John is no longer friends with [Facebook User].

OK, it doesn't really say that. But, it probably should...

Dear [ex-friend]... So thanks for being my Facebook Friend for the past few weeks. I've read your statuses (sorry you are feeling so sick - TMI BTW), and looked at your profile. I've looked at all your pictures of vacations, relatives, and your dog. I've taken your quizzes and licked your lollipop. I've been hit by your virtual food fight, drunk your virtual drinks, and your virtual coffees. It's all good. I mean - it's not you, it's me... and I am pretty sure you're just not that into me either. After all, we really don't know each other. We've never met and live thousands of miles apart... I am pretty sure the only things we have in common are Facebook, and the fact that I once saw a dog like yours. So, don't take this the wrong way, but you're clogging up my friends list and my status feed and I think its time we broke it off. You're just not adding any value to my FB experience. We're both adults (if your age on your profile is actually true) so I think we can safely move on with our digital lives now.

It's been fun, so have a nice life. And, if you really really need to be my friend, you know where to find me. Right here, trapped - in Facebook.

OK so there is a 78% chance that Facebook may actually be evil. Since I discovered it last fall, it has been consuming a lot of my free time... The games that integrate into the platform are engineered in such a way that they compel people to hit the 'book frequently, and invite others to do the same. It's kind of like Second Life, only in First Life. I gave up on L2 because it just didn't have any *real* attraction. Everything was phony and left solely to the author's imagination. I just think real life is so much more interesting... With my friends and family, coworkers, people I used to know, and the odd folks around the world who play the online games with me on my profile, there is a never-ending stream of useless, but interesting commentary and (sometimes personal) information. FB is a soap opera of epic proportions. Hence, returning back to my original statement, evil... Not that soap operas are evil. With the amount of social engineering that has gone into the development of FB, who is to say how the company or the developers or (someone else) may be able to subvert it for nefarious purposes... Subtle changes may go largely unnoticed by the sheepish masses who comment on my photos, send me virtual drinks, and click on my lollipop. What then will we do when faced with an evil empire we actually helped to build? This may be just another instance of SOCIETY ADAPTS TO TECHNOLOGY: FAIL. Your mileage may vary: [YMMV].

This afternoon my son spotted another bobcat in the back yard, at the edge of the 10 acre wood behind our house. He is standing to the left of the log, in case you are having trouble spotting him... he blends in pretty well. We have seen these before, but it's fairly rare, and tough to get a decent photo. My wife did manage to take a few today though. He looks to be about 18" tall and about 26" long, by comparison to the log he's standing beside. Not even sure if it's a he really... We get all kinds of critters here in the suburban outback of Redmond. Haven't seen a bear or a cougar yet, but I think we got pretty much everything else.

I wonder if I got him a hammer if he'd finish the treehouse for me...

1lb chicken, skin, bone, and fat removed
1 1/2 c sliced carrots (or more)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/2 c rice wine
3 c water (or vegetable broth)
21-spice top secret seasoning mix (Trader Joe's 21 seasoning salute)
1/4 c Yoshida's gourmet sauce (or just soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar)
1/8 c sesame oil

Combine all ingredients in deep pan and cook on high heat until all liquid has evaporated and chicken is cooked and golden brown. Stir almost continuously. Serve with rice. Chicken frozen? no problem... just add another cup of water.

NOTE: Kids WILL eat this! (at least my picky 5-year-old will...)

I am vista.
Watch me die.
In shades of blue and white,
what you were doing -
is no more.

BLARGH.

It is currently snowing, has been since 6PM. We have exactly one inch accumulation, which means that all Seattle-area drivers will be totally paralyzed and abandon their cars in the middle of the road (again). It's likely we'll get a bit more accumulation here since it's still coming down...

be sure to check out the real-time weather here at Weather.Boal.Net to see the latest charts for temperature, precipitation, and statistical data for year-to-date.

We did see a small doe black-tail dear in the back yard earlier today as well (note the lack of white stuff covering everything). She just went about her business munching on the plants and then walked off into the forest. Such is the life of a dear apparently.

2009 is off to a bang-up start.
Cheers!

After almost 10 days of snow (ending on the day after Christmas), the snow is mostly melted off now. There's still a couple inches on the back deck (down from 12" accumulation). In all I think the total snowfall was around 18" at my place - not much considering some of the surrounding areas got three times what we did. So I'm not complaining... Michele only got her car stuck twice on our own driveway... For next winter I think I am gonna have to check into a snow plow that attaches to my lawn tractor I think, if only just to clear my loooooong driveway.

Finally today I was able to get the BMW out of the garage and on the road again. I cleared enough of the snow and ice off the driveway and the rest has pretty much melted off. There is still some snow around on the ground and on the road up my hill but it's not a problem any more. Feels nice to drive my car for once rather than the big giant truck... However, the truck did very well in the snow for me for the last couple weeks. There were only a couple days I think that it couldn't have coped with the snowfall, but I had tendonitis in my foot and couldn't hardly walk anyway those days. It's been nice to have the snow but after a couple weeks the charm wears off. So many of the stores' shelves are bare around town because people stocked up and new deliveries are backed up or can't get over the pass it seems.

It's been above freezing since before Christmas eve, but not too far. So, the snow is slowly melting - which is good since we don't want to get flooded again like '96 when we had two feet of snow and then a warm heavy rain... Now the winds are supposed to be back. Today the winds were whipping quite a lot, so am not looking forward to the predicted storms for the 30th and the first of the year. Having the power out for a couple hours on Christmas day was kind of a drag. But now I guess if I have to fire up the generator again at least I won't have to trudge through a foot of snow just to get to it. And it could probably use new fuel with Stabil and a tune-up anyway also. Fortunately the power was only out a couple of hours and I didn't have to drag the second gen out to the well house through the snow to power the water pump. We'll see what happens with the weather this week...