Another weekend

Yes, I was busy supervising the Titanic exhibit this weekend. I'm relaxing for a bit now, and I'm not sure what I'll do with the rest of the evening. I was going to have a nephew stay over for the night, but he lied earlier in the day and was sent to bed early. :( I suppose I might just spend some time reading. Then tomorrow I'm planning to take some of the nerfs to the museum to see Holiday Junction (the Christmas-time train exhibit) as Monday is its last day.



~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Geography is very important

Don't make a mistake like this German tourist.  He meant to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia.  Instead he purchased a ticket on-line for Sidney, Montana (population 5,000).  The best part (and I'm assuming he speaks English, because his girlfriend lives in an English-speaking country) is that he didn't realize his mistake until after he landed in Portland, Oregon, flew to Bozeman, Montana, and was about to board a commuter plane for Sidney!  Compounding the problem was his packing--it was all for a four week trip Down Under in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere's summer.

 

This is why you should pay attention to geography.  I can understand how a typo could account for the initial mistake.  But I find it quite strange that he didn't notice the error until the point at which he noticed it.  I suppose he didn't know US geography very well and might have supposed that taking several flights through the US could be standard procedure before heading on to Australia.

 

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

 

Still, this is sad.  I'd like to think that were I in that guy's shoes I would know when I'd arrived in Spain rather than Peru...

 

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Language

Yes, this is an older article, but I was reading it recently and was quite frustrated by some of the language. No, it wasn't cussing, or anything like that, merely a misunderstanding of the English language (possibly deliberate). The article compares Google and Wal-Mart, both good and bad (though with more emphasis on the latter). The last section is entitled "Allegations of censorship:"

• Wal-Mart: Won't stock magazines with racy material (Maxim, FHM and Stuff) and partially conceals the covers of certain women's magazines; won't carry music albums with explicit or profane lyrics, or albums that contain lyrics critical of Wal-Mart. (One famous example: In 1996, Wal-Mart refused to sell a Sheryl Crow CD containing lyrics that heaped scorn on the company for selling guns.)

• Google: Blocks users in Germany, France and Switzerland from accessing sites that contain potentially racist content or hate speech. Amended terms and conditions to bar criticism of the company's AdSense service terms and conditions. Allows advertising for beer and wine but not for hard liquor, and won't accept ads for guns. Amended AdSense policy so that affiliates are barred from criticizing Google on their sites.

I might agree with labeling the first practice listed for Google as censorship, it is limiting access to information. However, it is most likely in accord with national laws such as those prohibiting Holocaust denial. We may not always agree with such laws, but they are the law of the land in those countries (for the record I don't deny the Holocaust, but I believe that it is dangerous to make non-dangerous speech illegal--and you must decide if Holocaust denial constitutes dangerous speech).

The Wal-Mart allegation is ludicrous! Wal-Mart isn't prohibiting you from buying those racy magazines at all, you just can't purchase them in their store. You can still go to your nearest adult (I hate that term as it is applied) bookstore or corner grocery-store and pick up the same material. The store simply chooses to be family friendly and they are accused of censorship. Is it censorship to refuse to carry a certain product for whatever reason? Or is it only censorship here because Wal-Mart doesn't like the content?

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

I forgot to mention

But Christmas night was a good night. I watched Lady in the Water (a DVD Christmas present from Chris) in my apartment with two of my nephews while two of their younger siblings slept in the back room.

The younger nerfs have been begging to stay over at my apartment ever since I moved in there, but work hasn't allowed it yet (or if it did things weren't cleaned up). So this was the first time that any of them were able to stay over--and they enjoyed it. We cooked breakfast Monday morning (just eggs, toast, and pancakes), but it was still fun. Perhaps this weekend another one or two will be able to stay over.

~Matt

PS I'd seen Lady in the Water once before in theaters and I did enjoy another viewing. I know many didn't like it but I especially enjoyed it. And thankfully it was from Chris, so there were no worries about format--it is widescreen.

powered by performancing firefox

Double Standard

The Massachusetts Supreme Court likes speaking out of both sides of its mouth. See this recent CNN article for more.

