Category: Daily Life

These are my daily rants, stories, and what not.

Learned Something New

meisajDaily Life

A few years ago work the health insurance company gave all of our schools smart scales. The idea being that staff would weigh themselves and do some sort of ‘Biggest Loser’ type deal.

Shocker! Our teachers didn’t care and didn’t want to use it. We also work in a school without a weight room, exercise room or any showers. Its not like people could exercise at work. When I used to bike to work I had to take a wash cloth and towel into the staff bathroom and use the sink to clean myself. No one wants to weigh themselves in a public place. So it went into the closet and stayed there for a few years.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a super nice scale. It’s a Withings Body Cardio. Despite being several years old, this scale still sells for a $150 on Amazon. This year I pulled it out of the closet and tried to charge it. While it always said it was charging, the battery never held a charge and you couldn’t get it to read anything but charging. Resetting it, leaving it plugged in for overnight, and other solutions didn’t work.

Researching the issue, it turns out that the scale’s software can over-drain a battery to the point that it no longer holds a charge, and sitting in the closet for over a year can do that. Withings solution to the problem is to offer a discount towards a new scaled (25%).

Anyways, being that it was now junk that didn’t work, options were either leave it there broken for the new principal or throw it out. Instead I took it home and decided to play around with it. Sam had a soldering iron here, and in some forums online people talked about replacing the battery. So, why the hell not try it out. I bought an $8 battery off amazon and got to work cracking open the scale.

Twenty minutes of work and the scale now works! Which is kind of exciting. I was able to put a new battery in, solder the wires to the battery, and get it charging. I even was able to weigh myself.

Of course I’ll leave in the garage for a little bit to make sure I didn’t screw up the battery and in the hopes that it won’t explode while charging, but it was kind of fun to play with electronics, even something simple like this.

Peter… the giant turtle

meisajDaily Life

I was a weird high school kid apparently. I mean I did all the normal things, held down a respectable job (life guard / swim instructor), did three sports, kept decent/good grades, and stayed out of any trouble.

In art class, I always like drawing with the Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers. Technically they are called Mr. Sketch Scented Markers…. Smelly Markers sounds so much better. Regardless, they were, and still are fantastic.

So last year when I was cleaning out my closet at my parents, I came across old artwork from high school done in the Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers. ‘Peter… the giant turtle’ is a two part story completed in Art Class back in the mid 90’s. And I call it a story because I actually wrote short paragraphs on the back of the drawings to go along with these drawings. It’s more of an unfinished saga than it is a story I suppose.

So, without further ado… The Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers saga of Peter… the giant turtle:

Story: Peter – the giant turtle – was in the pond when a rage went through his head. There were no more flies, for the humans had killed them to get rid of the pests. Peter was outraged as he crawled out of the pond towards the village. When he reached the village he stomped on their homes and ate their kids. He took out his frustration on the women, crushing their heads with his claws. People fled in terror. Only a few stays and fought in vain. Peter killed them all. He found he liked the taste of human flesh. Peter left in search of more victims….

Story: Peter – the giant turtle – wanting more human flesh swam across the great ocean. On his way through the ocean, he sedated his blood thirst with a whale here, and another there. Once, a crazed killer whale tried to kill Peter. Peter sliced off its head with his claws and then ate the whale’s heart. Peter swam on, and soon he came to a great city. He smelled the humans. He knew he would soon feast again….

I can’t imagine what the art teacher thought as a I gleefully sat there making these drawings. I mean, as a principal, well former principal now, I would have some thoughts on students making these drawings. However, they are missing any big red flags… no guns, no specific people’s names, and only as gory / graphic as stick figures could be. So not a horrible ting to see, but still….

It could happen here…

meisajDaily Life

Happy July 4 Everyone.

With that, I just finished listening to a podcast called It Could Happen Here.

The whole podcast compares American politics, partisonship, and division to recent civil wars around the world and tries to imagine how a new American Civil War could start.

Throughout the podcast the host discusses his experiences visiting countries in the midst of civil wars, what the general population day to day experiences are like, and the outcome of those conflicts.

He gives a really in depth reasons for why a new American Civil War is not something far fetched, and talks to experts in the military about how the military would deal these issues. Unsurprisingly, the military already has plans for this.

It is a fantastic, if not scary podcast. No matter where you live, after listening to this it is not hard to imagine how life would be during a new civil war.

Good listen and I couldn’t suggest it more.

It Could Happen Here Podcast

Tug of War

meisajDaily Life

Marceline won our tug of war contest today.

Ok… I let her win. But it was or first tug of war battle.

Also, doesn’t ‘tug of war’ just sound weird when you think about it. What is a ‘tug of war’? What are you ‘tugging’?

Wouldn’t ‘tug battle’ be way more appropriate?

Shower Thoughts

meisajDaily Life

I took a shower today.

I know. Cheers all around. Don’t worry, I already gave myself credit for taking a shower, but while in there I had some of those deep shower thoughts. You know the rambling thoughts that only happen in nice silence and monotonous tasks where your mind can wander.

So this morning I thought about teeth brushing. I have pretty awful teeth. Or did. Haven’t had a cavity in a while or any major tooth surgery in a few years. In my early 30’s, I had a new dentist look at my teeth and actually say “whoa, you got a lot going on in there.” Anyways, cutting back on candy, all but eliminating soda, and better brushing habits have helped immensely. I also floss all the time and bought one of those fancy electric toothbrushes with the timer and expensive heads.

I was thinking today, with my wonderful daughter who can interrupt anything at any time, is it better to brush long and well in the morning or evening. Should I care more about one or the other? Does more plaque begin growing after a long period of non-eating, such as sleeping, or after a day of eating and drinking? I honestly don’t know the answer.

Over the years I’ve learned some stuff about how and when to brush. Like how you actually aren’t supposed to floss or rinse after brushing your teeth. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. That clean feeling on your teeth from the toothpaste, its supposed to stay like that. The fluoride from the toothpaste that coats your teeth, yep, its not supposed to be rinsed away.

But then its like every Scope and Listerine commercial I have ever watched lied to me. And even the fancy Sonicare app that goes with my toothbrush, it asks if you used mouthwash after brushing. Lying through advertising and a brushing app, guess it makes sense to sell more mouthwash and brushing products though.

Anyways, it’s not the worst toothbrush related thing I’ve heard of. I once had a girlfriend who wiped her toothbrush dry with a towel after using it. And it was not like a special towel for her toothbrush – it was just her bath towel. Gross.

Like I said, Shower Thoughts.

Denny’s vs Moustache Mug

meisajDaily Life

For years when driving coffee at home, I would only drink it off my Denny’s mug.

 

I still this mug from a Denny’s in Queensbury one night after a summer full of many late night Denny’s trips. I loved that it had the Denny’s logo printed on it. I hope that restaurant forgives me, but it was a memorable summer, we even got kicked out of Denny’s once for playing cards there while drinking coffee and eating greasy appetizers.

Okay, not kicked out. But told we had to stop playing cards. According to the waitress who told us this, the manager said playing cards prevented ‘customer turnover.’ when we replied that there is only two other tables with customers in the entire restaurant and that it was near 2 a.m., she just shrugged her shoulders.

I read someplace that Denny’s doesn’t put the logo on their coffee mugs in there restaurants anymore because so many people stole them. You can buy Denny’s coffee mugs with a logos on them but not drink from them in restaurants. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I haven’t been to a Denny’s in probably 8 years. Regardless, this mug is probably 20 years old now and my favorite coffee mug.

Today, I used two different mug. My mustache mug was a gift from my mother-in-law several years ago. it is been my go-to coffee mug at work. Kids absolutely loved that it just had this really weird mustache face on the front of it.

At at home, Danny mug got me close to 4 full cups of coffee from my French press. that would take me well into the morning, and I feel like I’m drink a lot of coffee at that point.

At work, I would drink three to four mugs of the mustache mug of coffee each day. Sometimes more oh, because kids used to love making me coffee and I could never say no and tey asked.

However, the mustache mug only gets full twice from a French press, and not even to the top. I’m already done with my French press a coffee and it’s 9 am.

Itit does seem to illustrate the difference in the amount of coffee I drank at work versus the amount of coffee I drink at home. Since I’m going to be staying home for the next year, do I resort to the mustache mug and drink from that knowing I’ll drink more coffee comparable to what I drink at work or do I stick to the Denny’s mug which is my traditional mug at home.

I’m probably going to fall back to the Denny’s mug just because I enjoy drinking out of that mug so much more than the mustache mug. I feel like the mustache mug is for sure, in the Denny’s mug is just comfort.