NJS[BLOG]

(which is actually probably rather like regular Top Gear, but I digress)

Paranoia und Verschwörung in Bayern

All I can gather from this is that a Hungarian journalist had his camera confiscated while touring the BMW plant in Germany – after which, he totally lost it and decided to create a short story illustrated with crayon. It is magnificent.

The Invasion from Outer Space by Steven Millhauser (for The New Yorker)

Trying to Live on 500K in New York City

Tiny violin played by The New York Times.

Today has been one of those snowy days in Maryland that makes me question whether anyone here has actually seen a snowstorm. We had 3 hours off this morning for what was, essentially, a light dusting of the fluffiest powder this side of dandelion pollen. I’ve resigned myself to being forever confounded by the weather weirdness of this Eastern Shore.

However, with my extra time today, I have decided to make you your very own compilation, dear readers: the Not Really All That Snowy Day Mix. Your tracklist is below.

“Half Asleep” – School of Seven Bells “Winter 05″ – Ra Ra Riot “VW” – Late of the Pier “On The Motorway” – Metronomy “Professional Suicide” – Ladyhawke “Letters From The Ambulance” – The Fashion “To Lose My Life” – White Lies “Skeleton Boy” – Friendly Fires “Memorabilia” – Soft Cell “I Miss You” – White Hinterland “The Beginning After The End” – Stars “Air Painter” – CSS “Goodnight & Goodbye” – Metro Station “Sweet Tides” – Thievery Corporation

You can download the entire mix for seven days by clicking here.

Download a high resolution PDF of the album art, too!

The board game “Dread Pirate” and the rusty razor blade that fell out of the shrink wrapped box after we opened it tonight. The maker, Front Porch Classics, is out of business. Can’t imagine why…

Click for video of the tail-less wonder that is Rigel, our new kitten.

And sometimes the interwebs give you something like this to make up for it:

Atheist Buses Denying God’s Existence Take to the Streets!

Sometimes the internet produces the most depressing things. Case in point:

The Growth of WalMart Across America

In order to actually stay awake on my drive today (as with any drive to or from Maryland) I loaded up with massive amounts of coffee and soda. And laws of nature then dictated that I’d have to piss like nobody’s business at least once during my six hours sojourn. Wouldn’t you know, the only gas station I found when it came time to exit the roadways afforded me a 7 Eleven.

With no public restroom.

Now what exactly is the point of this? I can understand that it must be annoying to have people popping in to pee without making any purchases, but how many people are we really talking about here? I know that if I have a real choice, I’m not going to stop into ANY gas station to use the restroom, so at least from my end, these are only acts of desperation. Plus, clearly there is SOME sort of bathroom facility because I highly doubt the employees are holding it all day. AND, it’s not exactly like I’m going to be defiling the classiness of the freaking 7 Eleven.

Back into the car I went, totally enraged (and not just in the bladder-department,) now in search of ANY place to relieve myself.

And that’s how I used the restroom in the Lifestyles Fitness and Wellness center – a private gym somewhere off of I-695W. I give it five stars.

…that the album list was ARoB’s 1000th blog post. And this is the 1001st…