Weather

Very little of interest has happened in Pittsburgh this week. With Big Ben out of the hospital, the Pirates in the cellar (again) and total apathy towards the World Cup, the only topic people have left to talk about is the weather.

Even my fellow bus riders have been well behaved. The combination of heat and wicked thunderstorms has taken all the life out of them.

Slashdot is having a debate over companies that limit their hiring to H-1B workers to circumvent paying industry standard for programming jobs. It is also easier to trap those workers into sub-standard contracts and bad working conditions, since firing means they have 1 month to find another job or leave the country.

I turned 33 on Wednesday. It was an ordinary birthday. I took the day off to run some errands and spent several hours wandering in circles through Barnes and Noble trying to decide what reading material I should take on my trip.

I finally picked up a copy of Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.

I was also seriously tempted by Victorinox's Lingo Cross Flyer Messenger Laptop Tote in the shade Azalea/Fog. I don't need a new laptop tote. But it sure is pretty. As is the rest of the luggage in that style.

In the evening there were friends, food, and cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.

My gift from J this year was a copy of Art Spiegelman's The Complete Maus. Since it is a set of books everyone should read, I frequently loan out my paperback copies, which are now damaged from unnamed parties bending the front covers back over the spines of the book. A practice I detest. Unnamed parties also do this with library books, and it is very difficult to resist the urge to slap their hands.