Kate: What are the main problems of the US, which really affect people's lives and need to be solved as soon as possible, in your opinion?

Well, we finally got universal health care (or health insurance, or whatever), so check that one off the list. I'll admit that I'm having a hard time thinking of other things. A lot of the things I care about don't have a direct impact on people's lives.

Are they still giving tax cuts to rich people? If they are, that's going to have to stop. If anyone needs tax cuts, it's the people who, you know, have nothing.

Eh. I don't know. Obesity, maybe? We have a lot of fat people here. But there's not much you can do about that. You can tell people that they ought to exercise, but you can't drop them onto a treadmill and make them run all day. You can tell them they should eat more vegetables, but you can't tie them up and force-feed them brussels sprouts. And anyway, it doesn't bother me that other people are eating however they want, and it shouldn't. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, as they say.

I hate brussels sprouts, by the way. I would empathize.

So, I guess I don't really have a good answer to your question.

Kate: What do you like most for dessert? :)

What don't I like for dessert? I'll eat pretty much anything. That said, I like pies. I think pecan pie is my favorite. My mom made one for my birthday, and it was great. Blueberry pie is also good too.

I had no idea green screens were used so much in TV and movies. Here's a four-minute video showing many a green screen scene. (Via The Presurfer)

Some guy spent 24 hours in a Super Walmart. (Before you get too confused, he replaces profanity with other random words.) (Via The Consumerist)

Q: Why is the drinking age 21 and not 18?

A: The Florida Legislature has the power to set the drinking age, and that's what they've decided is appropriate.

In other words, the classic because-we-said-so argument with which we are all familiar. (For the real answer, read about the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The history of alcohol purchase age limits by state is also interesting.)

Anyway, Tuesday was my 21st birthday. After I wrote my birthday blog post, I continued studying until the exam (except for a brief study break at Taco Bell). I was gradually joined with other people in my class, and we all sort of ended up commiserating. That's always fun. The exam itself was pretty challenging, but I don't think it was harder than the last one, which I got a pretty good grade on, all things considered.

By the time I was done with my exam, it was already 9:30. Andy picked me up, and we went to Gainesville Ale House on Archer Road. Andrea met us there. I picked the place because it was one of the only restaurants in town I'd ever been to that was open after 11 PM (the others being the Original Pizza Palace and Chili's). Plus, there would be a wide variety of alcoholic drinks to choose from if I so desired.

I so desired. I needed to unwind after that exam. After much deliberation, I decided to get a whiskey and soda (Jack and Pepsi, to be exact). I almost thought the waitress wasn't going to card me, but she did. To eat, of course, I got a burger. Since this establishment was half-bar, they had a trivia contest going on, with the questions and answers being announced over the speakers. The three of us put our heads together and got most of the questions right, although we didn't actually participate.

Andrea had the audacity to ask the waitress whether I would get a free desert. She said I could get a free slice of ice cream cake and brought one out. The three of us enjoyed it together. Andy covered my part of the check since he owed me money (it's a good thing he remembered because I didn't). Then, Andy and I went back to our apartment, where Andy had decorated the living room with balloons and other birthday decorations as a surprise. We threw the balloons around for a little while. After midnight had passed, I started working on homework.

I report my music listening habits to last.fm because I enjoy seeing the statistics. Here are some more statistics for last.fm users: The Obscurometer tells you how obscure your musical tastes are compared to others'. Apparently, my obscurity level is 30.1%, and my musical tastes are more obscure than 27.9% of all users.

This article does a great job of explaining how The RIAA and MPAA Have Failed to Understand a Cultural Shift. Everyone who doesn't understand why the RIAA and MPAA's tactics are wrong should read it.

Here at old Florida, there are three summer semesters. Summer A is six weeks long. Summer B, which follows Summer A, is also six weeks long. Summer C spans both Summer A and Summer B. I took Intro to Public Speaking during Summer A, and during Summer C, I'm taking Operating Systems and Finance. Summer A has ended, so the latter two classes are the ones I have left.

Summer course offerings are more limited than during the Spring or Fall semesters, so for my computer science major, I had no choice but to take Operating Systems with one of the department's more infamous professors. He claims that the average score on his exams is 60%, which includes 20% extra credit. He also gives lots of homework, and he's just assigned the term project.

