potentialities

"[...] when I look at the cast listing I can't help but think that the movie will have to end up seeming like an alternate history in which european civilization is all but wiped out, except at the poles, and they are trying to fight off a warring horde of ethnically-diverse but otherwise consistently dark-skinned people (who can shoot CGI fire out of their hands)."

When your mother gives you an antique bookshelf to put in your room, and mentions, oh, by the way, the paint on this thing took two weeks to dry, DO NOT ACCEPT IT AND PUT IT IN YOUR ROOM!

Clearly, it is haunted or possessed or both, and will, at the first opportunity, fall over! And then your bedroom will be carpeted in books, and worse, the unholy undead paint will get smeared all over the screen of your laptop, and how the fuck do you get that off? Plus, the B key will be dislodged and lost in the aforementioned carpet of books, so that every time you try to type a word with the letter B in it, such as, oh, say, "books" or "bookshelf", it will not actually work all that well, thereby compounding your frustration!

Why do these things always happen to me? I mean, besides the fact that I'm stupid?

EDIT: Slightly more useful advice, in case you are ever as stupid as me!

Got it off with a handkerchief, some rubbing alcohol, and a very light touch.

Now, to get my keyboard fixed. As it happens, half the letters have worn off again, including the B, so it needs some fixing anyway.

The thing I just don't even begin to understand is how my laptop case could just vanish from our hotel room. I didn't take it anywhere the entire time we were in Rapid City and yet, when I went to pack my laptop, I discovered that I had nothing to pack it in.

We turned our hotel room upside down and uncovered two empty plastic vodka bottles concealed in the lower recesses of one of the beds, but no laptop case. This is annoying to me out of all proportion to any joy a thief might get from taking it on account of a.) Apple doesn't make any more 12" laptops so I'm finding the market for suitable replacements restricted to say the least and b.) that case had all of my Prince of Tennis DVDs in it, so now they are GONE, except disc one (episodes 1-24), which was in my not stolen computer and is therefore safe.

It's obviously not the end of the world since I can replicate my efforts, but still. My preciousssss. Wah.

I left handynavi custody of our Sims while I was gone and even procured a house key to lend him. (I don't have a house key. I asked my mom to have one made for me, but she doesn't have a house key. Just ... I don't know.) Unfortunately, my mother decided that just locking the doors like a normal person was insufficient and had my father barricade the door with a 2x4 right before we left, so Sam still couldn't get in the house even with the key.

I pondered this conundrum and concocted a scheme that I felt would afford the greatest chance of success to a person seeking entrance to our house which unfortunately I will omit here in case any of you are stalking me and are perched in the neighbor's tree right now with your laptop and wireless internet connection, trying to figure out how to take things to the next level. However, I can report that Sam and his sister did succeed in breaking into my house on Friday night, which is basically completely awesome. You only wish you were that cool.

I also have a few vacation stories that have nothing to do with breaking, entering or theft, and there are pictures, but now I think I'm going to do something slightly less strenuous like maybe lying around.

A few days ago, you may recall, I mocked the interest-worthiness of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Well, apparently someone found it slightly more interesting, because today they set it on fire.

My dad was right at the top of the hill when this occurred, and fortunately he did not catch on fire as he snapped a bunch of pictures while the fire burninated all the grass, the trees, the peasants, etc. There happened to be a football field nearby for comparison, so I'd say there were at least 20-30 football fields of crispy grass. I thought this was quite a lot of burnination. The firemen, who were still messing about when my dad brought us by to check it out, thought this was pretty much all in a day's work.

Now, the reason my dad is here is to install their new upper air system. Luckily, this meant that they had removed the nitrogen which they usually keep in that particular location for launching the weather balloons. Otherwise, upper air system very possibly go boom.