Can't You Hear Me Knocking?

Like I mentioned before, Halloween is my second-least-favorite holiday. Yes there is free candy and costumes and if you live in Santa Barbra, ST D's and Blackouts. But still it is not in my top five. I should have been motivated earlier on in the week to finish my InDesign project for my magazine design class, but like usual procrastination got the best of me. As well as Guitar Hero III. (Link is to a flash site.)

I arrived home after class and realized that I could spend just two or three songs worth of time playing. I mean, I just wanted to face slash on expert mode, how hard could it be? So after three hours I put the game down and started working on the project I had started in class. While playing I got the pleasure of listening to room mates complain about stupid things and develop a headache, but work still had to get done.

I worked through the temptation to hop back on Guitar Hero and show them who really was a "rock legend," but I had to keep pushing through with the work, because soon the trick-or-treaters would be here. So I scarfed down dinner and then procrastination got the best of me. I went with my room mate to get more candy because we ran out.

We went to Safeway, where the candy was now on sale, and picked up a few bags. I was going to buy some Patron Silver to have for this weekend, but because of the 5.6 earthquake that rocked us in the South Bay, they had none to sell. So we went to the liquor store down the street from our place and picked one up. Best $50 investment I have made in a while. So anyway, got home, unwrapped it and then hid it away for the weekend.

Came back upstairs and churned out the rest of the project. This is my replication of Men's Health's table of contents. The photos are watermarked with other people's companies so they look funny, but oh well. Here it is.
Again, any comments or criticisms would be greatly appreciated.

Push It To The Limit

Everyone has experienced the pain of a crappy shopping cart. Many problems may be found with the carts: there are only three wheels, one of the wheels has not been oiled since oil was invented, an infant has pooped in or around the child seat area, someone has struck your cart with a vehicle in the parking lot, and anything else you could imagine being wrong with the carts. There seems to be no shopping cart that is even remotely enjoyable to push.

I believe that the crappy shopping cart adds to the frustration of shopping. Shoppers who settle for the hand baskets know what I am talking about. There is little frustration when it comes to finding and operating a little hand basket. Sure you can't put your forty pack of toilet paper in it, but at least you know that you won't be rupturing the ear drums of fellow shoppers with your squeaky cart, dubbed "Tin Man."

I understand that people who use the hand baskets are only shopping for a few things, but my post is not a way to help you fix your crappy cart, or tell you a way to fit your two weeks of shopping into a hand basket. Instead my post is to tell you that I had a completely, amazingly average cart today and it brightened up my day.

So there my room mates and I were, standing in front of the evil empire's fortress, #316. I don't know about you, but does anyone else always forget a kart until they are inside the store? (And I am going to spell cart, "kart", from now on because of my allegiance to Mario Bros.) I know... I am a nerd. Anyway, it took forever to find a kart.

When we re-entered we were instantly provoked by the candy section set up for Halloween. Halloween is my second least-favorite holiday, for your information. We each got a bag of candy to give out on Halloween to the children in our neighborhood. The only problem with that is, we might not have any candy left by the time trick-or-treaters ring our doorbell on Wednesday.

Sorry about the candy tangent. So my kart was just spectacularly average. I was thrilled. There was nothing obviously wrong with my kart. I glided from aisle to aisle with ease and comfort. Sure I didn't know what type of bacteria was on the hand grips, but I didn't care. I was happier than Tanya Harding with a steel pipe in her hands. I would like to tell you that I found something to rant about on this trip, but I was so overwhelmed by the outstanding, non-squeaking glory of my kart, that the negatives slipped my mind.

Next time you go shopping, donate to whatever cause they are promoting. I donated five dollars to breast cancer research today. I normally would, but I was more likely to give more, probably because my kart was just so exceptionally not disappointing.