Cordova IceWorm Festival 2012

You may not expect Cordova’s biggest event of the year to be right in the middle of the winter, especially considering the winter we’ve been having!  But it is quite the to-do in these parts.  Ice Worm Festival was created to shake Cordovans out of their winter blues (and force them to dig out of their igloos).  It’s named after a tiny creature called the Iceworm that not only lives, but thrives in the icy landscape of Cordova’s Childs, Miles, Sheridan, Scott, and Saddlebag glaciers.  Iceworm Festival is about celebrating Cordovan fortitude and grit, but this year it was also about breaking free from our recent Snowpocalypse and thanking those that helped us dig out of it!

The event usually lasts Thursday-Sunday and the events include a wide variety of spectacles including:

• The ever-aniticpated Iceworm Tail Hunt (a scavenger hunt that lasts all week, with one clue per day)
• Historical displays at the Cordova Museum
• Photo Contest & Iceworm Photo Show
• Variety Show, complete with the crowning of Miss Iceworm & Citizen of the Year

Siri and Me

Working for a wireless company, I get to play with cell phones all day.  But now, the fun you can have with phones has gone to a whole new level.  We all know you can play games, facebook, check email take awesome pictures.  But did you know that your phone can now have its own personality?  Enter iPhone 4S, and its A-List personal assistant, Siri.

Never heard of Siri?  Well, she’s all the rage right now!  She’s even starring in a new movie:

Just kidding. But it wouldn’t be the first time Artificial Intelligence has revolted against humanity in the films (that would be 2001: A Space Odyssey).  So, what is Siri?  Apple describes her as,

TGIF – Thank Goodness it’s Fiber!

Although good nutrition is always a top priority when you’re shoveling 8 hours a day, I’m not talking about bran flakes here.

Here’s a funny fiber ad ran in the local newspaper recently

When something like the Snowpocalypse hits, I don’t know about you, but my favorite things to do are:

1. Curl up and stream a Netflix movie set in some place nice and warm like Hawaii or California
2. Facebook until I can’t see straight.  When something as big as Snowpocalypse happens and everyone is sent home from work, it’s the best place to hear ALL the gossip!
3. Get on the phone and brag to all my Colorado friends about the amazing ski conditions here (as if my car can even make it up to the ski hill right now… but they don’t need to know that part!)

Hello, iPhone 4S!

So, for months everyone has been waiting for the illusive (and now ficticious) iPhone 5.  Well, we got the word today that we can keep waiting, but Apple is not making it anytime soon.  Forgive my sarcasm, my patience has been worn thin by this cat-and-mouse game.

But don’t worry, Apple can’t stand still for long.  The iPhone 4’s we all bought last year must be made obsolete!  Enter iPhone 4S.  So what does the “S” stand for?

• Stand-in
• Sort-of new
• Seriously?
  

  photo courtesy mashable.com

All kidding aside, one thing you have to say for Apple, they didn’t release a dud.  At least this newest iPhone has some legs to stand on.  Here’s what we have to look forward to in the newest chapter in iPhone history.  The biggest features of iPhone 4S are

Local Loyalty

I recently watched the movie “Roger & Me“, a documentary by Michael Moore about a town called Flint Michigan that was desolated when a the largest auto plant (and main industry) in town moved their manufacturing to cheaper labor in China.  Some would blame General Motors then-CEO, Roger B. Smith (the namesake of the movie) for this malicious act.  But, although I acknowledge his misdoings in the matter, I don’t know if it was all his fault.  We’ve all heard the stories of small towns being eaten alive when Wal-Mart moves into town.  But it’s not always an army of big-box stores that beats up small-town economies.  Most the time, it’s a series of little choices that you make, and I make, and our aunt’s cousin’s boyfriend makes.  Just like in Flint, Michigan, communities can grow exponentially or wither into oblivion simply based on our buying trends.

This is a scary thought, isn’t it?  You start a life somewhere:  lay down some roots, enroll your kids in a school system you trust, maybe buy a house, pay your taxes… Then, next thing you know, your neighbors are moving, the community center is going under due to low tax revenues, and your favorite coffee shop just closed down.