todd sackmann

Understanding the Mystery Which is Me

I’ve recently tried to become aware of my own personality traits. It’s pretty easy to decribe others but sometimes I think we become unaware of how other’s may see us. Here’s the most recent thing I’ve noticed about myself.

I’ve found that I become annoyed when I hear people describe their confusion for why things are the way they are. I often think, “Really?” You can’t come up with any reasons for why the world might operate the way it does? Is it just easier for you to say “I don’t get it?”

Maybe this has to do with another possibly annoying trait of mine which is that I can must ponder nearly every curiosity I have.

This is just a tiny example but it proves my point just fine:

This is a blog post from the Seattlest.com. It describes how the Pike Place Market celebrated their 11th Annual Daffodil Day by handing out free daffodils on the downtown corners of Seattle, WA. Around 30,000 flowers were given away throughout the city.

“We quickly discovered that there are two types of people in Seattle: those who brighten up when presented with free flowers on an otherwise drab corner, and those whose expressions wilt with cynicism or annoyance as they cross the street to avoid them.”

concerning the people who shied away from the free flowers…

Maybe they didn’t want to carry around fragile blooms all day. Maybe they’re worried about the seasonal evidence of climate change. Maybe they hate spring. We’ll never know.

They just can’t figure it out huh? Really? You’ve never realized how the sheer volume of people walking the sidewalks of Seattle every day seem to attract so many people desperate for…

• attention
• donations
• psychiatric care
• a religious congregation … ??

You’ve never seen someone on the street corner who seemed like they weren’t just on their way to work or waiting for a bus? Maybe they appeared like they were about to interrupt your day to speak to you about a subject you’d rather not tackle on your way into The Gap.

You think if you replace the person with someone holding a bucket of flowers that people will immediately think “Oh, that guy who was warning me of the End of Time is gone and now someone’s handing out free flowers!”

Even though that is in fact what’s going on, you still can’t consider why people might be a bit hesitant to take a flower without wondering if they’re required to stick around for a sermon or something?

I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt—maybe they weren’t actually perplexed by this strange occurance—maybe that’s just how their writing spilled itself onto their blog.

But for all of you others who spend most of your day uninterested but also unsure by how you don’t just float up into the heavens like a balloon…please take a moment to be more like me….and think, ponder, investigate, google, and let no curiosity go un-thunk.

Teardrops on my bubble-gum heart

Teardrops on my Guitar by Taylor Swift

He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star

I rarely listen to commercial pop radio stations but when I do happen to hear this song it strikes me as the most…fabricated, fake, piece of garbage that intelligent adults or anyone over the age of 8 shouldn’t be listening to. While I haven’t paid any attention to the rest of the song I’m sure it includes the following words:

• rainbows
• ponies or unicorns
• bubble-gum
• butterfly-kisses
• fluffy clouds

I’m not that versed at keeping up on the Billboard top hits but I think this song is currently (03/14/08) at #20 and was at one time #5 on the list.

My Crocodile Cafe Photo

The Seattlest blog used my photo of the Crocodile Cafe for a post… again.

Don’t worry, it was with permission. :) 

Thomas Hawk Endangers Us All

San Fran, photographer, Thomas Hawk did a pretty good job describing my attitude towards authority and also discussing current security-related sillyness.

He discusses, rules at the airport, the gas station, and how based on his not understanding things he purposefully disobeys those rules.

“…I’ve never seen any compelling evidence on how cell phones in the on position affect flight safety…”

…”I can’t imagine anything really hidden in a shoe that could possibly take down a flight.”

I’m sure everyone would feel real safe flying (or pumping gas) with Thomas knowing that if anything were to explode, it wasn’t from anything that he had understood to be possible. :)

Just kidding. When strange rules are imposed I’m also very likely to start picking them apart and show how they just don’t make sense. Things such as Thomas said…

“…I could do far more damage using my hefty Manfrotto tripod as a weapon than I ever could with a corkscrew.”

Not to quote his whole post but I also agree with this statement:

“As far as I’m concerned in many ways the terrorists have already won. When people live their lives in such fear that they make up all kinds of crazy rules and regulations and live security the superstitious way that they do today, then the terrorists have been effective at changing our life and getting their point across.”

Read the rest of what he said at his blog.

As far as myself, not being fully schooled on how static electricity or the power from a cell phone works I rarely choose to make a phone call while pumping my gas. And I don’t think that makes me a hyper-sensative always fearful, alarmist nut. But read this story because it’s totally real so be careful!!

Bees!

The other night, I pulled back the covers and hopped into bed.

Within about 1.5seconds I was back out of bed because I had just laid down on a bee/wasp that bit and/or stung me three times.

It’s only March and I wasn’t aware I needed to be on the lookout for vicious bees especially waiting for me in my bed. The assumption is that maybe there’s a nest in the attic and it came through a ceiling vent.

I stunned it with a bedside copy of Runner’s World and then flushed it down the toilet.

I was so shocked that the bees had come for me ‘in my own home!’ If I can’t expect to be safe there, where can I?

Sidenote: It was maybe 4 years ago that I got my first ever bee sting. I had made it about 26 years through my life without being bothered by these bastards and I got stung when I stepped on one while playing frisbee (frollicking) in the grass. And now I laid down on one. I guess from their perspective, I’m the one after them.

free chair

This chair has been on the lawn across the street from me for a couple days. It has a sign on it that says ‘FREE FREE’. I smile when I drive past it because It doesn’t sit straight but rather leans to one side.

Just because you’re trying to give something away for free you still need to make it look attractive. I can’t imagine anyone touching it, much less taking it home with them to sit on it. for some reason I assume it’s been urinated on. but if anyone out there does need a chair, please come remove this from my neighborhood.

Unknown phone calls

I just got a call from this number. Caller ID said Las Vegas. Since I don’t know this number nor, anyone in Vegas I chose not to answer. I immediately googled the number and found this site 800notes.com

There’s a note on the number from someone saying they got a call from the number but they missed the call. So that means someone else did nearly the same thing I did.

Strange.

And wow, they have websites for everything.

Rush Hour at the Airport

I FFFF’ing FFFFound something too.

This is the most awesomest thing I’ve ever seen!

FFFFound on FFFFound.com after Ben told me what FFFFound was!

It was only a couple clicks away from Ben’s ffffind.