Yea, so as Nai says, it doesn’t so much look like bacon. Rather a parity of bacon. Which when used as a cat collar could solve all your bacon-cat attachment issues. Buckles, the wave of the future.

I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything, but seriously Winter this relationship is over. You’ve got to stop bothering me with your snowy visits and chilly touches.

Yea sure, we had some good times. Telemarking this year was great and you made all that possible. I really enjoyed the cross country skiing too. And for that I have you to thank. But we’re getting to the point where those fond memories are really starting to lose their appeal because you’re stuck in this rut and I’ve moved on.

Spring is my new main squeeze. She’s warm where you’re frigid. She’s got flowers, cuddles and sprouting seeds where you’re just getting tired and worn out. Seriously you’ve got nothing on Spring, and Winter the fact that you keep showing up at my door step is making it really difficult for me to carry on a normal, productive and happy human existance.

So, if it helps, it’s not you it’s me. Ok? You need to consider your options because you’re no longer welcome here. Move on, find a new person who’ll love you, make you happy, and enjoy you because of who and what you are. But we’re done. It’s starting to feel like you’re stalking me and that’s just creepy.

Ok, so understandably this will only have an affect a certain sub-section of the Sci-Fi writing population, but here it is. Today The Planetary Society announced the Catalog of Exoplanets. This is actually a really interesting idea for those writers out there challenged with concocting a plausible solar system light years away from our local Sol centered system. Even better, these aren’t just plausible they’re actually whole planetary systems which have been observed. No more stabbing in the dark unless you really want to.

Tonight I’m bouncing around the chilly northern boroughs of Seattle marking time anyplace I can find that’s warm, has the potential for possible people watching, or might provide reasonable lighting so I can read the novel I picked up earlier today. There is a heavy and wet layer of snow covering the streets outside the coffee shop I’m currently inhabiting right now. Earlier there was lighting striking nearby and the air is just plain, ridiculously cold.

There are some interesting character sketches developing all around me. A woman knitting almost frantically in a comfy leather chair who periodically stops what she’s about, not to sip more caffeine, but rather to flip open her cell phone for a moment. An older guy sitting across from her who rode a bike here wondering how he is going to ride home I’d guess.

Two women talking about other people in their lives, the gist of which I am entirely missing. The one in the vest with the shorter hair keeps looking my direction as I might be gaining important information from their conversation despite my attempts to demonstrate my disinterest.

A couple who are dressed, if not the nines, at least to the eights, with fingers intertwined peering deeply into each other’s eyes, talking for a moment and looking around the room. She likes to toss her curly blond hair and he’s lost most of what ever color hair he might have once possesed. I’d like to welcome them to their 30-somethings, but I doubt that would win me many kudos.

Another woman alone in a corner picks absentmindedly at her nose.

There is a community of people here; I’m not certain how deep it actually is. Who knows who and how well. Maybe it’s just a coat of paint applied in the shade of a community? I can’t tell, knowing no one and not, for the moment, possessing the motivation to bridge this social void I am certainly isolated outside the possibility of inclusion.

Two dark haired beauties are searching for a place to plug their laptops in. I must be threatening, more than I imagine anyways, because instead of choosing the larger table beside me with ample access to many plugs they cram onto a smaller table betwixt two pair of lovers who exchange their ideas with one another with exaggerated interest, gesturing and huge smiles. Now these women have to figure out how they’re going to run their power cords behind and underneath one or both of these couples and I wish I could laugh. Best not, they might get the impression that I am actually threatening.

Back to the people watching.

Tess just stormed into the office with a sincere scowl on her face and said “MATT!” I know I’m trouble now because there was an “!” behind my name visible in the air after she said it. “In this house there is an unwritten rule.”

I looked at her submissively and inquired, “Put down the seat?”

“No that’s one, but there’s another one. Possibly more important.”

It turns out there is an unwritten household rule to always replace a cold beer in the fridge after you’ve taken one. This makes sense, and I’d be happy to comply. There is the problem of my very limited memory. Thus I have concocted the following list of formerly unwritten household rules. Please feel free to add.

• Always replace the beer you just took from the fridge with another one so the next person will have a cold one at hand when they desire.
• Put the lid down.
• Remember the months associated with loved one’s Birthdays. Better remember the *exact date* if you can.
• “Piles of stuff” are not an organizational unit.
• Read your snail mail sometime before the paper degrades from the acids used to bleach it years ago.
• It’s the cat’s chair.
• If someone is going to take a bath clear your bladder before you must interrupt their cozy warm and wet fun.
• Never ask Dad for help choosing colors.
• There’s always room for more Ska in the collection.
• The sooner the walk is shoveled the easier it will be to shovel.
• Recreational digging is not allowed in garden beds.
• There is a calculus of dirt collection in any house, however if you spend your time measuring the rate the crap collects you’ll never get your room clean.

I started messing around rendering a few design ideas of a utility/modular velomobiles. In the past I’ve done this work all by hand because I haven’t known enough about any variety of software. Tonight however, I began messing around with Google’s SketchUp 7 and was actually able to make some immediate progress. Still learning how to make the tool render what I want to see, but measureable progress has been made.

Don’t hold your breath, but I’m upgrading WordPress and changing the theme a bit.

It is important to note that “hot air” (HA) still makes up a significantly larger portion of the total workplace atmosphere than does “rainbow farts” (RF). And while scientists will argue the details of the recent increase of RF emissions, the stability of our ecosystem is still largely jeopardized by inherent (HA) content.

Last Wednesday I visited a Mexican food joint with Dave Norwood in Matawa, WA. It was good! I’ve spent the day crawling under my house running CAT5 cable and extending the hard line network in my house. The call of sweet fajitas and tasty brew is echoing through my conscience. A man must have his heart’s desire.