PolarLava::Blog

Update below the vending machine…

Are you a hearty soul?  Are you capable of completing The Vending Machine Challenge!?  Personally I can't imagine even trying it.  But I've got $10 ($50 total) riding on a coworker that started an attempt at 9am this morning.

So what do you have to do to win the bet?  Eat one of each item, left to right, top to bottom (less the gum and hard-candy row at the bottom). This amounts to 35-items in 8-hours, that’s more than 1-item every 15-minutes.

He's about 4 hours in and is currently eating a bag of Act II Butter Microwave Popcorn at the beginning of row 3.  Basically he's got 4 more hours to eat 4 more rows.  I've pegged him to give up at row 4, item 4 Jack Link's Beef Jerky.

I'll update this with the outcome and some statistics tomorrow.  Until then, here's what he's up against.  :)





So Eric started with a fury  and did well with the first nine items.  But then there was the Andy Capp Hot Fries.  Those nearly proved to be his undoing shortly after 11am and only a mere two hours into the challenge.  Eric managed to keep it all down, but took a long break to recover.  Then is was to the popcorn that he was hoping to get through by 11am and then take a break:



Eric plowed on through the afternoon, but it was becoming increasingly clear there was very little chance he would make it to the end of the challenge by the 5pm deadline.  And so it was that he made it through the Welch's Fruit Snacks just before 5pm, well short of the end of the machine.



Being Eric didn't make it to the end, there was no reimbursement for his vending costs ($4.50), nor would there be a $50 prize.  But there was a consolation prize for him this morning…more Hot Fries and Fruit Snacks!



And a few statistics for you…

Found in an old export from my Palm III somewhere between 2001 and 2005.  It was labeled "Colin" —my son, and as I recall it was from when he was struggling in school.  OK, one of the many times he struggled in school…much like his father unfortunately ;)

• Discipline
• Dedication
• Diligence
• Responsibility

A while back at work one of our daily "Fact or Crap in Spaaaaaaaaace" questions, the question I believe was "How many planets are there?"  I viewed this as a trick question —not terribly uncommon in FoC.  I knew the answer was going to come back as "8", but I, as the curmudgeonly old man at work, answered "9" which is the correct answer…at least when I learned about the planets.  But for FoC I was incorrect because it's answer is based on the current —and incorrect in my mind, definition of what is a "planet".  So, who's right?

Well, it depends who you ask.  From February 18, 1930 until August 24, 2006 the answer was an equivocal "9".  But after that, the answer became "8".  What?  Well, you see, back in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly voted on a number of resolutions including numbers 5A, 5B, 6A and 6B.  The passage of these resolutions changed everything by formally defining what is a "planet".  So resolution 5A became a deathblow to our dear friend Pluto.  To be a "planet" by this definition you now have to meet three criteria:

1. It must orbit the sun.
2. It must have significant enough mass to become a round(ish) object.
3. It must have cleared the neighborhood of it's orbit.

So it's been 6 months since I said GoodBiPhone and it certainly was a major adjustment going from an iPhone to no phone at all.  But that all changed as of 7pm tonight.

I'm now the proud and happy owner of a Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless!  I've wait a long time for a new phone and once I learned about the Droid and my wife's desire to stay on Verizon it was just a matter of time.

At some point I'll elaborate on why I'm happier with this than an iPhone, but I need to get it setup and play with it a bit first.  Suffice to say I've been researching it since it was announced in October and have been lusting for this day to finally come.

And last but not least, thanks to my Mom and Dad for this wonderful Christmas gift.  It might even be better than My New Cars! from them. ;)

So Christmas has brought me two really cool items from my parents.  The first is my new family sedan, a Maserati Quattroporte in bluegrey metallic finish:



The family will surely be traveling in style now!

And secondly my new commuter car, a bright red Chevrolet C6 Corvette:



I'm so looking forward to racing this against Frank!  I sure hope he's spending his time off getting his Vette ready for a serious challenge.

Now that I look at them, they seem a lot bigger in the pictures.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the "Hot Wheels" stamp on the bottom.  ;)