Maybe I just have less to say these days...

Well, I have been quietly waging my own personal war against social networking sites that look like bullshit pyramid schemes for the better part of the last ten years. What actions have I taken in the pursuit of this war? Ok, basically I just wished anyone who used Facebook, Myspace, and god forbid, YTMND, would become a miserable idiot.

In retrospect, this was a bad strategy. For one thing, these sites now boast something like a hundred trillion users all over the freaking world. Assuming my wish were granted, we'd have a world where total idiots get elected on a regular basis. And since we're winding down our second Bush administration, I guess I'm a freaking wish-maker.

The other reason this was a bad strategy is that it turns out I actually know a lot of people who are on Facebook and/or Myspace (I pretend I don't know the people on YTMND). At first I just made vomiting noises every time someone mentioned they had a Myspace or Facebook account, but eventually I realized that was just making me look like an idiot.

Even after realizing everyone I know is involved in this stuff in some way, I've generally snickered to myself every time I hear anything about these sites. After all, everything I've ever heard is bad. I mean, every damned MySpace page I've ever seen is a poorly designed wasteland that starts playing some stupid song without any prompting. And Facebook? Facebook stole their code from another company (and don't get me started on Secret Crush)!

So it was with a certain amount of glee that I read an article posted to reddit with the title: "Why I Will Not Be Using Facebook - Fierce yet detailed attack on the social networking site." However, upon reading the article, I realized a few things:

1. The author is an idiot.
2. I have no basis for my own dislike of this idea.
3. reddit titles kinda suck.

But basically, I realized I was falling into the same stupid trap that everyone falls into with music. You learn about something in a particular way, and you tend to start dismissing the new stuff without really thinking honestly about it. My internet life began before the web, when basically the interactions were through message forums and bulletin boards. Web-versions of those kind of interactions (i.e., IM, blogs, link aggregators, etc.) make sense and seem cool, while stuff like Facebook and MySpace just seem like more annoying versions of Geocities (and for those of you who don't remember Geocities, well, let's just say this is probably the coolest website for NBA 2k1 ever created!).

So anyway, if you're on facebook or myspace or orkut and I made little cough*idioti*cough sounds when you mentioned that: I'm sorry.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm going to create a facebook account.

Other stuff:

- I stayed at a hotel the other night that had a free-alcohol "happy hour". A FREE ALCOHOL HAPPY HOUR. And I worked through half of it!

- Speaking of that trip: You know what's worse than spending two and a half hours walking around in semi-freezing rain? Trying to explain to two skeptical consultants the difference between abundant and common in terms of leaf litter at the same time. I drove for an hour with the heater on full blast before I got warm. Why the hell didn't I try to get a job in Mexico?

- the NBA: Just off the top of my head everything we thought we knew about the western conference should be tossed out the window. Just forget it all. The three best teams right now are the Hornets, Blazers and Lakers (well, before Bynum got hurt). The Mavs and the Suns are apparently trying to pull a "spurs" by sucking early and getting great late. You know what they're missing? Tim Duncan. As for the East: Nobody in Miami should feel bad...they won a frickin' championship! You think I wouldn't trade a year or 3 of Dallas being miserable for a Dallas championship. And hell, Miami'll probably end up drafting Beasley, turning them right back into title contenders.

- If you like Carcassonne, you can play it online here (called Toulouse). And yes, we've probably played 60 games in the past three days.

Wow.

Let's see, I can't stop reading Harry Potter, I have the entire collection of Alton Brown DVDs, I'll probably own a Honda Civic in a week, and yet...

and yet I find myself totally in awe of Amy Winehouse.

Seriously. This girl is old-school. I think Kieth Richard's is looking at that and thinking: She needs to get some help.

The girl was mixing heroin and HORSE TRANQUILIZERS. I weigh twice what she does and I get a little woozy after 2 beers.

Sitting in the library

The summer has exploded into activity. After months of hard work in isolation, suddenly I'm in charge of a pair of undergraduates, in charge of planning experiments, and still trying to get finished with my own stuff.

Here's some thoughts:

1. I have an undergrad working for me who is very full of herself. She's certain that A) she's the shit and B) her rich boyfriend will keep her from ever needing to work. She's interested in science because it will be "A reason to get out of bed in the morning."
If you're rich and you want a reason to get out of bed in the morning, work at a f***ing soup kitchen. Seriously, I can't imagine a scenario where that wouldn't be more fulfilling.

