last picture post of 2008 - presents, popcorn, poop and cheese

As many Indoobians know, I'm known to be pretty lazy when it comes to the taking and posting of pictures specifically for purposes of sharing with the Workforce. Nevertheless, I did a few snaps today (literally minutes ago) and will share them. Some include Christmas presents, others... well... you'll see.


Here we see the first of three T-shirts I requested. I sometimes still wonder if this shirt really applies to me, but why not? I like it because my year of birth is 1986... so... yeah.


Most people that know me personal and have seen me on the street, might say "Hey, that's one of the brightest shirts I've seen in his collection, other than white of course." Okay, maybe they wouldn't say that word for word, but this is a new bright color for me, and according to my sister, this was the only color available. No problem, I wanted this shirt bad enough, and yes, I love this movie!


I didn't think I was going to get this shirt, but fortunately my sister shares my sense of humor. And I told them all I'd wear it to church that Sunday, and I did! Well, no one noticed since I had a button up over it, but I stuck to my word and people who read it love it. Plus, who else can say they have poop on their shirt and be excited about it?


What an interesting next shirt to debut... but this is from my mother and one of the few long sleeve T-shirts I have. I've never been a fan, but I like this one. This is actually the back of the shirt and it's quoting Joshua 1:9 "Be Strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you." I want to say the symbols are Chinese, but I can't be sure. The left one means strength, the right means courage.


This was my last gift given to me, today actually, from my Dearest Insta-friend of... how long has it been? Over 5 years maybe? The "insta-friend" part I'll explain another day, but the reason for numbering the years is important to what this is a picture of. You see, my friend boasted about these delicious apple muffins she would make back in high school, but I never got to taste them. So after all these years, about 5, she finally made me a batch. She made 6, there are 2 left, and I was nice enough to share with my parents. This is one reason why I decided to take the pictures because there wouldn't be any left and I know the picture doesn't do the muffin justice, but trust me, it's delicious. And I enjoy sliding that box out like it's some luxury food item. Don't mind the other things you see in the picture, especially the cookie tower.


Here's a look at my TV I bought myself last year for Christmas (I think). Anyway, it's showing season 5 of Seinfeld, which my other dearest friend whom I call Kitten bought me. She also bought me the Scene It: Seinfeld edition, which I have yet to play. I don't have anyone around here to play with, but now that I think of it, I might be able to play with my siblings, or wait until I can group up with Seinfeld fans that I know. Either way, I can't wait.

This is from "The Lip Reader" episode. My TV is definitely not big, but it was affordable and suits my needs. Plus it's thin and widescreen. Very nice.


My gift to myself this year. Due to the movie coming out next year (and rave reviews I hear about it anyway) I decided to up my geek points and buy it. It arrived Christmas Eve and I read it in three days. But you knew that already. As for the movie... I recently heard some news that doesn't bode well.


I touched on this before regarding my love of cheese, one of my favorite kinds is white cheddar, and Smartfood Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks. I eat so much that I've noticed a difference in cheese levels. People might think I'm crazy, but I say try it for yourself. Here in this picture we see the 1.5 oz, 3 oz, and the most popular 5 oz bags. They are all empty. I ate the two smaller bags a couple hours ago for this investigation. Anyway, my theory is that the smaller the bag, the more cheese is coated. Now I gave the sizes, but I usually refer to them by the price. The 5 oz bag WAS $2.49, but I'm thinking due to slumping sales or trying to keep up with the economy, the prices rose, and now as you might make out, it's $2.89. "BOOO!" I say. But it doesn't stop me from purchasing whenever I get my cravings. The next size up USED to be $2.99, I don't know what the oz size is. 7 oz maybe. And then there is the family size. Usually those are the most expensive. Now listen carefully, the bigger the bag, the lesser the cheese. There is one exception. There is a wee 25 cent bag... possibly .5 or .75 oz. It's really small and stupid. Sorry, I just don't like it. No cheese and the last couple times they tasted burnt. Anyway, between the 1.5 and 3 oz, it's hard to tell which has more cheese, but check it out for yourself. I'm content with my 5 oz still, and sometimes sprinkle this on for extra cheesy fun.


