Archive for November, 2007

I iz jus eatin mai cookies n bein graetful, nuffin rong wif dat. If u eat or drink or whatevr, do it for teh glori of Ceiling Cat. (1 Corinthians 10:30-31, LOL)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Popularity: 3% [?]

I’ve been tagged. And because I’m such a nice guy, I’m going to actually follow through on this one. Before I get started, here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Alright, so that took care of #1! My seven random and/or weird facts about myself (unnumbered because they’re so random and/or weird) are:

Call Me Chavez: When on a short-term missions trip to Honduras in 2000, I had a hard time convincing the locals that my name was “Travis,” not “Chavez.” After maybe a day or two, I just gave up and went with it.

Boy, Was My Face Red! (No, Literally): When I was 15, I played Satan in a Screwtape Letters-inspired skit at my church. My “fellow demons” got gussied up with war-paint tattoos, but I went all-out and covered my face and hands in some dark rouge powder (one of the perks to having a high school drama teacher as your ministry head!). Dressed in slacks and a blazer (because Beelzebub is quite the dashing businessman, of course), I delivered my lines with a seething, raspy growl. We got quite a bit of applause and I was feeling somewhat proud of myself (apparently I was still in character). After the service, a surprisingly large number of people came up to my family… and congratulated my dad on his excellent performance on stage.

Like Pearls Before Swine: I don’t really get into fine dining. Seriously, if you want to impress me, don’t take me to some frou-frou establishment where I’ll feel like I need to dress up and remember which one is the salad fork and stuff. Nope, either take me to a greasy spoon diner where you can feed a busload for under $30. Alternatively, you could serve up something strange unique to modern American palettes, like rabbit pie or a three-course meal consisting entirely of curry dishes. (David Gerstein is a pro at this one.)

I’m Getting Old: Right before Gemstone Publishing moved to York, PA, we hired four new employees… who are all younger than me. This is the first time I’ve worked in an office environment and not been the youngest person on staff.

Yo, Joe: My brothers and I (and some friends of ours) loved playing with G.I. Joes when we were younger. We loved it so much that we wanted to be G.I. Joes. Our desire was so intense that we created an entire spin-off universe (Jr. Joes) which morphed into more of a Power Rangers team (Jet Force) as I grew older and Jordan became the dominant player. And yes, we even filmed a few episodes of a Jet Force live-action series using a friend’s video camera!

Disoriented: I can feel claustrophobic if there’s something close to me—but only if it’s somewhere between 11 o’clock (in front of me and slightly to my left) and 4 o’clock (to my right and slightly behind me). Perhaps it’s due to being left-handed, but my sense of “behind me” is really something more like 8 o’clock. This means that I will gladly surrender my right-hand armrest in a movie theater, but don’t you dare take the other one! It also means that if I’m in a car on the left side, I spend the whole trip (unless I’m driving) paranoid that the door’s latch will break and the door will swing open, so that only the seat belt and my not-so-quick reflexes stand between me and the road.

Peanut Butter and Tuna Sandwich: Really, quite a terrible idea… though I didn’t realize this until after I had taken my first bite.

So there you have it, my seven random and/or weird facts about myself. Now I get to rope seven of my least favori… waitaminit. Oh, the tagged victims need to be random, too? Shoot. Okay, but I can’t make it completely random. I’m going to limit it to (1) people I’ve had some form of prior communication with who (2) have an active blog and (3) aren’t known for completely ignoring meme taggings. You know, that may leave me with only seven people!

1. Jamie Cosley
2. Jodie McMullen
3. Rae Whitlock
4. Jordan Seitler
5. Scott Morgan
6. Jared Wilson
7. Brian Brasher (but he’s got to Twitter them)

Now to leave some comments.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I had a few different post ideas today, but I’ll let ‘em all rest for now: folks are finally taking notice of Ron Paul now that he’s jumped from 4% to 8% in New Hampshire polls.

Popularity: 5% [?]

If I had a gold-based salary (rather than U.S. Dollar-based), I’d be doing quite well now.

I just ran the numbers, and sheesh! When I started working full-time as a web designer, my beginning salary was $25k/yr. At the time, gold was trading at $280US/oz., so if I’d been paid in gold, I would have been working for 89.29oz/yr.

Fast-forward to November 2007: the U.S. Dollar has become so devalued (primarily due to the never-ending Federal Reserve printing presses—we’ve got to fund the troops somehow, and that somehow is by printing more FR notes) that if we take that hypothetical “gold-standard salary” and convert it into today’s U.S. Dollar, you end up with $71,500/yr.

Let me say that again: $25,000 in May 2000 equals $71,500 in November 2007.

Somehow those raises don’t seem so much like raises anymore.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’ve seen bins like this in friends’ homes, so I want to spread the word:

CPSC has received one report of a death involving an 8-month-old boy who was asphyxiated after he pulled on the storage rack and it fell over on him. The top rail landed on the infant’s neck. No other incidents have been reported.

The storage rack is wooden with three levels and nine removable canvas totes. There are wooden handles on each side of the rack. The boy’s storage rack has natural color wood with red, yellow, green, and navy canvas totes. The girl’s storage rack has white colored wood with pink, yellow, lime, and purple canvas totes.

If you’ve got one of these, you should immediately stop children from using it and contact Jetmax International at (800) 689-2168 to receive a free repair kit that adds stability to the base.

Popularity: 5% [?]