We're officially house hunting. For the past few weeks Jenny and I have been putting the wheels in motion to get our first house. We've seen a bunch so far but none of them really caught our eye as a true prospect. There was one house that we both really liked but it was right up against some high tension wires. We were both a little disturbed by that. I have no idea how long this process will take but the longer it goes on the cheaper these homes seem to get, so I guess I shouldn't rush it.

Random Quote:
A peasant to King arthur: "Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony". - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

As beautiful as it is out on the lake, fishing sucks when you wind up stranded on a boat with no motor a mile from the boat launch. To make matters worse, I was officially "skunked" having not caught a fish all day. I intended to fish the deep side of the pond first and the shallow side second, but I never made it to the shallow side. I was at the end of the deep side when the battery for my trolling motor died. Luckily I always bring an oar with me for emergencies such as this (my fishing boat is really a converted rowboat) so I wasn't completely stranded, but I never anticipated breaking down so far from the launch. Standing up in the middle of the boat, I paddled first on one side of the boat and then the other, doing my best to go in a straight line. It was taking forever. About half way back, two guys in kayaks spotted me and asked me if I needed help. I didn't want to impose so I said, "No, thanks. Enjoy your day. I'll make it." They said it would take me forever and wouldn't take no for an answer. Before I knew it I was being towed back to the bank with pure manpower. It was actually pretty amazing how fast they were able to get the boat going. At the end of the trip, I had caught no fish, but I did find some really nice people to strengthen my faith in the human race. Besides, I had two other successful fishing outings since my last blog entry so life ain't all that bad.

Random Thought: "Skits" on rap CDs only exist to mess up the random play feature of my ipod. Come on, Wyclef. Cut me some slack.

Yesterday Jenny and I went out to scope out some new marine batteries for my boat and on the way home I noticed something flying in the sky ahead. It was a B2 Stealth Bomber! You just don't expect to look up and see a Stealth Bomber flying over your town. I still have no idea why it was there, but it was pretty crazy to see. [Update: The bomber was in the area for a flyover during the National Anthem at the all-star game in Yankee Stadium. Thanks, Justin.]

Tocci Ponders: Why is "ammo" short for ammunition? Shouldn't it be "ammu"?

Links: Take two. They're small.

• Animatronic Stuffed Animal Skeletons
• Things Younger Than McCain

I saved another bird today. The story begins miserably with a rather unsuccessful attempt to go fishing from the shore. I tried two spots that were off the beaten path. At the first spot, where I had never been before, I broke one of my rods in half. The water was way too shallow there anyway, so I moved on. The second spot was a hidden pond that I haven't been to in 10 years. It's located way back in the woods behind one of my regular lakes. If I had remembered how far it was I would have worn better shoes and probably not have lugged my entire tackle box. I also forgot my hat so the biting insects in the woods had a field day on my shaved head. To add insult to injury, when I finally reached the little pond it was all overgrown with weeds, trees, and thorn bushes. I returned to my truck blistered, bitten, scraped up by thorns, and sweating profusely.

To try to salvage the trip I decided to give the main lake a few casts before leaving. I'm glad I did, because I noticed a Canadian goose across the lake flapping his wings and swimming frantically trying to stay with his flock, only he wasn't moving anywhere. I asked the two other guys near me if the goose looked stuck and they agreed, so i said, "I'm going to try to save him." The one guy asked if I was going to go swimming. "We'll see," I replied.

I went around to the other side of the lake and sure enough the poor thing was stuck, probably on some old fishing line. There were a few people over there were visibly concerned. I tied a jigging spoon with a treble hook to some 20 lb test braided line and watched to see which way the goose was tring to swim. I cast behind him and let the lure sink, then reeled it in and was able to snag the old line. I figured my braided line had to be stronger than whatever line was under the water, so I wrapped my line around the reel mount and started pulling. The old line started to give way and for a moment it appeared as if I was trying to land the goose with my fishing rod. Soon after, the tension on my rod released and the goose swam away to rejoin his flock as the people across the lake cheered. I didn't even lose the lure. :-)

Despite the miserable fishing trip, the experience with the goose made the whole trip worth it. I wish I had some pictures of these birds but there never seems to be a good time to snap a photo in these situations. I'll just have to rely on my memories, and since that's not a very safe bet I'm glad it's all written on the ol' blog.

