- Update 9:30 AM: I went out for breakfast this morning, and ended up at the Parkview Cafe in St Paul. Good grub, but even with five people working (and only four customers), I had to get up from my table and ask for my check in order to pay and leave. The busboy had cleared my dishes, but the waitress was busy having a conversation with the cook, and wasn’t paying any attention to me. I’d give it a 5 on a scale of 1-10. The food was a 7 or 8 (the “Parkview Potatoes” were overdone, else it would have been a 9 or 10 – you’d think a restaurant would get their signature dish right, wouldn’t you?), but the service weighed down the overall rating.
On the way home, I almost did an involuntary 180 twice. Yesterday’s rain is all gone, but it was warm enough that there was a thin layer of ice on the streets. Interesting time to be driving a rear-wheel-drive car.
Here it is, the last Sunday of 2003. The Sunday papers are running their top ten news stories of the year stories. One neighbor has already hauled a very dry Christmas Tree out to the curb. The year is definitely winding down. Me, I’m just getting started on settling into my house. I have a feeling that’s going to be a theme for this year. There are so many things I want to do around here, but I don’t have the time or energy to tackle them all. I’m hoping I can just get one item done every weekend through the year, and as with the moving process, once I get acclimated to the idea, I’ll probably set the bar low enough that I can feel some success.
I’ve tried to figure out what sort of year-end wrap-up I could do on the blog. I looked through my “cheese sandwich” postings for the previous year and tried to see if there was any real pattern, and it doesn’t look like an especially happy year. There was plenty of griping, and I’m glad that’s behind me. No need to bring it up again.
One thing I’ve discovered this past week was that it’s nice to have a break from the daily blogging. Not so much the writing, as that seems to have become a habit, and I write something nearly every day whether I want to or not, but taking a break from reading the usual newspapers and blogs in the morning was nice. But here I am settling back into that habit again, and I think it’s one I might try to break. You may get more ramblings like this in 2004, and fewer links. I guess we’ll find out together.
But anyway, I don’t really have a good summary of 2003 yet. I may find something in the next few days, but I suspect it’s going to take me a while to write something more substantial than “I bought a house.” for the 2003 entry for the About Dave section of the website.
- High-Tech Quirkiness Restores Radio’s Magic as Sirius and XM are both programming good music, rather than what the record companies push at them.
- Also on the music front, according to a federal appeals court in Washington, Music industry piracy subpoenas illegal so the RIAA will have to find another way to track down people trading music. [fark!]
- We Hate Spam, Congress Says. Except From Us. Just another advantage for the incumbent over any challengers. I don’t know if my Congressman’s been sending anything like that or not, but if he has, it hasn’t been making it past my spam filters.
- Identity Crisis is an essay talking about
How to have a national ID card that doesn’t threaten civil liberties.
I’m still not quite sure why a guy would actually need a national ID card. Sure, the government might find it convenient if we all had national ID cards, but how does that help me? - Expert Warned That Mad Cow Was Imminent, and may actually have been present in the US before this latest case, but too few critters have been tested in order to catch it. I dunno. It didn’t really worry me when I was in England, and it didn’t stop me from ordering roast beef for dinner this evening. If you’re really worried about mad cow disease, Experts provide advice on beef cuts to consumers telling you what to avoid.
- Hey, we’re Shafting the Poles again! A pretty good article on how Poland is helping in Iraq, and what they’re not getting in exchange for that help. I think more important than what the Poles aren’t getting is what “allies” like Turkey and Pakistan are getting. [instapundit]