While I was looking at this site stats, I figured I'd look at the interests as well (and maybe by adding a few, I might increase readership? nah...). LJ also has a Popular interests page, and here are some broad conclusions from it as of today:

There are 7750001 LJ accounts.

Lots of LJ-ers have sold out to the entertainment industry: music (15%), movies (9%).

Only 6% of the authors of LiveJournals are interested in writing; only 1.3% are interested in the Internet, and only 0.4% in LiveJournal. Makes you wonder why we bother...
I am among the lucky 4% who are interested in computers.

While 6% of LJ-ers like reading, only 3% of them are into books. Books are still the most interesting medium, with DVD's (2%) a close second.

Sleeping and swimming are equally popular activities. (3%)

Boys (3.7%) are 117% more interesting than girls (1.7%), but women (1.4%) are more interesting than men (1.0%). Is it something that happens when we grow up?
Cats (2.2%) are 150% more interesting than dogs (1.4%).

Sex (2.8%) is barely more interesting than food (2.5%). At the same time, only 1.5% are interested in kissing first, and even fewer (1.1%) like cuddling. While Coldplay (0.9%) made it, foreplay isn't even interesting enough to make the list.
Love (3.7%) conquers all emotions. Speaking of which, the single most interesting Unicode character is ♥ (0.5%).
"My Chemical Romance" (1.0%) beats actual romance (0.8%).
Chocolate (1.9%) is the most interesting food product, followed closely by cheese (1.7%). Coffee (1.6%) is most interesting drink. And, while 2.5% are interested in food, only 1.5% are interested in cooking it.

Summer (1.3%) is the most interesting season... and rain (2%) is the most interesting weather.

Although they're both almost equally popular (1.3%) at least 289 more people like cars than like driving them.

History and drinking (1.1%) are equally popular -- coincidence? I think not.

Canada (0.4%) is the most interesting country. California (0.5%) is the most interesting state/place.

Life (1%) is more interesting than death (0.7%), but "Star Wars" is almost as interesting as "Death Cab for Cutie" (0.9%)

Dancing (4.5%) is by far the most interesting sport.

311 (0.4%) is the most interesting phone number. 911, 411 and 867-5309 didn't even make the list.

God (0.9%) is by far the most interesting named deity, unless people really are workhipping the stars (1.9%). Jesus (0.5%) comes in second, pretty close to religion (0.5%).
Harry Potter (2.2%) is the most interesting named "person."

Dear Refrigerator Users,

If your milk is:
(1) expired,
(2) leaking,
(3) separated,
(4) green,
(5) or any combination of the above,

Please dispose of it.

Thank you.

By now you've probably heard the disturbing news. The Grand Rebbe of Turkoasiatistan made an annoucement today that Shabbos would be cancelled this week due to a scheduling conflict. The Grand Rebbe is greatly respected and is considered to be a leader in both the Chassidic and the Mitnagdic (if there even is such a thing anymore) Orthodox worlds. This announcement just proves that anyone considered to be a "gadol hador" can get away with just about anything, chas v'shalom. What's next, reinstituting animal sacrifices at shul? Voting for Democrats? Where is the OU's response? What about the Agudah and the Conference of the Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations? Write your rabbi! Write your MK! Write your congressman! End this outrage now!

Although this year, the text of our Purim kiddush was not updated (laziness), we did have 2-page long "source-sheets" (pdf) (OpenOffice.org 1.1 source*) including the text and translation to hand out. In order to make it exactly two pages, and get the formatting to work out, I did add an additional "explanatory" story and instruction set. Here it is:

Although some authorities deride the minhag of making kiddush on Purim as a minhag shtus, we follow the opinion of the Altered Rebbe. A long time ago, when the Rebbe was traveling with his Chassidim in the Highlands of Scotland, they walked into a town only to realize that it was midday on Purim, almost time for the se'udah. The quick-thinking Rebbe first tried to find if there were any Jews in the town, with whom to celebrate the holiday, but found that the only other Jews in the town were either heretics, or, equivalently, from a different Chassidic sect. This fact meant that they would be alone, in a strange, unknown and dangerous place for the all-important se'udah. The Rebbe and the Chassidim entered an inn. After a lively hour-long debate between the Rebbe and his heir about whether wine hechshered by the local authorities was kosher, it was decided that the potential treifness of the wine would have to be diluted. The Chassidim then cleaned out the inn's entire supply of hechshered wine and, some say, even the Scotch. But, before they drank, the Altered Rebbe lead them in the recitation of the kiddush for Purim. By sunset, they were so drunk, that they did not remember to read the Megillah. Nor did they notice that Purim had ended. To this day, the celebration continues in the Yeshivah of the Altered Rebbe.

It is customary to recite the kiddush for Purim during the Purim se'udah. The Purim kiddush is recited over a cup of wine and a cup of Scotch whisky, preferably of good quality. The cup of wine is held in the right hand, and the cup of Scotch in the left hand, symbolizing the primacy of the drink that requires the stronger hechsher. Following the beracha, at each quoted mention of words related to grape products, drink a sip of wine, and, at each mention of liquors, drink a sip of Scotch.

Additional instructions were added at the bottom of the kiddush:
MANY CONGREGATIONS RECITE ALL FIVE BOOKS OF TEHILLIM AT THIS POINT. OTHERS EAT AND DRINK.

Happy Shushan Purim!

*NOTE: The OOo source requires the nonstandard Cardo font.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

Along with the bank statement, I get a set of ads that try to tell me how wonderful the bank's service is. This one came with this month's statement:

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Point-of-sale ATM card and Check Card Authorizations

In our ongiong efforts to make banking with us easier, our goal is to authorize more transactions made using your ATM or Check Card even if it creates an overdraft on your account. When we permit your ATM or Check Card purchase to access unavailable funds or create an overdraft on your account, standard unavailable funds or overdraft fees may apply.
Please refer to the "Deposit Account Fee Schedule" for fee details.

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Gee, guys, thanks for the help...

From fleurdelis28 and rymenhild

The point is to bold everything you can do, italicize everything you can sort-of do, with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan.
Feel free to follow suit.

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin, (OK, this really doesn't take much -- Ed)
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery--
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy,
You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

---

OK, So perhaps I'm better suited to be a chief science officer.

I never thought I'd actually be happy to have an Apple in the house, but DW just got a new iBook G4. This means no more ranting about how slow the 'ol Celeron 600 notebook is, and no more recovery from Windows ME crashing. (I'm going to take over the old clunker and give it a new lease on life as a Debian laptop).

From setup (not an exact record, but gets the point):
DW: Can you help me get on the Internet?
Me: Sure. :: looks over at the broadband router ::
The light for you computer isn't on. (( This, of course, implies that it's not connected )).
DW: It's not set up yet.
:: shows me a screen asking for DHCP information. That's what she was asking for. Seems odd that the laptop wouldn't turn on the ethernet card until it got DHCP information, but what do I know ::
Me: Yes, you get your IP by DHCP. You don't need to enter a client ID.
DW: :: clicks "Continue" ... of course, an error message pops up saying it can't connect ::
Me: :: looks at the computer, wondering why there's a telephone cable in the modem slot, and the ethernet slot is empty ...
follow telephone cable ...
to a 2-sided ethernet extension device, which has an ethernet cable connected out the other side that is connected to LAN port 2 on the router ::
You know you just connected your ethernet to a telephone jack?
:: LOL ::

Needless to say, once the cables were sorted out, everything worked.

From the weekly email of the Chabad House of Montreal:

Pizza
Our restaurant is now serving home made pizza ! (open 12ish - 2ish)

I guess that makes it coincide with zman Shacharit.

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