this is appalling and scary!

it's awesome that the Red Sox finally broke the 86-year-old "curse" and congratulations to them. but that was a really boring World Series. after the excitement of the ALCS (and the NLCS), the Series felt almost like a formality.

"If the average size and power of American cars and trucks had stayed constant from 1981 to 2003, the United States would now have a net surplus of 50,000 barrels of gasoline per day rather than its current imports of 320,000 barrels per day, according to a study released in July by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

"If the gas mileage of the 17 million passenger vehicles sold annually in the United States were to increase by one-third, about 3.4 billion gallons of gasoline would be saved annually, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"After five years of such improved efficiency, the United States would need to purchase about 850 million fewer barrels of petroleum each year -- about the same amount imported annually from Persian Gulf states."

(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, "Energy and America's Future, Part 3")

holy shit, i managed to eat an entire piece of lasagna without getting a single drop of red sauce on my light-colored shirt!

please become an organ donor.

before last night, i thought Alex Rodriguez was a decent guy. i may have even said, although completely without any knowledge to back it up, that he was a good guy. but after that eighth-inning bullshit, i lost all respect for him. not only did he quite obviously swat away the ball -- we all saw you A-Rod -- but he whined like a little bitch about the resulting interference call. as Corinne said, the swat may have been forgivable as a heat of the moment thing but the feigned innocence and look of martyrdom on his face that followed lacked all kinds of dignity and sportsmanship.

thankfully, the officiating staff was able and willing to make the correct call there, and for the home run in the fourth inning, and save us all years of "controversy" and probably a few days of rioting in Boston.

oh, and a big fat "screw you" to Fox's Joe Buck for his comments on the matter: "if you can do it, and get away with it, why not?" brilliant.

awesome game, though. go Sox!

i learned some interesting lessons last night. first, and this is sort of boring and technical, if your computer is on a domain and you switch it to a workgroup while disconnected from the domain and then restart like Windows asks you to do, all your logins will be locked out and you will be screwed. there will be no way for you to access the computer and a large stick will be shoved up your ass. this is a security feature.

second, it is very, very easy to hack into a Windows computer.

say baby, do you wanna lay down with me?
say baby, do you wanna lay down by my side?
say baby, do you wanna lay down with me?
say baby ... SAY BABY!

my bus ride on the way to work takes me straight through the Tenderloin, a mildly sketchy part of San Francisco. there are always lots of characters on the street along with a handful of outright freaks. generally, the more sketchy the street, the more interesting the people. and if you add in the usual bus people, which almost always includes a requisite schizophrenic-extremely-bi-polar-generally-psychotic person, it makes for an entertaining trip.

today, two girls who couldn't have been more than 14 were talking about guys they'd slept with when they were 11. they got off at a stop where an old lady with a safety pin through her nose and a cane was dancing wildly to someone's boombox. a little later, a guy walked by the bus wearing a shower cap and a shirt that read "NOT BOB" in big black and red letters.

at my transfer point, i walked by the guy who hands out 10% off coupons for Mel's Diner. i took one. most days i try to walk far enough away from him that he can't reach me. it's not that i think he has the plague; i just don't know how to politely say, "no, thank you, i got one yesterday," in the half-second i have his attention. it must be hard standing there all day handing out pieces of paper that most people don't want, and i'd rather not be rude.

half of me thinks i should stop and explain to him that i walk by his spot on the sidewalk every weekday and he should remember my face so that he doesn't have to waste a coupon on me. but then i realize he probably wouldn't care and definitely would give me a strange look. i'm not one for strange looks first thing in the morning.

my new, albeit temporary, office has a 180-degree view of downtown San Francisco as seen from South of Market. to my left is the Bay Bridge, to my right is Sutro Tower. for the past couple days, Twin Peaks has been covered in fog and the bridge has been covered in blue skies and sunshine. in between the two, and directly out my window, the two intermingle. it's a fascinating dance of the odd weather that so characteristic of the City.

the only thing i don't like about my office, aside from my fleeting ownership of it, is that when the air conditioner turns on, it sounds like a small hurricane overhead. the office has a wonderful ambient noise level other times of day, but when that a/c turns on, i start looking for Toto.

Donald Rumsfeld is letting loose with his silver tongue again. you can read all about it in this article but here's an excerpt:

Asked to describe the connection between the Iraqi leader and the al-Qaida terror network at an appearance Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pentagon chief first refused to answer, then said: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."

Several hours after his appearance, Rumsfeld issued a statement from the Pentagon saying his comment "regrettably was misunderstood" by some. He said he has said since September 2002 that there were ties between Osama bin Laden's terror group and Iraq.

"This assessment was based upon points provided to me by then-CIA Director George Tenet to describe the CIA's understanding of the al-Qaida relationship," he said. This included "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaida members, including some that have been in Baghdad," he said.

i am no longer allowed to say the phrase "good stuff". if you hear me say it, you have my permission to enact whatever negative reinforcement you deem fit. thank you for your cooperation.