Snowpocalypse '11

I've been lucky enough to be on the East Coast this past week for a close encounter with some VERY Winter weather.

I know I'm from Texas, but I assure you that things have been bad, even for people who are used to winter! My friend Chris even claims that last week was even the coldest it's been in Boston for the last 10 years.

How cold has it been? The front page of the Boston Globe from this past Monday should give you a clue.

•  My friends who were visiting Boston from ESTONIA were complaining about how cold it was this past Monday, when the high temp, was around 10 degrees Fahrenheit! Estonia is sort of between Russia and Finland, and it isn't exactly known for its warm, sunny climate.
• This past Monday, the locals were complaing about the bitterly cold temps. The best line was from a conversation that I overheard on the "T" while crossing the Charles River: "It's like the arctic. There are ice floes out there."
• There were plenty of Boston locals who could be spotted around town while wearing those crazy lumberjack hats (You know, the ones with the earflaps and the fur around the brim!)
• On Monday, I bundled up in so many layers that when I left my friend Chris' place, I could barely move my arms. He didn't want to say that I looked like the "Michelin Lady" But I did! 
• It was so cold that even with my glove-inside-a-glove strategy, walking around Boston this past Monday, my fingers were still cold.
• The UGG motorcycle boots that have been way too warm to wear in Austin have been just fine here. Especially with a pair of wool socks!
• I saw a woman in Malden using a PICKAXE to break up a good-sized chunk of snow and ice on her front walk.
• On Thursday, which was a "snow day" for many of the schools in Greater Boston, I saw kids using all sorts of homemade sleds, and improvising areas to slide on. My favorite was the kids who were using some sort of tray to slide down their snowy back steps. 

Still not convinced?

It's Cold in Boston.

Originally uploaded by annainaustin

Just wanted to share this picture of snowy Boston with you. There's more to come on my close encounter with Snowpocalypse '11!

Look, it's a blog redesign!

You might notice this blog's spiffy new design that was recently done by the ever-fabulous Paul Sicard, whom I had the foresight to marry in 2002. I've even changed the name to better reflect what this blog is; an outlet for the many shiny things that I'm attracted to in the pop culture landscape. 

The image in the background is one I took in the artists lounge at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The whole thing was decorated with a "Hotel California" theme, since the Eagles were playing the festival.

You may have already seen this column I wrote for the Statesman on the festival.
  

Awesome spot at the "Hotel California" themed ACL artists lounge!

It's strange how much of my past is on the Internet.

When I was looking for something else I'd done, I found my book review of 1997's  "new" Anne Rice that I'd totally forgotten about writing. It's the bottom half of this two-part-er!

I actually kind of like the intro for the review of Servant of the Bones.

"The bigger they are, the louder the thump when they hit the remainder racks."

It seems I also once reviewed Violette's Embrace. Who knew? (Scroll down to the bottom of the review section.)

Also, I found a book review of Sins. Truthfully, I remember more about being at Barton Springs reading the book, than I do about the book itself!

There's even one of my articles being used as a reference for a wikipedia entry on "electronic games."

Update:

Oh, look one of my pictures is being used by the Latvian band Instrumenti for their Wikipedia entry!

Things you find when you Google yourself!

I create things, then I forget all about them. Once I've published something--or posted a picture on flickr---I tend to forget about whatever it is. I've never really been all that curious about how people interact with what I create, once a window of about three days has passed.

I figure, if I spelled anyone's name wrong, or forgot anything important, it would turn up during that three days. (Three days is, not un-coincidentally,  about the turnaround for a huffy letter-to-the-editor to arrive, citing exactly what someone is unhappy about. Trust me on this.)

Turns out that people continue to do things with my content, long after I've forgotten all about releasing it into the wild. 

In order to write the previous post about Hello Kitty, I googled myself. Amazing what you find. I might have found more, but I got bored searching.

Here's a picture I put on flickr that someone used for an article. I'm not the best photographer in the world, so I'm always a little flattered that someone wants to use one of my pictures!

Paul and I got married.  It must be true, it was in the UT alumni magazine. I must have sent it in, as this happened before Facebook, and not everyone knew!

Someone read an Austin-American Statesman column about zombies. And they liked it!

A possibly Latvian  link to my Latvia/ACL column that was on Austinist (scroll down to the bottom.)

An article for a conservative news service, that got more conservative once I turned it in. (It has a 2008 date now, but I think I wrote it in 2001.)

Someone using my pic of one of the dudes from Passion Pit signing their setlist at Emo's as a background. From 2009?

An article about Latvia that uses my picture of fish. I think the article is in Latvian, but I don't speak the language, so it's hard to know for sure.


Let me know what else you find. Who knows what else is out there!