Twizzlers

Every day after lunch I grab an individually wrapped Twizzler out of the candy jar on the receptionist's desk. Suffice to say, I'm hooked.

I wasn't always a Twizzler man. I used to prefer Red Vines. Or those seemed to be more accessible. 'Cause you see, I rarely buy candy myself, but will certainly help myself to the candy goodness of others, and giant buckets of Red Vines tended to be more popular than Twizzlers. In any case, when I rediscovered Twizzlers, I thought to myself, Twizzlers are kinda bland. Not nearly as packed with flavor as Red Vines. And Twizzlers are more of a brittle chewey and not as a gummy chewey that Red Vines are.

For a brand name candy, they certainly didn't seem that great. But for some reason I kept coming back, day after day. Part of it was the novelty of it. They're shaped like straws! Candy straws! Not just the same old wrapped hard candy. Now, over time, I've really grown to really like them. I appreciate the more subtle flavors and how I don't have to work so hard (chewing wise) to eat them. Mmmmm... Twizzlers. That doesn't mean I still won't eat your Red Vines. Just that Twizzlers have won me over.

You could say, they've "roped" me in. Ha ha ha.

Foodtography

I've found myself more and more taking pictures of the food I eat.  I used to think it was weird when people would post photos of their food.  It seemed uninteresting to me.  But I've since changed my opinion of foodtography, at least when traveling.  I take a lot of photos like the good tourist that I am.  Eating local cuisine is good portion of the joy of traveling, so it seems like a logical extension to photograph the food you try.  Especially since it doesn't cost anything to take a photo with a digital camera.

Home Depot

I moved apartments about two weeks ago. Yesterday, I browsed through Home Depot looking for anything I might need for my new pad. I ended up buying just a power strip and some duct tape. But walking through every aisle of Home Depot made me wish I was more of a handyman, so at the very least I could make my own lightsaber hilt and proton pack plus neutrona wand. Obviously I'm not gonna be able to make a real lightsaber or a real ghostbustin' device, but being able to put together battery-powered LED lights would be nice. Oh, and I guess to you know repair things or whatever.

Woodshop

One of my favorite classes in middle school was woodshop. In fact, I took it all three years from sixth to eighth grade. Looking back it seems kinda crazy - that a sixth grader was permitted to operate power tools and bandsaws and belt sanders. How old were we in sixth grade? Eleven I think. But eventually, when you know, I have kids, could I imagine letting my eleven year old kid take woodshop? When I was sixth grade I felt pretty mature, didn't feel like a kid, so I think that's something to keep in mind. Despite how tiny they look now, kids are smarter and more savvy than we might think. After all, we were all once kids. It's just too bad that woodshop has been canceled at my old middle school, 'cause it was really fun.

Side note, I think the only "serious" injury I sustained from woodshop was actually trying to cut... felt. With a box cutter. I had the box cutter upside down, and pressed my thumb against the bladed side. There was lots of bleeding, but my blood clotting kicked in and I healed like Wolverine. And then I judo chopped that box cutter.

Jaywalkers

I hate jaywalkers. Let me be more specific. I hate jaywalkers who TAKE THEIR TIME. If you want to dash across the street when there's no incoming traffic, be my guest. If you can make it across without requiring a driver to half to slow down, fine. BUT if you slowly saunter across the street, such that I have to slow my car to a crawl, then you my friend, or really that should be enemy, are on my hate list. If there were only some way to teach these people a lesson... you know... without running them over. Because that's the lesson they need to learn! They're lucky I have catlike reflexes.

Drag Me To Hell

... I don't really want to be dragged to hell. That's just the name of a movie.



I don't particularly like horror movies. I don't like loud creepy noises, things jumping out at me, or grotesque images. But occasionally I will watch one -- provided that it;s good. Last week, I watched Drag Me To Hell, which has 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Before that I watched The Orphanage, which is 86% on RT. Before that it was probably the Resident Evil movies. I kinda equate people who like Horror movies to people who like Spicy Foods. They're spicy movies that target the senses beyond what is comfortable. But I do like spicy foods.

So back to Drag Me To Hell. It's actually a fun horror movie. Pretty much right from the beginning it was trying to scare you. And it wasn't torture pr0n. There were some gross out moments, but nothing that relied on blood and guts. Where the Orphanage was more atmospheric in it's scariness, Drag Me To Hell had things jumping at you and then quickly relieving the tension with ridiculous gags, like projectile vomiting. Director Sam Raimi has a quirky sense of humor. I haven't seen any of his old horror movies, but you can certainly see the similarities in his style of directing for the Spider-Man movies.

Horror movies are fun with large audiences, when other people are also jumping in their seats or making comments about how coming to watch this movie was such a bad idea. When the movie is over, you feel good that you "survived" the experience. According to Michael, Drag Me To Hell was one of the scariest movies he's seen. And he whined like a little baby that the speakers in the theater was too loud. And then he huddled in a corner with his hands covering his ears. JK. Well some of it is true, you can guess which parts.

Although Drag Me To Hell was a pretty "fun" experience, I still don't like to be scared in general. But I am perfectly willing to watch a good horror movie.

Ads

When Google started providing targeted ad service, I always wondered how they could generate enough revenue from people clicking on these ads. I know I never click on them -- okay maybe a couple times a year. Even if people are tricked into clicking on ads, as people get more Internet savvy, wouldn't people learn to eventually navigate the advertisement minefield? I'm sure some people intentionally click on ads, but what percentage is this? And when people expect everything on the Internet to be FREE, understanding that there will be ads everywhere, but avoidable, can purely ad supported sites even stay afloat in the long run?

Now that the economy sucks, I feel obligated to randomly click on ads on the sites I frequently view, so that they can earn 10 cents from me each time I visit. I will single-handedly save my favorite sites from a pitiful demise.