18 Years of Blogging
So guess what? Eigenblogger is an adult now.
That’s right: today is my 18th blogging anniversary!
The fact that I have a daily record* of my life for the past 18 years is pretty cool. Back when I first started blogging, I had no intention of it lasting anywhere near this long. Hell, I didn’t know if I’d make it to my proposed 50 days in a row back on May 1, 2006.
But I did, then just kept going from there. I guess giving into peer pressure – in this case, the peer pressure from my high school friends to join MySpace – is a good thing sometimes.
ANYWAY.
Today will be my 6,576th blog post. That means I have 3,424 more posts until I hit my ultimate goal of 10,000. Will I keep going after that?
Probably.
Assuming we’re all not dead by then.
WOO!
*I guess the word “record” is very loosely used here, as like 60% of the time my blogs have nothing to do with went on during the day on which they were written, but whatevs. An entry is an entry!
Thuuuuuuumb!
I can tell I haven’t drawn in a while because I was working on a drawing on Sunday and my thumb has been numb and tingly since then (because I hold colored pencils very differently than I hold any other writing utensil, apparently).
I want to keep working on that drawing, but I also kinda need my thumb for, y’know, work next week.
So.
(I’ll probably work on it later anyway, haha.)
Edit: I ended up ripping this drawing up before I finished it because it was ungodly ugly, so that was a complete waste of time.
FREAKING TAMPA BAY ARE YOU KIDDING ME
So I figured the San Diego Padres’ City Connect uniforms would never be dethroned as the best City Connect uniforms in baseball, but the Rays are giving them a run for their money.
The Tampa Bay Rays’ City Connects were revealed today and LOOK AT THESE THINGS.
(Source)
(Source)
Those are SO COOL. I love the fonts, the colors, the freaking SKATEBOARDING RAY…all of it. The only way they could be better is if the green glows in the dark.
Edit: AAAAAAA IT DOES
Houston, We Have a Big Bird
This is exactly the type of video that YouTube is for.
Sounds click-baity, but isn’t at all. Contains some weird facts about history plus info about a disaster. What more could you want?
(You know I love disasters.)
(Especially space disasters.)
Also, the comments are a mix of serious reactions from people who saw the explosion live and reactions of people speculating how much weirder it would have been if the recovery operation involved pulling a massacred Big Bird out of the wreckage. With some overlap between those two things, too.
A Question Nobody Asked:
“How do you blog when you’re away from your computer/internet?”
An answer nobody cares about: I type said blog in my “Notes” app on my phone while sitting in the bathroom away from everyone.
There.
Now go away.
TikTok on the Clock
Have some TikToks. ‘Cause I’m sad. There are a few that were added after today, too.
(Sound warning; turn your volume down)
Whoever invented this game deserves a Nobel Prize.
WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY
I Hate Myself! :D
That is all.
Unsettle Your Nettles
I don’t think I’ve ever felt unsafe walking anywhere in Calgary. Granted, I’ve never been downtown at night alone and have never walked through that weird little murder triangle neighborhood in Bowness, but I’ve never felt like I was in danger. Even on those early morning walks/runs at like 4 AM, the most unsettled I’d ever felt was in the dark bowels of Bowness Park – and that was more due to knowing there might be all sorts of random wild animals in there in the early morning than anything else.
But today I took a little jaunt through the neighborhood just south of North Hill Centre and I got the most creeped out feeling while in there. It was like I was being watched and that I was not supposed to be in that area.
I didn’t see anyone or anything like that…in fact, it was an eerily quiet neighborhood…but I got out of there pretty quickly. I’m usually right about those kinds of feelings, so I figured I should listen to it.
Tag Bag!
My occlupanid bag is here! Check it:
(The color looks dramatically different in those two pics, haha. It’s just the lighting.)
It’s super sturdy and well-made.
You can also grip it from the teeth if you don’t want to sling it over your shoulder with the strap.
It’s so weird and funky. I love it.
That was…creepy.
I just had this weird little micro-nightmare about our old house in Marana. I don’t think I’ve ever dreamt about that house, but in the dream there was all of this old blood all over the walls of my bedroom, but you could only see it when the lights were off. It was super creepy and full of weird vibes. I couldn’t convince anyone else the blood was there, even when it was right in front of them in the darkness.
Blech.
Sixty
It’s done, yo!
My first 60 kilometer (37.28 mile) run.
This was NOT The day to do this. I was not in the mood to run today, I felt like garbage this morning, I got up later than I wanted to, and I ran approximately 18 consecutive miles into 30 mph headwind.
