Impossible Objects. Neat! I’m guessing that the Rubik’s Cubes were disassembled and inserted one bit at a time, then reassembled inside the bottle. I have no clue how they did the baseball though.

“You know, I’ve always liked that word…”gargantuan”… so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.” We finally saw Kill Bill Vol. II tonight. It was excellent. I have a newfound respect for Darryl Hannah as an actress.

“Dust, old ladies, hippies, and tat.” That’s the summation of my Cat Protection Society Op Shop experience exactly as I SMSed it to the Snook this afternoon. I spent three hours “learning the ropes,” most of which involved me minding the till while Robin and Barbara (my two elderly co-volunteers) kept disappearing into the back room. They were supposedly sorting the newly-donated stock, yet whenever they appeared they had a suspiciously fresh “just-had-a-cup-of-tea” look about them. They were nice ladies though. The job wasn’t very difficult except for the fact that, oh, about 35% of the stock wasn’t actually priced. People kept bringing me things and I’d have to run back and ask them how much it was supposed to be. By the end of the afternoon I finally caught on to the fact that they were just making the prices up, so that’s what I started doing too. Made things easier.

And my fantasies of sitting there knitting while the occasional pensioner browsed through the teacups? Totally false. We were crazy busy the entire time I was there. Old people, young people, hippies looking for tie-dye, goths looking for velour, everybody. (There was even one lady that came in asking for knitting wool, and I was like, “Dude. If we had any, I’d have already bought it. Now move along.”) That place turned over more than two hundred bucks during my shift, most of which was absolute crap I wouldn’t put out in a garage sale. Every time I’d spot something particularly tacky and think to myself “I wouldn’t pay two cents for that,” some weirdo would come in and freak out over it. This otherwise normal looking guy paid $3 for a crappy white plastic hat with polka dots on it, because apparently it folds up really small and he’s been looking for one for years. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Anyway, I haven’t been scheduled in for my next shift yet but that’s fine by me. My charitable urge has been sated for the time being.

A very cool digital clock… of sorts.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Guide to Keeping a Man. Let me guess… Is the first step: “Marry a homosexual?”

The whole Famine experience has inspired me to be more charitable on a regular basis. That’s why I’ve arranged to volunteer at the Cat Protection Society Op Shop! I’m starting this Saturday morning. The op shop is the Society’s main source of funds for the cattery and it’s staffed entirely by volunteers. We had such a great experience with them when we got Dr. Amy Jones that I want to give something back to them. (They’ll also be getting a hefty donation of old clothes from the last time I cleaned out the wardrobe.)

Note for Yanks: An “op shop” – short for “opportunity shop” – is like what we’d call a “Goodwill” in the States. The difference is that there are many different organizations that run op shops here as fundraisers for various causes.

Feline Medical Curiosities. Oh, the poor kitties! The ones with no eyes freak me out.

I saw an advert for this Lord of the Rings Symphony on a bus this morning. Looks pretty neat! Howard Shore himself is going to be conducting. The Snook and I are officially booked in for the Saturday night performance.

Drool. Check out Ethyl. You know, the burger I ate to break the Famine wasn’t nearly that big, but I bet I enjoyed it just as much as that guy!

Jon Stewart’s gave the commencement address at William & Mary this year. Jon Stewart is funny.