Heard some Neil Diamond on the Christmas station I’m listening to. It reminded me of the realization that I had back in December 2006.
Back to Internet shopping…
Category Archives: General
Another Unintended Milestone
I have to be on campus tomorrow (Saturday) morning for a presentation; won’t take very long, but it’s an obligation, y’know? So I’m getting ready for that, making sure I have the handouts I’ll need for the students, a copy of the presentation that I’m giving, the computer hardware and all that…
I set a list out on my desk and grab a handful of business cards to toss in the box, too. I’m getting low on the ones in my tray on the desk, so I open the credenza behind me to pull some more out of the stash.
Shit.
I am very low on business cards.
…
I didn’t intend to stay here long enough to NEED a second box of business cards.
…
Time really flies. And the more time that passes, the faster it goes. Better go put in an order.
No Worries Here
I have occasionally picked up a story here or there over the last couple months referring to how Americans are really “cutting back” as a result of our fragile economy. Y’know, they’re doing things like getting rid of their landlines or considering downgrading their cable package, or even *GASP* skipping the $30 bottles of wine and buying the $10 bottle. Yeah, times are EXTRA tough…
Makes me glad that I live in an already pretty thrifty and economically conservative part of the country here in WI. I’m not saying that no one around here has any problems, but I think there are probably a lot more folks in this state that were living within their means to begin with. Makes these times of uncertainty a lot easier to stomach.
Nobody WANTS to see a global economic collapse, but if we as a society can weather this storm, I don’t see anything wrong with giving people who had to have everything at the moment that they wanted it a little wake-up call.
Just In Case You Missed It and Other Holiday Items
Howdy. Got a lot of good “workin” done for a change today, so I have to be quick on the bloggeration front.
Wanted to put a post out here to make anyone digesting soloshootsfirst via RSS that there is news on my New Year’s Eve plans, and a special page on the site dedicated to it. Some of the plans are still in flux, but there definitely WILL be a party, in a specific place (or two), at [a] specific time(s), and this is one of my favorite things: really easy for visitors to the site to post comments on the page for all to see in relation to the party. So if you have thoughts, ideas, or feedback, feel free.
That’s the last mention I’ll have of the party in the blog itself until the day gets much much closer…
In case you are looking for some gift suggestions for me during the holiday season (and it’s just a coincidence that this is brought up after the birthday shindig), there’s a page for that, too. I will be updating it periodically if I get other ideas, so it may be worth checking more than once.
What else ya got? Schrubbe pointed me to a post yesterday about how Caprica is getting the green light on the SciFi channel. Seems like there’s some potential there. But mostly it makes me think about how season 4b of BSG is going to be starting on January 16. Who wants to have a catch-up watch party in advance? After the new year, maybe?
OK, half an hour to go; better do something…
Rash Endorsement
Per Wordy’s mention in a post from a couple weeks back, I am now on accuradio for my holiday listening pleasure (I listen to Christmas music at work exclusively during the month of December).
I only loaded this mother up about 15 minutes ago, but I am in favor over the live365 that I’ve gone with in the past because it seems I can narrow down the music selection more specifically within this “holiday” genre (i.e., no En Vogue singing “Sleigh Ride” right after Mannheim Steamroller; both nice selections, but if you don’t want to mix them, you shouldn’t have to).
So, if you’re looking to give your season a soundtrack, give it a try.
Welcome To the Saddle. Please Climb In.
After what feels like at least a 2-week period of not-being-at-work-too-often, time to settle in for the month of December and the home stretch of the fall semester. This time of year is usually peppered with students who forgot they had a bill to pay to go to school, but even more of them are too busy catching up on all the work they haven’t done all semester long. So it should be slow, but steady.
At home, I’m going to be focusing on decorating my house for the holidays this week, and getting a jump on shopping. I have a number of gifts already planned and noted, so it’s just a matter of getting out on the ‘tubes to do the buying. I’ll also be finishing up a bit of writing, and getting together a plan for New Year’s Eve / my birthday. FYI, the party is set for Wauwatosa and the Mundschau house, more details to come…
I don’t know how you feel about it, but it seems like the signs of winter are in full force: snow on the ground, Christmas season is here, Red Arrow park is open for skating… Enjoy your holiday season! Hopefully I’ll be able to focus enough to work, too.
