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That spider

Well, after a little bit of Google searching, I managed to figure out what that spider was.

First I started at the International Society for Arachnology page. The web was kind of orb-ish, so I clicked on the Orb web spiders page. Lo and behold, there was a picture of the spider, Argiope aurantia. This spider apparently goes by several aliases: Yellow Garden Spider, Black-And-Yellow Argiope, Golden Orb Weaver, Yellow Argiope, Writing Spider, Golden Garden Spider. According to this page, the spider should be mostly harmless. Sure doesn’t look it.

So there you are. Yet another illustration of the power of the Internet :).

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What Matrix Persona Are You?

You are Morpheus-You are Morpheus, from “The Matrix.” You
have strong faith in yourself and those around
you. A true leader, you are relentless in your
persuit.

What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Motorbikes

My brother-in-law is planning on getting a Yamaha FJR1300 sometime next spring. He’s trying to convince me to get a motorbike too. I doubt I’d get one like he’s planning on getting, but the new Honda Silverwing scooter looks pretty cool, and is a little more my speed (no shifting to deal with). My father-in-law already has a 1987 Honda Helix that I’ve ridden. It’s a fun little bike to ride.

I doubt I’ll be getting a bike anytime soon, although a Trek 2300 would be pretty sweet. For the type of riding I do, it’s probably overkill, so I’ll settle for a Trek 2000.

Since we’re saving for a house now, any big purchases will have to be carefully scrutinized. I don’t think I’ll be getting any of these for a while yet. Besides, I have nowhere to store them until we do get a house.

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7 donations?

A few weeks ago, the people that run the blood donor room at work held a little party to celebrate and thank people that donated blood over the past year. I got a small award for having 6 donations, which I thought was the most anyone could donate in a year.

So, much to my surprise, they were also honouring a small group who managed to squeeze in a 7th donation. Kudos to them, but I’m still trying to figure out how they got in a 7th donation. Donating every 8 weeks, the math says that 6 is as many as you can squeeze into a calendar year. Maybe their ‘year’ is longer than everyone elses…

Anyway, go donate blood and help someone out after you finish reading this.

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Truly ridiculous lawsuits

One of the few email newsletters I subscribe to is one called True Stella Awards. The weekly newsletter highlights a truly ridiculous lawsuit that someone’s filed. The lawsuit for this week was some kid who got a conditional acceptance to UNC, slacked off his senior year and failed a bunch of classes. So, not surprisingly, UNC rescinded their acceptance offer. So the kid decides to sue.

After reading a few back issues, I’m sure you’ll find the things some people will do to avoid taking responsibility for their own stupidity can be astounding.