The Olympics are over for another two years, and maybe they aren't on television anymore (which I'll miss, especially walking the treadmill at my gym), but there will still be a lot to read. These are the things I find most interesting: The most memorable moments covering an Olympics aren't televised -- personal memories of some of the journalists covering the games.

I guess this is stupid, but I either had never bothered to find out, or I'd forgotten how the Viet Nam draft worked. I suppose if I had been a boy, I would have known. This CNN page lets you put in your birthday and see if you would have been drafted in the first round. I would have been too young anyway, but if I had been in this draft, my number would have been 230, and I wouldn't have been drafted.

CNN - Cold War

I've got a couple of Gmail invitations left. If anyone wants an account, just email me. First come, first served.

David Knopfler's new album, Ship of Dreams, will be released in about three weeks, but there are samples of every track up now at the label's website.

It was inevitable: Catster, "where every cat has a webpage." No, I haven't put my cats in yet, but I might . . . Every cat deserves a webpage!

Link from WendyKnits and Lucy.

Rob Wilco is switching! The story over the past couple of weeks has been his tech support nightmare with "Dull Computers." He finally got smart and switched to Apple.

freeiPods.com has teamed up with various retailers to offer free iPods (naturally) to people who complete an offer -- I chose BMG Music's 12 CDs for the price of 1 -- and refer five people who also complete an offer. It's pretty painless, and it would be very cool to get a free iPod . . .

There was a story about this company in Wired recently, so it looks legitimate.

Clicking on the link above will take you to the freeIpods site and give me credit, so that I just might get one! Wouldn't that be cool??

Link from Misty, who my participation will help to get her free iPod.

This article at BoingBoing made me laugh. I had almost exactly the same experience with an online tech support person at Earthlink a few weeks ago. I had created an account online, then found that I couldn't use it because they required a type of authentication that my email program couldn't supply, and I only wanted the account temporarily anyway, until I could figure out what I wanted to do about a broken computer.

I wanted to see if I could get a refund for the first month's fee that they had already taken out of my account. It must have taken me a half-hour to get a straight answer. It was infuriating. I don't think they're real people, I think it's computer generated. Either that, or they're having to handle ten online "conversations" at once, which wouldn't surprise me, either.

Here's a nice explanation of the Japanese Beckoning Cat -- I can't remember now how I ran across it, but I saved it to read because I have several of the little cats. I originally started buying them because we had a white cat, and it made me think of her, but I like the symbolism, too, and any time I find a particularly cute one, I buy it. This article also says that Sanrio's Hello Kitty is another manifestation of the Beckoning Cat, and while I never heard that before, it makes perfect sense, and I'm sure that's right.

Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week dictate that spectators may be refused admission to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.

Olympian struggle - Fans face boot for eating or drinking wrong brands at games

Link via BoingBoing

Some else who, like me, is obsessed by bags and the things we carry in them:

I keep checks to deposit under the top flap, folded. Whenever I withdraw money, I look to see if there are any checks under there to deposit. This eliminates having to ever think about going to the bank to deposit checks. Most of my systems exist to save me from having to think about something. I am a lunatic.

Oblivio > Archives > The Contents of My Bag

Link from Mike Duffy

CNN.com - Koko the gorilla calls for the dentist - Aug 8, 2004: "They crowded around her, and Koko, who plays favorites, asked one woman wearing red to come closer. The woman handed her a business card, which Koko promptly ate."

I was searching on the web for some information about DNS propagation, and ran across this excellent explanation at the site of a company called H2Hosting.com. I don't know anything about them, but I thought this article was a really good explanation of what goes on during the DNS transfer period (I'm waiting for that to happen for this domain right now, and was curious about just how long it might take).

Caffeine is a miracle drug. It reduces sleep and, therefore, extends life. It is also, once your taste buds have been sufficiently battered, yummy.

So whenever I get a latte (or whatever weenie, overpriced, city-boy coffee drink I’m imbibing that day), I will give Cordelia a sip. Not a lot, just enough to waken her body to the expanded possibilities and extended lifetime that the caffeine Jesus provided for us can give.

The Story About the Toddler, Volume 17