Hi, kids!

I think winter is finally descending upon Alabama. I can tell because one day it is 75 degrees (F), the next day it is 30, the next day it is 75, the next day it is 30, etc. I have, however, found a really ingenious way to beat this viscous Alabama weather cycle: every day I wear both a sweatshirt and a pair of khaki shorts. That way, only half of me is hot and the other half of me is cold. :)

Actually, now that the University of Alabama has decided to offer me a temporary job until I graduate -- or, as my mother so kindly pointed out, the temporary job is pretty much the same thing as a permanent job since I am *NEVER* going to graduate (I am the only student at the University paying into the University's retirement system) -- I think I might actually celebrate my new employment by putting all of my sweatshirts away and buying myself a REAL Timberland jacket.

By the way, if you have never seen a Timberland jacket, you *MUST* pay a visit to Aardwulf to see what all the fuss is about! If you think Timberland makes great leather boots, just wait until you see their jackets! :)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
      Feeling the chill? Try Timberland's guaranteed waterproof
        leather bomber jacket from Aardwulf Apparel Company.
+--------------------( http://www.aardwulf.com )---------------------+

1. In my October 10th post (SQUIRRELS and INFOSEEK) I told you how I had a "squirrel tart" in Canada that tasted an awful lot like peanut butter. An alert Canadian reader recently informed me that "Squirrel" is a brand of peanut butter. ("Honey, can you get me another squirrel and jelly sandwich?")
2. In my October 24th post (THE AFTERMATH OF THE CHILD PORN SPAM) I told you that Mark Trevino had found a 92 Kb file at NCSA that has nothing but e-mail addresses. "NCSA" stands for the National Center for Supercomputer Applications, and they were the folks who created the first graphical Web browser ("Mosaic").
3. Since so many of you are interested in learning more about Netscape "cookies" (which we also talked about on October 24th), I plan to write a TOURBUS post on the subject in the weeks to come. In the interim, if you want a really cool chocolate chip cookie recipe -- which has absolutely NOTHING to do with Netscape cookies, but I thought you'd like the recipe anyway -- check out my own chocolate chip cookie recipe at http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/cookie.html
4. Finally, I just want to give everyone a little advanced warning that my post on Thanksgiving day (Thursday, November 28) will be a repeat of last Thanksgiving's "spam" post. Since the holiday season is a BIG time for unsolicited e-mail, I am reposting last year's post to make sure that everyone on the Bus knows the truth behind some of the Net's biggest spams and urban legends.

THE CENTRE FOR THE EASILY AMUSED

The C*E*A is pretty much a Yahoo-sized directory for all of the most absolutely useless, and incredibly silly, Web pages in the world. The folks at the C*E*A say that they "been exploring the Internet since long before it was trendy in their search for the Ultimate Guide to Wasting Time" and that the C*E*A's motto is that "life's too short to take seriously."

So, if you are looking for a good way to kill a lot of time, you can find the Centre for the Easily Amused on the Web at http://www.amused.com/

You'll have to scroll down the C*E*A homepage a bit to find this -- the top of the C*E*A's homepage is full of awards and other stuff -- but the C*E*A has 9 major directories. After exploring the site thoroughly, I can safely say that you'll only want to visit the following 3 directories:

• RANDOM SILLINESS. You'll probably want to start here. This page has links to such wonderful sites as "The One and Only Q- Tips Homepage", "1001 Uses for Duct Tape", and, my personal favorite, ."Bad Teen Angst Poetry"
• SITES THAT DO STUFF. This page has links to Web pages that allow you to see stuff using Web cameras in some very weird locations, to use your Web browser to play a whole bunch of silly games, and to participate in a myriad of other time- wasting activities. My absolute favorite link here is the Virtual Bubble Wrap which lets you pop wrapping bubbles with your mouse!
• SHORT ATTENTION SPAN SITE. As best I can guess, this is sort of a collection of "useless sites of the week" for people who don't have the time to look through the "Random Silliness" and "Sites That Do Stuff" pages. An example of one of the previous sites of the week is the "Evil Little Brother Excuse Generator" which is a Mad-Libs-type program that generates excuses for everything from late homework to torched houses.

That's it for this week. Today's TOURBUS may seem to be a tad bit short, but once you actually visit the Centre for the Easily Amused, I think you will discover that today's TOURBUS stop has the distinct possibly of eating up a vast amount of your otherwise productive time. :)

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TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
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UART (phrase) - To be bound or obliged.
Usage: "UART to listen to yore momma."

(Special thanks goes to Steve Creasy for today's wurd.)

YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html