Here's a hideous sentence from an article at USA Today a couple of weeks ago:

One senator said 95% of the classified pages of a congressional report released last week into the work of intelligence agencies before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was kept secret only to keep from embarrassing a foreign government.

Ugh.

The kid at the Texaco station is too friendly. "Are you having a good day today?" he always asks.

The first time he asked I said, "Yes I am, thanks," but that just led to a series of questions and an extended conversation while we waited for my Ford Focus to fill up on regular unleaded. He bends over when he talks to me, looks me in the eye, smiles.

I'm not unfriendly, and in a normal situation I might like to talk with this kid, but he's freaking me out. There's an established protocol at gas stations: the attendant takes the order, fills the tank, and then processes the payment. Carrying on a conversation is strictly verboten.

When I pulled in today, I saw that the kid was working and I tried to steel myself for his misplaced friendliness. "Are you having a good day today?" he asked, but I just grunted something noncommittal.

Then he saw the book on the passenger's seat.

"The Subtle Knife, huh?" he said, pronouncing subtle "sub-tull" like Jeremy does. "I read that. It's pretty good. What do you think of it?"

I glowered at him and, lying, told him that I hadn't read it yet. I wanted to shout, "Stop being so friendly. I just want gasoline, not a lifelong relationship."

I sound like an old crank, huh?

He looks like a good kid. He's got a cheesy grin. But I just want him to fill my tank with gas.

(I just realized that much of the above might not make sense to non-Oregonians; I'm not sure how many other states have service station attendants. Oregon is the only state I know in which it is illegal to pump your own gas. A service station employee must fill your tank for you.)

My home computer was infected with the MSBlast worm. Yes it was.

I'm a very careful computer user. I have multiple firewalls, I don't open any suspicious attachments, and I'm careful with files I downloaded from the internet

It didn't matter: my computer still managed to become infected by the MSBlast worm. Why? Because I didn’t stay current with the security patches for Windows XP.

The worm manifested itself on my machine by periodically activating a popup window notifying me that my computer was going to shut itself off in sixty seconds. The window showed a countdown as I scrambled to save any unsaved information. Sometimes. Other times it just shut down my computer without warning.

News.com has more information on the worm, and the ABC News site has instructions for removing it from your system.

Nick's been trying to lure me back into Magic. He almost succeeded, but I think I've managed to counter the spell he placed on me. I cannot afford to re-enter this hobby, a hobby designed to siphon money from the weak-minded. Plus, I suck at it.

I'm stopping after having only spent $32.40 on cards. I'm stopping before it turns into a huge time sink. I have enough cards (and the right kind: preconstructed decks) that I can play casual games with Joel and Mac and Andrew (and maybe Dave, too, if he wants to learn to play).

No more! No more Llanowar Elves, no more Bog Imps, no more Disenchants. I'm through. Done. Now.

I'm going to take a fiction writing class from Clackamas Community College this fall. The class is on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:30. I've taken it several times before, and it's pretty low-key. Anyone want to join me? Andrew? Mac? Dave? Joel? Nick? (Cost is $165)

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — My Natural State   [photo entry]