Forget the militia, we’ve got a well armed, angst-ridden, trained teenage fighting force.

From Harper’s Index for May 2005:

Number of merit badges in Safety awarded to Boy Scouts since 2001 : 15,417
Number in Shotgun Shooting : 65,249

Living in the liberal center of the country for three years, which is actually as far left on the map as you can get without falling into the ocean, I saw my fair share of cultural tolerances. These mismashes of lifestyles and choices and whatever other words are “coined” to describe human nature were always interesting and I believe are a part of the great dichotomy of ideas in the Bay Area.

Austin has a similar environment on a much smaller scale, but I still had to laugh at the stereotypical opposition of this weekend’s major events:

The ROT Harley Davidson Rally (some 40,000 motorcycles)
and
The annual Texas Gay Pride Parade

Someone in the scheduling office has a sense of humor.

The things the internet allows you to do! And then there are the things that it shouldn’t.

Stopped by Best Buy this morning to pick up the new DMB cd (not convinced about the new producer yet) and made sure to park in the middle of the parking lot, away from any other cars, which was fairly easy due to the store only being open for 4 minutes. On the way out of the store, I look up from opening my new cd and notice a beat up old tahoe entering the parking lot….turning onto the same row….pulling in immediately next to my sparkling, aura-surrounded truck. “You better not….” I muttered under my breath. As I was walking around the front of my truck, the lady exiting the driver seat opens the door with careless disregard and it slowly swung open, easing pass the first notch and finally tapping my truck door.

That’s right, I got to witness my truck’s first door ding. Baby’s all grown up now. Thankfully there is no visual scar, but what conceivable thought could have been going through that woman’s head, when the parking lot is all but empty and she decides to park directly next to the newest car in the parking lot!

My new tacoma finally came in today. Long story short, my 1996 cavalier blew up, I rented a car, borrowed a dealership truck, and (two weeks to the day) I now have the truck I have wanted for the last 3 years.

• It’s blue.
• It won’t let me lock my keys inside in the ignition.
• It has a 110V outlet in the bed.
• I could open our garage from the rear view mirror if our opener hadn’t been exchanged in a previous auto deal gone awry.
• The compass said SW when I was facing North at the dealership, but has since decided to be true, although I haven’t yet checked the declination.
• The passenger side airbag only turns on if you weigh more than 60 lbs, which should be just about everyone that rides on that side.
• The CD player looks like it’s going to be a pain to replace with a bumpin’ aftermarket deck, so that might have to wait a while.
• Miles of clearance and an off-road package, for all of that off-roading I do on my way to work.
• Alarm. Don’t even think about taking my baby for a joyride!

First impressions are great of the vehicle, Toyota did a very good job with the redesign. I’m sure I’ll figure out what I don’t like soon, but for now you’ll see me driving around with a nice big grin on my face.

If you learn nothing else about tomorrow’s celebrations, remember this: always save. You would be reading a charmingly sarcastic write-up about my tv habits and the new stephen colbert show (chock full of links) but I forgot to save. Then I closed the window, and didn’t save. So now you get to read a short little blurb about cinco de mayo instead. Don’t you wish I had saved?

Succintly, Cinco de Mayo, as near as I can interperet it, is really a American holiday. It was popularized by students in California in the 1960’s as a way to celebrate Mexican heritage. The hero of the battle of Puebla is Ignacio Zaragoza, who was actually from Goliad, Texas (okay, it was a Mexican province then). It celebrates a battle won, but a war that would ultimately be lost to the French and result in occupation for several years. That is, until the United States finished our own Civil War and began providing the needed arms to overturn the French government. Oh, and most people in America think that the 5th is Mexican Independence Day, which actually doesn’t fall on the calendar until September 16th. To top it all off, the day is observed in Mexico but doesn’t warrant business closure or school release.

So as you dip your chips and take your shot of Jose tomorrow, you now know the full story (well, if you linked to the wikipedia entry you do, otherwised it’s a mildly sardonic viewpoint) of Cinco de Mayo. Ol

Move forward one hour. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. A thank you must go out to our federal government for this time change which in all practicality does nothing except shift our collective behaviors.

You might think, due to inactivity at the site here, that nothing exciting has happened in the last week. You might think that, but you’d be wrong.

Amazing photos of human construction designed to contain and organize the masses. Some are colorful, some look like the internal construction of a computer, but they are all functioning to allow for the expanding population in very dense societies.

…that it hasn’t rained in Austin. Which is fine, b/c I work on Saturdays and don’t really care what the weather is like for everyone else. Occasionally I even get the clear, sunny Mondays when everyone else is having to load themselves in the car and spend all day on the way to, at, or back home from work. But everyone came out winners yesterday in the weather lotto, as thousands made their way down to Zilker Park for the annual kite festival. Tons of kites, even more people.