Lying about books is a skill

Tor.com provides this useful guide for lying about books that you've read. They concentrate on scifi books, so using this hopefully I can pretend that I've read any number of Ursula Le Guin books next time I hang out with Sam and this subject (inevitably) comes up.

"Rule #5: Remember Titus Alone:
Sometimes your only recourse is to out-lit-nerd your opponent, to bring up something they haven’t read. For this, there’s no better ammunition than the third book of the Gormenghast series. Why? Because no one has ever read it. Not even Mervyn Peake himself. He wrote it while drunk in the late 1950s and couldn’t remember a word. His editor supposedly cut big parts of it, but the truth is he just didn’t read it. They printed it anyway since there was a paper surplus that year. The person who wrote the wikipedia page is guessing."

Some updates: graduating, bowling, and confused

Thought I would post some updates to the theme of some random photos I had on my phone (you should give this a try with your photos).



First, I'm finishing up my degree at the University of Washington in a couple weeks. This is an Information Management degree, which could put me on a couple different career paths. I'm still pretty open to what I will do (haven't gotten a job yet) but I know it will have something to do with information technology and business (not very descriptive, I know).



Second, I went bowling and managed to get a 140. Wtf is that, after all those times bowling before and barely getting a 100. Maybe this is something I should look into.



Finally, the Wallingford liquor store in Seattle is now a "Less Talk, More Monkey" (aka, Archie McPhee's?) store. Don't go there, unless you want to be confused and sober.

Well, those are my phone photos I've taken this week... what has everyone else been up to?

Ghoste Towne

What the shit happened to everyone? Is everyone so busy with their school and careers that they neglect to post on Browne Towne? Whatever happened to Joe Kelly?

Gallup finds out what "gadgets" Americans are using

In a pretty interesting poll, Gallup looked at what types of electronic devices are being used by different demographics in the United States. For example: 88% of respondents had a VCR, while only 83% had a DVD player.

What stood out was this quote:

A majority of Americans under age 50 say they have a video game system. This compares with just 18% of 50- to 64-year-olds and only 6% of those aged 65 and older.

"ONLY" six percent?? Who are these tens of thousands of seniors playing some Grand Theft Auto?

Mini-reactors!? that's awesome....!

So apparently, a company called Hyperion Power Generation (HPG) is marketing small reactors (only 1.5 m across) that can power up to 20,000 homes at a cost of only $25 million. That's a steal. Anyway, they sound pretty confident their "Hyperion Power Modules" are fool proof. These power modules will be safe underground and guarded, according to their website. I'm sure someone will manage to screw something up somehow though.