The Ultimate Automobile: Ferrari 308

Almost every guy fantasizes about cars at one time or another.  For me, the object of my affection is the Ferrari 308.  Probably a result of my age and certain influences from my childhood, but the 308 epitomizes the combination of elegance, power, sexy curves, and aggressively executed aesthetics.  I occasionally browse the ones for sale on ebay.

Moleskine Notebooks

One hipster fad I embraced a few years ago was using a Moleskine notebook.  I don't remember exactly what turned me on to them, but ever since first trying one, it just felt right.  Probably something about famous artists and writers using them back in the day.


Solid construction,  smooth writing paper, easy to carry around, and it lays flat from the get-go.  It has the feel of something that will outlast you.

Never Iron Shirts Again! Ironing Sucks!

   

Ironing Sucks!
Three steps to free you from having to iron or dry-clean dress shirts.

There are three steps to living this dream of not ironing or pro-laundering:

North Carolina Barbecue Panini

I work in the second largest Federal Building in the country. We have a cafeteria, run by, presumably, the lowest bidding food vendor. Eating there usually results from a dubious trade off between convenience and marginally nourishing sustenance versus higher quality dining. However, today's grilled sandwich bar knocked my socks off.  Sourdough, dry east coast barbecue,  just a little sauce, and coleslaw.  The differentiator is the coleslaw, grilled into the panini.  Granted, the ingredients are doubtlessly mass produced in a factory somewhere (don't even want to think about that too much), but the result is delicious sandwitchy goodness.  One of the high points of my day.
Charley Likey!

Peanut Butter MoonPies FTW!

So I recently discovered Peanut Butter MoonPies!  "Awesome" in a nearly biblical sense. They come in a box of 10 or 12 and their near the Little Debbie aisle of you local grocery emporium. They are about 2/3 the size of the standard MoonPie and the grahamcracka is crisp as contrast to normal sponginess of a normal MoonPies.

If you know much about the South, you know the MoonPies and RC Cola will go together like trailerparks and wifebeaters. One can only speculate how the the South would be culturally and economically different if we had had these 40 years ago.  Now all we need is Bacon & Lime RC Cola. (kidding Momma:)

(BTW, I mumbled this blog post into the Dragon Dictation iPhone app. It was originally about 85% correct before I mucked it up.)

Dungeons and Dragons

A really well-written article on old-school Dungeons and Dragons.  Written by and posted on the blog of two girls I had crushes on in high school.  It's a trifecta of nerdy nostalgic wistfullness!

Reposting the first bit with permission.  For the whole thing, go to http://www.liketotally80s.com/dungeons-dragons.html

Dungeons and Dragons

By Julie Anderson

1984. A little girl eavesdrops outside her older brother’s bedroom. Inside, he and three of his teenage friends are clustered around a card table littered with exotic dice, tiny metal figurines and complicated hand-drawn papers.
She listens. They talk about “hit points” and “melee rounds” and the all-powerful “Dungeon Master.” They visit the “elemental plane.” They encounter a “water weird” and a “gray slime.” She’s fascinated. The door to his room opens slowly and –

She’s busted.

Hey, let’s get Julie to play! We need a thief! Come on, we’ll teach you.

(for the full experience... follow this link)

Stuff I may write about in this blog.

• Not ironing
• Not wearing neckties
• All things Lebowski
• Gadgets
• Great services I have found
• Apple computers (old ones, new ones, getting stuff for cheap)
• Google products and philosophy
• Guitars and guitar stuff
• Old Ferraris
• Shaving
• Gear bags
• Beverages
• Note taking systems and practices
• Vacations
• Organizational tips
• Boats
• DropZones
• The Marks System
• Web cloud stuff (dropbox / amazon / google / MS skydrive / Netflix)
• Tide Pens
• Movies and TV Shows: Office Space, Star Wars, Arrested Development, Firefly / Serenity, The Wire,  etc
• Software: X-Plane, OS X, Linux, Google Sketch-up, JoliCloud
• Games: Half-Life2, Portal, Cranston’s Manner, Basement Tycoon
• Books:  e.g. Cryptonomicon, Ender’s Game, LOTR
• Shangri-La Diet
• Disney World / Universal / theme park science and culture
• iPhone / iPad / Android apps
• Carpooling
• Building and maintaining a house
• Cars (VWs / Saabs / Thunderbirds)
• Private Island Ownership
• Airplanes and Helicopters
• Oddly-proportioned dogs

Wish me luck and motivation!

Hello whirled

Hi Imaginary Reader,

I am (maybe) starting a blog where I talk about all the stuff in my life that I think is cool enough to recommend to others. I am a pretty smart guy, but I am very confused about stuff like AdSense, affiliate marketing, trackbacks, twitterbombs, and other higher-level interweb money-making schemes. Please be patient while I figure this stuff out as I go along.

What I do know about is stuff that makes life a little simpler, more fun, cooler, or slightly less dumb. I will do my best to be honest, forthright, and comprehensive. I hope that someday, someone enjoys reading this and maybe makes their own life a little more enjoyable.