It's Better in Wyoming.

"A Christian university in Oregon said Tuesday it has punished four students who confessed to hanging a likeness of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from a tree on campus," says an AP story from earlier today. Good to see that a Christian upbringing is helping to create more sensitive and accepting citizens. Really, though, I shouldn't generalize; I'm still pissed off to find myself and all of Laramie lumped in with Matthew Shepard's killers. For the NYT to suggest that Laramie hasn't changed much in the past 10 years seems unfair. This is my town, and I've changed. Maybe I'm just one person, and maybe I haven't changed enough. But it's more than nothing.

Richard E. Miller, a guest speaker on campus last week and this, says that, in order to become mature thinkers, we need to have a "profound encounter with boredom" followed by a "profound encounter with frustration." I don't know that I entirely agree with him, but I do know the claim is going to make me think a bit. He says that the problem, these-a-days, is that kids don't ever have to really wallow in the boredom--whenever they start to get stuck a bit, they just fire off a text message, or go xBox, or distract themselves with one of a hundred distractions. So they never get to that point where they become so bored that they actually discover that things are interesting--that they can be engaged by things that don't immediately capture their stunted attentions. The concept makes a lotta sense to me, actually, and I wonder how teachers can encourage more profound boredom. Not just the average, run-of-the-mill kind of boredom, I mean. Most teache

I admit that I don't entirely understand this whole financial markets thing. Mostly, I assume it's smoke and mirrors. How can our government afford a $700 billion bailout? And I admit that it's probably morbid, but I do sort of wonder what would happen if we one day woke up to find that all the money disappeared. What irony, that the proposed bailout is named TARP (for the Troubled Asset Relief Program). The NYT just published an article calling the TARP "the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act." Marvelous. So far I've heard of two hiring freezes affecting friends of mine.

I hope they don't discover that aluminum foil leaches out dangerous chemicals when you throw it on the fire. Cuz I love the foil packet veggies. Somebody mentioned a weener yesterday or day before, and I've been craving a tasty brat ever since. Tonight I rode the xt225 off to Albertsons, picked up some tasty sweet italian sausages, and selected some choice vegetables for foil packet supreme. I chopped up a little green squash, some red onion, a sweet potato, and a tomater. Sprayed 'em down with olive oil, sprinkled steak salt on 'em, poured in a bit of PRB (America's Best in 1893!), and wrapped 'em up in the foil. God bless foil packet veggies. The brat was mighty-fine too, on a lightly toasted hoagie-ish roll. Apparently Albertson's is raising prices: the sticker on the potato rolls said "12 count" but I only counted 8. So I think they're going for the "same price, less stuff" trick--like the 14.5 oz. cans that used to be 16

So, since I've discovered that my nightly episode of Bones will probably lead me to declare bankruptcy after racking up thousands of dollars on credit cards, blowing money on expensive dinners, fancy vacations, and high-tech gadgets, I've decided I better find a new show. One that's less likely to increase my "mortality salience." Something like this . Cheese doesn't make me think about impending death. It's practically a food of the gods. Immortality salience, yeah.

"Shopping in the face of death is escapism, especially for those with relatively low self-esteem," concludes a recent article on reason.com . The article reports the findings of Naomi Mandel and Dirk Smeesters, whose study indicates that "mortality salience"--recognition of your own more-or-less impending death--makes you buy more stuff. This effect was first noticed after 9/11, but new studies also suggest that people who watch shows like CSI, Bones, and The First 48 Hours are more likely to consume (or think about consuming) food, drink, and other, uh, consumables. Like big screen TVs, fast cars, fancy perfumes, whatever. In other words, terrorism really IS good for business. It used to be that only the insurance companies (mostly, I guess) would capitalize on death, but this evidence makes me eagerly anticipate whole ad campaigns that subtly suggest my more-or-less impending death. This news makes me think I should stop watching Bones and CSI. Right after I

Just finished watching spiderwick chronicles. I dunno what I expected, but the film was no Lord of the Rings, or Golden Compass, not even Shrek. It was like, well, let's say it was like Spiderman 3. Like, it coulda had some potential, but it just came off as shallow, without much real mythology or backstory to give it any depth. I mean, I realize it's just a kid's story, but so is Harry Potter, and Harry Potter kicks the pants off of Jared and family. Maybe I should go watch "Burn After Reading" if I want some real depth...

So tonight I saw my first HGTV show about a house that didn't sell. I take this as a sure sign that the real estate run-up is running down. Of course, the house was in Denver, in some neighborhood that was "supposed" to get gentrified. Of course, the dude bought it in the winter, when all the homeless guys were sleeping under the bridge, instead of hanging out on his front yard, where they showed up once it got sunny. Of course, he did roll $20k of personal debt into his mortgage, which was one of the interest-only deals (or some similarly unbeatable offer), so that he owed more on his mortgage than his house was worth even when he bought it. Of course, taggers spray-painted the other side of his duplex while the house was on the market. Of course, he had to cancel his initial open house because he effed up and thought his primer was actually an attractive grey paint color. Or something like that. Of course, his newly-certified real estate "friend" offered to

I think maybe it's Curious George who Prez-in-Waiting McCain reminds me of. Of course, Bush kinda reminds me of a monkey too.