Dollar power

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning. And staying cool.

For some reason, I just woke up and had a blogging idea - so I thought I'd record it before I forgot about it, especially since my blogging ideas have been kind of sparse as of late.

Whenever i see a dollar store, I can't help but go inside. Which is what happened today. I know, it's probably just a side effect of my frugality. But I guess I just get a kick out of what I can buy for a dollar when the same thing is sold for many times more elsewhere.

Some of you may be thinking that the majority of dollar store stuff is crap. And I agree - some of it definitely is. I don't know how many ceramic "dust collector" figurines anyone needs at their place of residence. But see, there's fun stuff too.

Like multipack glow sticks.

But today, I found USB cables! Now by saying this, I know I've taken the nerdiness of my blog to a whole new level - but buying a usb cable for a dollar blows me away. I've been in the market because K needed a printer cable so I've been keeping an eye out for her. I was at the electronics store (the one where the logo looks like a big yellow price tag) and the cheapest cable I could find was $39.99. Yes, the cable was plutonium coated for maximum USB transfer, but come on, do I really need maximum transfer for a printer cable? I even checked online - the best I could find was $10.00 to my door because I couldn't make the $25.00 minimum for free shipping.

So it makes me wonder about cables and their markup. I wouldn't be surprised if the cables were made from the same factory located somehwere in China. One just came off the plain grey cable line, and then the other from the clear high-tech designer jacket line.

-Kirk

Mystery

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well on this fine holiday weekend.

This morning I was thumbing through the local paper and there was a story about how law enforcement was "stepping up" efforts to enforce seat belt laws. Which made me wonder:

Are there still that many people out there that don't use seatbelts?

I just don't get it. Are they not convinced that seat belts work? Are these the same people that wouldn't wear helmets when riding a motorcycle?

The other day, I was out with K & Co. at Potbelly's, and there was a dude on his cell phone warning the person on the other end to wear his/her seatbelt because there were seat belt enforcement points along the way.

Nutty.

I know I know. It's a free country, it's your choice. But I have 2 words:

Natural Selection.

-Kirk

American Smidol

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

If I hear another American Idol commercial, I think I'm going to puke. I heard that freakin radio commercial a few times going back and forth from work, and then 1 more time while driving to dinner.

Pure torture.

Congrats to the network and all the execs who are making big phat cashish from this thing.

I know, I know, I'm hatin - But can the network people make it sound any more like a bigger deal? Sheesh.

Anyway, enough with the gripes.

So what's been going on these past few weeks...

Just for shits and giggles, I went car shopping last week. I held off test driving anything until K peer pressured me into driving a Subaru WRX.

That car is nice.

I think I had a crazy grin on my face all the way home after that test drive.

We also went to the dealership that is supposed to be all friendly and non-high pressure - only thing is I was completely ignored, and the reason I went into the showroom was locked up with nobody around to open it up for me to peer inside.

Wanks.

We did visit a few other dealerships as well - I must say each was quite different. But I was hit with all yucky car salespeople stereotypes. Oh well.

Anyway, what else...

Why don't the clothing manufacturers standardize where they put their care tags?

Work is still work. I'm becoming quite crusty, sadly.

I need de-crustification. Badly.

-Kirk

Just tell me

Hi all,

Just one other quick thing...

Today I lost my corporate composure for a second. I was in a meeting and some people were talking about some report that wasn't immediately available for review. One guy joked around that the report was secret, and if he told us about it, he'd have to kill us. So I said (out loud)

Just tell me.

(silence) - Then everyone did laugh :)

-Kirk

My hump

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a quick note before going to bed. Today we were in a meeting and we went off on some random tangent = talking about backpacking and riding alpacas. Which got me thinking. If I ever had to ride a beast of burden, I'd choose to ride a camel with 2 humps.

So I could lean back while I ride.

So gangsta!

-Kirk

Accumulation

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening. Haven't written in a while.

Let's see, what's been going on...

We've been having some kick butt weather. A few days ago was the first time I rolled down both windows on my little car and had the radio cranked, disturbing the peace. Last night was the same story. I was especially happy because we normally just skip spring and go directly to summer.

I've recently begun rediscovering my mix CDs in the car again. Back in the day, I used to burn a mix cd every "season" and would play the crap out of it until I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. But once in a while I like to bring out the old collection and have a listen.

I made some good mix CDs :)

Last weekend I was up pretty early and took K's dog out for a walk. It's kind of wild how much longer the day seems (in a good way) when you wake up early on the weekends :)

It's been a long while since I'd been out and about that early in the day. It's pretty neat because everything's still pretty quiet in the neighborhood, and the air feels and smells clean. It's also nice and cool too so it's perfect walking weather.

Today I was all ghetto - went into the car ashtray to come up with 4 quarters to get a car wash. That's pretty sad.

I'm falling sleep so I'm going to sign off now. Talk to you later!

-Kirk