the first modern shopping mall

Here is the link. It's Southdale Shopping Center in Edina! Who'd have thunk?

Via Gizmodo.

it's been a good winter

There's a few things about this winter that I absolutely don't miss, compared to last winter.

Last winter, I lived in St. Paul where parking permits were needed to park anywhere I needed to park except for Target, Cub Foods and work. There were secret places I would park to circumvent that ultimately ended up being not-so-secret places because most of the time they were always filled.

But, the worst words to hear/read/see/think/know were, "Snow Emergency". Bullshit operation...park on the correct side crap. I don't miss it. And I especially don't miss the parking tickets. I sure hope that the $400 dollars I donated to the cause went to something good, because I have a feeling that my money ended up funding their stock of bulk coffee and trips to Krispy Kreme.

The hierarchy of Chex Mix ingredients.

This list goes from least greatest to greatest piece of Chex Mix (storebought...original flavor).

7.Rye Crisps:

Rye Crisps are pretty much the worst thing ever. From their unnecessarily hard composition, to their inability to absorb any of the flavor offered by the spices in the mix. They are little brown objects of hate, and can be easily eliminated from the mix without anybody in the general public missing them.

6. Bread Twists:

Pretty much falls into the same category as the Rye Crisps in terms of absorbing any of the flavor of the spices. I feel like I'm eating the dry turd of the Pillsbury Doughboy when I eat this. This piece can also be eliminated without affecting the rest of the bunch.

5.Bagel Chips:

Only slightly less annoying than the Rye Crisps. It's Spice Absorbability Factor, or SAF, is much greater than the two above, but not what it should be. I seriously think that these three pieces are added into the mix after the spices are added. It's durability when being smashed between my teeth is much less than the Rye Crisps, which is how it attained the number 5 spot.

4. Round Pretzels:

Pretty much a tie between these and the Windowpane Pretzels. I mean...they're preztels. Everybody loves pretzels. The round ones are great because they roll, and you can put them on the ends of your fingers like tasty, tasty rings. Plus, you can use them to play tic-tac-toe with them and the Windowpane Pretzels. The only problem with these, like the pieces above, is that there is no flavor absorption. NONE. They taste like pretzels.

3. Windowpane Pretzels:

Much harder to put on the ends of your fingers, but you can bite the corners off, and use them as the letter X in a game of Chex Mix-tac-toe. And they don't roll.

2. Wheat Chex:

Ahhh...the namesake of the product. It would be a shame if the top pieces of the mix weren't what the mix was named after. It'd be like saying that your favorite piece in the game of Monopoly was the hotel piece (kind of...). The Wheat Chex takes the number 2 spot for many reasons. It's like a miniature pillow of crunchy, hollow goodness. Its design makes for total absorption of 99.97% of the spices, which can leave some pieces almost FILLED with spice (which can be good or bad, depending on your outlook of saltiness). Wheat Chex only lost out to Corn Chex for one reason, which I'll touch upon next.

1. Corn Chex:

Here we are. The number one spot on the lists of lists. An ingredient of a mix of party tradition, dating back to the 1950's, the Corn Chex is a staple of almost every variety of Chex Mix you'll ever have. Its light, crunchiness, backed with its ability to inherit the spice of the mix and make it its own. It's that crunchiness that give it the top spot. It's just light and crunchy enough to be slightly better than the Wheat Chex, which is a little more firm, and harder to chew. I think that if mice were given an option between the two, and they really liked salty spices, they would prefer the Corn Chex over the Wheat Chex.


So, that's it. Corn Chex for the win! Do you agree?

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gift time is fast approaching

and what to do, what to do.

I have shopping to do. It should get done this week.

I have a present to make. That itself is going to be a lesson in tolerance. What's nice is that it has levels of difficulty. I can make it be a hard project, or an easy project. I have to be hush-hush about it, though...who knows who reads this?

I resolve to post more, and I think I should start before the end of the year.

I need to design/refine my superhero/comic. I've had this idea in my head for so long, it's starting to leak out, and I'm afraid that if I don't jump on it and take advantage of my time, that it's going to be a lost cause.

And then I have other ideas. Ideas where I need to sit down with myself and write them down, because they're all in my head.

This morning:

I woke up to my alarms, as usual. On one phone (no phone service set up on it, strictly used for the alarms), I have 3 alarms set up: one at 4:30, one at 5:30 and one at 6:30. They went off perfectly. I use these alarms to gradually wake up. I don't always remember them going off, especially if I'm tired.

My other phone, however, is a different story. It usually plays the first 20 seconds of Edgar Winter's Frankenstein (YouTube)...I love the song, and it's strong and powerful enough to wake even the most soundly sleeping giant. The phone's been glitchy lately, and it hasn't fixed itself, even after a complete recent restoration of the software on it back to factory settings. This morning was evident of that. About 7-8 notes into the song, it decided to freeze up, and proved a 1/2 second loop. Power button doesn't work to turn the phone off, so I have to take the battery out. Of course the battery doesn't easily come out, and I have to pry it out with a knife or the multi-tool on my keychain. 3 minutes later, the problem is solved, and I am completely awake.

I've since fixed the problem with getting the battery out, but that doesn't solve the fact that the phone is a piece of crap.

Anybody got a nice Sprint phone they want to get rid of? Cheap?

Oh...by the way...watch this....this is the new hype:

Because none of my friends would appreciate this...

But goddammit, i wish i was 10 again, because Target is selling an exclusive Sarlacc Pit from Star Wars, complete with Luke, Lando, and an edible Boba Fett (i hear he escaped, though...). There's also a sky skiff. I. WANT. THIS.