2. The prof I work with most closely (who routinely drives me insane), has been astonishingly nice lately. Frankly, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. He hasn't insulted anyone to their face for most of the past 2 weeks. Do I forgive and forget?
You may have heard the old saying: "Women forgive, but never forget. Men forget but never forgive."
That's a load of crap. Not only do I not forgive, I write things down so I don't forget.

3. Boston slipped to #5 in the NBA draft. That's great. I've throroughly enjoyed having a city to hate. Thanks Boston.

4. If you've never taken a green fluorescent light and dropped it into a lake at night, and then seined up whatever showed...well....you should. That is AWESOME. I may do this fifty times this summer.

5. I'm working on an NSF grant. This is almost guaranteed to fail on the first attempt, but everyone agrees that it is a good idea. So I'm writing it anyway. If I were to get an NSF grant that would go a long ways towards proving my value as a scientist. Of course, even if they did fund it on the first attempt (unbelievably unlikely), I wouldn't find out until probably October/November....if I'm lucky.
The subject of this grant? The Zeroeth Law of Stoichiometry (homeostasis).

6. I'm sitting in the library 'watching' the undergraduates who are here for the summer class session. The station is packed, and there is all kinds of craziness occurring. Officially it is a dry campus for this two week session, but I'll let you in on a little secret.
This coffee mug next to the computer here?
That's not coffee.

Where have I been?

Like the fist of an angry god (I like to think Thor), the fierce Oklahoma weather struck down my ability to interact with the world three days ago.

That's right, lightning strike took down our internet connection.

Right now we're limping along on connections in the library and the office, but dang, I hate not having the use of the internet for recreation.

HELLO! We don't have a TV!

Ok, I'm being told that yes, we do have a TV. Apparently its that thing I use to play video games. Wait...really?

Ok, yes. That's a TV. I thought it was an arcade.

Hmm.

See without the internet I can't think. I know, kinda weird.

SO ANYWAY!

Stuff:
- Plaster casting. Ant hills. Scientists. I hope you know where this is going. And need I point out that there are pictures!

- Fark.com. Let me just inform those of you who still visit that sight: IT SUCKS! Not only does the the new site design look awful, but apparently anything you post in a fark comment is copyrighted to Fark (including pics).
Seriously people. There are better link aggregating sites out there. Like, for instance, reddit.com.

- I'm drinking a lambic beer brewed in St. Louis and infused with strawberries. I'll admit, I thought I hated lambics, but this one is pretty good. Plus, we've spent all the money in our budget for this month, and we have no other alcohol in the house except Guiness. Frankly, I don't know if I can handle a Guiness right now.

- All kinds of research spinning up. Toxicity testing with snails and daphnia, snail egg viability, toxistoichiometry with pesticides and pharmaceuticals, and more stupid fish LC50s. Groan. Nevertheless, progress being made. I'm basically just doing whatever I want now.
I'm going to write an NSF proposal. I know, that's bold, and damn near insane. I mean, the odds of me being successful are essentially nil. The effort will be enormous. Plus, I don't really have a great idea that doesn't involve toxicology (which NSF won't fund).
Nevertheless, I need to take a shot at some big-time grants, mostly for my own sanity. I've spent a ton of effort this year writing grants that didn't end up even getting submitted. That's frustrating.

- The NBA- God Orlando is awful. Kirk Hinrich is the best defender in the league under 6-5. Steve Nash is the most important player in the league. The Spurs are in real trouble (although they'll probably make it out fine). The Mavs are in quasi-trouble, only because people will continue to ask why Dirk doesn't put up ridiculous numbers. The Bulls look really good, I can't see them not making the Finals. There's no way the Pistons can beat them, there's no way the Cavs can beat them. Jersey, on the other hand, might be able to beat them (weirdly enough).

- And in case anyone missed it: The universe is a little less empty now. We have, officially, found another planet, outside our solar system, that falls within the habitable zone. That's right, the possibility exists that this planet could support life.
Humanity: You have a goal.

Watching Basketball (semi-live blogging)

I'm in the library, watching the NCAA tournament on a satellite feed. I've got beer, a book on invasive species, and a rooting interest (Kansas).

- I mentioned earlier that I was afraid of Southern Illinois. The MVC isn't a mid-major anymore, not in basketball. They've got the same number of teams left as the ACC and the Big Ten. Frankly, I'd take So. Ill over OSU or ANY of the ousted ACC teams. Looks like I was right to be afraid, as they are standing up to KU admirably.

