I just spent slightly over 200 USD in the online purchases of various gifts for family and friends, and in the process consumed nearly the entirety of my coffee fund for the next couple of months. Aww, well - I'm going to have a nice stash of Christmas presents for people this year, along with some home-made stuff (since I really didn't do anything ( Read more... )

It took two years of hard campaigning, lots of FUD-debunking, and countless sacrifices of time and labor, but we did it. Here at last, Barack Obama is officially the president-elect to serve as this country's 44th leader. This election brings to the White House the first African-American leader. As his victory has thusly overturned one aspect of ( Read more... )

So, over the weekend my parents and I decided to head out of town for a bit, mostly on a whim. We came back to find that only about a fifth of our house's electricity worked: random outlets around the house gave us just enough for essentials: refrigerator/freezer, microwave, stove, some lights, one TV, and a couple of extra outlets for plugging in ( Read more... )