Ever wonder what the Jungian perspective on Eyes Wide Shut might be? Me neither, but it's interesting anyway.

Georgia just can't stop trying to pass stupid laws. They tried to ban the word "evolution" from the classroom. Now they're trying to make genital piercings illegal, but only in women. I love the quote: "I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing." Well, duh. But I bet nobody even thought of asking for the blessing of the state legislature when they decided it was time to pierce their private parts. Ladies in the now not only have to defend their wombs from the legislature, but the surrounding territory as well. Is that Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation?

In case you're one of the few people (like me) who have Macs and use Mozilla Mail instead of Apple's Mail application, you may have encountered a strange Mozilla Mail bug: there's a preference pane that lets you pick your new mail notification sound, but it doesn't work. Aha, but it does work if you use file URL syntax (file:///Foo/Bar insead of /Foo/Bar, for example - just add file:// at the front of a regular pathname). Cool! (Try not to get too pissed off reading the bug comments and thinking about how much time would have been saved if someone would have just written the patch instead of arguing about it.)

This is even better than Windows 98 crashing during a demo by Bill Gates: Donald Rumsfeld blames the media, claiming that neither he nor the President ever used the phrase "imminent threat", and is immediately shown a quote that proves that he actually did say it.

I got a new rear wheel and new tires for my bike today. The old wheel was somewhat bent after my bike accident back in December. I don't think I mentioned that before, but I basically skidded on a wet streetcar rail, wobbled for a few feet, and half jumped off as my bike nailed a parked car right in the taillight. It was pretty expensive to fix the car (yes, I left a note and paid for the repairs, because I'm not a total jackass) and it freaked me out about the prospect of riding my bike. I've made a couple of short trips since then but I thought I was just very out of shape. Well, yes, but there was also a problem with the rear brake lightly dragging on the wheel rim in a couple of places as the wheel turned, because it was bent. Well, now that's all better, and it feels great. I don't know what I was thinking getting knobby tires, but street tires rule. It feels like I'm riding downhill. So much better. Also, damn it was hot and sunny today... I wore plenty of sunscreen but I was still all flushed and sweaty when I got home.

I hung out with some classmates on Friday after a recital that I had to attend for credit. A trio of girls mentioned that they didn't drink. Hey, that's great that you choose not to drink, and you're not missing that much anyway, I said. Later I learned that it was because they were all 18 years old. Duh.

San Francisco State University students back proposals to raise campus fees. "The referendum is a non-binding, advisory vote used to gauge student opinions about the fee proposals. The results will be taken under advisement by President Corrigan and California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, who will ultimately make the final decisions on any fee increases." But it's still a good thing. I was appalled to see that some students had put up posters denouncing President Corrigan for making students "choose which arm to cut off" - referring to the fact that there was a non-binding referendum being used to decide whether students were for or against a roughly 10% increase in the ultra-cheap $2480 annual tutition for full-time students, which could prevent major cuts in courses and services offered by the university. I'm glad they lost.

I recently joined Orkut. Check out the super cool JavaScript + CSS fade-in effect on their Terms of Service page! Simple but nifty.

Brian Kenney Fresno is a hilarious musician/comedian in the Bay Area. Check out his songs, especially ¡Bobby Salazar! and Okie Wife. Now try and get ¡Bobby Salazar! out of your head. Hah!

Firefly, which was a really cool live-action space western TV series that was on Fox for less than a season. It was written by Joss Whedon, who IMO is one of the best writers on TV. You might know his more successful series, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As usual, Firefly was too good for retardo network TV audiences, and got cancelled. (Instead we get My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé.) You can get the series on DVD, though. We have it, and it's great - with extras that were never aired, 'n stuff. But wait, there's more! A Firefly movie has been greenlighted! Sweet!

A few days ago, I got my portion of the Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation Settlement. The amount on the check: $13.86. Wow, that makes it all better. What a stunning victory for the consumer! I could almost afford to buy a CD... but I had a better idea. I donated it to the Peer-to-Peer Defense Fund.

Soda marketers didn't get rich by overestimating their customers' intelligence. They know how dumb people are. So they've created new varieties of their sodas that are "low carb", despite the fact that they already make sodas with lower carbs than the new drinks they're planning to introduce. Example: Pepsi to Introduce New Mid-Carb, Mid-Calorie Soda.