As you may know, back in 2003 the same court decided that the state constitution "guaranteed gays the right to marry." Then they required the state legislature to make this happen through legislation. I believe that they clearly overstepped their bounds. Now however, on the opposite side of the issue they refuse to intervene.

The court agrees that when voters sent a marriage proposition (to be included on the 2008 ballot) to the legislature that the legislature should vote on it. However, the "Supreme Judicial Court determined it could not force a vote."

"Beyond resorting to aspirational language that relies on the
presumptive good faith of elected representatives, there is no
presently articulated judicial remedy for the Legislature's
indifference to, or defiance of, its constitutional duties," the court
wrote.

I call that judicial activism hiding beneath the skirts of liberalism. They (Legislative leaders and jurists) are afraid that the people might not support their illegal usurpation of power. Perhaps the justices shouldn't force the legislature to do anything (such as follow the constitution?), but then they should have done nothing in 2003!

~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Electronics

Apparently they aren't very profitable these days. The bigg's store where I work (Florence, KY) is shutting down its electronics department effective the end of January. A few components (accessories) will remain, but all DVDs (save perhaps new releases), CDs (same caveat as DVDs), and game systems will go. Apparently the store makes more money on a X-Box 360 controller than it does on the system that costs ten times as much to purchase.

I can certainly understand this in business terms, though it is somewhat unfortunate for those trying to do "one stop shopping." Of course other departments have already been downsized or eliminated over the years, so you'll mainly get groceries and other items at the bigg's Hypermarket. One item really stood out. One recent DVD release was purchased by the store for $19.50 and sold for $19.99 leaving a profit margin of $0.49!! One stolen DVD could wipe out the profit from almost forty more.

~Matt

Too busy?

Well I wasn't busy until all hours yesterday, but I did forget to blog. I have access to e-mail on my PDA at the Museum (I love free wireless networks!) but it just slipped my mind. Tonight I was over at my sister's place to eat and watch It's a Wonderful Life (their family tradition every Christmas Eve). It was a good evening. I'm looking forward to the morning, even if I've already unwrapped all my presents from my parent's when I was at their place last weekend.



~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Mary

I came over to my sister's place to go on-line and do my laundry. Then I came downstairs to find my nerfs watching a Rudolf movie (one of the old stop-motion ones). Now we've started watching Mary Poppins. It has been years since I've seen this movie, so I'm looking forward to it. I don't think I've seen a young Dick van Dyke play in anything in years.



~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Where have all the bloggers gone?

I realize that forcing myself to post at least once per day I am setting a schedule that most others I know never intend to meet. However, it seems that all around me blogs are dying. Mark used to be the gold standard that I aspired to, faithfully blogging three days a week. Lately though he has trailed off.

I tried to get my mom to type a blog, even explaining that she could post via e-mail, but it died a long time ago. Other blogs have trailed off or died. My nephew has gone through a couple blogs, then stopped updating his current one once the holiday season hit at Thanksgiving.

Then of course you have post like I promise never to bug Matt about not posting again from Julie, ;-). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of any of these people or ridiculing them. I'm just slightly depressed that I don't have blogs to keep up with, at least not like I used to. Oh well, perhaps some of it is due to the holidays and it might get better in January.

~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

This is depressing

Read this article from the UK and you'll see exactly what I mean!

Police killer suspect fled Britain in a veil

A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman.

Mustaf Jama, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, assumed his sister’s identity — wearing the niqab and using her passport — to evade supposedly stringent checks at Heathrow, according to police sources.

...
In October The Times revealed that a male suspect in a major anti-terrorist investigation evaded capture in Britain for several days by dressing in a burka. He was eventually arrested and is awaiting trial.
The full-face veil has regularly been used as a disguise in Iraq and Afghanistan by Islamist fighters, including several suicide bombers and at least one senior al-Qaeda leader.

