Blaine's PAX2009 trip photos. (high-res versions of specific photos available by request, 3072x2304 max on most)

We also brought back three different illnesses! Mike with bronchitis, me with some flu-ish bug, and Bryce with the H1N1 (a H1Nerd1 winner!).

RPTS WIFE BROKE PHONE & PULLED HIM OUT OF HOUSE BY HIS EAR

Owned :)

http://twitter.com/HerrChin

I'm surprised "666" didn't make the DMV's list of prohibited sequences. I wonder if "SEX" or anything else will ever pop up.

However, my hands are now performing the wrong light switch operation maneuvers for the room they're in. I'm trying to click in a traditional switch, and I'm trying to flick up a flush, flat button. Fail.

The single greatest killer of Americans is the so-called “lifestyle disease”. Somewhere between half a million and a million of us get a short ride in a long hearse every year because of smoking, lousy diets, parking our bodies in front of the TV instead of operating them, and downing yet another six pack and / or tequila popper.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure.

After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we’re ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience “cessation of life” due to medical errors – botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and “nosocomial infections”. (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.)

The next most dangerous encounter the average American is likely to have is with a co-worker with an infection. Or a doorknob, stair railing or restaurant utensil touched by someone with the crud. “Microbial Agents” (read bugs like flu and pneumonia) will send 75,000 of us to meet the Reaper this year.

If we live through those social encounters, the next greatest danger is “Toxic Agents” – asbestos in our ceiling, lead in our pipes, the stuff we spray on our lawns or pour down our clogged drains. Annual body count from these handy consumer products is around 55,000.

After that, the most dangerous person in our lives is the one behind the wheel. About 42,000 of us will cash our chips in our rides this year. More than half will do so because we didn’t wear a seat belt. (Lest it wrinkle our suit.)

Some 31,000 of us will commit suicide by intention this year. (As opposed to not fastening our seat belts or smoking, by which we didn’t really mean to kill ourselves.)

...

Deaths of Americans due to terrorist activities, according to the US State Department, have averaged less than 15 per year since 2002. And all of those occurred abroad. The majority were in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. (Civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were not counted due to the fact those occurred in war zones.)

A must-read for any Facebook user. MySpace users...well, there's no help for you, is there?

-blaine

Probably a localized problem, and hopefully very temporary.

I'll be joining Five Nines Technology Group soon. Look for me in Lincoln! (you know, that please that I've rarely been the last several years...)

Hilton chain, Delta, American Airlines...I bid you farewell for a while.

My phone number has changed. Hopefully you got a note from me by email or text message. If not, someone you know surely did, so ask around for it.

Other than that, it's roughly the same speed (from a usage perspective) as Firefox, though my machines tend to be plenty fast anyway.

I love the polish. Every little feature is either just right, or better than other browsers. Keep the best, improve on the rest. For example, the active text-entry box is clearly highlighted with a colored border. Simple, but tasty, and now I'm spoiled when I use other browsers that lack those polishes.

Polish that Chrome (cough).

Well I'll be!