jackshoegazer | The Bill of Rights guarantees us a separation of church and segue.

Winter has arrived in full force. I worked yesterday, which meant driving around all day while it snowed and sleeted all over. We got something like four inches and it was a horrible mess. The news said the city had 170 snow plows and salt trucks ready to go, but I didn't see a plow until almost 4pm. By then, the roads were practically unmanageable. It was like off-roading. You couldn't tell where the lines in the road were or even the curbs. People were walking in the street, sticking to the grooves made by cars, rather than walk in the unshoveled sidewalks. Somehow, I managed to not get stuck, wrecked, killed, and best of all, I didn't kill anyone else.

A member of the

iconomicon sent me an Amazon gift certificate, which I used to purchase The Princess Bride on DVD and Mark Vonnegut's The Eden Express, which arrived yesterday. Jacquelyn, Ethan, and I just watched The Princess Bride and I can't wait to start Mark's book. It's supposed to be the best "insider's view" of schizophrenia and it's said he definitely inherited his father's gift of storytelling. Also in

iconomicon news, inspired by a post by

strawdogs, I made a photomosaic, using this great program, out of all the

iconomicon's icons. You can see the results here.

Jacquelyn and I made our first winter outing, sloshing through the snow and ice and mush to get to Lakeside Fibers and the nice coffee room in the back. I read a large chunk of The Peace War by Vernor Vinge and drank a very tasty iced latte while Jacquelyn purchased some yarn for a crochet project. The Peace War and it's sort-of sequel, Marooned in Realtime are some of my favorite books. Vernor Vinge is one of the best sci-fi authors, um... EVER. This year, I find myself reading quite a few books I've read before. Comfort reads, I suppose. Since I started driving taxi, I have much less reading time. Perhaps it's just a reaction to that; I want to be sure I'm going to like what I do have the time to read.

Can I just say, "Holy shit, The Departed was a really good movie." I can? Sweet, thank you. Holy shit, The Departed was a really good movie.

And in closing, goodbye.