I just tried to pay for my coffee at Starbucks with my Metrocard.

All of a sudden, it seems that I need to find a way to insert an extra month between November and December if I am to finish everything that I need to finish before the end of the year.

It's been so long since I've managed to exercise regularly that I had forgotten how it feels to be hungry all the time. In a process akin to algolagnia, I'm trying to experience the feeling as accomplishment and pride, but, really, I'm just hungry.

Poll #1480300
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

10:00 am is much too early to have a pounding headache behind my right eye.

It appears that the Westboro "Baptist" "Church" plans to demonstrate in my neighborhood tomorrow. More specifically, they plan to demonstrate outside the synagogue nearest my home, which my wife is a member of.

There's a Yahoo! group for parents who live in this part of Brooklyn, and it's been a-flutter with discussion about what, if anything, should be done about it. The initial suggestion of a counter-demonstration was pretty much shot down by those who pointed out that the Phelps family (a term which suggests to me certain parallels with the "Manson family") is a bunch of attention whores and that a counter-demonstration might be pretty much what the villains are trying to provoke.

I'm currently thinking that some sort of MST3K-style ridicule might be more effective, but I can't really figure out how to pull that off.

In vaguely related thoughts, it occurs to me that the timing of the currently-unravelling terrorist plot(s) in the US might be related to the Jewish holidays, as was hypothesized about the timing of 9/11. As you may recall, rumors circulated after the fact that thousands of Jews had not shown up for work at the World Trade Center on the day of the attacks. Though not true, the fact is that the attacks happened exactly a week before the Jewish High Holy days. The theory was that the rumor had been prepared in advance by those associated with the terrorists, who had originally planned to attack on the holiday itself, when many Jews would in fact have not been at work. According to this theory, the attack was moved up a week because the planners believed that the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui put the plan in jeopardy. After the attacks, the slander supposedly went ahead anyway.

There are certain holes in this hypothesis, including the lack of conclusive evidence that Moussaoui was actually connected to the attacks.

But the FBI is reported to believe that Najibullah Zazi was driving to New York to take part in planned attacks, possibly similar to the bombings of mass transit in Europe. And the timing is very close to Yom Kippur (which is next Monday), a day on which most Jews won't be commuting to work.
Which has at least got me wondering.

This may be the funniest thing ever.

In my career as a patent lawyer to date, I have appealed five rejections of my clients' patent applications. Two of those appeals are still pending.

Of the other three appeals, two have been decided by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences: I won one and I lost one. In the third case, the patent examiner read my brief and, instead of responding, reversed himself and allowed the patent application.

I just got a call from the patent examiner handling one of the two pending appeals. Once again, my brief has convinced the examiner to change his mind and allow the application. That's three victories out of four resolved matters, for those of you keeping track at home.

Leo: "Daddy, why do people like me very much?"

moar funny pictures

My aunt (my mother's sister) lives year-round in the South Jersey town where Lauren and I go to the beach in the summer. Last night, Lauren posted on Facebook some pictures from our weeklong vacation there. One of the pictures is a picture of Leo with my aunt.

Lauren just got a comment on that picture: "Leo's in a picture with my cousin!" Yet another long-lost relative of mine, found because of a hitherto unknown connection with my wife.

As promised, pictures of the amazing flying Leo:

We were in the Hamptons this weekend, at the home of friends who have a pool. Leo and I (and the friends' kids, for that matter) spent a lot of time in the pool, especially Saturday, which was sunny and warm.

For a while, Leo and I were playing a game in the pool that involved my picking him up and throwing him several feet through the air, whereupon he would land on his belly in the water. Despite several months of lessons, though, Leo's not yet much of a swimmer, so he held a swim noodle across his chest, with one end sticking out under each arm. (Pictures are forthcoming.)

He lost the noodle in midflight one time. I had thrown him a few feet above the water and had time before he splashed down to think, "oh, shit!" and moved to get him. He was totally submerged for a split-second, though, while I grabbed him and lifted him back up.

The expression on his face was exactly the same as it had been when he had landed with the noodle to keep from going too far down on impact and to keep him on the surface afterwards. There was a smile and not a hint of fear. And he demanded, yet again, that I throw him another time. I want to think that he simply, literally could not imagine that I would let anything happen to him, that I would catch him and keep him safe, whether the noodle were there or not.

He has plenty of time to learn my limitations and his mothers', to learn about the world's real dangers, and to learn to rely on himself. But before he can learn to trust himself, he has to learn what he can do. Before he can learn what he can do, he has to try to do things. And to be willing to try them, he has to feel that he will not thereby come to harm.

I think that I make my son feel safe. And I don't think that I've ever felt prouder of myself.

I think that today's XKCD is much funnier than it really is.

Of possible interest to anyone who follows Harry Potter and big Media: http://www.mediaite.com/online/media-muggles-harry-potter/

Walking back to my office from lunch this afternoon. I saw the Lubavitchers' "Mitzvah Tank" parked at the same corner where a not-obviously-sane street preacher was holding forth on Jesus and the Gospels. Fortunately, violence seemed to have been avoided, at least to that point.

My job is making me want to punch altogether too many people.

"It is theoretically possible to make the trip [from JFK to lower Manhattan] in about half an hour, primarily in post-apocalyptic circumstances in which everyone else in New York is dead."