The following things have occurred.
Jury duty was a bust: I basically did not interact with anyone the whole day. I was impaneled as prospective juror number 23 out of 30, and then spent several hours sitting and watching them voir dire the jurors number 1–17 and then announce the process complete. I actually would have been interested in doing a trial that took a few days, or at least be interviewed and peremptorily challenged as too-whatever. And then at the end the most bittersweet insultliment is that you get paid $9 for the day's "work", with a treasury certificate you must exchange for the other kind of treasury certificate by waiting in line at the bursar. I declined and donated to the kids.
Steelers won their game handily and endearingly (only allowing the Chargers one offensive play in the whole third quarter!) so they have advanced to the AFC championship game today. There was another opportunity for an intentional safety, but I was again denied the pleasure. If they win this vs. Ravens, then they go to the Superbowl. Our upstart mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, has temporarily changed his name to Luke Steelerstahl by popular request. If you wanted to do something illegally nude and outdoors in Pittsburgh, today might be your best chance. For any big game, during it and right before it, the city becomes eerily deserted. (The only exception is grocery stores.) Second, we had a moderate snowstorm and it is still snowing, which adds to the quietude. I hope your nude outdoors activity generates sufficient intrinsic heat. Third, even if someone sees you being nude, it will be interpreted as Steelers celebration or commisery. This is always legal as discussed in earlier posts.
Speaking of coldwave, another event is that it became briefly extremely cold in Pittsburgh, which caused our pipes which already have heat tape on them to freeze. I fixed it.
Also cold: When you think you and your band has its first not-at-a-party show but it doesn't happen. Sorry my peoples. But we have an actual show with real prosumer other bands that we like on Feb 7 at the Smiling Moose. There is no reason to doubt that this will both occur and rule. Details soon.
Public shaming time: I have not yet finished any of the Mission 2008 projects, and I have accumulated the following new projects:
Laura and I decided to listen to every Beatles album in order all in one day, as a variation on my Listenquest projects. We succeeded last weekend. The project is to prepare a nice visualization of the data we collected and write the story. Secret project SB is about 75% done. I spent almost my whole New Year's break on this. For deadline and timing reasons I will probably not work on this one much until February. Secret project LOMH is about 90% done, and I should really have this for you this weekend or else there is something seriously wrong. I agreed to make posters for the aforementioned show that we're playing. I believe I ought to construct a Laser Suspension Womb for another more distant event. Still trying to figure out where to get bulk laser diodes for cheap. I signed up for the return of the Pittsburgh Marathon in May. 104 days left to train, and I am in decent shape for distance still, but it is really hard to train in winter with the short days and the -20°F with windchill and the inches of snow and ice. Most indoor machines they limit you to 20 minutes which is frankly a joke unless you are training for 5K.
OK, so, bets: Do you think I can finish these projects or will they become the saddest kind of casualties? | 