I recieved the following poem in my spam mailbox:

[IMAGE]

coeditor appian manipulate
cromwell darken fluorescein aitken kay
bertha justice cardioid

sonnet ulster pow drench magdalene
conklin divest dais
janeiro mitochondria stefan division emphysema
dread baronet paranoid somber singapore
aspect fishermen broke

highland alberich rampart discovery
barnet clothesman walpole boot brainwash
bundle gullet encephalitis grievous
mort orthophosphate buckskin tenor
durer integrity atlantic bravo already

The story as I understand it: Wizards of the Coast -- the company that produced Magic: The Gathering, the first collectable card game -- bought The Game Keeper chain, a retail franchise that sells games.  Hasbro, the toy giant, then buys Wizards of the Coast.  Now, Hasbro has decided to shut down the Game Keeper stores.

The good: Everything at the Game Keeper is 30% off, including collectable card games, except for Magic.  At last, I can start collecting NeoPets cards.

The bad: Everything at the Game Keeper is 30% off because the stores are closing.  That sucks.

The ugly: FAO Schwarz, KayBee Toys, and Toys R Us are all closing some stores.

should neither cook nor sell broccoli beef.

It is quite easy to cook.  Chop off the bits you don't want to eat.  Rinse.  Optional: place near a heat source for no more than a few minutes (steam works well).  Eat, or in the case of "broccoli beef", formally introduce the beef and broccoli as it is served.

Inside: this morning's phone call

By my count, there were three major blunders in President W.'s speech this evening.

The first was the pregnant pause following his comment about the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act.  This allowed the Democrats to applaud at what was basically an inappropriate moment, wrecking what little rhetorical momentum W. had built up for the continuation of those provisions.

Inside: two more blunders.

Bonus: no bonus.

I'm not sure when I fell so starkly out of step with my computer geek brethren.  I guess I've always been a tad liberal, in favor of large social programs, dismayed by the use of war as a substitute for foreign policy, and I've certain seen no evidence that the rich actually deserve to remain rich, no matter how much "hard work" they put in. (Not everyone who puts in a lifetime of hard work becomes rich, after all.)

I'm also against George W.'s exciting plan to put a base on the moon and a man on Mars.  But not just because I'm a liberal.

So, I'm going to be in New York City for the weekend.  Any suggestions as to what to see/where to go?

All right, have any of you idiots read anything by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, or otherwise have any thoughts on the idea of "flow", i.e. the psychological state that ensues when one is engaged in self-controlled, goal-related, meaningful actions?

Inside: a poll

Bonus: Look who was there when they took down the statue

To: All Tenants

"As you may have notice [sic], a stench is prevalent in the building and outside.  The City of --- is laying fertilizer on the grounds at --- Park.  This will continue today and will be tilled into the ground tomorrow.  They expect the smell to go away by tomorrow, mid morning."

This was on Monday.  The "stench" was so unpleasant that I ditched out on work and went to see Matrix Revolutions, in which, much to my amusement, Trinity dies.  Thank god that's over.

Inside: A new book by Matt Ridley, Skinner's daughter in a Skinner Box, and my NaNoWriMo word count.

There's a lovely new book by Paul Virilio titled Unknown Quantity full of photos of disasters.  Crumbing buildings, sinking ships, smoking lava.  I love disasters, I love the reminders they give us about the human scale.

Not only are disasters fascinating to observe, they are good for the economy.  All of that stagnant wealth, tied up in equity and dead timber and consumable consumer goods, turned to so much drifting ash.  Disaster creates jobs, it stimulates demand for the creation of new wealth; disaster is the fountain of trickle down economics.  Who really loses in a disaster?  Banks, insurance companies, all those bastards who own all the capital.

Socialism is a human controlled form of disaster.  People hate unions, they pretend they are worthless, because they fear the real power of a mass action.  They complain about the grocery stoke strike, those cashiers make an average of $15/hour, what are they complaining about?

Inside: NaNoWriMo notes

If you were to run a comment through some kind of Lempel Ziv compression and compare the original size to the compressed size, could you detect crap comments?  For example, someone entering "-1" a couple thousand times in a comment.  Then you could flag the comment for administrative review.

But then, you would probably just want to flag any largish (5k+) comments anyway.

Inside: modstorming, the future in web services