What the Federal Budget Freeze Looks Like (video)

Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online.

2009 - The Year in Review

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2010!

(By the way, will you pronounce that "two thousand and ten" or "twenty ten"?  The great debate begins!)

 ~ ~ ~

As one year ends and another begins, it is quite common for people to reflect on the news highlights of the outgoing year.

Dave Barry, writer extraordinaire at the Miami Herald, wrote his "Dave Barry's Year in Review: 2009" article.

Some common themes are:

• Somali pirates, 
• The Appalachian Trail,
• North Korea's continual pleas for attention,
  
• The Obama Administration complaining about inheriting things from the Bush Administration, and
  
• California's financial problems (attempted resolutions included selling San Diego to Mexico and renaming the state South Oregon).

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the article (from the December news section):

"On the environmental front, Copenhagen hosts a massive international conference aimed at halting manmade global warming, attended by thousands of delegates who flew to Denmark on magical carbon-free unicorns."

Because, obviously, how else could so many people of gotten there without unnecessarily spewing vast amounts of evil global warming causing climate changing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

Read the whole article here.  And remember the year that was.  And smile.

Swine (H1N1) Flu

I contracted the flu at the beginning of October.  I remember it vividly, both because I was sick (not fun) and because it was the same weekend that Hudsonville Ice Cream had its factory sale in Holland.

That Saturday morning I felt fine.  Felt fine the whole time we stood in line at Hudsonville Ice Cream's factory waiting to buy two giant-size ice cream containers.  And felt fine most of that afternoon.

Didn't feel too well that evening.  Bad enough that I decided I'd stay home on Sunday.

Which turned out to be a really good choice.   I felt really bad, definitely flu but a little worse then normal.  By evening I lacked the energy to sit up.  That was not fun.

Monday hit like a load of bricks... that had the flu.  You know you're sick when you lack the energy to simply roll over on a couch.  Fortunately, I slept a lot, too.

My fever finally broke Monday evening after a nap.  I felt much better then!

I don't think I'd ever been so wiped out by the flu before, leading me to think it was swine flu.

By the way, I refuse to say "H1N1" for various reasons, mostly because it takes longer.  Unless we instead pronounced it as "Heye-neye" flu.  Could you imagine news people on TV and politicians calling it "heye-neye" flu?

Despite having had swine flu, I'm undeterred in my love of all pork products, especially bacon.  Mmm... bacon...  Frankly, I wish I could have bacon more often.  Perhaps it would've protected me from swine flu.

End of the World Scheduled for Early 2010

In science news, the Large Hadron Collider (aka "The Doomsday Machine") in Switzerland (aka "The Land of Chocolate", see video below) resumed operations on November 20, 2009, as proton beams (aka "phaser blasts") resumed circulating through the LHC.

Scientists there will slowly raise the energy level of these colliding beams of protons (aka, again, "phaser blasts") from 900 GeV to a world-record high energy level of 7 TeV sometime in early 2010.

When that occurs, some believe that a black hole, or multiple black holes, will be created, and will then promptly destroy the planet.

Scientists at LHC, of course, deny that this could happen.

So, what do GeV and TeV mean?  Below are some conversions. 

1 gigaelectron volt (GeV) = 1.60217646 × 10^-10 joules 

1 teraelectron volt (TeV) = 1.60217646 × 10^-7 joules 

1 TeV has approximately the same kinetic energy as a flying mosquito.

Below in the resources section is a video created by those who worked on building the Large Hadron Collider, to help explain what it is intended to do.

Resources:

CERN Glossary
Science News: Large Hadron Collider: Beams are back on at world's most powerful particle accelerator

Land of Chocolate (video)

Large Hadron Rap (video)

Wish List 2009 - House of Four Cats Edition

For those interested, here is my Christmas and birthday wish list for 2009. Be sure to bookmark this post and check it often, as I will update it throughout the remainder of 2009.

Things I Always Enjoy Receiving

These are in no particular order.

• chocolate chips cookies, soft & chewy with walnuts
• gift cards: Barnes & Noble, any restaurant so I can go out with my wife Thanks!
• cheese puffs (not the crunchy ones)
• summer sausage, a block of sharp cheddar cheese, and some flavorful crackers (i.e. not plain Ritz-style crackers)
  
• bag of Zesty Taco/Chipotle Ranch Doritos (Collisions)
  
• lasagna, especially with sausage and pepperoni Thanks!
• nuts - deluxe, no peanuts Thanks!
• Wok In/Wok Out, or other buffet
  
• bagel shop bagels with cream cheese, especially jalapeño cheddar bagels

Things I Would Like

These items ARE listed in order of preference in each section.

Each item has a link for it to Amazon or another online retailer with their listed purchase price. This information is included just for comparison purposes.

movies on DVD

• Star Trek (2009) - 2-disc version $19.99 at Amazon Thanks!
• The Simpsons Movie (widescreen edition) $13.99 at Amazon Thanks!
• Up - Blu-Ray 4 disc $19.99 at Amazon
• Kung Fu Panda (widescreen edition) 2-pack with Secrets of the Furious Five $24.99 at Amazon
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - 2-disc deluxe edition (widescreen) $26.99 at Barnes & Noble
• An American Carol - $17.49 at Amazon
  
• Dilbert - The Complete Series - $36.99 at Amazon

Music on CD

• A Midwinter Night's Dream by Loreena McKennitt $15.99 at Amazon
• An Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt $13.99 at Amazon
• My Christmas: Deluxe Edition CD & DVD by Andrea Bocelli $17.49 at Amazon (CD-only version would be okay, and probably easier to find) Thanks!
  
• And Winter Came by Enya $9.99 at Amazon Thanks!
• Nights from the Alhambra - (2 CD + DVD) by Loreena McKennitt $23.99 at Amazon
• A Mediterranean Odyssey by Loreena McKennitt $20.99 at Amazon

Books

• Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg- (hardcover) $18.45 at Amazon Thanks!
• The Lamb and the Fuhrer by Ravi Zacharias - $9.34 at Amazon
• New Birth or Rebirth? by Ravi Zacharias - $9.59 at Amazon
  
• Sense and Sensuality by Ravi Zacharias - $10.25 at Amazon  
• The One Year Chronological Bible - hardcover edition $16.49 at Amazon  
  
• The Chronological Study Bible - hardcover edition $27.99 at Christian Book 

Dilbert Books

• 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box - $9.35 at Amazon
• Freedom's Just Another Word for People Finding Out You're Useless - $9.35 at Amazon Thanks!
• Try Rebooting Yourself - $9.34 at Amazon
• Cubes and Punishment - $11.55 at Amazon
• This Is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value - $9.35 at Amazon
• What Would Wally Do? - $11.53 at Amazon
  

Miscellany

• snow globe - preferably a nice one, containing a winter or Christmas scene of some sort
  

Things Not Inexpensive

• external Blu-ray drive DVD burner combo - Plextor PX-B310U BD-ROM/DVD Burner $159.99 at TigerDirect