Looking back at the friday posts from the last month, I don’t think September was an especially good month for me. October isn’t shaping up to be much better yet, but that’s at least partly due to it still being allergy season. Once we get the first killing frost, most of the allergens clear from the air, and I’m a happier camper. That didn’t happen last night though. A low of 32.2°F here, and the only frost I could see this morning was a light coating on the roof of my garage. The forecast doesn’t have any more chances for frost in the foreseeable future, so there’s probably at least another week of stuffy head in my future.
Yesterday, I had planned to avoid the daily blogging in the morning and get straight to work when I woke up. That fell apart, and the rest of the day just sort of followed. I had been out late at the Sporty on Wednesday night (I spent a few hours talking with a ceramics prof from the U about what makes art “art”), so I wasn’t expecting an early start, but first there was the news from the Park Board, and when I had finished typing that, the phone rang.
I had a twenty-minute discussion with state Senator Larry Pogemiller about the meth bill, which restricts the amount of Sudafed a guy can buy in Minnesota. After explaining my complaint to him, he said he’s going to talk to the author of the bill, and see if they can adjust the monthly limit so it actually will represent a full one-month’s supply. Shocking, but true. Especially when I read the letter his staff had sent to me in the mail, which had a completely different tone.
That killed off the morning. I spent the afternoon alternating between trying to get my resume updated (it’s been over three years since I’ve touched it) and figuring out what I’m doing for the client’s website that I need to finish. I ended up doing neither especially well, and both remain for today. And once the work is done, there are tentative plans to go see Serenity.
- The United States Peak Foliage Map says the leaves are supposed to peak here anytime now. The cold weather the past couple days will probably kick-start the color-change here in town. [kottke]
- The Saints have A Letter to our Fans about the recent decision to leave the Northern League. And another trickle of news: Explorers Join Former Northern League Teams As A Founding Partner In New League. Still no word from the theoretical Central League teams.
- After three years, TwinsTerritory.com is shutting down. John’s had enough. I wasn’t a regular reader, since I spend a lot more time thinking about the Saints than the Twins, but I’ll still miss him.
- If you’re a language-geek, Word Spy’s list of Neologisms is a bunch of fun, as is his list of favorite words.
- Looking for some cool photos? slower.net is a collection of Eliot Shepard. Both sites are worth poking around a little. [kottke]
- When I read this review of The Mind Molester From ThinkGeek, I immediately recognized the device. It’s one that my roommate Matt and I talked about building during high school at St. John’s. Except the thinkgeek version still doesn’t meet our design parameters of 23 years ago. We wanted it small enough to fit in a pillbox or the plastic containers that you get out of gumball machines (so it would be more durable) and powered by the then-new lithium batteries, which would give some pretty long life. And ThinkGeek’s $25 price is way over what we figured, since we wanted to make 200 of them to match the 200 out of order signs we’d put up around the school earlier in the year. In the end, two things killed the project. The first was the expense. We couldn’t get the price below about $5 each. The second was that we figured just how damned disruptive 200 of these things hidden around the school would be, especially since we’d initially planned to drop them inside the cinderblock walls, where they’d be impossible to retrieve. Good memories, though. [boing boing]
- I sometimes have goofy ideas about how to decorate my house, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t buy one of these LTT lit bathtubs for my bathroom. The whole idea of having the tub glowing under me just seems disturbing. [boing boing]
- I’m really liking my programmable thermostat. I only had to tweak the
during the day
part of the program (since I’m home during the day, and not away at work), and otherwise it’s been about perfect. In the evening, the house cools off just about as the weather is coming on the 10pm news and I’ve got comfortable sleeping. At 6am, the furnace kicks in, and I wake up to warm air coming out of the registers. By the time I climb out of bed, the bathroom has warmed up. I’m not sure how much it’s saving me yet, but I’m hoping for a happy surprise in the gas bill, too. - The U of M shut down Trash Film Debauchery, but they’re back up and running and will be showing midnight movies on Fridays at the Oak St. Theater. I think that’s an improvement over the old Ford Hall location. [daily]