Yes, this is my 1,000th post since this blog started in November 2005.

I had hoped to write a long, introspective essay on blogging in general and this blog in specific over the years, but it turns out I have work to do today, so that will have to wait until the 2,000th post or so. (Many of you are fighting back tears, I know; though I suspect they're tears of joy.)

No, today I'm just going to mention the two most immediately relevant things that confronted me on my way to work today.

(All times EST)

9:01pm: I'm having a strange duality of experience. It's hard enough listening to Dubya; I simply can't subject myself to Tim Russert on top of it. So I'm watching the NBC feed while listening to NPR and hoping there isn't a delay.

The humble Lego brick turned 50 on the 28th. That explains today's Google logo.

For the first time in 11 days, the temperature in Chicago got above freezing this afternoon. It's odd how warm it feels out there right now.

Speaking of chilling, I saw No Country for Old Men last night. Great film. Very chilling.

For the fifth time in a row, I've had to cancel a flight today because of weather. Very frustrating. Next attempt in two weeks.

Paul Krugman channels the Tax Policy Center, who found that 58% of the stimulus package announced yesterday will go to the top 40% earners.

Via my dad, via the San Francisco Chronicle's excellent Mark Moford: Whiskipedia.

And 28 other things to be happy about:

Women and minorities appear to be galvanized by Hillary Clinton's presidential run. Youth and college-educated voters appear to be galvanized by Barack Obama's. No one at all is truly, deeply galvanized by Mitt Romney or John McCain or crazy little Mike Huckabee, and everyone is generally repulsed by the fetid little tyrant that is Rudy Giuliani. All of this, remarkably, seems just about exactly as it should be.

From the Onion, via Marc Andreesen:

CHARLESTON, SC—After spending two months accompanying his wife, Hillary, on the campaign trail, former president Bill Clinton announced Monday that he is joining the 2008 presidential race, saying he "could no longer resist the urge."

...

Clinton also noted that, if elected, the timing would be perfect for his family, as his wife has recently expressed a desire to move back to the D.C. area.

Fred Thompson has withdrawn from the presidential race.

What's funny is he polled better than either Giuliani or Paul, suggesting that what little sense Thompson had still far outstripped the other two.

The Oscar nominations are out. I can't wait for the press conference to announce the winners on February 24th.

I've just spent a few minutes putting together a little countdown clock for my blog. (Credit goes to Kris van der Mast for the code sample.)

What does it do? Well, it's driving the Dubya Clock and Other Countdown tools on the nav bar to the right.

You know what that means? Only one year—just 366 days—until the worst president we've ever had leaves office.

I'll be raising a glass to that later today. You should too.

Edgar Alan Poe is 199 today.

<rant>

I'm reviewing a lot of CVs right now, and I would like to vent for a moment. Just a few things, though:

• If you're applying for a Quality Assurance position, spelling and grammar count a lot.
• Unless you've gotten an invitation to apply, the people reviewing your résumé have others to read. Write concisely. Highlight the important parts. Limit yourself to two pages of paper with a link to a longer version. Don't waste the reader's time. Even if you're perfect for the job, you go into the phone screen with a mark against you if your CV has Dickensian verbosity.
• Don't put information on your CV that we can't use to hire you. If you put your age, marital status, immigration status, race, or anything else like that on your CV, a potential employer might bin the thing just to prevent any hint of bias in the hiring process.
• But do put down your bona fides. If you say "Engineering Degree" on your CV, you actually do need to include the actual degree (BA, BS, BBQ), the name of the institution and the date. Like it or not, a degree from the Ira Bialystock Engineering School and Storm Door Company is not the same as one from Northwestern, and since we're going to call your school to check that you graduated as a precondition of hiring you, don't waste our time by having us guess. We will simply guess that you went to IBESASDC and not NU, and pass.

</rant>

I almost slept through a story on Morning Edition just now, about sleep:

In our fast-paced, global society, many people consider it a big plus to need as little sleep as possible. But almost every sleep researcher will tell you that most people need at least seven hours of sleep for biological and psychological health. So there is a glaring disconnect between what the messages in our culture say about sleep and the messages we receive from scientists.

A very old friend of mine put her dog down this evening. I know how hard that was. Cali had a good life, and was loved. And she knew it.

Every dog owner has to face this eventually: dogs only live a few years. That doesn't make it easier.

In the Jewish tradition—in which I was raised, despite both my parents and me being devout atheists—we always acknowledge the sadness lurking behind joy. It's a Jewish curse to find the cloud behind every silver lining. We dip an egg in salt water at Passover to remind ourselves of this. Not to mention the not-so-far-from-truth Jewish joke about the widow at the funeral shouting "how could you do this to me?" So maybe it's inappropriately personalizing someone else's pain, but a friend going through this reminds me of how short Parker's life will be, and how important it is to cherish what he brings to me, which is absolutely no less than how much Cali's life brought to my friend.

So, Tink, I know what you're feeling. And I know Cali was a happy dog, and loved you unconditionally, and lived as long as she could. Nothing else really matters.

I just got back from an event in Chicago which convinced me that Obama will win the White House. 375 days, 12 hours to go.

In a completely unrelated vein, I am watching Parker try to destroy a Tyvek FedEx envelope. I think I've finally found a substance he can't destroy.

Update: Nope. He can destroy it just fine. I'll be seeing that Tyvek tomorrow morning.

Via Talking Points Memo.

Just now on Talking Points Memo: "At the moment, it's Rudy about 300 votes ahead of Ron Paul."

Stop the presses!

Today is already the warmest January 7th ever recorded in Chicago (right now 17°C), and if the temperature hits 19°C, it'll be the warmest January day ever.

Stay tuned.

Just three days ago, Thursday morning, the temperature in Chicago sank to -18°C, with a wind chill of -23°C. Right now, it's 16°C. Did I mention it's the beginning of January?

I'm so happy the U.S. has taken the lead against global warming.

"I'd rather be down here wishing I were up there, than the opposite." So goes the aviation axiom. But this morning, with its 3 km visibilities and 30 m—yes, thirty meters—ceiling, I have postponed a checkout flight for the third time in a row.

Here's how weather can be really frustrating. I kept track of my flights (or lack thereof) during the summer of 1999 when I was trying to get my certificate, and put together a Web page to chronicle the frustration.

Two notes about the page: first, I haven't maintained the page since 9 December 1999, so all the links to the actual flights are dead (I used to have an online log book, and I will again someday...); and second, information about anything in 2008 may not be current, like the flight school's rules.

I've had a number of conversations with friends recently about the 2008 elections. A couple are afraid we're going to repeat the 2004 elections, in which we Democrats believed the day before the election we were going to win, but woke up the day after to a brave old world.

Today we've seen the first hard number that shows, without a doubt, we're going to rout the Republicans this year: tonight, an all-time record 227,000 Democrats caucused in Iowa, almost double the number in 2004.

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more.

Gotta love Chicago weather. Right now it's -18°C outside, which is the point where Chicagoans are allowed to complain about the cold without looking wimpy. It builds character. And I do have to get to my office, but you know? I don't want to go out there. Even Parker lasted just long enough to do his business before sprinting back to the door like his tail was on fire. (Of course, that could have been about breakfast and not about the cold.)

But this being Chicago, the forecast calls for 10°C weather on Saturday. A 28°C rise in two days? Heck, I've seen that happen in two hours...

I noticed as I was leaving the office Monday that my cactus changed:

Nothing, not rain, not sleet, not 15 cm of snow on the ground, can keep Parker from a tennis ball:

Now London—and officially, the enitre world, as it's now midnight UTC.