I plan to regularly visit The Geography Olympics until I'm able to redeem my anemic score of 20% correct. You should too, and let me know how do did here.

I wouldn't be going out on a limb to presume that many of us have trouble with these types of quizzes. What's our problem?! Senegal, The Ukraine, and Lithuania have their acts together (they're currently the leading three countries), but I'm not sure I'm able to locate them on a blank globe. Shameful, my head hangs as I type.

I just saw David Mindich on C-SPAN talking about his book, Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News. He discusses how not only do we not pay attention to vital information, we don't seem to want to. This isn't just limited to geography, and for some people it's any information that isn't entertainment.

So take this as an excuse to stare at a world map, and bone up on your geography before taking the challenge. Just don't take from the scoring system's integrity by cheating.

I just dug this pic up. I really like it. It was taken during our move out west in Kinsley, Kansas (AKA Midway, USA), a point equidistant to both New York and San Francisco. Making a cameo in it is our car, without which we wouldn't have made it to the George Washington Bridge.

It was around this point that we agreed it was too late to turn back.

Two humans and two felines just traveled 1,561 miles and had to do it all over again.

Is it too late to talk about Halloween? No? Great, thanks.

I'm always looking for a good Halloween party. This year, unfamiliar surroundings and a busy schedule discouraged me from making any plans until the last minute. I rolled out of bed Saturday morning, called cousin Emily, and learned about a house party being thrown by a friend of a foaf in the city.

We ran to our nearest Halloween-store- that's-usually-empty-retail-space-for-rent (Monica says they're called Spirit) location and picked up whatever we could find. Oh, how I longed for Haloween Adventure, which is never sold out of anything.

Monica is an amazing makeup artist, specializing in the gruesome and slutty. She transformed me into this:

I saw Dawn (and Shaun) of the Dead recently before having this photo of me taken from the inside of my car.

...in no time at all.

I think my makeup was a little too good. People would shout at me from across the party, "hey, awesome costume!" But when they got a little closer and saw the disgusting details of my peeling, scaley flesh, they had nothing else to say. I think I really grossed people out. Monica, on the other hand, was typically popular all night and got lots of attention.

After having felt even more discouraged about Halloween than I up through Saturday, Monica swiftly sexed herself up with some bunny ears, bow tie, and a snow suit.

Get it? Snow Bunny.

She wasn't the only one at the party with a juxtaposition of unrelated things as a costume. This one guy showed up with dildos hanging around his neck by chains and a T-shirt that read Halliburton. Get it? Dick Cheney.

I recently attended one of Tiffany Shlain's talks on "Creating Award Winning Websites" that Terrie told me about. For what I got to hear (typical of me to be 30 minutes late), it was really informative. I've had some trouble locating her notes online, but I did find this.

She talked a bit on the evaluation process for the Webby Awards, and what I thought was cool was that the criteria has expanded by another tier. She identified the obvious things a good site should have:

• Content
• Structure & Navigation
• Visual Design
• Interactivity
• Functionality
• Overall Experience

...you know, the no-brainers. She made a joke about how nice it would be if functionality were simply a given.

But then she went on to talk about the next set of hurdles your site needs to jump through to stand out to her judges:

• Humanity
• Trust
• Access
• Mobility
• Simplicity

You know things are evolving when humanity makes it on the list.

I've heard that Santa Rosa is one of the fastest growing U.S. cities, but I haven't been too impressed in the few months I've lived here -- until last night. Halo 2 hit the streets (well, the mall parking lot) last night at midnight, and the masses gathered. I was highly impressed. I didn't think Sonoma had it in her.

There was actually a "VIP" line for those who paid in advance in full. Who the Func(oland) do they think they are?

I had the pleasure of accommodating Nephew Rich to pick up his reserved copy. He never stays up late, or maybe he was just waiting for a good excuse. We all need our obsessions, especially when your 14 years old. He put $5 down on a reservation back in January of this year and has been waiting ever since.

We stood on line outside Funcoland with people who brought lawn furniture, played Hacky Sack, and plotted on how to ditch school or work in the morning.

I really wish I took some photos of the scene.