Kablammo!

The nice thing about Daylight Saving time is that I no longer have to mentally subtract an hour from my clocks. Go me!

Two things:

1. Manu Chao’s Radio Bemba Sound System would be a damn good candidate for the official album of the vernal equinox. Just saying. And, of course, “La Primavera” from that album would be an extra-good candidate for the official theme song of the vernal equinox.
2. Finnish and Japanese are related. I can’t prove it, but goddamn it I know it’s true. There’s too many freaky similarities for it to be a concidence, including:
   • ‘k’ particles for turning verbs into questions.
     Finnish: -ko/-kö
     e.g. on (is) becomes onko (is?)
     Japanese: か -ka
     e.g. です desu (is) becomes ですか desuka (is?)
   • ‘n’ suffixes for indicating possession.
     Finnish: -n
     e.g. lääkäri (doctor) becomes lääkärin (doctor’s)
     Japanese: の -no
     e.g. ホチキス hochikisu (stapler) becomes ホチキス の hochikisu no (stapler’s)
   • That reminds me, neither has a definite (or an indefinite) article.
   • They have similar rules for astmevaheldus and the like.

   Obviously there are huge differences in vocabulary and grammar, and one’s writing system was based on Swedish and German while the other’s was based on Chinese. But I’m not talking about that.

“Due to extenuating circumstance, our associates are not able to take your call right now. Please try calling again at a later time.”

Fuck you, Bank of America. You strand me in Europe without being able to withdraw any cash from my bank account, then you don’t even let me get money out of one of your own goddamn ATMs, and then you don’t even have the decency to pick up the fucking phone. I sat through your stupid menu and pressed ‘9’ to hear more options, and it’s not my fault you didn’t offer “Press 3 if we suddenly and inexplicably decided to prevent you from using any ATMs anywhere in the world” as one of the choices.

Sons of bitches. I suppose I should be grateful I can be angry at something, but I’m not.

The above notwithstanding, I’m in a good mood and things are going well and Tartu was great and I only regret, say, 60% of my spring break. But it pisses me off to have to borrow money from my friends when there’s perfectly good money sitting there in my bank account that I’m being forbidden from accessing.

Spring is in the air. Birds are chirping, it’s 57° outside, and tomorrow it’s supposed to get up to 65°. The day after tomorrow, though, temperatures will range from -4° to -23° or so and it’ll be snowing.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Am I that desperate for a proper winter?

Wal-Mart: where else are you going to go when you need to buy golf balls and dandruff shampoo at the same time?

I sent the following letter today to each Senator and Congressman supposed to represent me, after having read this frankly horrifying post.

I recently learned that Senator Frist has threatened to change the bipartisan nature of the Senate Committee on Intelligence unless the Committee agrees not to investigate the warrantless NSA wiretapping. Even ignoring the fact that he is trying to derail an investigation before it begins, it is reprehensible that he would hold a crucial committee hostage in this fashion.

» » Continue reading . . .

Here’s a partial list of key shots in games played by New Zealand’s men’s Olympic curling team in Torino:

• vs Sweden:
  Facing two opposing stones New Zealand Skip BECKER S misses an open Take-out, failing to remove any stones and sets up a Draw for three points for Sweden and a commanding lead in a game that had so far been very close.
• vs Great Britain:
  New Zealand Skip BECKER S, missed a critical Hit and Roll allowing Great Britain to steal four and take control of the game.
• vs United States:
  United States was counting two behind Guards and had forced New Zealand to attempt to navigate a very tight path to promote one of their own stones. New Zealand Skip BECKER S was light and the stone over-curled, touching a Guard. USA seemed to gain momentum from this point in the game and was encouraged by the enthusiastic crowd.
• vs Switzerland:
  Swiss Skip STOECKLI R played a perfect Draw to guard his shot stone and force New Zealand skip BECKER S to attempt a difficult Draw. New Zealand missed and Switzerland stole 3 to take command of the game.
• vs Italy:
  The Italian Skip RETORNAZ J made a cross house Double Take-out to lie two stones and turn the end around in Italy’s favour. The difficulty of this shot was increased by having to avoid jamming the New Zealand shot on one of Italy’s own stones lying in the back of the house. New Zealand Skip BECKER S was forced to make a Take-out to lie shot which RETORNAZ J removed to score two shots and take a lead into the fifth end break.
• vs Norway:
  In an attempt to limit Norway to one point by pushing back a Norway stone, New Zealand Skip BECKER S added a touch more weight than necessary and tapped his own second shot back enough to allow Norway an easy last stone draw for three points to take control of the game.

Better luck next time, Skip.

Happy independence day.

Yeah, you wish you had this many sound cards in your computer.

Song of the Moment: «It’s Easy» — The Ladies and Gentlemen