Category: Random

Do you want a chicken bird sandwich?

Why do people say “tuna fish sandwich”, yet nobody says “chicken bird sandwich”? Think about it…

I asked someone about this, and they said that maybe “tuna fish” is the actual name, but I looked it up, and tuna by itself is proper. So the joke still works. People say tuna fish, but nobody says bass fish or salmon fish or crappie fish or catfish fish. I figure it’s a marketing thing from decades ago. (I’m not going down that rabbit hole to research it, but if anyone has any idea on it, leave a comment.)

Speaking of tuna, the “chicken of the sea”, do you realize how large they can be? Tuna is often served in these little cans, yet the original fish is huge! The albacore tuna can weigh up to 133 pounds, and the atlantic bluefin tuna can weigh up to 1,508 pounds and be 15 feet long! That’s the size of a small car!

Some tuna are rare and valuable. At the beginning of this year, a bluefin tuna weighing 608 pounds sold for more than $1.3 million. The group that bought it has a chain of famous sushi restaurants. The company president thinks the first tuna of the year “is meant to bring good fortune” and “our hope is that by eating this tuna everyone will have a good year”. That seems quite far-fetched to me. Maybe it’s more marketing and promotion than actual belief. But to each their own. I’ll eat my $1 tuna and have a good year regardless. 🙂

Anyway, back to where all this rambling started… Ask people about the opening question above. It can be fun to get people to think original thoughts. Besides, everyone should do original thinking more often.

making cars more fun

Most car manufacturers don’t make cars fun. They’re just serious. I understand how they can become risk-averse. They don’t want to risk making the Homer mobile — which is a great episode of The Simpsons — but there is a lot of space between serious and over-the-top.

Initially, Tesla did some fun things with their interface, but they’ve been one-upped. Actually, more like lapped. (Elon Musk is very busy destroying the federal government from the inside with his DOGE agenda, so who is leading Tesla these days? But I digress…)

Rivian is a rival EV (electric vehicle) maker to Tesla, and their update last Halloween is what car makers should strive for. They released free theme packs that changed the truck dashboard, vehicle sounds, and exterior lights to be like KITT from Knight Rider or the time-travelling DeLorean from Back To The Future. See for yourself in this video:

Here’s how it looks from the inside:

Here’s more pictures and details at the official website. If you want to read more about it, here’s an interview with Rivian’s chief design officer.

Unfortunately, these were available only for a limited time and only usable while the vehicle was parked. So that’s a major bummer. But this is just the start. Someday a car manufacturer will realize many people want their cars and trucks to look cool and be fun to use, and since most modern vehicles have large screens in them, this is a great way to do it. (Reportedly Toyota has hired developers from the game engine Unity to design user interfaces for their car dashboards, so hopefully something good will come from that.)

Here’s my vision of this — cars will include various themes that you can choose from. Obviously they don’t need to be too distracting with many animations while you’re driving, but there is a fun middle ground. There can be themes based on movies and video games and sports teams which could be purchased (since royalties would have to be paid, and there is work involved). If they were to make them self-moddable like some video games are, that would be great. (Most companies would not do this, but hopefully somebody will. They could release the modding software to ensure safety standards are met.)

Imagine the possibilities! If you want a Batman theme, you could. If you prefer to show off your favorite sports team, you could. If you want it to look like a vintage muscle car, you could do that (to some degree). There could also be various themes that aren’t brand-affiliated, like with nature landscape backgrounds, or flowers, or lightning, or a steampunk design. This could also sync with ambient lights to produce a greater effect. And it could include sound effects that go with each theme. There is so much possibility here to make this an awesome thing. Somebody get on this.

designing a fun race for non-runners

I recently received an email newsletter that started with this:

I ran a marathon a couple weeks ago. No training. No preparation. I decided 5 days before. Just went out and did it.

The newsletter had the title “Lessons Learned”. I’m thinking that would be some harsh lessons there. If you don’t train, you don’t just go out and run 26.2 miles. Without running regularly, most people probably couldn’t run more than a quarter mile. I was curious about these lessons he learned, so I kept reading, and he talked about how it’s good to prepare, but then he said he did it because he knew he “could run 20 miles”, so he could just push himself to get to 26. And he did finish.

At this point, it’s obvious he’s being misleading, so I’m out. I unsubscribed from that email. (I realize there is strategy for trying to win a marathon, but the hardest part is being able to run that far, and being able to run 20 miles counts as training and preparation to me. That doesn’t just happen. Even if you’re young and skinny, you don’t just run miles without building up to it.)

I run more than the average adult, but I know I couldn’t finish a marathon without massive amounts of training, and that’s not one of my goals. I suspect most people have no interest in running that far.

However, I do enjoy being outside and getting exercise, as well as enjoying the camaraderie from being with like-minded people. So perhaps there should be some similar events but with modifications. I don’t just mean a shorter race — I know those exist, and I’m still not interested.

I’ve heard of a bicycle race called the Tour de Donut (The Donut Race). It’s a 30 mile race with two pit stops where you eat donuts, and each donut you eat reduces your time by five minutes. That’s more my style. Although 30 miles is still too far. So we should have one that is 5 miles (bicycling or running or walking), and each donut you eat takes off one minute from your time. We could also do this with bacon strips. Or donuts AND bacon!

I think a lot of people would attend an event like this. You could hand out medals for various categories: fastest actual time, lowest adjusted time, anyone who gets negative time, and most donuts/bacon eaten. The whole event could be a fundraiser, too. Someone should make this happen.

Would you participate?

Do you have any ideas to make it even more awesome?

snow showing how old you are

We got a rare snow here in the south recently, and I remembered this quote:

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

BTW, I threw numerous snowballs, so I’m not old. 🙂

Seriously, though, while that’s a joke, take time to enjoy your life each day. Look around, notice what’s going on around you, pay attention to details you normally overlook, and find enjoyment in the good things in your life. Most people are too busy and stressed to enjoy life, which is sad.

What can you enjoy today that you normally don’t? Even if it’s just a minute or two, that’s a start. Try it…