Card pwn3d

After an extended weekend of camping, I came home to an ominous message on the answering machine: This is [credit card company] Fraud Department trying to reach [my legal name]. Please contact us at your earliest convenience regarding suspicious activity on your card. I called and punched in the credit card number, my zip code,

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Plane versus Train

I will be attending the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco this December. The flight back officially takes 2 1/2 hours, but there’s also the airline system lunacy factor: I have to arrive early to have my shoes scrutinized by the TSA fashionistas; three ounce subportions of each toiletry — insufficient for a week

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RAPSODY 2007 – part uno

Last weekend I rode RAPSODY (“Ride Around Puget Sound in twO DaYs,” though some say it’s One DaY), an 166-mile loop around the southern part of Puget Sound. I had heard good reviews of its inaugural year, but the last two years, its schedule overlapped with RAWs 2005 (around the peninsula) and 2006 (down the

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Emissions check

Because my car is the mechanical-equivalent of a teenager, I have to start the biannual emissions check before renewing my license plate tabs. I knew Subarus had a blanket waiver from the dynamometer test because it effs with the all wheel drive, but I expected an exhaust probe while it idled. Instead, the test consisted

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Crayons

While Tivo-surfing for new material, I came across “How It’s Made,” focusing on the mechanical steps involved in producing a particular kind of widget. It’s much lighter than Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, but still entertaining.  Because the show has been around a while, my Tivo picked up a dozen showings before I told it to

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Poo happens

I’ve been having problems with my toilets not disposing of the their content on the first try. I’ve plunged. I’ve augured. I’ve read a lot of home repair books. As this was affecting all three toilets, it was logical to suspect something was clogged in the sewer line, the kind of repair that I don’t

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