Friday
End of the workweek and… miracle of miracles: Jess has the weekend off!

More site-to-site bouncing today – mail volumes were lighter than projected. Did some flats processing also; that was a little sparse at times, too.

Finished Harry Potter today. They reworked a lot of things from the book to make the movie adaptation. I think that the things they retooled worked well in the movie, but it was nice to be able to fill in the background and some of the ‘missing’ things. One thing that I did notice: While Hermione (pronounced “har-mah-nee” Don’t look at me; it wasn’t my idea! Brits pronounce ‘herb’ with an “h,” too!) Granger was something of an annoying git in the movie, I did not care for her character in the book. But… I think that the character in the was more… hmm …more of what I would expect a highly precocious (and know-it-all) eleven-year-old girl to be like.

NPR/PRI Programming
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday had a segment on ‘Radiation Preparedness,’ in light of the threat posed by a potential ‘dirty bomb’ attack or the fallout from nuclear strikes in India and Pakistan. One of the guests was Steven Austakalnis, from Wilmington, NC; he is the Managing Director of Two Tigers Radiological, a company that sells bomb shelters. Bomb. Shelters. Just like in the 50s. Only newer.

There was also a segment on ‘Lying.’ Dr. Robert Feldman, a Psychology professor at UMass – Amherst, conducted a study on the way that people interact with one another, especially when they first meet. One of the things that was noted was that, on an average, people tell three lies in a ten minute conversation. These lies vary from “little white lies” to exaggerations about what people do for a living or things they own or people that they know.

Miscellany
It seems that the US Soccer Team lost their match to Poland this morning. I thought that I was getting up in time to catch part of the game – it was listed somewhere as starting at 07:15. However, I neglected to account for the fact that the listing was in Eastern Daylight Time, not Mountain. *BAH* However, South Korea beat Portugal, so the US still advances to the “Round of 16.” At this stage, any team that loses is eliminated from the competition.

And….

::: drumroll :::

They have FINALLY opened a Best Buy here!!! Hallelujah! That also means that now I don’t have to erase Utah from the face of the earth. And, it’s even the location closest to where we live! That makes two of my three favorite stores here; Toys ‘R’ Us is the other. The only thing missing now is an IKEA. (Thank God.)

Peace.