- Halftime (where did the time go?). KU looks good. Like, really good. If they can keep this team together (if nobody jumps to the NBA) there's no way this team doesn't win it all next year.

- My friend DC says that Acie Law of A&M is a legit NBA prospect. I'm watching him now. He's fast. I haven't seen him do much beyond drive by his man to score or create. Sorry, but I don't see him as being fast enough to do that in the pros (I mean, if Jacque Vaughn can barely survive with his speed...well). He does seem like a really smart player, if he can shoot, I could see him doing well. (EDIT: Uh, ok, he can shoot. Wow. Plus he can back a guy down in the post. Double wow. This is the guy Boston should be trying to get.)

- Kevin Durant would be an idiot to not come out this year. There's a very good chance he could go 1 or 2, and there's an easy 50-60 million in endorsment deals waiting for him. Having said this: Kevin Durant will never be that good. I don't know what the hell everyone is smoking. I see him as ( on the high end) Chris Bosh and (on the low end) Darius Miles without the attitude (he seems like a pretty good guy).

- In that same vein. Oden...obviously he should come out. That guy is a lock. A lock to have a max deal on his first non-rookie contract. Even if he semi-busts, he's a HUGE 7-foot monster. Those guys are always overpaid. And if Boston somehow ends up with the top overall pick and doesn't pick Oden...well, let's just say that they will regret that decision..the Jefferson-Oden frontcourt would be the most frightening front line since Duncan and Robinson were both among the top 20 bigs in the league.

- I just swirled my Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat beer. Oh yeah, that's unfiltered all right! YEAH!

- Severe weather report! What? I don't care!

- These commercials suck.

- What? TNT isn't showing NBA games tonight? I was hoping to watch Kobe try to become the first guy ever to score 50 in 3 straight games. And while we're on the subject of Kobe:
Does anyone else think this guy is considered great only because of his scoring ability. I mean really, does he do anything else above average?

- Oh hey...thank you NBA League Pass. I guess I will get to watch Kobe fall flat on his face.

-2nd half!

- How good would Lamar Odum be if he was on a team without Kobe Bryant? I can't imagine him averaging less than 25, 8 and 8.

- Rush needs to improve his ball-handling. Wright needs to improve his shooting. These are 2 things that will get cleaned up in the NBA.

- Ok Jay Bilas. We know SI has a good defense. You know what? Screw you. If it was SI playing an ACC team, those would be fouls.

- Good lord. Can we guard anyone right now?

- "Clearly this is the package that you were drawn to, and then you want to put the top down?" The convertible commercial by Pontiac. Does this sound funny to anyone else?

- Let me fearlessly predict that KU will start playing better once they get Julian Wright more involved. The problem right now is that KU isn't allowing the SI defenders' overplaying to work in their advantage. They keep looking for the obvious passes, those aren't there. They need to use the cut backs to open things up. Wright can see those angles instinctively. He's the key right now.

- That and punching that Young guy in the face...grrr.

- Bryant with 13 so far in the 1st. That puts him almost on pace for 50. He has completely abandoned his teammates.

- Oh no, the beer is gone!

- Must get closer to the TV!

- This game is a war. That's fine. I don't need to see KU dominate. I just need to see them win.

- How do I know I'm in Oklahoma. From the storm update the game was interrupted by: "These storms are moving at 30 mpg. The major risks are lightning, hail, and 70 mph winds."

- These SI guys are brutal. I swear the Hawks are getting called for a lot less on D than SI is, just because that's how all the SI guys are playing. Am I crazy?

- I think that 5 second rule is only enforced when non-stars have the ball.

- Russell Robinson is good.

- The weatherman has a program called ESP. Great.

- The thing that scared me about SI: They've got seniors. KU= none! KU's top 6 guys are freshmen or sophmores. That's a little scary.

- Why is KU double-teaming? What?

- KU's best strategy right now seems to be: Screw passing the ball, let's just drive the lane. I like it.

- Tied at 45!!

- Weather breakin!
"Don't worry, we're not going to miss any basketball. There's 70 mph winds. These are the kinds of winds that can lift a 300 pound man off the ground and smash him into a tree 35 feet off the ground. DON'T WORRY...you won't miss a second of this game between two non-Oklahoman teams. We're getting the hit by 52 lightning strikes a second, but we won't miss a second of the game."
Since the storm isn't where I'm at...those are good priorities.

- Tony Dungy = Jackass.

