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Last night, just before I fell asleep, I quietly said to Jamie, “I want to get better at everything in every way.” For some reason (in my head) it sounded romantic.
She said, “Well, that pretty much covers everything.”
Then we laughed and laughed. I realized it was a pretty extreme statement the more I thought about it.
Even when they’re asleep they’re not asleep. Earthborn animals do this thing, inside their brains – a sort of mad firing-off of synapses, controlled insanity. While they’re asleep. The part of their brain that records sight or sound, it’s firing off every hour or two while they sleep; even when all the sights and sounds are complete random nonsense, their brains just keep on trying to assemble it into something sensible.
They try to make stories out of it. It’s complete random nonsense with no possible correlation to the real world, and yet they turn it into these crazy stories. And then they forget them. All that work, coming up with these stories, and when they wake up they forget almost all of them. But when they do remember, then they try to make stories about those crazy stories, trying to fit them into their real lives.
They’re practicing. They’re doing it all the time. Coming up with stories. Making connections. Making sense out of nonsense.
(Orson Scott Card, Xenocide)
China is going to land on the moon in the year 2012. They are going to “analyze the content and distribution of useful elements on the moon surface, measure the depth of lunar soil and explore space between the earth and the moon.”
What else is happening in 2012? Type “2012″ into google and take a look.
We went to Skateland with Craig’s orthodontist last night. While we stood in line we questioned why we were there. We were uptight adults as we stood in that line. But… the power of Skateland will over-ride any reluctand adult thinking. And we left smiling and skipping into the parking lot. Why? Well.. it could be the pizza…
Or maybe it’s just the TICKETS!!!
We won a lot of tickets… too many to count. Well, actually there was a machine to do that. All those tickets you see with Thomas, he gave those to some little kid (but then I went back to the kid and broke a few off more myself)
Notice in this picture me and Thomas are showing off just a few of our many prizes… Namely the Chinese fingertrap and futuristic flying ship. Thomas has whistle lips, an army man and a flipper thing. Craig won a harmonica! I also won Jamie a ring – which, I can tell, she really appreciated.
But in the end, I think Skateland is simply legal gambling for kids…
Fun fact: Did you know the “dj” is actually just a windows box running Winamp?? Well… now you do.
Even Robert got in on the fun…
Here I am coaching Thomas at air hockey. Together… we were defeatable. I wish I could say indefeatable… but I’m not sure that’s a word… and we lost.
what a magical night. full of food, fun, and little kids who we could have easily beat in skee-ball.
I challenge any of the kids that were there to a game of mini basketball or air hockey. i love those whistle lips and i cant wait until next week when we go back and win the plush snake that is six feet long or in ticket terms 5,000 tickets
The contendors in the cola face off: Coke, Pepsi, Mexican Coke, Big K, Safeway Select and RC. The predictions: Craig and Robert were betting on Mexican Coke – Thomas predicted that Pepsi would win (but only because the RC was warm from being in Robert’s car and not in the fridge)
Scientifically, we calculated each contender… taking into account their subtleties. Here are the results:
Safeway Select: Too sweet. Tasted almost like a diet color. Not much flavour. Tasted cheap. Too little corbonation.
Coke: Lemony citrus undertones. Better than the first one. Complex. Some guessed that this one was coke.
Pepsi: Perfect. Not too sweet. No aftertaste. Nice body. Perfect amount of carbonation.
Mexican Coke: A cinnamony bubblegum-ish flavour (kind of like juicy fruit). Smooth. Tasted flat. Nobody even considered this cola. (Note: This was not shaken up, which does hurt this as a contendor)
Big K: Good head. Slight citrus mint flavours. However, overall flat and flavour explosionless.
RC: Citrus undertones. Tasted like dirty water. Acidic and syrupy. (Note: This was at room temperature which is unfair)
And the winner? Pepsi. Everyone agreed (in this blind taste test) that Pepsi won. Even when the majority of the people doing the test were coke drinkers! It’s proof that Pepsi really does taste the best.
Today was the chocolate blind taste test. There were six contendors and five judges. Between each sample we used small cups of coffee to clear our pallet. The coffee was from Thomas’ coffee machine which was sort of broken.
Here are the results: In first place was the Ghiradelli Double Chocolate. By far. We all agreed on that. It was very creamy and quite sweet. In second place was the Lindt’s Semi-Bittersweet. It was an excellent dark chocolate. It was very soft and very good.
Hershey’s Sympony had caramel undertones with a thick, gritty texture. The Lindy Extra Creamy had a slight “eggy” taste. It also had caramel undertones and a smoother texture than the Symphony. The standard Hershey’s Milk Chocolate was instantly recognizable. It tasted like cheap halloween candy and (as some mentioned) S’mores.
In last place was the Lindt Dark Chocolate with 70% cocoa. It was bitter. Definately had a citrus aftertaste. Aaron said it tasted like cough syrup.
So far, the winners in our taste tests are Ghiradelli and Evian. The losers include Fiji and Lindt’s. The lesson: Sometimes you get what you pay for… and some times you don’t.
