Happy New Year and 25 Years of TCP/IP

Welp, it's 2008. I'd better try to remember to write that on checks and stuff now! I hope your 2007 was great and your 2008 will be even better.

In other news today, TCP/IP turns 25 years old today. It's good to know that I am older than the protocol that makes the entire internet work. I guess you could say I'm 'Pre TCP/IP'. As with most things that really took root and changed the technological / industrial world, TCP/IP was adopted and backed by the United States government with the ancestor of the modern Internet, its ARPANET network.

Basically TCP/IP is the set of numbers that make allow the internet to find itself. Every connection to the internet has its own, specific IP address (like 216.136.227.255 which is one of Yahoo's) which is organized by the TCP system so that your browser, search engines, etc, can find the stuff that you are looking for. The DNS servers convert those numbers into names, but that's a totally different story.

Also, I was reminded to eat my black eyed peas today for fortune in the new year, so you'd better do that too. Here's the recipe I think I'm going to try.

Holy Crap Balls it's Cold!

Burrr! At least I'm at the office where it's only -2 degrees and not 15 miles away in Greeley, where it's -18!

Two words: Bacon. Cookies.

Oh, yes, you heard (read) that right. I said (typed) Bacon Cookies. Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies, to be more precise.

I have often wondered just what would not be improved by the addition of bacon, and I have not come up with very many things. Salad is good. Seafood is good. Eggs, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, vegetables, other kinds of meat (think fillet mignon). All are good. Bacon just has this sweet, salty, greasy goodness about it that makes it a welcome addition nearly anywhere.

But I would not have guessed chocolate chip cookies. The 'Never Bashful With Butter' blog found out, once and for all, that yes, Virginia, bacon goes good with cookies too.

Read the commentary and recipe, watch the hilarious video, and then try 'em out! I'm strongly considering it this weekend.

And if you are worried about being a vegetarian, or something, it's okay, because bacon is a vegetable.

Dis is how I feelz

It's supposed to get down to, like, 9 degrees tonight and only up to 20 tomorrow. And then it's supposed to snow 6 more inches during the day. I like winter and all, but this is getting a little bit old.

Also, this makes me a little sad.

Thisafternoon or This afternoon?

Another escapade in Matt being a huge nerd:

I think that “this morning” and “this afternoon,” when used like “this afternoon I am going to the doctor” or “what are you doing this afternoon?” should be changed to a one-word contraction or merge of some sort. “Thisafternoon” just seems to roll off the tongue better than “this” “afternoon.”

Although, it would not work as well if you were trying to describe the afternoon as its own thing. For instance, “this afternoon is dragging” could not use the merged “thisafternoon”.

I don’t really know what part of speech my first example would fall under; a preposition, maybe? (I don’t even know what to look for to look it up.) But it does not seem like the most outlandish thing ever proposed, so who knows? Maybe it’ll catch on. Or not, since spell check doesn’t like it.

Any words that you think need to be merged, modified, etc? Do you agree with my “thisafternoon” proposal?