I did my good deed for the year. I primarily saved some big faceless credit card company some money, but I did save some poor schlub some hassle, and I have learned from a wise man, the quest to be hassle-free is divine.

Well I was out on my habitual morning walk. After having fended of a psudo-attack from a stupid dog, I spotted a Discover card on the ground. I scooped it up, and when I got home called Discover and told them I found someone else’s card. The Discover employee was not quite flabergasted, but he was surprised. So I destroyed the card and Discover will be contacting their cardholder.

You’re welcome Mr. Slacum.

Anyone want to spot me around 250k ?

Anyone who travels route 1 into Jersey, has been welcomed for years by the boastful sign that says

“Trenton Makes The World Takes”

Apparently Trenton has given up on the making, and the taking has reached the point of taking the sign. I guess they can change their motto to “we get flooded often.”

It has long been an article of our folklore that too much knowledge or skill, or especially consummate expertise, is a bad thing. It dehumanizes those who achieve it, and makes difficult their commerce with just plain folks, in whom good old common sense has not been obliterated by mere book learning or fancy notions. This popular delusion flourishes now more than ever, for we are all infected with it in the schools, where educationists have elevated it from folklore to Article of Belief. It enhances their self-esteem and lightens their labors by providing theoretical justification for deciding that appreciation, or even simple awareness, is more to be prized than knowledge, and relating (to self and others), more than skill, in which minimum competence will be quite enough. — The Underground Grammarian

I wonder if this observation is generally true. And what cultures it applies to.

This just in: With my brother’s away message archive more or less offline while he resettles himself to the east coast there are reports of rampant productivity throughout the area. One person said, “It’s like, I realized, I don’t have some website to check every 15 minutes for some wild observation or witty reaction to something that doesn’t really effect me.”

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

jackhammers are loud.

Diet Coke with Splenda is far superior to regular Diet Coke, at least for a non diet coke drinker like me. If you already like that bitter after taste then you won’t like splenda diet coke, cause it ain’t there.

how to focus without my ipod? And I don’t seem able to get my classical stream.

A sad state of affairs. Schneier on Security: REAL ID

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away….” — Robert Heinlen (The Notebooks of Lazarus Long)

Was a good friend of mine I never understood a single word he said But I helped him a-drink his wine And he always had some mighty fine wine

• 3 Dog Night