Someone stole a Bush-Cheney yard sign out of my front lawn last night. It was kind of windy overnight, so I thought there was a possibility it had blown away... until I approached the spot where it formerly stood, and saw trampled grass where the thief had placed his feet. I suppose it was bound to happen. Ever since I put the sign up, I've been expecting it to be stolen or vandalized. Some Bush-hater has now proven my expectations to be founded. Or maybe I created my own reality via self-fulfilling prophecy. Either way, it pisses me off.

It's not that the sign was expensive, or that stealing a political yard sign ranks highly relative to others on a list of crimes against society. It's that it was my sign, in my yard. It was me expressing my opinion. Stealing my sign amounts to censorship against my point of view, on my own property, and I do not like it. Even though I was expecting it (which is sad, really), there is a sense of personal violation. I notice that my neighbor's "No on Amendment 3" sign was not stolen. I guess his opinion is more acceptable to the yard sign thieves.

Screw them. I'm going down to Republican Party headquarters in Salt Lake City this afternoon, and buying three yard signs to replace the one that was stolen. And I'm going to smear the edges with shoe polish or something else that is sticky and messy, so if anyone steals my new signs, at least they'll get a nice handful of gunk. Hmm, it's too bad I threw away all the dog poop I picked up from the yard a few days ago. Got any other ideas?

I haven't really written in my Slashdot journal much. Mostly I write my thoughts in my weblog, Jeez O Petes. It's undergone a few moves recently, but I think jeezopetes.com should be the final stop in the journey. Feel free to check it out.

Hmm, first journal entry. This will go down on my permanent record. Oh yeah? Well, don't get so distressed. Did I happen to mention that I'm impressed?

This is Slashdot, so I guess I might as well rant about urinals. I don't think urinals actually get designed. I think most urinal companies just slap a piece of porcelain on a wall and call it good. Well, that doesn't work for me. There's almost no way to avoid splashing all over when peeing against a flat porcelain slab. I've taken to peeing at an angle, which just feels ridiculous.

I notice this all the time (several times a day, of course), but today a shining beacon of urinal light entered my life. I found the perfect urinal. It's at Apollo Burger on Redwood Road in West Jordan, Utah, in case you're into stuff like that and want to check it out. The urinal is curved and deep, so you can just go and not worry about it. It's the simple things in life that make me happy.