• I’m not sure what I think about these nine hot technologies.  Most technology predictions never come true.
• America appears to have it’s own Stonehenge.  These are the things that make me feel insignificant.
• If you are a freelancer or just want to work with other creative types.  Check out Jelly!
• Awesome flowchart of the Air Force’s Rules of Engagement for blogging.
• Singlespeed gives a brief review of Muffuletta, a restaurant serving locally produced food.
• Kottke has his best links of 2008 up.
• We need more buildings that are as well preserved as the one in this photo.
• Another great photo, this time of Minnehaha Falls
  
• A comparison of Marriott and Ramada from What it Shwas.
• If your resolution for 2009 included cutting fries out of your diet do not click here.
• An interesting take on being a speech writer.
• Carl Pohlad died this week.  A sad day for a Twin fans, even if you didn’t like his cheapskate ways.
• One last photo from Uptown.

I have a few stories from the weekend that I may share here, including my New Years experience which involved an allergic reaction and a trip to the ER.  Don’t worry I’m fine.

I really have nothing planned for this week except for a Where? on Wednesday.  I’m trying to respond to a few of the comments on my MN Todo list.  I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for making this site such a rewarding experience.  The last few months has seen traffic and activity I’ve never experienced before and I appreciate everyone who comments, writes about, and visits my site.

• Summit Brewery Tour
• Choose the best Jucy Lucy
• Take the Schell Brewery Tour
• Go to a Timberwolves game
• Go to a Wild Game
• Go to a Gopher hockey game (preferably against the Sioux so I can be harassed by Gopher fans)
• Go to a Gopher football game
• Go to a Vikings game
• Visit the Minnesota History Center
• Go to a Gopher basketball game
• Visit the North Shore
• Photograph eagles by Lake Pepin
• Go to a concert at First Ave
• Visit the Russian Art Museum
• Go to a Saints game
• Go to a Lynx game
• See a show at the Guthrie
• Bike the entire Grand Rounds
• Go fly fishing
• Visit James J. Hill House
• Attend a meat raffle
• The Grand Meander
• St. Paul Winter Carnival
• Sunday brunch at Campiello
• Wabasha Street Caves
• Pavek Museum of Broadcasting
• Visit Keegan’s Pub
• A concert at the the state fair
• Animal judging at the state fair
• Mill City Farmers Market
• Bike the Greenway
• Minnesota Zoo
• Broomball
• Make lefse
• Miesville Mudhens
• Schaar’s Bluff
• Tour the state capitol
• Outdoor movie at the Walker
• Movie on the rooftop at Solera
• Renaissance Festive
• Concert at Pevey Plaza
• Autumn Brew Review
• The Walker
• Mill City Museum
• History Museum
• Bell Natural History Museum
• GLBT Pride Festive
• Cinco de Mayo in St. Paul
• Saint Patties day in St. Paul
• Milk Carton Boat Races
• Minnesota Orchestra
• Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
• Fringe Fest
• Fort Snelling
• Paddleboat on the Mississippi
• Minnesota Opera
• Weekend in Duluth
• Punch Pizza
• Grumpy’s
• Science Museum of Minnesota
• Nina’s
• Kensington Runestone
• Holidazzle
• Sea Salt Eatery
• Jay Cooke State Park
• Gooseberry Falls
• Two Harbors
• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s house
• Conquer both Minneapolis and St. Paul sky ways (I have Minneapolis’s nearly figured out)

This is just a tiny portion of the things there are to do in Minnesota and the Twin Cities area.  After starting this list I realized I wanted to limit myself so I could actually finish it by 2010.

Rules:  The photo  was taken somewhere within the Minneapolis/St. Paul 7 county area(PDF).   Put your guess in the comments, multiple guesses are permitted.  No prizes will be offered, other than the pride of knowing your city better than you ever should. Enjoy.

Of course as I say this, I have a list of things I want to do this year.  I’m calling them goals, not resolutions, and sticking with things that can be done in a short amount of time.  Here is my list, we’ll see how many I can check of by next December.

• Go on a blind date - I’m not sure why I want to do this, but over the last few months I’ve come to the conclusion that I think this would be fun.  I’m confident that even if we obviously were not right for each other, I could still show the girl a great time.
• Look up my relatives - My great-great-grandfather came through Saint Paul on his way to Montana.  I want to see if I can find any news clipping about him.
• Win something - I’m the master of losing games of chance.  I want to win $5 from a scratch ticket just so I can say I did it once.
• Learn to ice skate - I’m living in Minnesota and feel it’s time to learn the essential part of the state sport.  This way if I end up raising a family here I can teach my kids how to skate instead of them teaching me.
• Go on a solo vacation - I want to travel somewhere for a long weekend  completely by myself.
• Bike a century - I’ve been biking regularly for the last three summers.  Last year I biked 40 miles in a single ride.  This year I want to try and push it to 100.
• Finish my 2009 MN to do list - You’ll have to wait until Thursday to see it.

