Last night, the aged Hotpoint washing machine my girlfriend moved into my house stopped working. Or, more likely, it stopped working some time ago, and we just noticed last night. The agitator wasn’t agitating, and that pretty much prevents dirty clothes from becomming clean clothes. I’m not a handy man (though I do have a knack for fixing things), but I blindly began disassambling the agitator. On the inside, I found some cracked plastic that prevented the agitator from sitting completely on the spinny knobby geary thing (I’m really not a handyman, you see. I’m sure that thing has a real name.) in the middle of the drum. Sure that that was the problem, I went to the internet to find out more. As I’ve said before, the internat can make you seem like an expert on anything, and this was no exception. Our model of washing machine has long since been discontinued, and Hotpoint isn’t even its own company anymore, but still I was able to find not just an online catalog of parts and accessories, but also a complete schematic for the machine in PDF format for downloading. I know the exact part I need, but thanks to the schematic, I was able to jerry-rig it so it should last another several months at least. Viva la internet!

I’ve got just over a gallon of various dried fruits soaking in the best aged Nicaraguan rum I could afford in my pantry right now. This weekend, they will become four of Alton Brown’s fruitcakes. And I can’t wait.

The editor of my favorite British newspaper, The Guardian , is risking deportation “for the term of his natural life” by calling for the abolishment of the monarchy. In this article, they argue that the requirement that the crown can only pass to Protestant heirs of Princess Sophia (making Catholics, those that marry Catholics, and those born out of wedlock ineligible), and the requirement that male children get the first shot to the thrown over older sisters, violate the European Human Rights Act, now law in Britain.

Do you want to follow along behind the scenes of a play in production? I’m directing Christopher Durang’s Baby With the Bathwater , and I’ve formed an egroup mailing list for my cast and crew. You can join, if that’s the kind of thing that would interest you.

It’s Pearl Harbor Day. The 59th anniversary of the US’s entry into World War II. Of course it’s the “day that will live in infamy,” but with what we know now, that whole speech just rings wrong. In college, we noted this day on several occasions by having a Pearl Harbor Party. The theme drinks were B-52’s and Kamikazes, and they were drunk in revered remembrance in great quantities. I vividly recall one year’s party (I don’t know how, considering how many B-52’s I had) hosted by Randy. After solemnly noting the beginning of way well into the night, I then had a drunken conversation on physics homework with Marjorie, took an incredibly drunk Charlie across campus to some friends’ house (known affectionately as TenTen, since that was the street address), to play a game of Avalon Hill’s Civilization. I explained the rules to him, and he listened. After that, he excused himself for being to drunk to play and left. Meanwhile, the residents of the house, perfectly sober when we walked in, were busy catching up so they wouldn’t have an unfair advantage over me. Very nice fellows, they were! The game lasted until just about sunrise, at which point I left to nap a bit in my dorm room. I’d left my door unlocked, and a surprise awaited me there, but I’ll keep that memory to myself.

Up With People is down on its luck.

I finished casting last night. There were four times as many people as parts, so I had to make some hard choices and turn away people I really like (or would really like) to work with. This ends a four week long string of busyness, so tonight I can finish cleaning the kitchen and tomorrow I can take time to return the countless emails that have piled up in my inbox. And maybe even start wrinting here again like I used to. Ahh… those were the good old days.

In the future, many languages spoken today will be lost. One group seeks to preserve them by creating a modend day “Rosetta stone”. They are engraving common text as well as creation myths and grammar primers onto a three inch nickel disk. It won’t be digital, either. It’ll be complete engravings, readable with a simple 10,000x magnifying lens. I found this on eatonweb.

The Big Eyed Art Bananza: “I bet you’ve probably already guessed- I am totally obsessed with big, poor, pitiful, weepy, sad eyes. " Puppies, cats, cute little girls. If you like big eyes, here’s your place. Unless you’re looking for anime big eyed art. Western art only, here.

Friday, December 1, was World Aids Day. This weblog was unavailable then.