If they want to wear the veil in private, fine (though knowing as I do that Islam is a false religion that will send you to hell I believe it is just a means to oppress women), but this should never be allowed to happen again. If women don't want to remove their veil then they should not drive or fly. They should avoid all security-compromising situations. Yes, that would be tough, but it would be their choice and necessary for the security of everybody else.



"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." -Spock



~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Revelation

According to the BBC, JK Rowling has announced the title to Harry Potter VII. Read no further if you don't want to know, but I doubt you'll be able to avoid it for long.







































Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.



I'm not quite up to speed on BritSpeak, but Hallows doesn't show up as a noun in a Dictionary.com search. I'm not sure how to exactly explain the title. I'm sure information will be forthcoming--though I'll avoid certain places (like Wikipedia) as I'm sure that eventually spoilers (if available) will abound. Hopefully regular media outlets will avoid turning spoilers into headlines and front page news.

This week Rowling revealed how she has gone back to writing in cafes - as she did 13 years ago when starting to write about the boy wizard.

She has also admitted how she has been dreaming of the character.

Writing on her website she described it as an "epic dream" where she was Harry and the narrator simultaneously.

~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

Podcasting

No, I'm not about to start podcasting, though that is an interesting idea. Rather I've started listening to podcasts on my PDA. They make great listening along with Old Time Radio when I'm busy working on items that allow me to listen. Right now I'm listening to BBC news that I downloaded last night. It is a good distraction as I catalogue parts.



~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

O Movie, I Found Thee!

The music was great--who doesn't like the Soggy Bottom Boys? The characters were fascinating--I've never seen Clooney quite like this. (I think that Everett's wife is also Mrs. Incredible--she sure sounds the same--Edit: yes, she is)

One warning, DON'T SEE SPOILERS!! I didn't watch the movie preview until after I was done watching, and I was quite glad. I'd only known about the film from mentions by fellow students in college (never anything specific) and soundtrack songs that I'd heard.

The preview gives away too much about the movie, so ignore it if you've not seen it, and try to forget it if you have. Other than that definitely go and enjoy this loose "adaptation" of the Odyssey set in Depression Era Mississippi (or is it Alabama?). Ulysses Everett McGill and two other prisoners (initially chained together) Pete and Delmar escape from their chain gang in search of treasure. Yes, that is them escaping on the cover image.

Also as I mention above the music is great. Man of Constant Sorrow is quite well done and along with a few other tracks is a highlight of the film. One item I didn't notice until watching extras was that the colours had been altered. You may notice that most scenes are somewhat brown and dry or sepia toned. This is intended to evoke thoughts of the Dust Bowl era setting. Apparently all of the editing was done digitally and then turned back into film for distribution. The behind-the-scenes talking heads seemed to imply this was the first movie for which this was done. I'm not sure (it was released in 2000), but whatever the case they did a great job. Especially view this section on the Extras if you get the DVD.

~Matt

powered by performancing firefox

O Tannenbaum

Yes, I have my Christmas tree up in my apartment, though moved from its original location. At first I had it on the floor in a corner since I had no table to place it on. After I received the generous gift of furniture from the friend of a neighbor I suddenly had another option. You can see from this picture that the tree (3") is on a table right next to my couch. I think that it looks much better there, and it is much easier to plug in the lights. I also have my village set up and hopefully will put up pictures of that later. I only wish I'd been able to put up some of this stuff earlier so that I could enjoy it longer. Christmas is almost here!

Speaking of Christmas, I had quite a bit of fun in California. Not only did I go with one nephew to the bookstore at the library (and bring back a dozen books) but I helped my nerfs make Christmas cookies! The only bad thing was that we didn't have time to finish decorating all of the cookies, but we had fun with those we could get to. You can see some of them here.

This was always one of my favourite parts of the season growing up. For many years we couldn't get the sugars in the west so one of my uncles used to procure them in Michigan and send them to us. I always delighted in decorating weird things, like purple and orange shirts on gingerbread men. :-) I also had fun with many different shapes because each year my parents would give me a cookie cutter in my stocking. I brought all of those back home with me at the end of the trip as well as other items.

