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This article by George Saunders had me in hysterics at work: “Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also [...]

This is my second installment of Why I Find the Republican Ticket Terrifying and Why I Think the Democratic Ticket Is Awesome. If you missed Part I, I recommend reading that first. Onward!

If you are currently undecided who you are voting for in this year’s US Presidential election, or if you are planning on voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, I implore you to read this post. I am going to try to be as respectful as I can while outlining why I find the McCain/Palin ticket objectionable [...]

I technically have two computers – I have my faithful old desktop, a Dell Dimension 8300 that was purchased in 2003 and includes a floppy disk drive AND a ZIP disk drive (woo! Old-school!), and I have my work laptop which is a Sony VAIO thingybob that seems nice. It even has the fancy fingerprint [...]

After four years of living here in Oregon, I finally got a Portland-based phone number. I know! I am not very hip and did not get an iPhone or anything, but I am still coming to terms with my new phone that I am not sure I like very much. I will get used to [...]

Yesterday, Daniel and I witnessed a very rude specimen of humanity. We were in CD Game Exchange, a used CD/DVD/Game store in Portland’s Hawthorne district, and we were standing in front of the glass case of gaming consoles, staring at a Wii. Wiis are still very hard to come by here – you never see [...]

Somebody stop me – I seem incapable of avoiding clicking on news articles or videos cheering on Barack Obama. My left-leaning politics are well-documented on this website (much to the chagrin of my parents, I assume) but man does Obama inspire me. I want to print downloaded PDFs as posters and hang them in my [...]

Last Thursday, Daniel and I took a bus out to Beaverton to see Laurie Perry (Crazy Aunt Purl) at Powell’s. She read the introduction and first chapter of her new book, “Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair” and had a Q&A session afterward. She was just wonderful! I was a bit surprised at her [...]

I may have just stumbled across the video equivalent of Cute Overload. Ready? READY? It is videos of babies laughing on YouTube. Now, I know. Babies make lots of noise and are expensive. BUT! They are also very funny and I dare you to watch these babies laugh and not end up with a smile [...]

The decision to attend the They Might Be Giants show at the Roseland Theater was sort of impromptu. I mean, I’d been meaning to buy tickets for weeks but just hadn’t gotten around to it, so the night before the show when we saw that it still hadn’t sold out, Daniel and I agreed that [...]

Do you ever get the feeling that the United States is going to hell in a handbasket? Or is that just me? I know it’s a product of reading the news, which is always remarkably sensationalist. JK Rowling talked about the Harry Potter books and said she felt compelled to kill off parents to show [...]

What could be more fun than going to a small-ish show where people bring their 7-year-olds, babies, and grandmothers to listen to two boys dressed in Hogwarts uniforms sing songs about Harry Potter books? Nearly nothing, save for going to the FIFTH HARRY POTTER MOVIE later that night! Woo! Yes, I went to the midnight [...]

I heard rumors yesterday about our local Hollywood Video selling all of their VHS tapes for a dollar each. Turns out those rumors were true. I managed to find a ton of movies and then Daniel came by after work and found more. We narrowed it down to (I am ashamed) twenty-six. Seriously? If you [...]

Probably the most horrible and yet somehow the funniest prediction regarding Harry Potter that I have seen as of yet: This is how the 7th book and movie will ( or should ) end: There is a huge fire at the Dursley’s House ( the “muggles” that hate magic ), and, when the firemen hear [...]

What kind of music gets you totally pumped up? I’m talking about the kind of songs where, when you put them on, you totally can’t help but dance around your living room because they are so rockingly awesome. Very near the top of my list would be “Birdhouse In Your Soul” by They Might Be [...]