- That ball grazed the rim. That means the SI team has been on the bad end of at least 3 obvious calls. You know how many stupid fouls KU has been called for? Do you think SI would be better off with those 6 points or with Darrel Jackson, Juilan Wright, Rush not sitting on the bench for the last 5 minutes of the 1st half?

- You know, Bill Self hasn't figured out how to beat this SI team. Wright, Chalmers, Rush and Russell have figured it out themselves. Just keep driving towards the hoop.

- Memphis is terrible. How are they leading Texas A&M?

- The steal, the run the other way, and SI couldn't convert. I'm starting to think that Kansas is going to pull this thing out.

- MAKE FREE THROWS!!!

-Thank goodness.

- SI could beat 90% of the teams I've watched play in the past week.

- By the way, Kobe got 24 in the first half. Did I mention he's being guarded by Mike Miller and the Lakers are only up by 6 to Memphis at the half.

- Julian Wright = Teh Awesomz

- How was that not a charge? And of course Tatum nails the three. He's been waiting for that one. I see this one coming down to the last possession (if only because KU can't put it away with free throws).

- 2 point game, Hawks ball, 1 08 left. Let's go Jayhawks.

- "You're not going to miss any of the basketball game here. Quick update on the weather. We've got a group of fifteen tornadoes moving across Oklahoma City. We've got 70 mph gusts and football sized hail. Ok, back to the game!"

- Go Rush! Go Wright! Go Robinson! Ice it Wright!

- Did it look to anyone else like Wright intentionally missed it? That was weird. Did he really miss it that badly? Now I'm out. Good night everybody.

Some title

- I just ate dinner. Apparently the largest chicken in the western world died so that I could eat tonight. Seriously, I just ate a chicken breast that was easily 15 lbs. I am full!

- I went with beer and coke.

- Allow me to rant a little about Oklahoma. I like OK a lot, the air is so much cleaner than anything in Indiana, the temperatures are warm. We’ve got hawks, owls, bats, and bald eagles gracing our skies. I’ve got the best fishing spot in 300 miles on my doorstep.

But seriously, can we get people to pick up their damned trash?

On every road in the area (on the OK side) the ditches are littered with garbage. Everywhere! There are cans, bottles, scraps of paper, trash sacks, magazines, paper plates, and every other kind of random trash you might imagine some idiot throwing out the window. I can’t even believe it! The scale of the problem is enormous, and I’m sure that’s why nobody has done anything about it. You could get those convict crews out in the ditches for 15 hours a day and you might never finish a twenty mile stretch. I can’t even imagine where to begin.

And then there’s the scene down by the bridge we sampled at today:

Fantastic, I’m sure that’s where we should be dumping our old furniture.

- I met a guy today named Buck Ray. Yeah, I live in Oklahoma. I couldn’t make that up if I tried. In fact, we spent a good 15 minutes trying to come up with a better ‘western’ name and couldn’t. Tex Oklahoma? Jim Bob Joe? I got nothing. (That isn’t to diminish the guy. He seems articulate and educated, he’s got a MS. I just think that’s a crazy name.)

- Yeah, this is the beast I drove around today. I miss Daisy (the van I drove through Chicago and the north woods 20-odd times a summer for two years).

- While we were out sampling for benthic invertebrates we came across these ‘nests’ of caterpillars in the trees along the side of the road. Anyone know what these are called? Kind of freaky looking.

- Guess who’s happy that Texas is out of the tournament? This guy! Maybe when KU plays next week I’ll actually be able to watch a game!

- So, Kobe Bryant scored 115 points over the weekend. Meh.

I need to drink something while I watch the KU game

Beer, coke, beer, coke, beer, coke...

Unfiltered Boulevard Wheat,

Pepsi,

Guiness,

Coke,

Beer, coke, beer, coke...

Decisions, decisions....

Let’s look at some truth here:

So I’m drunk. Enjoy the random thoughts:

- I just watched a commercial from the University of Phoenix. The gist of the commercial was “We know everyone wants to achieve their goals, we can help.” And they showed this guy walking down from a cubicle to an office with a window and putting his stuff in there. The implication being that this was that guy’s goal, and that U. of Phoenix helped him to achieve it.

I’m just going come out and say it: This makes me sad. Our goals, as Americans, shouldn’t be to ‘get ahead’ or to ‘move up to middle management’. Our goals should be to save the world, to stop hunger, to stop suffering, to end tyranny. I know that’s cheesy and naïve, but we (Americans) are destroying the world by creating a lifestyle and technology base that is probably unsustainable. The only real justification we can possibly offer for our over-the-top existence is that we will save the world using our technology and bring the majority of humans up to our standard of living.

