Tipping Etiquette Guide at FindaLink.net:

Not knowing the proper tip or gratuity for a service can be very unsettling. The rest of your party might not know it, but inside you may feel highly stressed as you walk up to the coat check or curbside check-in. The challenge is not everyday situations, but when you are taken out of your normal environment. For example, if you travel only occasionally, hotel tipping etiquette can be a real mystery.

Let FindaLink.net help take the mystery out of tipping etiquette. This brief guide covers most tipping opportunities.

I don't know "FindaLink" from a hole-in-the-wall, but this guide is very thorough and I have no disagreements (at least with the few I checked). Thanks Internet, bawk bawk.

Around 1927 it was discovered that if you injected the urine of a pregnant woman into a rabbit, there would be corpora hemorrhagica in the ovaries of the rabbit. These bulging masses on the ovaries could not be seen with out killing the rabbit to inspect the ovaries, so invariably, every rabbit died, even if the woman wasn't pregnant. The phrase, "The rabbit died," came to be a euphemism for a positive pregnancy test after the late 1920 and early 1930s

[ The Rabbit Died - The Origins of the Pregnancy Test ]

In other words my wife is:

• up the duff
• in the pudding club
• working on her baby bump
• or just plain pregcellent

[ Babble.com ]

The next installment of our branch of Clan Kearns is due April 19th, 2009, God willing.

Update: apparently it wasn't meant to be, today the doctor confirmed that we have lost the baby.

Apparently, since we've switch from "you have to have sighted the moon" to "it's ok to use big fancy math" systems for determining the Islamic calendar, we can now plan well in advance for Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr (Lebaran to my Indonesian wife and friends):

Facebook | Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)'s Notes:

Ramadan 1429: September 1, 2008

The Astronomical New Moon for Ramadan is on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 19:58 Universal Time (i.e., 3:58 pm EDT, and 12:58 pm PDT). According to the criteria adopted by the Fiqh Council of North America, and European Council for Fatwa and Research, [the conjunction before sunset and moon setting after sunset in Makkah] first day of Ramadan is on Monday, September 1, 2008.

Eid al-Fitr 1429: October 1, 2008

The Astronomical New Moon for Shawwal is on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 8:12 GMT, 4:12 am EDT, 1:12 am PDT). According to the criteria adopted by the Fiqh Council of North America, and European Council for Fatwa and Research, the first day of Shawwal is on Wednesday, October 1, 2008.

Also posted to the Fiqh Council's website.

Update: IMAAM agrees, as does ADAMS.

Telltale tempts fate, names release date for Strong Bad - Nintendo Wii Fanboy:

Assuming that Telltale has paid proper tribute to their feudal lords at Nintendo, Homestar Ruiner will be out next Monday in North America for 1,000 Wii Points. Future episodes should release every month after that. We hope it's true. We feel like we've been waiting since last month for this game, and we'd be pretty sad if Nintendo SBLOUNSKCHED the release.

If you aren't from around here, and by that I mean anywhere near the south east United States, you may have an idea about what you think Barbeque is, and you are probably wrong. While they forgot the misqete sauce on the Texas BBQ, this is humorous, informative, and has a beat you can dance to:

Props to Serious Eats

We can't keep growing like this:

Doesn't common sense suggest that we cannot grow forever?

I would argue that common sense dictates that we will grow forever, the question is do we want to grow with forethought and wisdom?

We live in the "Greater Washington Area" or perhaps the "Greater Baltimore Washington Area" as the cities collide. The people are coming because we've done a good job building our community and offering what everyone wants. The question is not "do we grow", but "where do we put all of the people". Which begs the question "do we make room in the suburbs, or force people to live in the country side (thus turning the country side into suburbs much father out and ultimately making traffic congestion worse and worse". I would argue that conversion of close-in suburbs to more urban areas is the only wise way to address the increasing population in our greater city area, and deciding to either "just not make room" or "force jobs out to the farther suburbs" are just not dealing with the reality.

So you didn't take my cue and go to the Indonesian Independence Celebration, and now you're wishing you had something Asian to do:

Asian Festival in DC:

The "Asian Festival" is now a two-day FREE ADMISSION event to promote a greater understanding of Asian countries and culture. This year we are showcasing China to celebrate the spirit of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In addition, all participating Asian countries have an opportunity to share their unique music, cultural performances, food, fashion, handicrafts, and other products and entertainment. The Asian Festival which has grown into huge success in the D.C. Metro Area has blended together trade opportunities, product marketing, entertainment, food and tennis, creating an event that has something for everyone, and for all ages!

We went last year, it's pretty good. Multiple stages, many Asian cultures represented, great food, great music, good times. Hope to see you there!

