AKA Abraham Bacoln

First off I have to apologize to Alison, apparently, because she doesn’t understand that I’m not a pre-blogger, I’m a post-blogger. I didn’t announce my visit to Richmond to see Trey and Megan because I’m not much of an announcement guy. Or at least that’s not how I think of myself. I do think of myself as charming, handsome, and charismatic, so there’s that.

So yeah, I’m here (still) in Richmond, VA. I’m leaving first thing in the morning though to go back home and back to WORK because by Gums that’s what one is supposed to do on Spring Break, not all this ridiculous gallivanting about, seeing new places and enjoying the company of friends.

I’ve had a lot of fun the past few days, but most of it was not really even events but simply being around the Trey and the Megan. I miss my friends. I’m glad I got to see them.

Oh, and you can see them. Not in any sort of interactive fashion, really, but … you know, see. OH HEY GUESS WHO ELSE IS THERE? If you’re already a winner at the trivia game: People That Live in Richmond, VA and With Whom Kevin is Friends then you know the answer is Jason Coleman and Angela Dyer. Or is her last name Coleman? I think it’s Dyer. I think of her as Angela Dyer so that must be right, for I am infallible. Occasionally. If you’re lucky.

Okay I should go to bed. I will probably make more words later.

The best part of today was standing in a trash can.

Today is an important day. Today is (for me) the first Day of Shorts for the year 2007. Sure, I’ve worn shorts around the house, but today I wore them OUTSIDE. It is WARM and I am appreciative. I show this appreciation by wearing shorts, as you may already have figured out. This pleases the weather gods because they like to look at my studly leg muscles.

Also, I’m gonna have to buy new shorts soon. The ones I have used to be kinda loose. Now that I’ve lost even more weight, they’re edging into the realm of too loose, which is a Bad Thing. There’s only so much leg that the weather gods like to see at once, and it doesn’t include all the way up to the butt. If my shorts fall down it may get cold again, and right quick.

I’ve been eating a ton of toaster pastries lately (you know, non-name-brand Pop Tarts) because … see, I don’t usually look at advertising. I am Generation X, I am a product of Saturday Morning Cartoon Syndrome where every commercial was a blaring advertisement and every cartoon was a commercial, and none of the toys actually functioned as promised. So yeah, I tend not to notice ads. I have been trained since childhood to tune them out. GUESS THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT SO WELL FOR YOU, DID IT, MARKETROIDS?

Those guys, I swear …

Aaaaaaaanyway, I went in to Kroger the other day to get some toothpaste and I practically ran in to some aisle stack of a nice pleasing arrangement of geometric shapes. I turned to look at this huge pile of smallish boxes, and there above them were the magic words – TEN FOR TEN DOLLARS. That’s right.

A box of toaster pastries.

For a dollar.

I will not tell you how many I bought other than to say it was less than ten but far more than one.

That’s why I’m eating toaster pastries. Right now. If you want some you can come over and have some.

Would you be willing to try hickory-smoked raisins?

More importantly, do you think you would enjoy them?

Is it really insomnia if it’s not so much that you can’t fall asleep, but instead that you never want to go to sleep? For the past two weeks or so I’ve been staying up far too late – sometimes on school work, sometimes on photographs, sometimes on nothing at all.

I feel like crap the next day, and I know the night before that I will feel like crap the next day – and still I do it. I just don’t want to go to bed. I don’t feel tired. I don’t want to sleep.

Is it insomnia? Or just stupidity?

Yes, I’m being intentionally dramatic.

Today I allowed myself to be guilted and coerced by my boss into donning our company mascot uniform (please don’t ask) for our grand opening. Just for a while. I did it because she asked, and because I knew I could entertain.

And I did. Everyone laughed. At some point I had Mary literally lying on the floor, doubled up and almost unable to breathe.

The whole time, all I could think of was this quote:

“A man goes to the doctor. Says he’s depressed. He says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. The doctor says “The treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him, that should pick you up.” The man bursts into tears. He says “But doctor… I am Pagliacci.””

From “The Adventures of Mark Twain” (1985):

Where in the wide wide world of Cookeville can I find some decent 2 oz polyethylene bottles (like so)? I’ve looked at Kroger, several drugstores, and (ugh) Wal-Mart hoping to find something like that in the travel containers section. No luck. I don’t remember seeing them at any of the camping stores, but maybe I’m wrong.

Don’t tell me I’m gonna have to order them off of the internet. Seems silly – they’re just little bottles! Surely they are around here somewhere. I’d pick some up at REI in Nashville but I’m not going there any time soon and I’d like to have them within a reasonable time frame.

Anyway, that’s just more useless complaining by yours truly. You got any idea where they may be hiding, you let me know.

Does anyone know of a ‘degrees of separation’ tool for Flickr? Back in the day when I used to use LiveJournal regularly I was always amused by Pete Krawczyk’s LiveJournal Connect tool (random users manningkrull and toddalcott used for demonstration purposes only). I could never find anyone that was over five relationships away from my journal – even random users in Russia had some tenuous connection to me.

Anyway, I know Flickr has published a great bit of API junk, and I was wondering if anyone had done this yet. I couldn’t find an example in a few minutes of searching teh intarnets so I figured I’d ask you.

I found this in my parents’ spice rack. It’s absolutely fascinating to me, though I think they were embarrassed by its age and what that implies about their culinary endeavors. I love the colors, the fonts, the styling – everything about the visuals is fantastic and just retro enough to be cool.

I also love the use of the words “Sea Food” and “Prepared Mustard” on the back label. Those really drive home the temporal disparity we got going on here.

But wait – the best part is the 79¢ stamped on the bottom. Now, this is very crude calculation here, but according to Froogle the average price of a bottle of tarragon around this size is $4.00-ish. If I dump that information into an inflation calculator and work backwards, it turns out that $4.00 in 2005 dollars is $0.79 in 1970 dollars. I can’t believe that this bottle of Tarragon is from 1970 … or is it?!

Dunh dunh dunnnnnnn-n-n-n-n-h!

and of course, you can view the larger size for better detail