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I think the title should say it all…

No pricing has been announced.

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The Irish-Heritage Timeline… I laughed out loud at the entry for 1923.

Newly independent Ireland named “Irish Free State” instead of alternate suggestion, “Irish Free State, Y’Feckin’ Teabags”

Aaaah… I’m laughing again.

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I’m a total sucker for songs that I can sing well. I’m sure J– is completely sick of hearing me talk about “back in college”, but… erm… back in college, I actually did sing open mic. And got requests. It’s a very odd feeling to have someone come up to you and ask if you’re going to sing a song that night. I got hooked and kept singing.

What this means in my current life is that I’m a total chicken and don’t sing anymore (mostly because I loathe karaoke and don’t know a guitarist), but I also tend to like music that I can belt out in the car on the way home from work.

So, in an effort to document the more mainstream side of my musical tastes, I present my iTunes “Fun to Sing” playlist.

• Unwell – Matchbox Twenty
• Holy – Fuse
• Big Machine – Goo Goo Dolls
• What a Scene – Goo Goo Dolls
• A-Hole – Bowling for Soup
• Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
• Rest Stop – Matchbox Twenty
• Innocent – Our Lady Peace
• Cast No Shadow – Oasis
• Halo – Oleander
• Nutshell – Alice in Chains

Building your system? Good for you, little geek! Just be sure and put enough power in that case. Use this wattage calculator to make sure you don’t have system-ending brown-outs.

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Today is Albert Einstein’s birthday. He would have been 125 today.

His scientific achievements aside, Einstein was a brilliant man, something that is often lost in his genius.

An interesting aside, technically, I should have to put a (TM) after any occurrence of Einstein’s name, as his name is copyrighted. Yeah, brilliant, I know. You can’t link to their statement about the copyright because the site has the most idiotic use of Flash I’ve seen in a long time.

Has anyone told BoingBoing about this?

I couldn’t bring myself to sit through an episode of the OC just to watch a movie trailer, but thanks to the power of the internet, the trailer is now available for your viewing pleasure. Well, at least until the evil minions of Lucasarts descend from their orbiting Death Star and sue fans to get the trailer off line. (George, you gettin’ that last statement?)

Anyway, Jason Kottke has a couple links, or you just go to this page and download it directly.

Oh, and… yeah, dammit, the trailer rocks. Of course, the last two movies had trailers that rocked as well, so I’ll withhold judgement until I cave in and go see the new “film”.

Well, 5,031 to be exact. That’s how many words I wrote tonight for the NaNoWriMo contest. Starting at 6-ish, and finishing at 10:45, with a break for supper, a break for a shower, and a half-hour debate about religion with J– (don’t ask, ’cause even I don’t know where that one came from); well, that’s a lot of words in a hurry.

Total words count as of tonight: 17,153. I’m only about 5,000 words behind schedule now, which isn’t bad considering I didn’t write a single word for almost half the available time. Write on!

(cross posted to UMich Marketplace)

Since I have me new machine up and running, I’m selling my old machine.

Specs:

Sony Vaio – Model PCV-RX560
1.7 Ghz Pentium 4
512 MB RAM
80 Gig 5400 RPM Hard Drive
PNY Nvidia GeForce Ti4400 128MB Video Card (AGP)
16x CD-RW
16x DVD-ROM
LAN
FireWire
Modem
Floppy

Link to PDF of original specs. Note, I pulled and replaced the original video card and upped the RAM. I have also installed the latest Nvidia drivers and Windows patches. It comes with the standard PC-Cillian AV, but since you’re no Markeplace, you can download the latest AV from ITCS

The machine has been fully restored with the original restoration discs (included). This has been a reliable machine; I built my own and don’t need this one anymore.

No personnel checks. I’ll meet you/deliver in the Ann Arbor area. Payment can be cash, money order, or PayPal (where you can use credit cards). Contact indiskret@comcast.net for more information.

I’m going to attempt to not sound crass or cold about this, but I swear there’s an affirming quote to come.

Nearly 30 elementary school children in the Philippines have died after eating fried cassava balls obtained from a vendor, a local official told CNN. [Ed. I added the link.]

…

Cassava is a starchy, tuberous root that is a low-cost source of carbohydrates in humid, tropical areas; it is also the source of tapioca.

Cassava contains amino acid-derived cyanogenic glucosides — some more than others — and must be thoroughly cooked to remove toxic levels.

Eaten raw, the human digestive system will convert part of it into cyanide. Two cassava roots contain enough to be fatal.

Ok, that’s the (very) bad news. But, if there’s anything to take away from this story, it’s this:

The vendor who sold the cassava balls insisted nothing was wrong with them and ate a few to prove the point. Now she, too, is in critical condition.

Thank you, universe. My heart goes out to those families; I’m sure they have a few wishes for that vendor.

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I crossed 10,000 words tonight on my quest to 50,000. And that’s with almost 4 days blown on a trip (I didn’t get to write much on the plane).

I’m also such a nerd that I started a spreadsheet (complete with formulas) to track my progress. I am not, however, the biggest nerd in the household as I stole the idea from J–.

I need to sleep; my eyeballs are burning.