No internet at my house till the end of the week...

1. For those of you wondering what I want for my birthday.

2. What's striking about this post to me is how similar it is in many ways to my own experiences. I had some good teachers, but I had a large number of awful teachers. My high school, except for one teacher, was a joke. If anyone deserves credit for the successes I've enjoyed, it's my parents. This whole article just seems to reiterate the idea that for the vast majority of students in low-income schools, there is little value add by the school and you can essentially predict their futures based on their home lives. Very depressing indeed.

3. I'm sure that there's some sort of economic idea underlying this quote from a guy who I consider to be the best sportswriter in America. The post, as they all are, is funny throughout.

You're 29. You've been dating the same girl for nearly three years. She is the best catch of her college friends. One of her less fetching friends meets a guy who is wealthier and more successful than you. Inexplicably, he proposes within seven months. It makes no sense. She totally outkicked her coverage with this guy; he doesn't even know about her "Girls Gone Wild" appearance yet. Still, the whole thing plants those "if she's getting married than what's wrong with me?" doubts in your girlfriend. She wants a ring and she wants it now. You can't believe it. You thought you had already worked this out -- you were going to wait to get married until you were financially stable. You take her out to dinner and make the following argument: Look, just because somebody proposed to your crazy friend doesn't mean that (a) she's better than you, or (b) this should affect your situation in any way.

4. This is probably the best museum website I've ever seen. It's amazing how the videos of 9/11 still visibly shake me. In case you don't know, it takes a lot to get a rise out of me.

5. And on the flipside of that equation, my college has a new website (that they designed internally). My friends and I have already had a long discussion about the website, which we think is a slight upgrade from the previous website, but which still lacks polish. I wonder whether a school has ever done a student competition for redesigning a website like this. Groups of students (art, computer science, psychology, etc.) could band together to create something really cool that actually works. Hell, open it up to students/developers all over the place. Innovate!