In the beginning, there was nothing ... and then I declared, let there be links! Mostly because I have nothing else to say.

But story number one is about NASA scaring the public by circling our planes around downtown Houston to take a photo. (Article HERE). Gosh, people are skitish! Me, I would probably have been walking into walls while staring at the sky watching the cool airplanes above.

And then if you want to obsess over a trivia game today, check this out. Making an annual version of this is a hobby of one of my fellow Tech classmates. The last time I did one of these I got 24 of the 26 while watching an experiment in the lab in Switzerland. So far I've gotten 6 here just by looking out it. But there's a lot of today left to go!

I've also decided I should be a travel agent. I get excited about planning things to do and places to see while other people stress themselves out. Its weird.

Update 12:46 p.m.

I hate my house. Grumble grumble grumble. It just sucked up my iPod in a trick of math. Maybe its not the house I hate. Its math and the tax collector. I called the mortgage company to check and make sure they paid my home owners' insurance out of the escrow account. I was happy, because as it turned out the insurance bill was about $200 less than predicted. So I asked where that money goes (hoping for a nice little check in the mail). And she responded that in my case, I escrowed !!!$700!!! LESS than my property taxes turned out to be (I did some simple math, and that's a 20% increase in property taxes they estimated I would pay based on last year!). When I asked how this happened, she said that they just pay the bill as the county sends them. When I get the breakdown next month, I'll know more details about why my taxes changed (and if I should call someone to protest). So, in a month, they are going to send me a bill for the extra $500 I owe in property taxes. Conveniently, I had saved $400 for the likelihood that no one would buy me an iPod for Christmas and I would buy one for myself in January. Goodbye iPod. When I get home tonight, I am going to go put this property tax value into my 'master' ?is owning a home a good financial decision? spreadsheet and the answer will probably piss me off.