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Today is a historic day, the first day ever that Wright State has declared a snow day! Okay perhaps not the first day ever but almost the first day in living memory. Everyone who's ever gone to Wright State has told me they never have snow days. And certainly the Wright State powers-that-be didn't want to follow Sinclair's lead and declare a snow day last night, instead waiting until 5:30-something this morning. Well I set my alarm for 6 AM, got up, confirmed that it was a snow day, and went back to bed.
 
There's certainly a lot of snow and ice out there. While I like getting out a little (see below), I love being able to stay home and have a nice fire! |
  
Last fall I embarked on what I later thought had turned out to be a failed experiment. I'm no master gardener but I do grow tomatoes out back by my garage each year. When I had to dig up the tomato plants for winter, I thought to myself, why couldn't I grow tomatoes inside? So I put some seeds in a pot and put the pot in my kitchen window along side my other plants (nothing fancy, just some flowers I rescued from the hanging baskets on my deck at the same time and a cactus).
Sure enough the tomato seeds sprouted and grew into little plants which grew and grew. Alas, no tomatoes. I figured the plants didn't get enough sun and warmth in a garden window in the middle of winter. But today, after the winter's worst storm, lo and behold, a tomato! Probably not enough to call the experiment a success but still a fun sign of spring. And I like my petunias too. |
Most of the web sites out there offering something for nothing really are offering nothing for nothing and often don't last very long. Most people coming across an ad for Qool.com probably would have figured it as that kind of site. It offered books and videotapes and t-shirts free -- all you had to do was visit the site each day to earn "Qoolcoins" which you could then use to bid on stuff being auctioned on the site.
I don't remember how I heard of the site, but I did check it out a year or two ago. In addition to books and videos and t-shirts (none of which interested me), they also had magazine subscriptions, including to gay-oriented titles such as Advocate and Out. So I  clicked and bid and clicked and bid and won some auctions, and they didn't ask for a credit card number or anything, and I actually started getting the magazines in the mail!
One of the best deals I got was a subscription to the Financial Times. Apparently not many other qool.commers were interested in such a serious newspaper because it was fairly easy to win auctions for it. Each auction was for a year's subscription, which would cost $149 otherwise ($99 for students). So I'll be getting the FT for free until almost the end of 2006. Sadly, nothing lasts forever, something you don't necessarily remember when you're winning extensions to your FT subscription. The qool.com web site stopped working altogether last week, and although the main page did come back, it's just got a message saying "We are currently undergoing construction on our site in order to serve you better." I'm guessing I'll have to find a way to pay for my subscriptions myself when they run out. |
My office mate and fellow COM101 TA Jessica likes to eat grapefruit but does not like to have her picture taken. |
  
Of course I realize I'm late on this but I just haven't gotten around to getting my duct tape and plastic sheeting together yet.
With the Department of Homeland Security telling us the threat of a terrorist attack is high (of course, the threat of rain somewhere in the United States sometime in the future is high too), we all need to do our part to prepare. The official guidelines really do recommend that we "[s]eal all windows, doors and air vents with plastic sheeting and duct tape [and] [c]onsider measuring and cutting the sheeting in advance to save time." Are you ready? |
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