Author Archives: Static Electricity Man

Serving Size

Posted on by
1

When I buy a bottle or can of soda, energy drink, juice, whatever, I do notice the little icon down there telling me how many calories I’m about to ingest.  Sometimes, it will even impact what I end up deciding to purchase.  Once I’ve purchased my beverage of choice, that’s when I usually notice the smaller print saying, “XXX calories per serving”…and then on the back it will say something ridiculous like, “approximately 3.7 servings per can/bottle”.  Really?  I’m not going to drink only a little of this tiny bottle and save the rest for later; I’m certainly not going to do that with a can.  If the beverage is carbonated, its a particularly bad idea.  I don’t drink Pepsi as everyone knows that once you open a Pepsi, it has an approximate carbonation life of 4 seconds before going flat, but even I know that putting a can of carbonated soda back in the refrigerator is a bad idea.  No, when I buy a bottle or can, I’m going to drink all of it.  Be a hero and tell me how many calories are in there in its entirety because I’m going to drink it all in one go.

Bacon is Bacon

Posted on by
Reply

The other day I went to the cafeteria to get my once in a while ham and bacon omelet.  When I got there, they had “updated” everything.  Instead of talking to someone to make your order, you use a little touch screen kiosk to send it back to the grill.  That way, you don’t have to actually talk to someone I guess.  Yay, technology.

I decided to go ahead and give it a try.  I found that they still offered omelets, so I clicked on the omelet to customize it.  They had egg whites, good.  Next step, meat.  Where is the ham and bacon…ham and bacon…ham and bacon?  No ham or bacon.  No piggy meats at all.  Chicken sausage?  No ham?  No bacon?  Wait, what does that say…turkey bacon?

There is no such thing as turkey bacon.  It is either turkey or it is bacon.  We can make technological advances so we don’t ever need to talk to someone face to face but I’m pretty sure we haven’t figured out how to cross-breed a turkey with a pig.  Turkey bacon is not bacon in any way.  It is dried out, wooden turkey flesh made to resemble a sad, sick looking strip of bacon.  Call it something else, turkey flat slabs or whatever…they have turkey jerky, and that’s okay…at least you know what it is.  Calling something turkey bacon makes you think it could maybe taste a little like bacon, but no.  I call you a liar.  Turkey bacon is an abomination, a sick twisted farce of everything that makes breakfast worth eating.

I leave you with this.  If you asked for a ham sandwich and someone slipped you a turkey sandwich, how would you feel?  Betrayed?  Angry?  What if the person who glibly handed off a turkey sandwich then told you that turkey is healthier for you or that it tastes pretty much the same?  I rest my case.

October 5, 2013: the worst day

Posted on by
Reply

Saturday, October the 5th, 2013 was the worst day of the world ever, according to my oldest son.  He woke up somewhere around 11pm and wandered into our bedroom to ask if it was daytime yet.  Nope, not yet…back to bed.  Somewhere around 5am, my wife woke up to the sound of crying.  It was my oldest son, crying in his room.  When she asked him why he was crying he said, “I’m crying because it is taking too long for the sun to come up.  This night is too long!  This is the worst day!”

Normally, that would be end of the story, but not with my son.  A week later, he was sitting on the couch having a snack.  I was in and out of the room doing some cleaning and when I came back, he was sobbing and crying.  I asked him what was wrong, but I couldn’t understand him through all the tears and sobbing.  All I could see was him pulling at his pant leg, I thought maybe he had stepped on something.  No, he didn’t step on anything…he eventually calmed down to tell me that, “On October the 5th Mom didn’t put a band-aid on the scratches of my leg.  She only put a band-aid on my elbow”.  I asked him if his leg was okay or if it was still injured.  He told me it was still bleeding and damaged.  Upon closer inspection, there were no scars or cuts of course.  “I guess it got better,” he lamented.

Normally, that would be the end of the story, but…not with my son.  After another week had passed, my wife found him crying again.  When he calmed down enough to be understood he told her, “I’m crying because on October the 5th I couldn’t catch anyone when we played tag at the playground!”.  My wife consoled him and he seemed fine afterward.  Then, we remembered that true enough, October the 5th was a Saturday and we had gone to the park, we had played hide-and-seek, and he did fall down and get scratches.

No further incidents have occurred, but I imagine that at some point, we’ll hear more about why “October the 5th, 2013 was the worst day”.

Lego City MOC – the Antique Shop

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve had some time to fiddle around with the Legos again.  I designed this MOC to fit in with the LEGO Creator series; the floors line up and the sidewalks look similar.  I tried to keep the style similar, however, I feel this one is lacking in the color department.

Street front

Street front, from L to R: Set 10197, Set 10218 with my MOC in between, and Set 10211

You can clearly tell which one is the MOC; a lot of grey and white.  I think it is OK for a first shot at fitting in with the series.  If the white portions were dark grey I’d be happier.  Every city needs standard grey buildings, right?

Close up Street front

Close up Street front: Set 10218 with my MOC in between

I have since found the pieces to fill in the pavers, other than the roof being slightly higher, I think it fits in alright enough.

MOC Front

MOC Front

Pulled away, the white window bits seem a bit out of proportion.  I’m not happy with the decorative blue parts on the white window elements, but I figured less would be more in this case than something overly complicated.

MOC Rear

MOC Rear

The rear needs some help.  I was fiddling around with different window decorations and such.  Most building rears aren’t very fancy as it is anyway.

MOC Ground floor

MOC Ground floor

In hindsight, I should probably have done this Antique Shop with a larger baseplate as I ended up with more “antiques” than I thought I would.

MOC Second floor

MOC Second floor

The furniture is rather sparse, but at least there’s something in there.

MOC Third floor

Supposed to be a kind of Proprietor’s area with the trap door and all.  Still rather sparse and my furniture needs help.

 

 

Grey

Posted on by
Reply

Went and saw Grey last night.  The previews looked good, but I was rather disappointed in the movie.  It’s about a group of oil riggers and a hunter hired to protect them who, on their flight home, crash land in the wilderness and try to make their way back to civilization.  While being hunted by wolves.  That’s the movie in a nutshell.

[Spoilers Below]

I’m told that I like depressing movies, and this movie is definitely one of those hopeless movies.  A lot of it is predictable, the wolves kill them off one by one…you’re only left wondering when and how…until there is only one, the main character.  At this point, the character who doesn’t believe in God finds himself screaming at God for a magic wand miracle and then getting upset again at no answer.  Pretty childish and typical.  He then gets up and decides to “do it on my own”…just like the rest of his life.  How original.

Anyways, the “end” of the movie finds him just about to throw down with the alpha male of the wolf pack and that’s where the credits roll.  Everyone in the audience was rather upset about this and kind of left the theater in a huff.  I waited until the end of the credits to see if anything else was there and yes, there is.  All you see is the main character resting his head on the dying body of the wolf…but you don’t know how injured he is or if he too is dying.

I don’t think I would recommend this movie to anyone.  It’s not the worst movie I’ve seen, but I could definitely have avoided the movie and been fine.