As one parting gift, my old boss & colleagues bought me a copy of The Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components, a 1000 plus page behemoth of a book detailing all kinds of mechanical goodies. Hmm, I now have a desire to go build things with lots of gears, springs, cams, etc. Go figure.

Home Depot, it turns out, does not rent biscuit jointers, in case you were interested. I was, and now I’m just disappointed. Anybody got one they’d lend me for a weekend?

I just finished Word Freak, a great book on the Scrabble subculture. I’d definitely recommend it, unless you’re worried about becoming obsessed with the game just by reading the book. I should’ve thought of that before I read the book, but I guess that just means the author (Stefan Fatsis) did his job well.