Observed tonight: The Orange County Heterosexual Dating Uniform

For gentlemen: Very clean blue jeans, a bit baggy with turned up cuffs. Dark leather shoes of some kind, shiny. The "club shirt", meaning a button-down collared shirt that is long enough that it cannot be tucked in, and drapes comfortably over a slight potbelly, giving the appearance of a large chest and shoulders and a flat abdomen. Slightly spiked hair with goop in it. Smirk..

For ladies: Very clean blue jeans, either hip hugging or secured with a black leather belt with a shiny buckle. Black leather shoes with heels. Lacy or diaphanously silky top that reveals the shoulders. Options here are spaghetti strap, tube top, off one shoulder (Flashdance look), etc. Shoulder length hair in some type of ponytail.

These rules are very strict. Out of maybe fifty dating couples I saw tonight, only five or six people total weren't wearing this exact uniform.

We hate your dots.

Stuart Pearson ("Hurdy Gurdy Guy") played again tonight. He segued "Ghost Riders" into "Smells Like Teen Spirit", did "White Punks on Dope" again, only screwed up a couple of times, and of course performed the fine version he does of "Baby Got Back" accompanied with a slinky. Go Stuart.

Quote of the evening, from genericus: I HAVE PAID SUBSCRIBERS WATCHING RIGHT NOW AND YOU ARE KILLING THE MAGIC!!

I think graduate school is basically a disease. In just the last week I've heard four horror stories, including one serious neurological ailment caused essentially by Ph.D. anxiety, one abandonment of the dissertation, and two people who dropped out after four and six years of pain and expense, respectively. All of a sudden I don't feel so bad about never finishing my bachelor's. I really knew this already because I grew up with a graduate school around me, and A's experience at USC was instructive to see too. Friends don't let friends pursue academic careers, folks.

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Enjoy,

the management

Fluffy and enjoyable recent books.

1. Freakonomics: Boy genius economist explains it all for you. The author is a Chicago economics professor who is young and energetic. He's hired a ghost writer to talk about him in the third person at the beginning of each chapter, which is jarring. Past the hype and the odd structure of the book, I found it enjoyable. It reminds me of some really enjoyable undergraduate courses I had which mostly consisted of cool stories illustrating some point of the subject. He talks about baby names, and crime, and other quotidian interests and relates them to microeconomics, so even if you hate economics he tricks you into being interested in it. Unlike the good undergrad course, the book doesn't impart any real knowledge, so it's just all the fun stories from the cool young prof. It leaves you feeling really smart, but you really aren't. Worth two hours. B-

2. The Men Who Stare At Goats: British journalist documents New Age insanity of the military. Documentary filmmaker and writer Jon Ronson has a good previous record at dealing with nut cases. This time he's found a treasure trove. A Strangelovian assortment of military officers, including the chief of military intelligence for the U.S. Army, spent years trying to walk through walls, stop people's hearts with their brains, locate enemies with psychic powers, and become invisible. Some of them believe they did these things. A gaggle of unfortunate goats spent a while being stared at by military personnel who were trying to kill them with the Force, or something. At one point a psychic goes into a trance attempting to locate Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and awakens with the important message: ASK KRISTY MCNICHOL! The latter part of the book gets more serious, as Ronson finds that some of the funny/silly New Age stuff has now been adapted into torture technique. One puzzled former Gitmo inmate relates attempts by his guards to drive him nuts with loud, bad music, and there are an assortment of similar psychological torments. Most of the book is for laughs, though, and he delivers. Another pretty good waste of two hours. B+ I strongly recommend Ronson's previous book (and documentary TV series if you can find it) about extremists, with profiles of David Icke, Randy Weaver, and other nut jobs; it's an A+. Engrossing and funny but tragic, and sympathetic to the kooks. Also, see Ronson's own site.

LOL TRAIN WRECK

The Los Angeles Times is apparently going to make a Wiki out of their editorial page online. This should be funny/hard to watch. Have they looked at the vandalism issues on wikipedia lately? And that's just for internerds. This is going to be "Editorial Page Meets 1991 Usenet" or something. Ow, ow, ow.

Best E-Business Ever!

E-zekiel! The easy website solution for churches...

I wonder what Ezekiel himself would have thought of a pyramid scheme portal site aimed at clueless pastors. My guess is that he would not have liked it so much.

Their levels of service are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The Silver level is about $30, which made me laugh pretty hard.

I am now going to quote their entire "About Us" text, for hurting you. It's written in GodBuzz™!

Axletree Media, Inc. is a profitable, private corporation committed to providing Christian organizations with easy-to-use, powerful, cost-effective, Internet-based communications tools.

Since purchasing E-zekiel, Axletree Media has continued to extend this powerful communications platform as well as develop strategic partnerships to meet the ever-changing needs of Christian organizations from mega-churches like Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee (http://www.bellevue.org), to Christian businesses such as Lead Like Jesus (http://www.leadlikejesus.com), to churches with less than 50 members.

As a leading global application services provider, Axletree Media is focused on providing web-based products with best-in-class functionality, at entry-level prices without sacrificing the look and feel of your organization's web presence. Our commitment isn't to technology, it's to you. We focus on providing what you need--when you need it.

We believe solutions should solve problems, not create them. We don't resist change; we create it. We don't follow; we lead. Every day we immerse ourselves in your needs and constantly work to unleash the power of the Internet for your ministry, Christian business or non-profit organization.

With more than 6,000 customers in 12 countries worldwide, we believe that our track record of growth, excellence, and service means we are succeeding. We also believe that this is just the beginning.