My <strike>pants</strike> trousers ALWAYS develop large holes in the crotches far before any other part of them shows any type of wear.  While the added ventilation can oft-times be nice, this is generally undesirable for a number of reasons.  When the holes are small it's not too bad, but the holes very rapidly increase in size until there's simply nothing left; my trousers become nothing more than hinged legs.  This phenomenon is apparently also experienced by Gary as well. 

I can't speak for Gary, but I know that in my case, at least, the problem is not undue stresses being put upon the inside of my trousers -- if you know what I mean.  There are many aspects of my life that cause undue stress and pressure, but the contents of my trousers are sadly not among them.  No, the cause of these holes is a much more mysterious one;  I fear I may never get to the bottom of it.

Does this happen to anyone else?

I really dig the little "Drive-by Blogging" thing RT has been doing lately (and not just because I'm one of the recipients of link-love), and have been trying to think of a way to do something similar myself.

I don't have the time and energy to point to everything thing my blogroll, partly because it just keeps going and going, but partly for other reasons as well.

So what I'm thinking is this: you give me the url to that one post you were sure would get all sorts of attention, but were saddened to find didn't at all. I'll then do a "drive-by"-style post linking to any that I get at some point in the future.

I'm especially hoping for some links from some of you lurkers, so feel free to just mail 'em to jer@nyquil.org if you're shy of commenting. In the event that you don't have any links you want promoted, feel free to send me some from your friends or something, as I'm always looking for new sources of entertainment.

All morning I've been trying to remember this show my parents used to watch when I was a kid. I don't really recall much about it, other than the title having something to do with the number pi, and that the main character was some sort of ladies-man / freelance-mathematician who traveled around Hawaii solving complex equations or somesuch.

Now that I think about it, I'm guessing he must've been pretty successful in both fields... he drove around in a Ferrari and had a bad-ass moustache.

Two questions should anyone feel like answering:

1) When you were waiting with the unclean masses to get your (Wii, PS3, Phantom of the Opera tix, Gov't cheese, whatever) were you waiting in line, or waiting on line?

2) What state/city do you live in?

I'm trying to figure out just where the line is if you were to look at a map.

Thank you.

Remember learning back in history class about those smoke bomb things ninjas used to throw down on the ground in order to produce a puff of smoke in which to vanish?  

What do you think they made the smoke smell like?  

If I were a ninja, I think I'd have gone with Corn Nuts, because in my experience, there's no smell with quite the distracting power as that of disembodied Corn Nuts.

I'm not entirely sure that Corn Nuts were even around in Ye Olde Ninja Days, but we already know that ninjas invented throw-on-the-ground-poofy things. Corn Nuts are only slightly more complicated than those, right?

Dear Blog-o-sphere,

If you were a 14 year old boy at the Children's Home Society of Washington who wanted "Bionicles or anything he can build," which particular Bionicle set would you prefer? Or would you perhaps prefer some K'NEX, or some LEGO/MEGABLOKS?

I didn't know what exactly "Bionicles" were, but I figured it'd be an easy gift to pick out. I was wrong.

Any advice on what the best gift to buy a build-minded anonymous 14-year-old might be?

Dear Blog-o-sphere,

Can you recommend me a Netflix-style Audiobook rental service? I want actual CDs, not some proprietary Audible/iTunes downloads.

Straight mp3/ogg download would be ideal, but I'm guessing that doesn't exist, so I'll settle for CDs with a monthly flat-rate pricing scheme.

Netflix-esque recommendations would be a nice perk also.

Thanks,

jer@nyquil.org

UPDATE:I got lots of "I searched Google and found these"-type suggestions, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but certainly saved me some searching. Many of them look particularly promising, and I'll be trying out the ones with free trials shortly. Also, there's been quite a bit of discussion in the comments as to why I don't want to simply get the from the library... it might be of interest to some of you.

Here's the list I've gotten so far:

simplyaudiobooks.com recordedboobks.com audiotogo.com talkingbookworld.com jiggerbug.com audiotogo.com booksfree.com

After I get a chance to play with them I'll post my thoughts.

Dear MagicWeb, can you tell me what this logo is?

I've been seeing it on cars lately and really, really dig it, but don't know what it represents, or whether I should be digging it or not. My searching has been fruitless, so it's my hope that someone who knows will see this.

Perhaps you can assist me.

I've got the punchline of a crappy joke, I'm just not able to string together a series of events to lead up to said punchline. Before I tell you the punchline, I do want to explain that the joke involves a nice fellow from Czechoslovakia and a medieval "arrow proof jacket."

The punchline would be something like "...no really, the Czech's in the mail..."

Any thoughts?

I wonder if Gandalf and Dumbledore are ever insulted upon beginning a software installation on their laptops. I mean, I've always found Install Wizards annoying, but imagine how annoying it must be to a real wizard..

