People happy about the Nor’easter this weekend: NBC. They must love that the most populous part of the country is socked in whilst they’ve got the Olympics going on. Of course, the local NBC station isn’t showing the Olympics – they’re just talking about the weather. As for me, well, my tv is off.

Over New Year’s, I was chatting with A-list ultimate bloggers Jim and George. One made the observation that when ultimatetalk was just getting started, I was right on the bubble. Now, it seems I’ve fallen off the bubble and live deep in the second tier. And I’m not sure whether that’s a bad thing.

So in the spirit of New Year’s reflections, here are my thoughts about my blogging and what’s going to happen here now.
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Yep, I’m involved in the technology part of the audit at work.

This is where a kid who looks like he wouldn’t have the experience to get a job in our department comes in and asks us probing questions designed to give him some way to report us as failures. And our particular auditor mentioned a few times that he also does some security consulting on the side (subtle, no?).

I suppose he actually wasn’t too bad and he did seem to know what he was talking about, but still, that’s how I feel about audits.

You know what I recommend just for a couple hours of diverting amusement? A root canal. That’s what.

Went open-house hopping Sunday. Costs a damn lot to get a decent house around here. What kind of sign is it if you get stung by a wasp looking at a house?

I do get it. Soccer isn’t for everyone. Tonight’s possession-oriented, low-voltage NE Revolution game had two goals, but still managed to be pretty boring, even live. But they’re in the middle of what has been a pretty good season with some exciting games, so I’ll forgive them this one and the last one and hope that they come out firing again soon…

We know that the ubiquitous poker shows – especially the WSOP ones – are edited to focus on the highlights, but I hadn’t realized just how much until today. Took a quick look at an online chat on espn.com involving Chris Moneymaker and his dad, Mike, and found the tidbit you’ll see if you click “more”.
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Detroit may be a perfectly nice place, but I wish I weren’t here right now. I wish I hadn’t gotten to watch my connection to Boston back away as I ran up to the gate. That’s the part that was the most maddening. It was listed as “Delayed. Awaiting connecting passengers”, but they didn’t actually keep it around to pick us up. And now I’m in the Detroit airport’s Best Western, which is populated mostly by $32-a-night refugees from Northworst Airlines picking through $13-dinner-vouchers worth mediocre food in the bar and complaining about being left in Detroit. If I were going to get left somewhere by Northwest, couldn’t it at least be Minneapolis so that I could check off one of the three remaining states I haven’t visited?

But other people’s travel stories aren’t as interesting as we’d like to think, so I’ll spare you. It’s not exactly the birthday I planned, though. Ah, well. More on potlatch later…

Ok, so I actually TiVo’d my way through a bunch of the show where they counted down AFI’s list of the top 100 movie quotes in history. I think the AFI people have an irrational attachment to old movies, but some of those movies are good and the list is probably just there to spark debate and keep people paying attention to AFI anyway.

Just like everyone else, I missed some of my favorites and appreciated some of their list. But one selection stuck with me. From 2001: A Space Oddysey, they picked “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” What? Isn’t “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” just a WAY better quote? I mean, I haven’t ever SEEN the movie and I quote the line. But, as usual, what do I know…

…but the reality of Haagen Dazs’ Banana Split Ice Cream is a little weird.

There was a quick discussion earlier about the best hour-long show on tv. I like some of the hours, but I still tend to think that the best hour ever on tv would be two episodes of M*A*S*H.