I love The Oatmeal

<p>Online Coupon Generator from Coupon Fu</p>

 

theoatmeal.com - he's got a book out now as well. Read, read read!

Thanks, @theretronaut

What a pleasure to stumble across these photos:

JFK AND JACKIE IN A PHOTOBOOTH, C.1953

                             Credit: Retronaut 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Car Math Query

The Scion iQ, the way I want it, costs (before tax & all that stuff) $19,175. It gets 38mpg.

Aston Martin, whose cars I've been in love with since I was little, but who, until now, have never made I car I could or would actually drive, do a re-badged version of the iQ called the Cygnet. It's $48,000. From what I understand, Aston sprinkled magic fairy dust on the engine, and it gets 57(!!!1!)mpg.

I'm on a mission to buy the Scion sometime next year. I'm already go to sleep thinking about it. But if I somehow can, if my great American novel hits the spot & sells a million, I'm gonna get that Cygnet. And I will hug and squeeze it and call it George.

I will not call it George.

The Aston swag ("...the 'Emotional Control Unit' starter system", for example), badge & grill is alone worth all that extra money, but I'm thinking that once you've owned the car for X number of years, that $18,000 will be recuped in gas savings.

How many years+months is X? Assuming say $4 per gallon & driving your standard 1000 miles per month? I won't drive that much, but just for the sake of the math problem & in the spirit of typicalness.

Typicality?

Anyway, how do I set up that math problem and/or what is the answer? Just curious.

 

little update/work work work

I love my new job. I did paid orientation on Friday & had my first full day last night/this morning (overnight hours), and it just couldn't be a better fit. So glad & grateful. I'll be able to hang out online at work after a couple of weeks. Between now and then, I'll be mostly AWOL from Twitter (again, sorry :P), because I'll either be

1) at my old job

2) at my new job, or

3) asleep.

I'll check in here & there, like when I wake up & have coffee. I'm announcing this as if it'll make all that much difference - it won't really; I've hardly been my old prolific, quasi-entertaining self on Twitter lately anyway. I'm actually hoping to make a full come-back after a couple of weeks, even doing short daily (or nearly daily) postings here on the ol' blog.

Anyhoo, hope you guys are all well, and I'll see you soon.

:)

One Job Two Job, Red Job Blue Job

I threw copies of my resume around Seattle like confetti. I got offered a job last week and I took it. It was seasonal, ending on September 18, just in time for my trip to Mexico to see @tmcassani. It paid what I wanted, but I'd have to go through the whole rigamarole of getting fingerprinted, getting a TWIC card, renewing my Washington State Guard Licence & doing a drug test. No problem, but I'd be a lot happier not having to pay for all that. Some companies subsidize these things, some don't; this one doesn't. But hey, JOB. A very needed new job. I spent the next days wishing I felt more genuinely excited.

That bird in hand, I went down the list of other interview appointments, looked 'em over, and cancelled 'em all - except one, whose interview was today. So I went, and I got a couple of big fat surprises. :)

A Glowing Titanium All-Weather Magical Timepiece

For the first time in my life, I know exactly what I'm doing for the next eight months. I'm terrible at that usually, and I might get terrible at it again, but right now I have a map, compass, flashlight and a glowing titanium all-weather magical timepiece. I mean a calendar, sorry. It just feels like something special now that I'm actually using one, filling it out with an actual pen. It may or may not be glitter ink in the pen.

As of April 7, 2012, I've been back home in Seattle for three years. I needed the reprieve & I've done/figured out a lot of stuff. I was necessary & it was good, and as itchy as I've been to get going, it was the right length of time.

But now it's time to take off again. I'll come back home eventually. Then I'll take off again. *Next time will be Hawaii. Then I'll die and they'll burn & scatter me here at home, over Elliott Bay, so I get that Frasier view of my skyline).

Image Credit: Stern Grossman

Whys, what-fors and the schedule of events after the break:

Trippin'

I like that week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It feels like a break from regular space-time, a black wintery bridge between two sparkly parties. It's a cozy lull before you're tossed headlong into a fresh calendar. I often fill it with whatever work I've got, a little post-holiday shopping if I can, reliving Christmas Day memories to seal them in & other cheery stuff to combat the early darkness.

This year, it will be done mostly SMACK in the middle of the United States of America. Two of my favorite friends, Thelma (@NWMargaret) and Louise (our mutual friend & co-worker SharonLee) will hang with me while I trip the road from sea to shining sea at the end of the year. Thelma & Louise will be flying home to Seattle. I will not. :D

Two other excursions prior to then:

1) My lovely sister Trinity Rose and I will be visiting my kid (@tmcassani) in Mexico from September 25 through October 9, then:

2) On some random, non-holiday three-day stretch between then & Christmas, I will go visit my heart in San Francisco.

SF had originally been the end of the first leg of the cross-country trip; I really miss my hometown away from hometown. But it cost too much time, as I'm

A) determined to make it to NYC by the afternoon of New Year's Eve and

B) I wanted fewer driving hours per day in order to maximize fun & minimize hurry - especially when my friends are with me.

More on how I'm now able to make this happen & what the whole deal is here, coming in the next post.