How about you, do you have any New Year Goals?

Since I just stopped visiting dating sites but never  canceled my memberships (well at the free sites at least) I still get occasional emails trying to lure me back.  Here is what the profile of the person I was matched with today said,

“I love to watch and play sports. I enjoy being in the outdoors. I like to camp, fish and hunt and am not afraid to get dirty.”

First, I want to be clear that I like a girl who enjoys sports and don’t want a girl who screams whenever a little dirt ends up on her shoes.  But I don’t really wants to date a girl who fishes and hunts.   I’m not that into the outdoors, granted I enjoy hiking, and occasionally will jump on a four wheeler and get covered in mud, but most of the time I would prefer going to a museum, checking out a show, or enjoying a nice dinner.  My idea of enjoying the outdoors involves a camera not a fishing pole.

I’m not saying that this girl wouldn’t interest me, but if the site wants to show me how great it is, especially after I know I filled out questionairs and a profile, it might want to consider tweaking some algorithms.  Then again, maybe I really do want a girl who can skin a deer and gut a fish.  At least I would get to learn how to cook the wildlife.

I was having issues with my Twitter plugin and it has been missing for the last week.  I had to replace it due to some weird compatibility issue with Wordpress 2.8, things are working now though and you can follow my Twitter activity from here again.

• The one decent article from CNN reviewing the year in celebrities.
• A Christmas kidnapping.  Don’t worry everything worked out fine.  (I like the idea behind that blog)
• Bigger is always better when it comes to insulation.
• Rick Reilly discusses the many reasons to hate Tyler Hansbrough.
• A very interesting story about a college basketball player who lost her memory after colliding with a teammate.
• xkcd details the usefulness of time spent in 11th grade.  This confirmed many of my suspicions.
• A series from NPR about the American spirit.  Created by Ketzel Levine who was laid off during production. (Via Kottke)
• And finally in celebration of the end of the Holiday Season, here is a very cool display at Rainbow Foods captured by Erica over at fresh.mn.

As promised, I’ll be giving you my 2009 Minnesota To-Do list on Thursday.  I may skip the Wendesday Where? this week due to being out of town again, but if I find a good photo I may get one up.

I’m starting to think that my family is trying to tell me something.  On Tuesday, I posted to Twitter that I had opened my parents Christmas present early since I was leaving and I couldn’t stand seeing it sitting there wrapped before I left.  I opened it and was ecstatic to find a Le Creuset saucepan.  This of course means that I can no longer use the excuse of not having good equipment to avoid cooking.

The other piece of evidence that they are attempting to fatten me up came after I had arrived in Bozeman.  My Mom’s family does a name drawing every year.  We have themes every year and this year the theme was Movie Night.  For my gift I received a stove top popcorn popper.  I’m excited for this gift, but again I’m fairly sure this is evidence in my family’s conspiracy.

The final sign is a BBQ tool set from my parents.  It’s another great gift, but to enjoy it I need to eat more.  I would take this a family wide conspircy except my brother got me The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  There are some conflicting plans and I’m working hard to unravel them. 

Well, enough of the conspircy theories, I had an uneventful morning of travel to Bozeman on Christmas Eve.  Christmas was wonderful we spent the day eating and watching basketball.  Afterward, we decided to take in a movie.  After reviewing our options we decided to go to Valkyrie.  We headed off to the movie theatre and realized about five minutes into the drive that the snow we thought was fairly light was turning into a small blizzard.  We would have turned around but we had already purchased tickets and had no choice but to brave the weather.  We were all glad that we did as Valkyrie was as good as advertised.  Christmas ended with four inches of new snow on the ground, everyone happy with their gifts, and a living room full of empty boxes.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Here is this today’s photo.  I’m out of town as of 5:00 this morning so no guarantees hints will be posted.  I’ll try and get a few up by Friday.  I won’t post the answer until 8 hours after the third hint is up.  I hope this one is harder than last week, but I think it could be another easy one.  The photo  was taken somewhere within the Minneapolis/St. Paul 7 county area(PDF).   No prizes will be offered, other than the pride of knowing your city better than you ever should. Enjoy.

Hint #1 First acquired in 1883 by the board of parks commissioners.

Hint #2 The 5th Fibinochi Number and the founder of the Union Fire Company

Hint #3 A cardinal direction and the side of a flowing body of water.