Still just buried in work as we try to get our footing, but a few quick:

THINGS I LIKE

- This American Life’s podcast this week, aptly titled “Another Frightening Show About The Economy.” You can download it for free from that page for the rest of the week, and it’s a much, much clearer explanation of what in the hell is going on with the economy than I’ve heard from any other place thus far. Really fascinating stuff.

- Google’s Gmail Goggles. If you’re going to send a late-night email from Gmail, you can now enable a new feature that will ask you to answer a series of relatively basic math questions in a short period of time to prove that you’re not too a) drunk or b) tired to be emailing someone.

- USAA Checking. Sweet god, Deposit @ Home is awesome. You scan a check with a normal scanner, you upload it, and then you’re done. You can walk over to an ATM 20 minutes later and withdraw the cash, which is REALLY convenient when that check is your petty cash advance from work. And USAA reimburses you for the ATM fees since they’re an internet-only bank.

THINGS I DO NOT LIKE

- The nights I just can’t seem to get out of the office. We had pages drop right as we wrapped tonight, and when I should normally be getting out of the office by half an hour after wrap, I wasn’t done until almost 2 hours after wrap.

- The fact that every muscle in my body is seriously pissed at me right now. I ordered a footrest for the office which should help prevent me from hunching over my computer, but between being the Hunchback of Notre Lot and working out like a crazy person, my body is hating on me right now.

- Waking up in the middle of a REM cycle, which I did this morning, and which made me drowsy, cranky, and off the ball all morning.

THINGS I’M UNDECIDED ABOUT

- I mentioned this to a few people, but for some reason two different guys in my office asked me if I was ex-military this week. Apparently I have a military precision about me, according to them. Frankly, I think it’s just because I know the alpha-bravo-charlie alphabet and use it to be clearer on the phone. That, and I keep making my PA’s drop and give me 20.

- I’m pretty clearly not going to make my goal of getting my weight loss total to 80 pounds by Halloween. At least not unless I get some sort of serious gastrointestinal illness like the one striking half of USC. However, I’ve already lost 70 and will hopefully be in the 73-75 range by the end of the month. I’m debating whether I should be happy about this, since it’s so close to my goal and weight loss slows as you lose more weight anyway, or frustrated with the slowing pace. I think for the sake of my sanity, I’ll go with the former.

NASA found snow on Mars.

At least one of my PA’s is about as much of a space nerd as I am and gave an excited, “DUDE!” when he read this, causing me to make him send me the link.

I know fuck-all about the continued collapse of the American financial system and quite possibly society in general, but dude, a robot on Mars found snow! How fucking awesome is that?

1. Write a website that specializes in taking apart Apple products as soon as they’re released.

2. Realize that the first people in the world to get the new iPhone are in New Zealand.

3. Fly to Auckland to be fourth in line IN THE WORLD for your iPhone, so you can immediately take it apart and post pictures online.

4. Write the whole damn trip and the price of the phone off as business related.

5. Enjoy some gorgeous New Zealand scenery.