Mild Amusement

At one point during my recent road trip, we stopped off in Sioux City, Iowa.  There wasn't anything we really wanted to see or do there, but it wasn't too far out of the way, and we figured we'd check it out.  We were more or less passing through from South Dakota to Nebraska, and we chose to go through this particular city to get there.  I suppose being hungry and wanting some lunch didn't hurt, either. It was almost a decision we came to regret.  We didn't really know the town, so we just drove through downtown and then a nearby area to find something to eat.  We finally settled on a Mexican place.  It wasn't really a restaurant, because you didn't go inside.  It was like a really big food stall, with some benches outside.  It was pretty deserted when we got there, but we ordered some food and sat down to eat. Now, there were a few other people around, but they weren't very chatty.  My friend doesn't exactly blend in at a Mexican restau...

I went on a road trip with a friend through many of the Midwest states recently.  Neither of us had been to Mt. Rushmore (South Dakota) before, so we figured we'd check it out.  And since we were in the neighborhood, we'd stop by as many nearby states & attractions a we could.  We finally settled on flying in to Minnesota, flying out of Montana, and figuring out the rest as it came up. It was a good trip, and I had fun.  During this trip, though, I came to respect the name " Xlerator ."  For those of you too lazy to click on the link, it's a normal-looking automatic hand dryer.  Let me assure you, however, that these things are most definitely not normal. I'm not even sure I remember where I first saw one of these devices (maybe my brain is just trying to block out the memory).  Regardless, I had just finished washing my hands, and I moseyed over to the hand dryer.  It turned on, and when it did, I thought that it seemed to be blowing air ...

A while back, my sister sent me a link to a YouTube video.  Specifically, she sent me a link to the  Airplanes song by B.O.B . (side note: it took me a few minutes of researching both the artist's name and punctuation rules to determine the proper way to end that last sentence).  I liked it after the first listen, so I tucked the song's name into the back of my head for future reference. Now, when it comes to music, I don't usually download songs right away.  I usually wait a little while on them, just to make sure that I really do like the song in question after listening to it multiple times.  It's sort of like making sure it'll stand the test of time, only "the test of time" only takes about a week or so.  In the meantime, I end up going to YouTube if I want to listen to that song.  In fact, that's the other part of the test; if I find that I'm constantly looking up the same song, I should probably just go buy the track. Yes, you read that co...

When I was younger, my mom would send my siblings and I to a different room if we were bawling or throwing a tantrum.  Her reasoning was simple: she didn't want to deal with it.  So she came up with a very simple solution; the tantrum thrower in question would go to the other room, and let the tantrum run its course.  She would go about her usual day, and at some point, the kid and the adult would meet back up again to carry on with their day, minus the shenanigans. Now, you might think that a kid throwing a tantrum would be a poor choice for someone to leave unsupervised.  Heck, I know a similar thought has crossed my mind before.  However, my mom somehow made it work.  She managed to convince all three of her children that a trip to the crying room was not an invitation to cause mischief, despite the fact that we were in a foul mood and we technically had no direct adult supervision in that moment.  I'm not even sure that she had to put the fear of...

I've heard it said that fear is a good motivator, and to a certain extent, I agree.  It's not that I'm trying to be all Machiavellian about how I deal with people, but I think that there are certain things you should be scared about.  For example, if you have a kid, you should be a little worried about screwing up how you raise him.  It's that little bit of fear that drives people to be good parents, I think.  You want a good way to constantly keep the kid's best interest at heart?  Be scared of screwing up. Anyhow, I've found that this mentality is applicable to other aspects of life (I don't have any kids floating around anywhere).  In particular, it reminds me to be good about having my morning snack.  See, I usually try to have a fruit around 8AM, because it keeps me going until lunch time.  It's also a good way for me to maintain some balance in my diet, as it's a built-in time to have some fruit every day.  However, that's also righ...

I happen to be the oldest of three siblings, so when I was growing up, I was often tasked with helping out my younger siblings.  Not that they were incompetent or incapable by any means, but that's just how it goes when you're the oldest child.  Among other things, I've helped my siblings write papers, prepare speeches, prep resumes, and write code (my sister's major was very similar to mine).  Let's just say that it's not a rare occurrence. Still, my sister managed to surprise me.  She's into arts & crafts type stuff, so she's constantly working on different projects.  That's not my thing, but I can appreciate the work she puts in.  She also knows that I'm generally far less capable about these things than she is, so it's not like we talk about the details of the construction or anything.  Nevertheless, she randomly asked me for help on one of these projects. It turns out that the project in question was this  origami box thing that s...

As I was sitting at work on Friday morning, a friend asked me what I had planned for the weekend.  Well, truth be told, not too much.  My recently-married friend was having a very informal party to celebrate the wedding on Saturday, and I was planning on playing basketball with some friends on Sunday.  But otherwise, I was planning on a slow weekend to rest up and catch up odds & ends.  Alos, the Mild Ex was heading down to Disneyland (I couldn't go because of the afore-mentioned wedding party), so I was left to my own devices to entertain myself.  I didn't have a problem with that, but I figured it wouldn't exactly be an action-packed few days. Now, I had sniffled a little bit through lunch on Friday, but I was thinking it might be an allergy attack.  And under most circumstances, even a little non-allergy sniffling goes away after a good night's rest.  In fact, I don't even count the sniffles as being sick unless it lasts longer than a day. ...