the power of cheese

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:49:00 +0000

For as long as I can remember, my order at Wendy's has been two Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe. After yoga class this evening, I headed to Wendy's (A healthy post-gym dinner, no?), forwent the drive-thru (Saves gas, you know. Plus, there was a really long line.), and planned to order the usual. As I was standing in line, I noticed that the menu looked a little different from the last time I'd been there. In fact, my 99-cent Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe seemed to be missing, replaced by 95-cent Junior Cheeseburgers.

Stubbornly deciding to pretend I didn't look at the menu (And why should I? I've been ordering two Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe for decades!), I stepped up to the counter and ordered two Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe. A young gentleman whose nametag introduced him as "Crew" (After the menu disturbance, I spent the rest of my time in line trying to decide if his name was actually Crew, or if he simply had not yet been issued a proper nametag.) politely informed me that Wendy's "don' ha' Deluxe no mo'."

Miffed, I ordered two Junior Cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, mayo, mustard, and ketchup. Poor Crew had to punch at least 16 buttons on his cash register, because after I listed all the requisite burger accessories and condiments, he looked up at me timidly and asked, "Wait, you wan' two?"

As I stood waiting for my order, I watched the lady who was assembling my burgers. She kept looking up at the screen, adding another ingredient, looking up at the screen, adding another ingredient, etc. I would bet two Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe on the fact that if the screen had said "Deluxe," she would have known immediately which seven ingredients to add.

So, Wendy's, you're saving me 9 cents per visit (when you factor in the sales tax), but you're creating a heck of a lot more work for your own people with this Junior Cheeseburger business. I'll pay you 9 cents to give Crew his Deluxe button back... and for the undeniable grammatical pleasure of once again being able to say "Junior Cheeseburgers Deluxe" on a regular basis.

PS: She forgot the mayo.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:59:00 +0000

I might be stepping on Wordpicnic's toes here (Or fingers? For typing?), but I couldn't help posting my mixed feelings about the fact that Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2007 contains, well, digits.

"w00t" crowned word of year by U.S. dictionary

Anyone who pays attention to the evolution of the English language will have noticed the recent proliferation of words invented to name and describe technological advancements or internet-related phenomena. Ten years ago, blogs, wikis and even Lulu would have been Star Wars characters. I love new words, especially silly ones. But is w00t really a word? Should English words be spelled with letters outside of the English alphabet or variations thereon (such as letters with accents)?

How far should the dictionaries go in an attempt to catalog every new candidate for worddom*? The thought of Merriam-Webster's adopting "w00t" in its original format causes a mild panic in this spelling-and-grammar pedant's heart. If it were up to me, I think I would provide "w00t" as an alternate spelling for "woot," since it was derived, after all, from an acronym for "we owned the other team." If zero is an acceptable substitute for the letter O, how long will it be before 8 becomes an acceptable substitute for "ate," as in, "I hope it's l8r rather than sooner."?

*Vote "worddom" in 200ate! :)

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:19:00 +0000

Now, I've never claimed to be a marketing genius, but it seems to me that there is something decidedly wrong with the slogan at the top of this page:

Clinique. Allergy Tested. 100% Fragrance Free.

That's exactly what I want to hear when I'm plunking down 50 bucks for a bottle of perfume. Fragrance free? Come on, people.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 18 May 2007 09:19:00 +0000

i work in england. most everybody drinks tea, and they generally agree on some sort of standard british preparation of tea. when served a cup that isn't quite up to snuff, they're none too pleased. (but most are too polite to mention it.)

imagine my surprise this morning, when, googling for various work-related ISO standards, i discovered ISO 3103 -- the standardized method for brewing tea as produced by ISO Technical Committee 34 (Food products), Sub-Committee 8 (Tea)! who knew? i'm curious about the demographic makeup of sub-committee 8. are they all brits?

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:17:00 +0000

sickening, but kind of interesting...

i can't decide how i feel about this desecration of my second-favorite snack food. a little, twisted part of me wants to try one — in the way you can't stop yourself from looking at a car accident when you drive by it.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:51:00 +0000

google has amused me. today, trying to discover the distance between chapel hill, north carolina and london, england, i asked google maps for "directions" between the two cities, knowing that before the directions they give you the total distance. my plan worked: 4,435 miles. then i got curious how they figured directions from one continent to another. simple. once you've turned right onto long wharf from central st., "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean." when you arrive, take a "slight right at E05" and continue on your way.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:51:00 +0000

"Those weapons (claws), along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car."

