Ben Main's Blog: December 2005

As Christmas arrives, I have felt a release in many ways. The first semester of college is over, I have finished all of my essays, and I have left the Online Debate Network staff. As break starts, I have developed a new interest: learning about the web and exploring the options created by the competition between the search sites Google and Yahoo!. My preference is Google, though I have been recently drawn to Yahoo! Answers, a site where one can ask and answer any question that falls within the rules. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of low quality questions and most of my energy on the site has been spent trying to find worthwhile questions. I hope to find a solid interest over this break so that I don't stagnate, but this is beginning to look like a formidable task.

For Christmas, my family is traveling to Minneapolis to see my uncle, who is in alcohol rehab after getting his third DUI and trying to commit suicide. After the wonderful Thanksgiving at my other uncle's house there, I hope that the experience will be similar.

As well, things tend to change when one is gone for a while. My father broke up with his girlfriend, though he still shares a house with her. He moved into a new, smaller apartment in Neenah with his former employee Steve Herrick. He and my brothers have been playing a karioke game and one of the presents he gave today was DDR, which means that now there will be singing as well as dancing.

My mother hasn't changed much. She is still rather neurotic though I am able to joke with her a bit. My brother Kit still enjoys a level of control and Ian is still rather mellow.

I am growing both my hair out and trying to grow a beard, though the results have been a bit substandard as of yet. We'll see if it works before the second semester starts in January.