The flipside, as I've been told by my friends who have survived his classes, is that you learn a lot from him. And I seem to be doing just that. I didn't think I would do very well on the first exam, but I got a 77 (which I first misread as 11, my mind precluding the possibility of such a "high" grade). The next exam is on Tuesday night, which also happens to be my birthday. I hope the exam makes it a good one.

The other class I'm taking right now is for my business administration minor. It's Finance (properly, Business Finance), and it's one of the classes that the business college has done a great job with. They record the lectures and post them online, so there's no need to actually attend class. Instead, I download the lectures and watch them at my leisure. The quizzes are also online (but the exams, alas, are not).

I chose to be a business minor because it would give me valuable skills (and because my major requires me to take a minor, but never mind), and this class hasn't disappointed me. I've learned, among other things, the importance of saving for retirement. Plus, I've been doing very well in the class. The way things are going, I could end up with an A. Yay.

I was actually very worried that I wouldn't do well in either of these classes (Finance is said to be the hardest class in the business minor), but I've been busting my hump for them, and it shows. I just hope I can keep up the good work.

I've been linking to a lot of infographics lately, some good, some not so good. Here's a parody of pointless infographics. (Via waxy.org)

Another one of those montages of clips from movies and TV shows: We've Got Company! I first saw this before watching Avatar and groaned upon hearing the line in the movie. (Via The Presurfer)

Stupid Fight compares the spelling and grammar of celebrity Twitterers' fans to see whose are dumber. (Via waxy.org)

On Monday morning, I attended the closing ceremony of the conference. Well, there wasn't much ceremony; the term used in Esperanto means "solemn closing." It wasn't especially solemn either. It was mainly a series of closing remarks, capped off with a singing of "La Espero."

The organizers of the convention presented some statistics, most notably that the attendance was over 100. The president of Esperanto-USA gave some details about the next national convention, which will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, in early June 2011, and the one after that, which will be held in north Texas in 2012.

I was the only college-age kid to attend the closing ceremony. Once that was over, I rejoined the others in the lobby. Andy, Darcy, and I got to talking about exciting it was to be with so many other young Esperantists and how to keep the energy going. For a while, Esperanto-USA had had an active youth branch called USEJ. We decided bring USEJ back to life by starting up an IRC channel where we could constantly chat with each other and by having regular voice chats online. We also decided to look into the possibility of having a national youth congress in South Florida in the winter.

I've come back energized, and I've come back with a goal. I want to take new Esperantists with me to Berkeley next year. That means Andy and I will have to work hard to attract new members to our club and help them learn Esperanto, but it's a worthwhile challenge.

I didn't actually go to DC at all during the trip, even on the drive to the train station. Yes, instead of flying back to Florida, we took the Auto Train with Andy's dad and Andy's dad's car, which Andy is now using. It was actually pretty comfortable, and I even expected to sleep at one point. I don't think I actually did; I should have known better. But the complementary dinner and breakfast were pretty good, and it was fun to see "America at see level" (Amtrak's former or maybe current tagline).

We arrived in Sanford, Florida, on Tuesday morning, and we drove to Gainesville. As soon as we made it to UF, I raced into my public speaking class, which was already in progress. I was going to have to deliver an impromptu speech. We had each submitted a quotation, and then when it was our turn to give a speech, we had to pick one of them at random and and deliver a speech about our reaction to it.

For some reason, there weren't as many quotes as there were people, and I was the last to go, so I was left with none. The teacher asked people to submit some more, so I had fresh pickin's. I chose:

"We are not here merely to make a living, we are here to enrich the world."
—Woodrow Wilson

Within three minutes, I explained a little bit about what Esperanto is all about and about the experience I had had with other Esperantists over the long weekend. I tied it all together by explaining the shared hope that Esperanto can help enrich the world. I got a strong round of applause, and people had more questions for me after the speech. I got a 98% on the assignment.

With Congress.org's MegaVote, you can sign up for weekly e-mails with information on how your representatives are voting. Good idea! (Via HackCollege)

I had no idea Google allowed you to purchase advertising time on TV, but someone at Slate tried it out. (Via waxy.org)

You know what's cool? Science. You know what's cooler? Infographics that aren't totally stupid and help you understand science. Here's one that organizes popular health supplements by the amount of evidence for their effectiveness. (Via Lifehacker)

On Sunday morning, Andy and I went with some of our cohorts to Caribou Coffee. I made sure to get back to the hotel in time to listen to a lecture by the eminent Esperantist Humphrey Tonkin, who talked about the need for Esperanto organizations to adapt to today's Internet-based society. Next, there was supposed to be a video chat with participants at the Russian Esperantists' Congress, which was going on in St. Petersburg at the same time. For whatever reason, they weren't able to get that going, but I managed to text Kate, who was at the Russian convention.

At the same time in another room, Andy gave a presentation about the different types of sounds in Esperanto and their representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Even though his lecture wasn't listed on the program, the room filled up. I was going back and forth, trying to see if they had gotten the video chat working yet. Andy didn't mind because what he was saying wasn't new to me. That's the kind of stuff we talk about in the living room on Thursday nights.

Next, it was getting to be lunchtime, so a bunch of people went to Chipotle, also a short walk away from the hotel. After that, I attended lectures about Esperanto-USA's website, how to lecture about Esperanto, and the World Esperanto Association's relationship with the United Nations. Those were all okay, but I was really looking forward to Darcy's talk about her experiences starting and running an Esperanto club at a university. I think her talk was better attended than most of the others. The main bits of advice that I took away were to emphasize to people that Esperanto is fun and to make all of the club meetings fun.

After that, there were some games going on. Some of us got wrapped up in a game that involved guessing words one letter at a time. That was fun, and it seemed like a good way to build vocabulary. (Maybe we can play it at our meetings next year.) While that was going on, the rest of the youths (and some of the semi-youths) decided to go to a nearby tapas bar called Jaleo, so Andy and I joined them. I think there were 18 of us in all, sitting at two long tables. I just ordered some gazpacho, which I hadn't had since I had first tried it in Spain last year. Ah, the memories...

After our early (or seemingly early) dinner, we went back to the hotel, and I sat in on a lecture about the 6th World Congress of Esperanto, which was held in Washington, DC, in 1910. (Its 100th anniversary was one of the factors in the decision to hold the national convention in the DC area this year.) The lecturer mainly showed contemporary newspaper articles, which described the events of each day of the congress in detail. More people were aware of Esperanto back then.

Next, there was some entertainment, including a much-hyped visit from a mysterious guest. The mysterious guest turned out to be one of the guys from the conference in drag lipsynching to Esperanto translations of "Material Girl" and "Dancing Queen." There were also more conventional performances of bluegrass and other folk-type music, mostly in Esperanto. I especially enjoyed a performance of "Here Comes the Sun" in Esperanto on the ukulele. In between performers, we watched Conlang, a humorous short film about a power struggle in a small club for lovers of constructed languages.

After that, it was pretty late, but I and the other young types decided to go out. Some of us wanted to go out for a bite, and some of us just wanted to go out for a bit. I was all for going to the diner that they had gone to the night before. Like everything else, it was a short walk away from the hotel. It was called the Tastee Diner, and it was definitely the dineriest diner I had ever been to. We had the same waitress, a young woman with a strong Russian accent, that they had been served by the night before. I got a patty melt and chili cheese fries, but it was a tough decision to make. I wanted everything.

Back at the hotel, I was able to sleep in a bed because some people had already left. I slept better than I had the night before, when I had slept on the floor.

Watch this really, really epic TV theme song medley. I've only seen a few of the shows, but I still thought it was well done. (Via waxy.org)

Some guy writes about why theatre was the most important class he ever took. (Via Lifehacker)

Graffiti that dares to be erased: "COME ON PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN." This really reminds me of my friend Brian. Brian, if you're reading this... sarcastic graffiti makes me think of you? (Via waxy.org)

Three weeks later, Andy and his friend Scott, who was visiting, discovered that Tucker had left something to remember him by: fleas.

They took swift action, vacuuming and flea-bombing Andy's room and the living room. They asked if they should do my room too. I said not to worry about it. Mistake of the Century. Shortly after that, I said:

Andy and Scott left on Wednesday, and I've been alone in the apartment. It hasn't been so great, but not for the reasons I would have expected. I'll go into that later.