Middle management? If you’re not trying to save the world (in some fashion), then you need to think beyond the corner office. That’s just how it is.

- My goal this morning was to get up, take care of my work, and then sit in front of the TV watching basketball and drinking beer all day long. Unfortunately I felt really full when I sat down to watch TV, and so I road the exercise bike for 3 hours. THEN I started drinking. Oh man, Saturday has been ok. And yes, this was part of my plan to save the world...duh.

- I watched an older Third Eye Blind video. Oh man, I forgot how full of himself that guy was. Ha! “I don’t wanna go to London.” Go to London loser!

- My morning routine: Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball, then gmail, then Fark, then Reddit, then I go to work. I don’t think I could get out the door without this whole routine.

- I am drinking the last of our Tabor Hill wine. I’m not a big Tabor Hill fan, but it was the first wine I drank and liked. Good bye Tabor Hill.

- There are several places that give away land for free if you build a house there. Mostly these are small towns in the middle of nowhere (read: rural Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas). However, as reported by CNN, Anderson, Alaska is doing this as well.
What? Really? I would love to do this. Who’s with me? All you have to do is build a 1,000 ft house on the land within two years. Of course the deadline is freaking Monday! So I guess I’m too late. Wouldn’t it be cool to own a vacation home in Alaska with a group of your friends? I think it would.

- I drink wine out of a coffee mug. Yeah, so?

- Of the group of friends I have from Kansas, I and JJ are the only ones remaining who don’t have a kid. That’s right, that means that MH is now a dad. Remember the kid next door who you played with as a kid? This was MH. We went to grade school, church, middle school, high school, and college together. For four years I slept in the same room as this guy. Kinda hard for me to believe that he’s actually a dad. Think about your friends who have kids, remember them when they were kids. Isn’t that weird? And in <6 style="">

- Some NCAA tournament notes:

Kevin Durant -- Everyone says he’s a cross between T-Mac and KG. Um, no, how about Marcus Camby with shooting range.

Point guards -- I don’t think I’ve seen a single point guard in all the 6+ games I’ve watch who could play at the NBA level. Maybe Texas’s point (D.J. Augustin?). Seriously, these guys are good, but when guys like Steve Blake and Dan Dickau can barely hang on in the league, and Sebastian Telfair is a washout...well, VCU’s Maynor better have a backup plan.

Tyler Hansborough – People keep comparing him to Mark Madsen, and he’s certainly got the look. Am I missing something here? There’s no way he can be successful at the NBA level with his style of play. In college he can overcome his lack of size, muscle and skill with hustle and heart. Yeah, in the pro’s that won’t work.

BC’s Dudley – I love watching that guy play. I don’t think he can make it in the pros, because he doesn’t seem to have any 1 skill that is pro-calibur, but damn, he knows how to play.

Michigan State – One sign of a good coach is being able to keep games close and win games with inferior talent. That Tom Izzo guy...he’s pretty good. I don’t think Michigan State has a single player who would get 10 minutes for North Carolina, and yet MSU was in the game until the 5 minute mark.

Texas Schools -- Hey, guess who is watching a Texas CBS affiliate? Did you realize there are 1500 Texas schools? At this point I’m just rooting against Texas schools so that I can watch ANYTHING ELSE. Like say:

Kansas – This has to be the year, right? OSU sucks, UNC is weak. The only good team I see in the tournament is Florida. Of course KU is on the same side of the Final Four as Florida. As far as I can see, these are the only two teams with a shot (unless Brandan Wright wakes up for North Carolina).

So many thoughts...

Reasons (true and false) that I haven't posted since Thursday:

1. I've run out of interesting things to say (False!)
2. Nothing much has been happening (False!)
3. The station was attacked by terrorists and I had to fight them off using nothing more than a Poison CD and a broken laptop (True...er...False!)
4. I got really really drunk on cheap beer, 70 degree weather and sunshine on Thursday (True!)
5. I spent all day Friday doing stuff (Kinda True!)

So what's been happening. Let's make another list!

1. My wife visited the doctor. She's pregnant. I know. I'm as shocked as anyone!

2. I'm learning how much I hate racists!

3. The TV show: Ok, let me give you a brief transcript of what I said...

"I work on gabbaba adaga agaha abifdai dDag DAPHNIA and how they inteatcate awiaath afdfda abjath GOLDEN ALGAE ana ana ana FISH."

