a myth is busted (updated)

well, it turns out that people i know are actually not invincible, contrary to current belief. i just heard this morning that a fellow history major and recent grad (2004) of whitworth, forrest ewens, was killed in iraq. i didn't know forrest very well, but from the few classes i had with him, he seemed like a great guy. i'll be praying for his family and for the men who fought alongside him, and ask that anyone who is so inclined would do the same.

--update--
whoops, wrong country. in my defense, i was not quite awake when i was given the news. in the comments, another forrest pointed out that it was actually afghanistan, and provided a link to an article on the event.

i wonder, will blogger let me post without a title? let's find out.

i've been sick/lazy lately... that's my excuse for the lack of posts. there have been several blogworth things happening in the world, but they've all pretty much been covered by other blogs.

tomorrow marks the one-year point at my job at the bank. in terms of my everyday work, that means pretty much nothing. it should, however, mean a raise, and it also marks the point that the bank will start paying into my 401(k); not much (about $50/month at this point), but it'll add up.

it's also the beginning of cherry harvest (technically it started last week, but it was raining a lot, which pretty much sucked for anyone hoping to harvest), which means i'm actually doing work at work, which is a nice change.

slightly more active than chess babes

the babes of the world cup

fun facts, and other thoughts

wal-mart, all on it's own, is equivelant to the 20th largest economy in the world.

i really hate the new dairy commercials on the radio, which feature little kids or burger flippers telling parents and friends that "you're totally passing up a dairy opportunity!" forget the fact that your average 8 year old or BK worker knows little to nothing about dairy requirements. "Three-a-day of dairy for healthy moms, healthy kids." (but not healthy dads? apparently nobody cares about dads. 3/day is most important, however, for a healthy dairy industry).

favorite songs of the moment: "cassie" by flyleaf, and "caribou and cake" by scarling.

there were some more, but i forgot them. so they must not have been that important.

pretty smart for a dead guy

wizbang has part of the translation of a document we picked up at zarqawi's "safe" house, which indicate that he wanted to start a war between america and iran. i really love one of his points:

3. The possibility of acquiring new weapons from the Iranian side, either after the fall of Iran or during the battles. [emphasis mine]

even though he was hoping the war would stretch our forces out and make things easier for him in iraq, he already knew what the outcome of that war would be.

i blame google

looks like the hadji girl video i posted about below pissed some people off, to the point where youtube decided to take it down. luckily, there's a slightly smaller but better quality version that you can watch here.

priceless

hadji girl

ouch

hail is cool. unless you're an orchardist. several orchards in the chelan/orondo area got hit by a hail storm last night... one guy estimates that he lost about half of his cherry and apple crops. times are not good.

hmm... (updated)

oddly enough, you get fairly different results when using google image search for "dead zarqawi" and "zarqawi dead." i think the oddest thing, though, is that on the first one of those, 4 of the pictures come up as hippos.

also, here's my take on the situation surrounding his death. i'm glad he's dead. he was a horrible "person" (i use the term loosely), and the world is a better place without him in it. even if somebody does just step in and take his place, so what? even if this did nothing to harm the terrorists, i think it will be great for our troops' morale, both american and iraqi. and it should hopefully instill some fear in the terrorist ranks, as we proved that even at the top, you're not safe.

--update--
on the other hand, a search for dead hippopotamus did not bring up any pictures of zarqawi.

exactly

the comments about cows in the last frame of this comic explain perfectly--to me, at least--why peta is wrong.

wow

i'm thinking maybe i need to start playing chess again.

h/t say anything

also, assuming the reader isn't screwed up again, this is my 666th post. which, you know, good thing it didn't come on tuesday. because that would have been creepy.

also also, you can use bugmenot to avoid registration on the link above.

happy birthday!

to natalie portman, who turned 25 today.

coincidence?

it just so happens that my two favorite colors--green and black--are the colors of the atreides battle flag, which may or may not look anything like this. coincidence? yeah, probably. but still kinda cool.

let the good times roll... (updated)

it's been confirmed: zarqawi is dead. congratulations to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, and congratulations to their Iraqi counterparts.

--update--
hope you enjoy "paradise" zarqawi. (warning: foul language abounds.)

w00t, i am fleet

or at least my computer is. or will be. 2 more gigs of corsair RAM arrived on my doorstep today, ready to make my computer even awesomer. except i think i'm going to wait on plugging it in until i get a beefier PSU, probably later this month or early next month.

funny, but not recommended

because odds are, you'd get shot, or at least robbed, if you tried this.

*&^@#$

for those of you not playing guild wars, this probably won't mean much. oh well.

MHENLO IS GAY. or, at the very least, the guy who wrote his AI script is. they apparently forgot to tell him that running away from the group that's supposed to be protecting you while they're attacking one group of bad guys to attack a completely different group of bad guys all on your own is a really bad idea. so the idiot got himself killed, and now i have to start over on a quest that took me a bit over an hour. GAY GAY GAY.

so much for saving...

well, after reading emily's latest post, and finding a duplicate set of the RAM i've already got on sale at newegg, i decided to go ahead and max out my computer's RAM capabilities... this'll put me at 4 gigs. do i really need that many? at the moment, no... right now, it's more so i can say "my computer is awesomer than yours" to most people i talk to. i think i'm going to wait on installing it until i've got a slightly beastlier PSU though (maybe this one?); as i mentioned earlier, i think my system is currently slightly under-volted, and i'm not sure how much more my current PSU could handle. and since i've already spent a pretty decent amount this month (gas, movies, guild wars factions, and now RAM), i think that'll have to wait another month. oh well.

if any of you with more technical expertise than i have (probably about half of my regular readers, if not more) have the time to weigh in, please do so.

i am shamed

apparently my state is even more liberal than california, at least in terms of abortion and gay rights issues. i blame seattle.

h/t say anything

i like this guy

i would have designed my statue of liberty a little differently--probably a baseball bat in one hand and a "bring it on" gesture with the other--but in terms of his message itself, i agree completely.