I’m a sucker for personality tests. I took this colortest one and it nailed one of the businesses we are in.

As of 10:15am PST today all three of our children were let out for summer vacation. I used to look forward to when school got out for the summer. The sun is out, blue skies, why oh why are some of us inside typing away at these cold, emotionless keyboards?

When does our summer vacation begin?

Alas, when you get out of school and no longer enjoy summer vacations courtesy of the school, you have to make — and budget for — your own. For each of the last few years we’ve gone somewhere as a family and this year will be no exception, although because of rising gas prices we’ve talked about making it a trip that isn’t so long distance as in previous years.

Next summer we are talking about a vacation back East. I’ve never travelled east of Chicago so I would like to see what the East coast is like. Kids are already making plans to spend a lot of Halo, Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies time. We’ll have to reboot them and get them outside. Maybe I need to go buy a bike and go bike riding with them. We have this really scenic trail nearby.

I just opened the window a crack so I could smell the aroma of fresh mown grass wafting through the room. BBQ tonight I think. Oh yeah, summer has arrived.

Did you ever stop and realize that we only get 80 or so summers to live? In our learning (youth) and yearning (old) years we tend to take more advantage of them as human beings than in our earning years, I think. In our family we’re trying to do more about that by spending more time together in the summer months and not doing so much work stuff.

Actually, I’m a bit surprised not to be reading more stories this last week about what people are doing this summer. What will you be doing this summer? Any cool trips or plans?

Pretty severe temperatures there, but this new planetary find certainly tickles the senses that life indeed may exist out there in the vast, inky space beyond.

Fraser Cain writes Astronomers have discovered a rocky, terrestrial planet orbiting a nearby star, Gliese 876.

We won’t be getting there any time soon at it is 15 light years away — or roughly 90 trillion miles — and it’s not very human hospitable anyway. I wonder if in my life scientists will be able to develop any type of craft that can allow human beings to travel faster than the speed of light. Hmm …

Sometimes pictures tell a better story than text. Michael Jackson audio results (darn, no video feed!) from Court TV. First count: Not Guilty.

2nd count: Not Guilty. 3rd count: Not Guilty.

What’s up with the sunglasses on this Jackson supporter? 4th count: Not Guility.

5th count: Not Guilty. The lady in the green was letting doves fly after each Not Guilty verdict. Cute at first, but annoying as time wore on. Outside of Jackson’s family and hardcore fans (represented here, it seems), is this the kind of thing really worth celebrating?

Check out the green shirt bird lady cupping her heart in anticipation of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th counts: all Not Guilty.

Marathon runner dude gives an enthusiastic fist in the air to exclaim his emotion over Jackson being found innocent on all charges.

I’m not sure why a cat would think a fax machine is a good place to do its business but not one, but two of them did just that in a Tokyo home:

Two kittens picked the wrong place to relieve themselves when they urinated on a fax machine, sparking a fire that extensively damaged their Japanese owner’s house

Aren’t cats supposed to be super smart? Last week I was over at the Webtalk Radio studio recording the fourth show I’ve been invited to be a part of and their cat suddenly appeared in the window pawing at the glass. I was surprised with how it knew where the owner was and was almost humanlike motioning to “let me in.”

My favorite line from a sales-oriented movie line is from Glengarry Glen Ross where Alec Baldwin says: “Put. That. Coffee. Down.. Coffee is for closers.” Well this bear-trap like device may give rapists just the kind of closing they deserve.

Now a device has been designed to “bite” a rapist’s penis. The patented device looks and is worn like a tampon, but it is hollow and attaches itself with tiny hooks to a man’s penis during penetration.

They say it’s impossible to remove the device without medical assistance. I sure hope that any women who wear a device like this and want to willingly have sex remember to take out the anti-rape bear trap or there are going to be some very unhappy partners.

Perhaps a guy thing, but it hurts just thinking about this one. “Honey, did you remember to remove the rape clamp?”
“Oops.”
“ARRRRRRRR!”

Dating sites continue to be all the rage and here’s one: Geek to Geek that will appeal to the geek side/types. Even if you are a happily married geek, this geek to geek site lets you find other geek friends, male or female. Now let’s analyze the photo above and determine its geekyness:

1. male, glasses. Where’s the freaking pocket protector?
2. female, glasses. Why is that glasses make you a geek? Is it more chic to wear contacts?
3. various top 10 lists like top ten reasons why geeks make the best lovers, top ten geek movies, well known geeks (WTF? Anthony Michael Hall is a geek?!?)

This site is well done on the outside and compelling to register. I registered just to see what was inside, and to hopefully invite some local friendly geek connections, as well as analyze their profile questions. I mean, I wouldn’t be a geek if I didn’t analyze the questions, would I?

Most the profile questions were relevant, but I was disappointed in the PC Preference question. IT only had PC or Mac. What about Linux? And why weren’t they checkboxes? It is possible for geeks to like PC, Linux and Mac … why do I have to choose between two or the ultra-lame ‘unimportant’ radio box?

And what about calculator preference? Doesn’t anybody use the Windows or Mac calculators? Why isn’t that a choice? Or, perhaps even better, how abou a calculator you wrote yourself?

These What Is Your Favorite Questions get me every time. How do you answer these questions? TV Show? Twilight Zone (the original). My favorite most well known geek is a toss-up between the legends: Isaac Asimov and Stephen Hawking.

Yikes, here I am 10 minutes later still filling out the profile! These matchmaking site profile forms can be intense. Finally, I got through it and logged in and the very first link I clicked (new matches) led to this:

Looks like they need a geek!

Update: I don’t really consider this matchmaking/dating site: “finest” as the title says. It seems to be new upstart with very few listings, so if you are looking for serious matchmaking then you might want to check one of the other major dating/matchmaking sites. However this one does have potential, once they get enough members and work out the bugs.

I wonder what type of person would put the message on the buckle: “Ladies, look down.” Ego Belts - Custom Name Belt Buckles. Up to 256 characters, scrolls from left to right and can store 6 messages. I should buy one of these and wear it somewhere just to freak people out … not.

This is sort of an extreme geek version of the programmable LED bicycle spokes we mentioned a few days ago, but without any safety precaution.

Update 10/19/2005: Vivian stops by in the comments area to turn us onto sinotechmc, a manufacturer in China of these LED buckles, where people can buy LED buckles direct via PayPal for $11.99.