I think I mentioned that my Grandma is visiting with my parents now. Whenever she is staying at their house she loves to enjoy fires in the fireplace (that will be one of the things I'll miss most about my parents moving--leaving the wonderful fireplace). Needless to say we enjoyed several fires over the weekend, including the one that I snapped below. I've tried taking pictures of fires with a flash before and it just washes out, so I have to hold the camera extremely steady and turn the flash off. There is a slight trade-off with clarity and crispness, but on the other hand I'm not sure how important those are when documenting open flames. I just think the pictures are fun.

~Matt

I told you

It was a strange weekend.  Temperatures in Northern Kentucky have been quite warm recently, in the sixties.  On the other hand in Southern California weather systems have "...dropp[ed] [Monday]'s pre-dawn temperatures into the 30s across Orange County..."

Thanks to the Orange County Register.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Can I redo that?

Lunch didn't go so well today.  As I only had a few minutes in my apartment to change before I left for work today (thanks again for picking me up Chris) an hour late (but I leave an hour late as well) I decided to shower instead of packing a lunch.  I instead took some leftovers out of my freezer--a chicken and rice casserole dish that I'd saved for use as a meal when I didn't feel like cooking, or didn't have time.

The problems started when I got to the break room at lunch time today.  The food was still frozen, so I read my book while I put it on defrost.  Perhaps ten minutes later it was finally defrosted and heated up--but I'd had to test and stir it several times while readjusting the microwave settings.  Then just as I was carrying it back to my table the container slipped out of my hands and the food spilled all over the floor.  A guy looked up and asked if I'd lost my lunch.  When I replied in the affirmative he pronounced that it "must be Monday."

Now, after spending five more minutes cleaning up the mess on the floor I had to turn to the vending machines.  I had a slice of apple pie from my parent's in my lunch container, but I wanted more.  I ended up spending most of the cash I had on me (which is unusual, I don't usually carry cash) on a chicken sandwich and chips.  *sigh*  It wasn't bad, but it didn't have ketchup!  :(  I would rather have eaten the chicken that I didn't have to pay further for, but I didn't have that option.  Oh well...

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

100 lbs.

If you count both of my carry-on bags you have the approximate weight of my luggage, though it might have been just a bit more.  Limits for checked baggage are 50 lbs, and I was just under with one in the low forties and one at 47.  I was bringing back many things, including my Christmas presents from my sister Erin, my parents, and my grandma.  It was somewhat strange to open them early, but I did like seeing my nerfs open their shirts from the Museum.  The best present though was being home.

It was great to see my parent's house--probably the last time I'll see it in person, :(.  I also brought back presents for my nerfs here that my mother sent and of course I bought some books at the library bookstore and had to bring them back.  :-)  I'll have more details later, hopefully...

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Night Flight

Here are my notes from the flight last night.

• Read "Flag in Exile" at gate
• Passenger with severe allergy to peanuts so none served--asked to not eat own
• Waited for connecting, left gate about 25 min. late
• Changed device time to Pac
• Turbulence now writing difficult 19:22 Pacific
• Read "Good Omen's"
• Cranberry juice and snackpack--only ate granola
• Dozed on and off through movie didn't read listened to "delta radio" on ch. 8

21:14 Pac - approaching continental divide anticipating turbulence
fasten seat belt sign for all incl. flight attendants
21:33 Second food/drink service annc.

• Sun chips, granola bars, cheese crackers, or Biscoff crackers (cookies?)

Reading "FiE", since waking up
21:49 food

• TV show in Ghana - hut painting like in Shocktober 2005

21:56 fasten sent belt out

• Crocs souls of ancestors
• Channel 6 because 8 repeating (for Second or third time minimum)

22:36 Begin gradual descent
22:59 Landed
11:24 deplaned
23:40 Traffic cop ticketed a car for picking people up in middle lane
23:52 105 E

~Matt

PS Timezone is Pacific.

