…’cause dictators don’t get all their kicks from oppressing and killing people. Dictators are people too!

via boing boing

Learned during a trip to Italy: Italians really do say “mamma mia!”

whew…just watching this puts me at the edge of my seat.

via bloglogic

gotta love the giant machine-gun-ball!

via bloglogic

As I stood in line at a local restaurant the other day, holding my coupon in my hand, it suddenly occurred to me that I was being used.

Let me backtrack. I received a special offer for the restaurant by email. The coupon that I printed out had a special code to make sure I couldn’t use it more than once. Maybe it identified me by email address or serial number or something.

As I stood in line, I realized that when the cashier scanned my coupon, presumably the cash register would contact some central database, look up my coupon code to identify me, and decide whether or not to approve my coupon. So really, all I was was a conduit or messenger for one machine to transmit a message to another machine.

It’s a bit primitive and inefficient, if you think about it. If the machines are going to take over the world, they need to come up with a better plan. But then again, they managed to get me to act as a messenger and deliver their message. Maybe it’s already too late…

i’ve chanced on to two great sources of stories lately. The new web site Chokeville promises “sundry tales of awesome adventure,” and so far, it’s living up to that promise.

I also happened to be reading Little, Big, by John Crowley. Wow…I mean, wow. It’s like reading Alice in Wonderland as reimagined by Haruki Murakami channeling Italo Calvino.

waa…just give me the @#*&@ ice cream!

via boingboing

…lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it. you can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and further in the endless quest for company but no one’s in your head, and by the time you translate your thoughts some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept. perhaps in the interest of loving oneself. perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school’s groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. ’cause if you’re happy in your head then solitude is blessed and alone is ok…

via zefrank