I spend a lot of time listening to NPR. I'm not sure when the switch from preferring music to preferring NPR happened, but I'd guess it happened during the years of the hour long commute each way when I lived in L.A. Very few stations played enough good, new music that listening every day for two hours wouldn't cause violent suicides in every other slow moving vehicle on the freeways (which would, of course, slow the I-can-run-faster-than-these-cars-are-moving traffic to a sloth-can-run-faster pace, thereby causing even more suicides, vicious circle that).

Talk radio was clearly the best mass-suicide-prevention option available.

Sometimes I listen to the radio, sometimes I have it on for just background noise. Today's background noise caught my attention:

"Americans went further into debt last month, but at the slowest rate in four months."

Whenever I hear comparisons to economic conditions from a week, month or a year ago, I roll my eyes, especially for the first two. A month is not long enough for any meaningful extrapolation of data. Economic data comparisons to a month ago are blips.

Looking at the numbers closer, however, still makes the supposed good news actually bad. Great, the rate of debt increase has slowed, but, uh, hello, it still increased. Collectively, Americans owe more than they did a month ago. What ever happened to saving up? Or delayed gratification? Or living within one's means?

Apparently completely gone in the face of increased conspicuous consumption.

I blame big media.

So, what are the real numbers?

Consumer credit, which doesn't include mortgages but does include credit cards and vehicle loans, is at $2.34 trillion dollars. That's $2,344,000,000,000. Yes, 12 zeroes. Estimate 295 million people in the United States and you're looking at a debt of $7926 per person.

Family of four? Yeah, that's $30000 in debt.

Want to look at just credit cards? That's a mere $2843 per person.

That $8k in debt at normal credit card interest rates means a person will actually owe $9600 at the end of the year. Where's the brilliance in that math?

Other than student loans and a mortgage, possibly a car loan, I can think of no reason why a person should be in debt.

I suspect that $2.344 trillion is not student loan debt.

Stop spending, people.

Last month, some time, maybe the previous month, Kris and I went to the movies with Heather and a bunch of other communal dinner people. I don't recall what we saw, maybe Kris or Heather will remind me. What I do remember, however, is going into the bathroom, into a stall and seeing piss on the seat.

This happens a lot for some reason. Women aren't willing to put a seat paper/cover on the seat, so they hover over the toilet and pee all over it. I find it annoying.

Sometimes, however, the liquid isn't from the previous stall occupant, but rather an over-ambitious flushing mechanism that sprays water up, turning the toliet into a poorman's fountain.

This particular trip to the movie's restroom reminded me of a my first trip to the restrooms at the Metreon. I went with Nancy Fenner to see a movie, one that was playing in a limited engagement or on IMAX or something similar.

As with any event that takes longer than 10 minutes, I needed to go to the restroom.

And, as with any event in a new popular venue, there was a line for the women's restroom.

After waiting in line, bladder near bursting because, of course, I waited until the last minute to even seek out a restroom (well before I wised up), I entered the next available stall, and was quickly annoyed: the previous woman had peed all over the seat. Grrrrr, I thought, wiping off the seat before putting a cover on it and doing my business.

As I was finishing up, and flushing the toliet, I noticed the mini toilet fountain from the super-sonic flushing mechanism, and watched as the seat was sprinkled with fresh toilet water. Ah, ha, what I wiped up earlier was not from the bladder of the previous woman. Well, that was good to know, and I left the stall.

As I left, another woman rushed into the stall. She opened the door, looked at the seat, and glared at me with such an intensity I should immediately melt to the floor in shame for peeing on the seat. Having just experienced my own toilet fountain revelation, I didn't say anything to the woman at the time. In retrospect, I wish I had.

To this day, I wish I had been standing outside the stall when she opened the door back up, and asked her, "Do you really think I'd piss on the seat and leave it for the next person?"

That, and glare right back at her. Maybe with one eyebrow raised.

Yeah, so why the random post? I had a note on one of my index cards to blog about that incident. At the same movie outing, I heard some not-good-looking guy make the comment, "Man, why are there so many ugly people here?" The irony was somewhat humourous to me at the time. Enough to write a note on that card to blog about it, even if the actually writing did take me six weeks to do.

What was the last game you played?

Ultimate, as in ultimate frisbee, being a mainstay in my life for the last 12+ years, should be not-a-surprise as the last game I've played, and also the most played game in my life. The sport has seen me through good times (met Kris through ultimate), and rough times (moving away from my friends, work and comfort zone of Southern to Northern California). It has provided me opportunities to travel places I would have never gone normally (can you say, "Perth?").

But most importantly, it has provided me with friends that I would have never found otherwise.

Ultimate as a community is small enough that there are few degrees of separation from the beginning pickup player to the elite super athlete. Yet, it is large enough that anywhere you go, you're nearly guaranteed a game and a ready-made circle of friends. The community is so close, and the sport inspires such passion, that dating non-ultimate players is often considered the death-knell of one's ultimate career.

Fortunately, I don't have that worry.

My worry is the accumulated injuries that are slowly catching up to me. Another 2nd degree ankle sprain this last Saturday has close to ended this season for me. I may have a chance to recover in time for Regionals early October, but I'm not betting on it.

Neither am I worried about it: there's a saying very common in the ultimate community. It goes something like, "Oh well. There's always next season."

Megan bought me a tortilla press, so we used it tonight at communal dinner (mmmmmmmm, tortillas - made the low-fat version instead of the full fat version, and they tasted surprisingly good).

With the press, instead of spending about 30 - 60 seconds per testales, we spent less than 15 seconds per (more like 5 seconds per), making dinner much more enjoyable for the cooks.

Downside? The hinge bolt is already about to give way.

How is it that the pictures look so crappy on the sidekick's screen, but turn out pretty well on the computer screen? Oh, yeah, crappy resolution on the LCD screen.

vox.com is shutting down. This is a post from Vicki's vox.

What was the last game you played?

If I interpret this very loosely, it was at the gym in a water class. The instructor had us running individual relays in the pool, out to the first set of stairs and back, then to the second set of stairs and back, to the island and back, and finally out of the pool at the other end and back. All of this in maximum 3 feet deep water. I thought I'd be really good at this, even though it was my first time in the class. HA! Of the 15 of us that competed, I was in the last 5. Well, so much for that theory! But it was loads of fun and I'm looking forward to the class on Friday.

Interpreted not so loosely, it was playing either I Spy or Sorry w/ Kitt, Sam, and Jackson. Tough playing w/ little kids since you want them to win, but you also want them to win fair and square. And, I for one, want them to be gracious about winning. "Hey, maybe next time it'll be you!" But then, I think the same goes for playing w/ adults. I do not like arrogant winners. It's a "game".