(Hence the terrible pace)
But I did it anyway because I’m stubborn like that.
So this is currently acting as my virtual ultra for the Calgary Marathon. Will I do another one of these? Possibly, if for no other reason than to overwrite that terrible pace.
But the distance has been accomplished at least once, and that’s fine with me.
K TONE
K SURVEY
What’s your favorite color gummy bear?
They all taste the same to me, but I like the green ones.
What is the sexiest part of the opposite sex’s body?
Stomach.
Have you ever made up/sang a song for someone you cared about?
I have made up/re-written a LOT of songs, but never one specifically for someone I know.
Ever had a song sang about/for you?
Nope.
Is there a baby in the room with you right now?
No, thank god.
Do you know how to dance?
I can flail around like an idiot, if that counts.
Where do you sing the most, in the car or the shower?
I sing in the car when I’m with my mom. I used to sing in the shower, but now Nate’s always home and I’m shy about it.
What is your favorite thing that is green?
Broccoli!
What did your last text message say?
“Hahahaha.”
What is your middle name?
Marie.
What is the way to your heart?
Be weird. Be cool with me being weird. Have an obsession. Be kind to animals.
What do you smell like?
I literally have no idea.
What’s in your pocket?
I have no pockets!
Anything in your mouth?
I have no mouth!
Ever hurt yourself playing Wii?
No, surprisingly. Though the only thing I ever really did on the Wii was those little survey thingies.
Do you have freckles?
In the summer, yes.
How many languages can you say “Hello” in?
Five?
What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Man, I have no idea. Something pre-Covid.
Ever jumped/fallen/been pushed in a pool with your clothes on?
Nope.
Are you wearing any clothes that you wore yesterday?
Same bra.
Name a song that you know all the words to:
Just one? Blinding Lights.
Are you in love with someone right now?
Yes!
What’s the last thing you watched on TV?
Like, actual cable TV? I think I watched part of an episode of Jeopardy when Nate was off having his last surgery.
What’s the last video game you played?
Quake.
Can you do the alphabet in sign language?
Yup!
Do you have an uncle named Joe?
Nope.
What word do you use when people pass gas?
Fart.
Do you wear glasses?
Yes.
What can you hear right now?
I’m making penne and broccoli; I can hear the water boiling.
Did you feel better or worse or the same yesterday?
About the same.
Ever been overseas?
Yes.
What are your plans for today?
The day’s almost over, bro.
How long have you had Facebook?
Since 2006.
What was your favorite childhood show?
TaleSpin!
Are you close to your siblings?
No sibbies.
What was your first job?
Working at Wendy’s.
Do you bite your nails?
I chew the HELL out of my nails. To the point where they’re so short they hurt.
Do you like your feet?
HAHAHAHAHAHAH
Do you sleep well at night?
I lay down. I go dead asleep. I wake up at some point. So yeah.
Has anyone ever given you the silent treatment?
I’m sure.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever had in your mouth?
For how long of a period are we talking, here, because that DRAMATICALLY changes my answer.
Are you friends with anyone named Earl?
Nope.
Are you vain?
Aren’t we all to some degree?
Has anyone ever threatened you with a knife?
Not seriously.
What would you do if the last person you kissed showed up at your house with a bunch or roses and a hand written poem for you?
Wonder when he left to go get said roses.
Do you ever watch The Simpsons?
Yup!
Have you ever sent an embarrassing moment of yours into a mag to be printed?
Haha, nope.
What IS your most embarrassing moment?
There are so many to pick from, friends.
Do you think you’re more cute or sexy?
Oh god. Neither.
Do you own any mini skirts?
Nope.
What’s the middle name of the last person you spoke to?
John.
Would you like to live in a hotel, or your own house?
House.
Are you good at knowing when people are lying?
Depends on how well I know them.
Do you draw little hearts and stuff with eyeliner next to your eyes?
Nope.
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever lost?
My giganto keychain that had like 13 Tamagotchis on it. Well, I’m sure I’ve lost something more expensive than that, but I can’t think of anything else right now, haha.
Has your mom ever lied to you?
Probably.
Do you have a deep voice?
I would say it’s about average.
When’s the last time someone made breakfast for you?
Can’t remember.
Do you do something new with your hair practically every day?
My hair does something new with itself every day.
Name a song you’re addicted to:
Call On Me – Eric Prydz.
Has anyone ever licked your foot?
Ewwwwwwwwwwwww
Is there a Sonic where you live?
The hedgehog?
Do you smile with your teeth?
