Ice!

The weather people here in central Indiana are predicting snow and ice and general mayhem for tonight and tomorrow. My guess is flurries.

Did you know that the US gives $1.3 billion to the Egyptian army every year?

A response to the Whistling Indian of Cambridge: I thought Inception was fantastic. From the unique story, to the great special effects, to the cuteness of Ellen Page, to the mindfuck of an ending, I thought it was great through and through.

We watched Winter's Bone last night and it was good. It's set in the Ozarks of Missouri in a rundown community of crank cookers. It's about a daughter of a man out on bond looking for her father before her home is taken on account of his running while on bond. It's a bit slow, but it shows a side of America you don't want to see, but know is there. Also, if you're a fan of Deadwood, it has a few of the actors from that show in it.

2011 Oscars

Here are the best picture noms:

The British monarchy saga "The King's Speech" leads the Academy Awards with 12 nominations, including best picture and acting honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush.

Also nominated for best picture Tuesday were the psychosexual thriller "Black Swan"; the boxing drama "The Fighter"; the sci-fi blockbuster "Inception"; the lesbian-family tale "The Kids Are All Right"; the survival story "127 Hours"; the Facebook chronicle "The Social Network"; the animated smash "Toy Story 3"; the Western "True Grit"; and the Ozarks crime thriller "Winter's Bone."

We've actually seen quite a few of these and a couple more are in the netflix queue.

We've seen Black Swan, Inception, The Kids are All Right, and Toy Story 3.

Winter's Bone is coming next and then The Social Network.

Isn't that exciting?

Zsa Zsa

The reason Zsa Zsa Gabor is selling her $28 million dollar home?

Stairs.

Don't do me like that

Does anyone else think "What What in the Butt" is just a belated response to Tom Petty's "Don't Do Me Like That"?

The King is Dead

Hey everyone, the new Decemberists album is only $3.99 on amazon.com today. That's all.

Ever hit the next blog button?

I did and I found some British dude's blog. It's full of bmx type stuff, soccer, brit slang, and possible nazi stuff, but I can't tell what's going on there. It's different to say the least. Here's a sample post.

Loughner is Uncle Fester

Scratch that

I CAN install a car stereo. I figured it out and it's all hooked up. All I have to do is drill a hole in the deck cradle so I can pull a USB cord through and I'm set. The drill battery is charging so I'll be able to finish first thing in the morning. Hooray! Hopefully nothing weird happens after I start driving around. I didn't have any smoke or anything though during the install though so fingers crossed that everything is good. And I made sure the cords were spliced correctly and insulated with loads of electrical tape. It sounds great and the ipod support on it is pretty badass. After a fairly shitty week, this is a nice little start to the weekend.

New Zodiac sign

Apparently there is a new zodiac sign called Ophiuchus due to the alignment of the sun, Earth, and stars changing over the past 3000 years or so. I've been a Capricorn all my life, but according to the new rules, I am now a Sagittarius. Birds falling from the sky! Fish dying! Now the signs are changing! The end is nigh.

Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20

A new thing I can't do

Lindy bought me a new car stereo for my birthday. It's pretty awesome. Ipod jack, USB port, etc. I went to Best Buy to have it installed and the guy said that it would be a long time before they got to it. Now during the day, I had been online checking out how to do it. I found videos with people installing new decks in Saturn Ions. I found websites with detailed instructions. What I wasn't able to do was get the thing hooked up correctly. I disconnected the negative battery terminal, took the dash off, took out the factory radio, matched wires to the new wire harness, then got to the illumination wire. It was different. Not just a copper wire this one, no this bad boy had a little metal head on it that looked like it wanted to plug into something. So there is where my attempt ended. I tried to mess with it a bit, but no luck. So I snapped the dash part on again and have a gaping radioless hole looking at me. I was all bummed out and Logan said that if I needed to I could have his piggy bank money to fix it. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing he has ever done.

Stockroom

Our little stockroom smelled like ass and lotion earlier. I'm not sure why. I am sure I don't want to know why.

Dead birds and Mike Seaver

Whew... Kirk Cameron has told Anderson Cooper that he doesn't think the freak death of 10,000 birds in Arkansas on New Year's Eve is a sign of the end of days. I guess I'll unpack my survival kit.

2 things

1. Starbucks is changing their logo and people are getting pissed about it, just like they did when the Gap changed their's. It's a logo people. Let it go. There are other things to worry about. As for the Gap, I wonder if the complainers felt a sense of pride when the Gap reverted to the old logo. That's a resume booster there!

2. On cnn.com there is a headline, "Rooting for a Bullock, Reynolds romance." The guy just got divorced and now there are rumors of him nailing Sandra Bullock. When Jesse James was fucking a tattooed Nazi, everybody talked about America's sweetheart getting her heart broken. When she cozies up with a newly minted divorcee, we root for her. Let's face it, Reynolds was probably nailing her when they were in "The Proposal." Scarlett Johansson is probably photoshopping pictures of Sandy with a swastika above her cooch so she can get some of the wronged woman love too.

Paul and Hanna

Here are trailers for two movies that look pretty damn good. The first is Paul which stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who are fucking fantastic when together. If you haven't seen Hot Fuzz or Shawn of the Dead, you need to find them and watch them and laugh. The second is Hanna which just looks plain bad ass. Enjoy.

Pandacows!

This feels a bit like something from South Park, but genetically modified pet cows with panda coloring are now being bred. There are a whopping 24 of them in the world, so if you need a gift for the guy who has everything, these cows are for you!

Knock on wood knock on wood

There are many horrible Christmas specials out there, but it takes quite the horrible Christmas special song to get stuck in your head for weeks. Here is that song:

Welcome to 2011

It is now 2011 and there aren't flying cars, handheld laser guns, friendly aliens making treaties with Earth, or robots taking over the world. We don't have world peace, fashionable uniforms for everyone to wear so that we're all equal, full on cures for the world's ills, or robot butlers. We do have a strangely warm day in Indiana, kick ass video games, HD television, and e-readers.

I have had a cold for about a week now so it will probably lift at about 7 tomorrow night just in time for me to go back to work. Or not and I'll go back with a headache and copious amounts of snot. Either way it's been a pretty relaxing break aside from the kids being wound up from time to time. I'm ready for them to go back to school and I could use another week with a quiet house, but the lab is quiet so that'll have to do.

Did anybody get anything good for Christmas? Here here here let me show you what I got! A Kindle, FIFA 11 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for the 360, a Man United cap and jersey, a few books, and a whole bunch of other good stuff.

I also got a Princeton Tigers sweatshirt , a roll of orange toilet paper called Rutt Wipe, and a sign that says "Thank God for Beer." People must have been reading my mind as I hadn't put any of those things on my amazon wishlist.

As for New Year's Rockin' Eve at our house, we had the Coopers and Jess over for some pizza, booze, and Scattergories. The Coops went home at around 9:15 as it was past time for all the boys to be in bed, then Jess stayed up with us until the magic hour watching Tosh.0. We flipped onto the ball drop and watched Jenny McCarthy make out with an apparent stranger, which was a bit odd.

After going to bed late I woke up and watched Man United squeak out a win and now here I am telling all the world about it. Or telling the five or so people who read this. So Happy New Year.