UNPACKING CHRISTMAS

SWEET!, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

Every year around this time I start hauling out the boxes of Christmas decorations. I carefully unpack and inspect each one - admiring its delicate beauty. Recalling all the good memories it inspires.

This year is no exception; boxes and bubble wrap are strewn everywhere. But I'm not decorating. I'm unpacking all of them so I can sell them, things I thought I'd hold onto till the grave.

What a surprise! And another suprise? I'm not sad. Letting them go is a good thing. It might just be the merriest Christmas of them all.

YOU CAN FIND IT ON EBAY

Tree Sweet Tree, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

I visited 2 antiques shoppes today and they have NOTHING on eBay. Poor quality at high prices meant I left empty-handed.

I'm up late posting photos to flickr. Tonight I took about a million shots of my Kenner Tree Tots Family Tree House playset in preparation for listing it on eBay (and also as a nice way to remember it after it's with its new owner). I'm happy with the way they turned out. Hopefully the bidders will be influenced by them to bid higher.

After seeing other cool photos of Kenner toys on flickr (M.A.S.K. and Star Wars action figures, Blythe dolls, etc.), I decided to form a new flickr group for products made by this great company. I mean, they made Play-Doh! They deserve a little special attention.

DEL.ICIO.US

sandwich., originally uploaded by godownmatthew.

Sweetness! I'd been meaning to check it out, but I didn't expect it to be this good. No, not a giant floating ice cream sandwich! I finally got around to setting up my del.icio.us account and transferring all 400 of my bookmarks over. Editing them and adding tags was a total hassle, but the tool's already proving itself worth the extra effort. If you use Firefox, you've probably at least heard of it. For those of you unfamiliar with what, exaclty, del.icio.us is/does (like I was yesterday), you might want to check it out.

I also got a couple of eBay auctions up. It took forever to get my photography and auction stuff unpacked and set back up - way more time than it took to pack it all away for Pauline's visit. After spending too much time on all of that, I was ready to get out of the house when my brother called from Germany with a list of things he'd like me to bring for his family when I come over in a few weeks.

That's right! I did my first Christmas shopping of the Season today. I found several of the things on his list, and I should be done after just one more trip into town. Since I'm not bringing home a regular paycheck these days, I normally stay out of stores, so the only drag about the day's outing was seeing things that I wanted for myself and having to muster the self-discipline needed to not buy them. Hooray for character development. Big whomping yay!

Tomorrow should make up for it, since I'll get to spend a little dough on myself. My friends Stephen and Samantha are going to be in town for the night, so the three of us are going to Outback. I used to go to the one on the Coast regularly before the storm took it out. None of us have been to one since before Katrina, so it's kind of a big deal for us to go. I can't wait to have one of their baked sweet potatoes. I can almost taste it.

This week has been an island of old friendship in the ocean of solitude known as 2006. On Sunday night, I saw my old friends Mike and Madeline. I'd been thinking about them all day, so when they walked through the church door, I was shocked. Then on Monday night I saw my friends Alice, Sean, Kevin, and Emily at Joe Muggs when I stopped in for a coffee. They all will be in town for extended holiday visits with their parents, so I'll be able to see them again before I leave for overseas. Being around old friends made me realize what a recluse I'm becoming. I'm glad I'll be around Dan's family for the holidays. I need to make a New Year's resolution to not be such a hermit in 2007.

COUNTDOWN

German Christmas Market, originally uploaded by Alexander Yates.

The countdown continues: 40 days until I leave for Germany.

VISIONS OF IPODS DANCING IN THEIR HEADS

I started back at the gym today after a 2 month hiatus. It was around 3 o'clock, and I was the only one there besides the gym owner. I popped in my ear buds and jogged along to Taylor Hicks. Every time I use the iPod, I think of the Sony Walkman. Do you remember those? This Japanese craze hit the US consumer market in 1980. By 1981, there were a couple dozen knock-offs, but none carried the "coolness" factor of the Walkman. They were the iPod of their day. Oh, how I wanted one! But the over $100 price, considered affordable by Yuppies, was way out of my elementary-school sized budget. It would be almost 10 years before I FINALLY got one, and by that time CD's were becoming popular, so they were no big deal. I wonder how many little kids are longing for an iPod. I guess one day they'll look back and laugh about thinking, "I'll just die if I don't get one for Christmas."

A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE?

OCT 31

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

No trick-or-treaters came by tonight. I was a little surprised, since the house is in town. Maybe word got around that we didn't have any good candy. My experience with the whole trick-or-treating thing is limited. Growing up in the country, I think maybe we got a couple of kids one year, and that was it. I only went trick-or-treating once; I was Humpty Dumpty at age 4. My parents would have let me if I'd wanted to, but I wasn't into it. It just never has been my thing. I'm much more a Christmas kind of guy.

That said, I have to say that I love those little corn candies. You know, the white, orange, and yellow ones? Maybe tomorrow I'll go buy a bag half price.

MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE

Savetheinternet.com and Free Press are sponsoring a Media Reform conference Jan. 12-14 in Memphis to jump start the issue of Net Neutrality before the new Congress convenes. Thought you might want to check it out.

