document.write('<ol class="tumblr_posts">\x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_photo_post">\x0a                <img src="http://18.media.tumblr.com/E9KZdpJplpkykkhoNX8UnhQXo1_250.jpg" alt="My favorite &amp;#8220;Drug Store&amp;#8221; pen. Medium point only. (Not always available where I want it to be available, which makes me crazy.)&nbsp;Liquid Expresso Pen\x0aI shouldn&amp;#8217;t need to tell you that the name also makes me crazy. &amp;#8220;Liquid Expresso Pen?&amp;#8221; That is just asinine. Please just call it a liquid porous point. Or a liquid ooze. Or a liquid anything-but-expresso. Eeegs." class="tumblr_photo"/>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_caption">\x0a                        <p>My favorite &#8220;Drug Store&#8221; pen. Medium point only. (Not always available where I want it to be available, which makes me crazy.) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Liquid-Expresso-Pen/dp/B001AZ54TG/?tag=rint-20">Liquid Expresso Pen</a></p>\x0a<p>I shouldn&#8217;t need to tell you that the name also makes me crazy. &#8220;Liquid Expresso Pen?&#8221; That is just asinine. Please just call it a liquid porous point. Or a liquid ooze. Or a liquid anything-but-expresso. Eeegs.</p>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_photo_post">\x0a                <img src="http://16.media.tumblr.com/E9KZdpJplpkyb7rc39ovwxzzo1_400.jpg" alt="Want? Oh, yeah, of course. Want.&nbsp;Omega Men&amp;#8217;s Seamaster 300M Automatic Chronometer Watch" class="tumblr_photo"/>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_caption">\x0a                        Want? Oh, yeah, of course. Want. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Seamaster-Automatic-Chronometer-2220-80-00/dp/B0013ZCPWW/?tag=rint-20">Omega Men&#8217;s Seamaster 300M Automatic Chronometer Watch</a>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_quote_post">\x0a                <div class="tumblr_quote">\x0a                    <span class="tumblr_open_quote">&#147;</span>McSweeney&#8217;s Internet Tendency is looking for some new and fresh blood for our semi-regular columns that run as the rather disordered series of links toward the bottom of this page. In order to facilitate this search, we&#8217;ve decided to have a contest. Here&#8217;s all the relevant information that we can think of.<span class="tumblr_close_quote">&#148;</span>\x0a                </div>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_source">\x0a                        <a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/6/17contest.html">McSweeney&#8217;s Internet Tendency: We&#8217;re Having a Contest for New Columnists.</a>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Restoring accidentally suspended accounts</div>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0a                    I hopr this gets cleared up soon or I&#8217;m going to need new meds.\x0a\x0a<p><a href="http://status.twitter.com/post/136164828/restoring-accidentally-suspended-accounts">twitterstatus</a>:</p>\x0a\x0a<blockquote>\x0a<p>Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts.</p>\x0a<p>We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.</p>\x0a<p>One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms.</p>\x0a</blockquote>\x0a                </div>\x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Twit</div>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0a                    My twitter account has been suspended for reasons unknown to me. Any ideas about what I might have been up to?\x0a                </div>\x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_quote_post">\x0a                <div class="tumblr_quote">\x0a                    <span class="tumblr_open_quote">&#147;</span><p>Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer’s disease, US scientists say.</p>\x0a\x0a<p>The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease.</p>\x0a\x0a<p>Previous research has also suggested a protective effect from caffeine.</p><span class="tumblr_close_quote">&#148;</span>\x0a                </div>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_source">\x0a                        <p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8132122.stm">BBC</a></p>\x0a<p>Caffeine FTW.</p> (via <a href="http://lisarahmat.tumblr.com/">lisarahmat</a>)\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Clip: Fossil Digging with Kids in Republic WA</div>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0a                    <p>Here&#8217;s a thing I wrote for <a href="http://www.outtheremonthly.com/otm.php?art=archives/sept06/fossil_dig">Out There Monthly</a> that is otherwise difficult to find, and I want to be able to find it, so I&#8217;m reposting it here to be able to find it.</p>\x0a<p>Fossil Digging With Kids in Republic WA <img border="0" height="1" width="407" src="http://www.outtheremonthly.com/images/gray_spacer.gif"/><br/></p>\x0a<p>I fashion myself the Daytrippin&#8217; Dad (one of my many delusions), and I try to make it a rule to keep my daytrips within a two-hour drive from Spokane (saves answering the question, &#8220;when are we gonna get there,&#8221; more than twelve or thirteen times in a given day).</p>\x0a<p>Stonerose, located in Republic, Washington is the only public center in the state dedicated to amateur paleontology, but it&#8217;s almost three and a half hours away (124 miles), so if I wanted to go fossil huntin&#8217; with my kids, I&#8217;d either have to turn a day trip into an overnight trip (though Overnighttrippin&#8217; Dad just doesn&#8217;t have the same ring to it), or bend my rules.</p>\x0a<p>Somehow three and a half hours didn&#8217;t seem that long with the promise of finding fossils at the end of it, for me or for the kids, so I decided to risk it, and bring their best friends along to take some of the pressure off of Daytrippin&#8217; Dad.</p>\x0a<p>And it worked. The drive up was pleasant, with only one bathroom break, and when they eventually did ask, &#8220;how long until we get there,&#8221; and I answered, &#8220;twenty minutes&#8221;-even though we still had nearly an hour and a half left in our trip-nobody seemed to care. We were gonna hunt fossils, and that&#8217;s all that mattered.