Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Tag: Random

  • Bayer

    Here’s an interesting bit of trivia I unearthed last week: in trying to prove to somebody at work that aspirin is a coal tar derivative, I found out that Bayer developed and registered the drug as a trademark in 1899.

    By itself, that’s not so interesting, I know. However, it turns out Bayer also discovered, trademarked and marketed another drug: heroin. “From 1898 through to 1910 it was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children.”

    Yikes. Of course, then the thought of “Bayer Heroin” kept me amused for a bit:

    Bayer Heroin

  • Edgefield History

    This is just a little bit of history and trivia that popped into my head tonight, about McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon (just outside of Portland). The Edgefield is a 38-acre estate that features lodging, restaurants, a brewery, a vineyard and winery, a distillery, and more, dominated by a Georgian-revival style manor. It’s a fantastic, fun place, as all of the big McMenamins renovations are.

    Built in 1911, it was originally the Multnomah County Poor Farm:

    Residents operated a self-sufficient environment, raising hogs, poultry, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, operating a dairy, cannery and meat packing plant as well as working in the laundry, kitchen and hospital.

    At that time, not long after the turn of the last century, my great-grandfather was a mortician in Portland, and on occasion he would have to make a trip out to the Poor Farm to pick up the bodies of residents who died.

    Yeah, an odd bit of trivia. It’s been an odd week.

  • Upside down calculator spelling

    Here’s how it works (in case you didn’t know). Find a calculator—a single line LCD display one, not a fancy thousand-button monster or the Windows calculator (!). Turn the calculator upside down. When you punch in the numbers, they will look like crappy LCD versions of letters. The challenge is to spell words using those letters; 3045, for example, will read “ShOE” when it’s upside down.

    Yeah, it’s lame, and yeah, it’s old school. But back in the days before the Internet, we’d amuse ourselves by typing in such choice numbers as 7734 or 5318008 and snickering over the results.

    Ah, good times.

    And just for fun, here’s some links related to calculator spelling:

  • Mazda Autobot

    Something cool this morning: a Flash animation from Mazda showing one of their cars transorming into an Autobot. The only thing missing, though, is the Transformer sound effects.

    Found via Boing Boing.

  • Turkey Soda

    Just in time for the holidays comes Jones Soda’s newest beverage—Turkey & Gravy Soda!

    Wow.

  • How to Win a Barfight

    Another fun little tidbit reprinted from a friend’s daily “Survival” calendar.

    Most state laws stipulate that you may use sufficient force to stop the attack, but you may not deliver any sort of punitive retribution to your attacker. Knowing this may save you a costly trip to court.

    1. Attack the most sensitive areas of your opponent: eyes, groin, knee, and throat.
      Stay close; if your opponent is large he will need room to hit you.
    2. Attack repeatedly and be efficient.
      Make fast, repeated blows to any or all sensitive areas.
    3. If necessary, use a weapon.
      Choices include telephones, pens, bottles, books, beer mugs, coffee cups, and keys.
    4. Protect yourself from additional attackers by fighting with your back to (but not up against) a corner or wall.

  • More Fun Links

    A large part of the process of writing, I think, is just throwing stuff out there and seeing what sticks. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing online content (like blogs), or fiction, or news, or whatever.

    Anyway. Some more fun links from around the Web.

    Tha Shizzolator is another one of those goofy translator sites, only this one is from Snoop Dogg and translates to “shizzle”. It’s pretty funny. Try it on my site.

    Textfiles.com is a site that is dedicated to collecting and archiving (you guessed it) text files from old BBS systems from 1980 through 1995. Those of you who remember the old Bulletin Board System days (like me) should have a good time with this. Plus, it’s important; as is eloquently stated on the site, “everyone finding themselves drawn online should know what happened before, to see where it all really started to come together and to know what went on, before it’s forgotten.”

  • A Few Things

    So yeah, I haven’t been able to think of anything to blog about lately. Sue me! Anyway, here’s a few things:

    Stealth Disco. I’m behind the curve a bit on linking to this, but who cares? It’s definitely out there. Something I could see myself doing back in the day.

    Garth Ennis’ Marvel comic “Thor: Vikings” is really freaking me out. Zombie Vikings. ‘Nuff said.

    Urban exploration—I first read something about this on Kuro5hin, and while it’s not exactly the same thing, I remember exploring old buildings and such growing up in Central Oregon—the rural equivalent. Pretty interesting stuff.

  • Sugar High Friday

    Sugar High Friday was an event that I single-handedly started when I was working for Dakotah Direct in Spokane, Washington. Here’s the gist of it (hearts and arteries, beware):

    Some arbitrary Friday, maybe one Friday a month, there is a suggestion and a mutual consensus to have the Event. There is no overt advertising, simply word-of-mouth, but word gets around. On that Friday, everybody participating brings to work some assortment of candy and junk food in an obscenely sweet pseudo-potluck. And for the entire day, everyone consumes the sweets (often washed down by copious amounts of soda pop) and partakes in the hypoglycemia-inducing, high-calorie bonding. All are welcome, whether they contribute or not.

    Sounds disgusting? It probably was. But it was a hell of a lot of fun, and it’s one of the few things I genuinely miss about working for Dakotah. Until my current job, I hadn’t worked for a company that’s had enough people to make a Sugar High Friday a true Event. Now I am, so maybe it’s time to try to start it up with a new batch of coworkers.

    Spread the word! Enjoy Sugar High Friday in your organization!

    Hell, maybe I’ll set up a website and truly institutionalize it…

  • Towel Amnesty Day

    Am I just cynical? Holiday Inn is declaring today Towel Amnesty Day in which anyone who has ever stolen a towel (or anything else, I imagine) from a hotel can tell their story, and Holiday Inn will donate $1.00 to charity (plus 25 lucky people will “win” a souvenir towel). You know what I see when I look at this? A “Towel Information Awareness” (take that, TIA!) database that Holiday Inn can then use to red-flag future customers. “Even stolen a towel? They did? Charge them an extra $10 for this room.”

    Don’t think so? Why else would their entry form ask for your full name, address, phone number and email?

    Cynical, indeed.