So far this year, I’ve been having trouble coming up with links in the morning. I’m not sure whether that’s just because I’m being more selective about reading the news or if I’m just tired of it all. I definitely don’t walk to talk about the mess in south Asia. I don’t have anything new to say about it, and at this point, it’s no longer news. In any case, I’ve had to dig a little more to come up with something to ramble about.
I managed to slog through most of the year-end work yesterday morning. The only big item remaining is putting together the corporate tax information for my accountant so he can have that done by the time I get all the bits I need for my personal taxes. Plus I wrote up the materials I’m going to need for a presentation later this morning. None of it felt like real work, but it all had to be done, and I managed to finish everything without too much procrastinating.
But it’s only a couple days into the new year and I’m starting to see the fallout of having kept up a busy social calendar in December. I’ve already got something planned every weekend in January, plus a handful of other days through the month. That’s a good thing in the dark, cold months in a Minnesota winter, I guess, but I find myself wondering if I’m going to feel it cutting into the working hours during a time when I normally try to huddle in my cave and grind out the billable hours. In any case, it’ll give me something to ramble about here. Trying to overcome my natural inclination to be a hermit isn’t always easy.
- Google has published the 2004 Zeitgeist. Interesting to see what people searched for last year.
- Apparently the solution to the Heathrow x-ray weapons scanner, which gives the screeners a view through your clothes is to just say no. Nobody at the airport seems to know whether the machines are safe (generally, but not always) or what the real risks are.
- Meanwhile, the FBI clears terrorists of shining laser pointers at pilots. The verdict seems to be that it was just someone pulling a prank, probably with their brand new Christmas laser.
- And even though, as I mentioned yesterday, fingerprinting foreigners isn’t working so well, the U.S. now fingerprinting foreign visitors at 50 land crossings, including those in Minnesota.
- Spirit, the first of the two Martian explorer marks first year. It was projected to last ninety days, but is still going strong. I think it’s cool when NASA has successes like this–I just wish they could do better when they’re flying humans around.