So for my last picture, it involved once again hanging out with my Dearest Insta-friend. We were out dining at what you can clearly see as Friendly's, and my usually ordering involves mozzarella sticks. Well, they have mini-mozzarella stick. I had chicken quesadillas too... but as you see, they didn't last long enough to make it to print. But my mother never told me not to play with my food, and this show it. Plus it kept my friend in tears as I voiced each mozzarella stick sitting in their saucy hot tub, discussing what happened to all their cheesy friends.


Well if you don't hear anything else from me by tomorrow, I'll be back next year.

the november picture post (finally)

So first of all, I'd like to say Merry Christmas, it's officially Christmastime. I've also been holding out on posting pictures I've taken every so often. I keep wishing to be one of those people that brings his camera everywhere taking pictures of everything and everyone, but sadly my "good" camera has yet to make it on the official "personal effects list" (such as my phone, iSaac the iPod, which coincidentally has a camera, a pen, my MoleSkine, my wallet, my keys, and occasionally the Bag o' Tricks, which is merely my backpack that goes almost everywhere with me). So my phone has a camera, why don't I use it? Too frustrating to send picture to the Internet. It can be done but I need a strong connection and a couple minutes while it sends. I get more failed attempts than I would like, so by the 8th time I ask myself what is it really worth?

Anyway, my first picture comes from my office and is actually last years Christmas present from my boss. I'm considering starting a snow globe collection... but I'm not sure yet. So here is my Christmas greeting to you all.

I couldn't tell you why the snowman looks sad. Maybe he fell of his skis? I can't say.


The best stuff on Earth. This I sprinkle on a lot of foods from my eggs to veggies and of course, popcorn! What could be better? Adding it to Smartfood Popcorn, as if it didn't have enough cheese already. It also comes in other interesting flavors. Go to the site for more.


I'm the tech guru/PC doctor in my immediate family, yet my brother-in-law has a lot more knowledge than I, unfortunately he lives in Maryland. In any event, I get called upon by friends and family to see if I can figure out what's wrong with a computer. Fortunately, this was a successful attempt after about 6 hours of working. My grandmother's laptop ran disgustingly slow due to some corrupted file. Just because I'm good at problem solving, doesn't mean you can call me or drop off your computer. I have other things in my life that needs to be tackled. But I could use a good puzzle like this every so often.


One problem is freezer burnt ice cream. I can't just throw it away, especially when its a full carton of forgotten ice cream. That spells a wet and eventually stinky sticky mess in the garbage. So I sent it to liquid form down the sink and tried to make some art because it took awhile to melt. I certainly didn't feel bad about this because I hate freezer burnt ice cream.


I'd just like to take a moment to discuss the flash feature in my camera. This is the only way I can "freeze" something like water. I've taken pictures like this using drips of water and it's quite fun. But as you can see, the old ice cream is going quickly.


See the difference? No flash, and it looks like regular flowing water. My goal is to take pictures without the flash but achieve the same "freezing" effect. I require a more expensive camera that's on my celebrity wish list for that to take place.


This looks gross, but it was the last remains of the last carton of forgotten ice cream. It was vanilla, caramel swirl with caramel pieces covered in chocolate. It was okay. Would've been better in a small carton.


I had to make cornbread for Thanksgiving dinner. While I don't have trouble making it, I did have trouble with this pan. Sadly, I had to pull off the muffin tops and cut out the bottom stumps, then I put them back together on another pan hoping no one would notice. And yes, people did, and yes we talked about the Seinfeld episode. And yes that's cinnamon (and sugar... and nutmeg) sprinkled on top. It's my signature baking ingredient.


This picture was from my phone and didn't do my Thanksgiving meal justice. Don't look for the turkey, I'm not crazy about it and only had a few pieces the day after. The pink juice is a strange but delicious fruit punch. This was an excellent meal and it was funny that the only thing left on people's plate was my cornbread muffin. Am I hurt? No. I, too, couldn't finish and we all wanted to take a nap.


