Frosty?

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show something frosty. A frosted window pane, a frosty mug of beer, a pet coming in from the cold -- if it's frosted, it's in. If it's not particularly frosty where you are, or you don't have any frost laden pictures in your archives: Fake being cold. Because that would be funny.

Well, I am somewhat frosty in that photo. I needed the sweater but haven't needed my gloves today. Outside my office the only cold place I know is my freezer. While I need the sweater inside (and occasionally the gloves) it is currently mind numbing 75° (at 2:15) in lovely Tuscaloosa. Only 17° above average. Yesterday we set a new record, official high was 78°. Whoopee! Really helps one get in the Christmas spirit.

Unfortunately all this warm weather (and the proceeding colder weather) means that the University hasn't turned the heat on in our building. My office is close to the air handlers, so it is extra-specially cold at this end of the building. I really hope the students living in the dorms have good blankets because we've had a light frost or two, already.

A couple odds and ends:

It takes a some kind of genius to not only write a really funny chapter long fart joke but make that fart joke the cause of an interspecies (& interplanetary) diplomatic incident. Thank you John Scalzi.

Is there a free music program that will allow you to balance to recording levels? I have several CDs that are recorded quieter than most and when I try to make a mixed playlist or CD* those songs are soft while the rest are just right (or just right while the others are really loud). I could do this on my old tape deck when making a tape of a CD.

This was suppose to be my submission for last week's MPS:


The odd man out could be either the African violet not in bloom in front or the philodendron behind the violets.

Untangle, The Consumerist is not porn. Please stop blocking it.

*That’s right RIAA, I rip CDs I own and burn mixes. Deal with it. It is bullshit that you say it is illegal to rip a CD. If a software company tried to sue someone for making a backup copy of software, they’d be laughed out of court. It's not quite the same thing but close. The main reason I've ripped most of my CDs and burned a copy is I don't want to carry around the $17 originals in the car and back and forth to the office. I'd much rather scratch up the 17¢ copy. (I have had a CD "explode" in a computer; it almost certainly had a flaw on it that I'd not noticed.) Hopefully, I'm not inviting a lawsuit with that comment.