I was left to fend off the fleas by myself. On Thursday afternoon, I went to the front office to ask for pest control to come, and I was told that they only come on Thursdays and that I had just missed them. Andy, who took responsibility for the whole situation, gave the office a call and got the pest control people to maybe come on Monday.

It was a long weekend. I called a vet's office, and they said to put Borax onto the carpet and vacuum a week later, but I couldn't find Borax at the grocery store. (Is that something you can get at the grocery store? I don't want to waste my time again.) I did buy some insecticide for fleas, and it seemed to get rid of them after a few days of spraying. I also did some vacuuming to (hopefully) get rid of the flea eggs.

I don't like spraying chemicals all over the place. It's not due so much to my concern for the environment as it is to my tendency to accidentally spray myself (which did happen, as usual). So I made a flea trap by setting a bowl of soapy water on the floor and angling a desk lamp over it. Fleas are attracted to heat (this ordeal has made me a damn flea expert), so they jump toward the light bulb and fall into the water, where they get stuck. It's also a fire hazard, so don't try this at home. I won't do it again.

Needless to say in a world where "yes" means "maybe" and "maybe" means "no," pest control didn't come on Monday. They called me on Tuesday and asked if the whole place had been vacuumed up because apparently they wouldn't even come if it weren't. I said no and asked them to come on Wednesday. They didn't. They were definitely supposed to come on Thursday, as usual, but they didn't even appear then. They finally showed up on Friday, but by then they could tell I had already gotten rid of the fleas, so they didn't do anything.

(Before you say anything: no money was lost here. The management of my apartment complex hires said company to do free pest control work for residents. We had considered hiring another company, but it would have been too expensive.)

I haven't seen any fleas in five days, so I think they're gone for now. Then again, they hid for at least three weeks, between the time Tucker died and the time anyone noticed them. Hopefully they're not like an STD that pops up from time to time and can never go away. I'll have to do some more vacuuming.

This is why software is awesome. Someone wrote a Python script that does some time-stretching and -compressing on a song to change the beat. The result: everything swings. Sample tracks include "Every Breath You Take," "Enter Sandman," "Around the World," and "Don't Stop Believin'." (Via waxy.org)

Here's a breakdown of cable subscription fees by network, showing how much you're paying for channels you don't watch. (Via The Consumerist)

American kids don't have a monopoly on stupidity: 10% of British children surveyed thought that the Queen invented the telephone. Some also thought that Luke Skywalker was the first person on the moon and that Isaac Newton discovered fire.

For several years, this kid named Brendan Leonard and his buddies had been producing a silly little TV show that was broadcast on Chicago-area cable access. In May of 2003, when Brendan was 19, ABC Family picked up The Brendan Leonard Show for national broadcast while allowing him to retain total control over the show's production.

The show applied silliness and surreal humor to real and imagined situations, with Brendan's friends and family members making regular appearances. Some episodes had a plot or theme; others just consisted of Brendan and pals horsing around the way 19-year-old guys do. Some episodes were made up of sketches or vignettes; others consisted of single takes, with the screen freezing before commercial breaks and unfreezing after as proof to the viewer. Each episode's soundtrack consisted of indie rock tunes from the "band of the day." There was nothing else like it on TV.

I mentioned BLS quite a few times during the early days of this blog. (Here was the first mention.) A reference to the show even made its way into the local newspaper article about me and the site. So, when the show ended in October 2003, I was sad to see it go. (I even tried to start a campaign to send spatulas to the network, referencing a classic sketch about clever uses for them.) Later, new episodes appeared on the Web under a different name (ABC owning the rights to the original), but it just wasn't the same.

During that summer, the show had developed a small cult following. Fans clamored for a DVD release, but to no avail. So you can imagine how surprised I was when Brendan Leonard recently started uploading clips from the show on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites out of the ones that have been posted so far:

• Brendan hears an ice cream truck coming and tries to borrow enough money from his friends before it gets away. The sketch consists of a single take.
• Brendan and friends take a yoga class that devolves into madness. There are a lot of great lines (and facial expressions) in this one; I could still remember some of them after seven years.
• The gang spoof those morning shows on network TV with a show-within-a-show. In this clip, you can also see BLS's super-cool opening credit sequence.
• Brendan and pals discover random objects in the bushes and try to find out what they can do with them.
• To promote the show Switched, ABC Family has swapped one of Brendan's friends with a girl from Texas. The rest of the guys assume their boy-band alter-egos and record a ridiculous song about her.

