While everyone guessed whether he would stay or go, N.C. State star Julius Hodge played a prank during his news conference yesterday. He came out wearing a New York Knicks jacket next to a somber Herb Sendek. When some reporters scrambled to report the breaking news that Hodge was leaving, he said “Gotcha!”

Good for Hodge to stay. And for the right reasons: he wants to graduate.

In other news, Philip Rivers is going to the NFL draft.

By the way, both of these athletes have been known to give high fives.
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Today is the one-year anniversary of my being freed from a lousy job, albeit I didn’t see it that way at the time. Never again will I take a job for the money with the hope that the job satisfaction will come later. That’s a backwards-ass way of doing things.

I’m a bit wiser now.

Since a good number of web hits I get is for my page on the Raleigh Municipal Airport, I thought I’d link to this story in Monday’s News and Observer about the woman who ministers to the homeless people living there.

Its strange that the day I went there to take pictures in March 2000, I didn’t see a soul. Then again, I chose not to venture into the deeper woods. I wonder if I happened to visit the old airport right after a police raid. Also interesting is the reason they prefer the woods: the fire hydrants left on the old site provide an easy source for drinking water.

I feel for those people who have to call the woods home. Plenty of them just need some addiction treatment and they could make lives for themselves. Then again, many may not want to give up their freedom, or to have responsibility. It’s sad how people can fall through the cracks, forgotten by society.

Here’s another brilliant idea from our guardians, the gummint. The Federal Trade Commission is requiring spammers to label their porn spam “sexually explicit.” There are so many things wrong with this that I don’t know where to begin.

Now, I hate spam like everyone else. I hate porn spam even more. But passing a law against it will not work. That’s because the Internet routes around stupid laws. I’m sure all those Chinese and Filipino entrepreneurs are quaking in their boots now that their spam is against U.S. law.

Why, oh, why do our fearless leaders think the U.S. owns the Internet, and that U.S. laws will somehow affect what’s available on it? Just like we all noticed a dramatic drop in spam once the CAN-SPAM law took effect, I’m sure these new FTC rules will spell the end of porn spam on the Internet.

Don’t forget! Tomorrow is National High Five Day. Give those around you a hearty high-five.

On the way home, I threaded my way off of U.S. 1 onto I-40 and suddenly appreciated just how broken that interchange really is. There is zero distance for merging. It’s a “cluster,” no doubt about it. Makes me think the DOT engineers were high on crack when they put that together.

Another broken spot is the merge lanes for Western Boulevard and southbound I-440. It kills traffic during every rush hour. Traffic peels off on the right and peels on on the left: you have to look in two directions. Broken!

Other accidents-waiting-to-happen include the 70 and 401 split on the edge of Garner. In the mornings, cars regularly weave across five lanes of traffic to get where they’re going. That’s one reason I take an alternate route each day. Too dangerous.

How about Wake Forest Road north of the Beltline? You know the one: where the road was “widened” to six lanes by magically repainting the lines? You take your life in your own hands every time you drive on that road!

So what am I leaving out? Where are the other malfunctioning intersections in the Triangle area?

I just discovered a way-cool feature of VoicePulse VoIP service: multiple lines! I can take multiple calls simultaneously on my home Asterisk server. Call waiting just became obsolete.

I predict plenty of SOHOs (small offices/home offices) will ditch their $40-per-month business lines for one $8/month VoIP account.

Voice-over-IP kicks ass!

Thanks to pressure from legions of MT.net readers, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia has apologized for his marshal’s confiscation of recording tapes during a recent speech.

“I have written to the reporters involved, extending my apology,” Scalia said in a letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.“Also, I cannot thank enough the loyal readers of MT.net for setting me straight on this issue.”

Okay, I made that last part up. But still, good for him for recognizing his mistake. Let’s hope that his new guidelines will keep this from happening again.

I found a link to a site with new 9/11 footage. This new footage shows what appears to be a missile being fired into the building a split-second before impact.

I’ve seen the extra appendage that appears in photographs and videos. I posted about it back in September. This CameraPlanet footage seems to show the purpose of the pod: to house a missile.

When you put that together with the fact that the towers fell at close to free-fall velocity, you can’t help but consider that this horrible, nightmarish event was in fact scripted.

But for what end? If the follow-the-money rule applies, who has gained most from this crime?