December 2003 Archives

December 02, 2003 — Some sort of cold / flu has beaten down pretty hard for the past few days. While I initially thought that I could avoid it through denial, the fact remains that I have a nasty cough, my throat hurts, my nose is congested, and my body aches.

I'm posting my health status because when I get sick, I feel the need to let people know. It's one of the few times when I get to answer the question "How are you doing?" with something other than the standard "good." I get to say "Actually, I feel like crap. Stay away from me." The "you should feel bad for me" is implied.

I don't know why I do this to people. The only way people can respond to this is to say they're sorry and offer suggestions. Drink OJ, take some medicine, get some rest. Gargle salt water, sip hot beverages, eat chicken soup. Try some echinacea, zinc, vitamins. It goes on and on.

If my Web site supported visitor commenting (which perhaps someday it will), I would ask for people to submit their comments on how I can get better. That way, the next time I got sick I could just read the old post and know what to do. For now, I'll just rely on the tips I get from those who unknowingly come by and make the mistake of asking "Hey, Seth, whats up?"

Comments (3)

December 03, 2003 — Sometimes I take hundreds of pictures. And sometimes I take 6. Although there are just a few pictures, I've added new galleries for MOG - Part 2 and some random ones from Thanksgiving weekend. They're pretty exciting... if by exciting you mean people sitting around a table, a moving truck, Legos, candles, donuts, and shopping for cookies.

Comments (0)

December 03, 2003 — Tonight I finally joined Friendster, thanks in part to a conversation with Brian, who just joined himself. I went through my pending Friendster invitations and decided to sign up with Bryce's, a nod to the fun we had with sixdegrees our freshman year. Friend networks are fun and it's great to keep in touch with people. In addition to Friendster, I've been finding that personal Web sites and AIM are especially good for staying in touch.

I thoroughly enjoy reading people's Web sites and I wish more people had them. I make extra frequent references to people who have them because I like to hyperlink. For example, Monzy just updated his site and it's hysterical - as usual.

I found Adam Koniak's posting from 10/30/03 entitled "I made a blog-friend" to be kinda funny because Adam (from elementary and high school) and Ethan (from CMU) now have links to each other, thanks to Berson (from high school and CMU). So my plan is this: I've just added a link to Adam Koniak below and we shall see if this action itself will result in getting a link back to smandel.com. While my site may not be as interesting as the Tard blog, I think our Construx, A&S Odd Job Service, and @North adventures might help me earn a link. The link from the 9/02/03 posting entitled "Alzheimer's sets in at what age?" doesn't count.

In other news, I got an email from jpearce today and since he has a Web site too, I can add another link. Someone else is working on a site, but I won't add the link until he's ready with it. Let's just say, it will be "amazing." And in case you're wondering how I decide the order of the links, they're listed based on when I first met those people.

The other thing about keeping in touch is that I've rediscovered the beauty of AIM and I've been on it a lot more recently. Although I guess it's a bit of a misnomer now, my name is still SethatCMU. At least it's not fresh.

Comments (0)

December 04, 2003 — Adam added the link. That was way easier and quicker than I expected. He says he's impressed about my memory of A & S Odd Job Service. Back in third or fourth grade, we wanted to start up an odd job service where we made some cash by walking dogs, washing cars, and raking leaves. We got as far as printing out flyers using Print Shop (Thinking... Thinking... Thinking... Printing... Printing... Printing). I remember this because I came across the flyers in the bottom of my New City closet while cleaning it not too long ago. I guess it just goes to show that we were meant to sit in front of a computer all day, rather than doing actual real work.

Comments (0)

December 06, 2003 — A few people have suggested that I add commenting to my Web site. Since I aim to please, I've built some functionality to support that. While the interface may look a bit like the Moveable type one, it's not quite as slick. But it works. I think.

Anyway, as I've told some people, I'm going to feel like a big loser if after all that I get no comments. And if that happens, I'm going to start posting comments myself to make it look like I'm cool. So if you see the The Boss commenting that it's like comparing apples and burned out Chevrolets, you'll know that it didn't quite work out.

Comments (6)

December 08, 2003 — I've been known to use various literary devices to spruce up my writing -- starting a sentence with "and", using short phrases and, of course, the rhetorical three. But the frequent misuse of the word "literally" for added effect is something I can't stand.

The word "literally" should be used when one wants to emphasize that you are using a word or phrase according to its strict definition. One might say, "it is literally freezing outside," to convey that it is below 32 degrees fahrenheit. This would clarify that you are not using the word in its common figurative meaning of being very cold.

Here are some misuses. "I had to pee so badly that I literally was about to explode." About to explode?! Holy smokes! That's pretty serious. If I was about to explode, I would literally do whatever it took to prevent that from happening, no matter how embarrassing.

"I was running so late, I literally flew to the airport." This is confusing because airplanes literally do fly to the airport. But unless you personally got your own airplane or sprouted wings, you probably just drove very fast.

