i prefer pi

For everyone who always wanted to know how, here are instructions for making a Duct Tape wallet, directly from 3M itself.

EDIT: Just to forewarn you, the instructions are actually from 3M Canada. I don’t have a problem with Canadians, but, you know… some people do.

Okay, it’s time to push that engagement entry down the page a little. Don’t forget to vote today or tomorrow in the student body elections. And since I don’t want to violate any rules about campaigning on the day of the election, here’s a “random” string of ones and zeros to pad out the post (0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1), and a “cool link” that I found the other day. *whistles*

Dang — make that five six seven eight friends of mine who are engaged. In chronological order of my awareness of their engagement, Matt and Kerri, Joel Dillard and Jennifer(?), Joel Beskow and Amy, Jay and Mary, and now Jeremy and Rita (and my spidey-sense tells me that there may be one more coming soon).

EDIT: Apparently, my long-time friend and former roommate Justin Childress and Melanie Byrd are also engaged now, but no one thought to tell me until just now. Oh well — congratulations to them as well.

EDIT 2: And Wes Conner and his fiancee. Congratulations all the way around! Obligatory face goes here.

EDIT 3: This is getting ridiculous. My former youth pastor, a man that I believed would remain a committed bachelor forever, is also engaged.

Joy to the world! He has risen! Alleluia!

I had planned to pen a long and ponderous post about my frustration with the court system, but I decided against it. Instead, you can imagine that I wrote about how Ian and I were subpoeanaed in December for two dates in January, how the courts place the burden of discovering whether a case will go to trial (and consequently, whether you will actually be required to show up) on the subpoenaed parties, how you can only determine this by calling between 1 P.M. and 3 P.M. on the business day prior to the court date, how there’s no automated system or recording for determining this information outside of that two-hour window, how both dates came and passed without the case going to trial, how we played phone tag with the Sheriff for another two weeks afterward, how we were subpoenaed again in February for a date in March at 1:30 PM, how they couldn’t tell us yesterday whether we would be required to show, how they couldn’t tell us at noon today whether we would be required to show, how I was incorrectly transferred while trying to get through to the prosecuting attorney for the second time, how their phone system went down for about 10 minutes during my attempts at calling, how the prosecuting attorney told us at 12:45 that we would be required to show, but that she wouldn’t really need us, how we arrived at the courtroom and waited 10 minutes for the defense and defendant to arrive, how we then waited another 10 minutes while the prosecuting and defending attorneys, along with aides apparently had a party back in the judge’s chambers while someone made meowing noises, how the prosecuting and defending attorneys conferred on a point of law for another few minutes before the prosecuting attorney released us, and how I was bewildered at how an open-and-shut case where someone was caught in the act of breaking the law by the police could take six months to process from start to finish. Like I said, I’m not going to go into all of that detail, so you’ll just have to imagine it for yourself. I’ve always wondered why our court system was so backlogged — always, that is, until today.

Several panic moments today:

• Woke up around 8:45 this morning, thought that it was MWF and that I’d missed my first class. Realized that it was Tuesday and had no morning classes. Went back to sleep.
• Checked e-mail and got note from library saying had been fined $289.84. Returned books in question and was absolved of all charges
• Picked up mail and got note from registrar saying that had not yet met the requirements for graduation. Checked online and noticed that advisor has not yet filled some classes in. Will talk to him and beat back registrar with stick
• Was ironing shirt for interview and noticed that it was 1:45. Panicked and thought that interview started at 2:00. Remembered that started at 3:00, blood pressure returned to normal
• Interview was stressful, although not panic-inducing
• Remembered at tutoring that had CPSC 627 homework due tomorrow, must read chapters before starting.
• Realized that Ring Dance is three and a half weeks away, and I do not have a date. I’ll start working on this problem shortly.

If you like Piña Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain.
Something goes here about yoga,
You only have half-a-brain.

Artistic liberties and emphasis mine. Lousy Texas weather…

EDIT: Actually, I’ve never had a piña colada. Just pay attention to the bit about the rain.

Experience has taught me that the only way to avoid end-of-Spring-Break traffic is to leave Dallas at 9 AM. The only way.

That reminds me… on Thursday night, we went to Ton’s Mongolian Grill for supper. If you’ve never been, it’s a stir-fry buffet where you pick out all of the stuff that you want in your plate, then you take it up to their huge circular wok where the chefs cook it for you. As we were leaving, I passed a nincompoop guy standing in line at the grill wearing a shirt that proclaimed (in big, bold letters) “I TORE DOWN THE GOALPOST” and listed the score of the infamous A&M-Tech game of aught one. For a brief moment, I entertained thoughts of grabbing a fork, breaking off the two middle tines, stabbing him with it, and as he writhed in pain on the floor, screaming “32-25!” at him over and over again. But then I thought “No, I’m a sane, rational person; why would I do something like that?” and walked out.

You Are Incredibly Logical

(You got 100% of the questions right) Move over Spock - you’re the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

Like I said, I’m boring.