I've never appreciated having electricity more in my life. On Tuesday evening, an electrical storm blew through our neighborhood in New Jersey and sent a major surge through our power lines. The lights went out and we immediately smelled smoke, which was coming from the power supply in my media center PC. We fired up our flashlights, listened to the radio, and burned candles all night. The next morning, some, but not all, of our power was restored. I had never seen before. Only half of our outlets worked and they seemed a little weak. I powered up the essentials like the fridge by running extension cords from the bathroom and bedroom. Finally, after two and a half days, full power resumed this morning and I was able to assess the damage. Almost everything in the house still worked except for a few missing bars on the LED display on the microwave. Oh, yeah, and my freaking main computer won't power up! It turns out the power supply on my main computer was also damaged and now shuts itself off after about a second, even though that computer was protected by a battery backup surge protector. Yeah... I have no idea either. I hope that's the extent of the problem. I'll know when the replacement power supplies arrive on Monday. Until then I've just got my little laptop to keep me sane.

Tocci Ponders: If the word horrific means full of horror or horrible, how come the word terrific doesn't mean full of terror or terrible?

In other news, my sister turned 29 in style last weekend. She gets excited about her birthday and always takes the opportunity to throw a party. Then the next day we went to a graduation party for Jenny's Uncle E, who recently graduated from mechanic school after deciding to leave his previous career as a biomechanical engineer behind. I think it's great that he can follow his passions like that and I wish him the best of luck in his new profession.

Tocci Ponders: Today the manager at a restaurant called some patrons "folks". You don't hear that particular synonym of "people" in many contexts these days, but one that comes to mind is "folk music". So my question is, if "folks" means "people", then "folk music" really means "people music"... as opposed to... "animal music"? Isn't all music folk music?

Of course, what would a blog entry be these days without some mention of bass fishing? I caught six bass last Friday, which may be a personal best. I also caught a pickerel. The most memorable part of the day, however, came early when I heard a flapping noise coming from a bush near the bank. I didn't think much of it at first but it started again. Looking closely, I saw an animal hanging upside down from a branch flapping its wings. Bats freak me out so I was reluctant to get much closer. Then I realized it was a bird. The poor thing had gotten its foot entangled in some old fishing line. I pulled the boat up on shore, cut the line with my pocketknife, and the bird flew away without injury. I'm glad I decided to hit that particular lake that day.

I had some photos and some links to post with this entry but they're on my other computer. :-( They'll have to wait.

Jenny and I have been happily married for a whole year now. Time flies. I can clearly remember standing on the beach in Hawaii saying our I do's. I made the mosaic here on the computer from a selection of our wedding photos for Jenny's anniversary card. If you put your mouse over it you can see the original. It clicks through to a large version where you can see the pictures in the individual tiles.

Tocci Ponders: If you fold a fancy piece of writing paper into a paper airplane and it flies across the room, is it still stationary?

I've been trying to get out on the boat at least once a week and so far I haven't been skunked yet. In fact, a week and a half ago I caught a 5 1/2 pound bass! That pretty much made my year. I actually got her to bite twice. The first time I barely hooked her on a senko but she put shook her softball sized head out of the water and got off. She was under a bridge by a drain pipe so I figured she was still relating to that area. I tried tempting her with other senkos after that but she wanted no part of them. Eventually I flipped in a jig and chunk trailer and got a reaction strike out of her. She couldn't throw the hook that time and before I knew it I had a monster in my hand. I was alone at the time but there was a guy fishing from land nearby so in my excitement I popped the trolling motor into high gear and dragged my anchor over to the bank. Hey, I only have two hands. He was nice enough to snap a couple photos for me with my camera. Then I let her go and she swam back to her little nook under the bridge to get even bigger.

Tocci Ponders: How does my credit card company know that I have outstanding balance? Would they know if I tipped over a lot?

This blog entry will self destruct. Go go gadget links!

• Office Worker Goes Absolutely Insane - I've heard of losing it in a stressful environment, but this is ridiculous. What amazes me most is how long it goes on without the man calming down or anyone stopping him. If this had happened in America that guy would have been jaw jacked after he threw that first monitor. Here's another angle with sound. Thanks, Jeff.
  
• Marketing IQ Test - Everyday we're inundated with advertising. Let's see how much you've retained. Thanks, Sis.
• Cubescape - Create landscapes by dropping 3-D cubes on a big grid.
• Cubecraft - Speaking of cubes, if you need some toys in a hurry and all you have is a printer, you can fold up some cute little cube characters.
• Boarding a Train in China - And I thought the New York subway got croweded. Thanks, Chris.
• Seven Innocent Gestures That Can Get You Killed Overseas

Jenny and I left last Friday for a long weekend in Keysville, Virginia at the Roselawn Bed & Breakfast, a beautiful house and property owned and operated by my Uncle Paul, Aunt Sherry, and cousin Kiara Robleto. The place is gorgeous and we had a great time outside in the country on our eventful but relaxing mini-vacation. Here are some highlights.

