This morning, I was reading something and got linked to an old posting on the Dilbert blog about the formulas in humor. One of my favorite classes in college was humor writing and "getting" some of these very constructs unlocked a lot of humor and jokes for me.

Anyway, in the midst of a giant pile of comments on the posting, were links to several comic strips. I noted a few of them to check out when I got home. A few were duds, but I think I've got a pretty good evening of laughs ahead of me when I discovered this one.

First of all, it features a wide variety of visual styles. The strip is beautifully drawn and often relies on the visual for the joke. The topics are often disturbing and biting, but very funny. More than one is just plain *wrong*.

They do often take a bit of thought to get, but that's part of what makes them worthwhile. I'm a huge fan of a joke that takes 2-3 leaps before you get the payoff. Basically, if you don't get the joke in the one I'm posting, you probably shouldn't bother.

And, many are not safe for work. You've been warned. However, if you're looking for some non-family-safe humor to make you laugh, give it a shot.

Photo: sookie

Last week in Washington, I found myself turning to Shelly a lot and saying "But I'm *Special*", with plenty of sarcasm. It's something I've taken to saying as a shorthand for a syndrome that seems to affect a LOT of people.

It shows up when people are told the rules and they take a big breath and give a long list of reasons why they should be exempted from the rules. Sure, every once in a while they have a really good reason and everyone witnessing the event nods in agreement that they *should* be exempted. But, most of the time, everyone who overhears it just rolls their eyes.

Here's an example. At the Library of Congress on Friday, everyone was sent through the lower level entrance with the main doors locked. From a couple of blocks away a line of 100+ people led straight to that security point. As we got in line we watched as, every couple of minutes, someone would walk up, look at the line (a few even asked what we were sitting in line for) and then walk up the steps and fret visibly when they discovered the main doors locked. Many grabbed the door handles 3 or 4 times, incredulous that *they* wouldn't be able to walk right into a government building in Washington.

If asked, most wouldn't have actually used the words "but I'm special", but they meant it all the same. Whenever someone insists on an exception, bending of the rules or otherwise being singled out for bypassing the processes set up for everyone, someone is busy saying it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm the first one to offer assistance when I can, the first one to see what I can do to accomodate someone's genuine need. However, I'm just so sick of people saying it when they so clearly aren't special in any way but their selfishness.

So, the next time someone's actions scream, "but I'm special", see if you, like me, are tempted to voice their sentiment. If you give in to the temptation, make sure your words are dripping with sarcasm.

I'm going through the several thousand feed items that piled up when I was gone and found a couple of interesting projects on MAKE. I really like the idea of the little "sun jar" project for making little portable jar lights that charge up during the day and glow into the evening. I like the results better than the landscaping versions from Home Depot. Particularly because they are more portable.

Then, there's the paper clip sculptures, which tap into a weird interest of mine: office supply art. For some reason, I love this kind of thing and have been known to do my own, particularly my kneaded eraser sculptures (pictured right).

Of course, the range of office supply art wouldn't be complete without crayon carvings. They remind me of the pencil carvings of Easter Island-like statues Aaron Saude used to do in junior high that made the old #2 more interesting.

Just a quick note to say I'm actually back from vacation. However, lots of stuff seemed to pile up and, since no one vetoed Murphy's legislation, things like discovering my email server was crashing every time I logged into it have made for a series of really busy days since we got back on Saturday night.

The trip itself went well and I really enjoyed it. I've got over 1000 pictures from the trip to go through and a few more disasters to clean up before things return to normal.

If you sent me email in the last week or so, and don't hear from me by the day after tomorrow, send it again because I don't know how much stuff got lost in the process of the email server problems (the replacement setup appears to be running properly).

I'm in Washington DC this morning. More accurately, I'm sitting in Alexandria, VA, but close enough since I'm on vacation. Yesterday was the "travel" day, running to drop the dogs off at "camp", typing up instructions for the neighbors to feed the fish and watch the house, going through the airport and making the world safe for democracy by keeping my shampoo in a travel size bottle, safely quarantined in a zip-top bag, the actual flight, fighting with the people who were 4-deep around baggage claim only to have to actually take *back* one of my bags from someone who nearly walked off with it, taking the Metro, and finally ending up at our base of operations for this vacation.

Only then, at 7:30 or so did it feel like we were on vacation. We had a wonderful dinner and chatted into the night.

This morning, we're headed out to see Monticello and various other sights in the vicinity. I've always had a facination with Jefferson and that put visiting Monticello on my list.

This post brought to you by relatives who have DSL and wireless. I'm amazed at how many people have joined those ranks in the last couple of years, but am thankful it's becomingg so.