I think those clips make a good introduction to the show. You can check out more on The Brendan Leonard Show's YouTube channel.

By the way, the title of this post is a quote from a portion of the "Under the Bushes" sketch that hasn't been posted yet. Soon enough, I hope...

After my first day of classes on Monday, the three of us watched Avatar at the apartment. We hooked up Andy's gigantic stereo to the TV for a huge sound that was sure to annoy our neighbors (if they were even there for the summer, which I hope they weren't).

I had been looking forward to seeing Avatar, but I was pretty disappointed by it. All the CGI got to be distracting, which I suppose was good because it distracted me from the predictable plot. The nickname "Pocahontas in Space" is well deserved. I might watch it again if I could see it on a huge screen in 3-D. Maaaaybe.

On Tuesday night, the three of us went to dinner at Satchel's Pizza, a local restaurant that's renowned for its eclectic atmosphere. The decor is eclectic, the pizza toppings are eclectic—even the plates are eclectic. In front of the restaurant is an old van that has a couple of tables in it. Eating in the van at Satchel's can earn you some serious bragging rights. (Well, maybe not, but I like to brag about it anyway.) After dinner, we went to the junk shop out back and got some Satchel's swag.

Andy and Scott left on Wednesday, and I've been alone in the apartment. It hasn't been so great, but not for the reasons I would have expected. I'll go into that later.

A star-studded Funny or Die video: Barack Obama gets a surprise visit from ex-presidents. (Via The Consumerist)

Here's someone's list of The 12 Biggest Ripoffs in America. And before you ask, college textbooks are indeed on the list. (Via The Presurfer)

From The Big Picture: aerial photos of New York and Las Vegas at night.

The event was held on Wednesday evening, the last day of classes, in the smaller ballroom in the student union. There were a lot of empty seats, probably because people were at home studying for their upcoming exams. I guessed that most of the audience members were there to see their guy or gal take part in the discussion; not many people looked like they were genuinely disinterested. I have to admit I was in the former camp. I sat with a group of Freethought members.

(Derail: People always seem to say "disinterested" when they mean "uninterested." I've also seen an excellent clip from The Rachel Maddow Show [which I otherwise don't watch, by the way] in which Ms. Maddow says "uninterested" instead of "disinterested." If you're uninterested, you don't have any interest—you're bored or you don't care—and if you're disinterested, you don't have any interests—anything that could be considered a possible source of bias or prejudice. Paul Brians has an entry on this error in his Common Errors in English Usage web site, which is worth checking out. In the associated book, there's a cartoon in which a man says to a woman something like, "Let me make myself clear: I'm not disinterested, I'm uninterested.")

Um, right. So, the forum was emceed jointly by what appeared to be a Christian and a Muslim. Answering their questions, as well as some from the audience, were the panelists:

