Just 'cause you're paranoid don't mean things ain't weird.

 So, just this morning, we've had another mass shooting, this time at the goddamn Empire State Building, and Romney made a "joke" about being asked for his birth certificate, and the most charitable explanation is the guy can't tell and joke to save his life. I do wonder sometimes if the walls really are getting thinner or am I just now noticing the constant background crazy. Either is an unsettling stroke, particularly on a hurricane weekend.

And is there any town that more lives the idea of "Don't Panic"?

 As much as I fought getting one, I must admit I do severely dig my smart phone. It's a battered Samsung Mythic, and it's a little over two years old. I'm way past the point of updating, but I tend to keep hardware until it quits working all together.

 Anyhow, one of the reasons I like my smart phone is because it fulfills a boyhood dream of having a hand-held, portable guide to Life, the Universe and Everything of my very own, and one that was updated in more or less real time. Just fire up the pitiful little browser, call up Wikipedia or Google, and I'm off. Should I wake up in an unfamiliar land, I've got Lost Planet and Wikitravels bookmarked. Finally, with Twitter and the AP, I've got a running, to-the-minute news-feed right in my pocket, which brings to mind the e-readers in Transmetropolitan. Hell, my phone's use as a communication device is almost tertiary.