Everything Decays

The other day, as I was driving down the freeway, I saw a hubcap go flying across the road. I hoped that it wasn't mine, but, of course, it was. This marks the fourth time my car has lost a hubcap. I'm not sure if it's the same one every time or not, but it seems like they're not on all that securely.

While on the subject of things going wrong, my phone battery died yesterday. It turned out that it could be fixed simply by charging it again, but I was afraid it was totally broken. After all, the battery was pretty full earlier in the day. Something similar had happened to Beth last week, though, so maybe it's some kind of glitch in the batteries. I don't know. I just hope it doesn't happen again. Maybe I should look into getting a car charger.

The good news is that, yesterday, bethje and I ate at Friday's, in honor of her birthday. That was pretty tasty. We should be going out again for mine in the near future.

I also need to use that car wash that they gave me a coupon for when I got my oil changed. I wonder if I should do that before or after getting a new hubcap.

Meet John Linnell, England's famous painter

Just in case there's still anyone out there who wants a Gmail account and doesn't have one yet, I have some invitations I can give out. Let me know if you're interested.

Speaking of Gmail, you know how they scan your messages for keywords to find out what advertisements to give you? Well, a message saying something about John Linnell of They Might Be Giants was accompanied by an ad involving John Linnell, the nineteenth century painter. I found that pretty amusing.

Also on the subject of fun with names, Bush's nominee for Secretary of Education is named Margaret Spellings. There's certainly room for a lot of punnery there.

Hmm, Sears and Kmart merged? Weird.

I can't hide from my MindMap

I almost forgot that I saw one of these MindMap things on some stranger's journal, and decided to get one for myself. I'm not totally sure what it's all about, or why it takes so long for the guy to make them, but here it is.

( Click here to view my MindMap. )

By the way, I wouldn't mind having a copy of The Merry Mountaineer of Oz, the new book from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends. I didn't think the author's last effort, The Tired Tailor of Oz, was as great as I might have hoped, since Lin Carter was a professional author and all. It was still good enough to make me want to take a chance on more of his Oz stories, though.