Stop Signs

I like to think of myself as a pretty good driver. I'm not perfect (and neither are you), but in my 10 years of driving (yup, I'm not that old) I've been in one accident, gotten two tickets and only been pulled over one other time. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.



However, this morning, on the way to work, I almost got T-boned by a pick-up truck. I'd venture to say it wasn't my fault, but it really wasn't the other guy's fault as well. It was an intersection within my neighborhood where there isn't a stop sign or yield sign restricting traffic in any direction. Now, 99% of the time there's nobody coming perpendicular to me as I'm driving through my neighborhood. This morning, however, was one of that one percent of times where there was someone coming.

Luckily, we both skidded to a stop and avoided a collision by probably about two feet, or maybe even less. It was enough to get my heart really pumping and my mind racing for the rest of my drive in. I got angry at the city for a while too. Why doesn't every intersection have at least a yield sign for someone? I know that there's the whole "right of way" but come one, how hard would it be?

I got lucky this morning, but I imagine there are people every day who don't.

Badgers Basketball

How about them Wisconsin Badgers?

Bo Ryan's team is 16-0, and off to the best part in school history? What's been the secret?

Well, for starters, this isn't the Badgers team that you might have gotten accustomed to over the past decade. Sure, they can play like that, with stifling defense and an efficient offense, but this one likes to play a little different.

Wisconsin can shoot the lights out of the ball, and they're especially good in transition. And the more they shoot in transition, the faster they play, the more they score...there's good reason why the Badgers put up 95 in their thumping of Illinois last night.



The Badgers are ranked 4th in the country and 1st by the RPI (which does kinda mean something, especially come Selection Sunday) as they cross the halfway point of the schedule. Of course, things get tougher from here on out, as it's one conference match up after another. But the schedule plays into the Badgers favor as much as possible, with the toughest games (Michigan State and Ohio State) both at the Kohl Center. They can certainly win both of those games, but running the table to 31-0 will be nearly impossible. A three game stretch against Minnesota, and then at Michigan and Iowa, could be a stumbling block.

What makes this Wisconsin team so dangerous is the versatility of each player, from Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson in the backcourt, to Ben Brust and Sam Dekker on the wings, to Frank Kaminsky everywhere. Bringing the likes of Bronson Koening, Nigel Hayes and Duje Dukan off the bench give three more looks that make the Badgers even tougher to match up against.

Do I think they'll go undefeated? Absolutely not. But they could certainly win the Big Ten and make some noise come March. Last night's trouncing of the Fighting Illini was just another of a long stretch of examples of why this team could be something special. Next up is Indiana on Tuesday, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Na na na na na na na na

Think it's been cold here? Well, it's been exactly the opposite in the other hemisphere. It's summer in Australia, and they've been dealing with temperatures at and above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. And the issues they're dealing with there?

Bats dropping dead. Literally.



From The Telegraph:

About 100,000 bats have fallen from the sky and died during a heatwave in Australia that has left the trees and earth littered with dead creatures.

In scenes likened to "an Alfred Hitchock thought bubble", a heatwave across the north-east state of Queensland in recent days caused mass deaths of flying foxes from an estimated 25 colonies.

"It's a horrible, cruel way to die," a conservation worker, Louise Saunders, told The Courier Mail.

"Anything over 43 degrees [Celsius, 109F] and they just fall. We're just picking up those that are just not coping and are humanely euthanising what we can."

Health experts have warned residents not to touch the dead creatures amid concerns about the spread of virus or bites and scratches from bats that may still be alive. At least 16 people have been are receiving antiviral treatment after coming into close contact with a bat.

Icicles

I'm going to brag a little bit here, but there's some advice, so bear with me.

I've always like knocking icicles off of things. I don't know why. When I was younger, my brothers and I would have sword fights with the biggest icicles we could find (no one ever lost an eye, thankfully). They've always been amusing to be. For some reason, my neighbors house always had bigger icicles, and I got jealous. When I was at home over the holidays, my mom tasked my younger brother and I with raking snow off the roof and clearing the icicles from the gutters. Yes, please. We had a hard time getting to the icicles on the second story, so we decided to open the windows, hang halfway out of them, and swing at the icicles with a yard stick. It worked fantastically.

