Tootsie Pop-ularity

Last Halloween I went to my grown-up job, only to discover that the grown-ups that I work with are all more grown-up than me. In the afternoon, they brought in their spouses and shorter versions of themselves, dressed up in elaborate costumery. The shorties then proceeded to trick-or-treat at all of the cubicles, and since I am a grown-up with my own cubicle, they ALSO CAME TO MY CUBICLE. I looked to my left to see that I had anticipated this event, and I opened some bags of Tootsie Pops.

















I put some handfuls of Tootsie Pops on the corner of my desk.

















Kids came by and said "trick or treat." I motioned toward the pile o' Pops and said something like "What's your favorite kind?" And in most cases, the kids would look over the pile and then select a Tootsie Pop for their bag.

What they didn't know:
1. I was trying to maintain an almost-equal-if-not-equal mix of all of the colors in a friendly, unbiased pile. The photos are not a good example of this.
2. I recorded what flavor they chose after they walked away and replaced the appropriate Tootsie Pops into the pile.

What I didn't know:
1. Blue raspberry was to be the landslide victor!
















I didn't know blue raspberry was even a flavor. It's apparently new. (or at least it was last Halloween.) It whupped all of the other Tootsie Pops' little lollibottoms. I ended up running clean out of blue raspberry ones, but I kept giving out the leftovers for hours.

1st place: Blue raspberry
2nd place: Orange
3rd place: Chocolate
4th place: Raspberry
5th place: Cherry
6th place: Grape

So blue raspberry is the most popular Tootsie Pop. Even more than regular raspberry. Raspberries aren't blue.

A lot of the kids gave me sincere thank-yous. One even tapped me on the knee and waited until he had my attention before looking me in the eyes and thanking me.

Two-syllable words

Sometimes Alan cannot maintain steady blogging habits. Okay, Alan never maintains steady blogging habits. Alan admits knowing about Alan's hist'ry without normal bloggy postings. Forthwith, Alan attempts anew, posting pictures, pizza flavor kneecap keyboard, chipper SpongeBob SquarePants table bucket marble dolphins. Bagel pillow. Ancient sandal jelly.

Job

Dear blogosphere,

I got a job. Months ago. Sorry for not blogging about it. But here is some neat evidence that I really did get a job!

Here's my name plaque, along with those of some of my workmates:
















And here's my desk with the computer they gave me!
















It doesn't have a hard drive, but that's NEVER STOPPED ME from being productive. I've almost completely automated the jobs of everyone around me. Pay. Raise.

I'm just a software tester, but that doesn't mean I don't occasionally do things like walk to the break room to grab some water, discuss things over lunch, and chuckle at Dilbert comic strips. I tell ya, I'm the f'real deal. I can be sick and still get paid. I can stress about 401k's. I can attend telephone conferences. Do you think I was doing any of that stuff when I was a student? No. You don't.

I'll keep you all posted about the status of my climb up the corporate ladder through regular and frequent blogging. Hahahahahaa, just kidding.

Really though. I'll try to blog more. Hahhahahahhahhh.

movie theaters

So there's hubbub about illegally downloading music and movies. Let me take this moment to assure you that I have NOT been participating in such activities. Just in case Axe Cop is reading my blague. Amazon music downlaods and Netflix streaming are fully able to meet my music and movie needs.

Keep reading. This isn't a preachy post. It's a rant.

Amazon and iTunes and other paid download services have done wonders in terms of getting people to pay for music. Why are people still stealing movies? Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because you'd otherwise have to GO TO A THEATER TO WATCH THEM? What if the only way to listen to new songs was to go to a public music house where you had to pay per listen? PER LISTEN?

Oh hey, my favorite band has a new single out. I'm off to the mall with my fistful of dollars so I can go hear it ONCE. What the hey, it was payday yesterday, I might even listen to it TWICE. What times will they be playing it?I can't wait until it comes out on CD and/or Amazon MP3. Oh man, I hope I get a good seat to listen to the song, usually I'm too far away from the speakers and the floor is sticky and the people are noisy and the popcorn costs one million dollars.

Why do we still put up with theaters?

Here's me eating a green bell pepper like an apple: