Image theory

If you didn't like my last post (Provided only minutes ago, so maybe you haven't had time to think about it . . . or even find the correct video, since I realized that you couldn't go directly to the LOST in 8:15 video from the main landing past of abc.com/lost. To do that you had to click on MORE VIDEOS to find it . . . well, anyway it is probably a bust.)

So to apologize for that mess, here is a different post, one in which you can be interactive.

First, take a look at this magazine cover:

Second: Please let me know (in the comments below) if you can discern any underlying design ethos or structural theory that dictates the placement of the individuals in this montage. Is Group A placed next to Person B for any reason that you can discover? Give it your best shot. Any and all ideas are welcome.

Thanks and happy theorizing.

What do you do . . .

. . . when you've got nothing better to spend time explaining?

You post a video.

And since I haven't made any videos lately--I'm letting my daughters make all the video's these days; in fact Sarah is busily making one with her friend (who got a portable digi camera for Christmas); I guess this is what kids do for fun these days . . . the YouTube generation--I'm going to rely on ABC to do it for me.

This video will prepare you for the final season of LOST, which premieres February 2. (And we now know that this premiere will NOT conflict with the State of the Union speech.)

Because they are devious or because I am temporarily inept, I can't find an embed code on the video player to drop said video into this site. (Perhaps they want you to visit the ABC site and click on other things?) If it doesn't bother you, use this link to watch the video. If you are a regular viewer of LOST, nothing here will be new to you. If you need a reminder of things and you don't want to pull out your DVDs, then this could be useful.

Snow is a four letter word

The snows have started to fall here in the Midwest and the temperatures have dropped to the point that there is some accumulation. It's still pretty light so far, but we should be getting more this week (before the temperatures rise again).

Snow on the weekends means the kids want to play . . . and that is still a bit of a foreign concept for me, having grown up in Georgia my entire childhood. I have very little experience in such winter-based skills, though I am getting the hang of some of it.

This snowman, taken in my childhood (that's me standing to the left of Mr. Frosty) was probably the most amazing moment of my life. How south Georgia got this much snow, I don't recall. It is the sort of thing that should be remembered and discussed each year on the anniversary of the mysterious event.

My kids have grown up in this weather and so they probably don't understand why our snowmen aren't as good as everyone else's, or why we don't have good snow sleds (thanks for screwing up THAT choice Santa!), or why . . . well, who knows what the other kids say or do?

The old axiom is true, however. It takes a parent the same amount of time to put on the snow pants, snow boots, fitted, waterproof gloves, scarf, hat, and heavy (waterproof again) coat on as the equipped chid will choose to be outside in the white stuff. And then, they come back in, strip it all off, and leave it dripping wet on the floor. But, I guess, if that didn't happen, the floors would never get mopped?

*****

Oh, and another thing that is problematic (to me, but maybe no one else on my street?) is that whenever the temperature dropped below 30, the automatic garage door seizes up and won't open all the way. I mean, it will eventually, if you are patient and raise and lower it 5 to 25 times (as needed and completely unpredictable). I don't know if the rails get too  cold and contract out of shape or if the motor loses some power or what. But some days I just get tired of standing in the garage entrance freezing my stocking feet while the door creaks up and down and up and down and up and down again. Is it just us or does everyone have this problem?

Sigh . . .

Now for some hot tea and forgetfulness.

Video recipe

A newly acquired friend on Facebook asked me to provide my white chocolate cheesecake recipe that I have grown quite intimate with over the last month.

So I thought I would make it more interesting by doing it in video form--with whiteboard excitement.

The first day of Twenty10

Nothing has yet happened in the new year, so let's take a few sentences and review what DID happen in '09.

I dove into the digital world with both feet this past year (even more than last year) by joining up on Twitter, Facebook, and using YouTube even more. Amazingly, my wife didn't divorce me and my kids continue to like me (most of the time).

I started out 2009 by pledging to write something on Why Won't You Grow?! every day . . . and for the first quarter of the year, I actually did it. Go back through the archives and just take a look at the daily posts in January, February, March. I think the wheels started to go off in April and by the end of the year the postings are spotty at best. But when you consider that I was tweeting and on Facebook all the time, I suspect not more than two days went by in 2009 where I didn't put a little piece of myself out there on the Internets for people to ignore.

The other major digital project for 2009 was, of course, Soup for a Year. And while I didn't even become Soup for a Month, it was a very interesting 15 days of soup-filled fun. Mike, Brie, and I learned more about eating liquid-based meals and money was actually raised for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.

I was heavily involved in digital work at my office job as well, but I don't usually go into those kinds of details here on WWYG?! so I won't talk that much about it now. As new things develop, I usually provide links to things and discuss them in oblique ways . . . and that is the way I'm keeping it. But the future looks pretty good for me at work--all things considered. There was certainly lots of ups and downs during the end of the year and many things have changed and are changing still. But I am excited about what may come.

So far today I've gone to the grocery store, played with the kids, started some laundry, and read some of a book on my iPhone. I hope I can continue to do all of those exciting  things in the year to come.