In the meantime, you may find pictures from last Friday’s beach visit interesting, or perhaps Tommy’s more verbose (and often embellished) post would suit you.

From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling.
[...]

And I, too, must go.
Andy

On the off chance you might have some recycling that needs to be taken out (and you should..), this random little tool will let you set up a weekly reminder (an SMS message, actually) to actually get it out to the curb. It’s been working for me (and a few others) for several months now, so I’m fairly sure it’s stable.

So, if you’re (partially) responsible for getting your recycling out, go head over and sign up right now at Recycling Reminder. You’ll need a standard cellphone of some sort. It’s completely free, though clicking the ads now and then gets me a few pennies, if you’d like.

Please email me or leave a comment (or something) if you happen to find it useful, have a problem, or anything else. Thanks!

Andy

It’s not that the new alternatives aren’t necessarily any good (though some of them are missing features or tend to be unavailable), but that their functions already existed, for the most part. Strange.

Andy

Edit: Added Chatterous. Also, okay, “Y’all these days.” As apparently many of y’all aren’t kids.

Anyway, I figured it’d been long enough since my last post, and I should probably get this one up.
Andy Schmitz

I was a little unnerved when nobody wanted to see my ID, but not entirely surprised. However, I knew it was bad when I went to a 4-H meeting and the 10 year-old next to me had the same sticker.

Andy Schmitz

(One of the many wares we were selling on behalf of the math team at a school basketball game last month.)

Andy Schmitz

And the dream is still alive
From that first December morning
And it always will survive
As long as we can see
That the dreams we find in life
Are the dreams we tend to seek
And Christmas has its promises to keep

(Promises to Keep, TSO)

If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask

(Old City Bar, TSO)

Have a very Merry Christmas.
Andy Schmitz

That is all.
(This was my fortune cookie from the Chinese food we had for dinner today.)

Andy Schmitz

(Picture: Salvation Army kettle nearly full)

So, I’ve pretty much decided to stop with the whole “blog post a day” thing. And it has nothing to do with it no longer being November, honest. I just can’t really think of anything interesting to say every day, and posts have started to get more rambling-y. Hopefully I’ll still get things posted reasonably frequently (compared to previously, when I posted about once a month at most), but I’m really not going to do one a day again for a while. I still have things I’d like to blog about, but the post a day format doesn’t quite lend itself to long posts. Or lots of homework. (See? Even this post is rambling.)

Thanks!

Andy Schmitz

(With Jonathan Coulton’s “Still Alive” stuck in my head.)

I rang bells for the Salvation Army today. It was kinda interesting, actually: About half the people will donate at least something. Also, saying “Thank you” makes them really happy, but that’s pretty much always the case.

Then, I helped decorate our 4-H club’s tree at the local historical society fundraiser (it appears to be both for the historical society and the local Lions Club). It turned out reasonable, and got decorated in what has to be record time because everyone was so cold from the bell ringing. (Both were 4-H activities, both had the same people.)

Then, I realized there was a bunch of snow on the sidewalk. Time to do something with that:

That would be my first snowman of the year. Took a bunch of time to make, actually. But I think it looks okay. (Yes, I made a snowman. Yes, by myself.)

Unfortunately, while making the snowman, I managed to get the knees (and for that matter, pretty much everything below them) of my pants soaked. At that point, it was pretty much a good idea to come in and warm up. Got some holiday shopping done (online, of course), and researched some scholarships. Hopefully I’ll get more work done tomorrow.

Andy Schmitz