It's Super Bowl Weekend

This weekend is one of the most anticipated of the year in this country, because it's the weekend of the Super Bowl. We now get to look forward to seeing whether the Patriots or Seahawks are better, along with stuff like Super Bowl parties, the halftime show, the commericals, side events like the "Puppy Bowl" and so on. This weekend and especially the day of the Super Bowl is a huge part of American culture. I love some parts of Super Bowl weekend, but others I just can't stand. But Super Bowl Sunday is still one of my favorite days of the year because of all the fanfare.

Snowstorm proves huge in Boston, not so much New York

A blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow in coastal areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine on Monday and Tuesday. The winter storm, nicknamed "Juno", was supposed to bring similar impacts to the New York City and Long Island areas, but it ended up moving further offshore before producing any massive effects.

I survived my first day of spring semester

Today was the first day of my two art classes for the spring semester at my college, and I did pretty well in both of them.

Our one-two punch of snow

Today we had a slow-moving band of snow that was the part of the lower end of a system that is bringing blizzard and nor'easter conditions to parts of New England, mainly coastal areas. Now we are getting a second band of moderate snow with a bit of sleet in the mix. Luckily, I was home all day, but I did have to clean the snow off my car (while it was still snowing). It looks like after a slow start, winter in Maryland is in full force with these latest snow and ice events.

My car partially removed of snow

For once, I'm busy

I made it to work today!

Back on Sunday I aborted my drive to work about a third of the way there because the roads were so icy from freezing rain and I even spun. Yesterday evening it snowed and I was afraid I would have to ride to work with my mom or her guy friend (who both have cars with better tires). But this morning my mom said it was probably safe for me to drive myself. My driveway was slushy and a bit icy, but the roads were all fine except for a little slush. I slowed down while driving across the two short bridges along the way in case they were icy. I had also checked traffic online before I left and also a local fire station's Facebook page but the roads were mostly problem-free. Needless to say I made it all the way to work this time. Oh, and I did already drive once since Sunday, and that was going to the bank on Tuesday when the roads were much better.

Maryland's new gubernatorial administration has begun

My state of Maryland today swore in its 62nd governor, Republican Larry Hogan. This is a state with a fairly Democrat majority.

My reaction to the State of the Union address

I watched the annual State of the Union address (#SOTU) via a live stream on YouTube, and (these are my own thoughts) I thought it was really amazing and encouraging. People can say what they want about it and our current politics in general, but I appreciated it because it really helped me open up to our current issues and what is the best way for us to come up with solutions to our problems.

It's Patriots-Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX

The NFL conference championship games have been played and two victors have been determined to play each other in Super Bowl XLIX (49) in Glendale, Arizona on February 1.

Surprise ice storm!

A few days ago, I heard that it was supposed to rain today. Just rain. Nothing wintry involved. But this morning as I was leaving to go to work, I soon noticed that it was in fact freezing rain. The roads were really slick and I had to go really slow. I live north of Baltimore and I work part-time at a store right by the Pennsylvania line. After a couple of nervous miles of icy driving, struggling to go up slick hills and almost losing control of my car multiple times (I even got sideways and brushed a guardrail), I decided to just turn around and go back home. I used extreme caution going back home, and when I got back I called work and told them I would not be showing up because I could barely drive and I had all but spun out while attempting to get there. They understood and said I made a good choice. I only made it about a third of the way there and only spent a little under 40 minutes away from home.

A couple of hours later, I heard that all of the roads by my store were closed, so I wasn't really needed up there anyway. My mom said she would have made me stay home and call out if she had been up when I left (she actually works at the same store and she was scheduled to be off). She also said I made a wise choice and was glad I did not get into a serious crash and badly hurt. Other people in the area weren't so lucky, as there were over 100 reported crashes in the northern Baltimore suburbs, some with injuries and even unfortunately a fatal one. There was also a 49-car pileup up in Philadelphia that happened right around the time I turned around and went home. Not long after that, I heard that there were 32 cars that had slid off a section of U.S. Route 1 back down here. So I should feel lucky that I got home safely in this surprise ice storm, and that I didn't get in a big crash.

My late holiday party

Cream of potato soup

We made cream of potato soup today that also had celery and mushrooms in it. It was a little thick but still tasted great. As always, I took pictures as we made the soup.

 Potatoes after peeling

 Celery and onions

 Diced potatoes

 Stirring in cheese

 Cheese in a measuring cup

The soup almost done cooking

Oh man

The real reasons I like being in college

Ever since I graduated from high school I've been happy to be in college, even if it's just community college. And I have my own reasons for that.