"My pants are so wrinkled, they're literally raisins." Did your pants, in the process of getting wrinkled, actually turn into grapes, get dried out, and turn into the dried fruit we know as raisins? And who compares pants to raisins anyway? It's like comparing apples and that giant Exxon sign.

As you can see, this misuse bothers me but it doesn't literally drive me crazy. I haven't checked into an asylum, haven't killed anyone, and I'm not tapping my fingers, rocking back and forth, and mumbling about peeing.

Comments (3)

December 10, 2003 — It appears that something happened to the Web server last night that made it as if Tuesday never happened. While something like that might come in handy for rough days every now and then, it is not a great thing to happen to the site. Apologies to those of you who left comments yesterday... it appears that they're all gone. Please let me know if you see anything else that's messed up on the site.

Ironically, yesterday I wrote a post entitled "The Internet is Forever." It was about how I put this picture out there as a joke a while back and now it's there forever. I also talked about The Wayback Machine and how it archives all these different Web sites. This is all ironic because that post is now gone... forever.

Comments (0)

December 11, 2003 — Since Shaina's coming to Madison for the weekend, I've been cleaning my apartment. In doing this, I've decided that if you're not going to maintain cleanliness, you might as well never clean at all. I'm not talking about vacuuming or cleaning the toilet. That stuff is pretty key to do regularly. I'm talking about "straightening up." Everyone probably knows the feeling of "straightening up" and then not being able to find anything.

Presumably we straighten up to give off the perception that we're organized people. But while putting everything away may look better, it's not really functional. You'd only really benefit from this so-called "organization" if you were always that organized and then got used to it. That would be your natural order of things.

My natural order of things is to keep the pots, colander, and spoons in the dish rack. I make pasta about every other day, so this is where it goes after it gets cleaned. If I put it in a cabinet like I did recently, it takes forever me to find it and I end up bitching about it on the phone to Shaina, the very person I'm trying to impress with my "organization."

My other random thought is this. There's probably no worse inanimate object to be than a garbage bag. You go straight from the box to the garbage can. Immediately. You're immediately garbage. And your whole function is to have garbage put in you. Then when you're done, you get put with other garbage and have garbage all around you. I'm glad I'm not a garbage bag.

Comments (3)

December 15, 2003 — With my frequent amazement with the Enlglish langauge, you may think I'm just learning it. But I have been speaking it my whole life and I'm still amazed.

Today's interesting fact is the prefix "in." This often is used to mean "not X." Tolerant, intolerant. Accessible, inaccessible. Advisable, inadvisable. It's a great little prefix.

Other times it just means "X." Seriously. It means the same damn thing as if it wasn't there. (Well, sometimes a slightly different connotation but "same damn thing" sounds better.)

Valuable, invaluable. Famous, infamous. And my favorite of all, flammable and inflammable. Because an object's ease of combusting into a flaming ball of fire is the kind of thing we want to have as much ambiguity around as possible.

Comments (1)

December 17, 2003 — Maybe it's my boyish good looks. Maybe it's my temporary residence in a big college town. And maybe it's my irresponsible consumption of booze and women. Whatever it is, I'm frequently mistaken for a college student and I don't like it.

I'll occasionally be reviewing papers from work in a public place. "Studying for a test?" I'll get asked. "No, asshole. I'm solving complex business challenges, bringing value-added solutions to my client's enterprise, and formulating a global strategy for a major paradigm shift. Just striking up meaningless conversation to keep yourself entertained?"

It's not that there's anything wrong with being a student. In fact, sometimes I wish I still was one. I just don't like when people assume things. It's better to start a random conversation with "What do you do in Madison?" rather than "What's your major?"

I might start asking people presumptuous questions just for fun. "So when's your baby due (while pointing to a woman's beer gut)?" "So, (sniff three times), are you on your way back from a workout?" "Should I ask the flight attendant to get you a seatbelt extender?" And of course, courtesy of Seinfeld, "Do you know where the Chinese restaurant is?... But you're a mailman..."

Comments (3)

December 19, 2003 — To follow-up to "I am not a student," my dental hygienist asked me this morning if I was on my way to work. Not school, but work. This made me happy. My dentist then walked in and he asked if I was all ready for Hannukah. While that may be perceived as a somewhat presumptuous question, the fact remains that I am Seth Mandel. Thus, I appreciated the gesture. So I wished him a happy Hannukah in return. And no, that wasn't me being presumptious. After all, he's a dentist.

Comments (1)

December 22, 2003 — Are a lot of people getting hurt on these moving walkways? I mean, these things aren't exactly new. Does the airport really need to make announcements every two minutes reminding people to hold on and watch their step? Why don't they make announcements reminding parents to make sure their kids don't stick their tongues in the electrical sockets?

Comments (0)

December 24, 2003 — As the year winds down, I just wanted to thank my friends and family for helping make 2003 a great year. Since I'm a big fan of year in review things, I've put together a little 2003 in review for smandel.com consisting of my top 50 pictures from the year. I'll be spending the next week and a half between New York and Portland. I wish everyone happy holidays. See you "next year!"

Comments (0)

back to the archive index