Well, I Don't Need More Coffee
I think I drank about half a pot of coffee at home this morning, but I had a need to get on the Internet, so I took a trip into town and the Brew Moon coffeehouse. They have free wifi. You can’t just sit outside using their webs like a chump, though, so I had to buy something. I will drink this coffee very, very slowly…
After a third day of the deer hunt, with one or two to go, I am fairly certain that it will end uneventfully. Not that big a deal, really. At least I got to sit in the woods for a while. I don’t have anything really specific to blog about today, so if you’re busy shopping you can probably just proceed through and ignore this post…
I pulled into my parking space across the street from the coffee joint this morning, and I plugged 50 cents into the meter. The girl in the car right next to mine stuck her head out the window and said that the meters didn’t do anything anymore, and there was no need to plug ’em. “Well what the hell are they still here for then?” I laughed. Probably just to make the out-of-towners look like chumps. And it worked!
Oh hey, so what the hell happened in India? Being completely out of touch with current events is probably the most frustrating thing about a weekend spent in E.R. So I’m going to try to read up on this…
Got some miscellaneous other stuff to get done here and only about an hour to do it, so I’ll just encourage you to enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend…
PS – Going to meet up with Joe and April tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that. If you are in Eagle River for whatever reason, feel free to call!
Meanwhile, Back At the Hall of Justice…
Came back into town on Tuesday for a brief stop at the office, some laundry, watching The Office, Heroes, and downloading some podcasts for the trip back up north. Being “off the grid” for a couple days leaves me with a slightly uneasy feeling when I get back and news has broken that I didn’t know about. But at the same time, it’s very freeing. I should probably consider turning off the Internet for longer stretches of time.
I thought the Twitter updates worked out well enough. Over this weekend, I’m going to try to make more use of the full 140 characters available per tweet. I think it could be an interesting challenge to force that sort of economy on my thoughts.
What else can I tell you? Ooohh– be on the lookout for Jason’s gift list, an oft-requested feature at this time of year. It is scheduled to pop in time for all you zany Black Friday shoppers…
Info on New Year’s/birthday events coming soon, too. If I miss you, have a great Thanksgiving!
SEASON FIVE!!
Radiolab is finally back with new shows!!! Fire up the link and listen to ‘Choice’ when you get a chance. If you haven’t sampled this show in the past, I encourage you to listen to EVERYTHING that they have on their site. I don’t remember a bad show from these guys. Seriously.
I have turned into such a certifiable public-/talk-radio geek, sometimes I amaze even myself. Maybe the most amazing thing, actually, is that more people aren’t turning off the radio and looking for some worthwhile content elsewhere. I mean, I like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles as much as anybody, but I can only hear “Whole Lotta Love” and “Come Together” on the radio so many times before I want to shoot myself in the chest.
Where are you getting the new and exciting things that you listen to?
Some Worthwhile Consumables and Weekend Notes
I finally listened to episode #368 of This American Life, “Who Do You Think You Are?” on my way in and for the first half hour or so of my work day. About half the show was excerpts from a series that Studs Terkel, a recently deceased, longtime Chicago radio man hosted in the 1970s called “Hard Times.” He did interviews with ordinarily American citizens about their experiences from the Great Depression. It was fantastic to hear these unique perspectives of witnessed history. Listening to a piece like this makes me think about how valuable the mass media archives of the 20th century could potentially be as the future rolls on.
And I guess that I’m thinking about it relative to photography in a sense: sure, we have photographs from as far back as the mid-19th century, and it is amazing to look into the faces of the people who lived at those times. But what still photos lack (a clear idea of what the people who lived in those times THOUGHT about them), sound recordings and motion pictures of the 20th century have in spades. As generations of people pass on and memory continues to fade, we retain an ability that no era in the past could boast: we can engage those past generations in conversation through recordings. Pretty amazing stuff, if you think about it.
And speaking of voices from the past informing the events of the present, an interesting little piece here from New Scientist about how the worldwide economic doldrums we find ourselves in were predicted (with computer assistance) in 1972.
Beyond that, had an enjoyable and somewhat productive weekend. Michelle and I went to see Quantum of Solace on Saturday. Not usually a movie she’d be interested in, but we had a good time at the last Bond. I thought it was good, but I agree with most of the critics I’ve read that Casino Royale was better. The review I saw in The Onion tried to parallel the 2nd Daniel Craig-Bond flick with The Dark Knight, both being the first sequel in a largely-reimagined franchise. I dunno if that’s a fair comparison, in part because Batman has such a long, rich body of source material to work from: the Joker is a well-established and defined character; James Bond is up against a new villian every time out. So anyway, Bond was good; not great, but good.
Michelle was on pins and needles through most of the movie. She hasn’t watched a lot of action films, so when she DOES see one, it is literally a heart-pounding thrill ride. It’s fun for everybody. After we left the theater, we talked about some other movies like this one that she might try, and we agreed that action flicks with lots of explosions, chases, fights, and general debauchery are a great reason to have a bigger TV.
OK, well, the kids are starting to back up in the office. Best get to it…