Random New Years Thoughts
1. French press coffee makers really do make better coffee. Apparently, the key is that the paper filter in drip makers catch all the oils from the coffee beans and this oil is what gives coffee it's aroma and flavor. French press makers retain these oils instead of trapping them in a paper filter. And they're cheaper. And they're really simple. Good Christmas gift.
2. Heavy gauge guitar strings rock. I've played 9's all my life. Switched to 10's this summer. Switched to 11's two days ago. They sound better, stay in tune better and, while slightly harder to bend, are actually easier to play in tune than floppy light strings. Plus, you feel like Superman if you get used to 11's and pick up a guitar with 9's.
3. It's cold in Minnesota. It's warmer in Kansas.
4. When all of your friends get older, employed, married/otherwise "attached" and move out of state, it's a lot harder to stay in touch with old friends when you go home for the holidays. This is a shame.
5. I'm multi-instrumental! For Christmas, I got a MIDI keyboard and computer-based piano lessons. Maybe soon I'll be able to play more than just the white keys.
6. Howard Dean should be the next DNC Chair and Russ Feingold should be the 2008 Dem nominee. That's two big decisions taken care of - what's next?
7. Another example of capitalism's absurdities: it's rumored that Apple is currently putting 5 GB drives into iPod mini's because they ran out of 4 GBers. Problem? They haven't actually announced the 5 GB model yet, so they're just limiting the capacity of the new 5 GB drives to 4 GBs. A few years back, I remember they were limiting the speed of their processors so that they wouldn't eat into the market for the higher end laptops. I have Apple stuff, so I bitch about Apple, but this is standard industry stuff that all companies do. This is the "rationality" and "efficiency" of the invisible hand!
8. Number of the week, candidate number 1: "More than 886,000 deaths could have been prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African Americans had received the same care as whites, according to an analysis in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health."
9. Number of the week, candidate number 2: Bush's initial proposal for tsunami aid: $15 million. Expected price of Bush's inauguration ceremony later this month? $40 million.
10. Mail-in rebates are crap. And they're everywhere now. Instead of having sale prices, stores just have mail-in rebates which are a huge pain-in-the-ass. The only reason I can think they do this is that they know that a lot of people will be too lazy to actually fill out the rebate form, cut out the UPC code and mail it all in.