</p>\x0a<p>At Stonerose Interpretive Center you register and receive your instructions. For a small fee ($5 adult, $3 kids 6-18, free under 6) you become a paleontologist. You can bring your own tools (which we did), or rent them at the site for $3 (which we ended up doing because my tools were more appropriate for chipping rather than opening rocks). The Boot Hill fossil bed is a short walk up the hill, so the five of us (ages 4, 5, 7, 8 and 39) checked in, grabbed our gear, and set out.</p>\x0a<p>During the first hour and a half, we found exactly nothing, in part because of my hacker tools, and in part because-despite the very specific instructions given us at the interpretive center-we had no idea what we were doing. So we broke for an early picnic in the park across from the interpretive center, and gathered our strength for a second assault on Boot Hill. I rented new tools, including sharpened chisels, and we had a refreshed attitude.</p>\x0a<p>I also reviewed our instructional materials (I like to equip myself with knowledge, even if I have to equip myself several times because I too often lose my equipment). We were searching a lakebed from the Eocene era (nearly fifty million years ago) for evidence of plants, fish and insects.</p>\x0a<p>Good to know, yes, but this gave me a bit of a pause. Fifty million years ago? Heck, I can&#8217;t even find the library book I checked out four weeks ago, much less a pre-historic mosquito.</p>\x0a<p>But, never mind. When I did find something, it would be fifty million years old. And that&#8217;s cool. Also, there are thousands of fossils here, and we know where to dig. That library book could be under the sofa for all I know. So I&#8217;d focus. On the rocks. Somewhere inside this stone is&#8230; is a&#8230; is a leaf, and all I have to do is allow the leaf to reveal itself. I&#8217;m no Michelangelo, but come on. It&#8217;s not David. It&#8217;s a leaf.</p>\x0a<p>While I practiced Zen meditation over the largest slabs of shale I could carry, the kids were discovering their own methods. The oldest two found that if they overturned enough abandoned shale, they could find fossils. The four-year-old discovered (or exploited what he already knew) that pounding at stones with a hammer is great fun, whether he actually found anything or not. My five-year-old daughter used her leadership abilities and monitored the rest of the day, making sure everyone was doing what it was they were supposed to be doing. Everyone was having a good time. Even me.</p>\x0a<p>And then it happened. One rock. One chisel. One mind. Beginner&#8217;s mind.</p>\x0a<p>The rock opens and inside the leaf reveals itself.</p>\x0a<p>This is a warning. Once you find your first fossil inside your first rock, you will go from &#8220;having a good time&#8221; to &#8220;gotta have one more fossil,&#8221; and likely have to be dragged out of a pile of your broken shale (Stonerose closes at 4 PM, even though there are something like, six hours of daylight left, and you still have half a canteen of water&#8230;and no those aren&#8217;t your kids &#8230;you didn&#8217;t bring any kids&#8230;why do you ask?).</p>\x0a<p>When you&#8217;re finished, the Stonerose center gets to examine your work and keep anything they deem of scientific value or important to the Stonerose collection. Which means they kept my &#8220;possible rose leaf&#8221; and another &#8220;unusual leaf&#8221; and my son&#8217;s &#8220;possible insect.&#8221; That may be a bit of a bummer for some, but a point of pride as well. We still went home with fifteen fossils between the five of us that the kids simply couldn&#8217;t stop talking about and showing off, and our names will be attached to the fossils that Stonerose kept for the permanent collection.</p>\x0a<p>So Daytrippin&#8217; Dad says that fossil hunting, three and a half hour drive or no, is cool.</p>\x0a<p>For more info on fossil diggin&#8217; in Republic visit: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stonerosefossil.org/visiting.htm"><a href="http://www.stonerosefossil.org/visiting.htm">http://www.stonerosefossil.org/visiting.htm</a></a>. Terry Bain reads from his new book, We Are the Cat, at Auntie&#8217;s Bookstore on September 8 at 7:30 PM.</p>\x0a<p>WHEN YOU GO:<br/>From Spokane, head north on US-395 SOUTH, go 74.8 miles. Turn on WA-20, go 39.6 miles. WA-20 becomes CLARK AVE S., go 0.2 miles. Arrive at the center of REPUBLIC, WA.</p>\x0a<p>Stonerose Interpretive Center is located at 15-1&#160;N. Kean Street, on the corner of Kean Street and WA-20, across from the city park. The fossil site is just a short walk from the Interpretive Center.</p>\x0a                </div>\x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_photo_post">\x0a                <img src="http://5.media.tumblr.com/E9KZdpJplpgsgmkbdcKk1D7do1_400.jpg" alt="Want.&nbsp;Charlie Brown Yellow Zig-Zag Peanuts T-shirt" class="tumblr_photo"/>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_caption">\x0a                        Want. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Zig-Zag-Peanuts-T-shirt-XX-Large/dp/B000BNZBAK/?tag=rint-20">Charlie Brown Yellow Zig-Zag Peanuts T-shirt</a>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_photo_post">\x0a                <img src="http://22.media.tumblr.com/E9KZdpJplpgsda5gEA8dAaEuo1_250.jpg" alt="Herpes Plush Giant Microbe" class="tumblr_photo"/>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_caption">\x0a                        <a href="http://www.amazon.com/HERPES-SIMPLEX-VIRUS-GIANT-MICROBES/dp/B000W6SBXU/?tag=rint-20">Herpes Plush Giant Microbe</a>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_photo_post">\x0a                <img src="http://4.media.tumblr.com/E9KZdpJplpfx7ff6DbA731Epo1_400.jpg" alt="American Swing" class="tumblr_photo"/>\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    <div class="tumblr_caption">\x0a                        <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Swing-al/dp/B001NJ91C0/?tag=rint-20">American Swing</a>\x0a                    </div>\x0a                \x0a            </li>\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a</ol>');