SPOOKY SWEET SPOOKY

E.L.F. Scott (sepia), originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

This old portrait of my great-great grandmother, and a few others like it, used to hang in my grandmother's attic. The life-size oddities frightened a generation of grandchildren, not only because of their stiff expressions and odd fashions.

It's their eyes! I don't know why, but their eyes seem to follow you no matter where you are in the room. My mom says they did the same thing when they hung in her grandmother's living room. She and her brother Bob used to lie on their stomachs and slide on the wooden floor while their ancestors eyes followed them.

My nieces and nephews don't like them at all - declaring them creepy. But I think they are cool, in a Ripley's kind of way. I was pretty sad when they were destroyed in a house fire a few years back. I'm thinking of framing life-size duplicates made from the scans I have of them. It just doesn't seem like home without my dead ancestors hanging around staring at me.

GERMANY FOR CHRISTMAS

Weihnachtsmarkt, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

This morning I booked my flight through ORBITZ. I leave December 13th and return January 13th.

So, the countdown begins: 54 days until I leave for Germany.

BILL MOYERS AND SAVE THE INTERNET

Hope you caught journalist Bill Moyers on PBS last night. He produced a documentary called, "The Net at Risk." Following the broadcast, PBS.org hosted a live Internet debate between Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott and the phone industry's Mike McCurry.

Even if you missed it, please check out Moyers' essay "Against An Imperial Internet." Try to imagine an internet that is exclusively programmed by companies in the same way that TV and radio are programmed. If we don't speak up to congress, that could be the new face of the Internet in the 21st Century.

KIAWAH

Kiawah Island, 1979, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

In '79, my parents and I visited the resort community at Kiawah. Dad was in business meetings during the day, so Mom and I had time to ourselves. She was a shutterbug back then.

I have three distinct memories about the trip: (1) I thought we were in a foreign country (2) We saw a "haunted house" on a walking tour of what I thought was the Rain Forest (3) We had a jeep ride on the beach.

Those are some of my earliest memories.

ROTOGRAVURE

Dad, Mom, Pat 1979, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

I'm posting a lot of old photos to flickr today, so if you need a laugh, check them out.

MUSEUM

Dumpr offers a new tool that lets you place any flickr photo into a museum setting. I tried it out on 3 of my photos. What do you think?

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CUPCAKES

Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes, originally uploaded by buzzville.

Saw this photo on flickr and can't wait to try the recipe. I'll let you know how they turn out.

NOBODY'S WATCHING BARATS AND BERETA

A while back, I posted the NBC/WB pilot of a failed TV show ironically called "Nobody's Watching." Well, Derrik and Will have launched a website and a viral video campaign to resurrect the show (and their acting careers). Here's an example of the stuff they are posting to YouTube (for an extra dose of fun, read all the comments on their videos - it's amazing how few people commenting realize Will and Derrik are paid actors:

They might just have the formula for success, if they can follow in the footsteps of Luke Barats and Joe Bareta. Remember them? I've been following their YouTube Vidoes and post them here occasionally. I was surprised to see Joe this week on late night cable TV as a spokesman on a technical college ad (not too great an ad since I can’t recall the name of the college). The ad left me wondering what else was new in the fellows' quest for stardom, so I checked out their MySpace and found out that they have sealed a deal with a network - NBC Universal Television Studio - at the end of a bidding war that included MTV and HBO! Here is one of their new videos they've put on YouTube:

Speaking of Youtube, I guess you've heard about the whole "GooTube" Google $1.65B acquisition thing? Will Google ruin YouTube by plastering it with ads and making it all google-fied? What do you think?

THE REAL THING

Clearly Coke, originally uploaded by koduckgirl.

I'm posting a lazy-man's blog today: just copying and pasting an email forward that my brother Dan passed my way, but it's worth thinking about -

WATER: Drink Life!
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half of the world population).
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the compute screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, ;lus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Have a COKE and a Smile (aka "I Love Liquid Candy")?
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "Real Thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. Citric acid in the Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coke over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coke to the rusted bold for several minutes.
7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coke will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
8. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
9. To carry Coke syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
10. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Interested? Then check out the "Unauthorized history of Coca-Cola" and "Sugar Wars."

I WON ON BLINGO!

Danni won on Blingo, and since she signed up through my link, I won, too! For prizes, Blingo gave us each a choice between a Fandango movie ticket for one adult admission, or an iTunes gift certificate for $10. I chose the iTunes certificate and downloaded episodes of "Lost" and "The Office."

I would have chosen the movie ticket, but there's nothing out in theatres I want to see. I caught "School for Scoundrels" and it was a bomb. It was such a yawn I won't even bother to elaborate on its many fatal flaws. Jon Heder needs a new agent.

So, hey- If you'd like to sign up for Blingo and win cool prizes, too, then click this blue box.

napoleondynamite, originally uploaded by Hot Rod Homepage.

1934-2006

Uncle Robert, Jr. High, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

My Uncle Robert passed away on September 21st, just a couple weeks after his birthday on the 3rd. I've been slow to blog lately, but I wanted to make a note somewhere about this photo I found while cleaning out his house. It's the only time I've ever seen him smiling. It was great to find it - comforting to see him happy and in love.