Sun 31 Oct 2004
The kids were “Bionicles” this year. Not a lot of neighbors in the apartment complex were participating, so we took the boys over to a local neighborhood. They each managed to collect about a third of a pillowcase’s worth of loot over there…
The pumpkin in the picture above is one we carved earlier in the month. It didn’t last until Halloween this year; got kinda mushy (and green). Next year we need to carve it closer to the end of the month. :)
Thu 21 Oct 2004
I’ve not been a fan of Wal-mart after reading about their lousy employment practices and the tendency to put local businesses, well, out-of-business.
But now I can’t stand them, and will be boycotting them. Wal-Mart is building a store right up against the site of some magnificent 2000-year old ruins in Mexico: Teotihuacan. That’s just criminal - and residents believe so too and have filed criminal and civil complaints against the authorities who approved the construction.
See: CNN.com - Fight over Wal-Mart at Mexico ruins:
The Teotihuacan construction site lies less than a mile (1.6 km) from the gated tourist park housing the main ruins and is visible from atop the Pyramid of the Sun that has defined the skyline for 2,000 years.
[from cnn.com]
Mon 11 Oct 2004
I went to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. (right on the National Mall) and with the help of a friend was able to purchase a copy of Frederick Pohl’s new book, “The Boy Who Would Live Forever” and get him to sign it for me. Cool! Pohl is a GrandMaster Science Fiction author. His new book is the fourth in the Gateway series - the first book, “Gateway”, came out in 1975.
Fri 8 Oct 2004
Saw Neal Stephenson at Olsson’s Books in Arlington VA. He was giving a reading from “The System of the World: Volume Three of The Baroque Cycle.”. I waited around (ended up at the end of the line of about 70 people) and got him to sign my copy (and book 2 of the series).
Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.
[Dave Barry]
