Category : Random Thoughts

Ricky Gervais seduces a woman by singing

Posted by Evan at 11:03 am

Hadn’t seen this video before! A great example of how brilliant this guy is!

Obsessive Behavior #1: Gmail Spam Box

Posted by Evan at 1:24 pm

I’m trying to be more aware of my obsessive behaviors. Today I noticed that it truly bothers me to see a number next to my Spam folder in Gmail. At first I didn’t think much of it, I’d just click on the spam folder and delete all of the messages, then later do the same. Now things have gotten out of hand.

Let’s say I look at the folder and it has 100 messages in it. I’ll delete all of those and a few minutes later happen to look and notice that there is now 1 new message in there. I can’t help it, I feel like I MUST delete that new message. It’s driving me crazy!!! Why can’t I just let those messages pile up in there and forget them? Why am I so obsessed with keeping that folder cleaned out?

AHHHHHHH!!!!! Help!

Summers of Sun Tea

Posted by Evan at 4:42 pm

I spent a lot of time with my grandparents while growing up. My brother and I would walk long distances along the creek that ran behind our grandparent’s house, something we were told countless times not to do, fishing for crawdads and exploring what seemed like new and uncharted territory.

One of my favorite memories from the summers at Nanny and Papaw’s is the tea. They never had much money but there was always a tall jar of Nestea in the cupboard. The not-so-fine granules never really tasted very good, and the strange dark brown spots all over the otherwise white foam atop the drink never seemed very appetizing either. But once in a while, when Nanny had the time, we got a real treat. A large pitcher of homemade sun tea.

I loved to stand next to her in the kitchen as she prepared the tea. She always used the same clear pitcher with yellow wheat plants imprinted into the glass. She’d fill the pitcher with water and then gently float the tea bags atop the water, sealing the top with a towel and a rubber band. I knew that later that day we’d be able to drink tea sun tea; and not just any sun tea, Nanny’s sun tea with lots of sweet sugar and large blocks of ice.

Throughout the day, between our trips to the creek and out to the wood shop, my brother and I would walk past the jar, looking closely to see whether or not the tea was “ready” for drinking. “No, it’s not ready yet” she’d say, but it was never more than a half our or so before we were back to check again. Later in the evening after the sun had gone down and there wasn’t enough light to venture back down the creek, we’d sit outside on the back porch drinking the sun tea we’d waited for all day with lots of sweet sugar and large blocks of ice.

Evan today, though they’ve been gone for several years, every time I order iced tea I can’t help but remember Nanny and Papaw, our summers and the sun tea.

The Value of “Stuff”

Posted by Evan at 8:58 am

Once again I’ve been reminded that getting “stuff” won’t make you any happier. It won’t fill a void in your life and it won’t have the life-altering effect that you think it will.

I find it amazing that no matter how many times I’m reminded of this I still find myself wanting, or even obsessing about a material possession that I must have. Then, after I’ve gotten it, I (again) realize that even the newest, most amazing “thing” fades quickly to old hat and commonplace. And by achieving that thing you’ve raised the bar on what material item you’ll have to get next time to satisfy your craving for the next big thing.

How do we stop this cycle of materialism? What can make us content with what we already have?

The uselessness of the USPS package tracking system

Posted by Evan at 10:19 am

This is just a rant so feel free to ignore…

I’ve been doing some holiday purchasing on eBay over the last couple of months and I’ve been very unhappy with the quality of service the postal service has been providing. Sure, they get the packages to me in a timely manner, so they’re fulfilling that purpose just fine but there are some other customer services that they sure could improve, not the least of which is their online package tracking service. Here are a couple of problems with the service as it is:

1. It’s only updated once every 24 hours. This means that there’s a good chance that the package will show up on my door before I’m even aware that it’s going to arrive that day.
2. The system provides no information about the current location of the package. It appears as though the only purpose of the system is to let you know when the package arrived, and there’s actually no “trackingâ€? service of any kind.
3. I’ve had several instances where I get the standard “package information has been received but this doesn’t mean that the package has been shippedâ€? message even after the package has been delivered, suggesting that in some instances your package doesn’t even enter into the tracking software.

Why doesn’t the post office have an infrastructure similar to UPS, FedEx or DHL which allows them to track packages as they enter/leave a processing facility? Would it be that hard?