Back in the saddle

Make it stop!  We've got around 27 inches of snow already on the ground here in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, but now we've got another 4-7 inches forecast for tonight!  This is starting to get very inconvenient.  In case you missed it, Waterloo made national news yesterday, when we tied the all-time December low temperature of -29° F.  I wonder if the University of Arizona is hiring....

While away from the Internet this weekend, I blazed through Richard Belzer's conspiracy book.  I'm a fan of Belzer's work, and think he's a pretty funny guy, but I just didn't really like this book all that much.

UFO's, JFK, and Elvis seems like a book with an identity crisis.  Is it humor, or a serious conspiracy book?  Belzer makes some funny jokes and observations while presenting a strong (and one-sided) case for the existence of a conspiracy in the death of John F. Kennedy.  This extended rant makes up the first part of the book, and I found it to be pretty enjoyable, but not all that convincing.

The second half of the book is dedicated to UFO's, the possible fakery of the Apollo program, and extraterrestrial life.  I found this half to be less compelling than the JFK portion of the book, and it rehashed a lot of the same material I'd read elsewhere about UFO's.  Some of the theories were contradictory, and it seemed to be pretty much an amalgamation of everything you've seen on the X-Files.

That said, the book was still enjoyable to read.  Belzer is certainly funny, but the humor undermined the credibility of his book.  He does have an extensive bibliography in the back of the volume, but citations and footnotes would have gone a long ways in improving his credibility, as would even a cursory mention of any of the counter-points to his views.

Remember when I talked about that faculty member who'd installed Windows ME on his computer, and predicted that he'd come crawling back to me to install one of our supported operating systems on his computer?  Well, he did, but he wants Administrative privileges.  He'll get Power User priviliges, or he can sign a waiver, releasing me from all support duties to him, other than reinstalling the operating system again.  I'm not going to spend my time fixing a box that he keeps breaking.

I'm back at work and I'm about the only one.  Today is a pretty stupid day at the University.  Almost no one is on-campus, the buildings are all locked, mail isn't delivered, nothing is open.  But, you have to come to work, unless you want to use vacation.  So what do I do?  Sit here, mostly.  I predict it will be a short day.

The package did arrive, on Saturday the 23rd.  Amazon.com was kind enough to refund the shipping costs, at least...

Zero Visibility

My girlfriend and I drove the hundred miles or so from Cedar Falls, Iowa to my grandparents' house in Ventura, Iowa.  The roads weren't too slippery, but there was almost no visibility, due to the blowing snow.

We were doing fine, I was driving her Ford Taurus, until we got about a mile from my grandparents' house, where we promptly got stuck in the snow.  We were on a gravel road, and the wind was blowing in excess of 40 mph.  Fortunately, we'd called ahead when we got close, and my Uncle came down to pull us out with the 4x4 pickup.  He pulled us out, drove the truck through a couple times, and then we attempted to follow, only to get stuck again.

About this time, my grandparents pulled , up behind us having picked up my parents from the airport in Minneapolis.  Between my dad, uncle, and I, we got the car dug out, chained up, and pushed through the snow bank, and we all arrived back at the farm at the same time, thoroughly frozen. 

Here, inside the grove, it's not so bad.  Outside, where the wind chill was in excess of 50°F below, my goattee froze the instant I climbed out of the car after getting stuck.  I was half frozen before retrieving my heavy coat from the back seat.  We had enough emergency stuff with us, we wouldn't have been in any danger had we been stuck there, and we had a cell phone in any case.  I could have managed the mile walk to my grandparents in that cold, but I'm really glad I didn't have to...

Even More Snow

My condolences go out to Alwin Hawkins, and his family.  His wife found his mother-in-law dead this evening.  Our family has had several members die this time of year as well, and it's never easy...

Someone I know is famous!  Okay, not really, but Whitney Shaw, who is featured in this story, is a friend of a friend of mine.  I had dinner with her and her boyfriend (and my friend) when I was in Omaha over Thanksgiving.  You can watch her cautionary tale of Spring Break gone horribly wrong on this site.

It's amazing just how tough infants are.  This story is a little grisly, but the amazing thing is that the child survived, and has been upgraded to "fair" at the hospital.

Of course, the mother would have probably lived if she'd been wearing her seat belt...

We're getting even more snow today!  We're going to have nearly two feet of snow on the ground if this keeps up.  The roads are treacherous, and I have to drive a hundred miles on them tomorrow morning...

