Category: blahblah

Here’s a 99.999% accurate scenario of what will happen if we go to war with Iraq. Despite the cute flash images, its not supposed to be funny.

New Zealand is looking nice.

Its not intentional that my entries have become intertwined….but in reference to potato chips, which produce waste cooking oil. Waste cooking oil can be used to make biodiesel, by adding lye and ethanol. Biodiesel can be mixed with regular diesel to reduce its emissions (except NOx) or by itself, which significantly reduces emissions, etc. It runs in standard diesel engines, and its exhaust smells like fried food.

Sound good? I think it does. I also like the idea that we don’t have to drill in the arctic or send people and money to the unstable oil producing countries. Now there are some filling stations in Eugene, or you can buy it in bulk. Cool.

Speaking of Sideshow Bob, (“Ah Kettle Chips, The perfect side dish for revenge!”) I bought some Habanero Chile with Ginger Kettle Chips yesterday. I figured they’d be fairly subdued, being Kettle chips, but I was surprised how un-spicy they were. When I think of Habanero chips, I think “hotter than jalapenos.” These chips tasted the way that the chips sitting next to the Habanero chips should taste. Like Habanero fallout chips.

Granted, the chips are good, but I wanted hot. I wanted Tim’s Jalapenos hot.

If you’ve watched the Simpsons, you’ve probably seen the episode where Sideshow Bob keeps stepping on rakes. The groan of defeat he utters is very similar to what I feel when I return my bottles and cans. Surely there’s another way to do this.

Here’s my proposal:
1) Continue with the current system. It encourages a couple dozen people who might not recycle to recycle. Its also a great social welfare program hidden in a environmental/state revenue scheme.
2) Let people pay for curbside recycling. When they pay for cubside, the waste management company gives them a small barcode that they can put on their grocery card (almost all grocers shove them at you anyway) so when they purchase bottles and cans, they can scan the barcode, and it waives the 5 cent deposit, knowing that you’re paying for curbside already.
3) charge deposits for fast food packaging. Maybe this will encourage the grillers & fryers to pick up their junk, so less of it ends up in my yard. I picked up the packaging today, but if its windy, it’ll be back tomorrow. (insert Sideshow Bob groan)

While its convenient weather for having a dog, it really worries me that its warm and dry during the winter here in Portland. Remember last year when all those Salmon died? Things were supposed to be better for both farmers, fish, and the rest of us this year. There’s no snow pack to speak of, which will probably reduce the revenue from sno-park permits; and there’ll be no snow days to save Portland schools money. This could be a bad summer.

Every term starts off with a flurry of people who haven’t read the instructions, or didn’t take their caps-lock off, or can’t connect from work. Its somewhat invigorating to talk to that many people that quickly.

The second week slows way down, and you start to get calls from the truely hopeless, ingorant, and mean people. This term, the second week was busy. We’re having students take the WebCT calls and such, but I think the volume was higher. Not sure why yet. But I’m exhausted. Oh, and the entire network is down because a router crashed, though its been acting up all day. Sadly, no one cares when its not your fault.

Joe and Lindsay were kind enough to drive down to Portland and see us while they’re back home. It was great to see them and hear about life out east. They spoke of how self-absorbed people on the east coast were, and feel like yelling “be happy!” It would be rough to be surrounded by fearful drones.

Joe, Scott and I played a round of disc golf at Dabney St. Park. It was very nice, though muddy. I left my discs at home, so I played 9 holes with Scott’s putter, then used a discarded “chauncy shit disc” someone hadn’t wanted to keep. It helped but not much.

Here’s my year in Music:

• Busta Rhymes: Genesis – “My vernacular is spectacular”
• Doc Watson: Misc – “There’s a dark and a stormy side of life; there’s a bright and a sunny side too”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: By The Way – “I’m a notion, in your bedroom, make you feel, make you want to reassume.”
• John Hartford: Morning Bugle – I can’t think of any words because Michelle is listening to freakin’ George Michael. Who got her that CD, anyway?
• Bud Powell: The Genius of Bud Powell – um, there aren’t any words.

Two days after skiing for the first time in two years, my legs hardly function. I have the most trouble going down stairs, sitting down, etc. It was a blast though. Hilly and I skied a half-day at White Pass, which was windy, but the snow was nice and the lines were short.

We were going to meet with several friends, but didn’t run in to them until the 2nd to last run. Low visibility and such. Also, I couldn’t get the shoelace into one of my crappy boots, so i only had one shoelace. It was fun though. It was also relieving to not suck. I could ski just as well as I did two years ago, but without the endurance. Hopefully I’ll do more this week.

Last Christmas was a marathon. It was Michelle and my first married christmas, and we attended 5 separate events. It was exhausting. This year we planned a little better, and actually ended up with a bit of breathing room between events. It was wonderful, and we had a chance to visit with our families. The day after was a bit busy getting stuff working and waiting ~5 hours for Best Buy to install my new car stereo (no more squeal!)

Aside from being able to spend time with family, we’ve had the opporunity to visit with friends. Not as many as we’d like, but we’re working on it. Next year we’ll have it down. Bob’s Keg & Cork provided a great place to visit, drink some great beer, and Bob is just a great guy. He even served a full house on Monday, the day he’s usually closed.

Hope you all had a great holiday season as well.