Prior to our arrival, the Robletos rescued three kittens which they found abandoned in the enclosure with their goats and chickens. We spent our first night hanging out on the porch playing with them. The female was already spoken for when we arrived, so she spent the whole weekend with us waiting to be picked up, but the other two needed homes so we set out for a nearby festival with a little "free kittens" sign. Within 10 minutes of getting there, we were already getting in trouble for the sign and for having pets on the premises, but we also had already found homes for both of the little boys so it didn't matter.

Tocci Ponders: During our trip, we went antique shopping and visited a gift shop or two. But what exactly is a gift shop? Any shop that sells things can be a gift shop if you think about it. By identifying the items as solely gifts they're really saying, "Here's a bunch of stuff that you don't want, but maybe you think someone else might want to throw out in a few years."

In an unexpected turn of events, my truck started making a thumping sound like all the wheels were out of balance on the way down about an hour from the B&B. It turned out that a bushing in the drive shaft went bad and the whole drive shaft had to be replaced. Luckily the only car dealer within 20 miles or so was a Ford dealer and it was a warranty repair. Unfortunately I was left without a vehicle for a couple days until I rented a ford focus (which I dubbed our "dream boat"). Paul and Sherry were having some car trouble too, so consequently we each got the chance to ride in the back of their pickup truck! I don't think a true southern experience is complete without drinking beer in the back of a moving pickup truck.

Tocci Ponders: Why do so many sentences in the South end with the word "now"? "Y'all had enough to eat now?" "You take care now." "Are these kittens free now?"

The weather was great for our entire trip. We spent a lot of time outside on the porch and playing with the local kids in the grass. On Sunday we visited Sherry's mother Marion, who lives in an even more rural area with her own private pond and four wheelers on her 40 acres of property. What a great day! I caught more bass than I could count. Jenny landed the biggest fish of the day, weighing in at about three pounds.

More photos on flickr.

The invisible link list:

We went to see WWE Monday Night Raw tonight! It was a really cool experience and Jenny and I had a lot of fun. The photo here is a shot from USA's broadcast at around the 2 hour mark, just before Triple H superplexes Randy Orton from the ropes in the WWE Championship match at the end of the episode. In the storyline, the general manager and newly crowned King of the Ring William Regal felt disrespected by the fans, so he went to the show's control room and took the broadcast off the air before the conclusion of the match, leaving the people at home hanging. Watching the show back at home on my DVR, it seemed like the match continued in the arena, but it didn't. Regal came out to the stage and announced to all of us that he was ending the match without a winner. Triple H didn't like that too much, so he went after Randy Orton anyway and gave him his finisher, the Pedigree. Then there was much rejoicing.

So many blogworthy things have happened in the past month. If I had stayed on top of my blog, they might have each received their own entries. But alas, I am not a consistent blogger, or maybe just busy... or lazy... or easily distracted. Let's just call it a combination of the aforementioned excuses.

Tocci Ponders: What does the expression "dirt cheap" really mean? Virtually anything is cheaper than dirt if you're talking about enough dirt.

A month in a nutshell:

• I installed a cargo net in my Edge. I'm not sure how the Ford engineers expected people to deal with their groceries rolling around the cargo area, but my solution involved a drill, some heavy duty picture hangers, nuts, bolts, and a Ford cargo net from the Escape. The end result looks nice, as if it came with the Edge.
• For Christmas my father got me a fish finder for my boat, so we recently did a little boat maintenance and installed it. I ordered a removable mount for the transducer, wired the unit it up with a fuse to the marine battery with some clips, and made a mount for the display. My dad helped me with some of the drilling, sealing the wood, installing a new mounting board, etc.
• We got FIOS! I got sick and tired of my unreliable Internet and cable connection from Time Warner. After some research, I determined we could get FIOS Internet, TV, and phone and save us some money each month. The phone sounds great, the TV has a more channels, and our Internet download speed is twice as fast (ten times as fast for uploads). Installation was a bit of a nightmare, and of course there are always minor annoyances (mostly with the channel guide) but overall I'm much happier with our connectivity now. The animated gif here was made from screenshots of the speed test at speakeasy.net.
• Dave's daughter Myla had her first birthday (or technically her second if you count the day she was born). She's adorable, and her parents threw her a really nice party. I challenged her little cousin to a hula hoop competition and lost. It wasn't fair though, because the hoop wasn't much bigger than my waist. (It's a little known fact that I'm a multi-time Field Day hula hooping champion from my elementary school days.) Afterwards, we visited Dave's mother Adele's new house, which was probably the nicest house I've ever seen. She lives nextdoor to some Met named Carlos who is apparently a big deal if you're a baseball fan.
• My mother came up for a visit. We did the flea market thing and for $35 I bought a nice new fishing rod and reel... or so I thought. I snapped the rod in half the first time I used it. The reel still seems really nice though.
  
