Category: Miscellaneous

A Letter to My Late-Night Cereal Dealer

Dear Kellogg’s,

I would like to inquire why, with your ability to form corn, wheat, and oats into seemingly impossible shapes and infuse them with artificial sweeters and preservatives (which is very tasty BTW) , you can’t package your cereal with an inner liner that won’t lose every ounce of its structural integrity upon its first opening. Is it made of tissue paper? Old newsprint from the 50’s? Everytime I crack open a newly purchased box of Frosted Flakes, or Honey Smacks, a gapping hole in the liner is created through which rogue cereal morsels escape to the bowels of the box, never to be seen or heard from (if it’s a Rice Crispy) again. Post doesn’t have this problem! They have inner liners that are made of a thin plastic where each corner can be easily opened forming a little “spout” where all their cereal goodness can be directed into my bowl. Now granted, their liners might not be as “earth friendly” as yours, but that’s a small price to pay for my ability to easily pour sugar saturated processed grains into my bowl at 11:30 at night so that I can gain another 5lbs. Come on Kellogg’s! Get your act together! Cereal isn’t grown on trees (is it?)! There’s no need to waste good cereal by letting it escape to the bottom of the box like a bunch of senior citizens moving to Florida to wait out their lives and expire. (Ok, so my analogy broke down.) Anyway, the point is – strong plastic inner bag = good. Scott’s toilet tissue inner bag = bad.

Your loyal Cereal Junkie,

Matt

Weatherman – Lesson Learned

On the way back from Kure Beach on my motorcycle, I learned an important lesson. When the weather man says, 20% chance of scattered showers, what he means is : “100% chance of consistant rain.”

As we were packing to leave the beach on Saturday, it started to shower at Kure Beach. So, I checked the radar images, and it showed that the rain was pretty much isolated to the Wilmington/Carolina Beach/Kure Beach area. So, with the rain being light, we went ahead and headed home. Chrissy took the regular “cage” route, 421 to I-40W, but I took the more scenic 421N route. The ride went fine, with only a little sprinkles hitting my helmet visor to inform me that it was raining. Then I left Wilmington.

On 421N, about 15 miuntes outside of Wilmington it began to pour. I rode in the puring rain for about an hour on 421 before I came to a rest stop inbetween Delway and Clinton. I was soaked from head to toe, and trembling from the cold. To make a long story a little shorter, I called Chrissy from the rest stop, and we decided to meet up at the Walmart in Clinton. There, we bought me dry clothes, boots, and a PVC rain suit. After that, I made it home without further incident.

So, remember- if you check the weather the day before, or the morning of the day you’re planning to ride your motorcycle a long distance, and the weather report states “scattered showers” … don’t believe it. 😉

Rode the VTX to Kure Beach

As I write this I’m sitting on the back deck of Chrissy’s aunt’s beachhouse watching the waves roll in at Kure Beach. Okay, I got the gloating out of the way.

I rode the bike down here, and it’s the first time I’ve taken that long of a trip on the motorcycle. I’ve got to say it wasn’t bad at all. I took 401 South to Hwy 50, to Hwy 242, to Hwy 421 all the way into Carolina Beach, and then on to Kure Beach. My butt was pretty achy with only 2 stops between Raleigh and Kure Beach but it wasn’t too bad. With a better seat, if I didn’t need to stop for gas, I probably could make it all the way without stopping.

On the way I had a little scare on 421 however. I was following a flatbed truck hauling a diesel generator for quite a while until it’s right rear tire exploded and disintigrated in front of me. Luckily, I was following at a safe distance, so I was able to brake and then go around the truck when he puled of the road.

Anyway, I guess I’l get back to drinking my beer on the deck. Happy July 4th everyone!

Just Picked up a Nokia E62 – Wow.

I’ve been a Motorola guy for quite a while, and boy have I been missing out. After looking at some newer devices, I now realize that my first release Moto V3 Razr is slow, and the UI is lacking. My contract with Cingular expired in April, so with a 2 year contract renewal I was able to buy a refurbished Nokia E62 for $50. No refunds to deal with, it was 50 dollars. Period. It’s a Symbian Smartphone device with a full qwerty keayboard, a fully functional web browser, RSS reader, MP3 player, and the most important feature of all, it can sync with my MacBook over Bluetooth. The thing that really impresses me is the UI. It’s quite user friendly. The HTML browser is also impressive with the ability to zoom images in and out, and it’ll also show you a “thumbnail” of the webpage your viewing to make it easier to scroll to the section of the page you want to view. Oh, it’s also a 3G(UMTS) phone, so its download speeds are pretty fast. If you’re looking for an afforable Smartphone, I recommend you get your hands on one of these little gems.

Serenity Voted “Best Sci-Fi Movie Ever”

While I would not call Serenity the best sci-fi movie ever, I loved the film, and am glad that it got some recognition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6517155.stm

If I had to pick the best sci-fi film of all time, it would have to be Forbidden Planet. That movie influenced so much future sci-fi that it deserves the “Best Ever” title.

iHome Alarm Clock Radio

For my birthday, Chrissy got me the iH5 iPod CLock Radio. It’s pretty cool. It comes with adaptors for each iPod type, and you can set it up so that your alarm in the morning is music from your iPod.

Another thing I love about it is that it charges the iPod in it’s cradle, so every night I put my iPod on the iHome, and every day I have a fully charged iPod to take to work. Also, the sound quallity is very good (by clock radio standards) so it’s nice to be able to play music in the bedroom. For $58, you can’t go wrong!