Hotdog champ

So I've noticed that I've always been a pretty good eater. I also don't usually shy away from a friendly round of competitive eating. By saying this, I don't mean those contests where you have to eat berry pies with hands behind your back or something really body-punishing as several blocks of butter in a few minutes. I was thinking more along the lines of maybe at a pizza buffet with some friends and finding out who can eat the most slices. I've actually won that more than once. I've also had some pretty good success with hotdogs.
That probably started as a little kid when our school had 'hotdog days'. Our school didn't have a place where you could buy a lunch. The staff and parents organised these days every few months as a fundraiser and for something different than sandwiches. One year, my mom volunteered to compile the orders from the kids and make larger orders for the food and drinks from some suppliers. I would always look at the class lists on our kitchen table and compare how much everyone was ordering and order one more of everything for myself. For example, if, say, Bob was having 2 dogs and a doughnut, I would order three dogs and two doughnuts. I don't know why I wanted to and I didn't mention it to any of the other students in fear that they'd want to 'outbid me'. This habit did come in handy several years later in university when I was in classes with a bunch of competitive eaters.
These days, I'm in semiretirement from the sport but I still don't believe in leftover pizza. There's no such thing.

Quiet city

So have you ever been in a usually populated place where it seemed that you were the only one there? While walking my dog there was a period of about ten minutes where there was no wind, visible people or any noise. Usually a reasonably busy part of the area where I live, all and any industrial noise was missing, no vehicles of any kind were moving, and looking around, I couldn't see another person. In fairness, it was about to rain but the quietness of the setting gave me the feeling like it was just me left on Earth. Should prepare for zombies tonight?

Famous people

So I recently had the opportunity to meet someone reasonably famous. I'm not saying who this person was since that would maybe take away from what I'm trying to describe. I can say that the individual is very knowledgeable on particular subjects and there was a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. The person's time is very in demand so the visit's duration was quite limited before their next arranged appointment or meeting. So a very brief window was available for people to ask some real questions and get some solid real answers.
Now what I noticed was that only a handful of people got to ask questions since everyone used a good portion of their period of time to say how much of a fan they were. Although I can see this as a form of showing respect, a lot of people just started celebrity worshipping.  The others in the audience, and myself, were hoping for an informative discussion but half of it was pretty much hearing stories about how everyone loved this person. Even the celebrity guest was fighting the eye-rolling urge and seemed a little bit uncomfortable.
Regardless of how many people know a particular person, in the end this is just another human and why do people do that?

Puppet show

So I was in a cafe the other day and some animated movement caught my eye. In the next booth, two restaurant-bored kids decided to stand up on the bench seating. They were waving their arms around and smiling to attract any morsel of adult attention. It was working, but that was the same instant that the kids mannerisms and the setting of the back of the booth made it all look like an improv puppet show.

Tennis balls

So who buys more tennis balls...
People with dogs or people that actually play tennis?

Right side of the tracks

So I was talking with some friends who have been living here longer than I have. They were amazed how some parts of town look completely different than, say, 10 years ago. I was reminded of this other person I met who was telling me about his brother's house. It faces a relatively new street at the top of a 'T' intersection. Apparently, that street, not that long ago, was a railway track  and his brother's house was a long building for storing cars and engines. When the city moved the tracks and converted the area to residential, he bought the building and remodelled it into a house. I've since had a look at the property and it does have a completely different architectural style to the rest of the adjacent houses. You can also see how it could be a place where a train could fit in the garage.

No gloves

So it's still pretty cold here in the mornings. A usual commuter cyclist that I see most days either forgot (or lost) her gloves and was biking to work (at least on the straight bits) without using her hands. They were tucked under her arms for warmth. As we passed I said hello, kind of laughed and felt really happy that I had my gloves on.

The next cyclist that I passed, if you can believe it, also wasn't wearing gloves and was engaged it the same hand-warming riding technique. I didn't laugh this time but was still was happy to be wearing gloves.
Just before I got to work, a third (!) ungloved cyclist was also doing this. Even though it was cold, I then started to feel a bit weird about being the only one wearing gloves.

