Really? Which was more shocking, that the Catholic Church threw out someone who disagreed with it, or that it’s being misogynist?

This reminds me of a group that wants the Catholic Church to promote the Virgin Mary to goddess and make her a member of the holy trinity. I don’t know why a person would look to Catholicism to value women when the institution doesn’t seem to even regard them as people.

I must be clicked for full effect

This is a screen shot from a site I visited while planning my recent trip to Europe. I can’t be sure, but I believe that kid and his scary Photoshop enhanced green eyes and frightening expression are from The Exorcist. You may have to click the thumbnail to see the full-size image to get the full effect.

After two days of anticipation, I returned to purchase the chocolate bar. As I walked away, I ate a piece. I was not pleased. I thought maybe I was just off my rocker, so I made plans to ask my friend and host, Lindsey, her opinion.

When she arrived home several hours later, she confessed that she’s not so into white chocolate. I replied that this particular bar wasn’t my favorite either, but I wanted to hear her assessment. She agreed to humor me.

As she slowly chewed it, she was very diplomatic about expressing her distaste, but none of her comments were hit the nail on the head. Finally I asked her directly if there was any specific taste it reminded her of. She paused for a moment, “Vomit?”

Apparently the whole time she was chewing it, she was like, “Don’t say vomit, don’t say vomit,” whereas I was mentally screaming, “It tastes like puke! Say it tastes like puke!”

Lindsey described her mental image of a chocolate factory, where they make a bar of chocolate, then everybody stands around and tastes it, and they all decide whether or not it’s good enough to be sold. Apparently somebody ate this puke-flavored chocolate, and was like, “Yes, this is good. Let’s market this.”

Update! Sept 18 2009 – Bonvita Rice Milk White Bar FTW! I’m not sure if I’d be so enthusiastic had its predecessor not set the bar so low (“Please taste better than vomit”), but right now I think it’s about the best white chocolate I’ve ever had.

Visiting the Free Software Foundation

I visited the Free Software Foundation while in Boston. They don’t say anything about tours or paying them a visit, but I was so close, I wanted to see where the magic happens. The magic has an unusually small sign.

Actually this might not work if it’s a cron job that goes once a day and my computer is always shut down for that hour.