BAD JAKE: Do I really sound like this? Via Bruce

REVERTED: Went back to the old look, by request of the wife.

FRENCH FRIES: If true, this is disturbing (via Stephen Den Beste.)

NEW LOOK: Waddya think?

BLUE SUEDE JEWS: Chanukkah in Memphis, via Andrew Sullivan.

NEW TOY ON THE WAY: So I finally caved and ordered a Treo 600 from Sprint. The treo, for those of you who are not gadget oriented, is Handspring's (now PalmOne's) second attempt at combining a Palm-based organizer and a cell phone. It's real cool and has a built in camera. I've been eyeing this one for awhile but couldn't justify its purchase. I still can't, but some recent events tipped me over the edge. Firstly, my new apartment doesn't have T-Mobile coverage or AT&T next-gen coverage.Oddly, the old AT&T network seems to have better coverage in my apartment than their new GSM phones. That leaves Sprint and Verizon. I've seen the cable guy get decent access in my apartment with Sprint and I have a pathological hatred of Verizon (which does, as a matter of fact, have the best network in the USA) so my decision is made. Next, Amazon has a deal whereby you get $250 in rebates for the Treo, turning a $500 purchase into a more manageable $250. Unfortunately, the Treo is on back order everywhere until February so my new toy won't show up for awhile. Sigh. Does anyone want to buy a three month old Clie? ALSO: Got a new Blue Betta for our accent wall. The little guy seems to be settling in just fine, but then again Bettas are super easy to take care of. Fun fact: Bettas have an auxiliary lung that allows them to breathe air if the water quality is too low. Anyways, we're looking for a name for the fella, "Blue" seems to work for now.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS: Happy 4th night, everyone!

ADDITIONS: So Lorraine & I picked up our newest member of the family yesterday. We got a baby orange & white Pearlscale (goldfish) to be the first inhabitant for our brand-spanking new 25 gallon tank. The little guy is really tiny, maybe an inch & a half. He's got a tough job because, as the first tenant of a new tank, he's got to acclimate the water and bacterial levels for himself and future tenants. The shock of a new tank can be fatal, so I've treated and "homogenized" the water as best as I can for over a week before adding any swimmers. I'm hoping to eventually stock the tank with between six and ten goldfish of different (all ornamental) varieties. The little dude seems a bit traumatized by his new surroundings. Yesterday he was swimming happily around his small tank in the store with a bunch of his friends, confidently poking around for food and pooping (pretty much that's was goldies do) in familiar surroundings. Today he's alone in a huge expanse of a tank that, aside for the gravel on the bottom, is as desolate as a moonscape for now. I think he's perked up a bit today -still he seems much more active when the lights are off. When noone's around & it's dim in the room he adventurously swims up to the surface of the tank. When I come in and turn on the light he crash dives down to the bottom and just sits in the corner, looking pathetic. If he survives the ordeal I may just have to name him <reverb>Zippy the Wonder Fish.</reverb>

LONG DAY: Some days it just seems that all the little things will kill ya. By some astrological quirk this day more often than not turns out to be Monday. In the old days, there was rhyme to the reason to avoid certain things on Mondays. Cars built on Mondays suffered poor quality because the auto workers who assembled them were likely hung over and not disposed towards screwing things together very well. But I digress... Today was tough because it was my first day in the new digs. I am a consultant, see, and the department of the company I work for just moved buildings to some new facility that isn't quite ready for prime time. So the office I was supposed to hang my hat is unavailable (so I moved.) The temporary location for my butt has an inoperative LAN port (fixed.) This baby has the amazing ability to appear fully functioning and then completely fritz out, right out of the box! (going back to the store.) This sexy mama can't see this tired old beast on the network for some reason (towel has been thrown in, file backups are being used.) To compound the problem, the Dell's USB port is buried under plastic in such a way as to make it unusable (some physical persuasion methods may be applied.) Lastly, the genii who assembled this baby don't seem to understand polarity on a AA battery and why it may, ahem, "affect performance." (I suspect it was assembled somewhere deep within a Chinese gulag on the nearest local equivalent to Monday.) So, how was YOUR day?

IF A TREE FALLS IN A FOREST: How come an anti-terrorism demonstration was held in Baghdad today with approximately 10,000 Iraqisof all stripes in peaceful attendance and noone knows about it?

BY YOUR COMMAND: Last night SciFi started airing its new Battlestar Galactica miniseries. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's well written, acted and fx'ed. I know that the bb's full of original Galactica series die-hards are getting their blaster rifles all up in a tizzy over the new show, but they're mostly a bunch of losers from the seventies anyway who just want to see Dirk Benedict's smirk on the small screen again.

WHILE I'M SETTLING IN: I'm still getting my bearings after the wedding and all, so instead of posting musings as usual, I'm taking the time to refer to some interesting journalistic tidbits when I can. Today's installment is from Kevin Sites' blog, a photojournal: Rasta Warriors. ALSO: Lorraine and I soon after the ceremony.

DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE: From an Iraqi blogger (inside Iraq.) <--to keep y'all entertained while I get my bearings after my marriage...