When I was a young lad, my momma would sometimes tell me a story, that once upon a time, some scientists took two groups of lab rats, and ran an experiment with them. This time, the scientists gave one group of rats a diet of breakfast cereal, and the other group the packaging that the breakfast cereal came in. She concluded the story with the result that the rats fed breakfast cereal packaging came out healthier than those who ate breakfast cereal.
Perhaps there's something to be said for fiber.
Today I was treated for the second time in as many weeks to lunch by
Patrick. He gave me the money because for some reason his Michigan native
self isn't fond of walking in the winter over to Sbarro's. Free food for me,
but today as I walked to S'Barros the story momma used to tell came back into
my head as a metaphor for the day's free lunch. Something about S'Barros
pizza reminded me of cereal packaging, and I had to question myself as to
whether the free food
was worth it.
Not that free food is ever not worthwhile, but well, greasy pizza
has only so much charm. Last week it had more charm, but then it was
Christmas Eve, and I was broke and didn't want to be at work anyway, so any
free food from the boss sounded pretty appetizing.
Earlier this year I once went to Sbarro's and forgot to pay. After agonizing some whether I had forgotten to pay or not, I eventually returned and asked them to ring me up for my misbegotten order. Shoplifting is one of those things that just really violates my moral code, though I've never particularly understood why. Probably because it has never seemed necessary in any reasonable way. Why should someone steal from a store when they should just as easily do without?
And yet I've encountered people who have no second thoughts about the five-fingered discount. Makes you wonder about morality, but then I've got work to do at the moment.
![[Christmas Lights!]](1228.gif)
The other day I dropped by the sixth floor, and to get me out of her office, Kellie let me borrow three racks of white Christmas lights that had been returned from the building from a Christmas celebration. I promptly strung them up around my desk area on the ceiling, which combined with our normally dim lighting, created a particularly festive Winter Solstice affair.
For Christmas I got extra gifts to share. Twice over I got a picture book full of Beetles, one from Jeongie and a second from Aunt Linda. The second I gave to Ian today, who had earlier given me a catalog of Beetle stuff that I could use more than he, since I actually own a bug. Today 'toly emailed me regarding plans for New Years, and between me, him and Juan we got in a conversation about how old Beetles, now called Sedans, are known to be on back-order in Mexico, where Beetles can be found serving as taxis, says Juan, and police cars, says 'toly.
Anyways, I also got a nice uhmm ... well I dunno what it's made of, but it's a pretty swank wintry coat that is unfortunately too small for me, so that'll be up to adoption by some smaller friend of mine as well. Me and mom then went out to the Burlington Coat Factory and I got a nice big winter coat with pockets and whatnot.
Swank corduroy overshirts each from Jessy and Kevin. I feel bad coz I haven't gotten Kevin, or for that matter, anybody not related to me, a Christmas present. Got cards from Jeongie, Linda Ninnam, and Krissy, but have sent nothing in return. I figure I can make it up to my friends the rest of the year, ya?
Orson Scott Card from mom - Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide. Among the CS cabal downstate, Ender's Game is canon. Got a few more books on top of that, and a goodly amount of other clothes, including socks and some underwear.
I've been reading a mystery I got for Christmas too, by an author named Kinky Friedman. It could be a good story, but he seems to be one of those people who just too much enjoys the sounds of his own voice, or in his case, the reading of his own prose. I've been guilty of this sometimes myself, but then I've never been published in a gaudy cover and given as a Christmas present. Still, I think dad will enjoy the story of a Jewish detective cowboy, and it reads quick, so I really can't complain. The ennui beats most bad TV commercials.
Another present was from Santa Claus, or possibly Grandma in the guise of Santa Claus. It's a stuffed animal ... a monkey, and if you squeeze his paw he starts to vibrate and make noise. It's arguably quite nasty, and it took me a while to figure out how such a bizarre critter could be sold in a kid's toy store, as opposed to an adult novelty or toy store. This critter may well take up residence in the NOC, where we've had bad karma ever since Patrick in a fit of newbie arrogance sent the Ewok flying on an adventure out into the unknown. Since then, we've been plagued with disasters, as I've mentioned here, like prolonged authentication and pop outages.
22 December
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