Nostalgic Item!
Heyooooooooo so this is totally random, but here is a little music box that I’ve had since I was a kid:
It’s pretty old and beat up now and half the sticker on the back is torn off, but I was able to Google it and found out that it’s an Otagiri music box from the 1970s. While it looks like there are quite a few near-new versions of this out there that you can buy from eBay, Etsy, etc., I wanted to put a recording of mine up here just in case it ever breaks. Plus, it’s super cute. And don’t we always want a super cute topic for a blog post?
Anyway.
You can hear how old it is, hahaha.
It’s a survey…about BLOGGING?…RARARAAHAH
Ahem.
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
Kind of as a joke, haha. I got peer-pressured by some of my high school friends into getting a MySpace (remember MySpace??) back in 2006. So I did, on May 1st of that year, and I decided on a whim to make a blog post. I jokingly said I’d try to post a blog a day for 50 days and, well…we see how that’s gone.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I’m on WordPress now; I started on MySpace.
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
I used to just type my blog out straight in the “New Blog” entry field, but I lost far too many blog posts that way when I’d accidentally hit the back button or the internet would crap out as I posted and it was lost forever (MySpace didn’t allow blog drafts, as far as I remember). Now I write all my blogs in a big-ass Word document. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now! Screenshot:
The months marked “[DONE]” are the months for which I’ve posted all the blog posts. The “TO WRITE” section contains some ideas I have for future blog posts. I have to start a new Word document every year or so because they get so big and I’m worried about them getting corrupted. I think I still have all the old ones back through 2018…which is kind of sad.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
When I’ve got something to rant about, haha. When I’m angry or passionate about something. Or if something happens at work that PISSES ME OFF.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
HAHAHAHAHAHA
What are you generally interested in writing about?
Anything. I love that my blog doesn’t have a theme to it. I love being able to post a rant one day, a cool space fact or find the next, and then a dumb YouTube vid the following day. While I did like my “This Week’s Science Blog” series that I did for a while, it’s nice not to even have a weekly “thing” that I have to figure out all the time.
Though those science blogs did force me to look up more science-y stuff, so…maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea.
Who are you writing for?
Me. Others can come along if they want, but it’s written for me and my memories and as an archive of my life.
What’s your favourite post on your blog?
I have a list of my Top 10!
I still think my #1 on that list is my #1. What if the founding fathers had drafted the Declaration of Independence in a chatroom? Having John Hancock type in the biggest, most obnoxious font is like the funniest idea I’ve ever had, hahaha.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
Currently the big “plan” is to make it to 10,000 blogs. September 15, 2033. We’ll see what happens after that. I’m sure there will be several redesigns in the interim, too, though I never really plan those.
Who else do you want to tag?
I have no one to tag. No one blogs anymore and it’s SAD.
I need to know…
…the story behind these little decals that are plastered all over the sidewalks in Inglewood.
They’ve been there for a while now – since about the time they closed the section of the river path that runs through the start of Inglewood, forcing walkers/runners/cyclists to go through Inglewood proper to get back to the rest of the river path – but I’m still curious about the cause.
Was there one hooligan runner that was like shoving past walkers on the sidewalk?
Was there a particularly aggressive running group that didn’t want to share the sidewalk?
Was there a particularly angry walker and/or resident who didn’t like runners going through the neighborhood and made a big enough stink to make them stick these decals everywhere?
I’ve run through Inglewood quite a few times since they closed the path, but I don’t think I ever did anything to warrant this. So hopefully it wasn’t me, haha.
There are also signs stating that runners are encouraged to use the southside sidewalk, so…something must have happened.
I’m just curious.
How Badly Do I Want to Jump Into Traffic?
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo badly.
The Future is Bleak…For Many Reasons
UGH.
I am so glad this crap wasn’t around when I was in school.
But I am so angry that it’s around while I’m teaching.
And in general.
I remember when I first started college I posted a blog post about the “real reason” people go to college. I’m going to guess that was on…August…18th, 2006.
