1. Wal-mart was named for...
Today I was talking to Danny's mom, getting ready to go to this beloved store when, all of a sudden, it hit me. Sam Walton began Wal-Mart, hence the name. I'm so stupid.

2. 'Windshield factor'
Until my senior year of high school, every time I heard the weatherman speak of the 'wind chill factor' on the local news, I thought they were talking about the temperature of your car's windshield. Apparently, it has less to do with glass that you never touch in the winter and more to do with the wind as it blasts your face.

3. Premium Night
Sodexho, Truman's food service provider, used to serve us 'steak' and baked potatoes (and sometimes unidentifiable seafood) in the dorm cafeteria on what I thought was a random schedule. Hence, each time I would stumble upon a Premium Night menu, I was pleasantly surprised. The last week of my dorm life, I realized that Premium Night took place on the first Tuesday of every month.

4. 'Back burner'
As a communication major and English minor, I really should think about the origin of words. But, alas, I am just not curious. Honestly, why didn't I figure this one out earlier?

5. Hastings jingle
The purveyor of all things media used to run commercials touting it was "your entertainment superstore". Unfortunately, I was once singing along to a jingle and couldn't hide my lack of understanding: "Hastings-You really tamed this superstar." Before you mock, remember, it's not the only commercial that doesn't make sense.

Ïf you were really brave, you would tell me your own tales of stupidity.

Also, check out this guy's list of mispronounced words.

Today I called SBC and found out how to configure my router to work with the DSL modem. So now I've got internet on my laptop and on my PC in the basement. Hoorah.

I've tried a ton of rss reading apps and until now they've all had one or more of these problems:

1. Doesn't remember what I've read.

2. Doesn't play nice with Firefox. Tries to open links in IE [shudder] or opens links internally with browser based on IE (hello pop-ups). No quick way to load a link in a new Firefox tab.

3. Doesn't work.

4. Costs money.

5. Not available on Windows and Linux.

6. No auto-discovery.

But today I was looking for new prospects and I saw a link for Bloglines. I've tried NewsIsFree.com and I wasn't impressed, but I decided to give Bloglines a try. So far I really like it. It doesn't have any of the problems listed above. It's web-based so you can use it on any platform. It's layed out really well and it uses JavaScript commands (like Gmail) so you're not constantly reloading the page (like Hotmail). It's free and there are no ads that I know of. The best part is that you can download a tiny little extension for Mozilla / Firefox called Mozilla Toolkit. It puts a small icon in your browser that notifies you when a feed has been updated. It also lets you choose how to load links ('new tab' is an option) and it gives you some right click options for subscribing to feeds (including auto-discovery).

If you haven't found a feed reader that you like or you read blogs from a couple of different computers, Bloglines is worth a try. If you need some feeds to get started, here are the feeds to most of the blogs at Brendoman.com. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you can import and export lists of subscriptions (*.opml).

I got a Gmail account, thanks to Blogger. brendoman AT gmail.com is mine! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, but it's cool to have 1 GB of storage space on the net that I can send stuff to. I don't have invites yet, but I've already promised a couple people so there is already a list.

I just got an e-mail from Ticketmaster saying that They Might Be Giants are playing at The Blue Note on June 13th. I'm going to be in California. So that's a slight bummer.

Update: I'm dumb. I checked the Blue Note website and it's on July 13th, which means I can go. Woo! We should make this a group outing!

From the funny old booklet department: How To Make Friends by Telephone

I just finished reading these remarks by Al Gore about Bush's international policy. I was very surprised to see such bold and impassioned remarks from someone who, four years ago, seemed so lackluster and bland. I can't help but wonder if, now that he is not campaigning for president, Gore feels free to express his true views and opinions. Had I seen this side of him four years ago, I would have been much more enthusiastic about supporting him. I wish that politicians had the boldness to say such things during elections. Instead, candidates of both major political parties fight for control of the middle, uncontroversial position, so that they can pursue their own agenda once elected.

Please remove your links to my blog.

I think it's too easy for university people to follow a trail to my blog, and I'd like to feel free to blog saying anything I'd like.

Oh man it was a long weekend! But a fun one. Saturday was International Meat Day, which I know you are all aware of. Ric and I had to go to a graduation party in Laguna Beach. Of course, we were given skimpy directions and ended up in a beautiful neighborhood that wasn't anywhere near where we were supposed to be. We called up and said we were looking for Las Brisas, and the wife says, "Oh! That's a restauraunt! That's my fault, sorry!" So, a Thomas Guide search later, we were going to park and found that we needed to pay the meter with ONLY quarters, and had to circle back to the nearest fast food place to get some change. Thus, my first meal on IMD was: popcorn chicken from KFC. Decent taste, nothing special. We eventually got to the party and they were offering a vast selection of sausage, sausage, or sausage - all of which had funky flavoring. I wouldn't touch them.

Later that night we got together with Gron and Justin and Michelle for dinner at Ruby's. Boy did that food bite. Greasy as heck. Anyway, the highlight of that night was when we realized Albers was there with his family, only a couple of tables away. Once we clued in Justin and Michelle as to who he was, they started having loud conversation about how having an abortion was the best choice they ever made. Everyone cursed up a storm, and Albers definitely noticed. Ha ha ha. There was also a creepy couple who watched us from across the way because they couldn't make decent conversation with each other.

Later that night we watched the Book of Mormon movie while drinking. It was so bad I just fell asleep.

Sunday we had a surprise birthday party for Jon and Wes. I extended my meat day to a meat weekend because the food was so bad on Saturday, and let myself have some tasty grilled chicken. We had a fun time with the games, including "Pin the Lei on the Pinup Girl" and a watergun competition for the guys. Good times, good times. You can see the pictures HERE.