I suppose I should write something. It has been a week or so, and I'm not dead, so I really have no excuse. I mean, sure, I've been spending all my time doing... well, Things, but we have the internet in our house now. I could type meaningful thoughs over cereal every morning, but I don't.

I do find myself spending more time than ever in computer labs, though. Like today, for instance. I'm drawing up a flyer design for the radio station (which I probably could have done at home too) in some bustling lab on the fourth floor of the design building. I actually finished the design half an hour ago. I am waiting for it to print. Forty other people in the computer lab are waiting for their documents to print; pretty much everyone, really, except the two girls next to me busy cheating on some web-administered quiz. There is tension in the air.

A box just popped up on my computer screen reading 'print error.' Now come 'cover pa sou' and finally 'print error.' Now I must go find my pa sou and cover it somehow. I will cover it with the shirt on my back if I must, but success shall be mine.

How did I miss this? Funny, without the Internet at home I'm somehow more cut off from civilization then when amidst the jagged peaks of western South Dakota. Maybe I need a carrier pigeon. I hear they are fun to train.

Hi!
The house is almost ready for civilized society, and all that needs to be done is the sending of cards with the new address. Physical cards, the ones that go in the mail, of course, because we don't have "teh intar-web" at the house which also needs a name. How does one name a house? How did the name of the Zoop House come about? I will meditate on this.

(Note to self: apparently the Surfboard 5100 is the modem to score for later. Informed.)

Not much happening except for the Fair, which is an event very much like every other fair ever held in the midwest. Lots of fried food (peppers, onions, oysters, sandwiches), mullets (I counted 209), novel excuses for commercial art (cow made of buttah), expensive rides (US$30 to be launched out of a giant slingshot) and other exciting delights. The Iowa state fair is a good time, but I'm not sure I would ever want to go again.

I'm glad to hear that people are still entertained by simple things in this town. For a long time, I've been afraid that it was just me.

(Picture taken from Ames Tribune Online.)

~

Geek-out time:
We're still working on getting the Intar-web at home, so I'm typing this from a computer lab on the university campus. A different computer lab this time, though, one that uses the Macintosh Operating System, version 10.2.1. I think I'm ready to come over to the side of good and use my powers to help people now, because this stuff is spiffy. All of the terminal functions connect to the campus mainframe instead of the local host, which means that all I have to do is click the little "iTerm" button and I have an entire supercomputer at my disposal. Well... I suppose not at just my disposal; it looks like I'm sharing it with four other people right now. Even so, this must be the neatest lab computer ever.

I guess I have to amend my computer recommendation: if you have a mainframe in your living room (I hear they make great coffee tables), you should go buy a Mac. Everyone else will still be fine with a Shuttle XPC tucked in the breadbox.

The drive back to Iowa yesterday--oh, I'm back in Ames for good, by the way--but the drive back to Iowa was about the most interesting ten hours I've ever spent alone. The Sioux Falls school board member who appeared on the South Dakota Forum, I think his name was Risty... I don't think he was crazy. I think it was for some other reason he kept chanting "cross my doorstep" over and over whenever callers questioned his positions. (RealAudio)

The radio shows for the afternoon just got better from there, which helped make the ten-hour trip quite bearable. Well, the stunt pilots who kept buzzine me helped too, I suppose. Oh, plus that giant-tire truck. And the NPR-affiliate DJ who played some very good songs by Senior Coconut and Metric and so forth.

Hopefully I will be able to find a working scanner on campus and scan in some pictures for your entertainment. I can't say I've been able to hit any presidents lately, which hurts my options, but I might be able to come up with something good.

~

Postscript: Travels with Tom. Hnghh? Thanks, New York Times.

So the neat thing about a democracy is that absolutely anyone can run for President:

Luke's enthusiasm inadvertently inspires his students to try to make him a candidate for President. A surprise campaign rally pressures him to fly to Iowa and to learn more about the Iowa caucus system-the first step in becoming President. The folks in Iowa teach him how he could defeat President Bush, with a last-minute announcement. But can he win as a 33-year-old candidate, when the Constitution seems to make him ineligible to run for President of the United States?

Crazy, or just vain? Discuss.

~

On an unrelated note: until Saturday, I hadn't realized how much caulking fumes can mess you up. It's a wonder that I haven't seen any caulking guns at raves before...