• I had my boys over for a little UFC party and we watched the unstoppable George St. Pierre win his title back from Matt Serra at UFC 83. Jenny made some bangin' ribs and we had a great time watching the fights.
• I went fishing twice so far. I wish I could go every day but if I can make it out there once a week I'll be thrilled. So far the trips have been pretty successful. The first time out my father and I both had a few bites and caught a couple fish. The second time I caught six pickerel on five different lures, which was pretty amazing.
• We visited Mark and Lauren at their brand new apartment in New York City, so congratulations to them. Since it was a nice day, we walked around central park for a while and saw Stanley Tucci leaving the Central Park Zoo.

Tocci Ponders: I often hear the colorful expression "I have to pee like a racehorse", but do racehorses really have to pee any worse than other animals? Maybe that's why they run so fast. They're trying to find a bathroom.

Tocci Ponders: "Stranger" is a terrible word to describe someone you don't know. How anti-social. Way to make a judgment before meeting someone... How do you know they're stranger than you? Maybe they're just like you. But I guess calling them "maybe-just-like-me's" would take too much time.

And the month is not over quite yet. In other exciting news...

• Mario Kart for the Wii is out! I preordered mine so I'm expecting it in the mail any day now. I can't wait! It has online multi-player battle!
  
• Last but certainly not least, we're going to see WWE Raw! Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge WWE fan. Well my favorite wrestling show, Raw, is coming to our neck of the woods and my wonderful wife surprised me with tickets. I'm stoked!

Wow, I'm using a lot of exclamation points. Life must be good. :-)

Tocci Ponders: Today in the mall we saw a watch stand named "Timeless". Isn't that a bad name for a stand that sells watches? It would seem to mean they're out of inventory.

Just one link per week covered this time:

• TypeRacer - A typing game. Type as fast as you can to make your car move. Race against random people online. I just won my first race with 78 WPM. I think I can do better though if I can just avoid all the typos.
  
• Loco Citato has some really cool Internet toys. If you have a myspace page or have friends with one, check out the myspace visualizer. Thanks, Jenny.
  
• Korean baby in diapers singing Beatles songs. Thanks, 2.0.
• Cool Barcodes - Why not jazz 'em up a bit?

Recently I had to send my Wii in for a warranty repair because of a known problem with some consoles playing the new dual layer game discs. Nintendo, being a stand-up company, offered a free repair service so I took advantage of it, but not without due caution. You see, due to the nature of my site miicharacters.com, it is very important that my Wii address book and ID numbers associated with my console are not changed. Those numbers represent over a year of contacts and mii creations, and losing them would be disastrous for me. So, before sending in my Wii for service, I spoke to Nintendo's 800 support and they reassured me that those numbers would not be altered. I even taped a note to the console when I sent it in reminding them of this promise and asking them to do whatever they can to prevent those numbers from changing. Today, I got my console back and hastily opened the box. Inside was a couple sheets of paper entitled "post wii repair instructions" with a list of possible instructions depending on the nature of your repair. The one checked of for my particular case said, among other things, "Your system has a new Wii number." NOOOO!!! That sucks! Do they have any idea how much work it's going to take to get back to where I was? Didn't they see my note? Of course they did, because it's still taped to the freakin' console! I was in denial and decided to hook up my Wii to my TV before flipping out. I turned it on... and... all was well! The number hadn't changed. In fact, the only thing that changed was the system time, and that's easy to fix. Very funny, Nintendo repairs. You got me.

Random Thought: Whenever someone describes a situation as their "worst nightmare", they're really just admitting that they are terribly unimaginative while sleeping.