• Representing Christianity was a guy from Campus Crusade for Christ. He seemed ill at ease and spoke with thinly disguised contempt at the other belief systems that were represented. He must have said that Jesus "stepped into the pages of history" at least six or seven times. I was surprised they couldn't get a better speaker, considering how many Christians there are.
• Representing Islam was a dapper local businessman. He had a good sense of humor and explained how Islam gives people advice on how to live their everyday lives. He used the word "brother" in referring to some of the other panelists and joked with brother Blake that only a freethinker was brave enough to sit between a Muslim and a Jew.
• Blake was the only student on the panel. His answers were short and to the point (giving him less of a chance to dig himself into a hole, he said later), and he was careful to represent freethought in general without mentioning the A-word. I liked his answer to the question, "Who is the most important figure in your religion (or lack thereof)?" He said, "Yourself," because freethought is about thinking freely (hmm...) and not taking for granted the things that other people tell you.
• Representing Judaism was a local rabbi, who explained how Judaism also gave advice for everyday life. A kid from the audience, badly feigning ignorance, asked him some innocent-sounding questions to try to get him to link Judaism with Zionism. The rabbi didn't fall for it. You could have cut the tension in that room with a knife right then.
• Speaking for all denominations of Hinduism was a distinguished Indian woman of a certain age. She explained how Hindu beliefs and practices vary greatly and called out some of the moderators' questions as being specifically geared toward the Abrahamic religions. She had to dip out about halfway through, so she made a quip about avatars as another distinguished Indian woman of a certain age took her place.
• Speaking specifically for Hare-Krishna-ism while wearing Krishna robes and Krishna face paint was a young representative from the local Krishna House. She gushed with enthusiasm while getting all buddy-buddy with the other Hindu and quoting the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. Though she would get extra credit in the enthusiasm department, she used a lot of terms that were vague (like everyone's favorite, "energy") or not very clear to us laypeople.
• Finally, representing the Bahá'í Faith, whose name I had to copy and paste from the Wikipedia article, was a professor or something (what, you want me to actually read the program I took home?). The Bahá'í Faith (Ctrl-V) is essentially a greatest-hits compilation of the world's major religions, but Ms. Bahá'í Faith didn't do a good job of explaining what it was actually about. She talked a lot without saying very much.

It was a great way for Blake to go out as Gator Freethought's president. He was definitely one of the better speakers on the panel, and even though freethought was the odd belief system out (as evidenced by the tacking-on of "or lack thereof" to seemingly every question), he did a good job of representing our club.

And this is what I do when I should be studying for exams. I'll be glad to have them over with. By the time I write my next post, I'll be home free... for a little while.

Need to come up with blog post titles that are sure to draw readers in? Go to the Linkbait Generator for random gems like "8 Ways to Get Rich with Ninjas" and "10 Myths About Mustaches That Hollywood Wants You To Believe." I was sure that "Sony DSC-H55 Digital Camera Review" would net me some intense comments from photography-loving Google searchers, but it's nothing but the same old same old right now. (Via The Presurfer)

Andy and Ryan, two of my roommates, were a little less sure; they both wanted to move closer to campus. Ryan ended up finding another place, but Andy is more likely to stay with me next year. (My other roommate will be graduating and moving out, I think.)

Last year, we signed early and got punished for it because the rates plummeted later. Our rate is $449 per month, but if we had waited a few months, it could have been $299. I was gambling that the same thing would happen this year, so I decided to hold out for the best deal possible. A few months ago, I could have renewed with a rate of $348 and gotten a Visa gift card that would essentially drop the rate to $299. But it wasn't really $299, so I decided to wait some more.

The incentive program ended, the rate didn't go down, and the renewal deadline (for keeping your same apartment) was drawing near. What could we do to get the best deal? I decided that we should bargain.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a pool-party-slash-barbecue to promote renewals. Uniformed representatives were going around, asking people if they were going to renew their leases. One guy asked Andy and me what it would take for us to renew. I mentioned a comparable place I had heard of that was within walking distance to campus and was $290 per month, so that would be the price to beat. I also thought it would be nice to get new kitchen appliances for free. He made a note of it.

Last week, the rate still hadn't fallen, but they started another incentive program, giving out Visa gift cards that would essentially lower the rate to $330. Even if we couldn't strike a bargain, I thought, it would be a good deal.

On Tuesday, Andy and I went to the office and talked to a manager about possibly negotiating a more favorable price. She refused, saying it was against their policy. So much for that idea.

Right after that, I renewed my lease to take advantage of the Visa gift card deal. $330 is pretty reasonable.

No matter what they end up doing, Andy's and Ryan's current leases expire in August, and they'll pretty much be spending the summer at their respective homes. Our other roommate's lease runs out very soon, I think, and he (and his girlfriend who's shacked up with him) will be moving out.

That should leave me with the whole place to myself for a few months as I take summer classes. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I'm not depressed by it, but I'm just kind of concerned about being bored. Any ideas on how to not be bored?

This video is a collection of infomercial clichés: a tribute to doing it wrong. The soundtrack is appropriate. (Via The Consumerist)

I personally find it terrifying that some people are this big into Jeopardy!, but here you go: an archive with details of every episode ever, including the questions and answers. (Via J-Walk Blog)

Here's a look back at 20 years of Adobe Photoshop. Includes screenshots!