Ripped from the headlines!

I know two guys in MI who will think this clock is cool. One is a pastor and the other one whoops on me at chess. I think their enthusiasm for this thing would qualify them as geeks. (You can click to enlarge the image.)
I can solve the equations, but only because I know the answer. So I guess that doesn't really count as solving them, huh.

Just for fun. I think this is in Portuguese and it's designed for guys. So gentlemen, type your name in the first line and then the name of some guy you know - your brother, your golfing buddy, or, if he's a geek, your pastor's name in the second line. Then click "visualizer."
Bar da Boa
I tried to get the email function to work but w/o success. Too bad.

It's too bad I can't legally do property management in this state. (A real estate broker's license is required.) I could have picked up another four properties today which would have given me a total of twelve. As it is I should get some income from one of the homes that's a rental and between tenants. It needs some repair done before it can go back on the market.

The Suns fell to the Spurs, 3-1. Now there's talk that the coach, Mike D'Antonio may get fired. Apparently there's a breach between him and the owner and management. Different philosophies. This guy is good. Three seasons back he was voted coach of the year and he's credited with bringing up-tempo ball and the fast break back to the NBA. The players all like him. And every year he takes the Suns into the playoffs. I vote they keep D'Antonio and fire the GM (Steve Kerr).

I enjoy writing but all I've ever done is non-fiction. I'd really like to write fiction. No illusions about the great American novel, just a moderately successful book or short story. Every once in awhile I get an idea that I think has potential, and another of those showed up in today's news.

The "D.C. Madam" committed suicide at her mother's home in Florida earlier today. First, let me say that's sad. Any suicide is sad, especially for those who are left to wrestle with the emotions involved.
And while it seems Deborah Palfrey took her own life to avoid going to jail for almost a decade, there are enough interesting elements to this story to provide a spring board for an intriguing work of fiction.
Her little black book reportedly contained the names of some very powerful Washington figures. A Congressman and a high level State Dept. official who subsequently resigned both admitted using her service.
If her client list included Washington insiders with even more power, and with more to lose if they were exposed - including foreign ambassadors - and if they contacted her to "encourage" her to keep quiet....
And if these men had political enemies who learned, or at least suspected that they could get these guys thoroughly discredited....
And if, at the same time, the feds leaned on her using threats to pursue, say, her mother for some real or trumped-up offense...
And if she was found dead from an apparent suicide, but some evidence suggested it may not, in fact, have been a suicide...
Whodunnit?

Did you see any of the Merideth Vierra interview with Barack and Michelle Obama? They replayed part of it on the NBC news tonight. She's impressive, too. Seems like a gracious lady who is fiercely loyal to her husband. But am I the only one who thinks she looks a little like Smurfette?

The hospital where Pam works is required to carry out certain drills on a regular basis as part of maintaining their accreditation. Next Tuesday her unit is conducting a "code drill." On a given signal the appropriate employees will respond as though one of the patients in the unit has coded - gone into cardiac arrest.
Pam has been recruited to play the role of the dead person.
In a rare display of discretion I'm going to pass on all the opportunities for punch lines that present themselves here. The more difficult because she actually gets paid for coming in on her day off to play dead.

We're four days away from Cinco de Mayo. Based on newspaper ads and radio commercials I'd conclude that's a holiday to celebrate sales on Tequila, Corona and Dos Equis.