The Daily Procrastinator

Hello, procrastinators! We here at The Daily Procrastinator hope that your weekend has allowed you to catch up on your sleep, spend some time relaxing, and dedicate only minimal time to productive activity. I tried to model appropriate procrastinator behavior by spending four days at a hotel on the beach. Does everyone see how that’s done? Good.

As always, The Daily Procrastinator published a healthy crop of thoughts, opinions, reminiscences, and reviews for your reading pleasure. TallGirl really carried the team this week. Let’s look back at the week and make sure you didn’t miss anything.

The week began as TallGirl was wisked into the past by the Niles Canyon Railway, a historically accurate steam-powered passenger train that offers both passengers and observers a glance into the world their grandparents knew. The granddaughter of a railway enthusiast, TallGirl found herself mirroring her grandfather’s fondness for the railway.

TallGirl’s gaze remained focused on the past as her recollection of childhood Hershey’s kisses were refuted by eating one in the present. Have the kisses changed, or has TallGirl’s palate evolved?

As a follow-up to last week's grumpy koala, here's a jumping armadillo. Yes, they can do that.

BigRedPoet piped up with a review of the latest of the “I wish I was a rock star” video games, Guitar Hero: Metallica. Check out his assessment of the game’s graphics, the list of available songs, and the gameplay.

TallGirl returned with some ruminations on modern marketing, packaging, and branding practices, including some ridiculous claims about the purposes and capabilities of the new Pepsi logo.

Visit The Daily Procrastinator at any of the links above and sign up to receive daily email updates so you never miss an article!

The Daily Procrastinator: Contributing to the Dramatic Reduction of Your Personal Productivity

When I was a child, Hershey’s Kisses were the coolest thing ever.  Perfectly bite-sized milk chocolate.  And the symbolism!  How could you go wrong?

For Valentine’s Day, my Nana — sweet as anything at 90 — sent me a package filled with Kisses.  Aww, so cute and kitschy, especially since I’m well past my grandma-sends-me-Valentines years.  I put them aside as a reminder of her warmth and generosity.

You know, they never look this well-wrapped and shiny in real life.

Last night, I was on deadline.  It was 11 PM, my energy was waning and there was just one thing that would save that whitepaper: chocolate.  I was lamenting the lack of chocolate in my house when I suddenly remembered my Valentine’s Day gift.  Salvation!  Chocolate!

I opened the lid, unwrapped the first one (an easy task as it was already partially unwrapped on its own) and popped it in my mouth.  A look of confusion crossed my face, and I spit it into a napkin.  Was this what Kisses tasted like?  There was no chocolatey mouth feel; it tasted almost like it was made with imitation chocolate flavoring.  In fact, the entire experience made me think of the Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

When the ‘Drink’ button is pressed it makes an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject’s taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject’s metabolism, and then sends tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centres of the subject’s brain to see what is likely to be well received. However, no-one knows quite why it does this because it then invariably delivers a cupful of liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

But wait.  This can’t be right, I thought to myself.  I LOVED these as a child.  Maybe it was just stale somehow, since it had come partially unwrapped.  I searched for one that was still tightly sealed, opened it expectantly and discovered that no, the first one was not stale.  Did I really have such poor taste as a child?

I’m not sure what was more disappointing: the complete lack of chocolate to support my late night craving, or the complete distortion of my childhood memories.  Maybe next time I can convince Nana to send Ghirardelli squares.