Happy Easter everybody. Good luck out there searching for eggs (?) made of chocolate (?) that came out the butt (?) of a rabbit (?). I'm not 100% sure about the mechanics of that, but nonetheless, have fun. I'm just hoping this means that the gym will be close to empty.

Speaking of, there is this new scourge at the gym. It only started recently, but it is spreading. Grown men with ear buds in listening to music at full volume -- SINGING ALONG. WTF. Like OUT LOUD. And as annoying as singing would be to people around you, when you can't hear yourself at all, it's a special kind of horrible. I know of at least 5 people off the top of my head that I will not get on the treadmill next to or sit next to on the stretching mat because I know they'll break out into winching, breathy, high pitched song the second I do. I wish I was more confrontational, so I could just tap them on the shoulder and ask, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" but instead I just shoot dirty looks that are not understood.

Normally for Easter lately we get together with my parents and have a smorgasbord of food from Honey Baked Hams. I even have a rewards number on honeybaked.com. But between you and me, all of their food is garbage. I mean, the ham is okay, but they also have these boxed sides and everything is just horrible. My dad had a little procedure on Friday and wasn't sure if he'd be up for it, so I was more than happy to accept their decline of getting together. Daniel did ask me what he should buy at the store as a special treat and I said he could buy some eggs and I'll make deviled eggs with salmon roe. That will be our homage to Easter.

Another successful Febrehab is done. Though I must admit this one was really easy. I only gave up sugar and caffeine in addition to alcohol. Caffeine is pretty easy for me. I really like the caffeine free teas from Whole Foods. A little fruity beginning to the day isn't half bad. And while we do devolve into the habit of having one brown butter chocolate chip cookie after dinner 3 days per week, it wasn't that big of a deal to give it up. That's pretty much the only dedicated source of sugar in my life.

Nevertheless, it is always good to take a little break. I was telling people this year though that it's not even really the alcohol I miss. It's the ritual. The habit. There's no physical addiction, it's just such a nice punctuation on the week. Like, it's Friday, the work week is over, let's go out and have a glass of champagne with dinner to celebrate living life. And I guess we should be doing a bit more of that while we can, before we all get drafted into WWIII....

In other news, after having just poo-pooed AI in my last post, I have used it more and more in my personal life. I used to sit around and wonder about stuff. Now I just ask AI. And maybe it's good to sometimes just have unanswered thought experiments, but I really like discussing ridiculous things with Gemini.

I had an idea for a mouth piece you could wear and every, say, 5 seconds it would drip one drop of water into your mouth. That would be an unnoticeable amount, mix with your saliva, and you'd just swallow it without noticing and thus stay hydrated. I asked Gemini what it thought of my idea and it said it was bad and gave me all the reasons why. 1) It would change the chemistry of your saliva and make it less effective. 2) Even though it's just a drop, you could still choke on it if you were heavily exerting yourself or sleeping. 3) Your body has adapted to expect and process a large influx of water all at once. It triggers the stomach to do something and a little drop here and there wouldn't be enough to set it off. And 4) It did the math on how much water that would be in a 24 hour period and it was like around 1 liter and you need more like 3 liters to stay hydrated so it wouldn't even work. Like ... how could you Google that and come up with that answer? Only AI could have that dumb of a conversation about one of my new million dollar ideas. Saved me a lot in R&D costs right there.

I've also used it twice now for shopping. The ball "fell" out of my right earring and getting it back in is basically impossible without a pair of surgical forceps. And even if I could do it, once you've priced the hoop open and closed more than about once, it is never quite circular ever again. So I thought, given that I've had earrings now for like 27 years, maybe it was time to invest in something a little more substantial than the $16 piercing jewelry that's been in there forever. So I asked Gemini what I should do and it found exactly what I wanted. Visually kind of identical, but nicer metal, and no ball. These have a clicker mechanism so I can take them out for things like MRIs and surgeries. And I didn't know what size to get so I measured my existing, but I measured the outer diameter in inches and the website was selling sizes measured by the inner diameter in millimeters. So I told Gemini to do the math given the gauge and size and it did it all flawlessly.

Just this morning I woke up with a crick in my neck again, so I decided to ask Gemini for a suitable replacement for my beloved Indulgence by Isotonic side sleeper that Bed, Bath & Beyond used to sell before they went out of business. And it was like, replacement? Why, they're still sold at major retailers like Macy's and Wal-Mart. WHAT?!? I assure you I scoured the internet for information on the manufacturer and alternate retailers and found nothing. I even posted about it back in 2022. So I guess my prayers have been answered.

It occurred to me though. They're GOING to find a way to monetize this (if they haven't already). You pay them some money and they suggest your product for any related queries above all else and eventually you won't be able to trust it. It'll devolve into a purely for-profit ad-bot and everyone will stop using it just like literally every other tool or platform before it. So I guess use it now while you still can!

