Soooooo the Cracker Barrel Mark and I eat at got shot up last night. It's, you know, less than half a mile from our house.

I HATE DURHAM.

2/3 classes got cancelled -- which is good, because after looking outside and deciding I was going to watch the inauguration instead of going to my first class, I eventually decided I shouldn't go out at all. I've also just lost my last contact, yaaaay.

I e-mailed the professor for my 5:00-6:15 class and basically told her that black ice was not my friend... so I'm staying holed away in the bedroom with the space heater today.


BTW, <3 #44!!!

Watching that helicopter fly away with George and Laura Bush made me giddy. It was like it was taking them to another planet...

Paul Begala's editorial on Sarah Palin (emphases mine):

(CNN) -- John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls "a checkup from the neck up."

In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he is not thinking "outside the box," as some have said. More like out of his mind.

Palin, a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.

In choosing this featherweight, McCain passed over Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex state of Pennsylvania.

He passed over Mitt Romney, who ran a big state, Massachusetts; a big company, Bain Capital; and a big event, the Olympics.

He passed over Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is knowledgeable about the military, good on television and -- obviously -- a woman.

He passed over Joe Lieberman, his best friend in the Senate and fellow Iraq Kool-Aid drinker.

He passed over former congressman, trade negotiator and budget director Rob Portman.

And he also passed over Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas.

For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.

I LIED! While something/one fucked with my Facebook account (general Facebook security?), it's MY HEATSINK! I think. Maybe.
I wrote a really long e-mail to Dell about it, because actually explaining technical problems to technical support in technical terms IN REAL TIME is just -- oh my god it's horrible. So I basically wrote what might as well have been a manifesto based on my complete lack of faith in ear-to-ear or IM-to-IM conversation with an actual person with issues as important as my fucked up gfx.

ANYWAY. This is absolutely essential, and if for some absurd reason you don't want to listen to 4 minutes and 42 seconds of pure gold, here are my favorite parts:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=183521&title=john-mccain-chooses-a-running

0:46 - 1:06 -- Why Sarah Palin?
1:39 - 2:27 -- I want to ruin the punchline so bad but basically this is one of my favorite Daily Show moments EVER.
2:27 - 2:52 -- What is are to be VP?
Samantha Bee has the last part of the segment -- and if you have a vagina and love your vagina, I suggest you watch this.

Um, OKAY. Remember the Michael Peterson case, that writer in Raleigh who killed his wife like, seven years ago?

"Larry Pollard says he believes an owl, possibly mistaking Kathleen Peterson as prey, could have attacked the 120-pound, 47-year-old as she walked from her swimming pool to her kitchen on that warm December night in 2001."

Apparently, someone found a feather.

“Now, at first when you hear that, it sounds ridiculous, except when you look at the wounds, when you look at the fact that these birds are in our neighborhood and that they have been there for years and years and years," he said. "That they have this kind of characteristics of their talons that they do this kind of damage."

Source: WRAL

CNN.com thinks we should talk about lowering the drinking age. Let's do that.

Now, at 21, I don't know that I really matter much in this debate. But whatever. I spent 21 years being not 21.

In my mind, the problem is not in purchasing, but in distribution. Anyone who says that 21+s don't provide <21s with alcohol is apparently brain-dead. Go visit a college.

( Here's the ultimate list of NC's liquor laws... )

Here's my half-baked idea with a bunch of holes in it. Keep the purchasing age for alcohol at 21. Posession, though, at 18. That makes the 21+ at least halfway responsible for the actions of the 18 to 20-year-olds whom they provide with booze. Because, really, the kids are going to drink whether it's illegal or not. It's kind of like, I dunno, abstinence pledges...

Anyway, if enforced, one might give more of a shit when giving their underage friends alcohol. And kids under 18, at least in this country... seriously?

The whole "you have all the responsibility of an adult but you can't drink" argument is weird. 18-year-olds in North Carolina can get themselves some shotguns and chill. Some of them will join the military and come back all PTSD'd. While there are SEVERAL responsible 18-year-olds I know, generally, I don't like the idea of all or any of the other 18-year-olds with whiskey in one hand and their shotgun in the other.

Whatever. I'm 21. See, once you get old, you really DON'T care about the little people!! At least not till you have kids. Theoretically.

I suck.


Also, today was the first day of school and holy shit why do all underclassmen look the same?
That's right, I went there. KEEP YOUR INDIVIDUALITY, KIDS!