Well with all the elephants around, at least the mice in our houses will serve us a useful purpose

Jere, you had problems with Bears going through your trash?

Big game 'could roam US plains'

Talking about Livestrong bracelets... I bought one last July through someone on my Ultimate team. They were still unknown at that point and it only cost me one dollar (they are up to $5 now, I guess they realized people would pay more for them). Well, I found it again about a week ago and had it sitting on the floor in my room. My cat found it this morning, started playing with it, and tore it to shreds...

for those of you who saw my lightsaber many wednesdays ago at chili's, and were potentially interested in obtaining one of these fabled weapons. currently only darth vader's (red) and anakin's (blue) are available, but in october I beleive mace windu's (purple) and luke's (green) will come onto the market. sweet

Hey people, when I'm down in mexico I'm swinging by a school for abused children down there to drop off some donations and stuff down there. I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to make a donation or something, like 5 bucks. Give me a shout tonight at chilis if you're able to

I'm not sure how to describe it. My feeling is that they have become more of a statement of the wearer's awareness than a means to bring awareness to an issue. They give me the same morally cornered feeling that the "Support our troops" ribbons give me: it's a demand that you can't refuse without being an asshole. The wristbands, to me, are an in-your-face challenge to "be aware" or "ask me why I'm wearing the wristband, so I can tell you the whole reason you're a dick for not having one." I guess the implied moral superiority for buying a $5 (or less? I'm not sure how much they are) wristband bothers me.

I don't think that there aren't causes that need 'awareness'. By all means, there's a lot of issues that we should care about more than Madonna falling off a horse (if you have to ask about that one, it's probably for the best.) It just seems like the wristbands are about 'awareness of awareness', or some other roundabout self-satisfying nonsense, rather than something meaningful.

It's funny, though, because Scott Kurtz (the creator of PVPOnline) has gotten flak for his parody of the wristbands. The argument goes that his joke cheapens all the other wristbands out there. Were I in a particularly snide mood, I'd suggest that we need wristbands to raise awareness for the proper function of awareness wristbands. It's a good thing I'm not feeling that snide.

Word of the Day for Wednesday August 17, 2005

dilatory DIL-uh-tor-ee, adjective:
1. Tending to put off what ought to be done at once; given to
procrastination.
2. Marked by procrastination or delay; intended to cause
delay; -- said of actions or measures.

What is your philosophical problem with them?

I have a philosophical problem with so-called Awareness Bracelets in general (not that that should or will stop anyone from wearing them), but this PVP one may become an instant (geek) classic:

Support The Pwned:

Are you tired of having to connect to European flights through other cities? If so, Edmonton Economic Development Corp. (EEDC), Edmonton Airports and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce need your help.

Ok, it's a survey. But I can think of a few people here who have flown to Europe in the past five years or plan on it in the next 12 months.