This being Fat Tuesday, a.k.a. the final night of Mardi Gras, NOLA.com’s New Orleans webcams may be of some interest.

It’s Fat Tuesday, which means that: 1) I wish I was in New Orleans right now (next year, dammit), and 2) Lent starts tomorrow. In view of which, a question for my blog readers: what, if anything, are you giving up (or pledging to do differently, etc.) during Lent?

Myself, I’ve never been much for the whole “giving stuff up during Lent” business, probably because there aren’t many things that I do regularly which I regret or feel guilty about (which may help explain why I’m not much of a Catholic… hehe), and also because I have no will power and am all about instant gratification. :) However, in view of my recent slow-but-steady transformation into a “skinny fat guy” (I was dreadfully thin when I started college, but I’ve gained half of my own body weight since then, which is a good thing except that the last 20 pounds or so have gone directly to my gut), I think perhaps I’ll give up Cheetos for Lent.

On the other hand: Cheetos are so yummy… how long is Lent again? ;)

For her part, Becky advocates making “Lenten resolutions” instead of necessarily “giving things up.” Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone by setting some concrete research goals for myself and declaring those to be Lenten resolutions. I’ll need to be in good shape with both of my papers by Easter Sunday, so that wouldn’t be a bad idea. And this way, if I fail, I’d be courting not just the wrath of Mayer or Kaveny (or Becky), but the wrath of God… hehe.

Anyway, enough about me… what are y’all doing for Lent, if anything?

On this Valentine’s Day, Becky ponders the meaning of love.

Meanwhile, 1LG offers a guide to buying roses.

BoingBoing points out that Valentine’s Day is for infidels. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

And Scott F. sends along this list of 50 romantic dates in each of the 50 states.

P.S. USCroger also ponders the age-old question, “What is love?” (”…baby don’t hurt me…”)

I think the answer is obvious: this is love. (For those too lazy to click the link: it’s a news story about a mother cat adopting a six-day-old puppy at a pet shelter in Connecticut. Awwww. There’s a picture.)

Meanwhile, Kristin’s friend Kenlyn offers a list of overheard statements about love. My personal favorite: “I said I love you and think I want to spend my life with you, but right now I’m in Safeway and I can’t find anything, so I’ll call you later.” Heh.

Incidentally, Becky and I had a very nice Valentine’s Day. We had dinner at LaSalle Grill, and I can report that their Long Islands are — surprisingly enough — considerably better than the Backer’s. ;)

Today is Groundhog Day, and it seems Brett Favre saw his shadow, so there will be 16 more weeks of Packers games with Favre as quarterback.

Punxsutawney Phil, however, failed to see his shadow — the first time that’s happened since 1999 — and thus predicted an early spring. Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam agreed. Residents of South Bend, however, may disagree, in light of the forecast for highs in the single digits and lows below zero over the next several days. Early spring, my eye.

…here’s my video of our countdown to the New Year on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Actually, there are two countdowns. The first is conducted only by me, as I look at my atomic-synchronized clock and count down the final five seconds before midnight. The second countdown, by the whole crowd, occurs one minute later. For some reason, the folks in Tempe were fully 60 seconds late with the “official” countdown — so really, everyone was counting down to 12:01 AM, not midnight. (No, my clock was not wrong. I double-checked it later against my computer’s clock, which is also centrally synchronized. My clock was right; the official clock was wrong.)

When I pointed out that midnight had come and gone, my brother-in-law Casey — who, um, may have been a wee bit inebriated :) from a few trips to the beer gardens — began repeatedly yelling to no one in particular, “DROP THE F***ING FLOWER!!!,” referring to the flower-like object (actually a “sunburst“) that was supposed to drop at midnight. Heh. His yells were audible in my live audio blog, and they’re very audible in this video, so I have to put a Warning: Profanity! label on it. But if you don’t mind the swearing, it’s quite funny. Enjoy:

(For a profanity-free version, showing only the final five seconds of the “official” countdown and then the beginning of the fireworks, click here.)

As you can see, we were quite a distance away from the stage. For a much closer view, check out this YouTube video:

That same YouTuber, “weener09,” has a bunch of other videos of headline act Third Eye Blind performing various songs earlier in the evening.

Anyway, you can also view my photo gallery of New Year’s Eve 2006-07. A few highlights:

Brotherly bonding: Casey and me in the beer garden.

Also in the beer garden: check out the size of that garbage bin! Holy crap!

Shortly before midnight, in a totally unexpected pleasant surprise, we ran into Diane Huffman, my former next-door neighbor with whom I’m been friends since infancy, and her fiance Josh. They just happened to be in Arizona using up free miles that they got during the trip out for our wedding. So, this is a picture of Diane, me and Becky. Note also the stranger sticking his Boise State cap into our picture. Heh. As I noted in this post, there were a TON of Broncos fans there.

Again, here’s the full photo gallery. ‘Twas a fun night. And somehow, I have a feeling that yelling “DROP THE F***ING FLOWER” at some point on New Year’s Eve is going to become a new Zak/Loy tradition. :)

Twins, born two minutes apart, in different years. Cool.

Counting down to 2007: “20… 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 13… 12… 11… 10…” Priceless.

…here’s a look at the ball dropping in Times Square:

I chose the NBC coverage because Carson Daly & co. had the good sense to shut up, and let the pictures speak for themselves, during the countdown and celebration — as opposed to, say, Fox News, where one of the anchors was clearly drunk (”they’re clountin’ down”) and the other offered such insightful commentary as “28 seconds, folks, until the year 2007, and what a year it has been.”

Also via YouTube, some views from people on the street: here, here and here.

UPDATE: Here’s the Dick Clark version. Dick sounds rather inebriated, himself.

Happy New Year from Arizona!!!

Er, and from Utah, where the BrendanLoy.com server is located. :)

With apologies to the Pacific Time Zone and points west, this will be my last automated “Happy New Year” post of the evening. Have a great year, everybody!!! Good luck with your resolutions, to say nothing of your hangovers!

Also, go Boise State, shock the world!!! And of course, Fight on Trojans, Beat the Wolverines!!!

One hour to go here in Arizona!!!

It’s 2007 in New York and the rest of the Eastern Time Zone. And since my blog timestamps are in EST, I guess it’s officially 2007 here on The Irish Trojan’s Blog as well. So, Happy New Year!!! On the other hand, the BrendanLoy.com server is located in Salt Lake City, which is in the same time zone as Tempe, where Becky, Casey and I are still partying and counting down the end of 2006 right now. :) Two hours to go…

It’s 2007 in Atlantic Canada, Bermuda, much of the Caribbean, and parts of South America. In New York, there’s just an hour to go. (Here’s a live webcast from Times Square.) Here in Arizona, we’ve got three hours left in 2006.

There are still 90 minutes until the ball drops in Times Square, but the Newfies are partying at this (half-)hour. Woohoo! Happy 2007, eh?

Becky, Casey and I are en route to Tempe for the Insight Fiesta Bowl Block Party right now. I actually typed up this post over an hour ago, and set it to publish at the designated time. There will be a few more automated posts as the night goes on, in addition to whatever mobile posts I might blog.

…and everyone else in the British Isles (and Iceland, Portugal and far-western Africa).

It’s now officially 2007 in Greenwich Mean Time, a.k.a. Coordinated Universal Time, a.k.a. UTC, a.k.a. Zulu time.

Five hours to go in New York. Seven hours to go here in Arizona.

Lots of New Year’s webcams here. Times Square webcams here.