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In honor of our winter weather, I am posting this video I took last year.

No, these were not my kids. We went sledding with some friends and their grandkids. Our kids were just the witnesses. I don’t know why he felt compelled to knock his sister off her sled.

No children were harmed during the making of this video.

Kids these days… don’t even know why the save icon is what it is…or even what is it..

For those of you who don’t know the cryptic image that appears in the save button: it is a floppy disk. That’s what we used to transfer files before USB was invented. And back when a 24k modem was impressive.

Floppy disk

Since no one uses those anymore, it is time to get rid of it. But when people save files, to what do they save them?

We need to find a new save icon, one that is independent of the medium. Like the open folder for opening a file – the file can be local, USB stick, internet, whatever. Let’s explore our options…

Hard drive
Too vague – no one sees the hard drive, so that’s not going to work.

Compact Disc
Not vague, but slightly outdated. When was the last time you saw someone save a file to a CD?

USB drive
Not vague, but not the usual destination. This is probably familiar to most people, but most of the time you’re saving locally. Plus it might throw off some less technically-aware people: “How can I save a file without my USB drive? Look, it wants me to save it to the USB thing…”

Life preserver
Hmm…interesting. Good connection to the concept of saving. Unfortunately, some programs already use this as their icon for help.

Cross
Perfect! An icon to clearly denote saving a file. And it will help evangelize the masses, right?

Based on the popularity existence of last year’s article predicting bowl games in haiku form, I present to you this year’s all-haiku bowl game predictions. Still America’s only all-haiku college football bowl game predictions.

These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.
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The Big Ten announced the names of the new divisions today, and they also unveiled the new logo. I would have been very surprised if they had used the logo I designed for them, since I don’t even know that I did that.

Reaction to the new division names and the logo has been fairly consistent – no one likes them. Well, no one other than Commissioner Delaney.

I agree with all the fans out there. The Big Ten would have been better off keeping the temporary names of X and O. The new names, Legends and Leaders, are way too cheesy. They are meaningless and therefore worthless.

They are meaningless in that the teams were arbitrarily assigned to one side or the other. There’s no reason why one team is a Legend as opposed to a Leader. The names can have meaning, but they were not used that way.

For instance, Michigan State is a Legend although they are the third most recent addition to the Big Ten.

And Michigan uses the word “Leaders” to describe itself in its fight song, but it is not in the Leaders division.
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There was a lot of snow-related happenings this weekend:

• The roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome collapsed, forcing a rescheduling of the NFL game that was to be held there.
• As of last night, which is several hours before the buses would start running, the local TV channel was reporting 81 schools / school districts were closed for Monday.
• I got to try my new snowthrower!

No pictures of the snowthrower in action, but it works. After I tested it on our driveway, I took a quick stroll (20 mph winds and below-freezing temperatures do not allow for leisurely strolls) down the driveway and took some pictures.

Our road – looks a lot like last year’s winter weather photo

Neighbor’s pine trees

Our apple tree

Nothing spectacular to report – no downed power lines or damaged buildings here. Just enjoying the scenery and preparing for the slow commute to work this morning.

Here are three random conversations that occurred around here recently:

Key Jokes

Alpha: What kind of key can’t open a lock?
Me: A monkey
Alpha: and a turkey and a donkey

…a little bit of time passes, during which time we have opened the box for a new puzzle…

Beta: What animal can’t open a puzzle?
Me: A monkey
Beta: No, a fish!

Well, he’s right about that.

Not Easily Deterred

Me: Beta, you can’t have a Tootsie Roll – you had one for dessert.
Beta: Okay, I’ll have a candy cane!

You’re not getting the point… or the candy cane either.

Pretty Sneaky

Beta: Whoever says potty talk first is out.
Alpha: Okay
Hey Alpha – how do you spell “pizza”?
P-I-Z-Z-A
What was the first letter?
P-
Potty talk! I win!

I was in the other room and overheard this one. If they knew I was listening they might not have played that game… or they might have just whispered it instead.

We have an extension cord that is meant for Christmas lights. It’s a foot-pedal switch, intended to save you the hassle of crawling behind or underneath a Christmas tree to plug or unplug the lights. It looks pretty close to this:

This year, we put Christmas lights around the railings of Beta’s bunk bed. It was a pain turning them on and off, however, because the best plug was behind Alpha’s dresser. I figured we could go buy another switchable extension cord and make life easier. But once we found out it was $7.49, we decided otherwise.

Then I went to a hardware-type store on the way home from work one day. I found this

and this

for a total of this

which is a savings of 33% off the pre-made switch. For $4.96, you too can make your own light switch extension cord. There was another switch that was almost a dollar cheaper, but it was the rotary kind that comes with lamps and is not as easy for little fingers to work. And for less than a dollar (that’s $3 less than the switch I used), you can just use a normal light switch. But then you really should have an enclosure (non-conducting and fire-resistant) and I didn’t want to get into that.

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