in case there was any doubt ...

... that what i am is a nerd rather than a geek:

did y'all know you could refresh a webpage with the F5 key instead of clicking the "refresh" button on your browser?

dudes! what else can the function keys do? i always knew they must be good for something, but i figured they worked in programs i didn't use/understand/know existed.

overqualification

this morning, on the escalator down to the metro, someone standing on the right as i walked by on the left tried to give me a pamphlet from Jews For Jesus. i'd seen him from a few steps up, actually, so i wasn't in the no-thank-you place i'm usually in when people try to give me unsolicited literature -- he held the thing out to me and as i went by i heard myself say "don't EVEN", and he pulled it back, and that was that. ugh, and i was cross all the way in to work.

i e-mailed them once, several years ago, because i honestly don't understand their logic. (my freshman roommate described Jews For Jesus as "overqualified"; hence the subject line.) they were actually very polite -- the exchange went something like this:

me: so "Jews For Jesus", huh. i may be missing something, but doesn't that make you, you know ... christians?
them: yes, we are christians.
me: then, would you please stop calling yourselves jews?

i think they went on to explain that they were defining "jew" as "a member of the jewish 'race'" (a concept that doesn't bother me a whole lot, but god do i hate the phrase), a child of israel, one of The Jewish People, and not (obviously) as "a practitioner of the jewish faith". so it wasn't actually a flagrant contradiction for such a person to be a christian. my feeling: whatever. then call yourselves Hebrews For Jesus, or Israelites For Jesus, or Judaeans For Jesus. stop calling yourselves jews, and i'll stop calling you lying liars who tell lies.