Thanks to Liz H. for this quote from her away message. I hadn’t seen it before:

“You will make all sorts of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. – Winston Churchill

I don’t know that this is totally true, but I can hope. Maybe I’m not fierce enough — rawr.

I came across this article today via Digg somewhere, where a guy signs his credit card receipts with everything but his name.

This has been a concern of mine for some time — I write CHECK ID with a red sharpie next to my name on any card I have to sign. Rarely is the back looked at, and when it is, even more rarely do they actually check my ID. WTF? Apparently in Europe everyplace now uses PINs for credit cards. Bravo. I called my bank to get them to turn off the Visa capability of my card (i.e. no pin required). Apparently this is no longer possible. Bah, they just want the overcharge fees when my card is stolen and my account drained. Fuckers.

Anyway, so this is an interesting idea. I think I’m going to start signing my credit card receipts “Hannibal Lecter” in an homage to the Silence of the Lambs trilogy. This should be particularly amusing at restaurants. “A census taker tried to test me once — I ate his liver, with a side of fava beans, and a nice Chianti.”

Will anyone notice? Hell, if this guy can sign with a stick figure person, I’m guessing not.

“No activity is entirely without risk, but that does not mean that we should wrap ourselves in some protective cocoon. That is not living. That is premature death.” — H. Gunaratana Mahathera

I can think of all kinds of uses for this thing: Soekris 4801.

Mmmm. Small computer.

In the game of Streetcar Chicken™ the streetcar always wins.

That’s why I ceded the game before I lost… my life.

Actually it wasn’t that close but looking back in front of you and all of a sudden seeing a streetcar is a bit disconcerting.

*cue my mother fainting*

On the plus side I did another 6 miles today. It seems I’m back in the game after my mysterious 2-mile wuss-a-thon.