A little reverse web stalking shout-out to Jamie Jamison AKA niteowl (“That’s NITEOWL, dammit!”) for all his great writing back in the oldy moldy days of UWbb. Thanks to you and some other gun-friendly pals, I’m finally going to use a firearm this weekend. If I don’t break my ass from the kick of a rifle, thanks, man!

Not just because your socks will go all green, but you may find something extra in your luggage. Yikes!

All web users enjoy the number 404, and there are plenty of interesting 404 error messages out there. The kind folks at the 404 research lab have given us Area 404, where you can see many of the best, categorized for easier browsing. There is also 404 Headlines, where I found pointers to a cellphone-originated blog and creamedpeas, which seem to be creations of the same person. The most recent creamedpeas project was Confidential To:. A fair sample is this letter from an engaged woman to her chicken-shit best-friend who, it turns out, has wanted her all these years. But I recommend starting at the beginning and reading until you can’t take any more.
Update: this one cracked me up.

A Wiki cataloging of TV molecules. Okay, “Television Tropes, Idioms and Devices.” Among them, Phlebotinum, which I am under the impression was coined by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer writing staff.
(later: sorry, I’m dumb, lots of this stuff is from the Jossverse- it’s from Buffista org people.)
I must say, I know more than one person who will read this who could probably write a pretty definitive guide just on their own. And perhaps should. I’ll help with the research and footnotes.

It doesn’t take Inspector Morse to smell something funny about this Masonic Initiation mishap.

BC serial killer/pig farmer – sorry, accused serial killer/pig farmer – Robert Pickton may have mixed business with hobby.

Wow, O’Reilly’s Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks looks like super fun! Also, it’s got the first Internet-enabled kitchen appliances that actually make sense- a toaster that tells you about the weather, on your toast!

Okay, confession time: I’m dipping into self-help books again. The last foray was into the works of Albert Ellis, especially A Guide to Rational Living. This time it’s FlyLady‘s Sink Reflections. Interestingly enough (not really) they both touch on the same bad habits of thought that can keep a person in a non-productive cycle in life. Next up, Richard Wiseman‘s* The Luck Factor: changing your luck, changing your life, the four essential principles.

*Hey, it looks like the other work he’s done has more than once been featured in FP. He also did a show with science superstar Simon Singh performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

Religious political extremists the American Family Association are running another poll, possibly just to find out how badly tainted their mailing list got from that gay marriage poll a while back. Based on the fact that Kerry had something like 93% of the votes in the poll, I’m guessing they are mailing to a lot of folks who don’t agree with much of their agenda.

Gizmodo gets Cory Doctorow to empty his pockets and now I have gadget envy. I went purse shopping this morning to find something big, sturdy and butch to put all my toys in but was unable to find what I needed. I may have to grow my own…