*checks blog archive*
AH I WAS CLOSE it was August 19th, 2006.
The “reasons” are probably the same now, but the big difference is the ease at which people can just fart their way through without learning anything.
Which, if you ask me, is INCREDIBLY DUMB.
Why waste your time? Why waste your (or your parents’) money? You’re going to look back on this time of your life and wish you’d actually taken advantage of the amazing opportunities you had to actually learn stuff instead of coasting your way through by typing misspelled prompts into ChatGPT.
Or maybe not. Maybe nobody really actually cares anymore.
It’s very discouraging either way.
Today I Had a Really Bad Run
I haven’t had a bad run in a long time.
I haven’t had a run this bad in a long, long time.
Like…I can’t even remember when I had a run this absolutely hard and miserable. I wanted to quit like five separate times, which is a pretty big deal, because I never want to quit.
The worst thing about bad runs is how they psych me out for my next run. As illogical as it is, I always catastrophize it and think that I have lost my ability to run longer distances and now all of my runs will be miserable.
UGH. I hope Thursday’s run will be better.
(Edit: it was great, hahaha)
Back to Calgary
I’M BACK IN CALGARY
I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE RIGHT NOW
I WANT ANOTHER WEEK+ IN MOSCOW
LALALALALALA THROW ME IN THE BOW
An Experiment (or, “What I Think About During a 26-Mile Run”)
So for anyone who is unaware, there is a bike/pedestrian path between Moscow and Pullman called the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail. Completed in 1998, it is an approximately seven mile long trail that starts near the intersection of Bishop Boulevard and Main Street in Pullman and ends at the intersection of the Pullman-Moscow Highway and Perimeter Drive in Moscow. A decade or so (?) ago, a little scale model of the solar system was set up on the Moscow side, where the sun was placed at the terminal end of the trail and each planet was placed an appropriate distance from this little model sun, ending with Pluto and the other dwarf planets near Warbonnet Drive.
This gives you a good idea of the distance between all the planets, but as I was running this morning, I wondered what this model would look like if it extended the entire length of the trail. That is, if the sun was placed where it currently is (at the Moscow end), but Pluto and the other dwarf planets were placed at the Pullman end, how would the spread of the planets look over these seven miles?
So I made a map! This is what that model would look like with the sun at the “mile 0” marker and Pluto/dwarfs at the “mile 7″ marker. Distances:
- Mercury: 0.069 miles from the sun
- Venus: 0.128 miles from the sun
- Earth: 0.177 miles from the sun
- Mars: 0.269 miles from the sun
- Jupiter: 0.922 miles from the sun
- Saturn: 1.698 miles from the sun
- Uranus: 3.403 miles from the sun
- Neptune: 5.334 miles from the sun
- Pluto/dwarfs: 7 miles* from the sun
And a picture, because that makes it so much easier to see.
I think that gives an even better representation of the vast distances between those outer planets. Also, it’s kind of cool that the Washington-Idaho border sits where the Asteroid Belt would be.
WOO!
*This is super approximate; there are obviously several inaccuracies when doing this in Google Maps in terms of getting the exact distances along that trail, AND I don’t remember if the “Pluto” marker is based on Pluto’s average distance from the sun, the average distance of the mentioned dwarf planets, or on something else.
Want to read blogs that are better than mine?
Boom!
I’ve complained on here multiple times that people don’t blog like they used to. The personal blog has especially tanked in popularity in the past few decades. But if you’re like me and really enjoy reading those “here are my miscellaneous thoughts and experiences” blogs, check out the “personal” tag as well as the “directories” tag for more blog lists.
BYE!
Thank You, Mr. Garrett!
Mr. Garrett was my band teacher from 7th grade through 12th grade. He was one of my favorite teachers I’ve ever had, in part because of the subject he taught but in part because he was just an awesome dude. I always enjoyed the way he taught band, the pieces he selected for us, and his general attitude towards dealing with a bunch of weirdo band kids, whether they be little tiny 12- and 13-year-old 7th graders or wild and (supposedly) wiser 18-year-old seniors.
