Last week while in the Brush Park area, it dawned on me that I had forgotten to send a rather important e-mail to someone. Being that I don’t have a Blackberry or e-mail on my phone and that I was too short on time to drive all the way back across town to send the e-mail from my place, I dug my laptop out of the trunk and crossed my fingers that I would pick up a signal.

Sure enough, I did.

Although Campus Martius Park is wireless, I thought it might be a good idea to search around online for a site that lists all of the WiFi spots near me, just in case I am not in that area of the city. Low and behold, I found what I was looking for at JWire.

If you are ever working downtown or in the Detroit area, you may want to consider checking the site out. Once there, you can search for WiFi spots based on location or proximity to a given area, filter for 802.11b or 802.11g, or find free spots, as well as those that charge a fee.

Here is the list I came up with when searching for free WiFi spots, both 802.11 b and g, within a five-mile radius of the downtown zipcode 48226. I have printed out a copy and now it’s in the pocket of my computer bag.

Lost in the red

Originally uploaded by mainegal.

I took my parents to the Conservatory on Belle Isle yesterday. It is a nice relief from the cold outside. The colors and humid air do wonders for a person.

I just read in the Detroit Free Press that 11 billion dollars has been spent on video games and gaming machines this past year (most around the holiday season) and 75% of adults in U.S. households play some sort of video game regularly. Add that to all of the time spent watching cable-television, plus a few more hours of internet browsing (work & home) and there’s no wonder why we’ve turned into a nation of fast food munching, short-attention spanned, “I Want It Now” (because my Game Reset jabb’n finger makes me see a world dependant upon my button presses) – blubber-asses.

When people take crazy death-defying chances on the freeway, I can’t help but think that somewhere in their joystick stunted brain they think they’re playing some virtual reality version of Grand-Theft Auto Detroit.

Mom & Dad – give your kids legos, tinkertoys, and building blocks. Read actual paper books to them. Give then crayons and paper. What the heck is our society going to resemble in another 15 years?! Resident Evil?

Classes start next Thursday for me, which means I’ll soon be spending hundreds on textbooks. I recall one semester at UM when I spent nearly $900 on books for four classes and barely cracked three of them. In fact, if anyone is interested in a never-opened Paleoanthropology textbook, let me know.

Anyway, ordering on Amazon has definitely kept costs down. I just get angry with the new editions that come out every year with minimal changes — perhaps the colors of a graph have been modified or some useless CD-ROM has been added. Last spring, I purchased a textbook that had just come out. I hated paying so much but figured maybe the buyback would be decent (yeah, right) since the course was only a couple months long. Nope. When I tried to sell it back, the manager told me a new addition was about to come out in the fall, so really, my new textbook was old. Two new editions in one year?! What kind of racket is this?

I know it’s tough everywhere and schools like Oakland Community College are looking for solutions. The Board of Trustees has requested that the College Academic Senate create a task force to explore ways of bringing book costs down. It’s about time that schools take a serious look at this problem — it’s a shame that these ridiculous textbook costs are preventing student enrollment.

Depending on my textbook costs, I may be selling one gently used kidney. I’ll let you know.

YMCA!!!

after a gluttonous holiday season, i have done what is the norm and set out to lose some weight… i knew it was coming, so i requested a membership to the Y as my Christmas gift from my wife… as a result, this morning i joined and worked out for the first time in a while…

i just gotta say that the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit is fantastic!!! in addition to the normal things you’d expect to find at a workout facility, they have a climbing wall (visible from the lobby), various lounges to relax in, flat panel screens for viewing throughout the building, and views of the various levels and mezzanines from each room in the facility… the Boll Family YMCA is quite modern, and the best thing about it is that it is very “Detroit”… while artistic and modern, it’s also industrial and tough… in addition, throughout the entire facility, views of Detroit’s picturesque downtown landscape are plentiful…

making a new year’s weight loss resolution??? check out the Boll Family YMCA…

As 2005 comes to a close, it is time for a little look back at the year here at Detroit Metblogs.

