.

I chose a room on the same floor as last year but in the wing farther from the main building. I wasn't sure who I would get as a roommate, but it turned out that one of my chemistry lab partners chose the same room. That worked out well. I've spent this afternoon unpacking. I am now pretty unpacked, except that I haven't put up my posters due to a lack of suitable tape. Also, I forgot one of my bags. My parents haven't gone back home yet, though; my sister still has to move in to her apartment.

Ryan, my erstwhile chemistry lab partner and new roommate, had a head start on moving in. He got here a few days ago and has rearranged his furniture to his liking. Actually, he had to do it because he has a full-size keyboard. Incidentally, one of my floormates from last year had a similarly large keyboard and arranged his stuff the same way. Instead of having the bed against the back corner with the dresser against the back wall and the desk along the side wall, they both put the keyboard at the back wall, the desk facing forward in front of it, and the bed in front of that, with the dresser underneath the bed. Could that be the only possible arrangement when one has a large keyboard?

My roommate last year brought a TV, but this year, neither Ryan nor I had one. We didn't see it as too much of a problem, since neither of us watches much TV, but I reasoned that if somebody offered me a TV for free over the summer, I would take it. A few days ago, a family friend was collecting some donated items and had some surplus stuff, including a TV. She offered it to me. That's how I became the proud owner of a 13-inch Sharp 137LM color TV. It's my first TV set. I was the only kid on the metaphorical block who didn't have a TV in his room. When I asked my mom for one, she would say, "When you're 14." When I was 14, she didn't remember saying that. My sister can vouch for it, though.

The only thing that was missing was a remote control. My dad had a spare programmable remote, but it didn't know the radio signals for this TV, probably because it's old enough to vote and drink alcohol. As I looked for a matching remote for sale on the Internet, I marveled at the hidden yet complex world of online TV remote stores. Some of them claimed to have a compatible remote in stock for $40 or $50. No thanks. Luckily, someone was selling an original remote (with new batteries) on eBay for $5.60. It should be arriving next week. Thanks, Internet!

Now, I don't ask much of you readers, but if any of you feel a need to express your gratitude, friendship, thankfulness, camaraderie, undying devotion, or money, please write:

[Update Tue May 05, 2009 21:49 UTC-5: I don't live at this address anymore!]

I can also accept packages.

Ten times better

In October 2003, I "suddenly became obsessed with the metric system," as I put it at the time. I mentioned plans for writing an article called "The Metric System: Ten Times Better or Inching Toward a Metric America." Well, that didn't happen. A fragmentary draft exists on my computer, last modified on October 19, 2003:

Convincing, ain't it?

As I may have mentioned, my parents have had our house for sale for almost a year now. On Saturday, we had a small garage sale. This is kind of a big deal because the only other garage sale we've ever had (as long as I've been around) was before we moved into our current house. It's a way of having less stuff to move. I couldn't think of anything I wanted to sell, mainly because I threw/gave away a lot of my stuff before heading off to college last year. The stuff I have left I want to keep, give away, or sell for a reasonable amount of money. I can't think of anything that I'd want to unload for a token price. Here are some things I actually have in my room:

• A metal detector
• Records
• 400+ issues of National Geographic Magazine
• A sledgehammer
• A lava lamp
• An inflatable pool raft
• World War II ration stamps
• An old lady wig
• A snapshot of an old Irish man playing the accordion (thanks, Luke)
• An uncut sheet of $1 bills
• A large stuffed penguin wearing a Santa Claus hat

...and much more. Man, I have a lot of stuff. But the garage sale didn't do very well, from what I hear. (I was asleep during much of it.)

Here in the United States, we're lucky to have some freedom. The same can't be said of the Top Five Most Censored Countries in the World. (Disclaimer: I am friends with the author.)

This is actually interesting, with nice pictures: 10 Very Rare Clouds.

One Post Wonder is a blog that features old blogs that have only one post. It would be funny if it were itself a one-post wonder, but it's not.