Gotta love Chicago weather. Right now it's -18°C outside, which is the point where Chicagoans are allowed to complain about the cold without looking wimpy. It builds character. And I do have to get to my office, but you know? I don't want to go out there. Even Parker lasted just long enough to do his business before sprinting back to the door like his tail was on fire. (Of course, that could have been about breakfast and not about the cold.)
But this being Chicago, the forecast calls for 10°C weather on Saturday. A 28°C rise in two days? Heck, I've seen that happen in two hours...
I noticed as I was leaving the office Monday that my cactus changed:
I guess it's a happy cactus after all. They're so hard to read, you know.
Now London—and officially, the enitre world, as it's now midnight UTC.
Happy New Year to everyone in Greece, Israel, and South Africa!
Via Marc Andreesen (yes, the Marc Andreesen), from Variety:
[O]verall music [CD] sales during the Christmas shopping season were down an astounding 21% from last year. From the week of Thanksgiving up through the day before Christmas Eve, 83.9 million albums were sold, a decrease of 21.38 million from 2006's 105.28 million.
It's important to realize, as the RIAA simply can't grasp, this has nothing to do with piracy. Suing people isn't the answer; getting a clue and selling over the Web is.
Via Paul Krugman, I've been reading the Calculated Risk blog for a while. They write about finance and economics, from the perspective of a retired senior public-company executive. Very good stuff, and very frightening.
...It's 2008 in Katunayake.
Happy New Year!
Tonga is almost the west-most place on earth, at least by time zone, so they entered 2008 almost 4 hours ago. New Caledonia, New Zealand, Fiji, and most of Australia have also gotten to next year ahead of us. The Koreas, Japan and Singapore are up in 10 minutes.
Updates throughout the day, or until someone makes me stop...
A priest, a rabbi, and a giraffe walk into a bar.
Bartender says, "Is this some kind of joke?"