Me and my stall-ker

I don't make friends at work, I make associations. Or it could be more that people make associations with me. Due to my height, I'm usually the first to be associated with "Can you get that off that shelf?" Then of course if I've mentioned that I've traveled a bit, there is the association of asking me random travel questions, "Hey, quick, best things to see in Burma?" (I've never been anywhere in Asia,...
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When did 'shit-tonne' become standard?

It happened twice last weekend. When qualifying some large amount of measure, the phrase, "shit-tonne" was invoked. It seems like it was just a few short years ago that "shitload" was the preferred measure of all things vast i.e. "There is a shitload of plastic in the Pacific Ocean."

I'm not really sure when it happened. I'm not even sure if the tonnes in question are US or Metric although...
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Um, what's a cough?

I came across this poster on the Bart the other day. Basically, it tells folks to not cough out in to the open air, which is sound enough, albeit on-the-nose advice. The thing that's really amusing/sad is the "The CDC* Recommends" bit.

The asterisk is notated below by stating that "CDC" stands for the "Center for Disease Control". I'm not exactly sure why they bothered as those who aren't...
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My office chair and child labor in Africa

I was child laborer. Throughout my youth I worked in the creation of different ceramics pieces that were produced in my hometown of the rural Northern California foothills. While not child slave labor, I was paid very little if at all. It may shock you to hear this, after all this sort of thing is not supposed to happen in such a civilized country as the United States, but it does and it has. Of course, in making that...
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Just-a-Band makes for proper purchases

The vast majority of anyone reading this has either tried out or downright downloaded torrent files to get music or movies. Hell, it's one of the only ways to get your hands on a lot of things in Africa as actually buying CDs or going to movie theaters can be pretty difficult in many parts of the continent. Then of course there is the free factor which is appealing to pretty much every cross-section of society....
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Mapfrica: An end African address issues

"Combien à l'Hôtel Ibis?" (How much to the Ibis Hotel?) "Où?" (Where?) the taxi driver at Abidjan airport answered back. "L'Hôtel Ibis en Plateau." (The Ibis Hotel in the Plateau district.) Despite clarification of the neighborhood, there was still a dull, thudding look on this taxi driver's face. He said 5,000CFA ($10 USD), which was a ripoff, but how it goes when coming from the airport in Abidjan. As we got on...
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