Psycho kitty terrorizes neighbors

Can one "personally" issue a restraining order to a cat? I would think it should be "felinely."

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:25:00 +0000

BBC gets more use out of that photo I took!

Online publisher's European move

Now who wants to go to London? :)

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:51:00 +0000

o christmas tree...

"They examined the owl, looked at its eyes, big owl eyes, and the owl was, in the vernacular, stoned."

judging from that prose, so was the journalist.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:22:00 +0000

quoted!

too bad her punctuation is so poor. oh well, what can you expect from a dook student? (hehe, couldn't help it.)

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:51:00 +0000

In Challenge to Google, Yahoo Will Scan Books

Yahoo-Backed Alliance to Open Web Library

it is my opinion that these writers have missed a seriously awesome headline opportunity involving the phrase

Archival Archrivals

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 03:17:00 +0000

blingo!

blingo is a search engine that gives you prizes for doing google searches. you also get prizes if your friends win prizes. sweet!

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 04:15:00 +0000

EXTREEEEEME INTERNET...

Man dies after 50 hours of computer games

i mean, i'm on the internet a lot, but this is taking it a little far. :)

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:52:00 +0000

It's fun to see Lulu on the BBC's business homepage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/default.stm
(August 1, 2005)

And even more fun to see one of my photos in the article!
Rewriting the rules of publishing

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:17:00 +0000

today i am famous as the voice of Lulu:

"'Congratulations! You're a published author.'

Now those are words that a struggling writer wants to hear. Where one doesn't expect to hear them is from a Web site, but that's the world of self-publishing these days.

Lulu.com's animated demo ends with those words, adding, 'Thanks for using Lulu.' It's kind of like the automated checkout voice at the warehouse store saying, 'Thanks for shopping at BJ's.'"

:: Florida Today

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 11:45:00 +0000

i love this.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 11:00:00 +0000

i found an awesome website: http://www.bookcrossing.com. the premise is basically to make the whole world a library. if you have books sitting around that you've already read (or haven't), and don't really want to keep them forever, set them free in the wild for others to find and read!

all you have to do is register the book on the site, label it, and then leave notes about where you released it. then when people find it, they can enter the book's number on the site to see where it came from. they can leave notes when they read and release it, and you can see where your books have traveled! sooo cool.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:50:00 +0000

so, we all know that UNC/dook has always been a great sports rivalry, and as a tar heel, it's pretty much my responsibility to hate dook and all things connected to it, whether it's JJ redick's poetry (HAHA!!!!) or this:

CNN Report: Surgical tools washed in hydraulic fluid

i thought this was an urban legend when i was first told this story in a chapel hill bar a few months ago. apparently not. my favorite part is this:

Duke Health officials assured patients in January that the likelihood of infection from the tools was "no more than the risk normally associated" with the procedures that the patients underwent.

which says to me that they normally just don't bother washing their surgical instruments. ew ew ew.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 13:24:00 +0000

after the flickr blog post, i got an e-mail from dennis dunleavy, who is a researcher and professor of photojournalism at san jose state. he wanted to use a different mona lisa photograph in his blog, the big picture. i was pretty excited about it and interested in his choice of topic, so i wrote him back with some thoughts, and he incorporated a few in the post. here it is in full:

Digital Photography as Cultural Practice

i think i'm going to sit down and figure out how to put my flickr photostream on my blog... soonish.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 16:55:00 +0000

holy crap, one of my photos made the flickr blog yesterday! i had posted it to the JPG Magazine flickr group a few days ago, and heather champ then posted it to the blog. i am thrilled! :D

take note, as well, that JPG Magazine is distributed using Lulu. i think this is a pretty awesome online community we have going here.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:18:00 +0000

nathan has been writing some pretty cool haikus lately in his away messages. earlier, he had this one up:

Haven't read all year
for my Complex Civil Lit.
Doing it all now. D'oh!

but something about it just didn't sit right with me. then i realized that the third line has 6 syllables. that is, unless "doing" rhymes with "boing!" (nathan claims he says it with only one syllable.) so i called him out on it and got this:

thanks to carolyn
syllabic genius she is:
"doing" : two, not one.

