I've only seen 12 of the World's Top 100 Wonders (which I think is pretty good for someone who is terrified of flying). My favorite was the Chambord Chateau, which was just fabulous. I want to see the Neuschwanstein Castle so bad, it hurts. I was going to make a trip out there by myself towards the end of my summer in France, but I chickened out. I have to get back over there to see that castle, as well as Pompeii, Venice, Scotland, and Mont St Michel... I just need a little more money and a lot more Xanax.

(link courtesy of web-goddess)

If you love weird, efficient housing, this Meta-filter post will interest you. They had a link for these tiny apartments, which started a flood of links to other housing not suitable for claustrophics. Fab Pre-Fab is a site dedicated to such housing... including the LoftCube, which I know we all saw on lotsofco a few months back.

I would love to live in one of these abodes, minus the white pressboard, but only if I continued to live alone, and someone sent the Clean Sweep crew out here to help me embrace minimalism more fully.

Atlanta then-and-now photos... If you're a fellow Atlantan or just like before-and-after pictures, this is a cool site. I wish there were some Tech campus photos, but I recognize a lot of these places.

(Link courtesy of j-walk)

Crazy Headlines- takes a little time to read them all, but it's worth it.

(Link courtesy of j-walk)

Why does Senator Zell Miller still call himself a Democrat? What real Democrat would not only endorse Bush, but even speak at the GOP convention? I guess Bushists would think it's a great triumph to have a Democrat endorse Bush, but Zell surely doesn't count anymore.

Zell is also interesting because while he was governor, he had Beethoven for Babies distributed to all newborns in Georgia because research showed that it could increase spatial abilities. Problem? The one piece of research that showed this effect used college students as participants, and the effect on reasoning abilities lasted 15 minutes. LAaaame.

Taylor says... Peace out.

Impossible Feats. Like a FARK photoshop contest, but with slightly better quality.

Ooh, AFI names the 100 Best Movie Songs. There are some classics on there, but the obvious oversight is "Damn is Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" from Office Space. The true classic...

Note: Woah, "Lose Yourself" from 8 Miles made the cut? The injustice for Office Space is tripled.

Yeah, he came off a little childish, but Dave Chappelle had a point. Plus, he's so dang funny, why would you want to relive the show and ignore what else he has to say?

"People can't distinguish between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show. You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking."

"Shouts continued to interrupt Chappelle's routine until he stopped to give a lecture on "how comedy usually works: I say something. You mull it over and decide whether you want to laugh or not, and then you do or not. Then I say something else, and you think about that."

Here's the best part:

"Stop listening to celebrities," he said. "They do what they do for money - that's all. I don't even know why you're listening to me. I've done commercials for both Coke and Pepsi. Truth is, I can't even taste the difference, but Pepsi paid me last, so there it is."

(courtesy of FARK)

I just passed another milestone... Rachel (my GT friend, for whom I was a bridesmaid) just had her baby last night! We're going to pretend this is Taylor. It's from the nursery pictures at her hospital (who knows how old the pic is), and I know she did a classic Pooh theme. Close enough for now.

I hate that I'm moving away so soon; she has repeatedly assured us that we have babysitting privileges, and that I could easily assume honorary-Aunt status with little Taylor. I guess I'll just have to be his crazy honorary aunt in Iowa.

This Iowa City police blotter is reassuring. If I can just dodge the drunk drivers, I'm good. Well, so long as I can also dodge the scary tornadoes.

AHS update - Erin and Ali both got engaged in the last two weeks (not to each other, which will surprise many c/o 99'ers). And no, you probably don't know the lucky guys. What's even better is Erin gave me an awesome new wedding website to surf - Indie Bride. TheKnot.com is so 2000. Weddings really are contagious, though I am, thankfully, immune.

Follow up: My Stupid Wedding is hilarious. Don't tell me if you know it's fake, it's so much funnier thinking it's for real.

I'm not sure this guy at the Chicago Sun-Times is an authority, but I still like his ranking of the top 20 sports rivalries because he acknowledges my most dearly held hatred of Bama:

"Alabama-Auburn: No rivalry comes close to the bitterness between these schools. The Iron Bowl divides the state, and that's why from 1948 to '89 it was played in neutral Birmingham. There was no meeting for almost 40 years because of a dispute between the schools over nearly everything, including how many players to suit up. When Fob James, a former All-American halfback at Auburn, ran for governor in 1978, Crimson Tide fans paid for advertisements asking the public if it wanted a former Auburn player in the governor's mansion? He won the election nonetheless."

I didn't realize Fob James was Auburn-affiliated. If I had known, maybe I wouldn't have helped so many of his campaign signs disappear.

From FARK: The most fun flash game I've seen in a long time.
(Like whack-a-mole, but with evil, tricky aliens)

Since some of you are fans of Spellbound, I figured I would pass along 3XK's update on the Spelling Bee Championships:
"I was just watching the Spelling Bee finals, and this Indian kid..He couldn't figure out how to spell "alopecoid"..and after like 3 minutes, he just passed out..fell on the floor..got right back up and immediately spelled the word correctly. Maybe now I get why this is on ESPN. I've seen boxers that didn't hit the canvas that hard!
Anyway, it's still going on, and he's still in. They brought him out a chair for the following rounds."

Funny stuff.

Here's the news story (with video!)

I've been looking everywhere for a Rio Cali 256MB mp3 player (my desire for one was rekindled by max's purchase). Is this mp3-player-purchasing season? Why are all the ones at a good price sold out? Why don't these people go buy the over-priced ones at Circuit City, and leave me with the deals?
If I keep running into people with MY mp3 player, I'm going to get mean.

Saw Spellbound tonight... still traumatized. It wasn't that great, plus it was disheartening. At least I picked the right kid to make it to the top. Suck it, 3XK. I also spelled chateaubriand, which stumped 3XK. Woop.

I finally saw Big Fish on the tech movie channel tonight. Proof that good things come to those who wait:
"The scenes at Auburn were originally supposed to be shot on location on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, but the school officials asked for script approval and the production didn't have time to wait so they filmed the scenes at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama instead."
It's disappointing to see shots from Huntingdon when you expect to see home. Good movie, nonetheless.

Crazy... Everytime my friend Steph goes to Paris to visit her (oh la la) French boyfriend, something scary happens. She went at Christmas, Air France cancelled flights to the US because of terrorist threats. There were "specific threats" when she flew at Spring Break. She's supposed to fly today, and of course, there's a Deadly Paris airport roof collapse. The poor girl hates flying as much as I do. But I give her props for courage, since I would never fly (not that I do) if it seemed fate was out to get me.

There's been a Mr Wizard marathon on the Science Channel (formerly the Discovery Channel) since last night. The episodes are obviously circa 1950, which made me wonder how long he'd been on the air. I wonder no more. What a fun show.