It's Better in Wyoming.

new news is good news. in the case of the local newspaper, a new look for the website is a much-needed update. even better, there's actually a bit more news on their site--like maybe they're getting some feeds from AP or something. it would be even nicer if they'd post more of the local stories that they produce, but i guess that's asking a bit much. here's a sweet screen shot, yeah: one of the big improvements, i think, is the switch from a ridiculously bright blue that seemed sort of 1998. the sans serif font is okay, too, and so is the social networking effort. boomerang on twitter?! wow. welcome to the twenty-first century, old rag.

snowshoeing moose-sighting cowgirl victory (98-37!) club hockey victory (6-2, and just the right amount of gratuitous violence to keep the crowd happy) drinks at front street after the game

The iPad may not be the next big thing, but I think that when we look back in fifteen years, the device will serve as a marker leading towards a new world. It's part of the evolution (and not a revolution), I think, of the way we think about knowledge and about ownership. While the Kindle and sony readers have been good moves towards more comfortable onscreen reading, I think it's the iPad that will be the beginning of the end for print textbooks--because it will offer, I think, a form of interactivity that isn't as available on other readers. One big problem with on-screen reading has been, at least for me (and for lots of others, I think), an inability to take notes. If iPad can offer apps that allow for personalized ways to engage with texts, I think we can look forward to an exciting and scary shift towards new ways of encountering information, which means a shift in the way that knowledge gets made and remade. Since the laptop, most technological progress has bee...

Back story: Saturday Katie and I went snowshoeing on the Corner Mtn trail, then stopped off in Centennial on the way back to have some beers. We ended up sitting with Mark, Christie, and Yao and eating nachos and green chili pizza while we waited for John and Bryan to arrive. When they arrived, we went across the street to the fundraiser at the Trading Post and listened to a few hours of good music. Before I took off, John mentioned that he might make some soup Sunday and that he'd give me a call. Main story: When John mentioned that he might be making some soup yesterday, I thought he meant something like potato chowder or maybe some minestrone, which sounded pretty damn good. So that's what I had in mind while we were hanging out at the library watching the Saints/Vikings game last night. But when we got to their place, in fact I was met with a pot of pho. I haven't had much exposure to Vietnamese cuisine, and that limited experience hasn't been all that great. ...

News like this makes me sad that, sometimes, it really isn't any better in Wyoming than anywhere else in the world: " A 27-year-old Marine from Twentynine Palms, Calif., who prosecutors say arranged a brutal rape using Craigslist has been charged with five felonies in Wyoming. Jebidiah James Stipe made his initial appearance in Wyoming's Natrona County Circuit Court Tuesday. He's charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault and other crimes. Prosecutors say that on Dec. 5, Stipe posted an advertisement on the popular Internet site pretending to be a Casper woman he briefly dated. The ad asked for a 'real aggressive man with no concern for women' willing to carry out a rape fantasy. Prosecutors say Ty Oliver McDowell, a 26-year-old Mills, Wyo. resident, responded to the ad, and that Stipe gave him the woman's picture and an address." (Read the Casper Star-Tribune's full story here . )

A part of me feels like I should feel embarrassed that, after the plan to have a jam session tonight fell through, I've ended up home, cleaning house and getting shitfaced. But the other part of me is pretty happy that I've ended up "all alone /when being alone is all I really need." Tonight feels like one of those nights when it should be different but instead it is what it is and there's not much to do to change that. On the bright side, the walk down to the Alibi for another bottle of wine was really beautiful. It's a great night out there, and the random mix cd I put on, which I haven't listened to in years (no kidding), is surprisingly fitting for this night.

Just kidding. Apparently Wheatland needs to replace their "no place for hate" banners with some "the place for hate!" banners. Cuz if we can't count on our public schools to indoctrinate students into the status quo, who can we trust? Maybe Wheatland should consider approaching Fred Phelps about being their commencement speaker.

I decided, a good while ago, that maybe being a US Census worker might make for an interesting summer. In the meantime, I haven't done much to make this dream a reality; time's gone by, every once in a while I think I should look into a bit more, and then it rolls off the list of things to do. Until last week, when I called the regional office in Cheyenne to see if I'd missed my big chance to count heads. Turns out, I could take a test right here in Laramie, on Tuesday the 19th. So I signed up, put it on my calendar, and took a quick look at the practice test online. Here's a very quick sample of the type of question I might have expected on the Test: Sample question 13. Select the correct answer from the given choices. .41 + 21.4 + 6.3 + 280 = a) 48.49 b) 59.8 c) 308.11 4) 450 Yeah, I agree: not exactly rocket science. Still, the prospect of being sent out to rural Albany County to query some crazy independent survivalist with a pack of half-wild dogs and a .357 i...

today i rode with stephanie down to denver. she's got a baby shower to attend, and i've got cabin fever. usually i don't mind sticking around laramie most weekends, but lately i've needed an escape. the trip over christmas break to phoenix was great, but even there we mostly ended up sticking around my grandparents' house rather than getting out into the World. it's not like this trip is all that much excitement and buzz; right now i'm typing this at the corner bakery on the 16th st. mall and eating a sorta typical salad and drinking a cherry coke. not exactly cultural awakening, i admit. but still, there are big buildings and it's 60+ degrees out there and i went for a short walk along speer and colfax and i picked up a free copy of The Onion from a street stand and somehow all of this is fulfilling my need for something fresh and different. tonight maybe we'll end up at a show, or at a martini bar, or who knows. somehow the sense of possibi...

