March Mileage Wrap-Up
March is DONE! Let’s mileage.
March mileage: 627.42
Monthly average mileage: 595.82
Current end mileage with this pace: 7149.84
Back above the goal of 7,000 miles! Let’s keep up this pace, huh?
Sorry, WHAT
This is like five different levels of nightmare fuel.
No seriously…this is something you’d see coming at you in an actual nightmare. It’s like those nightmares where something bad is coming toward you and you can’t get out of the way fast enough
Like…it is uncannily horrific looking. Is that just me? Am I unreasonably unsettled by this?
Yikes.
Hey, Adobe?
Why does the newest version of Adobe Acrobat have five – count ‘em, FIVE – AI-related tools available immediately upon opening a PDF?
Is this really necessary? Really?
*angry incoherent screeching*
I hate AI, I loathe generative AI with all my soul, and I weep for the future.
Another space thing, sorry not sorry
As I’ve said before (including in yesterdays’ blog, haha), I really like things that give us an idea of scale, especially when it’s a scale that’s really hard for humans to comprehend.
So here’s a model of the Solar System, where the coolest thing is the very clever inclusion of the closest star (apart from, of course, the sun):
Have I Posted This Before?
I don’t think I have. I had the intention to at some point, but I don’t think I ever did.
So here it is.
A simulation, obviously, but it gives you a sense of scale and space and I love stuff that gives us a good sense of scale and space, don’t you? It’s terrifying and beautiful and amazing all at the same time.
I honestly have no idea what the hell this is
So I’m finally trying to work through all those home videos we transferred from the old camcorder tapes a few years ago, right? Currently I’m just going through and making a list of all the things on each tape. Most tapes are the old spring and Christmas plays from St. Mary’s, videos of us opening presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and a good number of videos of me doing my dumb “I’m Stephen Spielberg, look at my amazing movies” stuff from elementary school and junior high.
But at the end of one of the tapes was this audio:
That is obviously me singing, but I don’t have any recollection of singing this (or writing it). I don’t know if I was trying to parody something or if I was just making a dumb “rap” and thought it sounded cool; in a lot of my other videos, if I’m making fake commercials or something like that, I’m parodying something that was on TV at the time (like the “I’m Bob from The Money Tree” or Hot Pockets commercials that were parodied in my “Fifth Grade Movie” thing).
For “context,” the other two things that were on this tape (which was labeled “Christmas Play” – super descriptive) were the St. Mary’s Christmas play/concert from 1999 and the first version of our video report on “Stepping on the Cracks” from fifth grade. So if I recorded this song around the same time as these other parts, I would have been…11 years old?
Sounds about right.
But who actually knows.
I sure screeched a lot, though.
BLEH.
Today was the last day of my French class.
It was also our draft day for fantasy baseball, but I could only stay for half an hour because I had to go teach at 3:30, meaning I wasn’t able to handpick my whole team and had to let the auto-draft take over after I was able to get…five?…six? guys I wanted.
So I’m lacking enthusiasm, because who are these random-ass guys and why are they on my team?
Bleh.
Calling
A federal election has been called! Will Carney prevail? Will Poilievre (whose name I still can’t pronounce correctly) win it for the Conservatives??
WHO KNOWS
It’s exciting and scary. But mostly scary.
At least I get to vote this time.
I saw someone’s dog die today.
It was sad.
That’s all I’m going to say.
Well, it finally happened.
I had to get new shoes that were not Kinvaras.
I ended up getting the Saucony Ride 17s. They look like this:
(The color is more…minty?…in real life; the picture doesn’t do the color justice. I kinda dig it.)
They definitely feel different than the Kinvaras, even just walking around in them for three minutes or so in Sporting Life. We’ll see how they do out in the wild on Monday.
I’m scared.
Edit: here’s a better picture of them in the sun. I love the color, haha.
GET THEE TO iTUNES
Why?
Because SYNTHONY’s stuff is finally on there!
Yes, SYNTHONY. These guys.
Not all of their YouTube live songs are on there, but a good number of them are. If you dig this kind of music, please give them a few downloads.
