Random Thoughts and Sickness Update

I think I'm almost well again. It's actually impressive how fast this illness came and went. Usually I spend a couple of days in each phase... a couple of days with a sore throat, a couple of days with no voice, a week or so with the sneezing and congestion, a day of fever, then the slow climb to normal health. I think I had maybe two hours of fever... it's like the thing was on fast-forward.

Anyway. I got a little walking in today. As you all know and are no doubt sick of reading about, I'm doing the Seattle Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk as well as The Race For The Cure which is this Saturday. Time flies.

In any case, my total needed for the 3-Day is down to $457, which amazes me. I could almost swing that myself on the installment plan, if I had to. I still only have two entries for my Breast Cancer Benefit Drawing. Hey, some of the prizes are really neat. And everything will have a cover value of at least $15, as well. Consider donating.

From Elayne: What's the Time?

Neil Gaiman's Helpful Signing Rules. I try to follow similar rules when I go to cons... though I've been going more for sketches lately than for signings, which throws me off a bit.

Greg of Dorothy wants to know, should he censor his book to make it more general audience friendly? I've already given my answer.

Speaking of Dorothy, Garrett wants us to look inside a tornado. Requires Flash, but man, it's worth it. Stormchasers are nuts.

Science Fiction comes closer to reality with a cone of silence.

"It's not me!" says the leading suspect for the position of The Piano Man.

Deep Throat = Mark Felt, blah blah blah.

It's pathetic that Westminster Abbey feels the need to correct the factual mistakes in "The Da Vinci Code" in a handout. IT'S FICTION, people. Sheesh. It wasn't even remarkably good fiction. Just ok. Yes, the connections were clever... but they were also fudged to look even cleverer.

People have figured out how to put video game objects into regular photos and make them look frighteningly real.

Ask Yahoo tackles four leaf clovers. I used to be able to find them easily. And I discovered a neat fact... they almost always come in pairs.

Here's a horrible and true story about the dangers of canned air. I never would have believed it myself, but apparently kids really are that stupid. Hopefully this tragic story will get out enough to save other kids from the same death.

Apparently it's illegal to take a picture of a cop stuck in the mud. Or maybe not, since the cop is being sued.

Guess what person made this huge vocabulary blunder: "...people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth." No. It means to "take apart". The word this guy is looking for is "dissemble". Perhaps this guy should stick to small words if he can't figure out how to pronounce the big ones.

Speaking of Shrubya, he tries again to take away our rights.

Nader calls for impeachment. Yeah, right. Republicans only impeach people for lying about sex, not for lying to start a war.