Unfortunately.
What did you eat for lunch today?
A pita.
What do you like on your pizza?
Olives. A crap ton of them.
Do you know anyone who lives in Newfoundland?
No.
How ‘bout Alberta?
ME!
Anyone in Canada at all?
Many people.
If you could trade houses with a friend, who would it be?
Nobody.
Are you a good person to come to for advice?
Nope.
NOBODY CARES
What normal people do when they’re sad and want to be happy again: listen to music, be with family/friends, go for a walk, watch a fun TV show, eat tasties.
What I do when I’m sad and want to be happy again: sign up for marathons
I HAVE A PROBLEM
Anyway, I’m signed up to do Bloomsday, several marathons, a 50K, and the Calgary Marathon Ultra (60K) over the next several months, so LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO
(I wanna die)
Roar
HAHAHAHA okay okay okay okay listen.
So it was really windy and quite cold this morning so I ended up wearing my headphones to keep my ears warm on my run. I was on my way down to Bowness when I heard this ad for Homes by Avi, which is a house building company up here.
Now, they advertise quite a bit on the station that I listen to, so I wasn’t really paying too much attention to the ad. They were talking about how you could experience nature right in your backyard in one of the developments they’re building in – there were all of these nature sounds and stuff like crickets, birds, etc. – and then I swear to god at the end of the ad there was a big bear growl.
But I couldn’t be sure…that is, until I heard the ad again on my way back to the bottom of our hill.
And yes: gentle sounds of nature including crickets, hooting owls, loons, chirping birds all throughout the ad, until the end, where the announcer was like “come enjoy life with nature” and the ad ends with a HUGE FREAKING BEAR GROWL.
I had to stop running because I was laughing so hard.
Edit: I listened to the radio for THREE HOURS to catch that ad again. Here it is:
That is the FUNNIEST THING I’ve ever heard, oh my god. I wonder if some poor intern kid was told “just throw some animal sounds in there” and just put that bear at the end.
Hilarious.
Just let me have my talking planets
I am 100% invested in SolarBalls now, haha.
I haven’t fallen this quickly into an obsession in a long time, and because I have no one I can rave to about it, y’all get in on the blog.
I love the characters. They’re all enjoyable and have their own distinct personalities and quirks.
I love the voice acting. It’s top notch and better than what you hear in many animated TV shows out there.
I love the animation. It’s so smooth and there are a ton of little details in there, like the designs of some of the moons, the little glow around Earth, Mars, and Titan to signify they have atmospheres, and the fact that Uranus (or at least his rings) is often animated to be tilted heavily to one side.
I love the story they’re telling and how they’re doing it. There’s a main story going on right now that I’m about 1/3 of the way through, but intermixed with that are shorter little one-off episodes that are almost like little “what ifs?” or “how comes?” (though some of those are starting to tie in to the main story).
It’s just fun, yo. I’m not having a great time right now and I don’t want to talk about it because people will be like “go see a counselor!” and I’ll be like “counseling is a scam!” and they’ll just get mad at me, so this is acting as an excellent little comfort show at the moment.
The Depressing Reality of DeviantArt (and everything else)
So I absolutely despise AI.
I hate how everyone seems to be fine with blindly feeding it information and data and then blindly using other peoples’ information, data, and creations without their consent.
I hate how “just use ChatGPT” is a thing.
I hate how “that sounds like a ChatGPT generated comment” is a thing.
And I really hate how it has infiltrated art (and creative endeavors in general).
FOR EXAMPLE.
I logged onto DeviantArt the other night – which I do on occasion, because I still post my garbage art there – and noticed that a lot of the posts on the main page looked…artificial.
I dug around a bit and found discovered that there is now a button you can press to indicate if some or all of a submission is AI-generated.
So I did a little experiment. I considered 30 random submissions on the main (most recent) pages of DeviantArt. Out of those 30 submissions, guess how many indicated at least some use of AI?
SEVENTEEN.
OUT OF THIRTY.
That’s disgusting.
What on earth are these people contributing to the art community other than theft?
Why are these people trying to pass this garbage off as art?
The worst part of it is that half of these idiots are probably the type to say “digital art isn’t art lololololol”
Attachment
So this clip came up on Twitter for me today:
(I’ve never watched Bluey so I don’t really know the context, but from everything I’ve heard, Bluey is a great show and you can see that in this little clip.)
Anyway, it got me thinking about houses. As some of you know, I’ve moved around a lot. If I sat down and made a list of all the different times I’ve moved (that is, packed up my belongings and transported them all to a different living location), I suspect it would number in the twenties. Hell, between July 2011 and December 2011 I moved FIVE TIMES.