Does anyone know of a fansite that has a current who's-who of known Cylons, complete with photos and list of appearances/duplicates?

I did some google searching, but have come up bupkis, and need to know if I need to be the one to make such a thing. There are currently 5 known, right? #2, #6, Crazy Philosophical Guy At Ragnor Anchorage, Well-Dressed Guy Who Suicide Bombed Galactica, and my favorite: Dean Stockwell as Grizzled Priest Who Has Lost His Faith But Still is Able to Give Sage Advice, Helping Others With Their Faith in the Process.

Am I missing any?

Here's a moral dilemma for anyone who feels like pondering it.

It has come to my attention that Tim's church is holding a screening of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit today, and I have my doubts regarding whether or not they have the public exhibition license required to do such a thing. Am I out of line in going out of my way to bring the issue to the attention of the church so that they can rectify it if need be? It seems to me that any church would want to make sure they aren't breaking any laws, and would want to know when they're about to.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have my qualms with the current copyright system, and I routinely make things available for download in direct violation of such copyright if they are unavailable commercially, provided I feel they are things people can benefit from. But when dealing with a church -- an entity that already enjoys far too many exemptions from legal matters than they fairly deserve -- it seems that holding them to the letter of the law on things they aren't exempt from is not only important, but required. If it comes down to having to either pay for a license, or knowingly break a law, it seems obvious which option they're going to have to pick.

So after finding out how one gets such a license and when it's required, I called the church, only to be met with standoffish opposition from the receptionist who after a 30 second pause claimed to not even know if there was a showing of Wallace and Gromit. Granted, I didn't get a chance to explain that I wasn't speaking on behalf of any legal authority and that I wasn't in position to take any action, just that I wanted to bring the matter to their attention as a concerned citizen so that they can rectify it if need be before I was stonewalled, but still.

Should I try again? Part of the problem is that it's entirely possible that they do have such a license, I just really doubt it. The response I have gotten thus far seems to enforce that idea.

OK. Can you please tell me why black-box voting systems are a good idea?

Putting aside the conspiracy theories as to the motives behind Diebold, and whether or not they "rigged" the election or whether they were "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president next year," can anyone still say that using a system that no one knows anything about is a good thing?

The only way to run an election with this type of machine is to allow anyone and everyone to see how they work, and to be able to handle the errors as they happen -- not 2 years later when it's too late to fix. There should be no secrets, because secrets let information like the fact that over 100,000 voting errors slip through the cracks. It's a real shame that the systems failed, but requiring conspiracy theorists to find out about it is really terrible. I'm convinced that had people known what was going on when it did, there'd be alot more people outraged by this than there are now. As it is now, it's just the tinfoil hat people and me -- who some of you probably consider a tinfoil hat person.

I realize that paper ballots can be manipulated as well, but it takes a hell of a lot more effort and people involved to pull it off. With a black-box system, it really only takes one.

After all this complaining, I actually do have a solution for this problem: let the Amish run our elections in 2008.

The last couple days have been pretty shitty for me, what with the threatening letters from the lawyers of someone I look up to, people that I have to deal with who treat me like crap and make me want to punch them, cute little rodents getting themselves stuck in my washing machine, etc, which has really gotten me thinking about things.

I've got a few questions for those of you who consider yourself "creative types" which will hopefully either affirm or debunk a theory I've been operating under.

Would you say that you are:

a) never depressed b) sometimes depressed c) most times depressed d) nearly always depressed?

I'm sure it's not much of a surprise to most of you that I fall somewhere between c and d on that scale. There's so many things that I'm passionate about yet powerless to change, so many things that work me up and piss me off, make me cry, etc, that I am nearly always completely overwhelmed by the things I feel. Add to that mix the fact that I'm extremely empathatic to the plights of others, and you've got yourself a dangerous mix. Remember when Lloyd and Harry are sobbing on the couch to that oil company commercial? That's me more frequently than I'd like to admit.

Remember the time I passed out just reading about people who were convinced by a friend to drill a hole in his skull? That is a prime example of how the feelings of others can affect me. The account was written from the point of view of one of the drillers, and he described very well what he was going through during the process. It wasn't the hole drilling that made me sick, it was the empathy of the fear and insanity that had to be coursing through the drillers at the time, after eventually being pursuaded into doing it by the drillee.

In any case, if you (or people who care about you) would say that you're creative, where would you (or people who care about you) rate yourself on the above mood status meter? The real question here is: Do you find that you're at your most creative during times of depression or times of non-depression?

Feel free to just email me so that everyone doesn't have to see how depressed you are all the time, if that thought would.. you know, depress you.

Does anyone have any helpful tips on recording conversations via a cellphone? Heinz finally got back to me Alistair today, saying that they really need to talk to me him in person, giving me him a special reference code to get me him through the QC screeners.

I hate talking on the phone, but I really have to call them, and it would be plain irresponsible to not share it with you all as well.