Here's another little story. This past Sunday we took Jenny's parents out for dim sum for their birthdays which are two days apart, and then went to Easter dinner at my Aunt Annie's house. Yeah, that's a lot of eating, but that's not the point of my story. After dinner we had some time and I had recently discovered a new Asian supermarket nearby so we decided to stop in and check it out. My dad wanted to pick up some sriracha hot sauce so we started walking past each aisle checking the hanging signs for something that said "sauces" or "spices" or something to that effect. I passed the sign you see pictured here and it made me smile. I got about one more aisle down and I giggled. Then before I was two aisles away I had turned around to take a picture.

So there I was, giggling with my camera phone in hand pointed at the sign when this older Chinese woman passed by with her shopping cart and slowed down. She looked at me, then at the sign, and then back at me like I was crazy, or stupid, or racist, or maybe a little bit of each.

"It's just so funny!" I said.
"What's funny?" she inquired.
"The sign says 'Asian foods'," I replied, expecting her to see the humor.
"So?"
"This whole place is Asian foods! So what's in this aisle?"
"Chinese things," she said in an apparent huff. "You know, it's a five thousand year old country..."
Before she could give rattle off some rehearsed history lesson for the ignorant I quicky replied, "Yes, I know. My wife is Chinese."
"Oh!" she said, apparently a little surprised and maybe a little disappointed that she couldn't lecture some random biggot. "OK"
And then she gave a half-hearted smile and walked away.

I later tracked down Jenny who was buying some pork buns and told her the story, and we both had a pretty good laugh at the photo.

Tocci Ponders: Why is it that when you're shopping for a greeting card and browsing the wall of selections you can never find the slot where the card in your hand came from? It's not like you moved since you pulled it from the wall, so the rest of its friends have to be there somewhere. Maybe there are little trap doors under each set of cards and when you're reading one some guy inside the display swaps the stack out for another one, and then laughs as you search for where it came from.

Lately a lot of my time has been spent doing freelance work for a gaming website. Much of the work revolves around a new game called Blast Works. I haven't gotten to play it yet, but it looks pretty cool from my end.

Tocci Ponders: Sending a text message via mobile phone is commonly called texting. Yes, "text" is now a noun and a verb. So what's the past tense? Texted? Text? I usually cop out and say "sent a text".

In Ford Edge news, I was not fortunate enough to get the "cargo management" rear storage solution when the dealer located a vehicle for me. (There's a $65 option to get these two wells back there that can hold useful stuff like an umbrella, bungee cords, etc.) Instead, mine came with these big black styrofoam things around the spare tire which do little more than support the rear floor and waste space. I figured I could always add the cargo management stuff later so I wasn't too concerned. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that it costs over $400 in parts to add the option after taking delivery. What a joke! So instead, I used spent part of the time that Jenny was away on business to turn our kitchen into an aftermarket car shop and make my own solution by cutting away some of the honeycomb structure of the styrofoam inserts. I got the idea from a post on a ford edge forum, and I must say it was a brilliant. It came out great!

WrestleMania is this weekend so if you're a wrestling fan make your predictions at WrestlingOracle before it's too late!

Link addiction is a dangerous thing. It all starts with just one link. Then you just have to have another... and another...

• Awareness Test - This thing blew my mind. Thanks, Forrest.
  
• Cooking with Coolio - In case you were wondering what the man who sings Gangsta's Paradise was doing these days. You just can't make this stuff up. Thanks, Nong.
• Dice Stacking - This is probably the product of some imaginative kid who got Yahtzee for his birthday instead of a video game console.
• Partial Face Transplants - Some of these pics are crazy!

I got a Ford Edge! The lease on my Chevy Equinox expired so it was time to choose a new vehicle. I was considering the Nissan Murano, but in the end I felt the Edge was more my style. I just couldn't picture pulling my fishing boat behind a Murano. So far I'm really pleased with my decision. The Edge is beautiful, handles nicely, and has some really cool toys inside. Actually I got kind of lucky as far as the toys go, as I didn't list most of them among the options I had chosen originally. The way it works with a new car lease is that the dealer tries to sell you something from their stock, but if they don't have a match they try to find it in another dealer's stock. The closest match to the specs I wanted (in the right color, with a trailer hitch, etc.) also included an upgraded stereo and Microsoft Sync, which allows me to talk to my car and appear crazy to other drivers on the road. It's taking some getting used to, but it's a lot of fun. Suddenly working from home is a disadvantage. Now I have to creatively come up with places to go just to spend more time behind the wheel.

Tocci Ponders: Why do they call cars with all of the available options "Limited"? And no, I'm not buying the fact that they're only making a certain number of them. It's not as if they make an infinite number of the version with roll-up windows and no air conditioning.

