Chopstork

Drinks with sparklers Rock! New Years 12/31/2004, Tokyo, Japan. See more Japan photo’s.

“A third objection is that Easter Islanders surely wouldn’t have been so foolish as to cut down all their trees, when the consequences would have been so obvious to them. As Catherine Orliac expressed it, “Why destroy a forest that one needs for his [i.e., the Easter Islanders’] material and spiritual survival?” This is indeed a key question, one that has nagged not only Catherine Orliac but also my University of California students, me, and everyone else who has wondered about self-inflicted environmental damage. I have often asked myself, “What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?” Like modern loggers, did he shout “Jobs, not trees!”? Or: “Technology will sove our problems, never fear, we’ll find a substitute for wood”? Or: “We don’t have proof that there aren’t palms somewhere else on Easter, we need more research, your proposed ban on logging is premature and driven by fear-mongering”? Similar questions arise for every society that has inadvertently damaged its environment. … there is a whole series of reasons why societies nevertheless do make such mistakes.”

—Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

I think I’m giving up high fiving. At the last grade school party, I discovered Armen’s hand is tough. I missed and jammed my thumb. He laughed. I woke up this morning with a bruised hand again, from last night’s party. The cool thing though is it’s really easy to ice it when you bruise your palm, cuz you just hold the ice.

My fingers are also raw from tying all those balloons that I hid in people’s beds and toilets. I can’t believe it didn’t cross my mind to sing 99 Luftballons to Sven all night, it being his house warming and him being German.

Oral Health America gives the country a C for dental health. Among the reasons: “Fluoridation of public water supplies is still below desirable levels in many states.” One of these states is California. That got me to thinking… all I drink during the week is water from the office water cooler, which is most likely not fluoridated (ADA bottled water info). If all you consume is bottled water, you might not be getting your healthy dose of fluoride. And people think bottled water is better for you.

Drink tap water? If you’re in Sunnyvale, too bad they don’t yet have fluoridated water. Surprising. Santa Clara doesn’t either. According to the Sunnyvale water supply page some of the water (provided by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) ) will start to be fluoridated in Semptember. Meanwhile, SFPUC has been fluoridating north of Redwood City for 50 years. Ha ha. …oh wait, I lived in Sunnyvale for two years.

Now, it is an interesting fact that Anchor brewery in San Francisco uses city water to make their beer. (They tell you that on their tour, which is awesome because you get free beer.) Instead of drinking bottled water, or tap water down south, you should be drinking beer. And I should be allowed to drink beer at work. It’s for the good of our teeth*.

*I am not a dentist; I don’t really know.

Folks, I have determined with out a doubt that comcast technicians that have southern accents have absolutely no idea what the Internet actually is. After spending 45 minutes on the phone listening to the low bit rate waiting music I got a hold of the technician. She asked me for my name and address and I politely gave her the information. She asked me what the nature of my problem was and I told her that my Internet connection was not working and I needed to have it fixed ASAP. She walked me through a couple standard steps - make sure the little lights are blinking on the modem, make sure your Ethernet cable is plugged into the modem, make sure your cable is actually working… Then the most amazing and insightful thing I have ever heard from a trained Internet technician was uttered, and I quote: “It looks like your high speed internet connection may not be working. Please open up your Internet Explorer window and go to comcast.net to file a trouble ticket” So to summarize, I spent over an hour of my cell phone rollover minutes and valuable time to find out that the assumption I made with regard to my internet connection was in fact correct. Brilliant! I miss the days of the telegraph. (sigh)

—Vonbadass

Dah dada daaaah! (those were trumpets). After almost twenty years, Apple finally came out with a two button mouse … er, well, it’s not a one button mouse, at least. Check out the Mighty Mouse.