Just a Bit

How much snow did we get, you ask? Ho boy.

Never in my life have I moved more snow in one day and remember that where I grew up, we stick spigots in trees.

This was my front door this morning.




I caught the culprit in action. I didn't get a shot of the other machine but it was pretty awesome too.




This is the left side if you're looking out my front door, checkin' out the uber corner there. My study's window looks out that way if I ever had it not shaded. Note the position of the fire hydrant and how far up it the snow goes.



In this shot, you can barely see my mailbox. Don't worry, it gets worse. On the left of my mailbox, you might not notice my driveway. This was before that other gigantic machine pushed a neck high pile into the bottom there.

So, there's your begin pictures. It might look cold out there and it was, just not as cold as it has been. In fact, I spent most of the next five hours clearing without a coat on. Never in my life have I been more happy that I'm covered in a layer of insulative blubber.

Being realtively warm outside had the benefit of making the snow sticky so it tended to stay where I put it. This also means that there's probably not going to be a lot of drifting--an uber good thing for tomorrow. The bad news is that it was wet. Hella wet. That means heavy and I've got the back strain to prove it.

Note the hydrant on the right. Also note that my lazy neighbors couldn't clear their sidewalk (pansies).





Somewhere in there, I have a mailbox. Hopefully I can't get fined for that.

I Hate Winter

Seriously, I hate it. For those not in the know right now, the midwest is under siege from winter and it's not supposed to stop until late next week (stupid winter).

I left for my class as is my saturday habit at ohgoditsearly o'clock and almost got stuck. Odd, though, because the snowplow doods hadn't done their dumping on my drive yet. Arriving home at just before 4:00 this afternoon, shock, then amusement, then horrification played over my face in what I can only assume is a suitably comic manner. I was too busy being shocked, then amused, then horrified to properly notice.

Sadly, instead of just taking off the top layer like they've done all season long, the doods did two passes--one for the top layer, one for the harder, dirtier, nastier crap that gets packed down when you drive over it. Might I add that this is the heavier bit.

To add insult to injury, they'd also managed to run what I can only assume was a frontloader up onto my curb depositing yet another waist high pile of the aforementioned heavy snow onto the corner of my lot. Now, for those who don't live in the fine state of Wisconsin, as a resident of the City of Madison, I'm required (by law) to clear the sidewalks in their entirety within 12 hours of snowfall lest I get fined. They don't give warnings. I have a corner lot.

Half an hour later, I deposit my car in its rightful place in my garage. An hour and a half after that, and I fulfill my duty to the City of Madison for another day (ow), at least until it snows like crazy again tonight. And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. And the day after that. And if we're lucky, the day after that. That's right, kids, it's supposed to snow every day up until and including Thursday.

Note that my driveway is not clean. Oh no. They won't fine me for not clearing my driveway. When I was done, though, you coulda eaten off that sidewalk. And now, a mere two hours later, it's already covered again.

I'm so moving somewhere tropical.

Roddenberry & Lucas

These days I don't watch a lot of TV and don't see many movies but that wasn't always the case. In fact, I whiled away many a youthful hour locked up in the vivid scenes conjured from someone else's imagination. Most of those years have been subsequently locked up away from my own prying eyes in the bustle of daily existance. So well, it seems, that I can barely recall much of my pre-college days--probably for the best.

It's been a long weekend (thankfully) and I caught two shows on the History Channel. Yesterday was Star Wars: Empire of Dreams. Today was Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier. I don't know what it was about those two productions but it reminded me of the wonder I had of cinema and TV that I've all but forgotten. Maybe it was Wil Wheaton's Blog which I discovered a couple months ago (it's on the must-read list). Maybe it was his commentary on ST:TNG. I dunno.

The prevailing theme through all of that was that those two pieces of fiction changed the world. I'm not sure that anyone who lived in this country who were at least as tangentially aware of popular culture as I am would argue against that. So what happened? The only thing I can think of that comes even close was the Lord of the Rings trilogy but even that was written a really long time ago (I doubt many people realize that it was originally written in the WW2 era). Are we so focused on the glitz and the glam that we've lost track of the bigger picture?

I don't know when the hell it was that I got old, but I find myself longing for simpler times; the kind of times that I barely remember.

A Tale of Pastries And Danger

Unless something terrible happens this month, I'll be building a game (yeah, I decided). Here is a snippet from the design doc:

3.1: The Story
You play the part of Thomas Eugene Howard Chuck, otherwise known as T.E.H. Chuck.

T.E.H. Chuck is Head Cakey Taster at the Intergalactic Cakey Tastes Corporation and has just been asked to oversee the Chocolate Covered Sponge Cake (With Tasty Cream Filling) plant on Alpha Nebulon 3. Alpha Nebulon 3 has a large native population that sustains itself on the very tasty chocolate veins that run through the planet; hence the Chocolate Covered Sponge Cake (With Tasty Cream Filling) plant located there.

The good news is that since chocolate is available in a mining state in great quantity, that it greatly reduces ICTC’s production costs and allows for a large degree of automation. The bad news is that the indigenous inhabitants of Alpha Nebulon 3 are both extremely hostile and not very happy about the corporation stealing their foodstuffs . Hence, any ICTC personnel found in the field tend to meet a terrible fate.

The plant on Alpha Nebulon 3 is in a remote area near a particularly rich chocolate deposit but the rest of the planet is undeveloped. Luckily, the surveyors left limited range transporters around in random places that can be used to move back and forth between the survey areas. Not so luckily, ICTC, in a further attempt to reduce costs, had the sentry guard systems in areas around the transporters installed by interns who weren’t very careful. So instead of installing a sentry guard system to protect the loyal employees of the ICTC, they instead ended up installing a veritable obstacle course of deadly disposition that isn’t quite smart enough to pick out human targets to not neutralize.

On the way to the plant, T.E.H. Chuck crashed his large shiny black sport utility spacecraft on Alpha Nebulon 3 while backing up trying to park. Luckily, the ship crashed a short distance away from the plant. Not so luckily, it was a short distance for a spacecraft which is quite a long distance for a Head Cakey Taster through a dangerous environment filled with hostile creatures who dislike the whole “stealing their food” bit.

Baked Beans; Avocados

I realize that few of y'all cook...but...

If you cook and you like baked beans, you should totally go out and get a crock pot and make a batch, right now. Google has a veritable cornucopia of recipes vying for your attention. The batch I got going right now includes maple syrup because, hey, I like maple. I'm almost convinced that if slow cookers didn't end up with food at some point that they'd qualify as bona fide torture devices.

Also, avocados rule.

That is all.

1KClub Update

January started out pretty good but ended up kind of flat. This month's contribution broken down by category:

44 hours: BEER updates

7 hours: GWA updating (to reflect BEER updates)

4 hours: artwork

12 hours: studying advanced topics

Total: 67/83.33
Grade: B-

That's not so good.

I could make a bunch of lame excuses but it's not like I didn't kill at least 15 hours in front of the TV instead of doing something productive. I'm going to try to do better this month.

The good news is that I've finally received my small fortune worth of software. Well, most of it. I hope to be moving to VC2K5 and Photoshop CS2 very soon. I don't know that it will help my productivity (in fact, if I'm honest, I expect it to hurt), but it makes me feel better so that's something.

For this month, I was planning on doing a game. I should, but I'm on the fence about spending another month refactoring BEER which would certainly be beneficial.