There's nothing you can't do on the internet

In case any of you feel the urge to become a born-again Christian, you can sign up for a service that will let the rest of us know that the rapture has happened. It will send out an email to everyone you know 6 days after the rapture, to give everyone else one last chance to be saved.

When life gives you lemons...

The graduation speaker at Wesleyan this weekend was supposed to be Ted Kennedy. But, what with the brain cancer and all, he won't be able to make it. So the class of 2008 will have to make due with the last minute replacement that the university could get on Thursday afternoon to come on Memorial Day weekend... Barack Obama. Even for those of you who aren't Obama supporters, you have to admit that he'd be an impressive speaker to have at your college graduation. And the New York Times, of course, is typically derisive of Wesleyan.

super villain

My sister and brother-in-law have been watching Heroes. So that led them to the topic of what superpowers they would want. And my brother-in-law decided that I can't be trusted with any superpowers because I would just use my power to become a super villain. Besides the fact that I'm just kind of offended, I would also like to point out that superpowers are in no way necessary for super villainy. Lex Luthor is the ultimate super villain, and he doesn't have any powers to go up against Superman. And Lex is the president. Not like those Batman villains who are just going up against Batman - who has no powers himself, just cool gadgets.

More on Croquet

There was a local report on NPR about the match, if anyone would like to listen.

Victory

The St John's-Navy croquet match was on Sunday. St John's won. Yay! Even if the weather was bad (it was raining off and on all day).

We're out of the cellar

Baltimore, which long had the lowest high school graduation rate in the nation, has clawed its way up to only fourth worst in the nation (1/3 of students in the city public school system graduate from high school). But we still have the biggest gap between urban districts and suburban districts (Baltimore County is in the 80s for getting their students to graduate). It's not in the article, but on the radio they said that the three cities doing worse that Baltimore are Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland (Detroit being the worst).

But possibly even worse than the fact that kids don't graduate, is that the ones who do aren't really prepared to go on to anything else. I was helping my dad's file clerk get ready to take the placement test for Anne Arundel Community College (AA is the county south of Baltimore where Annapolis is), and she was struggling with the practice questions that were basic reading comprehension (what's the main idea of this 5 sentence paragraph) and basic algebra (they give you f(x) and then ask the value of say f(3)). And the only reason she's going at all is because my parents are telling her she should have some education after high school. Because neither her parents nor her school care what she does now or what she does once she graduates. The school will just wash their hands of her once she leaves because her parents are doing the same thing, so they can.

Happy Easter

Just in time for Easter, it's this year's collection of dioramas featuring marshmallow peeps from the Washington Post. I'm partial to "The Wizard of Peeps" and "Peepbusters". And there's also last year's, which includes my personal favorite - "Reservoir Peeps". Not all of them are movie/tv scenes, though. There's art (Warhol and Renoir) and some scenes from real life. Enjoy.