July
We went live in late July talking about the Big Tire, Cartunes and what we all love about Detroit. Oh, yea and we started bitching about drivers.

August
August brought post of complaints of gas prices, well wishes for New Orleans, thoughts on the primary race, the Woodward Dream Cruise, State Fair and adventures with out of town guest.

September
September brought the retirement of Maryann Mahaffey, fish flies, mayoral debates, adventures at the Lager House, Jazz Fest and Dally in the Alley, our first meetup, and our first controversial post on Cider Mills.

October
In October, we talked about Angels Night, Rosa Parks, the upcoming elections, All My Children’s Thorsten Kaye, the Detroit Marathon, Cafe de Troit’s closing, a proposed casino (most spammed post), and more sports.

Oh, and Real World Detroit… You know the Real World Detroit post is the most commented on post here at Detroit. You all have strong feelings about the idea.

November
November had our mayoral election, which frustrated many of us. But we enjoyed our tv watching with Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick on the Colbert Show and S. Epatha Merkerson taking a more leading role on Law and Order. The new book “American City” was discussed a couple times. Oh yea, and then the City Clerk asked for a recount because she lost the election.

December
Well, finals had many of us busy so we were a little quieter than usual in December. Of course, we discussed the holidays, our awful football team and the changes at United Artist Building. Jeff also started regularly posting cartoons.

What will next year bring? Well, the Super Bowl for sure but who knows what else Detroit will experience. We all look forward to the adventure.

Have a great New Year!

The Basics:
Chanukkah symbolizes the revolt of the Hellenistic Jews against the (ancient) Greek government who tried to assimilate them into their society and destroy their temple. The revolt was a success, and the temple re-dedicated. Part of the re-dedication was the lighting of an olive-oil lamp which only had a 1-day supply of holy oil in it, but which remained lit for a miraculous 8 days (signifying the 8 days of Chanukkah)

And So We Eat to Remember
For Chanukkah, it is a tradition to serve foods fried in oil. The most famous candidate is the potato latke (or for my gentile friends: the potato pancake). There are plenty of different ways to make the latke (most involve losing a little knuckle skin in the potato grating process) – here’s a recipe which I use:

4 Idaho potatoes
1 medium onion
2 eggs
3/4 cup matzah meal (bread crumbs can be substituted)
Lots of vegetable oil

1. Using a grater (or a madoline

ABC Conspiracy:

Its Xmas Day! The Detroit Pistons are playing the San Antonio Spurs. It

The Detroit Lions pulled off a last-minute – actually, last second – victory this afternoon and beat the New Orleans Saints 13 to 12.

In the final minutes of the game, Detroit trailed the Saints 12-10. Jason Hansen kicked a 39-yard field goal to win the game. This was the 16th time in Hansen’s career that he’s kicked a game winner.

The Lions finish the year 5-10.

UPDATE: Jack has informed me that there are 16 games in the season, when I thought there were only 15. Therefore, we’ll have to wait and see how the Lions actually finish…

What’s worse than last minute gift shopping is last minute holiday meal cooking. I found myself unexpectedly back at Meijers to pick up some trash bags and noticed quite a few people with a turkey in their shopping cart. I’m talking about the frozen-like-a-cement-block turkey mind you. Now, considering most households intend to serve their holiday supper at 3 pm tomorrow (why do people need to serve dinner three hours ahead of the usual time for holiday anyway?!) there’s no possible way that bird is going to be successfully defrosted in time. I mean, unless you have a microwave oven capacious enough for a 25 pound poodle — or a time machine — you’re not going to be able to soften up the bird.

Now I realize that many if not most supermarkets will be shutting down for the holiday — so I propose broasted turkey vending machines (like those that dispense snacks and candy bars (with the coils) only much larger coils) which offers a perfectly cooked turkey in your choice of sizes. You plunk in your debit card, key-in your bird’s particular coil, WHIRRRR Ker-Plunk! Holiday dinner waiting for you in the bin at the bottom.