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Our Condition

I was reading my devotions last night when I came across the following
from Spurgeon. I think it especially apt as it describes our normal
condition.

"Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew what we
should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as unbelieving,
backsliding, cold of heart, indifferent, careless, lax in prayer, and
yet he said, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy
Saviour ... Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee,
and people for thy life!" O redemption, how wondrously resplendent
dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O Holy Spirit, give us
henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart!"

So yes I made it to California okay. I'll post about the flight a bit
later. I just woke up and need to get ready for a busy day with my
California nerfs.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Jimmy Carter

He isn't one of my favourite ex-presidents.  FDR is one of my least-favourite presidents, but he never got a chance to be an ex-president.  He just screwed up the response to the Great Depression and we have only Hitler and Tojo to thank for our extrication.  But back to the Georgia peanut farmer.  Yes, he is perhaps a nice man personally who has been teaching Sunday School for years, but that has absolutely nothing to do with my criticism.  I don't much like Bill Clinton personally, but I'll admit that he didn't do too badly with some things.

Jimmy Carter first of all cannot get it through his head that everybody doesn't want his advice.  He continually buts in and visits countries like Cuba, pre-invasion Iraq, and North Korea in naive attempts to talk to their leaders.  But the best comes with his most recent book.  You'll find a good column concerning the book here at Jewish World Review.

Apparently Israelis (who have been continually attacked and murdered since 1948) are to blame for the current crisis.  He compares their treatment of the Palestinians (a term which really has no meaning since Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt Gaza after those and other Arab nations invaded Israel in 1948--there NEVER has been a Palestinian Arab state--due to the Arabs, NOT the Jews I might add) to apartheid in South Africa.  Hmm...how does that mesh with the many Arab Israeli citizens and even members of Parliament!

Who is it that deliberately murders innocents (not just as accidental collateral damage)?  Hmmm...oh yes, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas and their adherents.  Israel has many times offered to work with them if they will renounce violence and recognize its right to exist, but these efforts are always rebuffed.  I guess Jimmy Carter is blind to this and must persist in blaming the Israelis.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Is it all ready?

Not quite.  But I will have everything ready to go this afternoon before I leave.  My plane should leave at 20:55 and arrive at LAX around five hours later, only two hours by the clock because of the time change.  Yeah, I am excited, but I think I would be more so if I had the day to prepare and didn't have to be at work.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Rain Ambivalence

Well this isn't all bad news as I do enjoy rain.

Saturday looking rainy, snowy

A Pacific storm will soak the coast and blanket the mountains, forecasters say.

By GARY ROBBINS

The Orange County Register

A large storm is gaining strength over the Pacific and will drop 1.5 inches of rain on parts of Orange County this weekend and up to a foot of snow above the 5,000-foot level in local mountains, the National Weather Service says.

On the other hand I was looking forward to taking some pictures of Garden Grove while I was home. We'll see how this goes.

~Matt

BBC on Creation

I'm actually quite impressed with a recent BBC article about the Creation Museum (being built just a few miles from me). The start the article has the usual caveat from secular sources, but they're not even that bad:

A new hi-tech temple to fundamentalist Christianity is due to open in the heart of Middle America next May, aiming to provide the grandest riposte yet to Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Staff and supporters of the Answers in Genesis organisation call it the Creation Museum.

But secular scientists would take issue with the use of either word to describe the almost completed building...

And here is how it ends:

Despite adopting the structure and technology of the most extravagant science museum, it remains that none of it is remotely plausible without first accepting Genesis.

Without taking that leap and rejecting centuries of scientific reasoning, it all resembles just another Disney-style magic kingdom.

Really it is an interesting read. Yes, there is that last sentence that seems to say that religion is anti-science--but the author recognizes that many of AIG's employees are highly qualified scientists--they aren't just "religious nuts."

It is refreshing to see someone actually take someone at face value. Instead of reinterpreting someone or something within your world view, sometimes you should examine them in light of their view. I look at someone differently if looking from a Christian perspective ("The fool says in his heart there is no God.") where I know others to be wrong or say from a political/American perspective where someone has the right to their own view.

