Immense Pain

I have mentioned that this state isn't fit for human habitation. Yesterday refreshed my memory why. Just when you think it's safe for spring to come, we get another nasty snowstorm with more on the way for tonight and tomorrow. We lost probably six inches of snow out of our snowpack last week and it's now worse than it was before. I still have two to three feet in the backyard. What a mess. Our current PIP rating (that's the Pain In the Posterior index used by the Pio Press) is up to 31, which, hence the title today, corresponds to "immense pain." By the way, I have a Weather Channel magnet on the bottom of this page for those who want a local weather report. I know no one ever goes down that far. My mom is my biggest fan, and she didn't know about it until I told her. The Twin Cities have now recorded 72 inches of snowfall this winter, which puts this winter as the 10th snowiest on record here. Yuck.

Meanwhile, in the Big Leagues, Spring Training is underway. I note that Portland is looking hard at getting a team (third-to-last item), or rather, Paul Allen is. He has more money than God, so I have no doubt that if he really wants a team he'll get one. It looks like he's already beginning to buy off the Oregon Legislature to divert $150 million of lottery revenue towards a new stadium. That's great. As far as most Minnesotans seem to be concerned, he can just have the Twins, as long as they just quit whining about a stadium. I voted for the stadium proposal last time, but that was entirely out of enlightened self interest. The stadium proposal on the ballot then was probably going to be about a mile away from my house, so I figured my property values would jump if it won. It lost. The latest corporate welfare plan will attempt to get us to pony up cash for a Twins stadium in downtown St. Paul, so I probably won't support it. Besides, the odds of getting a stadium referendum passed here is slim to none. How can you support baseball in a dome, anyway? If it's a retractable roof, maybe; but that would be expensive.

Updates, site news, links

I'm really behind on some basic updates. Such as the "MNBLOG" section. I got pointed at Ian Whitney's Minnesota blog list and it has at least 8 blogs I have yet to list. Ouch. Also, I was planning on putting back in the discuss feature that went the way of the dodo awhile back. Crap.

Priceless. I am not the first (or even second, Toast boy) to find the D&D Jack Chick tract. In this link, the author adds snarky comments every frame or so to make fun of it.

OK, I played Dungeons and Dragons back in 7th grade and we never had hot brunettes for the Dungeon Masters. In addition, the complexions of these players are remarkably clear for your average D&D player. Something evil definitely is afoot here. In fact, I'd challenge anyone to prove they played a D&D game with even 1 girl at the table, let alone 4.

Very very funny. One of the things I'll always remember about D and D is the original set in the box. (That is, not ADVANCED Dungeons and Dragons). There's a portion there where a cleric turns some sort of undead creature by saying "Begone, evil filth!" My mom overheard this, misheard it as "vile filth" and it instantly became her single favorite pejorative. To this day, if you irritate her, she will refer to you as a vile filth and sometimes she'll even tell you to begone. In her defense, she uses this in a less than serious manner almost all the time, but as you can tell, I come by my geekiness honestly. Link via LMG.

Here's a cool link for ya: Space Food. This site looks at the various things that were supposed to become the Food of the Future, like food pills and Beef-in-a-tube. Sure, they're terribly efficient ways to deliver nutrition, but they taste so bad. Maybe that's why…

Astronaut John W. Young (left) decided to avoid the atrocious offerings altogether, smuggling a corned beef sandwich aboard the five-hour Gemini 3 flight on March 23, 1965. Consumed by his partner Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, the contraband sandwich resulted in a Congressional investigation and the first official reprimand of an astronaut.

This is a section of the Retrofuture site, found via Boing Boing.

Finally, to note a bit of Link Love, as is the term for those who link you; This Boy is Toast says very nice things about us, and Weird Links has featured Hobbsblog II near the top of his link list, although it's inexplicably listed as Hobb's Blog. Amusing. (Hobb must be my evil twin; he comes out at night and adds LAPIs when I'm not looking to make this look more like an E/N site. )