i like greg the boyfriend. he is totally worth reading for his bizarre insights into the male mind (whatever that means, anyway), and this one story about how he got a girl to believe he was gay so he could end up dating her ("this is about one boy lying about taking it up the ass so that he and this girl can get to know each other in a normal healthy way."). you should read him. it's a good way to pass time at work. i should know!

i'm going to pull an instapundit and link to a really fantastic photo gallery, here. shots of a trip to vietnam. the photographer really excels at something i've always failed miserably at when taking pictures: getting beautiful shots of people. a few favorites:

dammit. scratch that. i can't get them to load, for some reason. well, just go look at them all.

Okay, I need some technical help. My genius EE former roommate Jon Brookshire isn't on IM and my old laptop is littered in tiny pieces across the coffee table. The damn thing won't turn on -- no fans, no hard drives spinning, nothing.

Right now, I'm hoping the problem lies with a certain doohickey that sits on the daughtercard holding the power switch and status LEDs. It's got "S2" written over it, and it looks kind of like this:

It's long and thin, has a hole in the middle, and is mostly encased in a light blue plastic insulator. All of these things are by design. What looks wrong with it is some brown discoloration on the left, and the fact that there's a hair-thin break partway through (the vertical gap -- in the picture it's somewhat exaggerated), as if it has split and the two sides shifted slightly so they're offset. Also -- very encouragingly -- it doesn't pass current from one side to the other (either direction -- it's not a diode), according to my newly acquired multimeter (and assuming I'm using it right to test for continuity by using the 200 ohm resistance test setting). Sounds like a burnt-out component to me.

It would be awfully nice if this were the problem -- it's close to the power switch, it's easy to get to, and it doesn't look very expensive. Unfortunately, I don't know what it is. Any ideas? A fuse of some sort? Nothing would please me more than somebody saying "it's nothing important, just short it out and start up your laptop" (which is a KDS 6480, if that matters). But I'm scared to try that without knowing what I'm doing. If anyone has any friends that are electrical engineers, do me a favor and bug them to check out the graphic above and see if they can tell me what it is.

i just signed myself up for the lottery for the marine corps marathon in october. why, i cannot exactly say, but i suppose i'm trying to tempt fate in some sort of bizarre way. i'm counting on god letting me know that i'm really, really not meant to be running 26.2 miles in my lifetime by not letting me get picked. we'll see. i mean, if god WANTS me to run a marathon, what am i supposed to do? i guess i'll have to. if god says so.

anyway, i'm still running the race for the cure 5k june 5th, the lawyers have hearts 10k june 12th (not cause i think lawyers have hearts, but cause it's the next 10k in the d.c. area), and the rock n roll half marathon in virginia beach labor day weekend. if you suffer a sudden change of heart and decide you want to run any of this stuff with me, please do. running is always more fun with a buddy. otherwise it's just me and my lonely ipod.

update: speaking of my lonely ipod, that brings me to another subject. songs that are good to run/exercise to! what are they? usually i do a lot of blur, pulp -- surprisingly, "angels of silences" by the counting crows is a super good running song -- but i need more songs. so i can eventually create the ULTIMATE RUNNING PLAYLIST.

qualities for good running songs include: consistently upbeat tempo (obviously), loud drums, maybe some anger and/or girl power anthems that simultaneously make me want to run and kick some male loser's ass. i'm okay with going outside my usual musical tastes, as well--for example, if you've got a white snake song that makes you want to kickbox or something, let me know. i mean, i love music, but the stuff i ordinarily listen to...ie, belle&sebastian, pavement, wilco...they're just not exactly exercise-inspiring (though, actually, a few wilco songs are pretty good to run to).

anyway. let me have song suggestions. per favore.

i know everybody and their mother has already read this or linked to it, but good god, this is funny. especially the lileks parody.

yet another reason to think about moving to the city: from hit and run: Virginia's anti-gay law called strictest in nation.

The new law is an amendment to the state's 1997 Affirmation of Marriage Act, which prohibits gay marriages. The amendment extends that ban to civil unions, partnership contracts and other "arrangements between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."

Some legal experts say the law is so vague it could interfere with powers of attorney, wills, medical directives, child custody, property arrangements and joint bank accounts.