Ah, that was confusing. All I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't try to fit people into the mold of your own world view. Lincoln was quite progressive for his time, but today would perhaps be a racist. The two worlds are so different though, that you shouldn't call the 16th president a racist. In the same way it would be nice if secularists showed respect for Creationists. No, they won't believe us, but they could at least not mock us--much like the attitude here:

[Ken Ham's] attitude towards committed atheist scientists is surprisingly respectful:

"Everyone starts from presuppositions. For example, Richard Dawkins says there is no God: that's his starting point.

"He'll admit that he has an a priori assumption of materialism, and we're saying we have an a priori assumption of the Bible."

I'm quite looking forward to the opening of the museum. It will be refreshing to go through a museum of Natural History and see the truth, not having to think "that's garbage" every few steps as Evolution is shoved down your throat as fact.

~Matt

Long Meeting

Yesterday I had to attend a safety meeting at work. It was scheduled to last from 14:00 to 16:00, my normal quitting time. It wasn't over until 16:45! On the positive side I'll get paid for another hour of work, but negatively I barely had time to rush home, change, and grab some food to eat in my car on the way to bigg's.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

3.14

That is the time (or was when I started typing).  It is also my birth date, and next year I turn 25.  I don't think I'm ready to be that much of an adult and 1/4 of 100!  ;-)  But I didn't get consulted when God set up time, so I guess I just have to live with the consequences.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Visible floor

Yes, the floor in my bedroom is finally visible! I'm not done yet, and I won't be completely done tonight. Some boxes yet remain and will be shoved into dark corners, but the vast mess that had taken over my bedroom is now gone. My new couch is moved in place with its attendant coffee table. I told one of my nephews that I would reserve it for LEGO use. If he gets out any LEGOs while he is over and leaves them on the coffee table I won't take care of them. I used to have a large tray (made from an old door) that I slid under my bed. I'll enjoy hopefully working with him to create a new city or perhaps just various models and things.

Right now though I'm headed back over to my place. I just came over to check my e-mail after picking up Ryan at McDonald's. I'm saving other things I need to do on-line for my free time at work tomorrow, or tomorrow evening. I need to get back and finish up my cleaning before I get too tired. ;-)

~Matt

And now?

I just found there were last minute changes made to the songs for tomorrow. The person doing the song files didn't get the message in time, so I guess I get to go in and edit things now. *sigh* I might get to sleep before I go to church in the morning. Might...

~Matt

PDA

I am posting this via my PDA from the Museum's free wireless network.
'Tis fun, but not quite as versatile as a full-sized computer when
on-line.

I'm waiting for catering staff to clear away a table so that I can go
home! So far they're being slow. At least I now can amuse myself
with the internet as well as reading while I wait.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

0º

That is the projected wind chill for today.  Brrr...  Thankfully I'm working inside all day, even if a bit late up at the museum.  A last minute event runs until 23:00.  Last night was a different story.  All I was missing was long underwear--I either need to buy some, or borrow some long term from my brother-in-law.

I had two pairs of socks (one pair thick), boots rated as insulated, pants, T-shirt, uniform button shirt, long sleeved uniform pullover, heavy winter jacket, small gloves (nearly skintight cloth), thick gloves.  Then I had my ball cap on my head, wrapped my six foot Pashmina (Christmas present last year from my sister and brother-in-law--he bought it in Turkey) around to cover my mouth, and pulled a knit cap over the top to further protect my ears.  Except for my legs I was actually warm and could function as I pulled carts in.  I'm glad nobody called my work phone as I could hardly have answered it.  I did have a problem with my glasses fogging up though, so I tried to keep wiping them off or looking over them blurringly.  It wasn't great fun, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected either.

~Matt
--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Not at work?