Come down to the Indonesian Ambassador's Residence for culture, food, music, dancing, and celebration of the 63rd anniversary of Indonesian Independence:

BAZAAR “KAMPUNG MERDEKA” Dalam Rangka Peringatan HUT RI ke-63 Minggu, 3 Agustus 2008 Dalam rangka memeriahkan Hari Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan RI ke-63, Panitia Peringatan Hari Kemerdekaan RI ke-63 akan menyelenggarakan Panggung Gembira dan Bazaar pada hari Minggu, 3 Agustus 2008 bertempat di Wisma Indonesia, 2700 Tilden Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.

[ Indonesia Independence Day Celebration - Washington DC ]

And all of that Indonesian basically says what I said above, just a bit more formal... No, really. Anyway there will be a couple dozen booths selling traditional Indoneisan food and some crafts plus a state with traditional music and dancing, and usually there is also a big spectacle like a mini-parade with traditional masks and costumes.

Maryland has the distinction of being the first state to have a state exercise. The exercise chosen is walking, an easy, inexpensive way to stay healthy that can be done just about any time of day.

Though state designations don’t necessarily mean popularity with state residents, (Jousting is the state sport, has been for a long time, and how many jousters do you know?) increased awareness of the benefits of walking is a positive for health.

[ What’s New in Maryland ]

Well, at 5am I finally was able to get access to the iTunes store and purchase my OS upgrade. It then installed the new OS and then recopied all of my files. v2.0 should have all sorts of new goodies, yes? Well, not so much. The biggest thing? Applications. Also there appears to be many more choices for email, and there is push functionality for Mobile Me (the new .mac). What there isn't is any of my original settings, apparently they aren't considered important enough to retain. There is also still no copy and paste, so odd to leave that out.

How about these great applications then? Well, so far it's slim pickens. I've installed the following:

AIM "lets you stay connected with the people you care about right on your iPhone or iPod Touch..."

Though, not well... There didn't appear to be any visual or audible indication on my iPod that I received a new message. Plus if you login and put the app in the background, the IMs it received all read blank, and there is no apparent way to log out of the application. Did no one test this? Uninstalled!

Facebook "for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information"

I guess, though I can't see that it does anything much different than the iPhone tweaked mobile webpage. I haven't played around with this much, but most of what Facebook does isn't available, and it doesn't seem very useful to me. It's still installed, but I'm not sure for how much longer.

Google Mobile App "for your iPhone or iPod Touch makes it fast and easy to search"

Of course Google is right there in the book marks too. The Google app is just a menu for Google sites, really. Most everything you choose just pops up a program in Safari, thus most of what this does can be done with bookmarks or homepage icons. Weak, but still installed for now.

PayPal "application allows you to send money to your friends and family using your existing PayPal account."

Which is not something I do often. I guess I can check my balance too, but I can already do that with my cell phone and an SMS message. Still installed for now, but I'm not sure why.

Salesforce".com has combined the effortless navigation of the iPhone with the world's most powerful web-based computing platform to create a mobile business experience that is redefining the future of the mobile enterprise."

Not for me, though. Apparently you have to fork out a ton of extra cash for mobile access to Salesforce. Since I'm not in sales (yes I know everyone is in sales...) then I can't see why I'd want to fork out that cash when I'm mostly just using SF for tasking... Uninstalled.

Super Monkey Ball "Let's roll! Guide a cute little monkey encased in a transparent ball to victory by tilting and rolling him through a variety of slopes and turns."

This appears to be a stripped down version of the DS SMB game, with tilt controls instead of stylus controls. There are no group games, or minigames, or network games, but for $10 this should give me something to do while waiting in line, or shopping with the family, or in Nate's office... I like this one!

Twitterific "A fun application that lets you read and publish posts (called 'tweets') on the Twitter social network"

I like this one. Doesn't do much but twitter, but it's so much better than the iPhone version of the twitter page, and it does have nice alerts to it. This one is also a keeper!

How about you? What have you installed on your iPhone/iPod touch?

iPod touch applications are unlike anything you’ve ever seen on a mobile device. The world’s best developers are creating applications to leverage the groundbreaking technology in iPod touch, such as the Multi-Touch interface, the accelerometer, real-time 3D graphics, and 3D positional audio. It’s all part of the iPhone 2.0 Software Update for iPod touch.*

[ Apple - iPod touch - App Store ]

Sounds awesome! I can't wait! But wait, the day is here that they announced, so what's the deal?

I know that iPhone users already are sporting their free upgrade, and have been for days. It's bad enough that I have to pay $10 to upgrade the OS on my iPod that is less than a month old, but now they're just teasing me. I just want to get some Super Monkey Ball action, is that too much to ask?