I KNEW Ghiradelli would win! Sorry I missed it!
there is a bit of a scandal here! this was supposed to be a test between chocolate bars…pure chocolate, not filling. the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate bar is defined as…
Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate’s rich, legendary signature taste is created by a precise blend of deep-roasted cocoa beans and hand-selected ingredients. This surrounds a velvety smooth, dark chocolate truffle center. It’s the ultimate chocolate indulgence
i think a disqulification is in order(i would demand a do-over, but i think i’ve had enough chocolate for a year)!
I would think that there would’ve been a distinction in the contest between dark and milk. They shouldn’t be competing against each other; they should be in different categories.
Ah yes, Jamie – a chocolate segregationist. Well, to us there are no boundaries between milk and dark. They are all part of the chocolate race. Craig – you are right about the scandal though. There is some question about the truffle center. That is similar to using steroids to win a race.
this has all gotten out of hand. ENOUGH! there will be no more chocolate segregationalism or scandalous accusations. I will not stand for this and neither would James Hershey the inventor of the Hershey Bar!
My chocolate won the competition so everyone of the losers should grab their co-co-ah beans and stop crying. Ghiradelli won fair and square…not by cheating as one Craig G. would suggest. I will throw my comments like a plastic disk and emerge with a hole in my heart.
the champ of soda’s will be the final champ of soft drinks…forever!
The water taste test was a success. The contenders: Arrowhead, Tapwater, Fiji, Evian, and Filtered Tap Water. My hypothesis: The Fiji would come in first place. I also had a suspicion that we wouldn’t know the difference between the bottled waters.
The results were surprising (we all agreed 100%). Tapwater was instantly recognizable. We spit it out immediately. Other than that:
Tied for last place was Fiji and Arrowhead. In fact, the two were barely distinguishable. This is surprising to me because I love Fiji and I drink Arrowhead a lot. But, in a blind taste test, I didn’t like them.
In the lead were the Evian and the filtered tapwater. They were barely distinguishable also. But they were night and day better than the Fiji and Arrowhead.
Tomorrow is the chocolate taste test.
Oh, man, count me IN!!
I await your results… and that’s crazy about Fiji water since it is so gooooood. Hmm, maybe it’s all about the packaging
What have I always told you about Fiji?
It’s quite a suprise! Fiji had a slight mineral taste with a copper aftertaste. I had never noticed it until the blind taste test. Now, when I drink it I do notice it. Arrowhead has a dusty taste. They probably both have a higher amount of minerals than Evian… It is all packaging!
I should have fed you all tapwater each time. My hypothesis was that Evian would win hands down and i was right.
i drink tapwater at home and I like that the best becuase it is so natural, like natural sewer spring water. choco champion today.
THERE’S OXYGEN ON MARS!?
Yeah! It looks that way. I found that picture on the nasa.gov site.
I could earn $30-$50 per hour doing ear candling. Did you know that? You can too. Just follow this link:
David! You’ve discovered my new career!! that’s so funny. I’m totally going to that Found Footage Festival when it comes around. aaaaand im adding your site to my blog blah blah blah – stay up ~ ian
Uhm, David… Yah, so that technique ‘ear candling’ is quite dangerous, eh. As a person who is getting professional training in the area of Audiology I highly advise NO ONE to try this. I know you’re not serious, though 
Right? Hmmm – needin’ some nonverbal communication here
Incidentally, did you know that we shouldn’t even use q-tips in our ear canals? Our ear has this natural system set up called epithelial migration – our ear wax, or cerumen, moves foreign objects in our ear canal out of our ears this way. So if we stick q-tips way in there, we’re actually pushing material back into our ears – and it creates a cerumen blockage over time. (We can use them to clean the outside part of our ears, that’s totally fine)
More info than anyone needed? Meow.
Yeah. Ear candling seems like a bad idea. How does one unblock cerumen blockage?
hee heee… well, it’s definitely something I’d take to an Audiologist instead of your General Practitioner dude b/c Audiologists are trained & certified to remove cerumen.
Basically, though… one would remove a ‘cerumen plug’ very, very carefully. One way is to put a warm compress on the ear to loosen the earwax and then take tiny tweezers to remove the blockage. This is why Audiologist’s have to be certified, however, b/c it’s very important not to tear the lining of the ear canal when you’re removing wax (if it gets stuck). That is one of the huge dangers of using the vaccuum effect that candling gives – not to mention the possibility of lighting your head on fire b/c of the exsistence of a FLAME not 3 inches from your HEAD.
Wow, that sounded so dire when I previewed my comment. Really, though, it’s just one of those things you want to leave to someone who is a professional wax pro.
KT, will you remove the wax from my ears?
Dude, I would love to (and yes, I’ve learned that I like ears that much) but of course I am soooo not qualified 
Though I have built up a shocking array of technical jargon, I see.
Jamie, yesterday I totally attacked Adam with q-tips (outer ear only of course). He’s used to it by now, and sits with an air of (not so) quiet suffering.
Ezra 6:05 am on September 21st Permalink | Log in to Reply
Amazing isn’t it? Statement of travel to the moon is so powerful, yet, inevitably, unless some semibalance of permanence is established, or at least working towards it, does it really matter if we go to the moon? The USA went, several times, but it’s almost as if we got bored of it.
David Mulhern 8:49 am on September 30th Permalink | Log in to Reply
Did we? Just kidding.. You know what’s funny though. A week later, the US announced that WE are re-opening the moon program. We will be landing in 2018.