"All aboard!" The "MUNI Diaries" logo Muni Diaries – whether you live in San Francisco and ride its slow and human-stained MUNI buses and trains or not, you can still be amused, shocked, and/or disgusted by these fascinating tales of the publicly-transported in all their tired, smelly, and crammed-together glory. Populated largely by user-submitted content, the "Muni Diaries" blog shows public transportation for what it is: a strange social experiment, a fecund human Petri dish where the rich and poor, the young and old, and the healthy and sick cram together with all the nudity, violence, vomit, and sexual indiscretion that keeps the riding citizens endlessly entertained -- and always coming back for more. SticK – because quitting smoking, saving money, or exercising regularly is hard, StickK.com has devised a web-based method to help you keep the achievement of your goals on track. If you set a goal and do not achieve it, StickK.com will charge your credit card accordingly and send the money to a designated recipient. I Do Now I Don’t – these pre-owned wedding and engagement ring auction sites are becoming quite a burgeoning little industry. Every time I see a new one, I think, “Oh, that’s kinda funny,” until I start looking at the pictures of the rings and thinking about the stories of heartbreak that many of them hold, and then it just starts to seem sad. "I Do Now I Don't" also sells wedding dresses, which makes sense because teardrops can usually be washed right out of most fabrics. Airfare Watchdog – a new take on the airfare-deal-finding website, "Airfare Watchdog" provides you a list of surprisingly-inexpensive flights to and from various destinations with limitations on travel dates and times. If you’re just looking to get out of town and you’re flexible on your dates (or even your destination), a quick browse through their daily list of fares might be of interest. Cat Workout – sites like this really make me want to lose my job and hang around my house all day coming up with funny things to blog. "Cat Workout" helps users see the real value in having a cat: you can save money on exercise equipment! Having a cute little kitty in my arms while I’m doing “European squats” would not only provide me with soft and fuzzy joy, but would also provide the resistance that I need to maximize the effectiveness of my workouts. Suggested Sites... Muni Diaries - SF Muni adventure blog with stories, news, videos, and commentary about the bus-tastic San Francisco Municipal Railway. Get Muni news and submit your own Muni adventures, photos, videos, and stories. SticK - enables users to form commitment contracts to help them achieve their personal goals. These goals may be to lose weight, run a marathon, exercise regularly, quit smoking, or a personalized goal. Cat Workout - work out with these cat workout videos. Exercises include leg lifts, European squats, biceps training, and more. Airfare Watchdog - alerts consumers to fare reductions, airline discounts, and other unusually low airfares from a wide variety of sources. I Do Now I Don't - buy and sell pre-owned wedding rings, engagement rings, jewelry, and wedding dresses.

Directory categories: San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI), Personal Growth, Airfare Consolidators, Cats, Online Jewelry Auctions

Archived under: Air Travel, Animals, Auctions, Blogs, California, Cats, Cities, Commuting, Diets, Exercise, In Character, Internet, Motivation, Recycling, San Francisco, Shopping, Smoking, Trains, Transportation, Travel, Weddings, Yahoo! Directory

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FBI's sketch of D.B. Cooper, 1972 In these dark days of school shootings, terrorism, and the like, we sometimes forget that there was a time when certain outlaws were almost like heroes, rebelling against mainstream culture and the status quo. In 1971, D.B. Cooper (a.k.a. Dan Cooper) stuck it to the man when he hijacked an airplane with a nothing but a clip-on tie and a bomb story. He pocketed a $200,000 ransom and parachuted to freedom into a dark night and freezing rain somewhere over the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It's a heckuva story. If you have a few minutes, take a stroll through Cooper's Yahoo! Directory category, perhaps beginning with the exhaustive Wikipedia page. So why are we writing about him now? Today, several of the $20 bills believed to have been recovered from Cooper's legendary leap into outlaw fame are being auctioned off by Brian Ingram -- the boy (now man) who discovered them -- through Heritage Auction Galleries. Mr. Ingram will begin the bidding for the entire collection at a modest $14,465. Keep in mind that these $20 bills, recovered on the banks of the Columbia River many years after the jump, are the only evidence that D.B. Cooper might have lived to spend some of that hard-earned $200,000 prize. Many believe that there is no way that he could have survived the jump and the elements. Others want to believe that he lived and got away with it -- because, well, why shouldn't he have? He didn't really hurt anyone, he might have been suffering from a terminal kidney disease, and, sure -- stealing is wrong, but $200,000 by today's standards seems a small price to pay for an exciting crime drama that will surely keep us entertained and inspired for at least another 27 years. Suggested Sites... D.B. Cooper - FBI Case File - complete summary of the FBI's case against D.B. Cooper, the first skyjacker -- thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. D.B. Cooper's Money - Brian Ingram’s website, with scrapbook, history, and some info about Brian. Lots of D.B. Cooper's Money - Heritage Auction Galleries - make a bid on these scraps of outlaw history. SeattlePI.com: D.B. Cooper, Where Are You? - examine all of the evidence with FBI Agent Larry Carr in this article with photos and video. db Coopers - then again, maybe he used the money to open a record store in Los Angeles...

Directory categories: D.B. Cooper, Aircraft Hijacking, Crime, The Roaring 70s

Archived under: Air Travel, American History, Auctions, Crime, Criminals, D.B. Cooper, Money, Mysteries

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NORAD tracks Santa, 2005 (Screenshot by Glenn) You know times are tough when Santa's on a watch list. I mean, it's me -- Jolly Old Saint Nick! You know, the guy with the belly like a bowl full of jelly? The reindeer? The funny red suit? It's pretty easy to pick me out of a crowd. And yet, on my busiest night of the year, I've got two world powers tracking my every move, from Aruba to Zaire. First there was that joint effort from the U.S. and Canadian authorities with their NORAD thing. Now, it's those crazy kids at Google. And as if that's not invasive enough, there's even a Swedish company that calculates I spend 34 microseconds at each job! Gosh, I wish it were that easy. But I'm already exhausted from working the mall. All those grimy hands and runny noses give me a horrible cold, and my head aches from all that whining. All the kids think they've been gems and deserve the latest, greatest toy... blah, blah, blah. And don't get me started on the parents. Not only do they let the kids pinch and kick and scream at me, but at home they keep the fireplace going, leave cookies and carrots that take forever to eat, and they forget to put the dogs out. You want to know how to move from the Naughty list to the Nice one? Cut an old man some slack this year and let me do my job in peace. Suggested Sites... NORAD Tracks Santa - Big Brother is watching Santa. Google Santa Tracker - Google Earth lets you (virtually) fly with Santa. Santa's Office - what does the Big Guy do all day? Santa Television - we didn't know they got such good reception in Lapland. Santa Claus: The Logistics and Physics of his Journey - smarty-pants mathematicians run the numbers.

Directory categories: Christmas Eve Santa Tracking Reports, Santa Claus, Christmas, Christmas Activities

Archived under: Air Travel, Christmas, Holidays, In Character, Santa Claus, Surveillance, Travel

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