like my buddy at ojingo blog, I too am the top google result for my name: beerdrinker. I’m pretty pleased about that. Now if I could just get rid of that “Did you mean: beer drinker?” question I’ll have achieved my goal for world domination, or at least an acceptable life accomplishment.

A painful interview with Paul Krugman. I’d put this one high up on your to-read list. via the albatross (vi robot wisdom methinks). No chance to rant on it now, but holy cow, I think he does a good enough job.

I have returned from the big H, which followed the big W, also known as the big M. H was resting time to recover from W/M. Now I’m back at work (little w, also the big E). More later, but for now poring over a few hundred emails. woohoo.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

I know that you’re cool, and you have the moral high ground over all those gas-guzzling pricks. I know that you pedal away, and you’re a target to all those steel dragons. I know that pedestrians don’t notice you and step into your way. Sometimes other bicyclists do things to piss you off as well. Know what? Quit being an asshole. I bicycle to work myself, but seeing some of these jerks on their bikes, it’s no wonder that relations with vehicles are somewhat strained.

As I’m going to be married in less than a week my friends threw me a bachelor party yesterday. We had quite a good time but nobody got any photos so for the record, I’ll talk about it here. I was already a bit hungover before it even started, so N and I went to the gym (!?) to work out some of the previous night’s alcohol…oddly enough, the strategy worked and I felt a lot better.

Thus speaketh Ann Coulter of Saddam Hussein. Well, the rest of her article is a bit meatier that than but holy crap, what a bunch of antagonistic flag-waving, divisive drivel. This lady really sucks. I hadn’t really read much by her to this point and if this represents the quality of her work, how the hell did she ever get out of Denny’s or wherever she crawled out of. The sad thing is is that this represents a fair quantity of the conservative talk-show/newswriter tone—some ornery, overconfident righty who spews very contrary conclusions out of unrelated evidence.

So, I’m a bit upset with Powell’s Books lately. They have a mountain of freakin books, a city even, yet three of the last four books that I’ve gone there looking for (actually maybe more) have been out of stock. What is particularly frustrating is that I see by the website that they are located in this warehouse or that. What are sixteen copies of Parasite Rex and ten copies of the armchair economist doing in warehouses when they are popular books that are not available in your flagship store?

well, maybe not, but it is a great pinball machine, and Mars will be as close as you’ll ever know tonight. Here’s the JPL’s site on viewing Mars. Cheers, and happy gazing.