I remember we used to have “test days” back in junior high that just consisted of him wheeling out the big TV and letting us watch The Emperor’s New Groove or Star Wars or Lord of the Rings that day during band period. In high school, we traveled to Disneyland to do a mock professional recording of some songs (and, of course, spend like 24+ hours riding rides and being general hooligans in Disneyland itself) and to Canada to play at some sort of competition thingy. Even the fundraisers for these events were fun.
Anyway, after teaching for 37 years, he is finally retiring. Last year was the final Ice Cream Social performance he would be involved in, so my mom and I stopped in to say congratulations.
And I’ll say it again here: congrats, Mr. Garrett! Thank you for being an amazing band teacher and for the impact you’ve had on countless young lives. Keeping music in schools is beyond important, and your role in this has been undeniable.
Have a great retirement!
Eigenblogger Turns 19
Ahoy-hoy!
So today is my 19th blogaversary.
Yes, I’ve been doing this for NINETEEN YEARS. That’s pretty insane.
I don’t really have anything special planned for this anniversary, mainly because next year’s is the big 20 and that’s more important.
But yeah. Thanks to all my loyal readers (Maddie and my mom, haha); I will continue to do this up until my 10,000th blog post…and perhaps beyond!
Mileage n’ Migraine
Ahoy, butt-bombs! I had a migraine late last night, but I’m only including that info for my own reference; the main point of today’s blog is the fact that it’s the end of the month, so we’re tallying the monthly walking/running mileage to see if I’m still on pace for 7,000 miles for the year.
April mileage: 641.63
Monthly average mileage: 607.27
Current end mileage with this pace: 7287.24
That’s good! Gotta keep it up, though, or do better.
AAAAAAAAA GOOD JOB, CANADA
We did it! We didn’t screw it up!
(Source)
Looks like there will be a minority Liberal government.
This election was heavily, heavily influenced by Trump. So thanks, Trumpster Dumpster, you kept Canada Liberal!
I really like Carney; I hope he does great things for this country.
Edit: more fun tweets:
(Source)
(Source)
(Freaking Alberta, man)
Election: Canadian Edition
The much-anticipated 2025 Federal Election is HERE! Let’s do it.
Ugh, god, this thing is invoking just as much anxiety as the little electoral college counter that CTV had for the last several US presidential elections.
I’m too nervous to actually blog about any of this today; we’ll see what the final results are later tonight, but until then, I’m going to try to not puke.
Oh, Moscow.
It’s good to see that Moscow is still weird.
For the most part.
It’s not as weird as it used to be, but it’s still got its weird moments.
Anyway.
Every time I come back here, it always blows my mind how close everything is. I can walk basically anywhere in town within a maximum of, like, 45 minutes. I could hit all three major grocery stores (Rosauers, Safeway, Winco) quite easily on one trip. I can’t say the same thing about the three closest grocery stores to us in Calgary (Safeway, Save-On, FreshCo…I think).
Also, I love how I can just doodily-doo across four lanes of traffic without even a threat of getting mowed over because there’s nobody on the road. Again, can’t do that in Calgary. You can barely do that on a one-way back street in Calgary.
I haven’t walked through campus yet, but I’m sure I will before I head back up north.
Trumpster Dumpster vs. Canada
This is a really good overview of the Canadian attitudes and thoughts on the upcoming election, the influence of Trump, and the thoughts about America in general. Please watch it, my American friends, so you get an idea of what’s going on up north.
It really has been a huge, palpable surge of patriotism over the past few months. Canada is very different than the US when it comes to overt, visible displays of patriotism. But there is a lot of blatant national pride right now. Flags everywhere, the “elbows up” thing, etc. It’s really, really interesting.
