Arachnaphobia

I freely admit to being scared of many things, for example: black holes, volcanoes, tar pits, sinkholes, eternity, and people. However, I've never been frightened of spiders....UNTIL TODAY.

There is a rather large (and possibly poisonous) spider , let's call him Fred, who has been living on our deck this summer. Up until a few days ago, Fred's been doing the usual spidery things, stringing up gigantic webs, catching bugs etc. But recently, his webs began encroaching on our deck furniture and house. So Nam knocked Fred off our deck with a broom and removed the web that was strung around our grill.


But Fred didn't like that...

Fred didn't like that at all...

When I went outside to do some homework today, SOMEONE was waiting for me....

nine legs? oops...

...and I almost walked into the retaliatory trap strung up right outside the door!

I took the broom to the massive web and Fred zipped upwards towards the roof. He stayed there as I read my books....watching...waiting...plotting...

Readings: Snow Crash (a few more thoughts)

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Sure, the world of Snow Crash features a dystopian society divided into warring franchises and fascist suburbs, but who said Dystopia had to be depressing? (Orwell?)


I appreciate being able to read about the disturbing possibilities of the future without the somber tones of despair. Instead of tears of hopelessness, Snow Crash delivers magical linguistics, ubiquitous harpoons, and of course, pizza, fresh from the Mafia and always on time!


I recommend this book to people who like linguistics, binary, home-owner-associations, harpoons, easily identifiable protagonists, and that fuzzy static that comes on the T.V. sometimes....

Readings: Snow Crash

So, work and homework have been keeping me busier than usual...but I haven't forgotten about the Envelope, you will find out what lurks beneath its glossy exterior soon enough...

But right now, I'd like to talk about Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I'm about 4/5ths of the way through the book, and I really like it! The idea that there's a human language equivalent to the machine code of computers...it just makes sense...so next week when you see me outside of your castle with my neurolinguistically-programmed horde... get yourself a nice glass of lemonade and get ready to enjoy the biggest dance-spectacular yet! The choreography is irresistible! (What? Did you think I would program people for anything other than artistic purposes?? Shame on you!)


Anyways, here's a comic inspired by Snow Crash. (Again, the scene did not play out quite like this in the book...)

Did someone say IO??

Our cat Io is totally binary.