They are my favorite candy, and I can’t even say that they are the best candy, I just happen to find them particularly addictive. Many people don’t like them, and that’s understandable, as they explain here, here, and here.

Its sort of like eating the pop rock dust and skittles at the same time. It only fizzes a little, but it’s just enough for me. Some people find the sodium bicarbonate disgusting, but I don’t mind it. The salty sweetness reminds me of trail mix, in a way. Every time I see them in a store (which is rare) I grab about seven bags.

I bought them absent-mindedly one day at Walgreens before a road trip, loved them, and then couldn’t find them anywhere for over three months. I finally found some at Fry’s Electronics, then again at Jungle Jims. The ones at Jungle Jims even had a contest on them, so I hope this means they intend to keep making them.

I went to think crazy place called Jungle Jims in Fairfield, OH, which is a grocery store that would like to be a Disney Land attraction. It was pretty kooky, but one of the more astonishing things was this:

An entire isle freezer case of Japanese food, something I have never seen before in my life. I ended up getting Ume gum, Ramune soda and some strawberry milk candy. Oh, and Fizzl’d Fruits Skittles

Save

I stopped writing about Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep because I lost my charger and stopped playing it. That means I played through the story twice, saving the most interesting character for last only to not play him at all. So, I intend to get back to that as part of the calling of my games. I might start a series called “Unfinished Business” where I go back to complete games I never completed. There are a few I can think of, including some racing games and (embarrassingly) both deBlobs

I found something of interest while reading jalopnik, following old links and such: the website decided to take a turn for the better about a year ago, pledging to become more than just an advertising extension. They stated that this meant allowing the not so informed car enthusiast to find their site welcoming, aka me. I rarely look at the site, so I don’t know if they are succeeding, but one thing I think is crucial is education.

This is what I think Top Gear UK is so good at, mixing enthusiasm with education, fanaticism with light-heated fun. I wish that I know of a website that also reflected this. For example, Lifehacker offered an instructional series called “night class” or something like that, and gave the basics to different programs. i09 does some random stories about advanced science. Kotaku does some nearly educational retro articles.

The great thing about the internet is that if you don’t readily see what it is you want, you can rather quickly create it yourself, or wait five minutes for someone else to do so.

Alright, I think it’s great that they bought everything to help out a nice old man, but they are just reselling it for a ton of money… and it’s just a $2 pack of gum in a plastic box, for $65? Seriously? Clip art style images as prints for $200? This is the business I need to be in, because some of this stuff has actually sold.

If they had bought out the store, then threw a nice big party, that would be nice. But they bought it so they could resell it through their own pretentious “art”… it’s capitalism at its finest, I suppose.

But good for Hercules. I guess it’s not unlike extreme home makeover, where they build the house for some destitute family, but really just to advertise different products and the home receivers often leave the home due to property taxes, bills, etc. When you build a gigantic house in an otherwise normal neighborhood, it can cause some issues, which you can see here, here, and here

No, it is unlike that because advertisers who pay for the home are at least selling a product at a mostly reasonable price, whereas these kids are reselling it for hundreds. And that looked like so little money in the suitcase too… I hope they gave some of the resale profits back to the shop owner.

Its an achievement in itself that she already had one, used it, and liked it. The thing about technology these days is that it’s accessible and desperate to please, iPod being the pinnacle of such servitude. So, after much persuading, she decided to get an iPod touch instead of an iPod classic.

After a few lessons, she loves it. The first day I told her everything that it did, and she said very little. The next day, she pretty much asked me to tell her all those things again, but she was catching on this time. The second time I explained Pandora, she understood and became increasingly interested. “This is like the time you took pictures of my shoes.” she says.

I should explain: my mother’s qualifying act of life getting better though the use of technology is grounded upon one birthday when, as a present, I took pictures of every pair of shoes she had, printed those off and tapped them to the front of shoeboxes, so she could see all the shoes she had without opening the boxes. To her, this use of digital photography was the first step towards worthwhile modern technology. She is a avid watcher of classic TV shows, she still buys VHS tapes but now she also has an iPod touch and is excited about Pandora.

I showed her Tunein radio and Netflix, that she can check her email and view store ads, that she can manage her bank account and take pictures, that the pictures she takes can be instantly uploaded and printed. And now, she is finally beginning to see what all the fuss is about.

All those games I haven’t been playing… when I walk by them, when my mind wanders, I hear them calling. I suppose like any addiction, you can kick it out of sheer will for a while but your motivations wanes and you can’t help your thoughts drifting back…

I still have the feeling that game playing will not breed productivity, but I also have the feeling that the first feeling is not so important. I spied a good number of games on my shelf that I never really got the chance to play. I always wanted to play back through some game series, such as Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I’ve written about those very goals on this blog more than once. Work and life always got in the way. I finally have the time to indulge in such things but I feel guilty for indulging. Certainly there is something more worthwhile I could be doing with my time. And all the same, I can hear them calling.

You know, I kind of like it. The organization is sort of mediocre, even though the groupings are nice. I like that excite bike is free, but excite bike is also rather boring. Why this couldn’t have been available on day one, I’m not sure. Why they didn’t wait until this summer to release the entire thing… I’m not sure about that either. But! The shop is up, and it’s decent enough. I have made a wish list as well, which is a helpful way of keeping up with worthwhile titles. I just wish they had a few more app like things, like lists and notebooks, money trackers, etc, since the system lends itself to it. You know, maybe I don’t really care for it. I guess I’m still undecided.