Chickening out

I'm going to post a joke e-mail that I just received from my mom.  It's long, but it's pretty damned funny, I chuckled outloud to myself several times reading it.  Here it is:

 BREAKING NEWS:

GOD OVERRULES SUPREME COURT VERDICT;

Bush to be smitten later today

In a stunning development this morning, God invoked the "one nation, under God" clause of the Pledge of Allegiance to overrule last night's Supreme Court decision that handed the White House to George Bush. "I'm not sure where the Supreme Court gets off," God said this morning on a rare Today Show appearance, "but I'm sure as hell not going to lie back and let Bush get away with this bullshit. . . I've watched analysts argue for weeks now that the exact vote count in Florida 'will never be known.' Well, I'm God and I do know exactly who voted for whom. Let's cut to the chase: Gore won Florida by exactly 20,219 votes."

 Shocking political analysts and pundits, God's unexpected verdict overrules the official Electoral College tally and awards Florida to Al Gore, giving him a 289-246 victory. The Bush campaign is analyzing God's Word for possible grounds for appeal.

"God's ruling is a classic over-reach," argued Bush campaign strategist Jim Baker. "Clearly, a divine intervention in a U.S. Presidential Election is unprecedented, unjust, and goes against the constitution of the state of Florida."

"Jim Baker's a jackass," God responded. "He's got some surprises ahead of him, let me tell you. HOT ones, if you know what I mean." God, who provided the exact vote counts for every Florida precinct, explained that bad balloting machinery and voter confusion were no grounds to give the White House to "a friggin' idiot."

"Look, only 612 people in Palm Beach County voted for Buchanan. Get real! The rest meant to vote for Gore. Don't believe me? I'll name them: Anderson, Pete; Anderson, Sam, Jr.; Arthur, James; Barnhardt, Ron..."

Our Lord then went on to note that he was displeased with George W. Bush's prideful ways and announced that he would officially smite him today.In an act of wrath unlike any reported since the Book of Job, God has taken all of Bush's goats and livestock, stripped him of his wealth and possessions, sold his family into slavery, forced the former presidential candidate into hard labor in a salt mine, and afflicted him with deep boils.

Dick Cheney will reportedly receive leprosy. 

God also took time to overrule a few other recent decisions: 

Stunning the NBA, God overruled last night's Milwaukee Bucks 109-105 victory over the L.A. Lakers. Describing Sam Cassell's game-winning jumper with :03 to go as "lucky-ass bullshit," God waived off that basket. Lakers now win, 105-104.

God also overturned the results of the 1998 NCAA Final Four, awarding the NCAA National Championship to the North Carolina Tarheels. "There's just no way Utah beats UNC with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison! I must have been napping during that one..." God announced that UNC actually was intended to beat Kentucky 85-71 in the NCAA title game, with Jamison recording a double-double, racking up 28 points and 19 rebounds to earn Final Four MVP honors.

Sending shockwaves through Hollywood, God announced that M*A*S*H should never have been cancelled and commanded the show be returned to the air, once Jamie Farr can be located. He also ruled that there may be no more movies starring David Spade.

I'm setting up the first Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop I've ever used.  I ordered us a couple of these after seeing that they scored a perfect ten in the review written by Maximum PC magazine.  So far, I'm not disappointed. They're big for a laptop, but not excessively so.  I could easily carry one around.  They're packed with features like built in firewire, and S-Video out.  You can even configure one with CD-RW and DVD drives, both of which can be in the device at the same time.  So, if you haven't gotten my Christmas gift yet, I'd like one of these, as I don't get to lay claim to either of these shiny new ones...

I managed to score an A on my final exam in my Presidency course, which pulled me up to an A- for the final grade.  I'm glad, I maintained my 3.67 UNI GPA. I did the math in my head for that, 2 courses, 6 credit hours, A- in both classes....

In comparison, my GPA from Iowa State was a whopping 2.58.

At this rate, it'll be another three years before I complete my second B.A., but the course load isn't too strenuous taking one class at a time.

I called this morning and rescheduled my dentist appointment for February 6.  I was supposed to have the first part of a crown taken care of tomorrow afternoon, but decided I really didn't feel like getting a tooth ground in half right before Christmas.  I didn't really want to put it off until February, but that was the next available time, so I guess I'll wait...