There's going to be a new version of Survivor starting in February. This time it is located somewhere in the jungles of South America. They're making a format change so that it will be a tribe of eight men competing against a tribe of eight women. That should make it interesting. The last Survivor in Thailand seemed to lose some of its steam during the second half because all the controversial characters had been voted off. I guess they thought of dividing the teams by gender because of the legendary Amazon womem. It will be interesting to see how the two teams approach problems. It is not exactly a battle of the sexes, but it will be a close proximity. There is also a woman who is deaf. I think that she reads lips and can hear some sounds with a hearing aid. I hope that they play fair and don't automatically vote her off first, unless of course she deserves it. I think that it is going to be a very close match.

There's supposed to be another snowstorm later today. It's funny how I never used to care that much about the weather. I've never seen a day that I didn't like. Now that I have to travel more it has become a big concern. Even weather that does not directly hit Chicago can impact O'Hare airport. Flights get delayed or canceled and everything gets backed up whenever the weather turns bad. It's not the bad weather that I mind, but the hassle and uncertainty and especially the waiting in airports. Then again, if life were always easy it would become boring.
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I read that the Chinese government has started blocking all the blogs on this blogspot site in China. They gave some vague reasons for doing so, but I think that they want to crack down on the free flow of ideas. That is so sad.

I've started reading The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln. He is without a doubt one of the brightest men who ever lived. I always find it fascinating that at the most critical times in history, someone rises to the challenge. I found it interesting that Abe did not actually want to go to war to abolish slavery. He wanted to contain it within the existing slave states and prevent its spreading to the territories and non-slave states. Similar to the way that the USA tried to contain the spread of Communism. He felt that over time, the slavery issue would resolve itself as each state voluntarily abolished slavery. I wonder how this country would look today if that had happened.
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I also found interesting how many common sayings that he started such as don't change horses in the middle of a stream and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. My favorite is his saying that "A man's legs should be long enough to reach the ground". I have a feeling that a lot of his jokes went right over people's heads.