mindsquirt

In the last few minutes, I decided I'd like to be the kind of person who puts bumper stickers on my car.

Up until now, I have been very bumper sticker adverse on my new car. I think that the reason is that I have mostly viewed bumper stickers strictly as a way to express something to other people. The people immediately behind you, I guess. Plus, they are kinda fugly.

Anyway, who cares? I am soundly indifferent about the strangers in front of me and their views on religion, evolution, abortion, politics, or witty slogans.* Or the mother ship of bad bumper stickers, a Calvin peeing on Ford or Chevy symbol. Awwwwww man, don't get me started on that pointless redneck contest.

Also, all of these non-military magnetic ribbons. Yuck. I think Bean said it best in this blog that people should "stop showing their support"**.

So, you can see I feel pretty strongly about not using my car's aft as a means to advertise pointless blather***.

HOWEVER!

I have came to the conclusion, again, about 5 minutes ago, that I could use bumper stickers as a means to communicate with myself. Sounds crazy, I know. Hear me out here, folks.

Let me let you in on a little secret. At many times in my life I purposely send signals to myself to serve as a reminder for something important that I'd rather not do.

For instance, for the semester-long final stretch for my thesis defense, I grew out my beard. The idea was that I would see myself in the mirror and it would remind me to stop procrastinating and finish my manuscript! Plus it kinda got unruly and nasty and kept people from bothering me at Panera.

Another example is putting a reading nook in my bedroom. I rarely use it to read now, and I knew I wouldn't, but it reminds me daily about the importance of books.

The bumper stickers are a similar idea.

The reminder I need is about my health. You see, I am a believer that there are 3 themes in life that are in direct conflict with one another: health, family, and career. The maxim goes: You are only allowed to pick two. Some people pick none. But the most you can do well, are two. As I look at everyone around me, this is pretty true.

In my quest for balance these three themes, I think these reminders will urge me to improve my fitness. Again, this came at me like a revelation from God, and almost knocked me out of my chair, a mere five-to-ten minutes ago.

Yes, it will do nicely. So, I am thinking some choice pro-fitness decals and stickers should work. This way, when I walk to my car after work, I will be reminded to go to the gym, or take a bikeride or run before going home to eat pizza, drink beer, and fart into the couch. This will really prove my committment to myself, since it is at odds with the part of me that dislikes bumperstickers and the like.

I hope this doesn't sound too crazy. I really would hate it if we weren't friends anymore.

This means I will probably finally put up my imba and Cannondale decals, but not necessarily my ChildFund or Ill Mitch ones.

So, are we on the same page here people? I know this is a difficult concept, but I swear I just can't make this post any longer.



* I commented to my wife last night that I am going to make an effort to use the word slogan more. I think we can all agree that it is a great word.

** Like Bean, I condone the use of said ribbons for showing support for our soldiers.

*** blather is another good one.

Hello.

To those of you that aren't privy to the reoccuring theme here at mindsquirt, I have a habit of snapping pictures with my camaraphone, and then dumping them on this blog for all to enjoy.

Here goes:

Here is an assortment of the stuff we put on our lips in the our household. I kept on buying more because I thought we were out. Really what was happening is that my wife was putting it all in a drawer and not telling me about it. (aka"hiding it from me")

anyway I found it one day and I was pretty surprised.

there are 16 kinds of chapstick there:





We saw this boat-themed minivan at a Truck stop in Seymore, Indiana.




Here is a picture of my daughter about 1 year ago intentionally trying to hurt me by pressing on my eardrums. It hurt, and you can see me grimacing in pain. If you pretend i am smiling, it just looks like we really love each other.


Here is Alex laying down to admire this bug. I thought it was a nice picture.



Here is a picture of a sweet entertainment center I bought from the seconds at the furniture factory close to my work. I got a sweet deal on this baby. It doesn't look impressive but it is frickin' awesome. I got it for probably 10% of retail.




Here is a man dressed like papa smurf at the backside at Churchill Downs on Derby Day.


Here is a lead-horse from the backside at CD.




Here is a coloring-book page that Alex entered in a contest at the local pizza resturant. She colored it while we were waiting for our food. The whole time she colored it, she would brag about how she was going to win the contest, and she would recieve her prize shortly. The entire time, we had to bring her back to reality by telling her that she may not win, and there are many kids in the contest, etc...


Here is her recieving her prize a week later after winning the contest. The gigantic easter basket is on the left.


Here is a Golf cart turning left onto the highway where the speedlimit is 55 mph.



Here is some marketing mumbo-jumbo by the checkout line in the pharmacy I go to. I think the drug was a cholesterol-lowering drug. I was amused how this poster dumbed-down the concept that fatty foods change your cholesterol by actually putting the fatty food in your bloodstream. I am hoping that some people will walk away from that poster and actually think that tiny versions of food are running through our veins.



Here is Alex playing Doctor with classmate. I thought this was pretty cute as well.



This ends my latest picture dump.

Thank you for your time.