I would LOVE for them to come to Canada!
I feel like PISS
Therefore, let’s do a Picnicface appreciation post, ‘cause their videos always make me happy and trigger all sorts of nostalgia.
The absolute classic. MENERGY.
“When god gives you lemons, you FIND A NEW GOD!”
“Football is a sport…”
“DON’TYOUFUCKINGLOOKATME!”
“PEGASI! PEGASI!!!”
I am getting DESPERATE, Saucony…
Can you PLEASE poop out the Kinvara 15s in Canada? I know they’re out in the States, but they’re still not out here. I’ve been a size 8.5 for like six iterations of the Kinvaras now so I’m tempted to just order a pair of 8.5s from the Saucony site, but you know this would be the one time my size would change.
Pleeeeeeeeease, Saucony?
Edit: okay, so desperation has driven me to explore alternative Saucony shoes, and it sounds like the Saucony Ride might be a good option for me (and one that’s not $200+ per pair, haha). Market Mall’s Sporting Life apparently has some in my size, so maybe I’ll just have to try those out unless the Kinvara 15s come out in the next few days.
I really am getting desperate. I have a huge pile of old Kinvara 13s, but they all have 500+ miles on them and I have marathons to run, dawg.
Oh my GOD I love running
It’s one of my top three activities at the moment.
(The other two activities are crying and watercoloring.)
The end.
MORE SYNTHONY SORRY NOT SORRY
I absolutely adore orchestral covers of songs, especially electronic/dance songs. This group is like my dream group. I’d love to see them in person.
Who Are We and Why Must We Survey?
1. What is your name? WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW
2. What color shirt are you wearing now? Yellow.
3. What are you listening to right now? Nothing.
4. What are the last 2 digits of your phone number? 92
5. What was the last thing you ate? Whatever the hell I had last night. What did I have last night?
6. If you were a crayon what color would you be? Radical Carrot. I swear to god there was a crayon with that name at some point; I don’t think I hallucinated that. (Edit: SEE I TOLD YOU)
7. How is the weather right now? S’okay. Still cool enough to run outside during the day, which is always good.
8. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My mom.
9. The first thing you notice about the opposite/same sex? Hair? I actually don’t know. Probably just the fact that they’re the opposite sex.
10. Favorite Food? Broccoli is always good.
11. Favorite Drink? Water.
12. Favorite Alcoholic Drink? I don’t drink.
13. Favorite place to shop? Michaels, probably, though I never go there up here.
14. Hair color: Black.
15. Eye Color: Hazel.
16. Do you wear contacts? I wore them for like a week in 6th grade and they hurt like hell so I stopped, haha.
17. What did you do today? Ran. Worked. Cried a lot.
18. favorite month? February.
19. Favorite Fast Food? Cougar Country.
20. Last Movie you Watched? Man, I don’t remember. Beauty and the Beast, I think?
21. Favorite Day of the Year? I don’t think I have one.
22. Are you too shy to ask someone out? I asked one person out once. It was a disaster. So….yes.
23. Summer or Winter? Summer, but like…pre-“we screwed up the climate beyond repair” summer.
24. Hugs or Kisses? Hugs.
25. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla ice cream, but chocolate everything else.
26. Do you want your friends to respond back? Bah.
27. Who is most likely to respond? No one.
28. Who is least likely to respond? Everyone.
29. What books are you reading? The Fountainhead.
30. favorite TV Show? Metalocalypse, still.
31. What’s on your mouse pad? Nothing. It’s black.
32. Favorite board game? Scrabble.
33. What did you do last night? Dinked around. Cried.
34. Favorite Author? Fitzgerald, probably.
36. Butter, Plain or Salted popcorn? Salted.
37. Dogs or cats? Cats!
38. Favorite Flower? Sunflower.
39. What do you say when you wake up in the A.M.? “Why aren’t I dead yet?”
40. Do you still talk to your best friends from middle school? Nope.
41. What’s on your desk? My computer, keyboard, mouse, and all sorts of random crap.
42. Rock Concert or symphony? Symphony.
43. Play or Opera? Play.
44. Have you ever fired a gun? Yup.
45. Do you like to travel by plane? I used to, but now I hate it for a variety of reasons. I LOVE airports, though, which is pretty weird.