Squishy Mushy Fee-Fees
I was thinking about this today on my walk: is there somebody in your life (or who used to be in your life) whose very existence just…makes you happy? Puts you at ease? Brings you peace? Is there a person that you can just briefly think about and suddenly feel 100% better about everything?
A “comfort human,” if you will? I don’t think this necessarily has to be the person you love the most, or even a person you love in a familial or romantic way. It’s just some person who just dulls the angry noises in your head the instant you think about them. You don’t even have to see them or talk to them. Just thinking about them sends a wave of tranquility through your being.
Do you have a comfort human?
I do. And, surprisingly, it’s not my husband and it’s not my mom.
It’s Sean. I don’t know what it is about him and our relationship, but he’s someone that I can think of and immediately just feel better about existence. I can be having the worst day until I conjure up a picture of him in my head – or even just the sound of his voice – and I feel more grounded and less OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD. It’s almost like I can rationalize the existence of good in the universe because the universe was able to create him.
Is that weird? Creepy? Both?
EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA haha just kidding it’s a survey
Same thing, really.
If you had 3 dozen eggs right now, what would you do with them?
Probably put them in the fridge. Then make scrambled eggs over the course of like three months.
Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
I danced with Rob at night once, does that count?
Is cheese one of your favorite food items?
Cheese freaking rules.
Do you like ham and eggs?
I like eggs, but I don’t like ham.
Do you like the band Atreyu?
I don’t think I’ve ever consciously heard a song of theirs.
They’re amazing aren’t they?
Uh, sure?
Where is your favorite place to go on Tuesday?
Running. I go to a place…in my mind.
Ever listen to Asia?
Again, probably, but not consciously.
Do you like any bands from the 80’s?
Duh.
Ever eat smoked sausage and cabbage?
That sounds gross.
Is this survey pretty grammatically correct so far?
I haven’t been paying attention.
Ever watch SpongeBob or any other Nick shows?
SpongeBob (at least older SpongeBob) is great.
What is your favorite movie and how old is it?
My favorite movie is either Apollo 13 (1995) or Mystery Men (1999).
Do you like any movies from the 80’s?
Again, duh.
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream to eat when it’s cold outside?
The same flavor of ice cream I like when it’s hot. Oreo. Or mint chocolate chip.
What is your favorite character from your current favorite media? It can be from a book, movie, or cartoon.
I am still 100% obsessed with SolarBalls, so I guess that’s what I’m picking from! My favorite character is Uranus. Not just because Uranus is my favorite planet in real life, haha, but because I think he’s a very interesting character. There’s a lot of directions he could go at the moment.
Who is the person you hate more than anything else in the world?
Me.
Ever watch the show Supernatural? If you have, then what’s your favorite episode?
Never seen it.
Ever heard of flavored honey? If so, what’s you’re favorite flavor.
That sounds…weird.
Do you like Kool-Aid?
I didn’t mind it as a kid. I haven’t had it as an adult.
What’s your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid?
I think they all tasted the same to me.
What is your favorite number times 3?
33.
Did that last question stump you?
Nope.
Is duck butter sticky or not?
Sorry, what?
If you could go back in time, what time would you go back to?
LEIBNIZ TIME
Do you remember what your favorite show was when you were little?
I liked TaleSpin quite a lot.
Do they still play that show on TV?
Doubt it. It’s on Disney+ though.
What is your favorite name?
I like the name Hugo.
Is there an unusual way to spell it?
Probably.
Do you own more than 6 stuffed animals?
No, surprisingly.
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
HAHAHAHAHAH KINVARA GRAVEYARD
IF you could change your name to anything in the world, what would it be?
No idea.
Ever been to a professional football/basketball/baseball game?
Yes!
What are your favorite sports teams?
Mets.
What game system do you own if you own one?
I don’t personally own any; Nate has a few.
If communists had wings could they fly?
In Communist Russia, wings use YOU to fly!!!!!
Can you wink?
Yeah.
What about flipping your tongue over?
Yup.
Tired of this quiz yet?
It’s certainly not the best survey I’ve done.
That’s okay because I’m done now.
