Biiiig Fishy

Picture from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090226-giant-stringray-picture-missions.html?source=email_wn_20090227&email=wn

That thing is huge!!! It's a freshwater stingray found in Thailand. It's huge!!! There are things like that swimming around in the rivers? Remind me not to go swimming there.

Safari 4

Apple's web-browser Safari came out with a new version. Safari 4 *drum roll*

It's actually sort of like a copy of Google's Chrome. Sort of. One of the nice things about Chrome is that you could search words or URLs in the same bar. Not so with Safari 4.

One thing I've got to give Apple credit for, they are really good at making their products look pretty. Safari 4 is nice and shiny and sleek looking.... Yeah.

But, does it work? That's the big question. Well, I think it's functioning. There are some annoying things, like it won't open links in a new tab vs. a new window unless you hold down the command button or do some other fancy thing, but it works. I haven't really noticed a speed increase from Firefox to Safari. I would like to use Firefox, but for some reason it's acting up on me, not loading pages, etc.

So for the time being, I'm going to use Safari 4. It'll take a little getting used to I'm sure, but I think it'll work.

I managed to shift all my bookmarks over. Foxmarks is like the best add-on ever invented!!!

It's very interesting, trying out all these different browsers. I've flipped back and forth between Safari and Firefox for a while now, but I haven't used Internet Explorer since I discovered Firefox. I've also never tried Opera... and I probably won't. I've more than enough trying to decide between Safari and Firefox.

Bye bye Cherry, but only temporarily

Picture by: Richard Tsong-Taatarii, Star Tribune

The Cherry in the Walker sculpture garden is being removed so it can get a new coat of paint. It's made of stainless steel and weighs 1,200 pounds, so I imagine a pretty big crane was used to remove it. It should be back some time in the spring with a fresh new coat of paint, but it'll be weird looking at the lonely spoon without it's cheery.

Picture from: http://garden.walkerart.org/artwork.wac

Amazing gravity defying powers of modern dresses

Yeah, so the Oscars were last night. There were a lot of dressed up people, and many of the dresses were lacking in straps. I was very surprised that they did not fall down.

There was also a lot of 'ah I can't believe this', 'thank you, thank you, thank you' by the people who won. I think it might've been more interesting for me if I actually knew some of these people. I'm not very caught up in the TV/Hollywood world and most of the people I had no idea who on earth they were.

It was interesting to see Slumdog Millionaire win a lot of stuff though, including best picture. From what I've gathered, it was a fairly small production to begin with, with a very small budget. It was cool that you don't need gazillions of dollars to make a good movie (though I thought I saw something about them having 15 million in the newspaper. If that's 'a small amount' I don't even want to think what an 'expensive' movie would be like).

Friday the 13th

Why is Friday the 13th considered bad luck? Is it because 13 is considered an unlucky number (considered irregular, one more than the number of Greek gods, signs of the zodiac, numbers of numbers on a clock. Also the number of people who sat down at the Last Supper and one of them died), and Friday is considered an unlucky day (stock market crashes related to Black Friday, perhaps Jesus was crucified on a Friday?). I don't know. But so far nothing bad has happened to me. *fingers crossed*

Chronicles of a Hockey Team

Image from: http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=118

I don’t know when I started getting following the Minnesota Wild (hockey), but out of all the professional sports teams, Vikings (football), Timberwolves (basketball), Twins (baseball), I like them the best.

I think it has more to do with the coach than it does with the type of game. I’ve found Jacques Lemaire very amusing in all his quotes in the newspaper and other media. He doesn’t flatter players, if they’re doing badly, he’ll say so; the same when he’s talking about the whole team. He doesn’t broadcast a false sense of optimism when things are going badly, but he seems to be very good at motivating his players to improve and work harder. He’s also very sarcastic at times, and he has a dry sense of humor.

All in all, I like reading his comments. Unfortunately he was run into by one of his players during a recent practice. I hope he’s all right.

There was also a very funny article related to a Wild fan (a fan of the Wild team, not a crazy guy). He regularly gets tickets for the seat right next to the penalty box and whenever a player of the opposing team is sent in, he talks at them. He has some rules such as, no foul language, no personal insults, and no tapping on the glass. But he’s still annoyed several players, and had decent conversations with others. He usually misses all the power play goals the Wild scores, but apparently he prefers heckling the penalized players.

Goodbye shoe

The Iraqi reporter who threw a shoe at former president Bush goes on trial soon for assaulting or insulting a . . . I forget the exact term, but basically 'a important guy'. The same reporter also has at least one sculpture created in his honor.

Image from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/photogalleries/week-in-news-pictures-116/photo5.html

Though in this case, the statue is being removed from the orphanage property. Reason: because the orphanage is government run and it should not display any political leaning.

Neil Gaiman

Both local newspapers (Pioneer Press, Star Tribune) had articles about Neil Gaiman today. Not surprising really since he just won the Newbery award with his "The Graveyard Book" and the movie adapted from his book "Coraline" came out today.

Reading the interviews with him (and seeing a picture of him with a green stuffed octopus/dragon/thing on his head) I've decided that he's probably a very interesting character.

He sounds really happy with his work though, and very enthusiastic to continue. I think it's cool that people can make a living being authors. It's nice that books are still so important.

Immortal Four Chaplains Day

Image from: http://www.govst.edu/AboutGSU/t_AboutGSU.aspx?id=14820

On this date in 1943 the United States Army transport DORCHESTER was sunk by a torpedo off the cost of Greenland. Four army chaplains, each of a different religion, on board helped with the evacuation and when there were no more life vests left, they took off their own and gave them to soldiers. Of the 230 men who survived, many were assisted by the four chaplains. However, 700 men died that day, including the four chaplains.

Thus, Governor Pawlenty ordered that the flags be flown at half staff today to honor the four chaplains and all those who died as well as to be "an example of compassion for those of different race or faith."

Image from: http://www.fl4thdistrict.org/TheFourChaplains.html

Sports Update

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23. It was a very exciting game actually. The first half maybe not so much until Pittsburgh intercepted a pass from Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner near their own goal line and ran it back all the way for a touchdown. Then things started to get tight in the fourth quarter when the lead was traded back and forth a couple times. Arizona got a safety when a Steelers player was called for holding in the end zone, and Cardinal reciever Larry Fitzgerald caught a pass for a 64 yard touchdown. But then the Steelers staged a drive and scored a touchdown with 35 seconds left on the clock. Arizona tried to come back, but a fumble ended their slim hopes.

In tennis: Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer to win the Australian Open. I feel sort of sorry for Federer 'cause he was very upset. But that's competition. Somebody has to lose. I get the feeling I'd be a very bad competitor because I always end up feeling for the losers.
I didn't see the match myself, but by all I've heard about it, it was exciting.

So thats the condition of sports. At least, the few sports that I pay attention to and had time to read about.