Posts Tagged wisconsin
Attack of the lady beetles
Posted by Alex in Alex's Thoughts on October 21, 2009
It’s that time of year here in southeast Wisconsin. We’re in mid-October, which means the asian lady beetles are a-swarming. If you don’t know the difference between ladybugs and lady beetles, lady beetles are basically ladybugs except they’re orange instead of red. Oh, and they’re huge dicks that will bite the shit out of you if you give them the opportunity. Their bites aren’t particularly harmful to humans, but holy hell it’s annoying.
Do you remember that hilarious story a little while ago, where some fools tried to mug some pretty gals in short skirts and tube tops, but the gals turned out to be guys in drag? Cage fighters in drag to be more specific, who proceeded to destroy the wannabe thugs? Yeah, these orange bastards are basically those cage fighters and we’re the thugs.
I wouldn’t really care about them too much if they stayed outside, but they always manage to find a way into the house. Gaps in doorframes, through ventilation ducts, anything. I’m lucky in that if they come through the front door, they have another set of doors they need to find their way through. I live in a duplex with a pretty beefy foyer, so they’re stuck there for now. Pictures of the rat bastards are at the bottom of this post.
I had one manage to get into my office here the other night before the swarms rolled in, but I haven’t seen any others yet. I think he was just an omen. A herald of what was to come, riding a white stallion and blowing a trumpet of conquest, summoning the dogs of war to cleanse this world of sin and heresy with pestilence and flame.
Hopefully their crusade stays out of my bedroom. That would be nice.
Of Spring and Kindles!
Posted by Alex in Alex's Thoughts on March 11, 2009
It’s vaguely warm outside! I’m excited! Can you tell!? I’m using exclamation points! How delightful!
No, really. It was in the low 60s today in Milwaukee, which is absolutely beautiful compared to the winter we just had. The last few days have been full of freezing rain (hooray ice-coated sidewalks) and in the upper 20s, so the warmth today was completely unexpected. I bundled up to walk to the store and pick up some soda (Dr. Pepper, if you must know). I was wearing a winter coat and hat, and borrowed my girlfriend’s scarf because breathing cold air triggers my asthma in a bad way. I didn’t really notice the temperature until I was about halfway there and it was too late to just toss my coat and all back into the house. I’m pretty sure I died of a heat stroke at least three times on the way there and back.
Of course, this pleasant weather isn’t going to stick around. It’s only March, and this is Wisconsin. It’s supposed to storm tonight, and my fancy iGoogle homepage says that it’s going to be back down in the 20s for the next couple of days. That sounds about right for the Northern Midwest around this time of year. We’ll have another day in the 60s next week, then it’ll drop down again. The pattern will continue until June, when it shoots up to the 80s with a constant 95-100% humidity until October, when it will immediately plummet into the 40s.
In completely unrelated news, I’ve been considering picking up a Kindle. Well, a Kindle 2, which they released at the end of February. I like the concept of being able to have this futuristic datapad around that I can pick up in the morning and read the newspaper on, or my favorite blogs, or some books, or whatever I want. Instead of going outside to pick up a paper, the thing is already sitting on my coffee table. That’s pretty sweet.
What isn’t sweet is the fact that a Kindle will run me nearly $400. There is very little that is worth $400 to me. A Kindle is not one of those things, not by a long shot. It doesn’t help that their ebooks aren’t much cheaper than actual books. Essentially, the $400 you’re paying is the price of covenience. Is not needing to go to Borders once in awhile worth $400 to me, considering I can have the newspaper sent to my front door every morning anyway if I wanted? Absolutely not. Especially since Borders is where I indulge in my addiction to Chai Tea/Lattes.
Another thing that counts against the Kindle is the fact that I don’t yet have an iPhone. Not only does the iPhone have a Kindle app, but it’s also far more useful an a whole lot of other ways. The only issue with getting an iPhone is I need to cut my contract with US Cellular short. US Cellular is terrible. Terrible. My phone didn’t even come with any games, or the ability to download games. What kind of phone doesn’t come with games, or let you add games? Useless ones.
It’d cost me $150 to break off my US Cellular contract, which I will most certainly do… eventually. Not right now because I need to cough up roughly $3,500 in taxes in the next couple of months, but sooner or later I’m going to take the dive and get an iPhone. It’ll be really fantastic for work-related things, too. Not being able to check my e-mail or check up on the site when I’m out of the house drives me crazy. It really has reached the point where if I’m not plugged in constantly, I get the jitters. Purely work-related, too. I don’t worry about my leisure activities at all if I’m at the store or whatever, but work? Oh hell yes. I hate not knowing what’s going on at every waking moment. An iPhone will help me dramatically. My laptop really didn’t cut it, though it is nice having a computer in two rooms! Yeah, I’m hopeless. When do I get to put a computer directly into my brain? Or maybe I could have a pair of glasses with a computer in them that I manipulate with my eyeballs. That would be sweet and solve a lot of my problems.