The light up alligator makes me think about my ex-boss's (from two different jobs) new company, Animated Lighting.

[link]

They have some cool stuff, but it doesn't come cheap.

Improvements also has a light-up praying mantis. If it was only 30 feet high, I'd definitely buy it.

Sorry about the frustration Allyson, although I have to admit to being a little freaked out about paying eight bucks for a hamburger.

Seriously? I mean, most places I go, a burger comes with fries, a little more for a salad. That seems totally reasonable to me.

When you guys hear the term "digital divide" who are you seeing on either side of the rift? Other than, obviously, those all up in technology and those who aren't? Who are the haves and who are the have-nots?

I don't see as racial more than finances and education. In Canada, there's been a lot of talk about the divide between urban and rural access to the internet, where remote and sparsely populated areas don't have the access to as many options or high speed options at all.

Seriously? I mean, most places I go, a burger comes with fries, a little more for a salad. That seems totally reasonable to me.

I was thinking just the burger. Still, it usually is around $6 with fries at a sit-down place.

Six bucks in Gud-land translates pretty favorably to eight in Allyson-land, I'd say. And for a celebratory (or whatever it was) lunch? People need to get over themselves.

I hate my thesis. FYI.

Jesse -- I still hate my thesis! And I agree -- $8.00 for a celebratory meal is not that much.

The headline of this story is a little misleading, and got me waaaay too excited: "Coming soon to a pocket near you: the pink quarter" [link]

Sure! Right after Gudanov builds me a play pirate ship for my backyard!

Well if you sort of made a ladder frame for the floor of the middle, forming the base. Then you could run some 2x4's angled upward from the ends of the base, then run 2x4's from lengthwise from the top of the angled ones (you'd have to support with yet more 2x4's from the base). Then you could string some 2x4's between the angled ones and another set off two sets of the support. Those last ones could form a place to put some 3/4 inch playwood that would support weight. Put a 4x4 post in the middle (you could use a concrete deck block to anchor it and use some scrap wood to screw it to the ladder frame) to have a mast. Then just box in the sides with plywood and paint. Yeah you could have a play pirate ship that wasn't too complicated to build. It wouldn't look perfect, but not too bad. My only concern would be making the two ends strong enough to support weight on the fore and aft decks. Maybe some well placed thick lag screws would do it.

Whoot! No offense, Hec, but today's wait for the momentous meeting with the boss was a lot more fun than yesterday's.

Yeah, I need to try that whole "I quit!" thing some day.

Go, shrift, go! I imagine you emerging from your utility closet in the sub-basement, turning the large valve that says "Danger - Do Not Touch!" and listening to a rusty creak shudder through the pipes and nothing else occurring. Then you point an admonishing finger at the server room and all the servers look alert and attentive and a little scared. Then you exit through a secret series of access tunnels known only to the smokers in your firm, hop in your car and drive away without a backwards glance.

I don't know enough about black America to know if/why, when adjusted for income and education, internet usage would be less.

Yes, it is. Weird. Apparantly that's changing (but I haven't read the article).