This is a tiny tiny taste of what I do when I'm not doing my current job, and what will be my main focus next month. I will explain more later. Obviously it's a piece of script from a short film titled The Last Meeting, and I have my friend in New York who already asked to direct it moments after reading the first draft. Hopefully, it's the first of many collaborations with her.


Do I really need to explain this one? This is the first of hopefully more awesome t-shirts I order from the web.

So that's some pictorials from around the workforce. I'll do what I can to be more consistent with them, but no promises. I rely more on my words and gift of imagery more than pictures, but pictures can say so much too. And maybe I will write less. And my photography skills will improve once I take pictures of things worth remembering forever.

Lastly, I know there wasn't a friPod post. Consider that I was on a holiday break. Honestly, there was nothing I was really iPodding that much this week. It was an off week for me at the office. I was feeling rather blah, and my drive to do any work was seriously lacking. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. But nevertheless, I do indubitably have an iPick for this upcoming friPod iPick. I actually "discovered" it on my holiday break. And hey! It's holiday themed! So stay tuned and you'll figure out what it is. In the meantime, I shall reload my camera with more images that are worth talking about about.

i am not a halloweenie

We had a nice long 3 hour meeting today. I didn't wanna go. I really didn't. But I did anyway, and I'm glad for it. I ate food. Some food I've never had before. A special kind of chicken. Well, the chicken wasn't special, it was how it was made. I don't care enough to go look up the spelling (sorry, I'm being lazy) but it was okay. It had mushrooms in it. I'm picky. I dislike mushrooms. It's fungus. No thanks. There was also what felt like pine needles, or some kind of skinny leafy thing you find on a bush and can poke people with. Not painfully, but you'd feel it nonetheless... but this was on the chicken. I don't know what it was, but it was poking the inside of my mouth and I was not having it one bit! So I took those off too. Other than that, it was tasty. There were roasted potatoes and ziti that tasted as though it was smothered in some kind of alcoholic beverage. Weird. But edible.

There were also Halloween celebrations going about. Some dressed in their costumes. Some passed out candy. There was also a farewell party, non-Halloween related (see ya later Todd, you taught me well).

I do not celebrate Halloween. You can call it religion if you want to. Knowing where the holiday came from kinda made me not want to give in to the idea of it. Sure it's not as demonic as it once was back in the day. Well, not in the mainstream. Perhaps in dark alleyways or in the woods... but in the office and on prime time TV, it's pretty safe and kid friendly. But knowing it started with occults and stuff makes me not so interested.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take any excuse/reason to party and have a good time. I like candy. I like the sweets. I, on occasion, enjoy terrifying small children. I'm just not going out of my way to do anything special on the 31st. I'll hang a sign on my door that says "tricks only". But then I'd get whores looking for money (*Arrested Development reference... calm down). Whether I give out tricks or illusions, the kiddies won't get candy from me. Maybe I'd tie candy on strings, drop them in their bags, and as they walk out, pull the candies back out of their bags again and laugh. Ah... good times.

Since I'm not promoting Halloween, I changed my mind on tomorrows friPod iPick... which was going to be the soundtrack to Little Shop of Horrors. Hilarious movie. Good music. Totally not my pick for tomorrow to coincide with Halloween.

However, I will be DJing tomorrow night at the soup kitchen in Middletown tomorrow night with my church. It's my only annual gig for our annual Harvest Festival. I sometimes forget being a DJ is on my list of "things to be when I grow up." Bring the kiddies! I wish I could be wearing either of these shirts:



Anyone wanna donate to my "Buy DJ Sterling Silver an Awesome T-Shirt Fund"? There are many items that need a home.*

Totally unrelated notes: this, and many other posts, totally make me a hypocrit--I like reading shorter blog entries so why do I write such long ones? And I totally found a catalogue for geeky guys like myself: TigerDirect.com. They send me a nice magazine every so often, and I drool in it, thus makes me a true geek. But I want it nonetheless. *Yes yes y'all!