Europe Travelblog  -

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Hilarious Maps

I love maps, so I was happy today to find the Map Room, Blog on Maps.  Following some links, I found the hilarious Animals on the Underground.  It shows animals that are hidden in the maps of the London Underground.  Maybe you can find more for them.

I also really like the GPS Drawing Gallery, which shows some of the great things you can do with a GPS and some imagination.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Bush Economy not going well

The Bush campaign has been trumpeting job growth as a reason to re-elect the President.  That justification is extremely weak, with job growth numbers shrinking below the rate of population growth, and historical growth numbers revised lower [CBS MarketWatch].  Now the news for Bush and America is even worse; the Census Bureau reports that America is not doing well for the have-nots.

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+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Back from Alaska

We got back from Alaska last night, and we had a great trip.  We saw a wide variety of wildlife, many glaciers and mountains, and had great food.  Time with my parents was wonderful.  It's definitely a trip I'd take again.  Now, I'm back at work and dreaming of my next vacation (nothing set yet).

I'll get pictures up as soon as I can, but we have about 700 pictures to sort through.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶GUI Testing and Acceptance Testing Tools

After a recent difficult release cycle, my boss has asked me to find some GUI Testing tools and Acceptance Testing tools to reduce the chances of late bugs in our next cycle.  Does anyone has any particular favorites for these categories?  I found TRIJUG's analysis of TestingGUIs, and I think it's a great help.  Does anyone have more experience that could help us decide?  Is there a similar site for Acceptance Testing tools?

Thanks.

+ 7 - 1 | § ¶On to Alaska

Tomorrow, Jenny and I head to Alaska for a two-week vacation.  We'll get into Anchorage Saturday night and meet up with my parents on Monday.  We then spend the next week driving around Alaska, from Denali to Fairbanks to Glennallen and back.  Finally, we take a week-long cruise from Seward down to Vancouver.  I'm very much looking forward to the trip, but I don't know if I'll be able to post or email much while I'm there. 

I expect to put a lot of pictures up here soon after the trip, but you can look at pictures from my 1999 trip to Alaska in the meantime.

+ 5 - 3 | § ¶Missouri Primary postmortem

Amendment 2 passed.  72% of the voters of Missouri passed an amendment to ban gay marriage.  I'm not surprised it passed, but I'm sad it passed, and I'm surprised by the landslide.  I figured it'd be 60-40 at the worst, but maybe I don't really understand Missouri.  I live in St. Louis City, the only county in the state not to vote for the amendment, and I guess I didn't understand how rare that would be.

Gay rights in Missouri are going to have a tough life in the next year.  There are two bills in the state House of Representatives aimed at reducing rights for homosexuals.  House Bill 885 would eliminate state money for any institution or company in Missouri, public or private, that includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policies.  House Bill 1677 would prohibit adoption by any Missourian in a relationship with someone to whom they are not legally married, and would require state workers to ask applicants if they are having pre- or extra-marital sex.

How can anyone see these invasive and divisive bills as a good idea?

+ 4 - 4 | § ¶White House West - by Will Ferrell

ACT has put together a hilarious parody of a George Bush ad, starring Will Ferrell.  Bush never sounded so good.