An IM conversation with my sister:1
me: OK
So, dad is bringing heavy bags, he said, so we should get off as close to your place as possible, right?
Sis: yeah. and i can come pick you up at the metro
me: Coolio
Sis: yup. Columbia Heights is the closest metro to me
which is perfect since it is on the [...]

Possibly the single greatest flow chart element I’ve ever seen:

From the Procrastination Flowchart.
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It’s amazing how minuscule your normal traffic appears when you have one day with more than 40,000 visits:

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I used to joke that writing for a daily newspaper was like drafting a news story over and over and over: the names, dates, and places may have changed, but very often the narrative stayed the same. It could be very formulaic, and try as I might to shift things, to make the tale more [...]

My sister and I have been preparing to see the Decemberists this weekend during their four night stint at the 9:30 Club. Of course, that was before this:
The Decemberists have canceled the rest of their fall tour, citing an illness to an undisclosed band member.
After performing in Chicago earlier in the week, the Portland-based band [...]

So, I guess I can let the word out: I’m the new assistant managing editor for Congresspedia.
“But wait,” you say. “Didn’t you just start a new job?”
Well, I did, but I applied for the Congresspedia position at the same time, and I think it will work out better for everybody involved. The Studio Theatre is [...]

Apparently, a bunch of people were celebrating this weekend, and since I’m pretty integral to the group costume my sister came up with, that meant I was in for a night of fun on Saturday.
So, what’s the group costume?

Hopefully you can figure it out!
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Hooray Gmail! Just about the same time Google upped the storage limit on their accounts to 4GB (I’m now using 14 percent), they decided to implement IMAP support for Gmail as well. And my life is just a little bit better this morning.

And Brian Auer goes and submits the Rainbow Drops photo to Digg, thereby (from what I gather in comments) bringing Live from Silver City to the usual screeching halt that results when some no-name site makes the front page. If you came by and couldn’t get through, my apologies.
But hey, you’re here now, so poke [...]

I alluded yesterday to a court appearance: here’s the gist. In about my third week in the area, I was cited for making an illegal left turn. Apparently, one of several measures taken to influence traffic patterns is to identify intersections where you can’t make left turns during a certain period of time.
These are pretty [...]

So, it’s looking more and more like Blackwater personnel basically opened fire on Iraqis in Nisoor Square in September. An investigation has been started, of course, which meant Congress couldn’t get any actual answers out of Blackwater CEO Erik Prince earlier this month. And now the Iraqi government (such as it is) is trying to [...]

I wish life were like Monopoly: if a bank errs in your favor, you get money!
For example, this morning I opened an account with Bank of America1. I had my frist two paychecks from my new job, one for a full pay period and one for my first day (which fell on the last day [...]