Aye, I'm not at work this morning.  After several weeks of trouble (during which time I haven't had the time to attempt to fix it) my starter finally gave out.  I had to call into work where by boss told me to get my car fixed and come in tomorrow.  I'll miss the day's pay, but I'm glad he was understanding about it.  I had to borrow my sister's van to drive down and buy a new starter ($113).  Then I spent a couple hours with my brother-in-law coaching me to pull out the old one and put in the new one.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it snowed this morning?  Had I left on time I think I would have been okay and missed the snow as it didn't start until seven thirty (when I clock in).  It is a cold day.  I'm definitely going to post pictures of my old starter and any I can snap of the snow outside.  It also looks as though there might be another event tomorrow evening at the Museum Center.  Fun, fun these last minute deals.  I'm sure keeping busy!

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Last night

It was nice not to be at bigg's last night, but I didn't get done as much as I would have liked.  I spent the entire evening at my sister's place.  It was nice to relax, but I'd had some thoughts about getting some cleaning-up done at my place.  Instead I at dinner with my sister's family (she does a good job with taco salad), watched a movie with the kids (while Laurie and Brett went out to get stuff for St. Nicholas Day which they'd forgotten about until then), downloaded programs for my PDA, and washed a couple loads of laundry.  Because I was busy on the computer and waiting for the laundry I didn't get home until around midnight.

What I really need is next Sunday evening off where I said I could cover for someone at bigg's (though I fervently hope that I don't have to).  I can clean stuff out of my place then and just drop it directly by the street as trash pick-up is the next day.  Any other time it doesn't make sense to move it since I have too many boxes to fit in the apartment building's trash barrel.  Of course until I get my bedroom cleaned out my new couch can't move in there and I'm stuck with a very crowded living room.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Great Quote

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
  - Robertson Davies

Mark, can you think of a rebuttal to this?  I sure can't.  ;-)

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

50º

Well I finally turned my heat on yesterday.  With temperatures back down to 20º and showing no signs of warming up too much in the near future I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet.  However, I've only set the thermostat to 50º.  If I'm going to be around for a few hours (such as this evening when I'm not at bigg's, yeah!) I will probably turn it up a bit.  However, when I'm only around to sleep and for a couple of hours before that it is pointless to keep the place toasty.

Additionally I don't like sleeping in a warm room.  It should be cold (or at least cool) in a bedroom in winter.  I'm sure that Mark won't want to visit anytime soon, but I suppose that if he did I would turn the heat up so he wouldn't turn into a human popsicle.

But more about bigg's.  Apparently because I need Friday off to work and event at the museum they only need me to work three days this week.  I'm not going to complain.  Yes, my paycheck will be a tad lower, but on the other hand I've put in many extra hours at the museum for this two-week pay period.  Last week I had 27 hours.  That isn't bad when I planned on just 8 per week!  :-)

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

I survived

Yes, the weekend was long, but actually enjoyable. After working for fifteen hours at the museum on Saturday I really didn't feel that tired. I enjoy work there so much that in some ways it really isn't work. If I had been at bigg's for fifteen hours I would have been quite exhausted.

Last night however, went later than I had thought it would. Sunday evening is the night that housekeeping comes through to vacuum the entire exhibit, and I have to stay for that time when I'm filling in as supervisor. I had planned to clean out my bedroom so that I could start to move my new furniture back in there, but I was too tired and it was too cold.

I think that I'm about ready to start turning the heat on in my apartment. Up until now it hasn't been that cold and I've not been home much. I'm still not home much, but it is getting colder and I'm wanting to do more things when I am home. Things that are hard to do if you're cold when not sitting with a blanket. If I just want to read or watch a movie I don't mind a cold room and sitting/laying under a blanket. But if I need to be mobile, I'd prefer it to be warmer. I'll have to say goodbye to energy bills as low as they've been however, but I think I can survive that if I don't turn the heat up to sweltering, ;-).

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Absent this weekend

Yes, I was at the museum until midnight tonight, and tomorrow (Saturday) I will be working a 15 or so hour day, then on Sunday I only work until seven or eight so I get some of the evening to enjoy. I'll be around eventually! ;-)

~Matt