effing unbelievable

In researching grad schools, I have learned that the newly revised UW Tuition Rates are insanely complex.

See, starting this fall, there are no fewer than SIXTEEN possible rates – each of which will be hiked every quarter for the next year.

Taking the hikes into account, that’s up to SIXTY-FOUR varying rates a given grad student might find themselves paying over the upcoming academic year, depending upon which quarter it is and which school they are enrolled in.

Determining which rate is for you is, naturally, left for you, potential consumer or ensnared enrollee, to sort out.

One potential effect is that in a particularly popular course, each student might be enrolled from different program, and therefore each student is paying a different price for the exact same product.

How modern! How abusive! How arrogant!

pf's prize

Why, it’s a brand-new Y2k voodoo doll, complete with pins!

Congratulations, Paul, now you can hold off that pesky Millennium Bug with ease as long as necessary! Please email shipping info as soon as is convenient, and we’ll move heaven and Earth to get your prize to you.

Phobe.com

p h o b e . c o m is a roundup of silliness that I stumbled across whilst looking for a sufficently offbeat virtual otter pop. I chuckled; perhaps you will too.

Of note: the obsessively detailed life of Harold Haxton, the director of such notable B-flicks as “I was a Monkey’s Uncle” and “The Mummy’s Foot”.

Who can forget the scenery-chewing antics of T. Ross Mancini in “Green Doom”?

a winnah

In July 25th’s En cas d’urgence gardez votre calme I acknowledged that I’d recieved my fabulous prize from Paul Frankenstein Light Industries by posting a shot of me in the shirt.

Blabbing on at length, I eventually proposed this site’s inaugural contest: who ever first identified all of the items in the photo (not counting your humble host) which had been previously featured in individual entries here would recieve a randomly drawn gimcrack from our household Big Bag o’ Mystery Stuff, a bag which was manufactured by none other than your pal and mine, Archie McPhee.

How fitting, then, that the winner of the contest should prove to be Paul Frankenstein (“Stine”, to his personal trainer and entourage). Mr. Frankenstein correctly identified the two items immediately behind my head as having been the subject of blog entries: the infamous KG Bobblehead and the less-well-beloved Blue King.

Oops! In looking into that last entry I realized that I’m overdue to provide my wife with a special prize of her own. So here it is:

http://www.phobe.com/otter/

Mr. Frankenstein, in the comments section on the entry which launched his winning observations, also felt that he recognized the “Redneck Rock” LP seen on the floor of my apartment in the lower right of the large picture. I assured him that it was doubtful, as the LP was an independent release originating in Vancuver, WA in the mid-seventies, and that I had found it in a free pile recently but been afraid to listen to it to date.

Rest assured, I’ll listen soon, and you’ll get to share the love, dear readers.