Reeve's Recovery 'Unprecedented'
A happy story for a feel-good Friday.

Making fun of Koreans, again. I should make this into a regular segment:
Korean leader's aide spills the beans
Hey the Prez apparently likes instant noodles. (Who doesn't?) The helpful pictures of instant noodles are a nice touch.

You've all heard how yesterday's NY lottery Pick 3 numbers came up as 9-1-1? 14,878 winners, apparently.

'Blizzard' of Cheaters Banned
14,000 people cheat at video game Warcraft 3, kicked off, now forced to do something more productive like blog and complain about being unemployed. In completely unrelated news, it seems that mothers dictate the gender of their babies.

music playing in the background: Jackson Browne's "Fairest of All Seasons"
It gets you in the mood for the fall.

Probably everyone has had those moments when the ways they view the world are changed, instantly. The proverbial lightning bolt from the sky drops down and hits you right in the cerebral cortex and you slap yourself on the forehead for having been the way you were before. I had one of those just last week. I was reading some articles on a baseball website, of all places, which I check in on regularly. This particular column I read detailed the columnist retelling about a conversation he’d had with a friend. They were arguing about some baseball issue, I think the labor relations between the players’ union and the owners, and they sort of meandered onto more fundamental issues about how the general public forms opinions on things. The conversationalist styles himself as a sober, rational thinker, who carefully weighs the facts before coming to a conclusion. Much like how I try to be, really. His friend, just as equally astute, told him that as good as that might be to him, it’s not how everyone makes a decision, that lots of people are just as likely to make a decision from the gut as from their brain. “If everyone were like you,” said the friend, “we’d all be driving Volvos and voting for the Progressive Party. Volvos are boring. You think people drink Pepsi or Coke because of the taste? It’s because of emotional attachment.”

I combined two quotes there, but you can see what I’m getting at. For whatever reason, I’ve fixed the rational, sober thinking as THE way to get things done, and sometimes I forget about the strength and unique truthfulness of emotional attachment. Emotions can be pretty subjective, but so can one’s own rational thought.

Ever feel like that you’re going in circles when you put your thoughts down on paper? Like, you’re reinventing the wheel, babbling on about things that everyone else has already figured out? Bleah.

Text of Bush's Sept. 11 Speech
In possibly related news, pigs and chickens are smarter than you thunk.

This is pretty evil: Decrypt easy passwords.

I didn't post on Sept. 11 because well, I didn't feel like it. What's there to say that others haven't? There's lots of sites out there about it, including the 9/11 Digital Archive and the September 11 web archive. I dunno. I'm a little overwhelmed by all the coverage. It was a little hard to go back and revisit all of that again. I distract myself instead with abstract design-y pretentious art or laughing when athletes accidently hit themselves in the uh, man area.

You know the world's still the way it always was when you hear about nuclear reactors with thin liners.

You know something is worth reading when the first line is A security guard ended up naked and covered in orange paint ...

One of Chicago's better radio stations, WXRT, will be airing some special programming related to the events of 9/11 on the anniversary Wednesday. They are planning to incorporate some listener input, in the form of responses to the following questions. Feel free to email them at comments@wxrt.com with your own responses and/or additional thoughts.

Where were you when you first heard about the plane crashes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania?
How has your life changed since 9/11?
Have you flown on a U.S. airline in the past year?
Have you been to New York City within the past year?
If so, did you visit Ground Zero?
How did you explain these events to your kids?
Where did you turn for inspiration and/or consolation?
Has any music helped you feel better? If so, what?
What has restored your sense of hope?
What have you done since last year to make the world a better place?

Imax, Lucas Team Up for Giant 'Star Wars' Movie
The real advantage of this is having Natalie Portman be 3 stories tall. The problem is having to suffer through "on my planet everything is rough... not like you, you're smooth" again.

I officially am sick of mosquitoes. Check that, I'm sick of itching and applying ointment to about two dozen bites. Time to check the West Nile Virus update.

I might be considering teaching as a profession, but this is what I'm scared of.

Free tip for you kids. Don't drink Hennessey XO; you'll wake up in places you'd swear you weren't the previous night. I act as if this is some incredibly constructive life lesson, like some sort of bizarre alternate-reality G.I. Joe cartoon moral. "And knowing is half the battle." *wink*

I Hate Clowns.

Screw baseball. Football is back. Sundays are spent with sweet, sweet Sunday Ticket.

Home-made cannon blast injures four
The moral is: don't mess with beer cans.