46. Right-handed or Left-handed? Right-handed.
47. Smooth or Chunky Peanut Butter? Chunky as hell.
48. How many pillows do you sleep with? One.
49. City you were born? The ‘Scow.
50. Ever hitchhiked? Nope.
SO SPEAKING OF MALLS…
Let me regale you with an embarrassing moment of mine.
Yes, there are still plenty that I have not yet mentioned in my nearly 19 years of daily blogging.
Sad, huh?
Anyway.
The year was 2000. We had just transitioned into a new millennium. The youngest Gen Z-ers were in preschool. Beanie Babies were beginning to lose the stranglehold they had on the collectible toy market. I was in sixth grade. Malls were still an important part of life and were, arguably, thriving.
Also, the first version of The Sims was released.
I didn’t buy The Sims right when it came out because I didn’t know about it. But a few years later, I had my own laptop, a consistent “allowance” (I put it in quotes because I never actually did anything to earn it, haha) from my dad, and knowledge of this wonderful simulation game that sounded like it was right up my alley.
We also had a Toys ‘R’ Us in the Palouse Mall and I knew that this store carried The Sims. I want to say that the game cost something like $50 (I could be totally wrong about this, though), but I neeeeeeded it so I had to save up some allowance over several weeks before having enough to buy it.
If you think I’m shy and socially awkward now, you should have seen me as a preteen. I got nervous talking to anyone about anything, so imagine how anxiety-producing a monetary transaction was.
But I neeeeeeded The Sims, so one Saturday morning, I worked up the courage to go into Toys ‘R’ Us, grab a copy of the game, and march up to the cashier to pay for it. From the moment I walked into the store, my brain was like get this over with get this over with get this over with, so all I wanted to do was pay and flee. But before I could do so, the cashier took a quick look at the game I’d put on the counter and said, “you know this is the Mac version, right?”
Nope.
Nope, I did not know that.
I hadn’t even thought about that. Again, get this over with get this over with get this over with. I just grabbed the first copy of the game I saw so that I could get out of a situation that, according to my 12-year-old brain, was as life-threatening as getting chased by a polar bear.
But because my 12-year-old brain thought this situation was as life-threatening as getting chased by a polar bear, I still just wanted to get this over with get this over with get this over with. So I just nodded, paid for the game, and fled.
And as you can probably guess, I did not want the Mac version. I had a PC. I needed the PC version. But I was too embarrassed and afraid to be like “oh, oops, I’ll grab the correct copy!” and instead just ended up spending $50 on a VERSION OF THE GAME THAT I COULDN’T EVEN PLAY.
I can’t even be mad at Baby Claudia, though, because Current Claudia would probably still do the same thing.
But yeah. I kept the $50 Mac version (I think I ended up giving it to one of my friends at some point) and lived in my humiliation for several more weeks before I was able to save up enough money to BUY THE GAME AGAIN. I also had to wait until that same cashier wasn’t working so that I could avoid ultimate humiliation.
BEING SHY SURE HAS ITS PERKS, DOESN’T IT
Death of the Mall
It’s both interesting and sad that malls are not what they used to be (physically, culturally, or socially).
Those of you around my age (or millennials in general): do you remember the role that the mall played in your childhood/teenagerhood? I was never an “OMG I gotta go to the mall!!!11!!1!!1” type of girl, but it still played an important role in my existence throughout my early life.
I would always spend the weekends at my dad’s place. Our routine – from as far back as I can remember – was always to go to the mall on Saturday mornings. He’d give me $20 and set me free for an hour to wander around the mall and buy whatever I wanted. Books/CDs from Hastings; makeup, notebooks, and pens from Rite Aid; art stuff from Michaels; books from Waldenbooks; earrings from Claire’s; weird miscellaneous nonsense from The Card Farm (I have no idea if anyone remembers that store, but I loved it) – these were frequent purchases, and I enjoyed the “independence” of getting to wander around the mall on my own for an hour.