Announcing the new and improved WrestlingOracle.com! I finally paid some much needed attention to my wrestling website and rebuilt it from the ground up with a sleek new look, just in time for WrestleMania. The site was very old, dated, and in desperate need of an overhaul. It was a perfect candidate to put my new php/xhtml web components through their paces. Predicting match results is still the focus of the site, but I added a host of new features including the ability to view past performances of the competitors and choose a match you are most sure of as "your lock" for a chance to win a bonus point. Even with all the customizations and new features I added, it only took about a week or two to complete, so I'm really happy with the way my components are paying dividends. Plus, the new site is ridiculously faster, which is always a nice bonus. If you're a wrestling fan, head over and check it out.

With all this big news, that things I would normally blog about are taking a backseat, but they're still definitely worth a mentioning. My best friend Chris got a new puppy - a French bulldog named Brie. She's about as big as a softball and as cute as can be. Why am I rhyming like Dr. Seuss all of the sudden?

Also my cousin Danielle and her boyfriend Tim are up from Georgia for their college spring break on a New York City sightseeing trip. It's funny how Jenny and I take things like the skyline for granted after living here for so long, but when we see them in awe over it it brings some of the majesty back.

Tocci Ponders: Why do the contestants who get kicked off of American Idol have to sing? Their performance got the fewest votes out of all the contestants. It's as if they're saying, "America, we know you hated this song the first time, so we're bringing it back so you can sit through it again. Only this time, she'll be crying and completely jaded while singing it."

[singing] I like to link on the edge-uh:

• Jackie Moon's Old Spice commercials - Will Ferrell could read the phone book and make it sound hilarious. "Did you know that sweat is caused by millions of tiny sweat glands droppin' a deuce?" Thanks, 2.0.
  
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. broke the Big Show's nose at the last WWE Pay-Per-View. I'm pretty sure it was only half scripted.
• Internet Commenter Business Meeting - This is what would happen if people in meetings talked like people in forums. And check out the Sequel. Thanks, Jeff.
  
• Speaking of sequels, I wasn't aware there was a sequel to the David Blaine Youtube Edition video. It's just as funny as the first one. Thanks, 2.0.
  

I decided to be a part of it and vote in the primary elections yesterday. I'm starting to feel slightly disenfranchised though, because I did the math and my vote in NJ was worth 0.008% of one delegate, after rounding up. However, there are 796 so-called "superdelegates" who are not pledged to vote for a candidate based on the popular vote, but free to vote for whoever they want. That means each of them has a vote that counts ten million times more than my vote. Ten freakin' million! I don't care if you invented politics. Nobody should have that much power. We have the ability to count every vote these days. Can't we get rid of delegates and the electoral college yet?

A Joke by Tocci:
Yo mama is so stupid, when her cardiologist told her she had acute angina she blushed and crossed her legs.

In other news, my monitor finally did arrive almost three weeks after I ordered it. It looks awesome, but it has its issues though. There's a built in USB hub but the genius who designed it hooked it up to the power switch of the monitor. So shen you turn off your monitor, all the attached USB devices get disconnected and you get the cocophony of "Da-dunk" noises that windows makes when you unplug a USB device. Needless to say I disconnected the USB cable from the monitor. I didn't need that feature anyway. It also has a really cool picture-in-picture feature, but it doesn't work with the two primary inputs - DVI and VGA. I thought I'd be able to get the output from two computers on the screen at once, but no such luck. Oh well. If the screen wasn't knock-your-socks-off awesome I'd be disappointed.

Tocci Ponders: Why don't people who say things tongue-in-cheek learn to enunciate? It's so hard to understand them when they talk like that.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, the start of the year of the rat. I guess they ran out of cool animals. I wonder if they gave a year to the dragon before or after the rat. Which was more deserving, an imaginary animal or vermin?

Tocci Ponders: Why does the Discovery Kids channel have programming on at 4AM? Go to sleep, kid. It's a school night!

I smell links:

• Sara Silverman is F*&kin' Matt Damon
• The guy who turned his wii into the computer from Minority Report has been busy. He's come up with all kinds of awesome uses for his Wii including a 3-D Virtual Reality interface. Geeks rule. Give that guy some delegate votes.
  
• Graffiti Wallpaper - I needed some new wallpapers to fit my widescreen monitor and came across this nice collection. I'm using this one now.
  
• Crazy paper art
• Shift - Cool puzzle platform game with a twist. It's artsy, bloody, and using the shift key is super cool.
• BedJump.com - Where else would you get pictures of people in mid air jumping on beds?