If you want to see what it is like, check out Ron Swafford's excellent 2009 documentary about pedicabbing in Austin: Who Want's a Ride? Part one is below, parts 2-4 are after the break.

As many of you know I just wrapped up a stint scoring standardized tests. Part of this time was spent working on scoring 11th Grade Writing responses to the prompt, "Describe a time you felt independent." Stats I gathered from that project pointed at about 60% of the stories describing getting their driver's licence and/or first car/driving experience. Other popular topics included times spent alone/away from family, resisting peer pressure, getting a first job, and teen pregnancy. Most of these essays were poorly written, riddled with errors, and just plain boring. But enough were entertaining (intentionally or not) that I didn't go completely out of my brain.

Without further ado, I present the best of 11th grade written composition:

Trying to sell a computer case on Craigslist, here is my post:

Make you HTPC fit in with the rest of your home entertainment equipment with this Fusion Black Veris case from Antec. Designed to match in color and size with your current equipment, this case will add new dimensions to your entertainment experience. The interior is split to minimize heat transfer between the system and the 430W PSU. Two side-mounted 120mm TriCool fans keep the air quietly moving and your system cool.

The front panel has an external bay for an optical drive with a matching cover to keep the lines smooth and a LCD so you can monitor system functions. Front panel jacks include 2 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 headphone and 1 microphone. A master volume control plus power and reset buttons complete the look.

Inside the case are two 3.5" hard drive bays with silicone grommets to minimize vibration and noise. There are also rubber strips and cushions throughout the case to eliminate rattle and other transient noises.

I built a HTPC in this case about a year ago, and only used it for a few months, it is in like-new condition, very sharp and clean.

Call or email with questions:
Gabe-
512-553-****
first with cash gets it

The following is a series of emails between a prospective buyer and myself:

I recently read Jonathan Safran Foer's excellent 2002 novel Everything is Illuminated. [review]. The author reaches back to his great great great great great grandmother's miraculous birth to help uncover the story of his grandfather's escape from a Nazi occupied Ukrainian village. Foer explores the tradition of written history in Jewish culture in a variety of ways to tell the fictionalized tale of his ancestral shtetl. The villagers kept a collective written history and maintained it obsessively filling volumes with everything from important events to vain minutia. The tome, dubbed, "The Book of Antecedents" sounds very familiar as it is described.