Wired News reports: "T o protest the use of the so-called Nacktscanner (naked scanner), members of the Pirate Party in Germany organized a “fleshmob” of people who stripped down to their skivvies last Sunday and converged on the Berlin-Tegel airport. ... There have been privacy and legal concerns raised about the invasive equipment, particularly because it’s unclear if the scanners would be able to detect explosives hidden in body cavities and would therefore likely provide only minimal security. ... The protesters marked their bodies with a number of messages such as, “Something to hide?” and “Be a good citizen — drop your pants."... Another woman dressed in a beige sweater and flesh-colored tights wears a sign reading “pixelated.” (To address privacy concerns, security officials say the scanners can be programed to produce a blurred, pixelated image of passengers to protect their modesty.)" Thought #1: Brilliant idea! Thought #2: Germany has a political party called ...

tonight I decided to take charge of the leaking toilet tank. shut off water. detached tank. discarded old washers. installed new washers and new gasket. decided to keep old 'bumpers' thinking they'd help keep me from overtightening things. put everything back together. old leak fixed! now a new leak around the gasket! i think the little bumpers create too much space so that the new sponge gasket doesn't get squashed down enough to create a good seal. a bit of tank water splashes out each time the toilet gets flushed. on the bright side, at least the leaks so far are tank leaks instead of toilet leaks. i'd much rather deal with clean leaking water than a leak that, ahem, someone's already taken a leak in. i predict: more plumbing adventure in the morning. i think i've got a couple of ideas about how to fix the problem, though, which makes me feel a little bit better about the whole process.

It was seventeen below when I checked The Weather Channel this morning, around nine o'clock. Last night the crawl-space temp got down to 32.4 degrees. This afternoon I moved a space heater into the crawl-space and set it at 35-ish. So far this winter, the temp has only dropped below that point three times, which means that the the heater should not get much of a workout (which in turn means that my electric bill will also not get much of a workout, which is okay by me). Looking at the alternatives (like heating and/or insulating the pipes), I think the space heater is a legitimate choice for the time being. Hopefully I can sleep better tonight than I did last night. On the bright side, the forecasted high for tomorrow is a balmy 24 degrees. Above zero!

since my new year's eve was so quiet, I didn't make any resolutions before heading off to bed. maybe i feel like i've reached a stand-off point between my Theoretical "Best" Self and my Actual Imperfect Self and so I'm not all that interested in declaring war anew on those saboteur habits in my life which prevent my Best Self from emerging victorious. plus, from year to year, my resolutions stay more or less the same. be more decisive. get up earlier and waste less time. acknowledge friends with more appreciation. make plans and follow through. actually, though, what i want is a truce--less conflict and complication and confusion and frustration that there's so much distance between my TBS and my AIS. just finding a way to embrace what it is , where it is , seems like a pretty decent goal for this point in my life. an example: my job. i find that when people ask if i like my job, it's relatively easy for me to get sucked into describing the ent...

Here are a couple of the great photos that Melissa took on last night's snowshoe outing. She dropped her camera, so that's condensation in the second photo giving the picture that surreal glow. Photo one is taken along the trail that runs parallel to Meadow Trail. This second picture was taken along the snowshoe trail that runs by the campground fence. Wow.

Except for one stubborn, minor, and (hopefully) easy-to-fix leak, I'm ready to put the bathroom project into the "finished" folder. I think it'll be a while before I really, really feel like the project is complete and solid, but in the meantime, here are some pictures that illustrate the major changes: Pre-November 2009: Post-December 2009: And here's a pic where you can see the new tile. All in all, I'm happy with the way it looks. I just hope that there aren't any problems with functionality. I don't want this to turn into another of those events where I make things worse rather than better. Seems like the past few years have brought enough of that type of experience.

By the time yesterday night rolled around, I wasn't really in the mood for people. So I decided to pass on David's event and instead picked up a pizza and some PBRs and stayed in watching tv until a new decade rolled around. I suppose that seems like a pretty pedestrian way to start a new year, and I felt a bit bad that I hadn't bothered to get out to appreciate a full moon on the last night of 2009. I made up for that tonight, though, by heading out with David and Melissa for some nearly-full-moon snowshoeing at Happy Jack, about two hours of remarkably great weather hiking through the woods. After a laid back day, the hike was a great way to rebuild some enthusiasm for all the potential of 2010. Bring it on!