My dad bought me Beanie Babies from Hallmark (back when they were a thing).
I got my first Tamagotchi at JCPenny.
I bought a copy of The Sims at Toys ‘R’ Us.
I bought my prom dress at Macy’s.
My high school friends and I would wander around the mall when we all wanted to gather.
Hell, when Rob and I were dating in college, we spent a lot of our time at the mall (there were…other reasons for this, but we’re not getting into that right now!).
Malls just don’t seem to be as integrated in kids’/teens’ lives anymore, which is super sad. I guess that goes along with the idea of the “death of third places” thing, which is the decline in public gathering places outside of home or work, but still.
It’s a bit depressing is all.
Happy Discovery Day, Uranus!
It was on this day in 1781 that William Herschel observed Uranus (the planet, you immature nerds) and initially recorded it as a comet. However, he compared it to a planet and other astronomers at the time were suspicious of the comet classification due to its orbit around the sun appearing to be nearly circular. It eventually became accepted as the seventh planet.
Uranus was also instrumental in discovering Neptune due to perturbations in its (Uranus’) orbit that could only be explained by the existence of another planet out there somewhere.
So that’s pretty cool.
MOON FAMILY!
So Saturn already held the record in the Solar System for the most moons at 146, but a set of 128 new satellites discovered by a team of astronomers back in 2023 have officially been classified as moons! Saturn now has 274 recognized moons, which is pretty insane. Most of these new moons are extremely small, but still.
Also, I’m just going to leave this here.
(Yes, it’s a SolarBalls episode; yes, I’m still wildly obsessed; yes, it’s relevant because SolarBalls Saturn would probably lose his mind over an additional 128 new moon names to memorize.)
Edit: in searching for a relevant article to this story, I found this NASA article from 1995 talking about the discovery of two to four new Saturnian moon candidates. Back then, the total confirmed number of moons was only 18. Pretty wild!
Speak Up!
So I’m sure all two of you readers (and the other random-ass dudes who stumble upon this blog for whatever reason) have already seen this, considering it’s from 2017, but I have NOTHING ELSE TO BLOG ABOUT today, so you get Old News.™
The Worst Volume Control UI In The World
(Note that Old News™ differs from New News™ only by date of creation. Any differences in quality, humor, amusement, or enlightenment are due solely to chance.)
Look Up!
Are you as weirdly into clouds as I am? Then check out this lecture on basic cloud identification and naming!
We did a little bit of this when I took Geography 100 in Fall 2007, but it wasn’t as detailed and we actually didn’t look at example pictures for whatever reason.
OH NO I’M BACK TO WRITING FAN FICTION
It’s not the 150,000-word monstrosity that my other main fic is, but it’s probably going to get there at some point.
Run away.
One of My Favorite Things…
…is curling up under my warm heavy blanket and watching about 15 minutes’ worth of TikTok vids before going to sleep.
And I know, I know…screentime before bed. I know. But let me be honest: there is nothing in this world that will affect my ability to fall asleep. I fall asleep in at most five minutes as soon as I lay down.
Hell, you could make me run a marathon before bed and I’d still fall asleep within five minutes.
(I know this because I’ve done it before, haha.)
It’s Tariff-ic!
(No it’s not)
(And I’m not sure if that joke will land because now that I look at the title it just looks like I can’t spell “terrific”)
(Whatev who cares)
I mentioned this back when the first wave of crazy tariffs were implemented, but now there’s a CNN article on it so I figured I’d mention it again.
All the Orange Dumpster Fire is doing is uniting Canada – specifically, uniting it against the US.
Products made in (or at least packaged in) Canada are being highlighted in grocery stores.
People are being encouraged (more than usual) to buy local.
And Trudeau, knowing he’s stepping down very soon, has just stopped giving any shits and is overtly showing his frustration over this ridiculous situation.
More:
(Source)
(Source)
(Source. This is actually in Calgary)
Eigenblogger 