Yesterday I left the construction site to make a lunch run. 12 cheeseburgers from McDonald's, 3 of which were claimed by myself.

Having worked at McDonald's when I was a kid, I knew that they wouldn't be too pleased with an order for 12 cheeseburgers.. but when I got there and looked over the menu, I decided to make it even worse. Cheeseburgers are $0.99. Double-cheeseburgers are on the dollar menu. Guess what I bought 12 of.

Why would anyone buy just a regular cheeseburger at these prices?

Like many other people, I've tried my hand at learning another language.. only to become bored and give up on it. I had a spanish class in middle school, and took a couple years of german in high school. I remember almost nothing that I learned for either language. Some german has stuck with me, mostly insults, but that's about it. Over the last few years I've also attempted to learn some japanese and russian. I can say "excuse me" in russian and sometimes I'll come up with a phrase in japanese, but won't be able to remember what it means.

There's a new web service call Mango, and I'm very impressed with it. It's currently in beta, which mean the bugs aren't all worked out.. it could stop working, or steal your foot, you never know. Mango is a flash based application, that's completely free, and uses a format that seems superior to anything that I've ever come across (language classes included.)

Each lesson is broken up into slides (like a powerpoint presentation) that you can go through at your own pace. The slides include audio pronunciation, you can mouse over words to see a visual pronunciation guide, and you can skip forward or go back at any point. There are also slides explaining any oddities of a part of speech, and explaining important concept in detail. It's about as close to a 1-on-1 tutor as you can get, not to mention a lot cheaper.

The following languages are currently available in the beta: Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, French, Greek, English for Spanish Speakers, and English for Polish Speakers.

can I haz booster seatz?

It had a flavor… and it was bad

u kan kleen… when we sez u can kleen!

i played your turn. i kild you, sry!

Squirrel Obstacle Course

And possibly the last.. but "Annual" makes it sound so much more official. (It almost offsets "Thingy".) This event is being organized by me and Kelly, there's a post on her blog with some info and a picture of the place.

Here's the deal -
When: Saturday, September 29 2007 - 6pm
Where: Blackhawk Tavern - Fort Atikinson, WI
Who: All Flickr people in the area, and those willing to travel to this area from wherever they may be
Why: Because. Fun. Do it.

Here's the tentative "I'm showing up list":
Kelly (flickr)
(Me) sparx (flickr)
spudart (flickr)
Kyle (flickr)
Katie (flickr)

If you're interested in coming, leave a comment on here (make sure to include a link to your flickr page), on Kelly's post, or on the picture of the Blackhawk Tavern.

Also, if you decide to come out, maybe post about it and try to get some more people out. If you get anyone else that's interested, either come back to one of the "official" meetup pages and give us a heads-up, or have them do the same.. just so we can keep track of whether or not anyone is actually going to show.

StumbleUpon

I just want to start out by saying HI to all the stumbleupon users that are making their way here today. It's always exciting to get a surge of traffic. If you're still reading this, and haven't clicked the stumble button already, scroll down, check out some of the posts, and if you like what you see consider clicking that little "thumbs up" icon, and maybe even subscribing to the rss feed. (Subscription links are at the top of the right column, and a big orange button at the very top of the page.)

BlogRush

If you've been keeping up to date with the blogging scene, you've probably noticed the BlogRush widget that seem to be appearing on 120% of all blogs that exist, and even some that don't. What's the deal? The widget shows links to other people's blog posts, and each time your copy of the widget is loaded, your blog earns a spot on someone else's widget. It's a quick way to get word of your posts out to a larger audience.

There are a few caveats though. First, there's no guaranteed traffic. You only earn credits for having your blog displayed. The reader might not even see it before going on to another page. Second, it's yet another javascript widget to slow down the loading of your site. The effect has seemed pretty negligible, but it's still something to keep in mind. Also, it's a new service, so not everything (the reports and such) is quite finished.

I figure it can't hurt to display the little widget, and it has brought in a little traffic over the last few days. If you haven't signed up and want to give it a try click here to signup. That link includes my referral code, so I get credit for you signing up, if you don't like the idea for some reason feel free to take it out.

So what's the secret to bringing in traffic from the BlogRush widget? It's all in your title. You need to word your title to instantly grab the attention of someone that happens to glance at the widget. If you came here through BlogRush, then you should kind of have an idea as to why you clicked this link. Words like "Ultimate", "Secret", and other attention grabbers are key. Questions ("Would you ____?") and challenges ("I bet you can't ___") are also good ways to grab eyeballs and peak interest.

I feel incredibly incoherent right now. Sorry.

We've all run into the amazing Engrish language at some point in our life. Whether it's a poorly translated instruction manual, or a picture of some funny sign that you found on the internet, it's hard not to laugh and fall in love with these quirky errors of spelling and grammar.

I'll be brief.. here's a picture I took of the fortune from the fortune cookie that came with last night's dinner:

"Your present plants are going to succeed. ."

The first time I read it I didn't even notice, and read it as "plans" - the second time when I read it out loud I had to pause a little in shock. The picture is, oddly enough, of one of my successful salvia divinorum plants that I just brought back home. Yesterday was a day of coincidences.

I can't end this post without a link to my FAVORITE example of Engrish ever: The best warning to include with a knife.

Maybe there actually is a point to us being here, maybe we do all have some important role to play in the grand scheme of things. Or maybe some people do, and the rest of us are just pawns. Neither one of those seems very appealing. In the first case, having something to work towards without having any idea of the goal is just frustrating. The second.. well, you just end up being a pawn. Who wants that? (ok, maybe some people do.)

I'll admit that at times I like to believe that there's some plan and reason to things, and that things usually work out the way they're supposed to. But, for the sake of this post, I'm going to shun the ideas of fate, destiny, predetermination, and any other words with similar meaning. This is another "path to happiness" type post I guess, and it might just be a rehash of what I've posted before - hopefully not.. but sitting here at work has made me start to rethink what it is I'm "supposed" to be doing.

At first I was thinking the answer was "It's not what I'm 'supposed' to be doing, but what I 'want' to be doing." But that's both right and wrong. I'm supposed to be doing whatever it is that makes me happy, and what I want to be doing plays a big role in that. The problem is, I'm not really sure what it is I want to be doing with my life, or what it is that would truly make me happy. I think a lot of people run into this problem, and I think it's why there's such a large market for self-improvement products. It's much easier to figure out that you don't like what you're currently doing than it is to figure out what you'd like to be doing.

A quick inventory of the things that I like brought up: photography, programming, writing, and a girl that I care so much about. If I could figure out how to bring in those good things into my life, and manage to support myself without having to bring in a job that I dread going to.. that would be my dream life. That would be the thing that makes me happy, and the thing that I'm supposed to do.

I think I just figured out a huge chunk of my life in the last 5 minutes. I can't work here much longer. I have to make the leap and try to build a better life instead of sticking with what's comfortable. I don't know how to break past the fear of facing the unknown though. People do it all the time. You, whoever is reading this, have probably made blind leaps towards your goals at times. How?