May your stomach be gloriously full by this evening. May your midnight turkey sandwich be all that you hoped it would be. May your plumbing be able to withstand the inevitable onslaught. And, most importantly, may you enjoy your time with your loved ones, giving thanks for all that is good in your life.
Happy Thanksgiving!
You never know what you’re going to find on Wikipedia. Who knew that they would have a List of abandoned amusement parks?
Pretty cool, if you ask me, especially since I’m a big fan of ghost towns.
Wow, what an awesome story. I was unaware of this, but apparently 1.5 years ago, Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, permanently lost his voice due to a condition called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Ever the optimist, he tried and tried and tried different things until just last week when he was finally able to find a way to speak (almost) normally again.
To state the obvious, much of life’s pleasure is diminished when you can’t speak. It has been tough.
Indeed. Even though I'm not a very vocal person, I would be so lost without my voice.
Read the whole entry. You can't help but feel extremely thrilled for the guy.
(h/t to Paul Watson for the link to the story.)
It looks legit. Whether or not it is a good idea depends on the dog, but I think it's pretty much a given that if you install one of these, the dirt right beneath it will have a permanent butt print from Fido being there all day.
Regular trash pickup resumed this morning, meaning that our neighborhood should be spic-and-span by tomorrow morning. It is starting to look like a regular cesspool. Around every toter, there is a swarm of flies. Virtually no one is able to fully close the lids on their containers. It’s about damn time these “sanitation engineers” are getting back to work.
I don’t begrudge them their ability to strike and hold out for better pay, but I think they’re going to get the short end of the stick in the long run. They’re going to have to pay 20% of their medical costs starting next year, and with the way health care costs keep spiraling upward, that 20% is going to eat into their new salaries very quickly. Then again, it’s only a 5-year deal, so I’m sure they’ll be able to renegotiate then if costs are out of control.
Whatever. My trash is getting collected tomorrow, and (hopefully) the county will formulate some sort of reasonable rebate for those of us who have been without service.
Stink, stink, go away… and don’t ever come back!!!
Intel will cut 10,500 jobs in the next year. Ouch.
Once again, I’m counting my lucky stars that I didn’t get a full-time gig there. My deepest sympathies go out to those who will be affected by today’s news.
Edit: More local information from the SacBee:
The company said the bulk of the cuts to its work force will come from marketing, management and information technology workers. Because Folsom is headquarters for Intel’s IT department, employing up to 1,800 workers to manage the company’s internal computer networks worldwide, the cuts could hit particularly hard in the Sacramento region. It also has a large contingent of marketing staff.
One. And you're looking at it.
Looks like it's time for another good old fashioned Sagara Science Experiment. The article makes some fantastic claims:
Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity. [...]
Swirl bulbs don't just work, they pay for themselves. They use so little power compared with old reliable bulbs, a $3 swirl pays for itself in lower electric bills in about five months. Screw one in, turn it on, and it's not just lighting your living room, it's dropping quarters in your pocket. The advantages pile up in a way to almost make one giddy. Compact fluorescents, even in heavy use, last 5, 7, 10 years. Years. Install one on your 30th birthday; it may be around to help illuminate your 40th. [Emphasis mine]
I don't particularly care too much about the money savings — although that would be a nice benefit — but the convenience of having to replace a lightbulb only every 5 or so years is totally worth it to me. So, I'll give it a shot. I've heard that the CFLs still have a small delay after the switch is flipped on compared to their incandescent brethren, but I'm willing to give it a shot. If the delay isn't unbearable, I think we may have found ourselves a new type of lightbulb.
The default blog theme in Community Server is kind of confusing, so I switched over to one of the more traditional looks. It’s kind of ugly, but hopefully it’s a bit more intuitive.
Edit: And I just noticed that in Firefox, it has a fugly baby-blue bar across the top of the screen. Damn you Mozilla! Why did you have to fight the machine?
Holy crap, he did it!
This dude started out with one red paperclip and traded his way all the way up to a house. No money ever changed hands; it was strictly barter. Amazing. Check out his blog for the whole story.