The die is cast

The grad school application has been sent. All that remains is the writing test before the 20th and crossing my fingers until sometime in April.

Playing Earth: The MMORPG from Mars

I’m finishing up my grad school application right now — I have to polish one essay, start my other, upload my writing clips and pay my application fee before Monday, then set up my writing test locally and take it — and if I get in, I’ll be 3,000 miles away from my wife and child.

Besides the ever-present Treo, one of the ways Jenn and I will stay in touch will be World of Warcraft. (No Goldshire jokes, please.) It’ll let us interact in real time in an environment that allows us to “see” each other, after a fashion.

It turns out that NASA has a similar idea. Future astronauts on a Mars mission will likely do something very similar, logging into an Earth-simulation MMO to interact with loved ones back home. Sort of like Second Life, but with fewer freaks (probably).

The champ weighs in

At his vaccination appointment yesterday, James — who will be six months old next Friday — weighed in at 19 pounds, 12 ounces and is 27 inches high. For the percentage-minded, that puts him at the 90 percentile for his age for weight and in the 75 to 90 percent range for height. He wore his first 12 month outfit to the doctor.

The best song ever from a French rock band about Scarlett Johannsson

The somewhat mumbled lyrics:

I know you’re born in 84
Half polish half danish
You started at 8 on broadway
You’re a star

You don’t believe in monogamy
I’m not jealous scarlett will you marry me
All you’ve got you can like it
But what I am you will love it
(2x)

You whisper at horses ears
I always found it exciting
I’m scared by spiders too
I never managed to blame you

I’ll sell my mum to be lost with you
Lost in Tokyo or anywhere else
I wish I’d been invited
At your party in Disneyland

You don’t believe in monogamy
I’m not jealous scarlett will you marry me
All you’ve got you can like it
But what i am you will love it
(2x)

When I noticed for jared leto
I felt sad for 30 seconds
Oh when i noticed for Josh Hartnett
I prayed for 40 nights

You don’t believe in monogamy
I’m not jealous scarlett will you marry me
All you’ve got you can like it
But what i am you will love it
(2x)

The song is actually called “Starlett Johannsson,” presumably for legal reasons.

This week in the Associated Press

Monday’s Daily Press story about Donald Cooper, the Hesperia man who is now in jail, four years after pleading guilty to sexually violating the corpse of a 4-year-old girl, has been picked up by the Associated Press. (It’s up to eight pages of comments on the San Francisco Chronicle site as of this moment.)

My byline was not attached.