WHO DOES THAT?
I think a consequence of moving so much has been that I’ve never really felt an attachment to any given house. Sure, I’ve missed living in some houses that I’ve spent time in, but I’ve never had an emotional attachment to any of them. I’ve never cried upon moving from a house, and I cry at everything.
I mean, I can understand why people get emotionally attached to their home, especially if they lived there for like 15 years. Maybe if Nate and I ever move from our condo, I’ll feel that emotional loss (we’ve been here nine years now). But I’ve just never experienced that.
Anyway. Just some thoughts.
Early Morning Vrooming
I was planning on just doing an 18-mile run this morning because we were going to head to Nate’s parent’s place for an overnight stay, but plans fell through and I ended up doing a 50k instead.
Because I’m that kind of person now.
I probably could have gone for my 60k if I had taken water with me. The drinking fountains aren’t on yet and by the time I was at mile 28 or so it was starting to get quite warm out.
So maybe next weekend.
Oh. Also. For the first twenty miles or so, I’m just minding my own business, thinking about all the weird stuff I always think about on my runs…but then guess what song pops into my head?
It was stuck in my head for ELEVEN MILES.
Freaking AI.
PFFT FUCK IT
I bought it, I don’t even care.
It’s so weird and offbeat and totally funky – I HAD to get it.
I’ll show you pics when it comes in the mail.
Oh my GOD
I am vehemently opposed to the use of artificial intelligence, at least in the casual capacity it’s been used as of late. What’s that quote? “There’s no AI, just other people’s data.” I refuse to willingly give my data over to AI to make it “smarter” and I refuse to willingly take advantage of other people’s data by producing things via AI said people probably didn’t give consent to the use of their data in that form. ChatGPT, art-generating stuff…nope.
So I’m a bit conflicted on this, because while I didn’t produce it myself, it is AI and I’m willingly consuming it while knowing it’s AI. But I didn’t seek it out on purpose. But I am listening to it.
And I like it. It is the catchiest goddamn thing I’ve heard in a while and I cannot get it out of my head.
“Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on glue”
I mean. Come on.
“What’d I do?”
I still get this song stuck in my head every once and a while. Remember when US politics weren’t quite as insane as they are now?
My dad had a magnet of that shot of Clinton getting slapped, hahaha.
And the Howard Dean scream is great.
Ah, the Good Old Wikipedia Rabbit Hole…
I was talking to my mom the other day about Skippers restaurants. Anyone else remember those? They were a seafood restaurant and looked like this:
(source)
There used to be one in Lewiston, but they closed in 2013, apparently.
Anyway, that brought me to Wikipedia, where I learned that it was founded in Bellevue, Washington. Then it was Wikipedia Rabbit Hole Fun Time Party, which led to me discovering the following random thingies:
- Pita Pit has its US headquarters in Coeur d’Alene but is originally Canadian. (“Pita Pit” article)
- The Pizza Hut Book It! program was apparently heavily criticized for a while, as some argued that it incentivized reading with junk food. However, studies showed that participation in the program neither increased nor decreased motivation to read in children [y’all can suck it; the Book It! program was awesome.] (“Pizza Hut” article)
- Cracker Barrel is a frequent collaborator with Dolly Parton and was actually the force behind getting Dolly to sing a remix of her song “Jolene” with Pentatonix (“Cracker Barrel” article)
- They apparently also used to be able to fire employees if they did not display “normal heterosexual values,” but abolished that policy in 1991. Still, though.
- The Bill Chipman Palouse Trail (the one that runs, in part, from Moscow to Pullman) crosses Paradise Creek 12 times. I didn’t ever realize it was that many (“Bill Chipman Palouse Trail” article)
- The roof of the Kibbie Dome won the “Structural Engineering Achievement Award” in 1976 (“Kibbie Dome” article)
- The negative health effects of asbestos were documented as early as 1898 (“Asbestos” article)
FUN! It’s been a while since I’ve done a true random wander around the Wiki.
Itty Bitty Pasta Blog
If you can find this wherever you live, freaking get it. It’s tasty.
That’s all.
HE DID IT, GUYS
Remember when I posted about Russ Cook (“Hardest Geezer”) and his attempt to run the length of Africa?
He finished today.
It took him 352 days and a lot of health, political, and logistical issues, but he did it.
That’s absolutely ridiculous. He was running like 60K+ every single day. I can’t even imagine that.
You can still donate to his charities!
Eigenblogger 