Wish List 2011 - New Fridge Edition

For those interested, here's my birthday/Christmas 2011 wish list. Be sure to check back here often, as I will update it through the remainder of 2011.

UPDATES

• 11/27/11 - added items under "Miscellany"
• 12/18/11 - crossed off some things, added music (audio CD)
• 12/26/11 - crossed off more things
• 1/2/12 - ditto

Things I Always Enjoy

These are not in any particular order.

• chocolate chip cookies, soft & chewy, with walnuts  Thanks!
• gift cards: Barnes & Noble, any restaurant (so I can go out with my wife)
• cheese puffs (not crunchy ones)
• summer sausage + sharp cheddar cheese + flavorful crackers Thanks!
• flavored coffees... sampler sizes are okay (e.g. 1.5 oz packages)... especially seasonal or holiday flavors Thanks!
• instant cappuccino mixes of various flavors
• mixed nuts (NO peanuts) Thanks!
• bagel shop bagels with appropriately-flavored cream cheese... I especially like cheddar jalapeño bagels
• M&Ms
• Reese's Pieces Thanks!

Things I Would Like

Within each section, items ARE in order.

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

• The A-Team (unrated extended cut) $14.99 at Amazon  Thanks!
• Robin Hood (two-disc unrated director's cut with Russell Crowe) $16.50 at Amazon  Thanks!
• Sherlock Holmes (widescreen) $10.99 at Amazon   Thanks!
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy extended edition on Blu-Ray: $49.99 at Amazon 
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - 2-disc deluxe edition (widescreen) $14.14 at Amazon 
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (single-disc edition) $4.99 at Amazon
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2-disc Blue-Ray & DVD): $19.99 at Amazon 
• Thor (2-disc Blue-Ray & DVD): $19.99 at Amazon
• The Bourne Ultimatum (widescreen edition) $9.49 at Amazon  Thanks!
• An American Carol - $8.99 at Amazon
• Dilbert - The Complete Series - $18.49 at Amazon
• The Office: Overtime (Digital Shorts Collection) $7.49 at Amazon
• Up - Blu-Ray 4 disc $30.99 at Amazon 

Video Games

• 24: The Game for PS2 - $20.87 at Amazon
• Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures for PS2 - $19.99 at Amazon

Music on CD

• Mannheim Steamroller: Christmas Symphony: $11.88 at Amazon  Thanks!
• Andrea Bocelli: My Christmas: $12.85 at Amazon
• A Midwinter Night's Dream by Loreena McKennitt $13.26 at Amazon
• An Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt $16.16 at Amazon
• Nights from the Alhambra - (2 CD + DVD) by Loreena McKennitt $61.77 at Amazon
• A Mediterranean Odyssey by Loreena McKennitt $12.99 at Amazon
• The Wind That Shakes The Barley by Loreena McKennitt $11.99 at Amazon
• Michael Buble Christmas - Target Exclusive edition $16.99 ONLY at Target (NOTE: This "Target Exclusive" version contains extra songs not on the regular CD that's available everywhere)
• Christmas Songs by Anuna $8.99 at Amazon

Books

• New Birth or Rebirth? by Ravi Zacharias - $10.19 at Amazon (paperback would be okay)
• Sense and Sensuality by Ravi Zacharias - $9.98 at Amazon (paperback would be okay)
• The Chronological Study Bible - hardcover edition $24.49 at Christian Book

Dilbert Books

• 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box - $10.39 at Amazon  Thanks!
• Try Rebooting Yourself - $9.84 at Amazon
• Cubes and Punishment - $12.87 at Amazon
• This Is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value - $9.84 at Amazon
• What Would Wally Do? - $12.71 at Amazon
• I'm Tempted to Stop Acting Randomly - $10.18 at Amazon  Thanks!
• Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution - $11.55 at Amazon  Thanks!

Miscellany

• snow globe - preferably a nice one, containing a winter or Christmas scene of some sort  Thanks!
• jar candles - peppermint, pine/evergreen/Christmas tree, apple cider, pumpkin pie/pumpkin spice
• Star Trek Warp Speed travel mug - $6.99 at StarTrek.com 
• Star Trek Command stainless steel travel mug - $15.99 at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek Klingon Cloaking Ship mug - $14.99 at StarTrek.com
  

Things Not Inexpensive

• Asus Transformer table at Best Buy's Black Friday Door Buster sales for $249 ($150 off... it's like an Apple iPad, except better) + keyboard docking station for an additional $100 ($50 off)
• Sony PS3 gaming console - $250 for regular 160GB model

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

"Fight of the Century" is the new economics hip-hop music video by John Papola and Russ Roberts at http://EconStories.tv.. It is really really good... it depicts the core differences between the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek (known for the book The Road to Serfdom).



