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.

Here's this week's Friday Five (a couple of hours early, even):

1. What's your favorite vacation spot?
I haven't been to a lot of "vacation spots," but one memorable trip I took was to Costa Rica. My traveling companions and I did pretty much all the things you can possibly do in a week there -- volcanos, beaches, rainforests and of course, monkeys.

2. Where do you consider to be the biggest hell-hole on earth?
Besides San Jose, California? Ha ha, just kidding. Sort of. My final answer is Catoosa, Oklahoma, where I spent the worst few months of my life. I understand the place is a well-manicured big golf-course community now.

3. What would be your dream vacation?
A summer traveling through Europe, as if I were a college student again.

4. If you could go on a road-trip with anyone, who would it be and why?
I guess I'd better say my girlfriend, Andrea. I generally don't like road trips, but that would be a good way of knowing someone in a hurry. You deal with stress, irritating habits, sharing, compromise and money all in one setting.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
The girls at work are having their monthly poker night, so Jeff (Sarah's boyfriend) and I are going to see a few movies at Cinequest. The event wraps up this weekend, and I'm sad to say I've only seen a handful of films. On the bright side, most of the ones I've seen are are decent, and if you add up all the good films I've seen so far, I'm already ahead of last year's film festival. Anyway, Saturday night we celebrate Andrea's birthday, which actually occurs on Sunday. But maybe it really is Saturday, when you take into account the time difference between here and Brazil. At any rate, I suppose I'll spend part of Friday shopping for a gift. Or maybe I'll just put it off until Saturday.

Yahoo! News - 'We've got work to do' on image with Muslims, Bush says

Though a majority, 67%, said the terror attacks Sept. 11 were morally unjustifiable, a significant minority, 15%, disagreed. Only 18% of those polled in six Islamic countries said they believed Arabs carried out the attacks. U.S. officials said all 19 hijackers were Arabs.

You're kidding me -- only 67 percent of Middle East Muslims think the WTC attack is morally unjustifiable? Suddenly, I don't give a crap what our "allies" in that region think of us.

GOP unlikely to filibuster campaign bill

Can it really be this close to passing?

Pearl Case Defense Lawyer Prefers Trial in U.S.

Because we're so unfair here, and all.

Salon.com News | Bush renews campaign for Arctic oil
President Bush on Saturday renewed his campaign to open an Arctic refuge to oil exploration, contending that drilling is essential to national security and job creation.

National security? Mr. President, even you can milk things only so much before the teat becomes dry.

I went with Sarah to the Cinequest film festival opening last night. Despite having "platinum" press passes, we got there late and got stuck in the second row of the theater. Before the movie started, we were talking in our usual loud way about the movie's star/director, Mike Binder, agreeing that we both hate his HBO show, Mind of the Married Man. Anyway, when they asked him to come to the front of the auditorium to make some opening comments, we realized to our embarrassment that he had been sitting directly in front of Sarah the entire time up to that point. We laughed, and continued to talk about how much we hate the show. Then Binder introduced his co-star in the movie, Sonya Walger, who also stars in the HBO series. As she got up to speak, we realized she had been sitting in front of me the whole time. True story.

This week's Friday Five:

1. Hey, baby, what's your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?
Cancer, and I don't believe any astrological sign fits very well. Come on, its the 21st century. Isn't voodoo passe?

2. What's the worst birthday gift you've ever received?
A stupid clock thing I got last year from my employer. Office gifts are always crappy -- the employee gift budget is too low to get anything nice, and co-workers (usually managers) are too pressed for time to get something creative.

3. What's the best birthday gift you've ever received?
Probably my first computer, an Atari 600 XL.

4. What's the best way you've celebrated your birthday thus far?
For my 30th birthday, my friends hosted a "trailer-trash ball" party. It was very fun and touching. So naturally, I moved away a few months later.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
The annual San Jose Cinequest Film Festival has officially begun, so I'll be seeing lots and lots of movies for the next two weeks. I'm hoping to find a couple of gems among the loads of crap that couldn't find a first-tier distributor. And Sunday, I pick up Andrea from the airport!

Missing reporter dead

Bastards.

Here I am, waiting for V.P. Cheny to speak. I couldn't be more bored.