Beta

I created a blog in Blogger Beta so I could test it out, play around with it, beat it into the form I like, before I switch over.

You can look at it here: sotosoroto.blogspot.com.

I like the feature of being able to sort by "labels." I think I'll call it Index, though. With the click of a button, you'd be able to call up all posts with a label of "holidays," "political," "personal," "random," or whatever.

Fad Diet

"Eat less and exercise" means "No donuts!!"

Random Word Post

My id is surprising in how its negative parts are prefixed by logging. It cheated, but then it commits my generation to complexity. Theirs leaded its sending me to bash my advertised and all inclusive anatomy.

Their proposal is full of restrictions which must cause my desperate sleep drift. How does inconveniencing a monkey by page treatment cause wet sympathy? Only by numeric evils, that’s how.

More Thailand

It's business as usual in southern Thailand, as well.

SUSPECTED Islamic militants today shot dead four Buddhists in two separate attacks in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, where an insurgency has raged for more than two years, police said.

More than 1400 people have died in the conflict in Thailand's far south since early 2004.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the former premier ousted in last week's coup, has been accused of inflaming tensions there with heavy-handed tactics.

There have been hopes the Muslim army chief who led the coup, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, may be able to ease the unrest.

Yeah, I'm so glad having a Muslim in charge difused the tensions so quickly.

(hat tip: LGF)

News from Thailand

The Thai military is having some problems with their coup d'etat, but not the kind you'd expect.

Last week they required their soldiers to smile. This week, Thais and tourists have been taking pictures of the soldiers and tanks, posing for pictures with them, and dancing for them.

The leaders ruled that tourists are "no longer permitted to handle weapons when posing for photographs with troops still deployed in Bangkok." Makes good sense, I think.

Thai go-go dancers entertained the troops on Monday, but today, the military leaders ruled that such provocative dancing is "not appropriate."

And the best line from the article? It comes from Lt. Gen. Palangoon Klaharn, a military spokesman: "We have to maintain the seriousness of the coup."

What if we had a coup and nobody cared? Party on!

Here are the dancers who provoked this ruling:

Attention, passengers!

If you look out the left windows, you will see the clouds of Jokranam spiraling into the vastness of infinity. Note the tiny red sparks dancing across their surface. Those sparks are actually lightning bolts a million miles long.

For those of you on the right side of the plane, you should now be able to see Port Ludlow coming up beneath us.

If you happen to be in the middle of the plane or over a wing, just lean back and close your eyes. It's not really that interesting.

That Darn Slumping Economy

Uh oh! We're stuck in a recession! Oh, well, we're *headed* for a recession! Oh, well, um. . . This too shall pass?

The DJIA closed today at 11,669, just 80 points shy of the record high mark in January 2000.

Teddy Bear Kills 2,500

2,500 fish, that is.

The culprit:

MILFORD, N.H. (AP) - A teddy bear has been implicated in 2,500 deaths. Of trout, that is. State officials say a teddy bear dropped into a pool at a Fish and Game Department hatchery earlier this month clogged a drain. The clog blocked the flow of oxygen to the pool and suffocated the fish.

Hatcheries supervisor Robert Fawcett said the bear - who was dressed in yellow raincoat and hat - is believed to be the first stuffed bear to cause fatalities at the facility.

The deaths prompted Fawcett to release a written warning: "RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into the fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED."

Maybe the bear got drunk and fell in accidentally. . .

Time of the Season

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the tree leaves are reflecting significantly lower electromagnetic frequencies than they were just a week ago?

Go, Owls!

I sure hope that Rice University athletics didn't pass over some really good African-American coach just because of the color of his skin. Because the current coach's win-loss record isn't any better than a sack of rocks'. 0 and 4.

Their last two games, they lost by a combined score of 107-14. But that was against Texas and Florida State. I sure hope the college got plenty of money for those butt-kickings.

Maybe Rice will be able to beat Army next week. Or at least Tulane the week after. When comparing Rice and Tulane's only opponent in common so far this year, U of Houston, Rice should be able to beat Tulane 42-7 or so.

Actually, Rice's problem is that, unlike the other bottom-barrel C-USA teams, Rice isn't playing Division I-AA opponents to get a win under their belt. No Hofstra or Chattanooga to smack around.

. . . The money from the big schools had better be worth it, really.

Yee-haw!

Rice University has basically told a racist group to shut up and go away. At least that's my interpretation. The Houston Chronicle describes it as "Rice gets failing grade for diversity."

The Black Coaches Association wanted documents related to the recent hiring process of Rice's new football head coach, to make sure that Rice did everything in their power to hire a person of African-American heritage. Rice told them, "No. We're a private institution. That's sensitive information. Go away."

The BCA gave Rice a failing grade automatically, just because Rice turned them away. Kinda spitefuly, wouldn't you say?

And, of course, the BCA didn't just go away. They and the researchers have kept hounding Rice's athletic department, and Rice has stopped replying to their emails or their phone calls.

Can't these guys take a hint?

Happy New Year!

I'm sure the sun has set somewhere in the world already today, so therefore it's Rosh Hashanah!

This evening marks the start of year 5767. Wow. Them Jews have been around a really long time. Oh wait. That's counting since the beginning of the world. Nevermind.

Hm. . . Were Adam and Eve Jewish? How about Noah? Nah. I think the first Jews were Abraham and Sarah, right?

And just think: the Jewish people are still living on the same patch of land as they were way back then. All those years and they never left home. . .

South Parking Lot Update

Three months after the groundbreaking ceremony, activity has finally begun on the construction project across the street from my office.

Nothing major so far, though. It looks like they're doing exploratory soils testing along the area they'll be digging up first. And another guy is wandering around with a metal detector. Only a half dozen people out there, but that's infinitely more than two days ago.

They had their building permit back at the time of the groundbreaking, so I really don't know what delayed them. Perhaps there were contract problems.

Or maybe they decided they preferred digging in the mud instead of dry ground. . .