Finals are over and as I await the bad news, I went home to beat the rainstorms pounding the Bay Area today. Chances are it will also rain tomorrow, Friday, December 20, which is a shame. In fact, all my memories of the 20th have been rainy days. But, (dusting off my old weather stuff from school, I know, nerd alert), the record rainfall in San Jose on the 20th is 0.51 inches, well below the records for other days in December. While weather is unpredictable, based on history, there is a 29% chance it will rain tomorrow and it looks like nature will beat the odds.

You don't know what happens on the 20th? Shame on you. You know but don't care? I don't blame ya.

Here are some things I've noticed in the past few days.

America Online won the patent on instant messaging. As a result, those of you who use Yahoo or MSN Messenger for your chatting needs may need to switch over to AIM soon or pay a hefty fee. Then again, AOL may not take advantage of their patent. Ha, fat chance.

I was flipping the channels and caught Final Jeopardy. The answer was, "This man (name I forgot), who died in 2001, was the last surviving veteran of this war." First guy guessed World War I, good guess but no. Second guy answered the Civil War. What!?! That would mean the guy lived to be at least 140 years old. This is Jeopardy people. I thought smart people got on the show. The third guy redeemed the group, correctly answering the Spanish American War.

Rick Rosner, the producer of CHiPs back in the 70s, is coming back to make a new show, CHiPs. This one is different he insists. This one is set in the Bay Area. Hmm, I don't about you but while I did like the original show, that reunion movie set in modern-day was a disaster. Changing the locale makes matters worse. Who wants to watch two guys in motorcycles weaving through rush hour traffic?

Worst premise for a movie coming out next year has to be The Core. Scientists have discovered a way to artificially induce earthquakes. Why and how anyone would accomplish this is beyond me but they did it in this film. But as a side effect, the earth's core has stopped spinning, which can only mean disaster for the planet above. What to do? These same scientists figure the earth just needs a jump-start in the form of a nuclear bomb. Simple! All we have to do is drill to the center of the earth, plant the bomb, and get out before the thing explodes. Nothing like the movies to allow us to laugh in the face of disaster.