Tom Cruise scares me. I know this is more of a reaction than I should have to a movie star, but he does. His sincerity is so...sincere. And there is just so much force behind everything, like this is going to be the handshake where everyone strips naked and pledges their eternal servitude to him. Nothing is casual. "No one has a house that big!" [in order to hang a certificate of Irishness] "I do..." whispers Cruise in a voice that's technically quiet, but blows the top off sotto voce and blasts every consciousness. I'm kinda glad my Graham Norton recording was interrupted.

Apparently Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank House and wrote in the guest book, "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a believer."

Not Belieber?

Hey, people who are up to date in British schools--when did "college" become a term for sixth form? I don't know how I could have managed 6 years of schooling (two of which in sixth form) and not be aware of it, so I'm trying to see if I was clueless, or this is a relatively recent term.

"We use sex to communicate more than any other medium," sez Larry Flynt.

Uh, no?

You're right, it was "belieber."

A headhunting firm whose emails I get is having a twitter contest -- most retweets wins. Is it just me, or is that TERRIBLE? I would be so pissed if my friends started retweeting these people incessantly.

You're right, it was "belieber."

So that's gross, but less offensive.

Most retweets really only has short term value for the company concerned--I'm going to be put off them, especially if this is how I hear of them.

Hmm. Twenty past eleven. I think this is a decent time to call the nurse. She's enough late for "between ten and eleven", right?

The Bieber thing is just so ridiculous. Some on my twitter feed are blaming it on him being 19. I read Anne Frank in high school or jr high and I was fucking DONE. Emotionally fucked up for months. Read holocaust texts for months later. Went through a whole "human beings are terrible" phase, reading about worldwide atrocities and shit.

Granted, I was kind of intense as a teenager. But there is no fucking way I would have written bullshit like that at age 14 much less 19.

I have been highly amused at the twitter response. One person expressed regret that Gandhi wasn't alive to read his tech columns. Another made up fake quotes from Bieber like: Usher would have discovered Malcolm if he had lived.

I planted begonias and geraniums in the hanging plants out front. Alas, still no vacuum belts. That has to be remedied by next weekend.

Also got to chase the escape artist known as Pumpkin down the block. Damn, she's fast.