i've been haiku'd!! :D

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 22:39:00 +0000

today i ran one mile. this is not a big accomplishment for me (we used to run 1.6 miles every other day or so during fencing practice), except for the fact that i repeatedly try to give running a chance, even though it has let me down by being really hateful in the past. i guess i'm just nice that way.

running got its chance today because weather has been gorgeous lately. so gorgeous, in fact, that i just don't feel right about doing my workout inside at the gym. on wednesday i went for a walk in the neighborhood — a little over 2 miles in about 35 minutes. today i decided to run. i didn't want to do anything too extravagant, since i hadn't actually gone running "for real" (treadmill doesn't count in my book) in a long time, so i did a mile. i didn't die or even feel much pain (except there is this piece of pollen or something camping out in my throat, which is rather unpleasant), so maybe i'll do it again if it stays nice out. running and me, we're ok for now...

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 05:31:00 +0000

somehow i have managed to go three full weeks without going to the grocery store. i have only gone out to eat approximately twice in those three weeks. each day i have also managed to eat an average of two pretty healthy meals per day consisting of at least three food groups made from the stuff i bought on my last grocery trip. how i did this for three weeks i have no idea, but i think it's kind of cool. i think i'm going to have to break down and go tomorrow, though. maybe. definitely by saturday.

apparently my "twin" has resurfaced at UNC. i used to have one a couple years ago (when i had really long hair) at whom matt would yell my name across the quad until he would realize it wasn't me. i don't know if this is the same girl or not, but apparently she was at goldie's the other night. i hate goldie's. it just seems lifeless somehow. it doesn't have the chapel hill feeling that places like linda's and he's not have. it has no soul.

speaking of twins, last week while i was working out i watched this show on the discovery health channel about identical twins. they invited all of these identical twins to undergo "The Most Identical Twins Test" to find out who, indeed, are the most identical twins in terms of genetics, behavior, etc. (this is a bit skewed, however, because they only looked in the UK, as far as i can tell.) it was really interesting to watch, though. they separated each set of twins and put them in various situations to see how similarly they would respond, such as shopping for clothes, choosing rides at an amusement park, and even dating. (the funniest was watching these guys who were about my age ride a rollercoaster... they were both making the same really weird face on the ride.) ok, now i'm being boring, but the show was really interesting. unlike reading rainbow, you'll just have to take my word for it. i'm going to bed.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 02:48:00 +0000

because i am awesome, flickr has given me 2 free flickr pro accounts (each a $25 value!) to give away to awesome people. i already gave one to my sister, but i have one more left. so, leave a comment and tell me why you deserve one, or bribe me with something good, and the most deserving or the best briber shall win. i am the judge. GO! :)

and may i just say that if little sarah isn't the final girl left on the bachelor, i'm going to be quite displeased.

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn) — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:33:00 +0000

hooray, i got the rest of my mason pictures up. i even sent in 3 of them to his website in hopes that they will be featured. i'll keep you posted.

tonight i am going to go see angie aparo at local 506 with a few of the aloha boys. i'm pretty excited because not only have i never seen angie aparo in concert, i've never even been to local 506, so this should be a new chapel hill experience for me. i'm glad to see that my social life hasn't ended since i graduated. ;P

on sunday i finished reading it's not about the bike. it was a good book, engaging and well-written, but i have sort of mixed feelings about it overall. see, i think that lance armstrong is an incredible athlete, and his foundation has done some really great things, but for some reason i feel like there's something i don't like about him.

maybe it's because he seems a little bit cocky. i mean, he really has every right to brag about himself, but i feel like he would be pretty much the coolest guy in the world if he were a little more humble. maybe that's not part of his whole "spirit," though. i'm not judging, just observing.

another part of it might be the whole situation surrounding his divorce from his wife. in the book he was really mushy and cute about how much he loved her, and it's weird to think that just a couple years later he divorced her, especially after having 3 children by in vitro fertilization, which seems to be a pretty involved process and require a lot of planning and foresight. the whole thing just sounded crappy in general. i googled "lance armstrong divorce" to find out more about it and this article came up first. dude, that guy really doesn't like him.

ok, enough about that for now. gotta go to the show!