Fort Building

So the kid down the street is building a tree fort. I think that a lot of kids find fort building instinctual. They naturally know how and they 'just want to'. It reminded me of the time I met one of my best friends...
It was back in Grade One, the year after kindergarten, and nobody knew anybody yet. We were in the library for the scheduled class visit. Ancient Mrs Hudson was teaching us how to check out books using slips of paper and rubber stamps. While I've always liked books and enjoyed reading, I was eyeing up the multi-coloured vinyl foam cubes that were underneath all the book shelves. Actually meant to be used as stools for story-time or whatever, I got the idea that they would stack pretty well. At the exact same time, this other kid in my class had the same compulsion. We started to amass a huge reserve of these blocks and started to build a considerable sized fort in the corner. It was just starting to take shape (which was vaguely igloo-like) and quite a few other kids decided that this was pretty cool. They started to supply us with steady shipments of blocks while we could concentrate on the architecture. It was pretty awesome really but no matter how old your librarian is, eventually someone in authority is going to see a large building project in a place that is supposed to be quiet.
I ended up getting in trouble but I also made a good friend with someone that I still know today.

Tornado Battleship

So about 4 years ago, when I was at work, there was a tornado that came off the sea and went through the CBD. Pieces of destroyed buildings flew everywhere and some large chunks even came through our roof. The path of the tornado hit the building next door on its path into the city.
I'm still working at the same place and quite recently, another tornado came to town. This one damaged buildings about two addresses away on the other side of us. As I look around right now at the scaffolding up and repairmen making things normal again, it makes me think that this feels like a giant game of Battleship. My workplace is a ship, the white pegs are near-misses and maybe that there is a red peg getting warmed up.

If, after reading this, you feel like a game of Battleship, here is a place where you can play it online.

Stuffed animals in car windows

So maybe I'm missing the point, but I don't seem to understand the reasoning behind the concept of putting herds of stuffed animals in the rear window of a car.
(Is a group of stuffed animals a herd? or flock? or pack? Does it depend on what type of animals they are? But what if they are more than one type, all mixed up? A portable easy-care zoo. Or an ark! Maybe there should be two of each type in case of heavy rain.)

Cop shows

So I've noticed a change in cop shows in the last few decades. Obviously, some of the change would be expected since it is now a quarter of a century into the future. Rapid advances in real life police technology would filter through to the fictional TV world. One thing I miss is when an undercover cop used to go into action. One arm would be driving in hot pursuit and the other would be reaching around through the window, placing that magnetic blue police light on the top of the (usually enormous) vehicle. The viewer would then know at that time that this cop is 'all business' right now.
Another previously common behaviour of the TV-cop was to commandeer a vehicle. "Excuse me, sir?... I need to commandeer this vehicle!" And then, in what was borderline theft/vandalism, the hero would chase after the bad-guy in a variety of modes of transportation, and often resulting in destroying the citizens property. I mildly looked it up on the internet and at least in some parts of the USA, it is actually something that cops are allowed to do, even today. I could imagine that it is very rarely used these days since the courtroom aftermath that would inevitably follow would deter most boys in blue. This real life deterrent is probably acknowledged by the writers and now we hardly ever see it.
A third thing involves terrorists. Why are police shows needing to be fighting them all the time? Maybe it's more sensationalistic to be fighting terror than crime these days. Maybe the people that make shows think that's what people want. Since I'm a person myself, I can say that we just want the odd cop show with decent writing with characters that we actually care about.

Free gym membership

So it was a cold, dark and rainy night. I was waiting for my fish and chips amongst my very-casually dressed, hungry neighbours. Being inside the warm and dry shop, listening to the battered and starchy food sizzle in hot oil, we all were there for the same thing.
I noticed a clear plastic box to one side of the counter. I could fill out a form and win a prize - a six-month membership at a local fitness club. Being transparent, I could see that this box was empty. I've entered this raffle before at a video store and although I didn't win, I was offered a week's free pass. I took them up on the offer, enjoyed my week and decided not to sign up after that time. But this box... I could see that this one was going to be abandoned for some time. We all were imagining our greasy seafood and potatoes. Wearing any old clothes to brave the elements on a rainy night like this, we were on a mission. We were reading old magazines, watching re-runs on a mounted TV screen in the corner and mildly paying attention to a large tank of goldfish. No one was filling out any entry forms.
I can see that how putting a box in a place like this seems like a good idea. Target the people who feel guilty about their poor diet choices while they wait. Even with the logic, there was a missing factor that they didn't consider. When I entered the draw at the video store there were plenty of other entries. Maybe that is more the type of place where you could be overweight, feel self-conscious and want to enter the draw. However, tonight I was in a place where you could gain weight, safely not care about your appearance and go home.