January 22nd, 2010
So here’s my first post of 2010, and my first post in about six months. This site has existed in one way or another since June 2002, and it’s never really been updated consistently. If you were to look back at previous incarnations of robmaeder.com, you’ll see a lot of “updates coming soon” style messages, and very little actual content. After contemplating the issue for a while, I think I’ve figured out why.
Firstly, I’m not really that motivated to post things with any sort of regularity. I am not trying to be a “blogger”, necessarily. I just like the idea of having a place on the web to post whatever I want. Usually, when I’m inspired to actually write something, it’s about a subject I know a lot about or am very interested in, or some event that recently occurred. I also tend to post things that I think others will be interested in, or will find interesting or amusing in some way.
The other thing is taking the time to actually sit down and type something out. I have notebooks and papers full of ideas, but I don’t often do anything with them. If I stop and think about it, it really doesn’t take too long to type out a few paragraphs. Although in my case, I usually spend a lot of time doing it, treating it like a high school essay, rather than the informal blog post that it is. I really don’t need to do several drafts of something that few people are going to read. Especially since I’m not getting marks or money for it…
To be honest, two things recently inspired me to even write this up. The first is my friend’s girlfriend telling me robmaeder.com is her new homepage. Whether or not that’s actually true doesn’t matter, but the fact is that I have this site up here on the Internet for everyone to see, and I’m not doing anything with it. If it’s just going to sit here idle, I might as well shut it down.
The other ‘recently inspiring event’ is I just finished helping my brother Chris set up his new website, chrismaeder.ca. He’s convinced the Internet is the key to riches, and I’m starting to think he might be onto something. If he’s going to be 2010′s hottest new blogger, I figure I should try to keep up.
I’m not going to make some outrageous promises that I’m going to post every day, or even on any sort of regular schedule. But if I’m going to keep robmaeder.com alive, I’m going to have to post at least a couple times a month.
May 14th, 2008
I finally got around to trying out some of those fancy teas I mentioned previously. The first one I tried was Jasmine Green Tea.
I made myself a cup one morning last week and drank it plain, without adding any sugar, milk or honey. It was gross! It tasted like grass and has a really weird smell/aftertaste that reminds me of painting. I didn’t really enjoy it, but I was able to finish it. I have another packet, so maybe next time I’ll listen to that recommendation and try adding some honey to see if it improves the taste any.
May 9th, 2008
After I was through rolling up all those pennies, I figured I might as well roll up the rest of my coins. I had a lot more than I thought, and it added up to a lot more than I thought it would.
How much does this look like?
Would you believe that is $177.50 in just coins? I guess I don’t use as many coins as I thought I did. They usually sit in my pocket and get tossed into the dish at the end of the day. Over time, this adds up to a lot of money. I was most surprised that I had $70 in quarters alone. I gotta go hit up an arcade…
May 2nd, 2008
I was cleaning my room last week, and I found a whole bunch of change all over the place. I keep a little dish on my desk that I toss coins into when I empty my pockets at the end of the day. I also have an old basket that I stole from Quizno’s that I used to keep coins in that I found while cleaning.
I figured I would roll up the coins to get a bit more organized, and I was surprised that I had over 1000 pennies! Having one thousand of anything is a lot, but when it’s money, it seems a lot more exciting. Here’s what $10 in pennies looks like:
March 3rd, 2008
My piece of shit car was deemed too unsafe to even be tested for the Ontario Drive Clean emissions test, so I couldn’t get my plates renewed. The car’s not worth fixing, so I’m looking for a newer car at the moment. But that’s not what this post is about.
One of my coworkers lives near me, and offered to drive me to and from work until I get a car, which was really nice of her. I had to adjust my schedule, since she starts at 7:30am and I used to start at 8. Today was the first day and it was a bit rough getting up earlier, but that’s not what this post is about either.
So anyway… on our way to work, we stopped by Tim Horton’s to get morning coffee and tea. When we got to the drive through window, the cashier informed us the lady in the car ahead of us paid for our order! That was a pleasant surprise and brought a smile to our faces. My driver (the nice coworker, not a real chauffeur), in turn, paid for the order of whoever was in the car behind us. Hopefully it sparked some sort of chain reaction that continued all day, but I’ll never know how far the giving went.
I have heard of this sort of thing happening before, but never seen it firsthand. I hope the nice lady in front of us had a great day.