So if you know me, you should be embarrassed. I did not do well. I'd like to think I could do the kind of thing that Steve Irwin did, but I'd need a lot of retakes.

A lot of retakes.

4. New experiments!! Finally!! I've been waiting for my daphnia to start kicking up the reproduction for a while now and they've finally responded.

5. We sold our house!! We managed to lose a ton of money doing it, but the house is totally sold. We celebrated by going out to eat four/five times this week and then I bought an exercise bike. My history with exercise bikes is not really pretty (I tend to ride them into the dust), but I spent a bit more on this one, so hopefully it will last longer than 6 months. My plan is to ride it while I play video games, which means it will get a lot of use.

6. I haven't figured out what to write here.

7. Check out this enormous sinkhole that opened up in a Guatemalan city. If you had shown me that picture and said "Is this real?" I would have laughed at you. I'm amazed this can even happen. Seriously, what in the hell are you supposed to do when this happens? Considering there appears to be a river of sewage running underneath there, I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to just fill it in with dirt (I'm not even sure you could find enough dirt!!). I'm pretty sure that if this had happened in New York the entire U.S. would be paralyzed with fear and Congress would authorize the use of military force to "prevent future sinkholes."
If this sinkhole opened up in Boston nobody would notice for three weeks and then the bomb squad would be called out. Then they'd arrest the employees at the sewage treatment plant for "misplacement of sewage."
Seriously. I really don't like Boston anymore.

8. Becoming the GOP Presidential candidate requires jumping through a certain number of hoops. For example, you have to hate homosexuals, atheists, biologists, atmospheric scientists, Washington insiders, liberals, black people, Asians, Indians (dots), Native Americans, poor people, hippies, everyone who was big in the 60s, war protestors, tofu, vegetarians, taxes, Muslims, Hispanics, single moms, people who have 'funny names, anyone on welfare, drug addicts (except for Rush Limbaugh), movie stars, movie producers, Hollywood, 'big government', rappers, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Whew! That's a list.
One of those hoops is making fun of people with disabilities. For example, George W. Bush famously laughed about a death row inmate who was mentally handicapped on T.V. Now emerges a clip of Rudy Guiliani making fun of a person with Parkinson's disease. Oh man, he is so going to be our next president!

9. I play way too much Age of Mythology.

10. Here's the weird thing about living in southern oklahoma. The restaurant's are terrible. We've actually gone to Pizza Hut. Multiple times. And loved it. We went to a Dairy Queen tonight and I almost cried. Why?
People are so friendly. I mean, you forget about how crappy the food is when the waitresses or people behind the counter are just so nice. And we don't even know these people yet! I love it down here.
And on Thursday it was 70 degrees and slightly breezy, so everyone just ended up sitting around a picnic table from 4 - 7 that night drinking and eating homemade salsa and chutney and talking shit until the sun went down. I love it down here!

11. The wind. There are probably only two places in the world where you can feel truly insignificant. The ocean and the prairie. Today you could walk outside, look into the wind, and know that you didn't matter at all. The wind was pushing lengthwise along the lake and the waves were enormous. I'm not sure I've been in a boat on freshwater that could stay afloat on the lake as it was today. We saw a tree that had cracked in half because the top blew off. Apparently somewhere to the west of us they've had dry weather, because for about 4 hours we got so much dust that you couldn't see 200 feet in front of you. Dust bowl part deux.
You can't help but feel alive when there's that much energy in the air. I love it down here!

12. Oklahoma City is pretty cool.

Pictures

So, tonight I tried to take some pictures of stuff. I don't really know why, except that I'm kinda bored. Here's some pics of our crayfish: Steve "Dusty" Irwin:


"Hi, I'm Steve Irwin. Everybody calls me Dusty. I'm a girl, so the name is a bit weird.
I hate the world, and my place in it. I have a new tank that is 5 times bigger than the old one. I don't like it. This is my mountain. I used to like it, but now I really don't."


"Look at my massive claw. I made him take a picture of my claw close up. I can't believe he couldn't get the damned camera in focus. Why does he suck so much?"


"This is me angry. If I could make noises, I'd make some kind of RAR sound right now. But I can't. So I won't."

The crayfish has spent the 4 days since I put him in his new cage just walking around, trying to flip himself out of the water, and generally letting us know that he hates us tremendously.

I also tried to get creative and take a picture of the growler I got from the Bricktown Brewery in Oklahoma City. Turns out it was really hard to get the effect I was going for (white lettering on a black background. This is the closest I could get to a nice picture.



Ok, well, picture fun-time is over.