Author: cosmo

A small group of scientists has reported that they’ve successfully tested a substance (Tl4PbBa2MgCu8O13+) which is superconductive at zero degrees celsius. Since most superconductors only work when they’re cooled to hundreds of degrees below zero, this is a game-changer. Once we can create superconductors that work at room temperature, it’s a world-changer.

The awesome march of science and technology continues.

A very Schroeder Christmas, 2010…

It all starts with a Santa hat. In this case, a hat that Kyra made for the pet rats.

Unfortunately the little critters weren’t terribly excited to prance around in a hat. Oh well.

This morning’s gifts were (not surprisingly) a big hit.

It all culminated with the Biggest Gift of All:

The box was seriously big enough to hold Zack. Amazon shipped a four-foot-long Nerf sword in it… go figure.

After opening presents we played some games, had cinnamon rolls (liberally frosted, of course), and decided to have a Mario Kart tournament. Check out the concentration on the face of one particular driver:

The final race was between me and Kyra. It was intense.

Oh yeah baby. I continue to be the reigning Mario Kart champ of the house.

We just finished a nice Christmas dinner of ham and potatoes, and we’re going to sit down and watch a movie or something. Good times.

Merry Christmas, all.

True, dat.

The Zing team took the afternoon off to see Tron: Legacy this afternoon.

It was way cool. After disappointing overhyped sequels in the past few years– like The Phantom Menace and Indiana Jones 4— I was a little worried that we’d be oversold and underwhelmed by this reboot of the series.

The film was entertaining, visually amazing, and actually had a plot. And who can argue with Olivia Wilde as the butt-kicking black-leather glow-in-the-dark parallel of Trinity?

Hilarious. A single image that annoys fans of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars all at the same time!

Sixty degrees, sunny, light breeze. Time for some ultimate.

Today I picked up lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop, and I was told by the manager that I can’t have bare feet in the restaurant. (This was as I was paying and heading out to leave.)

The place has a concrete floor, so I’m not sure what the concern is. I asked her why bare feet weren’t allowed and she shrugged and said, “Health code.”

As I was driving back to the office, I started wondering what in the world the health code would have to do with bare feet. Let’s say I have a fierce case of athlete’s foot… maybe I’ll leave icky fungus on the floor or something, but it’s not like the food is down there. If they drop a piece of ham for my sandwich on the floor, I would fully expect them to toss it and get a new piece from the counter. And if there’s some kind of hazard on the floor– like broken glass– then I might cut my foot but that has nothing to do with the Health Department.

I think it’s all a movement against those of us who enjoy life in bare feet.

Since Google is one of my clients, I occasionally check their online invoice-tracking system to find the status of the invoices I’ve submitted to them. Tonight I’m doing some accounting work, and I went to login to their site and saw this page:

Uhh.

So Google’s financial department invoice system has a quota… on Google’s own servers? That seems painfully ironic.

Zack put together a Christmas list. It’s pretty awesome.

Today it was sunny and 50-ish so I figured it was as good a time as any to hang the Christmas lights. That meant digging up our box of lights and going through the annual tradition of figuring out which strands don’t work. As always, two or three of them had burned out over the course of the year. So we trekked to Target to get some more lights.

Last year’s Christmas card– which featured the Schroeder Clan making funny faces– was such a big hit that we had to figure out how to keep up that tradition. My idea this year was to wear a bunch of goofy hats. Happily, Target stocks a whole shelf of hats, so we went over there and took pictures of ourselves wearing them.

Laralee complained that she felt kind of silly. The store was pretty crowded, and here we were, putting on hats and taking pictures by placing the camera on a nearby shelf and setting the self-timer. In truth, no one really cared.

After we came back home and I looked at the collection, there were potentially some fun things we could do with them… like change out the background and go for the 1930’s look or something.

But… eh. Although fun, it’s not really a Christmas card motif. So I’ll have to come up with something different.

I’m still not quite sure what we’ll use for our card, but it should be interesting as always.