Last night, the Athens-Clarke county commission unanimously passed the first-ever mandatory water restrictions in county history. It’s going to be a long, dry summer.

Why are we moved by stories? Tales of things that never happened told by people we’ve never met? A new comic by Lynda Barry.

Phobos is going to leave Mars orbit next month and come slam into the earth? Wow! I didn’t see that coming. Luckily, some well-grounded people did and warn us on the internet.

Here is what I believe to be the only picture of an alien being sticking its head out to show itself from its light body. It looks like a reptilian and is rainbow in color. I believe this alien is a scout and of the Rainbow race. Besides alien light bodies, there’s also pictures of a “demonic being creature”, the Naggis, and a whole lotta rambling. Residents of Wanaque, New Jersey, beware!

I could call my ma while I’m up here. Hey ma! Get off the danged roof!

Think Amazon’s patenting the one-click purchasing system was extreme? British telecommunications giant BT has just announced that it patented the hyperlink back in 1989. In a move sure to send the BT lawyers my way, I’m hyperlinking the the BBC story on the issue. Maybe another hyperlink to the father of the internet is in order.

Lightning and I go way back. I’m not exactly a lightning rod, but I’ve seen it up close more times than I ought to have. I was struck late in high school and somehow emerged unhurt, without even a burn or scar or anything to show for it. It knocked me flat and damaged the area around me. I was standing in the entrance to a small wooden-framed tent, and the bolt hit me, the tent, and a power pole nearby. Several times I’ve been in buildings that were hit, including one time when I was younger and home alone when a three-pronged bolt hit our house, the electric transformer (killing the power), and a tree (which fell across the phone lines). One summer at college, a freak storm blew in out of the north-east (the opposite direction from usual). As I was running to the student union building, a bolt struck a few yards from me, just around the corner from the building as I reached the door. It wasn’t until later that I found out it struck and killed a man running for the same doors I was. Oddly enough, his wife was at the university doing lightning research.

A lightning storm came by this morning. One bolt struck a tree directly outside my window. I’m told it is (was) “one of the largest American Elms in Georgia”. The power’s been on and off all day, and thus my net connection has been mostly off. By the time the Linux boxes booted up and got everything mounted and running, the power would drop again. I’ve still not got email, and I hear that the servers are going down again, on purpose this time. I’ll try to make up for a lack of writing later.

Mmmm…. Fresh Hog Jowels! There’s Ren & Stimpy on the tape too. I should do this more often.

Another Saturday night at home alone (nobody’s fault but mine) had me feeling blue. So I thought it’d be fun to see what was on all those unlabeled VHS tapes I have. The very first program on the very first tape was my favorite Simpsons episode -- The Last Exit to Springfield. It’s the one where the power plant union (Local 643 of the International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs, and Nuclear Technicians) goes on strike. They haven’t made them any better than that. After 30 minutes of laughing, I feel much, much better.

Or maybe it was from the martinis I mixed up.