Well, it was certainly an exciting week last week, wasn’t it? The poor teabaggers and wingnuts – they still hadn’t gotten over Benghazi (let alone Obama opening the borders to terrorists), were falling all over themselves to blame black folks for stepping in front of cops’ bullets (or getting their necks all tangled up in police officer’s arms) and then Obama decides to kowtow to Castro. On top of that, beloved American corporation Sony caves to North Korean terrorists (way to go, Obama) and liberal scourge Andy Cuomo is reluctantly forced to ban fracking (supposedly). And yesterday two NYC police officers were executed for basically being in the wrong place at the wrong time (ironic, perhaps, but horrifying and tragic nonetheless). Welcome to the holiday season.

Speaking of which, there’s much time left to get all your holiday shit together. I imagine lots of people are off this week. Or at least off for a long weekend next weekend. Not me, I’m afraid. I’m off on Thursday, but will be going to work on Friday (though, just between you and me, I’m not expecting a whole lot going on Friday, so I may just duck out a little early and if somebody tells me to leave early on Christmas Eve, I’ll be happy to do that, too).

In terms of snow, things are pretty white around here at the moment, but since the forecast is calling for warm weather and rain (it’s supposed to be in the 50s here on Xmas Eve, so I guess Santa can fly with the top down), it looks like a white Christmas will be something we can only dream about (though there may be some snow to deal with on the morning commute next Friday – not enough to worry about, especially since there’ll be light traffic and no school buses to deal with).

There was some talk of a nasty storm for Xmas Eve, though. Lots of wind and rain here in the East and snow for the Midwest. That could make travelling a royal pain in the ass for a lot of people. Thank goodness I’m not obligated to go anywhere – I can spend my time looking for ways to squander my steadily diminishing supply of money.

For instance, I have for some reason been coveting a rice cooker. Why? No idea. I mean, I can’t think of anything easier to cook than rice (maybe instant coffee or something). Throw the shit in water, boil it, and let it simmer until it’s done. Throw in whatever’s kicking around (garlic, onions, beans, maybe a fresh mouse or two).

I guess there are people who are very particular about their rice consistency and all that, but I sure aint. Fortunately, I think this obsession has passed, since we don’t really have enough counter space around here anyway (especially for the things I use). I’m now pricing out the parts to put together a media center computer to record live tv and serve video from “other” sources. But there’s no urgency there, and it may not even been something I need as I review the available options. Though a dedicated Plex server would be good.

Google has apparently figured out that my schedule now includes going to Costco on Saturday mornings, because yesterday it sent me an alert about the route and amount of time it would take me to get there. Mon thru Fri, Google lets me know how the traffic is for my ride to work in the morning, and sends me another alert before I leave for the day to let me know how long it’ll take me to get home. Sometimes I’ll search for an address on Google and get a notification later on about how long it’ll take me to get there (with the option to tell it I don’t really care so you can quite telling me that).

Some people might find that kind of creepy, and I suppose I did too, at first, until I realized I don’t actually care. Yeah, Google knows where I am (as does my wife, since we share our location information with each other – might come in handy if I drive into a ditch or something), so I guess if Google turns evil and decides to come and get me, it’ll be easy for them. And the NSA, I suppose, but if they wanted me, I’m pretty sure they’d know how to find me.

Good thing I’m pretty much the opposite of the most interesting man in the world (I mean, Dos Equis? No thanks).

I’m mostly waiting for the day when I can do a Google search for pizza and wings, and Google offer to let me pick where I wanna get it from, apply my gCoupon, charge my Google Wallet and dispatch the Google drone (or the Google self-driving car and delivery bot) to drop it at my current location.

I’d be happy to have my groceries delivered that way (those that aren’t already delivered by Amazon, anyway) and let the GCar drive me to work, too.

I only hope Google doesn’t get into the string cheese business, because gString Cheese sounds kinda gross (though if they want to sponsor a music act, gString Cheese Incident would be a good name).

Well, I guess I better get going because there’s a doggy here who insists that I keep petting her, and it’s very hard to type with one hand. Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.