My brother trying not to get electrocuted

Flash forward to this morning, when I woke up to frigid temperatures in my house. I go to check the thermostat and it reads 48 FREAKING DEGREES! I go downstairs, and can't figure anything out, so before I start calling people to come help me, I decide to go Macgyver around outside, and sure enough, the furnace exhaust had frozen over into a giant ice cube. I whip out a trusty Phillips head screwdriver and start hacking away at it, eventually freeing the pipe of as much ice as possible. My neighbor looked very puzzled as she drove by slowly, staring at this man repeatedly stabbing a PVC pipe at 7:30 in the morning. But hey, the heat kicked in and started to warm up my place immediately. I'm glad I didn't die of CO2 poisoning overnight.



So there's my loosely connected story. Icicles are cool, but they also kinda suck. The end.

My Sunday

Yeah, the Packers lost, but I had a fantastic Sunday. I got to sleep in, under a plethora of covers, and lay in bed as long as I wanted to. I got all of my cold-weather prep work in on Sunday, having gotten supplies from Walmart and Festival, as well as put a full-tank of gas in my Jeep. I was ready to go, and by ready to go, I mean ready to stay inside the entire day.

By the time I got around to turning on the TV, the first NFL game was already on, and it was a moderately entertaining one between the Chargers and the Bengals. I didn't really care who won, but it was nice to be wrapped in a blanket, not worried about freezing my tail off at a tailgate at Lambeau. Call me a fairweather fan if you want, but yesterday was significantly less stressful (and probably similarly enjoyable) day for me. I haven't regretted not pulling the trigger on tickets at all. If I lived in Appleton or Oshkosh, yeah maybe, but a 4-hour ride home after a gutcheck loss like that? No thanks.

Since I was at home, I got to do some cooking, so I made some fantastic (at least in my opinion) Asian chili wings in the crock pot. And by the way, crock pot liners are the greatest invention ever. Or at least up there. As I was devouring them, I was thinking to myself how difficult they'd be to eat at Lambeau. So there's that.

I fully endorse this product with absolutely no compensation on my end.

After the Packers' loss, I was very thankful that there was something to immediately take my mind off football. I love this Wisconsin Badgers basketball team this season, and they played a very entertaining game against Iowa almost immediately after football ended. They played poorly in the first half, but came back and looked like one of those teams that just knows how to win. So that was nice to have.

After that, I flipped over to the DVR and caught up on some shows, then passed out early. I didn't leave the house, even for a second, and in no way was that depressing.

New Year's Resolutions

Do you make resolutions? I don't, but mostly because I'm terrified of commitment.

But, alas, there are some people that do. Here are some statistics from the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, via StatisticBrain.com

Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions	45%
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions	17%
Percent of Americans who absolutlely never make New Year’s Resolutions	38%
Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution	8%
Percent who have infrequent success	49%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year	24%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions

So there you go. Less than half of 'merica makes New Year's resolutions, and only 8% of people achieve their goal.

If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards. 

Packers tickets

There are two things I can guarantee about this whole Packers ticket availability situation I've been hearing so much about.

1) There is NO FREAKING WAY that the game is actually going to be blacked out.

2) If it were, it wouldn't affect La Crosse. Only the "team markets" in Green Bay, Milwaukee and Wausau.

There are still thousands of tickets available to Sundays game, and I have a few theories why.

1) They still ain't cheap. The cheapest ones that I see on StubHub are $123 each.

2) It's supposed to be freaking cold. Negative 5 as a high? Wind chills approaching NEGATIVE FIFTY? Mother nature isn't messing around.

3) A 3:40 start on Sunday? That makes for a long day, and a late night of driving. (So hop on our bus!)

4) The Packers are 8-7-1, and the 49ers have won six straight and are 12-4. San Fran has also been the Packers' nemesis as of late.



Any one of those reasons may be enough to keep fair-weathered fans away. The combination of all four? Well, you get the scenario the Packers face this weekend.

But like I said, there is no way the Packers or their corporate sponsors let the blackout rules take effect. One way or another, enough tickets will be purchased to ensure that the games will go on.

I'll be watching from the warmth of my residence on Sunday. As a die-hard, should I feel guilty? I don't. It would easily be a $250 investment, on top of the hundreds I've shelled out for the 3 Packers games I've already been to this season. I bleed green and gold just as much as the next guy, but I also have a few other things to consider, like my health and finances. No thanks.