NFL conference championship games set

All four NFL divisional playoff games have been played, and now the field is down to four teams, two in each conference, who will play in the NFC and AFC championship games on Sunday to determine who will represent each conference in Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona. The games were plagued by disputed calls by referees that has sparked intense debates across the Internet.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Ravens once again visited the first-seeded New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts for the first AFC game. The Ravens were off a 30-17 win against their rival Steelers, the AFC North champions, in Pittsburgh; it was the Ravens' first playoff win against the Steelers in a series dating back to the 2001 season. Baltimore held two 14-point leads against New England during the game. In the third quarter, Ravens coach John Harbaugh was penalized for walking onto the field, apparently unhappy with a referee's call. In the last minutes, the Patriots stole the lead thanks to a touchdown pass by Tom Brady and won 35-31, denying the Ravens an upset. The Patriots are now going to their fourth straight AFC Championship Game; they played the Ravens two years in a row in that game, in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

The first NFC game was between the first-seeded Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers, who got into the playoffs with a losing record (7-8-1) because they won the NFC South, and their three rivals (Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) finished even worse. The Seahawks happened to be the first team to do this in 2010. Like that Seahawks team, this year's Panthers also managed to win their wild card game against the Arizona Cardinals (the hosts of this year's Super Bowl). The Panthers were favored to pull off an upset in Seattle, but the Seahawks ultimately took a 31-17 win. The Panthers and Seahawks previously played each other in the 2005-06 NFC Championship Game, which produced the Seahawks' first Super Bowl trip. This coincides with a potentially historic payment deal for Russell Wilson.

On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys took on the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in the second NFC game. The Cowboys beats the Packers' rivals the Detroit Lions 24-20 last week after an overturned call in their favor. The Packers scored the first touchdown, but the Cowboys soon took the lead after Aaron Rodgers turned the ball over, and kept it for most of the game. Near the end of the game, with the Packers up 26-21, the Cowboys' Dez Bryant appeared to catch a touchdown pass in the end zone, but the refs ruled the pass incomplete, and the Packers would go on to win, much to the dismay of Cowboys fans who had been enjoying a stellar season. (However, as I am a Washington Redskins fan, I couldn't be happier that the Packers won.)

The second AFC game was held in Denver shortly afterward. It pitted Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts against Peyton Manning and the defending AFC champion Denver Broncos. Manning of course used to be be a Colt and won Super Bowl XLI with them in 2007 ('06 season); he and the Broncos also lost the Super Bowl to the Seahawks last year. The Colts defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Indy in their wild card game. Luck performed very well and the Colts won 24-13. There were rumors that Broncos coach John Fox would be fired if they lost, but some sources denied that the Broncos ever said this. Like two of the previous three games, this one contained what some believed to be questionable calls by the refs.

Next week, the AFC Championship Game will be hosted by the Patriots and feature a highly anticipated showdown, three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady vs. Andrew Luck. The NFC Championship Game will be hosted by the Seahawks and pit Russell Wilson against Aaron Rodgers, both of whom have one Super Bowl win to their credit.

Need an NFL score? Just check Twitter

Twitter has a special NFL scoring feature where you can type the hashtag #NFL or a specific matchup (#XvsY) to find out the score of a game in progress. The feature also displays final scores of earlier games and start times of later games. So if you're on Twitter on a day of NFL action, you can just search #NFL or #(your team's game) to find out the score without having to go to the NFL website or Google. The scores come up in a box to the left of the screen, in place of the menu that is usually there. Twitter's scoring feature is really helpful during the playoffs, and especially the Super Bowl, which as far as I know is the most tweeted-about NFL game during the whole year.

It finally snowed again

After a month, we got another round of measurable snow in Maryland, mostly on Tuesday. At my house, it was only about two inches, but the roads were covered in some of the snow and also ice. Yesterday, although the sun was out for most of the day, there were a couple more brief snow showers.Then, the wind chills got down into the negatives last night and this morning, and we were under a wind chill advisory. But the sun was out most of the day today, except for a brief overcast period.

Desktop Ponies fails to disappoint

Desktop Ponies is a computer program made by and for bronies, older fans of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, that displays a bunch of moving pony pixel sprites with a huge variety of animations and movements on a user's desktop. Some of the sprites even interact with each other, and they can "talk" in the form of tooltips on the desktop with accompanying audio clips taken from actual episodes. The sprites are also programmed to re-enact several scenes from these episodes. Desktop Ponies is a few years old now and it's popularity has diminished a little, but it's still being updated with new versions and is still enjoyed by people in the fandom.

A strange weather pattern

My town will go from unseasonably warm to potentially snowy in the next couple of days. Today the temperature got up to the lower 60s. It's been even warmer than that at this time of the year in recent years, up to the lower 70s. But tomorrow things should settle down, with clear skies and normal temperatures. Snow is in the forecast from mid-morning to early afternoon on Tuesday. That would be our first measurable snowfall in a while. Several snowstorms have been forecast during the past month here, but ultimately amounted to rain, wintry mix or just plain overcast skies.

NFL playoffs are starting

The road to Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona has now opened to 12 NFL teams - six in each conference.

My 2015 Winter Classic story

Today I went to the NHL Winter Classic in Washington, DC. The Winter Classic is an outdoor hockey game held annually on New Year's Day, and this time Washington was hosting it. My Washington Capitals were playing the Chicago Blackhawks at the baseball stadium Nationals Park. The Capitals previously won the 2011 Classic against the Penguins in Pittsburgh and I went to that one too. But unlike that game, where I spent two nights in Pittsburgh, this was just a day trip to Washington. The Capitals won 3-2 and there was plenty of action on the way there.

2015 is upon us

It's now the year 2015. I can hardly believe it. It seems like the time is just flying by. I'm going to be 20 years old this year and (hopefully) halfway through college, which is hard for me to fathom. But I'm sure I'll get used to another new year, and I hope it will be even better than 2014, which for me didn't start as well, but things eventually got better for me and I became happier. Here's to a happy new year.