I had a really fun weekend. First, our dear friend AsH was in town from Boston. She came in town to take her grandmother to the symphony and to catch up with some old friends. We got a crew together Friday night and took her out on the town. After a few drinks at the Hotel Belmont, we ended up at S4 dancing the night away. After we got home, a few of us killed the remains of an ancient bottle of cheap tequila. Bad idea. My forehead hurt the next day from hitting it on the toilet repeatedly the night before. Needless to say we were all hung the fuck over.

Disaster! My friend Brandon finally had a weekend off to come see me. When he got here, he was upset by how much we were all hurting. I figured if I could get in a quick nap while he went to the mall alone that I'd be geared up for another all-nighter. But I was wrong. In the end, it just wasn't possible for me to do anything but remain low key. The next day, I tried to redeem myself by taking him out to Ruby Tuesday for crab cakes with "nearly no cake" and a triple prime burger that "eats like steak, but cuts like butter." Oh my g*d, if you've never been you need to go. I am the worst vegan ever, but I'm not sorry. It was so delicious.

When we got home, I wanted to show Brandon around Addison! Circle because he'd never been here. When we got to the Water Tower Theatre, there were shit tons of people and booths all over. It was this Earth Day/Wellness Expo. We walked around looking at healing crystals, learning about acupuncture, and trying different vitamin fortified juices. There were also several drawings going on. One of them was from the Laser Center of America, a laser hair removal/skin rejuvination company. We entered a drawing for $1500, $500, and $300 dollar prizes. AND I WON! Holy crap. I got the third place prize worth $300.

Now, I'm no fool. I'm well aware -- despite the fact that they refuse to even ballpark how much it could possibly cost without a face-to-face consultation -- that you can't remove a single hair from your body for less than a cool grand. I had this inkling that my "prize" was really an invitation to spend hundreds of dollars on something I didn't want. But, in true Sidesho fashion, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and go check it out. At the very least, I figured, I'd end up with a blog worthy story. I looked up their website online to find directions to the office and my suspicions grew even more as I read, "Click here to receive $300 off your next procedure!" Fuck, if all I had to do was click, then I really didn't win a g*d damn thing. So off I went.

When I got there I filled out a bunch of paperwork and then I walked back to the consultation room. She asked if I had any unwanted body hair and I said, "Not really, no." And she asked if I had any issues with my skin and I said, "Not really, no." This chick procedes to talk at lightning speed about all the different procedures they have and how microdermabrasions are an absolute must for everyone. I threw her a bone by asking how much it would cost to laser my armpit hair away since I have and always will shave my armpits. She honored my $300 winnings, DOUBLED it even, and I was left with a $1200 dollar price tag and a 2 and a half to 3 year commitment. For only my armpit hair. I couldn't help but laugh at her. I was like, "No way." Her best pitch of the day, by far, was when she said, "Now David, if you plan on shaving your underarms for the rest of your life, this procedure will more than pay for itself in the cost of razors alone." Ha fucking ha, what kind of razors do you think I'm using, lady?

I asked her if they had any procedures for under $300 since, let's be honest, I was only there to redeem my prize. The microdermabrasion is only $139 a treatment. So I said, "Great, I'll take two." "Oooh, sorry, our smallest package is five." I knew I was wasting her time, but I didn't feel bad since I'm pretty sure she knew she was wasting mine. So I promised her that if I ever got serious about lasering my pits that she would be the first to know. I thanked her for all of the rapid information, laughed at her again, and excused myself from the office.

So here you find me, in all my naturally hairy glory having missed the opportunity to save myself the financial burden of a lifetime of buying an electric razor once every 15 years. Even though she said the offer was only good during the consultation, when I refused she changed her tune and said she would honor it until the end of the month. Which means, I could definitely change my mind and go back.

But let's be honest. There's no fucking way that's going to happen. Suck my hairy balls, Laser Center of America!

We have entered what I affectionately like to call "Go Time." Go Time can mean a lot of different things, but in this particular instance, it means that I have to study the hell from now until May 8th. No more fun for me. Yesterday, for instance, I went to class from 8-10, then it was right to a computer lab to work on my microcontroller for about 3 hours. I started falling asleep so I went home and took a 2 hour nap. After the nap I woke up and worked on the Argentina website for a couple of hours before open lab hours took effect. That was 4 hours. Then I was exhausted so I went home and fell asleep. I woke up at 1pm today. Is my body trying to tell me something?

I hate when it does that cause I always just ignore it anyway. Oh yeah, and I got my circuit analysis test back yesterday ... 103. Circuits, you can't HOLD me back. And circuits? I'm just gettin' started. I think I had something poignant to say and that's why I started blogging, but now I can't remember what it was. Oh well, just imagine I said something really insightful [here]. Thanks and gig this.