Not that anyone would vote for him anyway.. but Fred Thompson almost caused me to drown in my macaroni and cheese.

I usually try not to take quizzes and things like this.. but I was asked, and lacking inspirado for a post. So…

I AM
71%
JAZZTake the Transformers Quiz

(11:40:26 AM) spudart: what if you met someone whose name is Google?
(11:40:31 AM) spudart: "Hi, I'm Google."
(11:40:48 AM) sparx: i would marry her
(11:40:53 AM) sparx: and it would be a her
(11:41:16 AM) sparx: and i'd never have to worry about remembering where the remote control is
(11:41:27 AM) sparx: i could just yell out "Hey Google.. where's the remote?"
(11:41:47 AM) sparx: it would probably be the 3rd result though
(11:42:06 AM) sparx: i'd end up sidetracked and somehow be waiting for a new remote to come via UPS
(11:48:34 AM) spudart: lol

It seemed like a relatively easy bit of information to track down. I just wanted to know the dimensions of a LEGO block. A 2×2 block to be specific. It was pretty random, and not very important, but I was curious. Try to find it. It's fun.

I ended up asking a reference librarian for help. We eventually found the information that I was looking for, but only after I had given up twice. I even called the LEGO customer support hotline… which forwarded me to the LEGO "shop at home" number, which then forwarded me to "replacement parts", which got me to a real person, who then forwarded me to another real person. By "real person" I mean someone that seemed absolutely stumped by my question.. the size of a block.. I just wanted a number. She put me on hold. I waited. 5-6 minutes later I hung up.

So, after all that effort, here are the dimensions of a 2×2 lego brick. The height is 9.58mm, the length and width are both 16mm.

Exciting, I know. Next week: The Volume of a Water Buffalo.

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.

Last night I was laying down tubing for a radiant basement floor.. until almost 11pm. The basement floor is being poured today, so it needed to get finished, and I had volunteered to help. It wasn't bad, just time consuming. It also gave me a lot of time to think and ponder things, as if I didn't already do that enough.

Stars. Wow. It's been forever since I've just stared up at the sky and tried to find meaning in all those bright points of light. The sky was perfectly clear, it was dark.. it was perfect, very calming. I'm really tempted to try to start up a grassroots movement to fight the light pollution around here. There's just way too much light at night to enjoy the night as much as I could.. seeing the glow on the horizon from neighboring cities at 11pm is not what I want.

Anyway, back to the stars – it's amazing how insignificant you can begin to feel when you start to contemplate the totality of everything that exists. Those stars are farther away than I can comprehend. They're bigger than I can even imagine. And there's so much more out there besides them. Here we are, on this little spinning rock, less than a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. It could all end right now.. fwoosh.. and we wouldn't have any idea, and it wouldn't really affect anything else.

We're only important because we perceive ourselves as being important… but really, that's all that matters. I think it's important that every so often we stop and look at the big picture.. the one where we're hardly noticeable, if even at all.. otherwise we start to take things way too seriously, and get too caught up in ourselves and our daily lives that we forget to have fun and enjoy the things and people around us.

Cold. Bleh. It was like 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) last night. Brrr. I had to put on a jacket. It's way too early in the year to be putting on a jacket. I feel like I've failed in some sense just because I had to do it and couldn't hold out for a few more weeks.

Mosquitoes. It's too cold for them! Why are they still out?! I had to cover myself with mosquito repellent last night to the point where the smell was almost making me nauseous. It worked though. The little buggers were hovering around me trying to penetrate my anti-them forcefield. There were tons, it was disgusting. At one point there were so many around me, that it felt like I had a buzzing blood-sucking aura.

They also seemed to be grouped together in areas like those little gnats that just hover in a big pack. I decided to play a little game with those ones – I sprayed my hand and arm a bit more just for good measure, and them slowly stuck my hand into the middle of the pack. It was strangely satisfying to watch them diverge from me, rather than trying to give me west nile virus. At the time, it felt like I was getting some sort of revenge against them for all of humanity, making them suffer maybe just a little bit. Tempting and repelling them both at the same time. If we're such a small part of the universe, imagine where they fit in in the grand scheme of things.. and then laugh at them.. and then itch one of the million bites that they've managed to get in in the last few weeks.

How did this turn into a "mosquitoes suck" post? Oh well. It's done now. 🙂

I'm not a republican.. never considered any republican candidate appealing.. and never thought I would. But I continue to be impressed by Ron Paul. His views are radical compared to the rest of the republican party, and strike are relatively harmonic with my own. And, here's the kicker, you can tell that he's in the election because he thinks he can make a difference for the better, not because he wants people to call him "Mr. President." If you have some time, I'd suggest searching for him on youtube and checking out some of his debate footage. Ron Paul 2008 / Ron Paul (wikipedia article)

China promises safe toys for Christmas. It's about time.. I need to get a new handbag accessory for my barbie.. I mean.. umm, I need more Hot Wheels cars.. and do NOT want to get lead poisoning (I've got a mug that'll do that job for me already.)

Also, some of you may or may not have heard something about me starting an incredibly ridiculous new facebook app. This may or may not be true. Ok.. it is. But it's still in the pre-planning "we haven't done anything yet" stage, which means the idea could completely vanish as if it never existed. But we'll see. Or rather we MAY OR MAY NOT see. Maybe. Enough uncertainty?

lyg