I visited my mom at work today and she intoduced me to some people. They said, "is this the vegan?" and one of them said, "Can you read my mind?" That is one of the more interesting questions I've fielded. I told her, "Of course" and left shortly thereafter. Happy new year!

“You are bidding on the Sony PlayStation II Xmas bundle picture below.” Not “pictured below,” just “picture.” And that’s what 75 ebay bidders got for their $300—a photograph of a playstation. Buyer beware! (via metafilter)

Ad Farm has "Ads that aren't super annoying." You can make an ad for $10 or host an ad and make a few bucks. It's a nice site, go check it out. But don't tell 'em I sent you—mentioning my name will only add confusion.

My friend Jay called me last night and told me he's working on the This Old House house. Cool! Now I can find out if the pressure-treated southern yellow pine roof is, in fact, pressure-treated or if Norm just jumps on it a few times before he heads over to Dunkin' Donuts. These are the things we need to know. Dunkin's rocks Manchester.

Last night I dreamed that Major League Baseball wanted me to play for one of their teams but they were only offering $27,000 a year. I was struggling with the decision and asking various people for advice. I've never played baseball but I wasn't too worried about that. I was, however, concerned that I couldn't find my shoes anywhere and I wondered if I'd be able to find a good plastic glove. Before I woke up I decided I would ask for $37,000 and just go for it if they accepted.

I'm on [Ye Olde] Cape Cod right now. Sometimes I drive over the Sagamore bridge without even realizing it. That's gotta be dangerous.

HTTP Ads launch! "HTTP Ads is a new way for website operators to make money selling ads. It turns ad buys into impulse items by giving webmasters the power to accept credit card payment for ad space, automating the whole process. No merchant account necessary, and it just takes a few minutes to setup." Cool. Genius Labs will have to check into this.

Found via a pyRad: Site Meter pitches to the weblog crowd. "Site Meter is a free, fast, and easy way to add a web counter to your blog." Cool.

Since we're in New England now and it's much colder than Los Angeles, I thought I'd share this Temperature Conversion email I got the other day with anyone interested in putting it in perspective.

Massachusetts! We just got back from a vegan diner in West Newton. I stuffed myself silly because I was sick of heat n' eat road food. I think I may have cracked a rib during a car-packing incident, but other than that, everything's great!

We drive almost 3000 miles from CA and we end up in Bel Air? From Bel Air Maryland it's only a "quick and easy" 420 miles to Boston. We're watching an overly-explicative TLC show about human courting in the motel room right now... I think I'll have a light dinner tonight.

Last night we stayed just outside Memphis. I couldn’t post due to a bunk phone line. Note to self: December is monsoon season in Arkansas. Tonight we’re in Asheville, NC at a Best Western and there’s a Star Trek marathon on TNN. Nice! The cats are seasoned passengers now. They sleep, they snack—they stretch out completely while we drive hundreds of miles. Tomorrow we ride.

We made it to Amarillo today. The people here are actual Texans. When I told the lady at the convenience store that we were driving from LA to Boston she said, "Y’all come back and see us when you come back through." Nice, I’m invited back to the "Toot ‘n Totum" if I ever return. Good to know.

We left LA at 10 am and made it to this Flagstaff Days Inn in time for Frasier. One cat puked in the car. The other one freaked. We had to stop several times, but I think we've developed a system. The good news is that the cats are having a blast in this room and we're drinking wine! Note to self: Arizona is not warm. The news reports deaths caused by weather and cars careen off the highway due to ice—it is not safe! Pass this on to future generations.

Oh no, it's more book covers with Biz on them. Again, the unfortunate side effect of working at a publisher. You can end up as a troubled civil war soldier or just a plain-old troubled young man!

If you sent me an email in the last 24 hours I don't think I'll get it. Could you re-send it? My email was down for a while but I think it's back in action now.

Since we're leaving, a friend took our bed the other night. Brewster has developed an aversion to the aerobeds. He is extremely suspect and only travels over them via pillow-to-pillow jumps.

Updates may be questionable while I drive from Los Angeles to Boston. Maybe I'll chime in from various points along the way, we shall see. Tomorrow is "wrap everything up day" 2001.

Cool, IMDb Pro is a new feature at IMDB. I especially like the STARmeter and MOVIEmeter—they represent "what people are interested in, based not on small statistical samplings, but on the actual behavior of millions of IMDb users." Nice.

We finally found some wines that we really like! "The Organic Wine Works wines are not only produced from organically grown grapes, but are organically processed as well. We are one of two vintners that produces an organic, unsulfited wine that is nationally distributed and the first winery to release 100% certified organically processed wines in the United States." And they've all got "vegan" printed on the label. Not all wines are vegan for various reasons. We're going to have to have this stuff shipped by the box to New England!

Soon we will all be able to breath under water with little effort and almost no expense thanks to a secret new innovation from the enigmatic crew at 0sil8 Heavy Industries. I won't need that because I can hold my breath for several minutes under water. Nevertheless, Genius Labs has invested millions in the endevour.

No Backers? Then It's Time for Bra and Panties! "An Austrian snowboarder who failed to secure a sponsor for her competition gear this season has decided to throw caution to the wind and compete in just a pair of panties and bra." Maybe I should blog in my tighties.

"My name Dr. Timothy Steve, working with African Development Bank. There is in my position $21 Million Dollars that has been in my custody for many year. I want this money to be take out to you." Why do I always get spam about how people want to give me millions of dollars? I get this once a week in different variations. Meanwhile, Livia gets all the junk mail for nekkid girls? I wanna switch.

The evacuation is underway. As usual, we are leaving all furniture, television, kitchen stuff, etc. in the apartment for other humans to do with as they please. We gotta stop doing this. We are shipping the "cherishables" by way of cardboard box—I wonder what will survive. Nice!

We're driving across the US starting some time next week with two cats in the back of our Corolla. I just hope we make it back in time for Festivus. I wanna win the "feat of strength" this year!

World's Smallest Lizard Found! But the reward was only one Dominican penny so you really gotta be in it for non-financial reasons.

Dean Kamen's new invention, also known as IT or Ginger is actually called Segway and it is a human transporter that employs the latest advances in gyros, tilt sensors, and high-performance motors. Okay fine, it's a scooter. Good Morning America will feature it tomorrow or you can head over to Metafilter and have a laugh at all the underwhelmed comments like "Add two more wheels, a roof, some seats, and a steering wheel and you'd have a half-assed golf cart."

The North American Air Defense Command reported to the Federal Aviation Administration last night that some kind of space debris had broken up in the atmosphere over the midwest. Brilliant "fireworks" were spotted from Texas to Nebraska. NORAD was not specific as to what the debris formerly was.

Dean Kamen Set to Unveil Mysterious 'IT' Invention Will it be a water powered portable insulin pump with wheels? Perhaps. We'll have to wait until Monday to find out for sure.