marshmallow madness

Holy crap does the Swiss Miss Marshmallow Lover's cocoa mix have lots of mini-sugary-marshmallows. I opened the can of mix just now and it looked like packing peanuts, and now they've all melted away into my cup of cocoa.

Hot cocoa always reminds me of elementary school. Something possessed me in the 5th grade to sign up to be one of those "safety patrol" kids. You know the job: you wear a special orange sash, and tell kids when to cross the street. I was lured in by delusions of grandeur, and highly disappointed when none of the kids would listen to me -- even the frickin' third graders. I had to take a test to get the job too: predict how long it would take a car to get to where I was on the side of the road. Really it was just a depth perception test, and after giving me the depth-test, my eye doctor always told me I could parallel park her car anytime.

Anyhow, after "patrol" on the cold days, I would go back into the school and put away the sash. They always had a water heater and huge Sam's Club sized can of Swiss Miss waiting for the safety patrol kids.

january t-storm

It stormed here yesterday. 2 January, and we have 62°F, thunderstorms and -- get this -- a tornado watch. Damn, this state is strange.

sha1 browns

Google's ads are funny. While viewing my spam folder on Gmail, I was presented with links to Spam recipes.

bank froud

I got an email from "Chase Alert" yesterday that was telling me someone used my account from different locations, and I had to log in to verify legitimacy. Of course, since I don't have a Chase account, this stuck out like a sore thumb. I followed the link, and noticed that the site I was taken to had NOTHING to do with the bank. The URL was "http://staindlyrics.com/chase/..." Apparently these phishers didn't want to even attempt a URL Spoof. Anyhow, I chuckled a bit at the URL, and threw the email away.

Today, I got another email, this time from "Chase Notification". It claimed that there was "possible froud." Yes, froud not fraud. I followed the link and ended up at "http://wallstreetens.com/chase/...", yet another funny URL. Makes me wonder about the phishers -- though I suppose they're just using the means they have.

more shoe trees

It appears that the shoe tree on IU's campus isn't the only one! Someone's been planting seeds around the world. (Link) Thanks, Frank!

karma

We ended up with about six inches of snow in my neck of the woods.

Tonight, I decided to test my faith in carma (spelling intended, see car implications below). I went out and bought a shovel, then shoveled the six inches of snow away from four of the eight parking spaces in front of my building. I made paths to the drivers' side door of the other four spots that contained cars. Don't ask me where I get the motivation to shovel the white crap.

As I was finishing up removing a snow bank from behind one car (that had pretty much been plowed in), one of my neighbors pulled up and parked in the *one* empty space I had not shoveled. He gets out and says, "you must have a lot of energy." I told him that I intended to do that space next, and he said he parked there so I wouldn't have to. I told him I had personal motivation: my car has low clearance, and there's no way in hell I can get in or out of most of the spots in our lot. He didn't seem to care.

Maybe it's just because, growing up in Minnesota, I'm used to removing snow ASAP so that it won't either get too deep to shovel or turn into a nice packed sheet of ice. On a side note, I saw another of my neighbors' boyfriends come over earlier in his huge Chevy truck. He had a good deal of difficulty getting into a space with rear wheel drive and an empty bed. I was amused that my little rice rocket is more agile in our parking lot.

A bit later, as I was finishing up, another one of my neighbors came home. The first thing out of her mouth was, "where did you get that shovel?" I told her that Menards had LOTS of different kinds in stock. I also had some fun in their mostly un-plowed parking lot while there. Apparently she gave up looking when she found out that Target was out of them. Why someone would go to Target for shovels (when a Menards is closer) is beyond me.

Anyway, the initial reaction from my neighbors was not to care that I cleared roughly two hundred cubic feet of snow from the parking lot and sidewalks so they have an easier time getting to their cars. we'll see if what goes around really does come around. To show the world my good faith, I left the shovel outside my door (as one of my neighbors does with their really tiny shovel). Perhaps someone will use it to clear more snow -- or maybe steal it.

Sn*w

Yeah, my favorite four-letter word fell all over the Bloomington today. I read the weather reports last night, and decided that I would stay home if it was sn*wing when I woke up. It was just cold, no snow, so I went in.

Had class, went to a talk, came out of the talk and there was white shit all over the place. Went to lunch with this guy, this guy and this guy. Came outside, walked through four inches of sn*w.


The first snow of the year is hell on drivers and pedestrians. All the drivers with rear-wheel drive cars and empty trunks end up sideways. People forget that it's hard to stop. You can walk places faster than drive. The picture shows one of the main drags through campus at about 2pm.

pointer rap

I think I want to go teach at Columbia now so I can do crazy stuff like rap in front of a CS class. (Link) Kudos to Eric Siegel at Columbia University.