And here's a Q&A with Russ Roberts from Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie.

Blizzard of 2011

Tuesday overnight (2/01/11) a blizzard hit our region. We received 12" - 16" of new snow.

That evening I was out driving around for a little bit. My car nearly got stuck leaving a subdivision. And the high wind gusts made it difficult to determine whether there was oncoming traffic when I was trying to get out. But it all worked out okay.

Later I went to a store to get milk, etc. Amazing how empty stores get once a blizzard has started!

Next morning, we woke up to discover over a foot of new snow. SNOW DAY! Except for Sarah, who really needed to go in to work. Unfortunately, the van got stuck in the snow on the road in front of our driveway... just too deep. But we got the van back up the driveway okay.

The county plowed our road around mid-afternoon. Sarah was finally able to leave for work! I left after her to clear my parents' driveway. Their little snowblower valiantly removed lots of snow from their driveway!

driveway, with lots of snow

ducks' creek is starting to freeze

bush with snow

Coffee + Energy Drink = Awesome

I generally dislike so-called energy drinks, such as Red Bull, for two reasons:

1) they all have a weird taste (maybe from taurine?), and
2) they're super expensive.

Yesterday morning on my drive to work I picked up a Java Monster Nut-Up. It was tasty!

Java Monster is Monster's coffee-based line of beverages, tasting like coffee with sweetener and cream plus extra flavoring and Monster's special "energy blend". The Nut-Up tastes like it has hazelnut flavoring. Monster is pretty vague about how much caffeine is in a can, but several web sites claim it is 160mg for a 16oz can (which is what I had). It tastes good, and is good for you!

Before you get too excited about that caffeine content, just remember that 16oz of brewed coffee, if brewed pretty strong (like how I usually make it), could surpass that amount.

Anyway... I definitely liked it. But it's still much too expensive ($2.50). For me, it's priced as a luxury... if it were between $1.00 and $1.50 I'd probably buy it more often.

My daily Bible reading is currently going through the Book of Job. Very interesting. One can really sense Job's frustration at not understanding why God had brought all these calamities into his life when he believed he'd all along lived as God had wanted him to live. His friends' general lack of encouragement adds to Job's frustrations. Here's an example exchange:

Job's friends: Job, just confess to whatever horrible thing you did and God will restore you.
Job: But I didn't do anything wrong!
Job's friends: Whatever.

UPDATE: Yes, I know that "energy" is misspelled in the link for this post. I corrected the spelling in the title, though.

Happy Birthday!

On Sunday, most of late morning and afternoon large snowflakes fell from the sky. Not much accumulation, though it was nice watching the snow fall.

Dan Seaborn spoke in church that morning, talking about how easily we see the "fixable" flaws in others while ignoring the flaws in our own lives that we ought to be working on. But how can we change? We need wisdom from God. But we might doubt it'll work because a) we're human, b) we believe God's let us down before, c) people have let us down, or d) when we ask God for help, we already know what the best solution is. (Or so we believe.) Wisdom (application of knowledge) can come from time along with God/the Bible, others (we need to be willing to ask for wisdom, and willing to listen), or from our observations of life.

Sarah and I got lunch from Subway. I got their limited-time pastrami.  So, so good.

Tim was unsuccessful in his attempt to cut off part of his finger while slicing bread. Sometimes it's good to fail. :)

Later that evening, I attended the next meeting of a creation writing fellowship committee. Very interesting, though due at least to weather, only three total people showed up. Dave gave a presentation of his views of how chance possibly plays a part in God's design.

The roads were delightfully icy this morning, at least in Holland and Zeeland. I almost slid through a "T" intersection near our house. Glad I have anti-lock brakes!

Sarah holding co-worker's baby

After supper, Sarah and I visited her co-worker... she'd just given birth to her daughter earlier in the day. As you can tell from the picture, Sarah loves holding babies. :)