Here's this week's Friday Five:

1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose?
Abraham Lincoln, still the greatest U.S. persident.

2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?
Not really, but one of the few famous people I was sad to see die was comedian Phil Hartman, one of the funiest and most industrious actors of the 1990s. He starred in one of the funiest shows ever, News Radio, and made frequent appearances on The Simpsons among others.

3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose?
Conan O'Brien. Talk about a dream job.

4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?
People have said Iook like Ethan Hawk and Jim Carey, which is odd since they don't even resemble each other.

5. Have you ever met anyone famous?
I once had dinner with a small group of people that included italian singer Andrea Bocelli, but he didn't seem too happy to see me. (Rimshot) I'll be in town all week, folks! Tell your friends about the show! Seriously, I really did have dinner with him.

Well here we are in Arizona. The fist night went well, and Andrea liked the Orange Blossom smell of Arizona spring.

It's here! Now I need to buy a wireless Ethernet bridge.

UPS Package Tracking
Status: In Transit
Scheduled Delivery: Mar 21, 2002
Shipped to: SAN JOSE, CA, US
Shipped or Billed on: Mar 18, 2002

That's right, folks. My ReplayTV should be here in a matter of minutes! I hope it's worth it. If I had known they were shipping it from Tempe, I would have just picked it up this weekend.

After nearly two years of banging my head against a wall, searching Microsoft's "knowledge base," scouring the newsgroups, upgrading twice and seriously contemplating deleting all my credit card account information and starting over, I've finally solved an extremely annoying problem with Microsoft Money.

The issue: despite setting my total monthly debt payments at a healthy, serious-about-paying-off-my-debt figure every month, my debt reduction planner was scheduling the minimum payments, which according to its own projections would extend the payments out through the year 2013, and then pay off the cards in one ridiculous lump-sum of $5,000 or so at the end. Obviously, the planner should have allocated my full intended monthly payment amount among the credit cards to pay the total off in a few years. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the stupid thing to work right, and just guessed the payments myself every month. This is not a good idea for English majors, by the way.

The solution: I deleted my Macy's account, which had been acting weird and showed a credit, though I had not updated activity with Money for months (it's an Enron-style off-budget account). Problem solved; it's allocating the monthly payment just fine now.

While I didn't actually work on the issue continuously, I did keep looking for a solution every few months for at least two years. Finally, I feel like I've accomplished something great, when I should have just switched home-banking applications. Microsoft should thank its lucky stars that I liked the automatic online banking features so much, or the company would be $20 poorer. And then where would it be?

Senate passes campaign finance measure

Wow, this is big. I can't believe it passed.

I just got off deadline and feel like I've just gotten over college finals or something. Writing all day can really wear a person out.

Here are the Monterey pictures!

Is the weekend over already? I visited Monterey for the first time on Saturday and saw the real Cannery Row made famous by the John Steinbeck novel of the same name. I suppose "real" is relative there, since it's a tourist attraction now and every other building is a Steinbeck memorial. But it was pretty cool. I'll post pictures later today.

This week's Friday Five:

1. What's your favorite animal?
Dogs are great. I don't own one now, but I'd love to get one someday when I have my own house. Pardon the cliche, but there's no more loyal animal. If you're talking about exotic animals, lions and kangaroos are pretty cool, too.

2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
Just the usual collection of housepets: Dogs, cats, a cockateel, hampsters, rabbits, a pony, a snake, a ferrit, 28 Polish chickens and four pigs named after family members.

3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
Monkeys, because they're so facinatingly human-like. It's weird to see such intelligence in an animal.

4. Are you allergic to any animals?
Definitely cats and probably dogs, too. When ever I go to Goeff and Sarah's apartment (they have a large collection of feline misfts), I start sneezing uncontrolably. But maybe Claritin solves that problem. I'll have to conduct an experiment.

5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
Cat pee. That stench is nearly impossible to remove once it's set in something.

Re-freakin-posted from earlier today, after Blogger deleted my post in the middle of editing it.

This week's Friday Five:

1. What's your favorite animal?
Dogs. Excuse the cliche, but dogs are the most loyal and loving animals around. Sure, it's more a case of bred instinct than true love, but what's the practical difference? In fact, one could argue that instict is more constant than fickle emotion. (No, this is not a sly reference to my wonderful girlfriend, just a general observation.)

2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
Oh, the usual. Dogs, cats, hamsters, turtles, rabbits, a cockateel, a ferrit, a pony, a snake, 28 polish chickens and four pigs named after family members.

3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
I think monkeys are pretty cool. There's so fascinatingly human-like. It's just so intriguing to see such intelligence in an animal.

4. Are you allergic to any animals?
Definitely cats and probably dogs. Everytime I go to Geoff's and Sarah's apartment (they have quite a collection of feline misfits), I fall into an uncontrollable sneezing fit. But maybe Claritin solves that problem. I'll have to conduct an experiment.

5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
Cat pee. That stench is nearly impossible to remove once it's in something.

I can't believe Blogger deleted my last, long post. CRAP!!

My Yahoo! for Ken_brown_98

I got my shoes shined after lunch today, and now my cubicle smells like I've been sniffing paint all day.

Deep Breath

My roommate came home last night to say her boss photocopied a story I did a few weeks ago about Web services and distributed it to the people who work under him. It's nice to know that people in the industry are reading your stuff and taking it seriously.

Salon.com Comics | This Modern World

Another good one from Tom Tomorrow.

CNN.com - September 11 Memorial

CNN has created a simple but dignified September 11 memorial. It lists all the names, ages, hometowns, employers and locations of the more than 3,000 victims of that horrible morning, most of them with pictures. It's a reminder of why we're in Afghanistan.

Yet another Friday Five:

1. What makes you homesick?
The cold weather here in Northern California. Granted, it's not East Coast cold, but Arizona is one of the most consistently warm and sunny areas anywhere.

2. Where is "home" for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else (ie: Mom & Dad's house, particular state/city)?
Without a doubt, the Phoenix, Arizona area. I've never lived anywhere longer, and it's still the only place I've seen change over the years. But at the same time, I really miss the beaches and culture of Southern California.

3. What makes it home for you? People? Things?
A little bit of both. The distinguishing environment also plays a big role -- the scenery, climate even the roads and buildings. And of course, the memories associated with all of those.

4. Where is the furthest you've been from home, miles-wise?
I've hardly been anywhere, but I've visited Costa Rica, which according to Internet distance calculators is 2407 miles from Phoenix. But interestingly, New York is actually farther from my current home in San Jose, California at 2558 miles. I need to get out more

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
I really want to see Todd Solondz' movie, Storytellers. Other than that, nothing much.

Ford to sell hybrid-powered SUV

This looks interesting. Now let's see if Ford can find a way to think up an SUV name that doesn't start with the letter "E."

I'm watching the HBO Monica Lewinsky special (I swore I wouldn't), and have to say how interesting it all is in this post-Sept. 11 world. It's so interesting that we bombed an Al-Queida training camp during this whole mess. What seems more important now?

It's been a few days, but I'm happy to report that I'm finally better. Apparently this hell I've been through is all allergy-related. The doctor gave me some Claritan and so far, it's really working well.

I spent last night in a roomful of Republicans (yes, they do exist in California) covering the election. Conservative Bill Simon beat moderate Richard Riordan for the GOP nomination, assuring a victory for Democrat incumbent Gray Davis, who actually helped Simon win with TV ads attacking Riordan. You gotta love politics.

I did something today I may end up regretting: I ordered a ReplayTV. It costs $700, so I won't be buying anything gadget-related for the next few months. I think it'll be worth it, though.