This blogger has created his own religion.

The weather reports are on auto-pilot from now until the end of August (click on image for larger version):

Today, I ran across The Teenager’s Guide to the Real World, which has many chapters online. I scanned chapter 1, Money Really Matters, which outlines how much money it would take to start a (really poor) life on one’s own as a young American, and then shows what a typical family’s budget might be.
Katie and I periodically do a budget by category, like the ones in this chapter. The book reminds me that when the kids get older, we need to show the budget to them and help them understand it.
This looks like a great book. I’ll have to keep it in mind for when my kids get older.

Today, I saw a car in the parking lot at my office. In the window was one of those yellow diamond shaped plastic signs that used to all say ‘Baby on Board’. This one said:

No lavo mi carro porque amo a mi tierra

English: I don’t wash my car because I love my country/earth
I understand the words, but I don’t understand the message.
Anyone? Leave a comment.

Last summer, Katie bought me a Sony Cybershot DSC-W1 digital camera, and I have really enjoyed it.
But during our short vacation in Galveston in May, my photos developed black spots. I quickly concluded that Gulf sand must have gotten inside the camera and settled on the optics or the digital sensor. I took it to a local camera shot, and they confirmed my diagnosis.
The camera shop employee suggested that I send it to Sony for cleaning/repair. When I mentioned that it was purchased just less than a year ago, the employee told me he doubted Sony would clean/repair it under warranty. That made sense to me, as dirt getting inside probably was not due to faulty workmanship or parts.
Well, I sent the camera off to Sony service, and it came back exactly one week later, fixed at no cost. I was pleasantly surprised–both that Sony fixed it under warranty, and at the fast turn-around.

When I was first trying out Flickr, I uploaded a test photo of our golden retriever Xena, and tagged it with ‘Xena‘.
Today, I happened across my Flickr photos and clicked on the link to see all photos tagged with ‘Xena‘. To my surprise, almost all of them were of pets, and only a few were of the television character. In particular, the user Kevin Steele really likes to photograph his cat Xena:

So, this guy won a contest with American Airlines. The prize: twelve flights for two people from any American city to any worldwide destination that American Airlines services. Cool!
He understood that he would have to claim the prize value as income on his tax return. But when he looked at the fine print of the offer, he realized that AA has assigned such a high ‘full retail value’ on the prize, that for all but the most distant and expensive destinations, he would owe much more in income tax for each ticket used than a comparable ticket would actually cost him retail. Crazy!
(Via This is Broken)

A little blasphemy is good for the soul: Jesus of the week, Dress up Jesus.

Newsweek just released its list of the top 100 U.S. high schools, and it’s been all over the local news that two Austin area schools, Westlake HS and Westwood HS, made the list.
There is a strong consensus among Austinites that these are both very good schools, but I have no idea how they stack up nationally.
I am generally very skeptical of such lists–or at least of their value–but Ed Felten goes a step further: he questions the methodology used to compile the list.