Yay.
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
(I think I’ve used this title before.)
(Anyway.)
I’ve walked around Moscow a few times now and have run to and from Pullman a few times now as well, so here are some observations about stuff that’s changed since the last time I’ve been here:
- The Gambino’s billboard that you could see as you drive into Moscow from Pullman is now a billboard for JackJack’s Diner. I’m pretty sure that Gambino’s billboard has been there since I was born, so that’s pretty sad.
- That new Home Depot seems really out of place. Is that just me? Why is it there?
- HOW THE HELL DID SHARI’S CLOSE IT’S A 24-HOUR RESTAURANT IN A COLLEGE TOWN
- The Palouse Mall is now called…The Palouse Place? So it says on the doors, at least. Odd news.
- That big farm house with the white fence right along the Chipman Trail between mile markers 2 and 1 on the way to Pullman? The family that has lived there forever must have moved, because their little “population” sign is gone and the “GO COUGS” lights are gone as well.
- Edit: Yeah, they must be gone. That little dome thing no longer says “Siggie Dome” on it.
- I haven’t actually been in the mall yet because it always makes me sad (it’s not what it used to be), but my mom told me that Rite Aid is basically just selling stuff until it’s gone and then they’re going to close. Rite Aid was always a fun store to go to for me when I used to go to the mall with my dad. I bought my first eyeshadows there. They had the one type of journal that I always used for school. They had Ring Pops. Life is sadness.
- Prices at Walmart don’t seem to have gone up to the same degree as the prices at Winco.
Thanks, Mongolian BBQ!
This is actually hilarious.
“Everything’s going to work out!”
…
“Except those lucky numbers. You ain’t gettin’ those.”
Want to see the most Canadian news article ever?
“French-Language Leaders’ Debate Moved to Avoid Conflict with Habs Game”
Can’t let politics distract from hockey!
I also love that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
K that’s all.
Fromage A Trois
What up, POSERS??
I’m back in Moscow for a stint. Did a marathon this morning and then went to WinCo.
The tariffs are already starting to hit grocery prices, huh? Prices at WinCo were, in general, much higher than I remember from last year.
The one exception? Dairy.
Consider this bag of cheese:
How much do you think this little buddy cost?
$1.98.
$1.98.
At absolute minimum, a bag of cheese this size in Calgary would cost like $5.95.
Insanity.
Anyway.
Book review: The Fountainhead (Rand)
Have I read this before: Nopers.
Review: I really liked this book. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I don’t (or didn’t, rather) know anything about Rand’s philosophy other than it gets a lot of criticism, so maybe that allowed me to enjoy this book more than if I’d gone into it knowing what to expect in terms of that philosophy being infused in it.
Just as a story, it’s really good. Rand has an enjoyable writing style. It’s clean, blunt, and peppered with natural but arresting analogies. Roark was, of course, a very intriguing character, but I think I like the way that Dominique was written the most. It’s like we’re allowed to see what she does and get a glimpse of why, but we’re never quite in her head the way we are with Roark or Keating or even Toohey. She’s almost written in a fog, if that makes any sense. Which matches with her withdrawal from her values throughout most of the book.
If you include Rand’s philosophy alongside the story, I still think it’s really good. The development of her Objectivism came after the publication of The Fountainhead, so it’s never explicitly included, but the basic viewpoints are in there. I can see why those views can be criticized and can be easily warped into something their not, but the way Roark goes off on his philosophical rant near the end of the book and explains his understanding of “selfishness” makes this viewpoint really make sense in my opinion.
Favorite Part: Roark going off on the meaning of selfishness. It’s too long to re-type here, haha, but it’s a really good explanation of Rand’s idea of selfishness and individualism.
Rating: 7/10
Guess Who VOTED?
ME!
We’re doing early voting because I’m going to be in the ‘Scow on the actual voting day.
But I hope my vote makes a difference!
Pepper is a Weird Girl
I love her, hahaha.
Eigenblogger 