A Veritable Cornucopia of Useless Information

As virtually everyone who has ever interacted with me in person knows, I’m an introvert. (Depending on when I took the MBTI, I’m either an INTP or an ISTP, to be precise.) Most of the time, I can only have so much continuous active interaction with other people before I need to slink off to some nearby Fortress of Solitude. It only recently occurred to me that my sociability drawdown rate varies wildly and depends on only a handful of factors (the number of people around, the overall sociability of those other people, the emotional or intellectual intensity of my interactions, etc.).

The point of all this? Well…um…uh…

This is another fine example of what’s on my mind when I’m walking to and from work.

…like you’d expect any r-selected species to do.

On my daily walk to work, I get my fill of “nature” by walking past the INS USCIS building at 8th & S. Last fall and early this spring, I would see one adult cottontail nibbling on the grass along the east side of the building. A few weeks later, I would see two or three adult rabbits in this area. By early summer, the additional adult rabbits were gone and were replaced with baby kits. At first, I would only see one little rabbit cautiously venture out from the bushes; soon that became two, and then three. A month or so later, two more rabbits even smaller than the (by then) half-grown rabbits appeared, giving a total of at least five newborn rabbits for the summer.

Recently, I’ve only seen, at most, two rabbits in the vicinity; I’m guessing with summer drawing to a close, the near-adults have been driven off.

(Moral of the story: I need to see real nature more often.)

Anyone who knows me is quite aware that I like spicy things; Buffalo wing sauce is one of the most common condiments that I use. While I can buy any number of wing sauces, it’s more fun to make your own. As best I can tell, this is the original recipe from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY:

• 4 tablespoons of butter or margarine (margarine appears to be preferred)
• 5 tablespoons of Louisiana-style hot sauce (Frank’s RedHot appears to be preferred)
• 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

Melt the butter or margarine over medium heat in a heavy saucepan, add the hot sauce and the 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Stir well and remove from the flame immediately.

Play around with the ratios to suit your own taste. Recipe from Totally Hot! The Ultimate Hot Pepper Cookbook. My own commentary in parentheses.

This is partially for my own reference, but I hope at least one person will enjoy the linkage:

Ron Pattinson writes one of the most content-rich blogs I’ve ever come across — Shut up about Barclay Perkins. (His “main” site is the European Beer Guide.) From browsing his blog (for 2008, he’s averaging more than one multi-paragraph post per day, so actually reading it will take quite some time), you quickly pick up the personality of the guy: as best I can tell, he’s opinionated to the point of being quite abrasive and is thoroughly obsessed with statistics, primary documents, and semantic accuracy. However, what shines though is his ruthless determination to document the history of Europe’s brewing industry and to dismantle what we “know” to be true about beer. It’s really quite a sight to behold.

(No, seriously, go check out his blog. If the technical content is too much for you, scroll until you find a travel/miscellaneous post.)

Hi, I’m back!

To celebrate my triumphant return, I’m subjecting you to an analysis of what lands in my spam folder. Enjoy!

Between April 1 and April 15, I received 367 spam items in my Google Mail account. They break down as follows:

So, in summary, the Internet thinks I’m a straight male (check), I’m middle-aged (nope), and I don’t have insurance (nada). Keep trying guys; you’ll get it right eventually.

…no, not that season (yet, even though the media onslaught will kick into high gear tomorrow), but the season for a new operating system.

It never ceases to amaze me how strongly correlated “I am momentarily beyond earshot of my mobile phone” and “People decide to call said phone” are.

Today’s example: Before noon, I was away from my phone for a total of 12 minutes.  Both incoming calls I received this morning occurred within those 12 minutes.

A quick rundown in the “close to home” department:

• The downtown Taco Bueno opened last week;
•  The Hurricane (which existed for < 3 months as Flashback Dance Club) now serves food during lunch as Pastabilities (which I didn’t realize exists elsewhere in Lincoln);
• Brown Baggers also opened last week (once again, I didn’t realize exists elsewhere in Lincoln);
• A Husker home game-only bar is now (whose name currently escapes me) in the location most recently occupied by The Melting Spot.

On deck – Magnolia Restaurant and Crabby Bill’s Seafood Shack and Tiki Bar

When was walking home for lunch today, I saw a state vehicle with the following license plate number:

12346

I was immediately consumed with thoughts of Druidian air locks and whether the driver also happened to live on 124 Fake St.

This blog’s been napping for far too long.  It’s one thing to be called out by your friends, but to be called out by your mom…well, here we are.

Therefore, I’ll awaken it by passing along a short sleep commentary.  It boggles the mind how different a sleeping experience can be from one day to the next, even when many of the variables (location, total time sleeping, start/end of sleep, activities of the preceding day) are as constant as could be reasonably expected.  I don’t know how one morning I can wake up feeling comfortable and relaxed, then wake up the next morning feeling not rejuvenated at all and with a pain in my back best described as “someone hit me with a baseball bat”.