Ice, ice baby!

So, Minnesota knows ice like Bo used to know everything. Much of the populace utilizes H2O (s) for a number of items:

• Ice skating (yawn)
• Hockey (not for the pros this year!)
  
• Ice boating (very fast, looks kindof fun)
• Snowmobiling (somewhat fast, looks ok)
  
• Ice fishing (huh!?)

But this is not my point. There is another issue with ice. It is termed the 'ice dam.' To put it in basic terms, the repeated melting and freezing of the snow on your roof will lead to a 'dam' of ice at the edge of your roof. And then the melting water can't get over the dam, and lacking nowhere else to go, follows gravity--into your house, rotting dryeall and peeling paint.

But again, this is not not my point. The point is that Minnesota wins a special prize for ice. Not only will we fall on it (skating, hockey), fall through it (sometimes in our vehicles, often when retrieving the ice houses for fishing), but we can fall off of our roofs trying to deal with it. Then we will wreck our cars on the ice on the streets when we are driving to the hospital.

Heh. My amazement at this must prove I am not a native Minnesotan. More evidence of this is the story about this illegial alien found living in a local high school. The local response has been to give him a lawyer, take him into a local family's home, and give him a job. My response? No visa, no green card, no staying! And as for the principal of the high school, he should be canned. Could any of the parents feel safe now? Just another reason my (potential) children will never, ever go to public schools.

Cabin fever

I have never found Minnesota winters easy to deal with. In the summers it is always easy to find things to do: biking, softball, long walks, whatever. However, winters are a different story. Because the weather is constantly at or below freezing for months (basically late October until March) it is tough to get through. Sure, there are the normal things to do around the house: cleaning, video games, shoveling snow.

But I am not the type to adopt the "outside" winter sports like cross-country skiing or ice fishing. So this leads to some, well, boredom. I can only read so many books and TiVo can't make things up to watch. So it is very easy to get restless.

"Restless" to me is an inclination to go shopping. Doesn't matter if I need it or not, I will almost invent things to go look at. Looking isn't bad and sometimes can be enjoyable, but it is too easy to turn the corner and become a 'shopper.' It is continually made more difficult since my wife never has this inclination. She just says she doesn't think about things to buy. I am jealous of this genome; I hope our kids get it from her. Reading books like "The Millionare Next Door" help some by keeping our overall financial health in perspective by reminding me of little things adding up. Nothing like a good healthy dose of fear.

And with that in mind, I am going to go try to make myself busy.

Snow! Snow! Oh Crap! Oh NO!

We are finally getting a "real" snowfall here in Minneapolis. This is about three months late; we generally get our first >2 inch snowfall in November. But not this year. So in the meantime we have been subjected to a non-stop barrage of our local weatherpeople telling us that the world is ending, etc. But the real issue is not the lack of snow, it is the lack of our "remembering" of how to drive in the stuff. As I was driving home from the bus station, I was behind some guy who was fishtailing all over the place in his nice $35000 sedan. I don't know if he made it home. But I did with pizza for later.

And now I am making coffee. Like the blogs' name! How novel! Did I mention I'm frowning?

I feel like I should give some links to other blogs that I like. This is neighborly, which my mother tells me I am not.
PowerLine: This was "blog of the year" last year and has some people from the Twin Cities on it. It makes me happy to see them eviscerate reporters from the Minneapolis (Red) StarTribune.
Instapundit, Polipundit, and Slant Point: All conservative bloggers. Watch them shred the MSM (that's main stream media for all'yall) to bits! Many of these guys took out Dan Rather. I wish we would have had them for Clinton. (Note the Dan Rather links to Rathergate.com, not his repulsive bio or anything. I don't want Dan to think I care.).
Similar to the above sites, but with a touch more inebriation is vodkapundit.
A small victory: Generally heartfelt rants and notes. She also spunoff an American Idol blog from the proper (sarcastic) point of view.
For less serious things, we have Boing Boing, Wizbang, and Mr. Sun!.

So there, mom. Some friends. Even though they are all big-time bloggers and don't know I exist.
Wait, that felt like high school.

The iPod is a WHAT?

So the Dell CEO is out talking and says the iPod is just a fad. This may be true in the long run (what isn't a fad over time, really?) but in the here and now, Apple is making a killing. Honestly, ask any kid about which they would rather have: the Dell DJ or Apple's white sweetness. My sister made her decision. The answer is also pretty evident by the market share: Apple owns the hard-disk based MP3 player market. The stock market also agrees: Apple may be a fad, but boy it is a profitable one.

And seriously Dell, your computers just don't compare style-wise. At some point I want a laptop that looks like this and has a weight that is not measured in jugs of milk (you have seen those ads, right?).

I once upon a time was an Apple guy. But things end up moving me to the PC for graduate school. Style didn't matter as much a pure speed and power. Now it does. I want things to look just so and be engineered well. I have a PC for my games; now I want a Mac for my life. Sorry Microsoft, I am really tired of this.

American Idol, er, Idiot

Tonight begins our long trek through the realm of American Idol. I hate this show. Not because of Simon, who I actually enjoy, but just because everyone gets so soap-opery about it. Not to mention that freaking idiot they have "hosting" the show. And let's be terribly frank. There have been four "winners:" Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard, and Fantasia. Only one of those is worth any space on my iPod-Kelly. Clay sings songs about being in girls' rooms without them seeing them (read the lyrics, then tell your teenage daughters to give up the CD!), Reuben can't make it through a snow without fainting, and we already have a Fantasia. Her name is Macy Gray.

However, I should not complain too much. I have an alternative use for the time my wife will spend watching it. It is called Halo.

Who do you love? Not you. Or you.

And the world revolves around: TiVo.
My wife and I have had DirecTiVo for a year now, and we are doomed to wander the planet always grasping for the remote to use the "fast forward" button. When one of us gets distracted and one of the offending items (a.k.a. "Commercials") appears on our screen, we scream "blip bloop," the universal sound of America's advertisers getting the finger from me. This happens whether or not we are at home with the device. I almost did it at the movie "Spanglish" Saturday night when we got harassed by the "Fanta" sluts again.
"Want-a Fanta?" it goes.
Not me, Frenchie. Go surrender somewhere. Again. Americans drink Coca-Cola.

At least the movie was good. Adam Sandler finally did not suck. Well, I guess the Thanksgiving song was pretty funny. But not his other movies like "Punch-Drunk Love." That was a crapper, I lost movie choice priveleges for a couple of months for that one.

But back to my real point: TiVo rocks. I hope they don't go bankrupt.