{"id":875,"date":"2010-01-27T23:13:07","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T03:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/?p=875"},"modified":"2010-01-27T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T03:13:07","slug":"minus-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/?p=875","title":{"rendered":"Minus 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning as usual I got up, turned on the radio and listened to the entertaining prattle that is morning radio. It is a mix of talk, music and general nonsense that I find I enjoy. That is usually the only time of day I listen to the radio because there is no need to listen to the rest. The radio day is filled with a highly repetitive top 10 list with a random sprinkling of classic hits.<\/p>\n

This morning I listened and one thing grabbed my attention. It is something that they do every 15 minutes and I have heard hundreds of times. It was the weather report. The announcer said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is currently -3 with a high today of -2.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A high of -2? That is such an oxymoron of a statement. You think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153high\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in weather terms and images of balmy beaches and hot sun enter the mind or at least you would hope it would be above 0. I really think they should come up with a different term when the temp is below 0. You hear, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6a high,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and your hopes rise and then you hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153minus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the rest simply trails off as the cold sinks into your bones.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask me what the new term should be. I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. That is up to meteorologists and forecasters. They have come up with terms like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wind chill factor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153smog index\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so I think this is a task they are well suited for.<\/p>\n

And speaking of minus 2, today I was outraged. I went to the grocery store to stock up on food on sale (they are doing this crazy buy-one-get-one-free thing) and I also needed to get a note book for my calculus and I needed a few pens. Usually I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy pens I some how pilfer them from my place of employment, friends or family, or I randomly find them in the couch or under the fridge. But the one pen I have is low on ink and I have been doing a lot of writing so I thought I would pick up a few.<\/p>\n

Lucky for me there was a small stationary section in the grocery store that allowed me to pick up these few items without having to make another stop. This made the outing more efficient than originally expected. I picked up 2 Hilroy notebooks and a pack of those classic Bic pens.<\/p>\n

Those pens are the best. The design is simple but the product is phenomenal. The ball point is always so smooth and lets you write with easy. They last a long time and they are inexpensive. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care for felt tips. I have no need for it to be a push button. And those little cushy things that keep you from getting a callus are ingenious but they always slide down and you have to stop and adjust every few minutes making them more trouble than they are worth. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even really look at the package of Bics I just picked it up.<\/p>\n

When I got home I went to get out a pen. First thing I noticed was that these pens now had a name and a tag line. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cristal. Easy glide; feel the smoothness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The second thing I noticed was there are only 10 pens in a pack. What the\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6? I have always known these pens to come in packs of 12; 2 red, 2 black, and 8 blue. That is how it has always been and how it always should be. But no, there was only 1 red, 2 black, and 7 blue. Those strange numbers through me off. I know no one but teachers ever used the red pen but still that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it. And what am I going to do when my 7 blue pens run out? Where is the eighth? I hope they found it a good home.<\/p>\n

I complained to Cory about this fact and he just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. He was fixated on me doing calculus for the heck of it. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what was wrong with that. I had a textbook I wrangled from my father that had been sitting around for a while and I have time (a whole lot of time) and I just decided to pick it up and see what I could do.<\/p>\n

I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done calculus in years and it seems I may have forgotten a substantial amount of it. I used to be pretty good at it and this is a way for me to flex my mind as well as bring my skill back up. This weekend I am going to get my math notes to help jog my memory and make sense of the textbook jargon. Then I will totally be getting my calculus on.<\/p>\n

Cory thinks I am a total nerd because of this (and many other things) but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it makes me nerdy at all. If I started playing basketball again that wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make me nerdy I would just be playing a game or getting fit. But why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I do a workout for my mind?<\/p>\n

And another thing. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the deal with airline food?<\/p>\n

No, no I kid. That is all I got. I just felt like complaining today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tra<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning as usual I got up, turned on the radio and listened to the entertaining prattle that is morning radio. It is a mix of talk, music and general nonsense that I find I enjoy. That is usually the only time of day I listen to the radio because there is no need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}