Have you ever wanted an advent calendar, but without chocolate or the joy of opening the little doors? Introducing the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs advent calendar! Every day in December leading up to (but not including) Christmas, I will post some little treat linked on the advent calendar page. This will be in addition to normal posting, and a link to the advent calendar will be available at the top of the blog throughout the month of December.
Click on the image below to begin!
I often come up with great money-saving ideas, and being the gracious person I am, I will share one idea I had with you. Instead of buying soda or other drinks in a bottle/can, people should have automatic drink mixing machines in their homes that reconstitute a variety of drinks from their powdered or syrup state.
Powered drinks such as Kool-Aid or lemonade are already available in stores, but soda syrups are not. For those unaware, sodas provided in restaurants are just water mixed with a high concentration of the actual sugary flavored material. The way fast food restaurants are able to store so much soda in a relatively small soda-dispening machine is because they are able to keep a small amount of the actual drink, and simply mix it with water as needed.
Besides convenience, it also saves money. Imagine a household kitchen device, able to quickly and easily mix drinks. All you would have to do is add the desired solute to the machine, fill the main tank, and press the “on” button. In the long run, you would save money because you can create a large amount of the drink from only a small amount of the concentration.
I think I may have re-invented the coffee machine. Just without coffee.
High fives are an art form. As someone who tends to make a lot of high-quality jokes in public, I tend to receive more high fives than the average person. Through my experience, I have discovered why some high fives are better than others.
The two defining characteristics of a hive five are the amount of pain transferred and amount of noise produced. Optimally, the high five should be nearly painless, as well as make a great smacking sound, announcing to the world that a success has just been achieved.
I have provided a graph:
Hopefully your high fives are good enough that you will high five once again in celebration.
It is very important to have your business or website on the top of the list. No matter what list it is (except for a list of someone’s least favorite things), being on top is crucial.
I was on a trip once and got to my hotel rather late. Tired from the flight, I asked the person at the front desk for restaurant recommendations. He printed a sheet and I took it back to my room, choosing to have pizza for delivery. I sat down on the bed, and to my dismay, there were no pizza places that I had eaten at before. I read every option multiple times, not sure which number to call. My hunger mandated a quick decision, and I had no information on the quality of the pizza from just the names. I compromised with myself and called the very first number on the list. The pizza was good, although I’ve had better. The point of the story is not to assess the quality of that pizza, but rather analyze exactly why I chose the first name on the list without any outside information.
It was an excuse. If the pizza was good, I could say, “well that turned out better than expected.” On the other hand, if the pizza was mediocre (it is very very difficult to have bad pepperoni pizza, especially when it is delivered to you), I could say, “well, I just tried the first one on the list.” Similarly, when a waiter gives entrée recommendations, the default choice has already been made; it is up to you to accept it. If the “new shrimp salad with lemon sauce” turns out to be awful, you don’t feel so bad about your choice, since it was only partially made by you.
To be honest, I doubt there was much difference between the variety of pizzas I could have eaten that night. When you break it down, pepperoni pizza is pepperoni pizza, and slight variations from one version to the next aren’t really that big of a deal. Although if I was given a slice from each pizza, I could easily order them from best to worst and write a five-page paper explaining my choices. No matter which pizza place I chose, I would have no way to compare it to any other option. Therefore, selecting a pizza place was almost a meaningless decision, which makes being on the top of the list the utmost priority.
Sometimes I ask myself “What is America?” America is getting together with your family, watching football, and eating lots of food. It’s about having the best opportunities in the world but also stopping to appreciate what you have.
Happy Thanksgiving. I would write more but now it’s time to spend all day talking to people I don’t like. At least there’s free food.
Recently in multiple instances, people have thanked me for something that didn’t necessitate formal appreciation. I was caught off guard, since my actions were not deliberately thought out with the intention of being nice. I never really accepted the appreciation with much gratitude, saying that it wasn’t really a big deal. Afterwards, however, I understand what a positive influence their words had on me, and how they probably thought their statement had no real effect. The past few days have given me confidence that even if someone doesn’t make it obvious that your thanks was appreciated, on the inside they do appreciate it.
On a similar note, thanks for reading my blog; it means a lot to me. I have some semi-big ideas I’m working on for the near future, so I hope you continue to keep reading.
I do not understand how people are able to play the trombone. In order to play the correct note, the slide has to be positioned in exactly the right spot, and is constantly moving in order to play a complicated song. There is no marking for the notes, so you have to memorize their location, and have lots of arm strength to play for an extended period of time.
As per usual, I have invented a fantastic solution to the problem presented. Inspired by the moving ink thing in printers, the Automatic Trombone-Playing Machine is programmable, and moves quickly and precisely into the correct positions. A keyboard conveniently attached to the instrument allows the slide to be moved at the press of a button.
Crossword Puzzles are lame, since I never get any of the references because I don’t watch TV or movies 24/7. I have constructed a crossword puzzle for you to try, which requires some random and obscure knowledge. Try it, hope you enjoy!
I don’t watch much TV, but recently I was at a restaurant that had one tuned in to sports commentary. After a quick discussion about college football, they displayed a picture of some football player’s new haircut. As they were discussing it in all sorts of unnecessary detail, something dawned on me. Following sports news is no different from following celebrity news.
“The Giants have a big matchup next week, will they be able to pull it off? Their running game hasn’t been too good lately, but with their new freshmen out of USC they might make something happen.”
“So today we learned that Kristen Stewart is going to be starring in the new Snow White movie! Some people don’t think that her performance in Twilight will be able to transfer over to a new style. And did you see that cute dress she was wearing on shoot?”
If I were to take a recent issue of People magazine, I could crop out the pictures of actors and replace them with football players, and change the side stories to “New rookie makes a big play?” or “10 hot tips for watching football with your friends.”
“Why were NFL teams wearing pink cleats this Sunday?” Who cares? I definitely don’t.
I am always glad when I am stopped at a stoplight and the car in front of me has a personalized license plate. I try to guess what they mean, and if it is not readily apparent, I make up a story or situation to justify the plate.
Some are just obvious, like “ILUV10S” (I love tennis) or “K AND D” (names of two people, eg Kate and Daniel). Plates with elusive meanings are much more entertaining. Once I saw a plate that said “635 YRS”. If the number was something smaller like 35, it might be how many years they were married, or if it was slightly larger like 112 it might be how long their business has been in existence. Not satisfied with either of these applications, I came up with a few ideas of my own:
1) Their family lineage dates back 635 years.
2) They are psychic crazy and predict that the world will end in exactly 635 years.
3) They owe $635 to the IRS, and are confused by the whole situation so they are asking “Y”
4) The “R” is actually a “P” in disguise, making it “SPY” spelled backwards. They are actually one of the last remaining of the 635 Russian spies from the Cold War, and are subliminally hoping someone will confront them so they can reveal their amazing life story to the world.
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs 
